Wednesday, October 16, 1991 PAGE i me it a ViewPOINT Adrian RAESIDE Dave McCullough Publisher Simon Birch Editor Peter Harvey Plant Foreman Mark Davis Advertising Manager Warren Chernott Accountant Heather Hadley Circulation Manager Burt Campbell Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbelt ‘Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 NDP should be elected Simon Birch EDITOR The choice for voters in Rossland-Trail to- morrow is quite clear: Ed Conroy and the New Democrats deserve the support of the people. A few of my reasons: * The NDP has presented a realistic finan- cial plan for the province. The plan includes cutting government waste, fairer taxes and a balanced budget within five years. © The NDP is committed to stricter envi- ronmental policies and is the party I believe best suited to bring peace to B.C.’s protest-torn forests. - * NDP leader Mike Harcourt demonstrat- ed an open-door policy as mayor of Vancouver and is committed to paying more than lip ser- vice to open government and freedom of infor- mation at the provincial level. Locally, although this is his first foray into provincial politics, Ed Conroy has demon- strated over the last18 months a thorough grasp of local issues. Having worked for Wes- tar Timber on the towboats for many years and having served as a trustee on the Castle- gar school board for five years, Mr. Conroy will take to Victoria a solid background in two ar- eas of utmost importance to this province: forestry and education. I have no doubt he will be a strong and forthright advocate for Ross- land-Trail. Looking at the election from another angle, the Social Credit party simply does not de- serve a renewed mandate. Try as she might, Rita Ji johnston cannot run away from the recently summed the situation up quite con- cisely: A vote for the Socreds, he said, is like telling your children corruption and unethical behavior is OK- I would also argue that the Socreds’ sup- ‘was some- thing of a farce as evidenced by the hocus- pocus trickery of the “budget stabilization,” or B. BS. fund, that helped mask a $1.2 billion deficit for 1991-92, on a per capita basis as bad as, if not worse than, the Ontario NDP’s $10 billion deficit the Socreds tried to use as a scare tactic early in the campaign. please see NDP page AS >% [atilegar Newt Letter toTHE EDITOR Phe Oct. 11, the bicep Creek Monitoring me ministries of Forests and Tetcnet Slocan ‘Forest Products and members of the Water users tour Hasty Creek area (the ’3 own a distance Ee sco meneel A forest land use consultant engaged by the Red M i tion recom- H IWMP Te 1 C i on a field trip to inspect the recent road building in the Hasty Creek watershed near Silverton. The committee expressed concern about per- sistent oil leakage from the loader (about leo litres per day totalling abouty 48 litres since Sept. 16). The Ministry of Environment repre- sentative said that, relative to the existing this of oil dod on ia . ly 40 vertical metres uphill that reds utilize a nat- ural bench to avoid the > steep siooms § and wet areas b the an channel, and reduce the risk of sediment load- ing in the creek by minimizing the road cut re- quired. On Oct. 9, zepresentacives of SFP and the d an alternate is still 2. ege the ok building contractors ap their care- ful and conscientious work, and all the workers for keeping the site clear of garbage and waste. A major unresolved concern of the monitor- ing committee is the location of a spur road to access a third cutblock. The proposed road lo- cation traverses side slopes up to 50 per cent steepness within about 100 metres of the creek road location that both parties agreed to. On the Oct. 11 field trip, when asked to ap- prove the alternate road location, Arrow for- paso district A, menage Ken saat, refused to tak with the stated priority of the WMP — water protection — and makes a mockery of mean- Tgfal public involvement in watershed plan- ning and management. Jim Rutkowsky, Pettit Cra itt Hasty Creek Watershed Committee Digging through the hype of the last 4 weeks or four weeks, the politi- cians have courted us. They've fought over our votes with every weapon at their disposal. We've been knee deep in rhetoric and our intelligence has be been insulted on numerous oc- casions. The Socreds have mailed out phony tax assessments, trying to scare voters into believing that the NDP would rack up a $15 billion deficit over a poabehirted toed period. Aside from the highly question- Hubert BEYER| able tactic itself, the assure you I'd be a bad premier. Wilson came into this contest with little more than ch comaprad ness and arrogance, wishing thi plague on everybody else’s house. promises. Tf, on the other hand, your pri- mary concern is to get rid of the two old parties, vote Liberal, by all