Saturday, November 16, 1991 @

PAGE

IntOn

Op

Plant Foreman

Mark Davis

Advertising Manager,
Warren Chernoft
Accountant
Heather Hadiey

Circulation Manager -

Burt Campbell
Publisher Emeritus

Lv.
Aug..7, 1947-
Feb. 15, 1973

AdrianRAESIDE

Preventing

SRR REFORTS TO THe CONTRRY..THe
THOUSANDS OF NOW CaNaDiaN

GST. Was CREATED

aeee

pesticides

Pesticides, schmesticides, what's all the
fuss about?

So some happy-go-lucky company wants
to spray our highways with pesticides, why
not. Highways, after all, are nothing, mere
stretches of endless blacktop that serve no
useful purpose other than a speedway for
our often-heavy feet.

So how's a little pesticide going to ruin
our day? Humbug.

It’s seem pesticide spraying has
captured the ire of more than a few locals.
In opposition to proposed spraying, these
locals have been’ branded as
“environmentalists” by the company
interested in cocking their spray guns and
going wild on our highways.

Damn environmentalists anyway.

__

So a little pesticide finds its way into the
Columbia and Kootenay Rivers, who cares?
And so a little more seeps into our water
supply, what's the problem?

It’s funny to hear our leaders being
tagged environmentalists. It is, after all,
the members of the Regional District of
Central Kootenay who are these. bandit-
like environmentalists.

And why have our leaders gone off the
deep end, as the company with a vested
interest in making a profit suggests?
Simple. Our leaders have had the audacity
to q ion the ful: of pestici on
our highways. In fact, the RDCK had the
nerve to ask for more information on
pesticide use. The absolute horror.

Far too often we are quick to criticize
our regional brainthrusts for acting too
hasty. Nothing can be further from the
truth in this case.

The RDCK must be applauded for its
genuine concern over pesticide spraying in
the West Kootenay.

In fact, if the RDCK needs to look no
further than the pesticide-infested Fraser
Valley to find sad examples of chemical
side affects on humans. There, women and
children are having precious life choked
out of them because of aerial crop dusting.

Pesticides are a dangerous tool. And if
opposing its use because of a lack of
information is a bad thing, maybe we
should all be environmentalists.

Dear Ed: What

Opposition

under which he
accept any or all

Any potential

nomination

nominated,

byelection.
That tells me two

run

after the massive

asked to be adopted.
In fact, it is my

Gordon Wilson last week
spelled out the conditions

seven remaining Socred
MLAs into the Liberal fold.

Credit defector, Wilson
said, would have to resign
his seat, seek the Liberal
and, if

Wilson is reluctant to welcome the orphans
into the Liberal family, I should point out to his
him that none of the Socreds have, so far,

Memo to Rossland-Trail MLA
Ed Conroy:

This week’s report from the
Royal Commission on Health
Care makes a recommendation
that you and your NDP
colleagues should keep in mind
when tackling the problems of
other ministries: better

f existing funds is
eeded, not necessarily

more funds.
I have the feeling that many
who get provincial funding see
the new NDP government as a

Comments
from the
Crossroads

kind of open wallet waiting to

election, school — boards,
hospitals and public emp!

have been making noises t
getting more money from the
new government.

But I see the change to an
NDP government differently. I same.

see the
be plundered. Since the bringing i
at problems from a different
perspective and setting new

new government
in fresh ideas, i

I don’t want it to be

simply a softer touch than its
Socred predecessors. And I
think other voters feel the

Wilson learning to play politics

leader

would
of the

Social
Report
from

Victoria

Hubert BEYER

things,

talking to some of the
Socreds that they have
every intention of
remaining faithful to their
party, for the time being, at
least.

They even plan to travel
the province to find out
what went wrong on
October 17. As if they
didn’t know already. Can
you spell VANDER ZALM?
On the other hand, I
suppose it can't hurt to do
a little public soul-

one about Wilson, the other
about the seven Socreds who are all that
r ins of the once mighty Social Credit
Party. It tells me that Wilson is arrogant in
the extreme and that the Socreds have the
smell of political rot about them.

While it may be understandable, so soon

Socred defeat, that Liberals.

searching, and shape the

future Social Credit agenda according to
what the people tell them.

