a4 February 9, 1986

ao

Remember
When?

35 YEARS AGO
From the Feb. 8, 1951

Castlegar News
New buildings, homes, and re-
modelling in Castlegar in 1960 reached
$700,000. This figure includes the new
high school, Twin Rivers Holding Co.
building, Castlegar Holding Co. build-

righ !
On the inside! Step right up!
ing, remodelling of the Castlegar Hotel,
the CPR Station and many new homes

Growing pains AVES pees

has donated a silver cup to be com-

Volunteers act
as human shields

snamnth OF THE 8.C. PRERS COUNCE

ESIAMUIBHED AUG 7 1947
te

TWACE WEEKLY MAY 4. 1980
aio ween 8

mcs

PUBLISHER — Burt Compbe!!
EDITOR — Ron Norman
FOREMAN — Peter Horvey
OFFICE MANAGER — Lindo Kositsin
ADVERTISING MANAGER — Coro! Mogow
CIRCULATION MANAGER — Heather Hodley
MONICE OF COPYNGH' complete and sole copyligh! in any printed matter produced by Cot
vetted sn ond News (hd. provided. however thet copyreght im thot port ond #
des .

‘odvernsement prepored irom repro prouls. engravings, eK. prow
Vo the advertiser

years. That's near two billion
that have to come annually out of our economy in taxes,
user fees, and hydro rates. Move over Latin American
} debtor nations. B.C. is joining the club.

Trouble is, the magaprojects, built exclusively with
borrowed money, mostly (shudder) U.S.
bring in sufficient revenue to touch the interest
let alone make payments on the

ions

upward. Sure. }

A fella could get the ides from Bill that things are
bubbling. Shucks, its only your region, or your life that's
hurting. Other folks, other parts of B.C. are doing just
fine. Funny. Canada, less p of
job, investment, and bankruptcy tell us 2°
different story. It's not just the West Kootenay folks.

"

i
i

Growing pains they're not the conversion of the courtyard in-

always good to see.

But in this case, in a 20-year-old,
they're especially good to see.

We reter to expansion plans
proposed for Selkirk College in a
five-year plan prepared for the
Ministry of Education and outlined
in detail in a recent issue of this

newspaper.

Many of the college's proposals
will likely get relatively swift ap-
proval, but certainly its number
one priority for larger projects has
to be obtaining more adequate
quarters in Trail. The current
facility in the Legion Building there
just isn’t adequate, os even a
casual visitor can observe on a
short visit.

As for the suggestion that the
college renovate and move into
the old junior high school in down-
town Trail, the idea probably has
@ great deal of merit. Certainly
Trail city council reflects the mood
of its electorate in being in a con-
stant dilemma about what to do
with the building: arts centre? new
city hall? renovations allowing in-

to a 200-seat amphitheatre

Estimated cost of this latter
project — at this point in time is
$410,000.

Certainly Selkirk is first and
foremost an educational in
stitution, and it is by this criteria
that both the college’s board and
the Ministry of Education should
judge priorities

But from a community point of
view, the low cost (everything is
relative) amphitheatre would be
most welcome.

For the college, it would provide
space for major workshops, con-
ferences and college activities,
and a large lecture facility tor in-
structional groups in excess of 100
students. For the local and
regional community it would
provide a proper tiered theatre for
dramatic productions, concerts,
etc.

Just because colleges are com-
pletely funded by the provincial
government nowadays is no
reason for local residents to

use y groups?

On the Castlegar campus (the
one in which all of us in Castlegar
have to be most interested), the
two major projects proposed are a
$2.2 million addition to the in-
stitution’s Lardeau wing, along
with associated renovations, and

about making their views
known on college plans. After all,
it is a “community” college and we
are provincial taxpayers. And we
do stand to gain a great deal trom
any imp: and

carried out on the Castlegar cam-
pus.

