m Saturday, January 25, 1992 ‘ATheNews Saturday, January 25, 1992 @ Z i PAGE INtON S OurWiEWS Adrian RAESIDE Preserved | with pride ‘ou’ve got to give Castlegar Y city council credit. Despite being swift-kicked by a size 14 public, council has been cagey enough walk a straight line. Take the Kinnaird Hall, for example. As though it was tossing the hungry public a bone, council argued that the 50-year-old structure needed a new look. It also argued it didn’t have the $80,000 needed for reconstructive surgery. “What to do, what to do,” council cried, presenting a worst-case scenario that made some hearts skip a beat. “Tear down Kinnaird Hall,” the public clamored. “Blasphemy.” Blasphemy, indeed. But, boy, what a trick. Tuesday, council turned the table on its not-so-adoring public. Using one from the ‘Don’t Blame Us’ category, council decided to put the fate of the Kinnaird Hall in the public’s hands. g : When you think, council doesn’t need the Kinnaird Hall. It merely needs a hall. Any hall. se Clearly, the hall isn’t on council’s priority list. It is allowing dollars and cents speak for pride and respect. With that, the hall-should be put up for grabs. Only then will it have a fighting chance. The fate of Kinnaird Hall is in the community’s hands. For the sake of history, let it be preserved. Bi Y y Giving brickbats and kudos Following are my First Occasional and Semi- Infrequent Kudos and Brickbat Awards. (My Webster’s has two definitions of a brickbat: 1. an uncomplimentary remark; 2. a piece of broken brick esp. when thrown as a missile. Either one would serve my purposes). 1. Brickbat to West Kootenay Power for its proposed 11 per cent rate increase. Eleven per cent! Ron NORMAN Comments from the Crossroads If others are biting the bullet in these recessionary times certainly UtiliCorp, which announced record profits in 1991, including $10.5 million from WKP, should be required to as well. 2. Brickbat to the Regional District of Central Kootenay for introducing a plan to charge a $9.50 fee for every cheque it issues on behalf of a regional function. ~ Are they kidding? A rate hike of this kind is tough to swallow any time, but even more so when the company is guaranteed a rate of return on its investment. While pulp companies are losing millions and sawmills like Westar Timber’s in Castlegar are forced to close, WKP goes merrily on its way making 13.64 per cent a year for its U.S. owners, UtiliCorp — and it’s guaranteed by the B.C. Utilities Commission. Thankfully, the regional board had enough sense to shelve this idea for a year. The idea was the brainchild of the special Cost Allocation Committee, the same folks who brought you all those wonderful increases in regional directors stipends. The Cost Allocation Committee calculated that it cost the regional district $9.50 to process each cheque, so regional please see NORMAN page. 7 Circulation Manager - Burt Street(f TALK Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbell Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 Gord Gibson Castlegar “Not really, I don’t think any of us should be singled out special status.” no.” Question: Are you in favor of recognizing Quebec as a dist “I have mixed feelings about it, I can’t really say yes or +a 5 : in. ae ‘ Norman Fields Castlegar Jean Jones Castlegar “Yes, I think we need to acknowledge the French culture as distinct.” inct society? “I wouldn’t want to see Quebec separate from the rest of Canada.” ‘ a Warren Schuler Castlegar “Yes, as long as they are not part of Canada at all.” Other VIEWS Please address all letters to: Letters to the Editor Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C. "V1N 3H4 or deliver them to 197 Columbia Ave. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not longer than 300 words. Letters MUST bée— 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. and5 «p.m. The writer's name and city or town of residence only will be published. Only in exceptional cases will letters be published anonymously. Even in those cases, the name, address and phone number of the writer MUST be disclosed to the editor. The News reserves the right to edit letters for brevity, clarity, legality, grammar and taste. Letters tolhHE EDITOR Share the feeling The ‘Share the Forest’ groups would have the public believe that all they want is to be fair and reasonable. The preservationists would turn Vancouver Island into a damn park. In fact, if the forest companies had truly shared, we wouldn’t be in the predicament that we are. We are fighting over the last bones left from a feast. For example, on the west coast of Vancouver Island there are: © 146 primary watersheds larger than 1,000 hectares e 25 remain undeveloped, of which nine are scheduled for development within five years, 10 are scheduled for development within five to 20 years © six are protected from development. On the east coast of Vancouver Island there are: © four remain undeveloped and two of these are scheduled for development within five years, two are scheduled for development within five to 20 years. e There are no primary watersheds larger than 1,000 hectares that are protected from development. This is sharing? Jim Pine Victoria Capital projects, no capital The wild and reckless spending spree that our city council is planning to embark on will surely create an intolerable financial situation. ‘ If all their capital projects are allowed to proceed, we can be sure that all our tax dollars and our childrens tax dollars will have been committed to a continuing debt. The people of Castlegar and the new city from the Socreds in Victoria. (Note the new ICBC rates and other provincial cutbacks). We must face reality, pay our present obligations, set aside reasonable sums of money in a reserve fund, and only then establish priorities on what capital projects can we afford to undertake. We must do away with all the special outside consultants, high priced Vancouver lawyers and useless litigation which has cost us thousands and thousands of dollars