The Castlegar Sun On top of the news... Faster than express... Cost-wise rather than pennywise... Aim for the TOTAL West Kootenay Market Place Your Advertisement in. SHOP - NE A Total Market Coverage (TMC) - A Bargain Guide to the West Kootenay ae Vt Miss With the . sees whavibas Daily News 1163 Cedar St. Trail 266 Baker St., Nelson ail 352-3554 364-1416 and their TOTAL MARKET PUBLICATION (TMC) TMC Circulation 24,023 97.4% Coverage of West Kootenay Market Another Sterling Newspaper Advantage WS! i The Sastisg ar Sun “AS 465 Columbia Ave. Castlegar 365-2278 4 PROFILE CONTEST 104 aa LEGI VICTORIA VBV 1X4 SPORTS ILATIVE PARLIAMENT LIBRARY BUILDING: WEDNESDAY April 8, 1992 College Aviation Program hits the wild blue yonder Selkirk flying students up, up and away/1B Kids Easter colouring Spring has sprung! Show us your colours Have Rebels skated their last game? Search for new president goes on and on . /9A The Castlegar Su SHOWERS Weather 3A Vol. 2- No. 19 ‘Leading the way in supporting local business’ 75 Cents + G.S.T. Kinsmen Park. -Bird’s-eye view Five-year-old Cassidy Dickens looks down on the rest of the world from her perch gn, the monkey bars at SUN STAFF PHOTO / Brendan Halper Glance Puppet magic The Easter Bunny has already visited the Castlegar Library! Thanks to the out- standing generosity of the Royal Canadian Legion Bingo Club which donated $1,000 for its purchase, the library is now the proud p of a Access to Inland Ferry Report denied SHARLENE IMHOFF_ Sun Editor It seems to be one big disap- pointment after another for the Ferry Users Adhoc Committee. The most recent is the Social Credit Government's Inland Ferry Report, which the Robson ferry committee thought would be made public by the weekend. The report, which the commit- tee believes contains the secret as to why the Robson-Castlegar Ferry was suspiciously moved in 1988, was to be delivered by MLA Ed Conroy last Friday. Unf Tr ion and NDP have refused to give us this report after they said they would release it.” Conroy says the minister changed his mind at the last minute due to the fact “there might be liabilities involved.” “I’m not sure of the reason but there might be names in that report that the government does not want released,” Conroy said. An irony in this entire scenario is the fact that March 27-April 3 was proclaimed Freedom of Information and Privacy Week across Canada—a week which celebrates ys fact government Highways Minister Art Charbon- neau reneged on his earlier deci- sion to release the document. Subsequently, Conroy showed up empty-handed. “We believe that the Socreds had a plan regarding all inland ferries. However, there was so much controversy surrounding the removal of our ferry I believe the plan was scrapped,” said Committee.spokesperson Terry Dalton. “It's really too bad the ry to ensure fail Guaaconutic participation. The ferry committee has been Striving to get a copy of the Inland Ferry report for over four years. While the chance of receiving the report from a Social Credit administration seemed Temote, many NDP voters inthis area were sure the report would be released by “the open and hon- est NDP.” See REPORT 2a Firefighters gearing up for a battle this summer BRENDAN HALPER Sun staff Due to an abnormally dry win- ter/spring seasons, British Columbia's Ministry of Forests is gearing up for a big battle during the upcoming forest fire season. Forests Minister Dan Miller said the dry winter in some areas and high snow levels in others could make this year's fire season luxurious puppet theatre. Reg- ular pupeteers Anne Kelly and Celia Skwarok are excited about the new theatre which will make their entertaining shows much easier to pro- duce. They'll bring their magic to the library on April 11 at 11 a.m., with a special Easter program of songs and stories. Make sure your chil- dren don't miss it. A date in Victoria The City of Castlegar has finally set a date to meet with Steve Kenny, assistant deputy minister of health. The meet- ing is to establish whether Castleview Care Centre will receive funding to open more beds. Dianne Ramage, admin- istrator of the care centre, said Paul Pallan, executive direc- tor of continuing care will be present at the meeting. Ram- age also said she is hoping to receive an answer as soon as possible. "We are going into this with an extremely hope- ful attitude," Ramage said. Fashion show The Castlegar Christian Women's Club will be honor- ing 1992 graduates April 9 at the Fireside Inn, with a fash- ion show by Ely's Boutique. Guest singer is Miss Castle- gar Kirstin Mason and guest speaker is Vicky Kreuzer. P y “While the fire season does not officially begin until April 15, there have already been grass fires in the Kootenays, the Okanagan and the Cariboo,” Miller said. “I urge the public to use extreme caution while they are out enjoying the weather. “We