Comment on life

They're no longer “the funnies”,
or even “cartoons.” Now they're
called, simply, “the (colored)

Py

And understandably so.
With Doonesbury, The Outcasts,
Shoe, On the Fastrack and Bloom
County, “the comics” are offering
comment on everyday life, a
perogative that used to be that of
the editorial cartoon
hope that young people and
st those in their 30s or older
are reading them.
Take the folllowing panel car-

REAGAN'S BUDGET

toon from a recent newspaper:

‘TV. Viewing: The National
Coalition on TV Violence published
an estimate in June 1985 that by
his 16th birthday the average U.S.
child will have seen 50,000 TV
murders or attempted murders and
200,000 acts of violence.”

A survey in Canada would
probably come up with the same
statistic. And even if it was 50 per
cent or 70 per cent off, it would still
be too high.

And we wonder why the world is
becoming the way it is?

Battle shaping up

By JULIET O'NEILL

WASHINGTON (CP) — The jury
was in on U.S. President Ronald
Reagan's 1987 budget plan even before
he made it official..Congress doesn't
like it and a month-long political
struggle over spending cuts and
income taxes has begun.

It has become standard for many in
Congress to balk at Reagan's annual
budget proposal. He always tips too far
in favor of increased military spending
at the expense of social programs and
the everyday stuff of life — highway
paving, sewage treatment, home mor
tage assistance.

This year the battle is already
shaping up as rougher and tougher
than usual for two reasons. One is that

a congressional election year, for
cing some hard-nosed bargaining
among the 435 members of the House
of Representatives and 34 of 100 Sen
ators whose seats are up for grabs.

The other is that Washington is
constrained by the new Gramm-Rud.
man law that makes specific annual
budget deficit reductions mandatory. If
the White House and Congress can't
work out a compromise budget with
carefully chosen spending and revenue
plans, automatic across-the-board
spending cuts occur.

As Reagan put it in his budget
message to Congress: “Achieving bud
get savings by taking into account
relative priorities among programs is a
much better way than resorting to an
arbitrary formula.”

CUT PROGRAMS

It's the “relative priorities” that are
causing all the fuss. Reagan's $994
billion budget would reach the Gramm
Rudman deficit reduction next year
chiefly by cutting and freezing spend
ing on most non-military government
programs and functions. And he re
fuses to raise extra revenue by in
creasing taxes.

Congress, on the other hand, leans
against the president's military build
up, would protect many non-military
programs from the axe and, though
reluctant, has put out word that tax
increases really may be necessary to

reach the deficit target. Gramm-Rud
man requires a nearly $60-billion cut in
the deficit to $144 billion in the 1986-87
fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

For Canada, the details of the
internal budget juggling don't matter
quite as much as the overall outcome of
the budget which has a powerful

influence north of the border on every-.

thing from employment to the value of
the Canadian dollar on foreign ex
change markets.

Many details are important. Cana-
dian defence equipment producers are
no doubt pleased to know the president
doesn't jwant to turn the finanical taps
off. And Canadian oil producers are no
doubt unhappy about talk in Congress
of imposing an oil import tax to raise
some quick cash

But it’s the overall U.S. budget trend
that can be a source of general
optimism or pessimism north of the
border because of its heavy impact on
the Canadian economy.

MIXED IMPACT

It seems clear to all but the skeptical
analysts that the U.S. deficit is going to
come down, one way or the other,

the G Rudi law

Questions
still
unanswered

OTTAWA (CP) — Progressive Con-
servative stonewalling on a long series
of Commons questions involving Pre-
mier Richard Hatfield's dismissed drug
charge lends credence to the cynical
view that to see one government is to
see them all.

The New Brunswick premier was
fully cleared a year ago on a charge of
possessing marijuana, but subsequent-
ly a long list of questions was tabled
by Toronto Liberal John Nunziata.

The questions centre on the fact that
Elmer MacKay, then solicitor general
and now revenue minister, talked to
fellow-Tory Hatfield privately before
the trial.