for what? The money saved will more than pay to maintain our streets in a reasonable state of repair. We don’t need outside consultants to tell us which pot holes need to be filled, and we don’t need outside lawyers. Celgar, with it’s international connections and multi-million dollar business, is using a local law firm to represent them. It’s an insult to our local legal profession 1,000 hectares : “We have to give the other par- ties a chance to make mistakes, and then we can capitalize on them.” — Jack Wiesgerber, Social Credit Party house leader at the Socred convention. What a premise on which to re- build a party. Having sacrificed original thinking on the altar of political expediency and empty platitudes years ago, the Socreds have decided to stay true to form. God forbid that the seven sur- vivors of the recent eléctoral slaughter would draw on whatev- er opinions, principles and convic- tions they may have salvaged from the voters’ wrath to build a sound platform for the future. showed anything at all, it was the Socreds’ inability or unwillingness to admit the error of their ways. According to a report that was prepared by a Rita Johnston-led panel, the massive defeat at the polls was the result of a break- down in communications between the party and its grassroots. ¢ 53 primary watersheds larger than council that is elected next year will face a financial situation far worse, in relative terrtis, to what Mike Harcourt inherited Report from Victoria Hubert BEYER Well, that’s one way of putting it. One could also say the party had become too arrogant, too cor- rupt and bereft of ideas to wrestle If the post-election convention another mandate from the voters. There were other revelations at the Socred convention that threat- en to snuff out any hope for the party’s revival. They include the massive debt in general and a spe- cific $300,000 that’s missing from the so-called life-members’ fund. The life memberships were sold at $100 a pop after the 1972 de- feat. Much of the credit for swelling that fund to about $300,000 went to Grace McCarthy who, at the time, travelled the province for three years, preaching the Socred revival gospel. : The original intent was never to spend money from the fund it- self, just the interest it accumulat- ed. That promise was even in- scribed in the constitution. At the last convention, howev- er, angry delegates were told that the fund was empty. Where did the money go? To help pay for the last election campaign. When delegates reminded par- ty treasurer Gordon Leversage that the fund was supposed to have been inviolate, he said, well, the fund was actually still there, but there was no money in it. The explanation bore more than a passing resemblance to the famed Budget Stabilization Fund which, you will remember, also had no money in it. é to suggest that they cannot do a ;job fora little town like Castlegar. N. T. Oglow Castlegar Meanwhile, the seven dwarfs feel it may be too soon to hold a leadership convention. Better wait until the other parties make mis- takes. Even the election of Dave Mercier as the Social Credit Par- ty’s new president shows that the party hasn’t learned anythi from the thrashing it got last Oct. ae Mercier, as you may recall, chose to quit politics rather than extricate himself from a conflict of interest. If the Socreds want to survive as a party, a highly doubtful en- deavor at best, they should at_ least stay away from those who contributed to their woes. They should make a clean break with the past and start at- tracting some new ideas and new faces. The convention didn’t give rise to hope for either. .. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I have grave doubts that the Social Credit Party will be on the ballot sheet come next election. Social Credit continues to drop the political ball Norman continued from page 6 functions like the rec complex and the Ootischenia dump would now be charged $9.50 for every cheque the regional district issued on their behalf. The same would hold true for regional fire departments, economic development commissions . . . you name it. I have a couple of problems with this idea: firstly, the $9.50 charge for each cheque is stiff by anyone’s standards. Who knows, some of the cheques may be for less than $9.50, so it would cost more to process\than the value of the cheques themselves. Secondly, places like the rec complex do most of their own paperwork and present a. list of cheques they need to the regional district. They should get charged $9.50 for that? 3. Brickbat again to the regional district. Sorry guys, but it can’t be helped in light of that goofy plan to run convoys of garbage trucks to the Ootischenia dump from around the regional district. Who thought up this idea? Daffy Duck? The regional district is huge. It stretches from Lardeau in the north to the U.S. border in the south and from Castlegar in the west to the other side of Creston in the east. In all that area they found only four spots for garbage — one of them Ootischenia. Right. And I'm Kevin Costner. Let’s suppose for a moment that the idea of a central dump for the regional district is a good one— and I don’t for one moment think it is — is Ootischenia and obvious choice? The regional district favors it because it is only one-quarter full and is well run. Isn’t that great, we get penalized for doing a good job while all the other guys get off. It’s like an uncle of mine. Whenever he was asked to dry the dishes he’d drop one. He didn’t get asked to help with the dishes very often. 4. Kudos to West Kootenay Power for its innovative program “Catch Some Rays”. WKP along with B.C. Hydro, Energy, Mines and Resources Canada and the Canadian Solar Industries Association, is taking part in a two-year, $70,000 solar research project on hot water heating in B.C. It’s about time the major energy producers in this province started investigating “alternative” sources. This project shows a commitment by WEP to at least look seriously at solar energy. Way to go!