OPINION

WEDNESDAY, Sept

The

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Sun
Publtahed every Wedneactay ‘Sterting Newspapers Lid.
‘at 485 Columbia Ave, Castlegar, B.C. V1N 1G8. The Castlegar Sun
is politically independent and a member of the Stering News Senice.
Bc

o
Newspapers Assocation, and the B.C. Press Council. Established
28, 1990. Mast 10420.

Sree. 10:00 Pacple ot Castiogar and the surouncing area, and
by \

editorial comment

Sound the alarm

There is an infestation in our city. One that threatens to
crumble the very foundation that the first settlers created so

to make Castlegar look like Port au Prince or down-
‘Vancouver.

Then again, not.

Maybe it’s time we all took a step back and looked at what
‘we have spent so much time and effort trying to control.

The teenagers of our city have recently been under
attack. It seems they can’t skate i

easier too.

Maybe it's about time we decided to cut the kids
some slack.

Maybe someone could try talking to them and solving
their p rather than p uting them.

Maybe they could teach a few of the rest of us how to do
a“rad ollie” and maybe we might even like it.

It might be beneficial to go into a long tirade about how
the teenage years are a time of crazy rebellion and confus-
img change and that everyone knows what it was like. Most
of us didn’t agree with our older generation just like our
teens don’t now. But that’s not necessary because we all
remember, don't we.

But I wonder if we also remember the great parts o
teenhood as well - the freedom, experi-

to skate, skate to live, man.” Passionate, carefree it comes
from a heart and it’s not constrained by the rigors of an
often suffocating society. It’s a beautiful thing that we all
should not forget.

Skateboarding isn’t criminal, but stifling the enthusiasm
and spontaneity of young adulthood is.

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Ready for the next election scrap

Funny thing happened to the

First, there’s the aforementioned

speech Jack i gave at
the recent Union of B.C. Munici-
palities: it got pilfered by Gordon
Campbell.

On Wednesday, Sept. 21,
Weisgerber outlined his party's

f-One of
the four points, the Reform
House leader explained to dele-

to the annual convention of the
B.C. and Yukon Community
Newspaper Association. If elected,
the Liberal leader said, his party
would make balanced budgets a
legal requirement.

Is there an echo in here? Since
Weisgerber was first off the mark
with this suddenly popular idea,
T'll stick with his version.

Listening to Jack, the whole
thing is really very simple. Provin-
cial govermments have been
spending more than they collect.
Using the basic tenet that ordinary
mortals can’t spend more than hey
earn, unless they want to go
bankrupt, Jack says the Reform
Party would pass a law that will

ig of deficits. A Reform
government, he said, would intro-

with the consent of the taxpayers,
through referendum, or with the
‘nani condent of the legit

Capital borrowing would be
restricted to five per cent of rev-
enues, or about one-third of what
the NDP has been spending.

Second, the size and scope of
government would be reduced,
according to Weisgerber's plan. A
Reform government would
“apply spending cuts fairly and
evenly across the board, not by
singling out particular sectors for
tougher treatment.”

The “biggest nut to crack,” he
said, is the growing cost of public
sector salaries and benefits, which

amount to as much as 85 cents on
the dollar spent in some sectors. A
Reform government, he said,
would be “aggressively tackling
the wage bill.”

It its first term, a Reform gov-
emment would reduce the public
sector wage bill by 15 per cent,

about three to four per cent a year,
through a combination of program
cuts, efficiency gains, wage mea-
sures and privatization initiatives.
The third point of the Reform

plan is to “make government mote
responsive to the tax; * priori
ties and ability to pay.” To that
effect, he said, a Reform govem-
ment would introduce fixed elec-
tion dates, workable recall and
initiative legislation and much
greater use of referenda,

And finally, a Refogm govern-
ment would “establish an econom-
ic climate that is favorable to
wealth-creation.” To that end,
Weisgerber said, the province
would get its fiscal house in order.

He then added a few promissory
nuggets, like abolition of the cor-
Porate capital tax “as soon as pos-
sible,” and no _ big-time
gambling-for-profit casinos any-
where, including Native reserves.

And there, in a nutshell, is the
Reform Party's fiscal platform,
ready for the next election scrap.

Question:
What is your most

Wednesday, September 28, 1994

Letters to the Editor

The Kootenay Romanian
Relief would like to
thank all those who contributed
80 generously to the project to
ship a container of clothes to
Romania.

and giving money while

8 8
plied tha venice tad ae,
transport the containers from
‘Vancouver and back again after it
was loaded. It took two heavy
duty fork lifts and a front end
loader to lift the so the

Hiring out-

of-province will devastate local economy

acquire projects

There are presently projects in Wasa,
Invermere, Fairmont, Kitchener and Mid-
way where the workforce is nearly 100

‘The only way to avoid this kind of a mess
as I see it is to adopt a local hise clause (min-
inaum 80 per cent of workers to be perma-

per cent Albertan.
You might as well tear down all the

Locally, Castlegar City Council has

a bid for its sewage upgrade

from Nasom Construction of Edmonton.
You.can see where most of this company's

labor will come from. One only has to
look to Cranbrook, where the U.LC. rate
is approximately 80 per cent,

700 people per month to dump on our

welfare

system,
Albertans stream across the border,

contractors and

ture projects are being done by Alberta

on the local

economy,
- do you think a worker from Alberta, liv-
ing in their recreational vehicles, are
2 going to spend in this town.