Letters to the Editor

Spectacular finish
was big news

Editor, Castlegar News:

In regard to your recent story on
Felix Belezyk (Belezyk suffers loss), I
feel there has been a real injustice
done.

Perhaps your editor is unaware of
the magnitude of the fourth place
finish. Those who are unaware of it
may be easier to relate it to a fourth
place finish at the U.S. Open (tennis or

Red Mountain has a world-wide

“It’s just that some i get
answered quicker than others,” Nun-
ziata was told by Doug Lewis, the
Ontario MP in charge of responses to
the hundreds of MP questions on the
Commons docket.

asa ing ground for
world class skiers. Currently we have
seven on the national team, a number
unmatched anywhere in the world and
a real feat considering our area is only
as large as most lift lines at a match

resort.

Although supplying nearly one third
of the national team not since Nancy
Greene has a Red Mountain racer
cracked the top 10 let alone a fourth
place finish.

This is big news not just for the
sports page but I was disappointed not
to see it on the first.

Felix's spectacular finish somehow
gets lost in the headline “Belezyk
suffers loss.”

Let's take some pride in our
homegrown world class athletes and
give them the respect and recognition
they really do deserve.

Dale S. Donaldson
Castlegar

Bob Brisco

A part of government that is little
known to many Canadians is the
very process of parliament. Simil-
arly, many Canadians are either
unaware or do not understand the
promise of Prime Minister Mul-
roney to bring about parliamentary
reform. Yet, the reforms recom
mended in the final Report of the
Special Committee of Reform of the
House of Commons may be ultimat-
ely more important to Canadians
than any improvements in the
parliamentary process of the past
100 years.

Parliament as it is today is well
illustrated in a comment made by
one of the fhembers of the Special
Committ Bill Blaikie (NDP —
Winnipeg-Bitds Hill): “I think one
of the reasons why 2 lot of people
run for parliament is that they feel
they have something to say. I al.
ways thought that if I could just get
to say these things in the House of
Commons, that would be significant,
it would matter . . . However, since I
have come to Ottawa, everything
I say is suspect, if it is listened to at
all. What ought to be the pinnacle of

doesn't collapse. That could have good
and bad effects on Canada.

“One positive aspect is that U.S.
interest rates would come down and
that cannot be but beneficial to
Canada,” says Washington economist
Ira Kaminow of the Government Re.
search Corporation.

On the other hand, the U.S. dollar
will probably weaken, eroding a major
reason for Canada's trade surplus with
its southern neighbor. U.S. imports
from Canada could also drop as U.S.
demand declines as a result of either
curbed government spending or in-
creased income tax rates.

The worst-case scenario, Kaminow
says, is that the deficit-reducing meas.
ures of the next two years shrink the
growth in the economy to a recession
stage. If the U.S. heads into a re
cession, Canada would no doubt follow.

“It's risky business,” Kaminow con-
cludes.

h of ideas is in fact the black
hole in which nobody listens to any
body.”

The answer to this frustrating
problem is to give the bulk of
members of parliament who are
backbenchers a sense of importance
and a degree of common purpose.
Make them legislators first, party
adherents second. Under present
cireumstances, the executive, or
cabinet, is responsible to parliament
only in theory because ordinary

of private members’ bills. But most
important are the committee's
numerous recommendations related
to standing committees.

The prime minister has already
begun the process by establishing «
new level of committees which deal
solely with legislation. These Legis
lative C i allow i

respond loosely to the departments
of government, and five to deal with
special interests. It proposes that
the committees would be small; no
more than seven members each. At
present, committees range in sizes
up to 30 members; too large to allow
much productivity, both in terms of
committee proceedings, and a mem.
ber’s time. With standing commit
tees, special committees, legislative
committees, and caucus committees,
some MPs, myself being one, have
as many as five or six committee as-
signments. Given House and con
stituency duties as well, it is ex
tremely difficult for an MP to be
come truly expert.

