Castlégar News PAGE A4, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27,1991 MEMBER OF THE 8.C. PRESS COUNCIL ESTABLISHED AUGUST 7, 1947 TWICE WEEKLY MAY 4, 1980 INCORPORATING THE MID-WEEK MIRROR PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 12, 1978-AUGUST 27, 1980 CV. CAMPBELL = PUBLISHER, AUGUST 7, 1947-FEBAUARY 15, 1073 PUBLISHER — Burt Campbell EDITOR — Simon Birch PLANT FOREMAN — Peter Harvey ADVERTISING MANAGER — Wayne Stolz OFFICE MANAGER = Linda Kositsin CIRCULATION MANAGER — Heather Hadiey EDITORIAL - Bridge will help heal wounds Premier Bill Vander Zalm would probably disagree with our in- terpretation of his comments, but we think he came pretty close to admitting last week his government botched the handling of the Rob- son ferry issue. In an interview with the CasNews, the premier sounded like he was caught off guard when asked if he would have done things dif- ferently in hindsight, knowing. what he knows now. He said no one had ever posed the question to him quite that way. “*1 think we need to, particularly now, although things are dif- ferent now from when the decision was made, rationalize the cost of government and there’s things we've done in the past which may need to be done differently or can’t be done at all,’’ the premier said. Mr. Vander Zalm eventually said he doesn’t believe it was a mistake removing the cable ferry from service between Robson and Castlegar almost three years ago. ‘But it would be a mistake to leave it (the situation) where it is,”” he added. The premier acknowledged Castlegar and Robson are closely linked communities with people in Robson participating ‘‘in the cultural and the sporting or recreational events . .-. that happen in Castlegar."” In turning the focus of the question to the proposed bridge bet- ween the two communities, the premier said ‘‘we need to link the communities more effectively.’” But that’s ducking the issue. +. When the government removed the ferry from service there was rio promise of a bridge to replace the ferry service. Nevertheless, Mr. Vander Zalm’s comment that he’s sym- pathetic to local residents who argue the closeness of the two com- munities makes it obvious the government has finally realized, after almost three years, there’s a need to link Robson and Castlegar. “*So call it a moral obligation, call it what you will, I think there’s an obligation to do something,” the premier said. Had the government come to that conclusion three years ago, a lot of people would have saved a lot of time, energy, heartache and money. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Making aménds with a ‘new bridge will'go @ tong way-to healing the wounds. Siemens snubbed It has come to our attention that Walter cynically manipulated by power brokers, there is the ballot box. The potential vote to make ecology the foundation of politics is now 15 per cent, ing to Angus Reid, and all politicians will Siemens, Social Credit for R Trail, was denied a hearing at Castlegar city council's Feb. 19 meeting. This action was taken in spite of Walter's flying from Vancouver to Penticton, renting a car and driving to Castlegar simply to be able to attend the council meeting and hear council’s concerns. Taking the step of simply dropping Mr. Siemens from the agenda without re-scheduling when unable to contact him is, in all likelihood, not simply rude, but an action of political folly as well, as Walter has the potential to be a cabinet minister in a re-elected Social Credit government. Political wisdom should have dictated a policy of more civility and diplomacy if Castlegar change their tune if these ballots ever appear. Greens stand in elections for this purpose. Trapping troubles I have been studying and analyzing the arguments for and against animal rights all winter. Some of Ed Kania’s statements and Catherine Shapcott's ensuing approval have troubled me greatly. I, too, came west from the East, with my preservationist values. | quickly shed these “‘unreal’’ city values in my eagerness to be among old-ti: and pioneers. I council expects the city to be fairly and represented as Walter will do, given his reputation for integrity and hard work. During the past few weeks, Mr. Siemens has met with most of the provincial ministers and has ap excellent working relatiogshjp with them, , . ‘ Mr. Siemens is not running to get a job. He is running to get a job done. His eight years on Trail city council, success in business and many years of devotion to ity service, along with his VIEWPOINT Iraqis can't match high-tech army By PAUL MOONEY OTTAWA — Star Wars Versus the Middle Ages. The high-tech West