means, but don’t expect deliver- think ails es would cost $15 billion over five years is definitely not based on fact. The NDP has costed out its platform at about $1.5 billion higher than what the Socreds are prepared to spend. That may be lows but it’s a ttle more believable than the Socreds’ claim. Here are a few things to expect from the NDP and if you can't live with those, don't vote for them. First they will introduce a 7.5 per cent tax on corporate profits. In Hong Kong there's a 17 per cent corporate tax; in the U.S. it’s 20 per cent. In neither case has busi- ness been driven out. The NDP will bring in a real estate flipping tax which means you'll have to pay tax on the profits of a real estate sale if you sell it within a certain pega ry dig! wenn me 2 a good debater. So am I, but I can Sod of ti Res Son boughs it, probably six months. please see BEYER page A7 , October 16, 1991 or deliver them to 197 Columbia Ave. Letters should be number at which the writer can be reached between 9am, and5 p.m. The writer's Letters tcoWHE Full information essential I find it difficult to comprehend how Mr. Chris D’Arcy would now suggest that he will lend his support to local initiatives to under- take production of electricity, for example, with such projects as the Keenleyside power plant. In the mid- rac poalenemp aN re ncay OE EDITOR y and perm cciedians requiring that the review project would most certainly be confronting a eng bebop years — wish is enectly what has occurred with the Kemang proj I cedars tenoy taebasece boneneet deal i tea sential that, as a community, we are properly and fully informed as possible in order to al- low us to objectively weigh the type of repre- Mr. DAry appeared ae the utility com- i supporting the UtiliCorp application. There can be little doubt that Mr. D’Arcy’s pivotal support of the iliCorp initiative was a key factor in ensur- ing that, for the first time in Canada’s history, a local utility was sold to foreign investors. Those who would shudder at the prospect of the regional district such a venture should esiee sind vetlack upon the millions of dollars of revenue that have been returned to the City of Nelson from its we support in government. Ken Wyllie ers, it is clear that much of Rossland-Trail’s voting public is delighted and and relieved that there is a credible choice they can be proud to make in the local election race. Ron Joseph Trail Controlled logging touted The Green party would stop uncontrolled logging in watersheds, not all logging as your article on Sept. 28 suggests. A Imagine your water supply drying up or Support from everywhere A few shrill carping | letters and columns have d in the C: and rie papers regarding Chris DArey’s candi- One letter by Shane McCauley (Trail Times, Oct. 1) suggests that the D’Arcy campaign is based on uaescre motives, A column by Ron a, sats r News, Sept. ef alleges a are better paid to foreign shareholders. It is like- wise surprising that Mr. Howard Dirks would publicly advertise his support of the City of Bakken sped Connie Simpson. a same is- sue is a letter by Albert Baker hinting at a scandalous liaison between Mr. D’Arcy and Mrs. Eakben. It is one thing to make sleazy Nelson’s Project when it was his government that allowed the West Ki to occur. How any candidate could not - support the porary r of the R -Castle- gar ferry, is a mystery to me.‘I say this be- cause our area now confronts intensified traf- fic, not only from the Celgar Pulp Co. expan- sion, but also from the construction of the bridge itself. Surely without temporary ferry access we will certainly strangle a traffic sys- tem that is already badly choked. It does seem befitting of our former MLA to be an apologist for the harsh burden which removal of the ferry placed upon local taxpayers — es- pecially when we consider that Grace Mc- — acknowledges that the ferry should be Ab jou mag be mivire: I supported the posi- tion of the Regional District of Central Koote- nay that the Celgar review process should be properly undertaken. I did this because I sup- the modernization and I was aware did: it is quite ther to pick on poiwata citizens. Shame on you. Chris D’Arcy was asked to run as an inde- pendent and given support by such a large representative group of individuals that he agreed to stand. It is true that Mrs. Bakken and Ms. Simpson support Mr. Dass It is al- so true that many card carrying New Democrats, Socreds and Liberals as well as many previously undecided voters support Mr. D’Arcy. They all believe as I do that D’Ar- cy is the most politically astute, bl and honest politician in the legislature. He has, can and will represent the West Koote- nay to the best of his considerable energy, tal- ent and intellect. Already he is the senior MLA in continu- ous