So, it seems a trifle premature, not to
mention arrogant, of Wilson to tell the
Socreds that they have to burn all bridges
behind them if they want to become good

. Moreover, Wilson has, once again, shown

ience or

rity by ruling

out what has been a long-standing and

honorable tradition — crossing the floor.

understanding from

Take health care. A week
before the royal commission
report came down, Vernon
Jubilee Hospital was in the
news because it had closed one
of its four operating beds and
had a waiting list of 1,600 —
double what it had six months

ago.

The hospital board’s answer
to this problem is simple: it
wants more money from
Victoria. But is that the best
solution? “

It strikes me that if I was
operesiag
waiting li

Paar Gav"

please see BEYER page A7

about these hospital beds?

reason for leaving the 0; i
rooms closed, such as aru
resulting waiting list and public
outcry as a pressure tactic to
get more money. That’s another
thing you'll have to watch for,
Ed.) :

But just throwing money at a
problem isn’t always the best
answer. Keep it in mind when,
they start lining up with
outstretched palms.

=e

I’ve had some readers stop
me and ask about that distance
sign'I mentioned in last week's
column. “I don’t get it. What’s so
unusual about it? they ask. (If
y= remember, I said it was the
I a of sign that would make

ap
reallocate funds to open the

(Maybe the hospital had a

go,
Think about it. oN
please see NORMAN page A7

| @ Saturday, November 16, 1991

Letters tow E EDITOR _

Please grant me space to respond to the
news story involving Mr. Eric Boultbee,
Consultant for Boultbee Pest Control Ltd.,
(The News, Nov. 13).

Perhaps Boultbee Pest Control would be
better advised to hire a public relations
consultant.

It is obvious that Mr. Boultbee would be
unsuitable for the job.

I confess that I am an environmentalist
(small ‘e’) and if this is a dirty word, put me
down with Mohawk and Safeway.

This consultant puts me down’as one
“who doesn't ask questions.”

My response is, “He doesn't supply any
answers.”

Is he also lumping together all the
elected city officials and the Regional
District of Central Kootenay directors who
are opposing this spraying?

It is a pretty loaded bandwagon.

Public opposition to pesticide spraying
has become a long tradition in the West
Kootenay and it will not be intimidated by
an alleged consultant speaking in
lumberjack language.

It will only increase.

Perhaps Boultbee Pest Control Ltd.,
would be better advised to try a little
tenderness to prevent “mouthing off” as Mr.
Boultbee puts it.

Pat Romaine
Castlegar

No way to spray

It has come to our attention that the
G t of British-Cohumbi

decided to allow the spraying of herbicides
on highway right-of-ways in the Kootenay

region. At our recent membership meeting
PPWC Local 26 voted unanimously to
oppose highway herbicide spraying.

While we do recognize that noxious weed
growth can be'a problem, we think that
herbicide spraying will, in bo long term,

— shame.

We now have those elated Tory scrooges
still wielding the GST sledgeh -Isita
dictatorship when one man can thwart the
wishes 20 million? x

The Reform Party still has one hand on the

Saduaahs

cause far greater probl r
Most highways and roads in B.C. are forced
by geography to follow a water course.
re are other methods of dealing with

the problem. The CPR, for instance, is now
using steam to control weed growth on its
rail lines.

We therefore request that all herbicide
spray permits for highways be revoked and

to help Mr. Mulroney
keep it in place, shame again.
Harold Ealden
: Nanoose
Forest for our future?
Calls for ch to our forestry pr

are coming from all quarters. :
‘The Canadian Council of Ministers of the

that a more envi lly sound syst
be developed.

If it is not possible to develop such @
system, we would far rather deal with the
known costs of the noxious weeds than the
unknown costs of the noxious sprays.

Rod Retzlaff
President, PPWG Local 26

The GST blues

Once again, Christmas is upon us.
It will never be quite the same. For most
a

Environment commissioned a report
itled 1001 Envi tal Scan.

It said that the forest industry “...
ignore(s) the value of the forest as habitat
for wildlife, a purifier of air and water, a

indbreak across flatlands and pr i
against erosion and flooding.”

‘The report dispels the myth that clear-
cutting is the “most ecologically sound”
method of logging as purported by the
industry.

“The primary method of harvest is the

ny t. i

Canadians there is an air of desp —
moms who gave that little extra for good
books for their children may now find them
GS. Teed out of a read.

