Saturday, February 22, 1992 @ PAGE} Opinion OurVWiEWS AdrianRAESIDE Bridging the gap o build or not to build, that is | the question. And a very tough one at that. Monday, Transport Minister Art Charbonneau kisses down at the Castlegar airport at 1:10 p.m. Complete with a small entourage, Charbonneau will be whisked away for two days of intense meetings regarding the fate of the Castlegar- Robson bridge. The general public will be given one opportunity to convince Charbonneau that the $23.5 million bridge is worth the government’s time and money. That opportunity comes Monday at 7 p.m. at a Robson town hall meeting. One is not enough, though. Why not make it two? Is there a better way for Castlegar and area to show wide-spread support for the suddenly-troubled bridge than to greet the minister upon his arrival? Complete with petitions, signs and songs? Probably not. Unfortunately, the government is not convinced the Castlegar-Robson span is needed. After all, it has called for the bridge — and every other highways project in the province — to be reviewed. Why you ask? Like it or not, the government is looking to cut corners with its first budget. Meeting Charbonneau at the airport would be the first step towards convincing the government that Castlegar and area is one corner that can’t be cut. ie Victor ines Gio Life -.takes some Z ———t Cm, Lanyon thrown prime NDP bone sweep of the province. interesting turns. Take Chris D’Arcy. Ten years ago he was wrapping up his first decade as the New Democratic Party representative for Rossland-Trail and looking forward to another 10 years in the Legislature. The only fly in the ointment for D’Arcy was that all but the first three z < = oc Oo = S Crossroads the D’Arcy was unsuccessful in his bid as an independent and was handed a one-way ticket to Palookaville. Now take Stan Lanyon. Last week Lanyon emerged from the political shadows of Mike Harcourt’s NDP government to be named new Industrial Relations Council years of his tenure were spent in Opposition. Then, just as the New Democratic Party was emerging from the political wilderness and preparing to form its first government since 1975, D’Arcy was unceremoniously dumped by local New Democrats in favor of newcomer Ed Conroy. : Conroy, as everyone knows, went on to capture Rossland-Trail as part of an NDP commissioner. Who'd have thunk it 10 years ago? Ten years ago Lanyon was a Castlegar lawyer challenging D’Arcy for the NDP nomination in Rossland-Trail — and losing by a scant two votes. It was a biter battle. Lanyon represented all those local New Democrats who were dissatisfied with please see NORMAN page 7 Circulation Manager Street WALK Burt Campb Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbell Aug. 7,1947- _ Feb. 15, 1973 Tim ulowka - Castlegar “Now that I know about it, I might attend.” Fred Shersto Robson “Pll probably go.” Question: Will you attend Robson’s town hall meeting Monday to speak to Art Charbonneau? Glen Carew Castlegar bitoff Pat Rilcoff Castlegar “I’m going to go.” “I will try to make John Koznuik Castlegar “I think I will. The it.” bridge is a necessity.” @ Saturday, February 22, 1992 OtherVIEWS | Please address all letters to: Letters to the ditor Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C. V1N 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 anda telephone number at which the writer can be teached between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The writer's name and city or town of 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 and taste. Letters tohHE EDITOR Thanks for the support On behalf of the Castlegar Women’s Association, I would like to personally and publicly thank you for your coverage of our Safe Home Project for battered women and children. Your honest and sensitive handling of this issue has assisted this organization in getting the word out and raising consciousness in the Castlegar community — the two most basic and vital factors when dealing with such an important and sometimes volatile issue. Assault in the home place is an historical, all pervasive and oft times very hidden problem in our society. The first step in healing is the acknowledgment of an issue that needs attention and then the mobilization of resources to address the problem. To this end The Castlegar News has played a key role. Leigh Simms Castlegar Safe Home Program Co-ordinator Municpal Act is clear Ron Norman has been raising people’s awareness and knowledge of the Regional District of Central Kootenay. : Certainly, the services provided by the RDCK need to be more widely credited and understood. In Castlegar and Areas I and J, the Regional District works closely with local people. The Aquatic Center, the Ootischenia refuse site, programming in the Pioneer Arena, the Community Complex, the Recreation Commission and Economic Development, to name a few, are all Regional District responsibilities. In a recent column, Norman mentioned that beginning in 1993 these RDCK programs will have to pay-$9.50 “posting” cost. a It is important to understand this cost will be levied because the City of Castlegar demanded it. Castlegar had refused to pay its levy to the Regional District and appealed to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. Castlegar insisted the Regional District closely follow the Municipal Act. The Municipal Act is clear. The costs of providing a service must be apportioned amongst the participating electoral areas and municipalities. Therefore, costs of paying bills must be charged to the pool, the rink or the dump. Until this time, the RDCK had absorbed the cost as a part of overall administration. In response to Castlegar’s demand the RDCK established the Cost Allocation Select Committee: Its report and the $9.50 recommendation was accepted by the Board in November, 1991 and the 1993 implementation date adopted in January, 1992. 