service. Combined with his political awareness and independent status he will continue to be a force that is reckoned with in Victoria. Most important to his constituents, he will not be bound by the tyranny of caucus that unless proper process was p d, the poet would be delayed. In early 1990 when 1 review was in process, I was abso- Iatly hes tohear Me Ary, when ad- and Boundary Municipalities, ‘all the elected offi- cials of every city, town, village and regional district from Midway to the Alberta border that not only did he not support any hearing process but that no such process was re- quired. It was an unfortunate display of “misinfor- mation” that our MLA did not appreciate the that are ifestly not in the best interests of his riding. logists for the lly bankrupt eneke and NDP have anything positive to say about their own campaigns they should tell us, soon. In reality, they are choking on a bad case of sour grapes. As supporters depart their camps in droves, nervous trembling can be heard from the corporal’s guard that re- mains. By the obvi defections of | hile So- creds and New Democrats along with the large number of uncommitted (to party) vot- ng foul. caused this you'd have no legal right to com- pensation. The Socred government refuses to bring in liability laws. Loggers can damage your wa- ter and get away with it. If you protest, like you neighbors at Hasty Creek, too bad. You'll be called an “environmental terrorist” by Rita Johnston and be taken to court. It could be your watershed next. Greens want community control of our forests. Greens put protection of water and other life support systems as a priority. As your Green MLA, I'll speak up for you. Angela Price Rossland Low bid not always best In a desperate attempt to dig herself out of the hole the Socreds are in, Rita Johnston in- advertently substantiated labor's claim that “low bid” is not always the best price. At a staged media event in front of a Sur- rey school construction site, she blamed workers, the school board and the NDP for the project being behind schedule. The truth is, the project is the victim of her own low bid at any cost policy that forced the school board to give the job to an gnenperieniced: 5 non-union Construction, has no track record of building anything of this magnitude. This ates cigntes f bidding oad allows contracts although they don't ne necsaoansty have the experience or expertise to complete. When union contractors are successful in winning public construction jobs, they are usually “on time and on budget.” Car ” Union spok Paul John- ston says if the board had been allowed to se- lect the reputable, well-experienced union contractor, Onyx Construction, whose bid was only 1-1/4 per cent higher, the school would be finished on time. Our children deserve well-built, well-organized school projects. Len Embree United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local 2300 Castlegar Beyer continued from page A6 The NDP will raise the mini- mum wage, probably by 50 cents, right off the bat and allow for fu- ture raises based on the cost-of-liv- ing increase. nthe NDP will also be strong on omsality: eqoel poy fx equal work that, and yes, New Tenisersba etl colon chaalceste: tance payments. Aside from that, youre guing te bene to take & Now for the Socreds. Since they haven't us with much of a platform, it’s safe to say it'll be business as usual if they are re- elected. S But there is the Socred baggage of dals which Rita Johnst has tried to ignore. Of the 74 So- cred candidates, 49 are new faces. That means 25 of the old guard are mal around, trying to get re-elect- The question is: Will the Socre- ds continue to behave as they did for the past five years? The answer is: Nobody knows. You'll have to take a chance, something a lot of voters obviously have great diffi- culty with. All the polls suggest that the public is determined to throw the Socreds out of office. Since the “Grate Debate” the Liberals have enjoyed a surge of support, most- ly at the e: of the Socreds. The first poll after the debate showed the NDP in front with 38 per cent, the Socreds with 26 per cent, and the Liberals hard on their heels with 24 per cent. That, I expect, will turn out to be a blip. When it comes down to mark- ing their ballots, a lot of voters who were lured into the Liberal camp by Wilson’s debate performance, may have second thoughts about the man and his party. Here then is my prediction | of the totally based only on instinct and what my mail from every corner of the province has been telling me. The NDP will get 50 seats, the Socreds 20, the Liberals three and there will be two independents — Jack Kempf in Bulkley Valley- Stikine and Chris D’Arcy in Ross- land-Trail. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time I'm wrong.