are mobilizing crews and preparing for the worst, but we are optimistic the weather will work in our favour and the public will take special care when they are Outdoors.” Miller said a lack of winter precipitation and snow in south- em B.C. has left that area expect- ing drought conditions. There are already 25, 20-per- son unit crews available to fight fires, as compared with 16 last season. Also, the number of Abo- riginal-unit-crews has more than doubled this year, from 6 to 16 teams throughout the province. “These crews are specially trained and certified to fight large fires,” he said. Ministry of Forests Communi- cations Manager Silvia Pang said, “We're expecting that this will be a bigger fire season than last year's.” Locally, the Arrow District Forest Office is undergoing the standard procedures for this sea- son's fire control. Their prepared- ness plan dictates the number of crews and suppression strategy used, according to the current danger class. The district office receives a constant stream of data relating to temperature, moisture levels, wind and very current informa- tion on lightning strike locations. The office receives information from satellites, the South Central Interior Weather Office as well as from their many automatic Local nesPpliel feeling strike action JASON KEENAN Sun staff The Hospital Employees’ Union Strike hit the Castlegar and District Hospital yesterday. The strike has affected process and dispatch services and pur- chasing services at the hospital. Jean Weir, chairperson of the Castlegar HEU Local, said that union members in those depart- ments are only filling positions identified as essential services by the Industrial Relations Council. The two workers in process and dispatch are only working six-hour day shifts, and are only doing the part of their jobs deemed essential by the IRC, Weir said. The HEU told its locals to take their members out of laundry ser- vices across the province “Because we don't have a laundry [service at the hospital], our process and dispatch mem- bers have been told not to deliver linen,” Weir said. She added that linen delivery is being left to laundry management Purchasing services, which is usually staffed by two people, is now staffed by only one person. Denise Reid, director of nurs- ing-acute care at the hospital, said that the affected departments are being staffed at the essential ser- vices levels set out by the IRC. She said the process and dispatch staff are not delivering laundry, but they are doing the rest job. Reid said “At this point in time the patient care has not been affected.” Reid added that no surgery has been canceled, and no beds have been closed. But the situation across B.C. is quite different. Martin Livingston, the Health Labour Relati A of actions. The Greater Victoria Hospital Society alone has can- celled or delayed over 280 surg- eries. Every day the strike continues, Annis added, between 100 and 150 surgeries are delayed or can- celled. “That’s a problem.” Annis conducted a survey of nine hospitals from Victoria, the Fraser Valley, and the Lower Interior last Friday. Those nine hospitals usually operate 4,444 See STRIKE SA B.C.’s Director, Communica- tions, said various departments at hospitals across B.C. had been shut down. “Because of these hit and run job actions, patient care has been affected,” said Livingston, who was only able to comment on the situation across the province “The job action is a slap in the face to patients,” Livingston added. David Annis, the manager of human resources at B.C. Health said that in excess of 1,000 surg- eries have been cancelled or delayed because of the job weather stations throughout the district. District Resource Officer/Pro- tection Skip Walsh says the pre- paredness plan is not just a danger class rating system, but also a means of prediction. “It’s just a matter of imple- menting it,” Walsh said. “We just increase oul resources.” Walsh said that with higher fire danger classes, the district office can simply bring in more fire suppression personel—they have the authority to hire addi- tional crews as the need arises. The Arrow Forest District averages over 100 fires a year. “We fight a lot,” he said “Anywhere from 70 to 200 every year, but people never seem to hear about it—only the big ones.” The worst forest fire season in B.C.’s recorded history, in terms of area burned, was 1982—when 348,663 hectares were burned by wildfires. If you see a forest fire, call the operator and ask for Zenith 5555, Staff will take your information and dispatch crews to the fire local. -Jammin’! Members of the Castlegar Oldtime Fiddlers are warm- ing up for the Annual Fiddle Contest to be held April 11. (I- 1) are Pearl Mott, John Milosevich and Bob Mott. ‘SUN STAFF PHOTO / Brendan Halper ook in The Castlegar Sun’s leisure guide for our real estate weekly '