Smaller, better informed commit.
tees would undoubtedly be of great
er benefit to our system of parli
ament. Again, I quote from the
report: “The present method of
drafting ion is long and ar.

Committees more time to deal with
matters of policy relating to their
particular mandate: agriculture, for
estry, defense, external affairs, for
example.

Quoting from the report: “The
members of the House of Commons
constitute a large and, for the most
part, untapped body of expertise
that could be put to much better use
through a reorganized comniittee
system. If the recommendations
proposed . . . regarding the role,
power, structure, membership, and
management of standing commit
tees are adopted, the House of
Commons will undergo a major
transformation. No longer domin
ated soley by the government's
agenda, and led by strong chairmen
and active private members, com
mittees will become influential and
important in their own right.”

Ina recent article entitled Raising
the Profile of the Backbench MP,
columnist George Bain compares
these proposals with the committee
system of the U.S. Congress:
“Standing Committees (will) be
come ... expert in the department
or subject matters that are theirs to
oversee; very much self-contained,
with their own staff and budgets for
research; not confined to consider

MPs, lacking pe power
under the rules, lacking the power
to command public attention in any
thing like the same measure as Cab-
inet, are left with no role except as
party adherents.

The report, if adopted, will help
“democratize” the House of Com
mons. It covers an array of subjects,
from the powers of discipline of the
Speaker, to more serious treatment

ing legislation only after it has been
approved in principle, but with
some prior influence on policy; with
access to the people they want to
see within government and free to
solicit opinion outside; and the right
to look at (but not necessarily turn
down) important public appoint
ments.”

The report proposes a system of
23 standing committees; 18 to cor-

. tue of the greater freedom of MPs to

duous. It begins in departments and
winds its way through various in
terdepartmental and cabinet com
mittees before finding its way to the
House of Commons.

Parliamentary committees should
become critical components in the
consultation process that takes
place before legislation is intro-
duced. This would enable groups
and individuals to meet, to place
their views on the public record, and
to examine and react . Experts
and concerned parties should also be
permitted to comment on the
subject matter of bills. A
minister would then have a wider
choice of advice on proposed legis.
lation.”

There is no auestiog that the
proposed reforms may\at times
embarrass the government by vir.

speak more openly against certain
initiatives. The prime minister is
quick to agree, but believes the re-
forms are vital for a more effective
Parliament. It cuts both ways, as
MPs sitting in opposition would
similarly have greater freedom to
support legislation not supported by
their party.

Progressive Conservative mem
bers support these parliamentary
reforms, as do the members of the
New Democratic Party. Liberal
members supported the proposals
when they were first introduced but
have since done an “about face” for
no apparent reason. Curious.

(I would like to thank columnist
George Bain for allowing me to
draw on his article Raising the

Profile for the Backbench MP for
information and quotes.)

peted for in the annual West Kootenay
Badminton playoff which includes Rob-
son, Castlegar and Kinnaird.

The Badminton Club hopes that
other cups will be donated from the
district.

. *

Mr. and Mrs. John Wii

leb: d their 43rd
were honored at a turkey dinner at
their daughter's home, Mrs. Rod
Stuart of Trail.

.

. «

R.A.D. West, as fire chief, and on
behalf of the volunteer fire
ment, delivered a bluntly frank and in-
formative address to the Kiwanis Club
Tuesday night. Dealing with disastrous
fires which have occurred in the dis.
trict recently he passed along infor
mation the firemen had learned by
experience and study.

* « *

Twice within five months the gas
pump of Wright's Auto Service in Kin
naird has been knocked over.

The first time a car went out of
control and crashed into the pump and
on Sunday last a car pulling in for gas,
skidded on the icy ground knocking the
pump over again.

25 YEARS AGO
From the Feb. 9, 1961
News

Castlegar’s Johnny Clarke was
named Citizen of the Year at the
Kiwanis Club's 14th annual installation
banquet and dance held in Kinnaird
Hall on Saturday night.

