Saturday, August 8, 1992 @

@ Saturday, August 8, 1992

@ Castlegar to make
history by being first to
test new information act

Neil Rachynski
NEWS REPORTER

You just might call it a
landmark decision.

City council’s new-found
willingness to unveil its 1990
Price Waterhouse study un-
der the guidelines of Bill 50 is
the first of its kind in the
province.

The president of the Free-
dom of Information and Pri-
vacy Association calls it “big
news.”

Darrell Evans says, “it’s
the first time this has hap-
pened since (Bill 50) has been
enacted. It’s the first time a
public official says they'll do
this, to my knowledge.”

The city has decided to
hand Victoria lawyer Murray
Rankin it’s confidential study
— a taxpayer-funded report
which looks at the efficiency
of the city’s operations. The
document is said not to have
pulled any punches.

Evans says council is to be
commended because there is
no legislation forcing the city
to turn the study over. In fact,

the Freedom of Information
legislation to be used for the
document only covers govern-
ment at the provincial level.
And, even then, it has yet to
come into effect.

Bill 50 is what Rankin will
use as criteria for which ma-
terial will be published and
which remains private.

positive and, frankly, very
progressive thing to do.”
Rankin said.

Council states the city “has
agreed to be bound by Mr.
Rankin’s recommendations.”

Rankin says he hasn't re-
ceived the report yet, but
when he goes through it, he
will be dissecting the study

‘The principal of personal information
being protected is alive and well
and living in Bill 50’

~

— Lawyer Murray Rankin

The Provincial Freedom of
Information and Privacy Act
was passed at the end of
June. Rankin was one of the
government’s special advisors
on the bill.

Rankin says he was very
impressed when council
phoned him up.

“No. 1,1 was flattered they
would come to me to do this,”
Rankin said. “But No. 2, I was
very impressed that they
would want to act as though
the Freedom of Information
and Privacy Law was in effect
— and govern themselves ac-
cordingly.

“I thought that was a very

line-by-line.

“The principal of personal
information being protected
is alive and well and living in
Bill 50,” Rankin said. “And I'd
have to, among other things,
look at the public’s right to
know about what its govern-
ment is doing with its money
— on the one hand, i.e. open-
ness, and on the other hand a
person’s individual right to
privacy and how far that
should go.”

Evans says the process
should be fascinating.

“It’s kind of historic in a
way,” Evans said. “The B.C.
world will be watching.”

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Glen Freeman
NEWS REPORTER

The Office and Technical Employees’ Union
feel snubbed.

According to spokesman Paula Stromberg,
her union — whose members voted in favor of
strike action Tuesday — is getting the cold
shoulder from West Kootenay Power.

“We called

Currently all 100 OTEU members working
at WKP are entitled to a pension of $420 per
month upon retirement following 23 years
service.

The OTEU is asking for an improved pen-
sion plan that would combine company and
members contributions to provide those work-
ers with a pension of $950 per month.

“We're not

them (Wednes-
day) and let
ahem know we
wanted to get
together to dis-
cuss issues,”
Stromberg
said, “but they
didn’t seem so anxious.”

Stromberg said that OTEU members are
united in their fight to get an adequate pen-
sion plan.

“The people have given us a very strong
strike mandate,” she said. “Beyond that I
can't speculate if they are prepared to (take up
pickets).”

But WKP communications director Mike
Bradshaw thinks the OTEU might be jump-
ing the gun. “They requested a mediator be
appointed and a mediator has been appoint-
ed,” Bradshaw said.

“The (Industrial Relations Council) has ap-
pointed Don Cott to work with us.”

‘I’m not sure yet when I’ll get a chance to
meet with both sides. Hopefully it will be
within the next couple of weeks.’

going to dis-
cuss the terms
of bargaining
in the media,”
Bradshaw
— Meditor Don Cott said.

“It’s not my
place to say if
($950 per month) is reasonable or unreason-
able.

“But, as you probably know, only the com-
pany contributes to the company, so if they
want the pension plan improved and they
want to make contributions, certainly that’s
not a stumbling block for us.”

Cott said he has yet to study the dispute,
but he'll be “looking at it in depth.”

“I’m not sure yet when I'll get a chance to
meet with both sides,” he said.

“Hopefully it will be within the next couple
of weeks.”

The OTEU has been without a contract
since Jan. 31.

CURB calls for naming of names

Neil Rachynski
NEWS REPORTER

Mike O’Connor isn’t exactly doing cart-
wheels.

The president of the Coalition Unaccepting
Rash Bureaucracy is leery of how much infor-
mation will be disclosed from a confidential city
document. O’Connor says the city’s decision to
have an independent review of the Price Wa-
terhouse report prepared for public release
could be too vague.

“We’re going to find out generalizations and
we'll have to deduct ourselves what part refers
to who,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor wants the entire document re-
vealed with no blackouts. He says the report
must name names, including staff and elected
officials.

“The report should be out to the public in to-
tal,” O’Connor said. “You can bet if it was an A-
Ne. 1 report you would have had something to
write about. But when you come home with a
bad report card you don’t want to show it to
everybody.”

O’Connor does concede the city is making
progress.

“It’s a good move by the city to publicly do
something,” O’Connor said.

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Glen Freeman
NEWS REPORTER

The International Brother-
hood of Electrical Workers
may be taking their strike ac-
tion to a new front.

and ask for a cease and desist
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“But first we have to wait
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Trail Mayor Sandy San-
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this (building) project is
something positive and the labor
dispute is only a
temporary setback.’
— Trail Mayor Sandy Santori

. 22 ror 1h

N

O
ENTIRE
STOCK AT

According to IBEW busi-
ness manager Cliff Rund-
gren, his union is “willing to
take whatever steps are legal
and necessary to settle a
strike.”

And those steps may in-
clude picketing the construc-
tion site of West Kootenay
Power’s $5.2 million Trail of-
fice.

“Well, we’ve known it’s
possible,” said WKP commu-
nications director Mike Brad-
shaw. “We just don’t think
this is a site which should be
secondarily picketed.”

Bradshaw said that should
the IBEW picket the site,
WKP would fight back.

“We would go to the (In-
dustrial Relations Council)

project’s site Tuesday, said he
hopes construction of the
four-storey office and retail
complex can go ahead as
scheduled.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said,
“but the union makes their
point in whatever way they
see fit.”

But Santori added that
there was a silver lining to
WKP’s apparent cloud.

“We have to remember
that this (building) project is
something positive and the
labor dispute is only a tempo-
rary setback.”

IBEW members have been
off the job since July 20 and
no new talks are currently
scheduled.

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