spend
this community the spin-offs with the
multiplier effect

ed the contract). This city and its business
infrastructure would more than recover this
amount in taxes and revenue from local con-
tractors and their employees.
I wonder jf council has considered who
have an enormous impact is going to support the local economy
. How many dollars when these people have finished and gone
home, not me - I’ll be on social assistance.
A local unemployed taxpayer.
Gary Hewer

truck could back under it. Once
it was full it contained about
37,000 Ibs. of goods which is
over 1500 cartons with enough

August 12th. It will travel to Ger-
many and then by track to

Romania where it will
arrive between October 5 and 10.
‘Two people are travelling from
Nelson to meet the container and

budget for this project and any-
one still wishing to contribute
may do so by making a cheque
payable to:

Romanian

People in the Kootenays
should be proud of the way they
respond to assist others less for-
tumate. Thanks again from the

Castlegar student Tamara Terry is pounding the pavement in
search of answers to questions that correspond with news stories
that have appeared in The Castlegar Sun. If you see Tamara, it
could be your opportunity to appear in Speaker’ s Corner, which

will be published each week.

favorite activity in
oes

make it illegal for the g:
to have a deficit.
Campbell says much the same
thing, but he should have made
sure to beat Weisgerber to the
punch. There's only one first prize
in this column. O.K_., an honorable
mention for Gordons-come-lately.
Weisgerber got downright
Poetic when he explained how
governments are standing “on the
brink of the fiscal precipice,
trapped on a mountain of debt

that’s beyond yet
too real to be ignored.”
It’s a little like the time he went

accident waiting to happen.
Visions of me in traction.”

Pleading for God’s mercy, he
said, didn’t help. He was some-
where in the village sipping a nice,
hot cappuccino. And that, he said,
is just abut were governments
stand right now, with little more
than a snowball's chance in hell to
make it safely to the valley where

governments, said Weisgerber,
must have the nerve to do what's
necessary to deliver us from ever-
mounting debt

Jack, I didn’t know you had it in
you. This is good stuff. Ever consid-
ered writing a column? Just kidding.

And here's Weisgerber’s four-
point plan to get from the precari-
ous mountain top of debt to the
valley of plenty.

Golfing
Castlegar

I like dirt biking and
mountain biking on
the paths around

because I like shopping here;

it’s a friendly atmo-

—Doug McKenzie

I like snowmobiling
at the summit and
playing golf at the
nice golf course.

Ie eT AE CTEN Me
BRAZEN SINCE THE PQ GOT IN?

a ee De ot at ee a ee en Q
Fa Pets s ws

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of Castlegar passed away at the
age of 75 years.

Mr. Lepsoe was born on
August 6, 1919 in Bergen, Nor-
way. He came to Canada, to Trail
B.C., at age cight with his fami-
ly. Christian iP high

Castlegar’s

The past few months have
been challenging for the Red
Cross Blood A fe
inquiry is looking into Canada's
blood system, and provincial
governments are examing how
blood is collected and distribut-
ed to those in need.

blood donors are unsung heroes

porter of blood collections in
B.C. Our local donors are an
invaluable part of 700,000 vol-
unteers who donate their blood
to help patients in more than
900 Canadian hospitals. In fact,
every twenty seconds in Cana-
da, someone needs blood or
blood products. The

makes our blood system one of
the safest in the world. The
volunteer donors, who come
regularly to blood clinics, share
this gift of life as a form of
their humanitarian compassion.
They are people helping people
without consideration for mate-

CRUISING INTO FALL ...

er and faster, there will soon be
additional nursing staff and
combined i

of moving to a diffe
tion. The Red Cross has heard
donor concerns and we are

A grassroots
In all of this, the real story of network in Castlegar and simi-
the Canadian blood supply has lar ities th h

With new screening proce-

dures and i

almost been forgotten. The Canada, have always been
community of Castlegar has _ there to help.
been a long-time and solid sup- It is this voluntary spirit that

it is tak-

ing longer to give blood. The
Red Cross is aware of the prob-
Jem, so to make the process easi-

“Pes person based on Sete Comupany and are

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City of Castlegar

CITY OF CASTLEGAR
LOGO DESIGN

Requests for Proposals are being solicited by the City of Castlegar for
services to develop an official Logo Design. Submissions clearly
marked “City of Castlegar Logo Design” will be received at City Hall
up to October 17, 1994.

‘The submissions should clearly detail the services to be provided to

the City to develop a logo design, factors which will be considered,
and the involvement required of City Council and staff. The

school in Trail then attended
he was working on a
degree in Electrical i i
when the war started. During
World War Two he served with
the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
After the War, Christian set-
tled in Robson where he was a

ing from Robson to Castlegar,
Trail, Nelson or Grand Forks to
visit friends. He moved to
Castlegar in 1980.

Christian enjoyed reading,
long walks and lately, boating on
the Arrow Lakes. One of his last
dreams was to try ski-biscuiting
with his grandnephews and

i His extended fami-
ly appreciated his sense of

humor, enjoyment of work, play
amazing l.

Christopher (Janet) of Merritt,
David of Chase; niece Barbara of
(Chase; four grandnephews and
three grandnieces. He also leaves
numerous relatives in Norway

eptember 9 in
Castlegar at Park Memorial
Cemetery. Funeral arrange-
ments were under Castlegar
Puneral Chapel.

shall include samples of current work, a time schedule to
Complete the work and the cost to bring the successful logo design to
the camera-ready art stage.

The City reserves the right to accept the submission which, at the
City's discrection, is deemed most appropriate for the City. Any
questions regarding this Request for Proposal shall be directed to
Diane Hunter, City Clerk.

City of Castlegar

460 Columbia Avenue
Castlegar, B.C.

VIN 1G7
604-365-7227

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