In presenting Mr. Clarke with the
Good Citizen Award, Kiwanis Club
member Murray Little described Mr.
Clarke as the successor to many
worthy Project Society presidents.

. 28 6

Hon. Lester B. Pearson, leader of the
Liberal opposition in the House of
Commons, met with about 30 sup-
porters and well wishers at the Castle-
gar airport last Friday when he was
flying through to a series of meetings
in the East Kootenays.

Local Liberals who went to the air-
port to meet with Mr. Pearson included
W.T. Waldie of Robson and Lloyd Ack
ney of Kinnaird.

. .

The building of the High Arrow dam
will produce seven million man hours of
employment, Hon. E. Davie Fulton,
federal minister of justice and attorney
general for Canada told a meeting in
the Twin Rivers Hall Monday night.

Standing space was non-existent as
250 persons jammed the hall to hear
Mr. Fulton speak on the Columbia river
treaty and Columbia river develop-
ment.

15 YEARS AGO
From the Feb. 11, 1971
jar News

Castlegar and District Chamber of
Commerce Installation Night, held
last Saturday in the Hi Arrow Arms,
was well-attended with the president
of Trail’s Chamber of Commerce John
Forbes and Nelson's president C. Van
Pelt, in attendance.

New officers are Bill Banham, L.V.
Campbell, W.T. Waldie and Basil
Macalister, Leo Bosse, George Paulson
and Don Crommarty.

. 8 6

David Lewis, deputy leader of the
federal NDP arrived by air Tuesday
and was greeted at the local airport by
Chris D'Arey and Sam Muirhead. Mr.
Lewis, who said he was leadership
campaigning, immediately began a
busy schedule which included speaking
to the students and staff of Selki:k
College and at J. Lloyd Crowe High in
Trail. A dinner was held with some 100
party members at the Hi Arrow
Arms.

. 8 «6

The Robson Centennial ‘71 Com
mittee, which welcomed in the New
Year and the start of the Centennial
year with the ringing of a hundred
chimes of the Robson Community
Memorial Church bell, will centre a lot
of activity this spring around its
project, the Robson Swimming Pool.

At this time the swimming pool com.
mittee is drawing up plans for the
change rooms and other necessary
related work.

5 YEARS AGO
From the Feb. 8, 1981
Castlegar News

Junior defenseman Brian Verigin is
Northern Michigan's latest Wildeat-of.
the-week in hockey

The Castlegar native was cited by
NMU coaching staff for his play in a 7-1
76 sweep over Lake Superior State
last weekend.

we didn’t go to be martyrs
nor to tell Guatemalans how
to run their business.

have disappeared in Guate-
mala since the military took
over 30 years ago. Many are
believed to be in prisons and
the corpses of countless
others have been discovered.

O'Gorman and her Ameri.
can cohort, Jean Abbott, act
as human shields for mem-
bers of GAM (which in Eng-
lish means Mutual Support
Group) who find themselves
in constant danger while
seeking the whereabouts and
safe return of their illegally

Local
service
cut

OTTAWA (CP) — Some
times government austerity
can make you mad enough to
want to put your foot down
and complain. Then there are
times when you want to
in because you can't
put your feet down.

When the National Capital
Commission stopped plowing
snow from paths along the
Ottawa River this winter,
joggers and walkers got an
ary.

ACT AS SHIELD
After two GAM leaders
were murdered last spring,
the brigade concocted the
“human shield” plan which in
volved volunteers from eight
countries.

Fiddlers meet
in Castlegar

The B.C. Oldtime Fiddlers,
Kootenay No. 9 held its
meeting in the Senior Citi
zen's Hall in Castlegar on
Monday with 32 members
and seven guests present.

Ten ofthe members were
busy practicing to audition
for Kootenay week at Expo
86. The auditions are being
held this weekend at Stanley
Humphries Secondary
School.

Some of the groups will be
playing at the Castlegar

Hospital this month and at
Willow Haven both in Febru-
ary and March.