against a peasant army. That’s how some analysts describe the Persian Gulf War. And they’re urging caution against the euphoria expected to sweep the so-called military-industrial complex in Western countries after the con- flict. Several generations of technology — in.computers, tanks, aircraft, bombs and electronic systems — separate the two sides. War against a better prepared foe would not have been so simple, they warn. So don’t read too much into a decisive allied victory. “The Iraqis just don’t have the background that enables them to cope with a high-tech battlefield,”’ says Roger Hill, an analyst with the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security. “It looks like Star Wars against the Middle Ages. You can’t help but feel sorry for those guys.”” From the first night of the war, allied planes struck deep into Iraq, jamming enemy radar, ensuring that coalition planes could act with im- punity in enemy airspace. Cruise missiles fired several hun- dred kilometres away in the Persian Gulf hummed along Baghdad streets, turned sharply at targeted buildings and entered the front door. ‘‘Smart bombs” penetrated layers of con- crete of hardened aircraft shelters, exploding inside the target. As allied units rumble north through Kuwait and surround the much-vaunted Republican Guard, coalition success on the ground now seems assured. Much of the Iraqi air force fled rather than fight superior aircraft, leaving their comrades to fire Scud against military targets. The payload is smaller than that of Ger- many’s Second World War rockets and many missed targets by a wide margin, thudding harmlessly into the desert. The Iraqis are a formidable regional power, but still very much a Third World .country when facing the West, analysts say. “Much of the coalition’s success is based on uncontested air superiority,"" says David Cox, a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. “But against a - better-equipped opponent such as the Soviet Union, things would have been quite dif- ferent.” Much Iraqi equipment is Soviet- built. But Moscow hasn’t sold Iraq its newest weapons or any elec- tronic counter measures equipment, Cox notes. Iraq doesn’t have the latest Soviet tanks and aircraft, and pilots aren’t trained to Soviet levels. Even Iraq's French-built Exocet missiles have been superseded by newer Western missiles. Still, supporters of high-tech weapons will claim a great victory af- ter the war, Cox says. And given the success, it will be difficult for op- ponents of excessive military spen- ding to challenge them. The U.S. is already shifting some of its so-called ‘Star Wars” research to programs designed to counter Third World ballistic missiles, expec- ted to proliferate as a result of the conflict. Hill notes many in the Iraqi forces are conscripts rousted from villages to fight for Saddam Hussein. Western forces are better-led, he ad- ds. But things wouldn’t have been so easy against a more extensive knowledge of Castlegar’s past and current problems, proves that he can do the job for us. How difficult would it have been to hear him in the interests of Castlegar? The Committee to Elect Walter Siemens Ballots the answer Many think the NDP is the realistic answer for those who want environmental problems addressed. Critics, such as myself, a voice outside the NDP, tend to be dismissed as preaching ‘‘pie in the sky’’ environmentalism, or even as inciting hatred, for questioning the NDP’s real commitment Larry Kuehn, a prominent NDP ‘‘green,"’ is editor of New Directions, and he addressed this question in his editorial in the January 1991 issue. He described a list of the hot election issues all nominated NDP candidates were briefed on for the provincial election, writing that anyone might think that “‘environment’’ would top the list. He wrote: “‘No way. It wasn’t even listed. The party brass think it is no longer ‘salient. When the hotly contested Carmanah resolution was before the plenary of the NDP in convention last spring in Vancouver, Dave Barrett, supported by Ray Skelly and Mike Harcourt, stood against the ‘green caucus”’ definitive resolution to preserve the entire watershed on the basis that the NDP must deal with this type of conflict not on a piecemeal basis, but with a provincewide overall plan and process. Barrett’s speech was warmly received, and the “*green caucus” was forced to compromise. Kuehn writes about what the party brass are standing for now: ‘‘By not taking a clear provincial position . . . the NDP allows local candidates to determine de facto the party’s environmental platform. . . .’’ He quotes Peter “Politicians are so di these days you can’t even trust them when they say they’re lying.” I believe if voters want the ecological crisis to be addressed, as opposed to having their concerns admired their practical knowledge. So I grew up with Bambi, then lived among hunters and trappers. In the intervening 25 years, I have given these matters much thought, as do we all. The fact that city people value wildlife is a Precious force for these times. When I read the trapper’s words, especially regarding the wolverine (a wolverine problem?), I am compelled to write this letter. The wolverine is truly endangered. Most humans hold this creature in awe, yet never, ever, have seen one and never will. When does our local trapper know that he has killed the very last wolverine on the mountain? Traps are indiscriminate. Many of the large animals on our continent are endangered by human activities. British Columbia is a last hold. There is no wolverine problem. - There is a people problem. We people are too many and we have been putting our interests first for too long, at the expense of other species. Finally we realize that homo sapiens is just one species among many. That is the core message of the animal rights issue. In my short lifetime, ‘I have witnessed white man as he learned that other races have rights, then that women have rights, and now children have rights and animals have rights. To me, it is a simple lesson. -All sentient beings have the right to be treated with respect. Barbara Murdoch Pass Creek Shelter needed I have had frequent visits to Castlegar Hospital with a wheelchair patient and I have been soaked to the bone with rain, found 10 inches of cold for help to get through the doors. We have a lot of seniors in Castlegar and area and I’m sure everyone that uses these doors will agree that automatic doors are in order. If anyone tries holding these doors open with one hand and push the wheelchair with the other, they too will know what it’s like, especially in cold weather when you are trying to hurry to keep someone from getting wet and cold. I would like to hear other opinions on this Keep water clean As a longtime (1914) heritage resident of the Kootenays, please indulge me by publishing this letter as an appeal to all good people for clear, safe and healthy drinking water. In my lifetime, these old eyes have witnessed the Columbia River so clean and green, flowing and stocked with. fish, including the giant chinook salmon. Today it has degraded to a river of sludge svith.dying, cancerous fish. Magnificent ospreys populated many dead trees to raise their young along the rocky cliffs of the shoreline. Small industry developed as the population grew. Dozens of sawmills were set up and were operated in tiny communities. For a hundred small settlements lumber was produced from the verdant forests. As there was no ‘‘clearcutting,’’ the creeks were clean and supplied thousands of spawning beds for kokanee and trout each season. Also of great importance, the forests regenerated without ive silvi 3 Up to the present time there had not been any *‘clearcutting’’ in the headwaters of these creeks. But, now the situation has changed alarmingly. Instead of the sweet talk of ‘‘Forests Forever’’ we are confronted by a solid wall of duplicity and indifference to our pleas for cooperation and concerns about our precious drinking water from Cayuse Creek. In the past, no bulldozed roads anc plugged culverts polluted the stream, but now there has been damage. Please help us to protect our watershed from these arrogant apologists of the Forest Giants. We may be ignorant, but we are not stupid. Pat Romaine Gerry Rempel takes on his new 's first tull-th paid deputy fire chief April 1. City hires full-time deputy fire chief By CasNews Staff The City of Castlegar has hired its first full-time paid deputy fire chief — and he’s a familiar name in local firefighting. . Gerry Rempel, currently fire chief at the Castlegar Airport, is the city’s new deputy chief. Ald. Kirk Duff, alderman respon- sible for protective services, made the announcement at Monday night's city council meeting. Rempel said Tuesday his new job is a step up the ladder for him. “It sounds pretty good,"’ he said. Duff said the city’s hiring commit- tee is “quite satisfied’? Rempel was the best applicant. Ald. Bob Pakula agreed, “I think (the committee) made a very good choice and I know Gerry will do a very good job,” Pakula said. Rempel, 35, grew up in Renata but moved to Castlegar When the Hugh Keenleyside dam was built. He is married and has four children. Rempel begins his new job April 1, city administrator Gary Williams said