Except for the federal government, most
Canadians will have to tighten their belts.

Dear federal government, had all
Canadians paid fair taxes all the time, we
would not have had this debacle.

You gave tax rebates, deductions etc. to all
those knee deep in the resources of all
Canadians, and yet you tax the doughnut
hole of the poor, old, veteran and fixed income

, for 90 per cent of all
logging. The main advantage of clear-
cutting is that it best satisfies the goal of
least cost for maximum dollar return.”

Better solutions are suggested.

One is to“. . . price the resource to
eliminate its wasteful or unnecessary use.
A second way is to require less destructive
harvesting techniques.”

Is the new Minister of Forests li ing?

Jim Pine

Victoria

Norman

continued from A6
You’re driving along
£ esis

Broadwater Road in pberry
when you come to a sign that
reads: “Nelson 45 km.”

Who is this sign intended for?
Raspberry residents? Robson
residents? Deer Park residents?
Why would any of them need to
know that Nelson is 45
kilometres away?

And why Nelson? Why not
Castlegar or Trail?

And is it Nelson via Pass
Creek or Nelson via Thrums?

I could see the sign being at
the intersection of Broadwater
and Highway 3A for tourists
coming out of Syringa’' Creek
Provincial Park or from a tour
of Keenleyside dam. But
Raspberry?

there's a sign.”

I wonder how many drivers
— even tourists — travelling
through Raspberry suddenly
ask themselves, “I wonder how
far it is to Nelson? Oh good,

Of course, the sign opens up
all sorts of other possibilities.
We could have another sign on
Pass Creek Road telling drivers
that Revelstoke is 300 km. Or

perhaps Vancouver is 632 km.
Or for that matter Toronto is
3,150 km.

The only other place I know
that has a similar sign is the
golf course. It’s on the fourth
teebox and points out the
distance to Singapore. -

Maybe the fellow who put up -
that sign did the Raspberry
sign. What do you think?

Beyer

continued from A6

politicians, weren't required to

only become Liberals by

people in the Interior and the

W.AC. Bennett gave birth to
the Social Credit dynasty by
crossing the floor of House,
leaving the coalition
government of the day and
sitting as an independent. The
coalition fell apart soon after.

The Liberals, too, are no

L

i

[

iy

Z
i

z
i

ty

to.er the floor.
When the provincial Liberal
failed in election after

The coalition was reborn, if
not in name, but certainly by
virtue of the fact that now, the
Socred government had some

fairl high-powered and
intelligent eher Liberals in
cabinet.

Allan Williams, Garde

Gardom and Pat McGeer, all
good Liberals and great

resign their seats and run for
the Socreds in by-elections. Bill
Bennett welcomed them with
open arms and made them
cabinet ministers. |

True, none of them carried
the baggage that weighs so
heavily on the r ining
Socreds. They didn’t have to
come to grips with an
immediate past of corruption
and i ce.

The coalition government,
the last one in which the
Liberals had played a part, and
which had its own share of

, had died at the hands

of W.A.C. Bennett some 25
years earlier. Its shortcomings
were part of history and no
longer topical when they
crossed the floor. But Wilson's
that the Socreds can

wearing sack cloth and ashes is
not only arrogant, it’s very
fooli

Wilson obviously believes
that the Liberals can, and will
win the next election without
help from anyone, and he’s
therefore, determined to face
the NDP in a two-way fight
next time around.

T’ve got news for Wilson. He's
not going anywhere without
grass-root Socred support.

The Liberal leader should
take a good look at the last
election results. It’s not difficult
to see that most of the support
for the Liberals was
concentrated in the Lower
Mainland. It was a different
~ north of Hope.

If I were Wilson, I wouldn't
take for granted that all those

north who still voted Social
Credit last time, are going to
switch their support to the
Liberals, especially if he treats
the seven remaining Socred
MLAs with contempt

If, on the other hand, he were
to hold out the possibility of
welcoming any or all of the
seven Socreds, shquid they
decide to cross the > whi
is by no means a foregone
conclusion, he could enter the
next election campaign on the
premise of representing not
only the Liberal. Party but also

He would have to swallow
some of his pride and let go of
his self-proclaimed purity, but
he’s got to do that sooner or
later anyway. This is politics,
not electi ign rh i