The club is busy preparing
for its upeoming Fiddle Con-
test and Dance to be held
April 12 at the Castlegar
Arena Complex. There will
be many fiddlers from all
over B.C. and Washington
attending this contest.

The meeting was adjourn
ed and the musicians played
for everyone present.

Lisa is the “Candy Girl” at
Carl's and she offers you a
wide selection of beautiful
“Heart Boxed" Chocolates
your
heart on Valentine's Day.
JUDY'S FINE CHOCOLATES
have arrived too. Shop
early for these popular
hand-dipped favorites!

for

Fill all your Valentines Day
meeds to your hearts content

We have a full selection of Cards & Decorations by +faltmark

‘Things are grim all over.

Bill sounded as though he
B.C. “and we all have a lot
economy perk.”

there is substantially less

Oh, I know industrial property

arrived on the scene in
work to do to make the

private
real terms than five years ago, unlike the rest of Canada,
much of which relies on the same resource industries as

Bee
gasoline are higher ‘any province west of Quebec.
Strange. Whyzit the other guys can have lower industrial
and energy taxes, and still provide more funding per
capita for education?And all with the lower deficits as a
percentage of gross provincial product?

taxes were reduced

last year to somewhere near what our competitors pay.

Eee

MONTE CARLO.
RESTAURANT

Bring Three,

Finances to be disclosed

VICTORIA (CP) — Expo
86 has been ordered by a
provincial cabinet minister to
publish wage, benefits and
expense accounts of each
employee, plus other finan-
cial details the Crown cor-
poration so far has refused to
make public.

The decision is contained in
a letter to Expo 86 chairman
Jimmy Pattison from Tour-
ism Minister Claude Rich-

financial
ment of the Financial In-
formation Act.”

Horsey said the govern-
ment is studying the legal
meaning of the part of the act
that requires the Crown cor-
poration to publish a financial

the in-

fied the financial information
regularly hed by Expo

86 is sufficient to give an ac-
curate picture of the financial
condition and activities of the
annual report to Auditor
General Erma Morrison,
which is included in the
public accounts issued by the

However, Horsey said

mond.
Mike Horsey, deputy tour-
ism minister, said the letter

formation.
He said

is satis-

d wants Expo to fol-
low the act's more detailed

You Eat Free!

Bring three guests for dinner
at the Monte Carlo and
your dinner will be FREE!

OFFER GOOD FROM 5 P.M. TO 9 P.M.
DAILY UNTIL THE END OF FEBRUARY.

FOR RESERVATIONS

Phone 365-2177

(Does not apply to children's menu. )

ee

Joy
Ramsden
Bridge

Twelve pairs of duplicate
bridge players competed in
the Joy Ramsden Bridge
Club Monday night. The
average score was 67" with
the following winners.

Stan Jenkinson and Bill
Gorkoff were first with 89'/z,
Margaret Thiel and Libby
Weaver were second with 76,
Rita Perrier and Heather
Pottle were third with 74‘,
Hugh Auld and Myrna
Baulne were fourth with 74
and Clara Johnson and Con-
nie Miller were fifth with

special sweet-

Among the many unusual & practical gifts in our
store. Consider these specials from

The Fragrance Dept.

Aviance Musk Spray Cologne 37 mL

Chantilly Tote Bags

YOUR CHOICE — $9.95

AND FOR MEN
Brass Shaving Sets
Electric Razors,

CARL'S DRUGS
— 265.7269

Castleaird Plaze

AND THAT’S NOT
All Prices are Special WAREHOUSE SALE PRICES!

* This offer based on approved credit only.

Offer Ends Today

(Sun., Feb. 9)

0

OPEN SUNDA

WE WELCOME YOUR MASTERCARD, VISA OR USE OUR BENCHARGE

—™~. HOME GOODS

Furniture Warehouse

ALL!

Don't Forget...

Fes. 9 —
NOON TO S

<> _ Floor Covering Centre

OPEN 2:30A.M. TO 5:30 P.M. MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY