Wednesday, December 18, 1991 @ AdrianRAESIDE Good project, bad delivery astlegar city council received a wake up call Saturday. Despite pleading with voters to endorse its road rehabilitation referendum, the city’s pet project fell side. Te aaarday, 461 of 856 voters rejected. a $1.286 million plan that would see Castlegar’s roads become as smooth as a baby’s behind within five years. : eit Needless to say, city council is disappointed with the outcome but it has no one to blame but itself. In principle, the road referendurft was a good project. The price tag re right, the timing was right and the very idea was right, but, like some dying comic, the city missed with its delivery. Execution is every thing, and the city-failed in this regard. Instead se) providing citizens with every ounce 0 information imaginable, the city keep people in the dark. Castlegar residents Yo ay unite The defeat of the road referendum prompts me to write this column. Like a fair number of people, I figured the road referendum would pass without incident. 3 before I'm A : But An information meeting turned out brandished the Town Fool to be nothing more than a session where the city could show o! color-coded maps. Nice maps, too. When citizens wanted questions answered, they were snowed over with the same line: “If we don’t do it @ McCullough Publisher is on city council to oe as With this referendum, council clearly failed. inform the public. it wi ture.” now, it will cost more 1n the fut Indeed, that will be the case, but it’s a price that has - be a: itizens didn’t have a voic what's : onpeabers oe - cforendum and that is why multi-million Castlegar will be able the valuable project was nixed. and forced to run naked up Columbia Avenue with nothing but a pair of Kodiaks between my tender tootsies and the frozen ground below, let me explain myself. In three words, I w ff its new sell approach had won peop! all, what’s $1,286 milli: complete. Mere peanuts, I dare say. % - Comparison i ity’s soft age * others I've spoken 10 ees one Nee residents association is a group of on in light of the individuals bound by a constitution who act Celgar for once the expansion project is i fail? Why, then, did the referendum ail? Apathy, disorganization on the city’s part ust revolt. I think ora they all play apart in Referendum '91. Pot holes and faulty drainage ditches out of the way, the referendum screams for a new addition to civic politics as we know them. < The no vote is a clear indication that some pockets within our city are dissatisfied with the actions of council. With that in mind, I believe it is high time the Castlegar Harrison as wrong. I, like many Residents Association was formed. with the pt, a For those . ity. as watchdogs over the affairs of city. — Please don’t mistake a residents association as a band of malcontents, putting personal political agenda to the f Castlegar life. foreground 0 - continued on page 7 Street WALK L.V. Campbell ‘Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 “Someone tall, dark and handsome.” jey Sicote isti T] Christina Rowse! Castlegar Castlegar “I wanta “] want a vacation snowboard.” to escape Christmas stress.” Grace Medeiros Castlegar Gavin Mealing Castlegar “| want a pair of to pla: ri Fan a ey white socks, that’s all.” at Christmas.” 18, 1991 z Other VIEWS | | Please address, all letters to: Letters to the Editor Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C. VIN 3H4 or deliver them to 197 Columbia Ave. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not longer than 300 words. Letters MUST be signed and include the writer's first and last names, address and a telephone number at which the writer can be reached between 9am. and5 p.m. The writer's Letters tcoWNHE EDITOR Free trade just a gem Among the lesser known benefits of Free Trade is this gem from the recent In Fact newsletter, In Fact Canada has been told by represen- tatives from Health and Welfare that the World Health Organization Code of Market- ing of Breast-Milk Substitutes, passed by the World Health Assembly in 1981 to protect b tmilk and b feeding from the ag- gressive marketing practices of the infant for- mula industry, is superseded by the Free ‘Trade Agreement with the U.S.A. “According to representatives from Health and Welfare and Consumer and Corporate Af- fairs the WHO Code is perceived to be a re- striction on the rights of the formula manu- facturers to. compete freely in the market- place.” Just another of those tough decisions the government is always talking about; deciding that competition in the marketplace is more important than the health of our babies. George Richards Castlegar Ferry is cost effective ; | gi ng our C Robs Ferry: One of the very significant factors support- ing the return of this ferry has not been pre- sented so far. Visualize a construction firm building our new bridge. They have drilling, excavating and otherequipment working on the Castlegar side of the Columbia River. The following day this equipment is needed on the Robson side. Visualize these heavy, slow moving ma- chines rumbling down our d Columbi again during the course of the construction pe- riod. The same would apply to the movement of such items as reinforcing steel, concrete or steel beams and other materials. The extra cost for these movements would be phenomenal. A ferry in service could whisk this machin- ery and equipment back and forth as required. The savings realized would more than pay for the operation of the ferry. The people of Robson and surrounding area would again have ready access to our hospital, schools and other facilities for which they are paying in taxes through the regional district. I am very disappointed that our city council has refused to lend their support to the rein- Avenue, to the Kinnaird Bridge, through Oo- tishenia over the Brilliant bridge and finally to the other approach to the new bridge. This scenario could take place time and time of the ferry, particularly when it is so vital not only to the residents of Robson, but to the people of Castlegar as well. N.T. Ogiow Castlegar When I asked Gretchen Brewin, the NDP MLA for Victo- ria-Beacon Hill, whether she was aware of the fact that from now on I would no longer be able to ad- dress her as dear or sweetheart, she pointed out that I never had done so before. Exactly, Ms. Brewin. And that’s why I believe the ‘Gender-Neutral Language’ manual to be the most asinine thing to emanate from our caring and compassionate NDP government to date. The 29-page booklet, distribut- ed by the women’s equality min- istry to all government depart- ments, purports to point the way to fairer treatment of women by way of eliminating from all gov- ernment communications any and all discriminatory, biased, stereo- typical or otherwise belittling ref- erences to women., According to said manual, it’s not acceptable to call a woman chick, broad, tomato or bimbo. Ac- tually, I thought it never was. Terms of endearment such as honey, dear or sweetie in the Gen- der-Neutral Language manuals are inappropriate. Example: “The M.V. Up-Island had been in the fleet for 30 years. Report from Victoria Hubert BEYER She was a proud old vessel.” That's wrong. Instead, say, “It was a proud old vessel.” The manual frowns on terms such as career women, cleaning lady and housewife, suggesting professional or busi ive, cleaner or janitor and homemaker instead. Government employees are al- so to avoid putting men first, as in “men and women,” because it im- plies that women are af- terthoughts. Of course, since it’s difficult to come up with a solution other than switching the two around we're left with men as af- terthoughts. And then there’s the old bone of contention: i . In the legislature, the NDP has been using “chair” for years. Sounds dumb, but what the hell. The manual even has problems with the word mankind, propos- ing the use of human beings, hu- manity or humankind it its place. One only has to read the intro- duction to the manual to get a waft of what sort of minds were at work in the preparation of the Gender-Neutral jage manu- “The government of British Columbia is committed to the goal of equal opportunity for women. “A gender-neutral policy requir- ing the removal of gender bias from all government communica- tions is an important part of the government’s action plan.” With all due respect to the gov- ernment’s commitment to wom- en’s equality, one must i the wisdom of spending taxpayers money on this kind of drivel. For Pete's sake, no male gov- ernment employee I know, and I know a lot, has ever been guilty of the kind of discriminatory refer- ence to women that this manual tries to make us believe is ram- Gender balance tips the scales of sill pant in the public service. Ifthe government were as com- mitted to women’s equality as it claims, it could have done a lot of other things to show that it means business. It could have hired more wom- en as deputy ministers. So far, on- ly two out of 17 are women. Or how about spending the money wasted on this highly ques- tionable exercise in promoting lin- guistic equality and fairness, where probably neither was need- ed, on some really important things such as shelters for abused women? The last guy, pardon me, per- son, I remember interfering with the natural evolution of a lan- guage was Hitler. It didn’t work either. As long as the NDP is busy meddling with the English lan- guage, they may not have the time or inclination to interferé in the workings of the free market econ- omy. But never, never let them refer to me as aj ist. No matter what the Gender- Neutral Language manual may say, I'm a newspaperman. name and city or town of ve residence only will be published. Only in exceptional cases will letters be published anonymously. Even in those cases, the name, address and phone number of the writer MUST be disclosed to the editor. The News reserves the right to edit letters for brevity, clarity, legality, grammar Harrison continued from page 6 Instead, they are citizens, like you and me, that have a vested interest in the Castlegar we know and the Castlegar we want to know. Residents associations are place in iti White Rock Association. Unaffectionately known as the Brat Pack, the WRRA challenged White Rock citizens to open their mouths and speak. And speak they did, to the point Residents all across the province. In fact, in my former stomping grounds known as White Rock and Surrey, there were (count them) seven residents associations. The most active of the bunch and taste. was the small but effective of making usually brisk council sessions drag on through the night. Furthermore, from WRRA were born two rookie MLAs — Liberals Wilf Hurd (Surrey- White Rock) and Ken Jones (Surrey-Cloverdale). I’m not suggesting that an all-out war be waged with Cast] city il. Instead I'm suggesting that a residents association can stay in touch with council so those all-out wars don’t occur. There are hundreds of decision made each year by our elected representatives, most of which slip by because no one takes the time to ask the tough question. A residents association would ensure that those tough questions are answered each and every time. As elected officials, our councillors must be subject to public scrutiny. The media certainly does its part and citizens must do the same. If anything good is to come from the failed road referendum, let it be the creation of a _ residents association. Let it be one that works on behalf of the citizens for the citizens.