2 a To clarify, the “posting” ‘of a bill is not simply the paying of the bill. Local government pays only four per cent GST. Yet, on every item the RDCK purchases it has to pay seven per cent and the three per cent refund is claimed later. This requires the item be recorded, the amount of GST paid be recorded and an application be made and sent for the three per cent refund from Ottawa: : A check also has to be done to ensure Ottawa pays the refund and the books balanced when the refund is received. This is labor intensive, complicated and very costly to local taxpayers. Further, not all items are subject to Provincial Sales Tax and these need to be sorted out. In summary, the $9.50 “posting” to the local functions is the-result of the City of Castlegar’s insistence that the procedures of the RDCK be changed and that those who benefit from a service shall pay for that service. : The cost to “post” or pay a bill is in large part due to federal and provincial rules and requirements which the RDCK follow to protect local taxpayers. Larry Brierley Chair, RDCK Cost Allocation Select Committee Mulroney is the problem An open letter to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney: : : Canada is having unity problems, caused by your government. Your policy is government by politicians, for politicians benefit, approved by three political parties and paid for by the taxpayers, who politicians consider to be stupid and treat them accordingly. Most Canadians are unhappy with your extravagant Eee to foreign countries, with political pensions, too many taxes, too many civil servants who are paid too much. Small business owners are among the most heavily burdened by your taxes, as they create the most jobs, pay the most taxes and often do more work for government for free than civil servants do for their high wages. Your government further mistreats these people by not allowing them the same $17,000 pension after six years of work, such as politicians receive. News reports state that you have spent many millions of the stupid taxpayers’ money, buying votes in your constituency. Will all politicians be allowed similar amounts to buy votes at the taxpayers’ expense. You keep talking about changing the Constitution, yet few Canadians have ever seen it. Why change the constitution when your secret Income Tax Act (political atrocities act) overrules it? Why are both the Constitution and the Income Tax Act.kept virtual political secrets? How would you change a secret act? If you want a united Canada, do the following: curtail spending, reduce taxes, fire approximately 100,000 civil servants. Treat small business owners like you do politicians and give them $17,000 per year pensions after they've worked six years. Stop borrowing money from privately- owned banks. Pay off all governments debts by printing the necessary money and use the government-owned Bank of Canada to. pay all debt now and in the future, similar to what the government did prior to World War I. Prior to WWI, Canada paid no income tax. At that time, some politicians, such as we have in Ottawa now, sold us out to the privately-owned banks and enslaved Canadians to the banks. Going back to the pre-war system would result in Canadians paying no income tax now or in the future. Much more could be said, but let’s get started on uniting Canadians. Time is running out. D.D. Cranfield Saskatoon, Sask. Norman Seog continued from page 6 D’Arcy’s candidacy. D’Arcy dis- missed them as a tiny group of “fringe zealots.” Dozens of Lanyon supporters showed up at the nom- ination meeting sporting yellow “fringe zealot” badges. The vote was close, but Lanyon still lost and he was jettisoned in- to nowhereland. He stayed briefly in the area before pulling up stakes and heading off to the bright lights and the big city. He landed on his feet in Van- couver — a Vancouver. whose mayor happened to be Mike Har- court. Lanyon hung out a shingle as a labor lawyer. He also hitched onto Harcourt’s rising star and the rest, as they say; is history. ‘ When Harcourt made the jump into provincial politics Lanyon worked in Harcourt’s Vancouver Centre riding as a kéy supporter. Lanyon became a policy advisor _ for the NDP. And now that the New Democrats have formed the government and Harcourt is firm- ly planted in the premiers office, Lanyon hasn't been left behind. In one short week — on March 1 — Lanyon will replace Ed Peck as B.C.’s labor czar. It is one of the most powerful posts in B.C. And it has a salary to match: $147,800 a year, that’s equivalent. to a Supreme Court Justice. Lanyon says he is still negotiat- ing a contract, but intends to ac- cept a “significant” cut in salary in keeping with the economic cli- mate. A case could be made that Lanyon’s rise to prominence traces back to that two-vote defeat to D’Arcy in the early 1980's. Funny how life works out, isn’t it? eee The recent Vancouver Sun sto- ry on Lanyon’s appointment was interesting in that it included an announcement from the B.C. Fed- eration of Labor that it would end its four-year boycott of the IRC. The story quoted B.C. Fed pres- ident Ken Georgetti saying Peck’s resignation sends a “welcome sig- nal” that labor relations are at a “positive turning point.” The end of the boycott isn’t what interested me.It' was the connection between Georgetti and Lanyon. Georgetti, for those who may have forgotten, was head of the United Steelworkers of America Local 480 in Trail a number of years before he was elected to the top post at the B.C. Fed. It was at the same time that Lanyon was challenging D’Arcy. And much of Lanyon’s support came from the Steelworkers. Steel’s ties with the local NDP have always been strong. For in- stance, it is something of a tradi- tion for the Local 480 hall to be headquarters for the NDP on elec- tion night. You can be assured, then, that when Georgetti and Lanyon sit down at their first IRC meeting, they won’t have to make any in- troductions. : They may even relive those ear- ly days together in politics in the West Kootenay.