Cuts ‘inevitable’ with new budge VANCOUVER (CP) — Premier Bill Vander Zaim ‘called the federal budget Tuesday~ one of moderate restraint, but couldn't resist a shot at Quebec and the issue of transfer payments. “The bulk of restraint is aimed again at B.C., Alberta and On- tario,"" he told a hurriedly called ews conference at the downtown cabinet offices. The ‘cap on cap of the Canada Assistance Plan’ would cost British Columbia $90- million for 1991-92 and $300 million to $350 million for 1992-96, he said. And the further federal squeeze on transfer payments—will “cost the province $285 million for 1991-92 and an additional $500 million through 1996. “The real cost here will be to health and Post-secondary education,’’ Vander Zalm said. “Ironically, the province of Quebec, which still debates sovereignty as its option, has not had its equalization payments nor its Canada Assistance program capped and thus will see no reduction.”* Asked if there would be cuts in health services or other areas, Van- der Zalm said he believed ‘‘we can maintain the level of service but some things will have to be done dif- ferently."” New taxes are not sidered for the next budget, he added. “We need to go through programs and see what we can find,’’ he said. “Some cuts may be inevitable."’ The B.C. government supports the establishment of a fund for GST revenues to provide for debt reduc- tion and the servicing of interest being con- provincial Meantime, the head of the Fraser Institute, a Vancouver-based conservative economic research body, gave federal Finance Minister Michael Wilson a C-plus for his ef- forts to tackle the deficit. “We have to be enthusiastic but moderately so,’’ said Michael Walker. “It (the deficit) is $3.75 billion higher than he expected it would be this time last year,”’ he said~**But all in all, I think we have to say he has done well relative to the pressures that he has been under with the recéssion ongoing and the decline in government revenues.”” Ken Georgetti, president of the B.C. Federation of Labor, said Wilson wants to “‘resolve the deficit on the backs of Canadians.”’ Wilson is inviting the provinces to play a larger role in financing their own programs, which hurts the poorer provinces that can’t afford it, Georgetti said. Please address ail letters to the editor to: Letters to the Editor, Castlegar News, P.O. Box 3007, Castlegar, B.C. ViN 3H4, or deliver them to our office at 197 Cc Ave. in Ci gar. snow and slush to try to push the through and had trouble getting in the doors. Not being fortunate enough to own a lift van, we have to use the family car. By the time I get the wheelchair out of the trunk and get it set up in the pouring rain, get the patient out of the car into the chair and into the hospital, he, too, is soaked as well as his chair. Do you think a covered area is in order to load and unload patients in? It would also be of great assistance to elderly people to get to the doors and not worry about ice and snow. Once at the doors, they can stand and wait for someone to come along to let them in. I have seen one occasion when a fragile woman with crippled hands and two canes had to wait in the 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 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 without the writer's name. Nevertheless, the name, address and telephone number of the writer MUST be disclosed to the editor. The Castlegar News reserves the right to edit letters for brevity, clarity, legality, grammar and taste. Feds hope to control inflation OTTAWA (CP) — Ottawa is set- ting up a system of inflation targets it hopes will cut the increase in cost of living in half by late 1992. in a opponent, he says. He points to the coalition’s capacity to destroy tanks with sophisticated helicopter gun- ships. 3 “If the Iraqis had a more capable force on the ground, many of them would have been knocked out of the air,” he says. Paul Mooney writes for The Canadian Press. i from the tight fisted policies of the Bank of t i bist i fi & the middle of this year, thanks to lower interest rates, increased exports and stable oil prices. In other forecasts: * Ottawa expects short-term in- terest rates to average at 9.5 per cent this-year, versus 13 per cent last year. * Unemployment will level off at 10 per cent late this year, versus 9.1 Per cent at the end of 1990. However, unemployment will remain high at 9.8 per cent at the end of 1992. It was 9.7 per cent last month. | | | E) () [>| >[m]a) -[>[— i HF (9) air] = aE) —|-}z) =|> RO) |miclof>|-|clol>izio SOBRE BHORE >| ola) DIM) Ty >| a! 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