PAGE Intion S Dave McCullough Radin DMesenmnnne 20. 4004 mm Wednesday, November 27, 1991 @ OurWiEWwWS The News moves up ook at us now. The i Castlegar News is moving up in the world. The newspaper that you’ve come home to for 44 years wants to keep it that way. Starting today, The News introduces two new sections for our readers. They are Our People and Work Place. The new sections have been adopted to give our readers that many more reasons to stick with The News as their No. 1 news source. Our People will be a section entirely devoted to Castlegar and West Kootenay people. Through this new section, we will introduce our readers to the many wonderful people that make our little corner of British Columbia a place to call home. Work Place, meanwhile, will act as the reader’s guide to Castlegar and area businesses. Through twice- weekly features, The News strives to put you in touch with the business community. Over the next few weeks, you may notice several changes to The News, including an expanded What’s On section, the introduction of Castlegar Close-Up and Kootenay Corner, anda revised Street Talk. And, as you may have noticed on our front page, The News has gone color. A change in our printing location has allowed us to introduce color pictures to The News. Please remember that The News is your news. Together, we can make it work for all of Castlegar. ig Caitlogar Noms New city, new faces, same boxes Moving, isn’t it awful? Not that I’m against going to new cities to meet new people, but there’s something about moving that makes the days seem longer, the nights seem colder and my apartments look more bare. I’ve been in Castlegar for just over a week now — I spent the first two weeks boarding with a co-worker in Warfield. So, what have I done with my first precious week of Castlegar living? Almost nothing. With the exception of becoming a recognized face at one of our toca video stores, I haven’t done a heck of a lot. While I should be busy putting my life and newly-rented two-bedroom home together, I’ve instead rented every obscure video known to mankind. Sunday, it was Eve of Destruction and Torchlight — duds. D. Yup, I’ve done just about everything to avoid unpacking the mountain of boxes that are currently Harrison Comparison | spread through my new Home Sweet Home. Take last Wednesday, hanging towels, storing pots and cleaning bathrooms, I headed to a local watering hole to watch boxing — I don’t even like boxing. So why all the fuss about unpacking? Simple. Castlegar marks my eighth move in less than two years. The Scott David Harrison Cross Canada Tour has included stops in Lennoxville, Que., Oshawa, Calgary, three different addresses in White Rock, B.C. and now Castlegar. Is it any wonder why I hate moving? Here’s hoping Castlegar agrees with me because, ready or not, I’ve started unpacking. ‘Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 Street TALK William Gorkoff Robson Annette Walchuk Brilliant Question: Should the Robson-Raspberry ferry be reinstated? r, Larissa Plotnikoff Pass Creek Mike Wynnychuk Ci verges Gevatkov “Definitely. It shouldn't have been taken off in the first “Yes, because it would save me 20 place. It’s our ferry.” to get to work.” “Until the bridge is “Sure, at least until the bridge comes on line.” for example. Instead of ° ae @ Wednesday, November 27, 1991 ws OtherVIE Please address all letters to: Letters to the or deliver them to 197 Columbia Ave. Letters should be writer's first and last names, address and a telephone number at which the writer can be reached between 9am. ands p.m. The writer's name and city or Letters :oWHE Wondering where wheel is To the person who-stole my wheel and tire from my car parked in the lot across from the Oglow building, I hope you needed it more than I do because now I have to work two weeks to replace it. If anyone happened to have gone by the above described location and seen any activity around a rust color Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with a cream roof, between 6:30 p.m. Thursday night Nov. 21 and’8 a.m. Friday, Nov. 22, please contact the police. Maria L. Nunes Castlegar Let’s give Harcourt.a chance For many years past, I have felt that the press had it in for the B.C. Socreds and by implication that newspaper people were nothing but a bunch of left-wingers. . Now I read your editorial and find that you are being unfair to the NDP, too. You say that they have done little for a month. They took over the reigns on Nov. 5, just two weeks before your editorial appeared. Had they immediately started making sweeping changes, I am sure you would have said they should pause to look before they leapt. Further, why are both press and the EDITOR electronic media referring to Harcourt’s trip to Ja ith the derogatory term I am vety far from being a supporter of NDP but sow that we are stuck with them, let’s play fair. ‘No doubt there will be many legitimate causes for criticism as time goes by; then I hope you will really go after them. Victor Allen Victoria Editorial a waste of space With regard to your editorial comments about the new provincial government: “Inactivity Annoying” (Wed. Nov. 20), this reader and perhaps others would not hold it against you if you were to leave the editorial space blank on days when you have nothing useful to say. If we wanted government activity“as mindless as your editorial, we could have retained the Socreds. Ted Crossley Castlegar Track setting is a skill I have just returned from my first day of cross-country skiing on the Paulson trails. The snow was good and the clearing by the Forest Service of beetle-infested trees from the Ben Shaw area has resulted in better skiing than ever. On the trail I met a local skier who wondered that no tracks had been set yet, and I realized that there are still many cross-country skiers who do not know who provides those good tracks that make skiing so enjoyable. ‘Track setting is a skilled and time consuming job. While volunteers in the Castlegar Nordic Ski Club do some track setting along with a great deal of other work — trail clearing, shelter and equipment maintenance, race organization, etc. — they do not have the time to do it as often and extensively as is needed. Although the Forest Service is very supportive, it does not do any of this work. The Parks Branch used to do some tracking around Nancy Greene Lake but no longer has the funds. To set tracks in the Paulson country, once again the club will hire someone to do the work on a part-time basis as long as funds allow. Where do those funds come from? Since the trails are on Crown land, the club cannot charge people to use them. The only source of income is the annual membership fee and any donations left in boxes in some of the shelters. If skiers do not join the club or donate money, there will be little or no track setting this winter. It’s as simple as that. Susan Port Harcourt’s Japan excursio There’s been criticism from various quarters, including Liberal opposition leader Gordon Wilson about Premier Harcourt’s visit to Tokyo and Honk Kong. I'd like to tell Wilson and assorted other critics the same thing I told the people who criticized former premier Bill Bennett and Bill Vander Zalm for making similar journeys. If you want to get results, you've got to make calls. Bennett visited British Columbia’s Far East trading partners shortly after he came to office. Another extended trip took him to Europe. Vander Zalm also made a number of trips abroad and to the United States to drum up business for British Columbia. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying Harcourt will come back with an arm-load of busi deals. Busi deals be the editor. The News reserves the right to edit letters for brevity, clarity, legality, grammar and taste. are closed by business people. Harcourt Columbia. You won’t hear company executives complain about the premier’s trip. They know that sitting on one’s haunches doesn’t create business. That's why a number of B.C. real estate companies have offices in the far East. The criticism of Harcourt’s trip comes mainly from political quarters, from disgruntled Socreds and, as I already mentioned, the leader Report from Victoria of her Opposition. Why spend all that money on a junket, they say, when the P in a mess? Well, certain expenditures cannot and should not be avoided. Spending money on wooing business is one of them. Next to the U.S., Japan is British Columbia’s most important trading partner, Japan buys 25 per cent of British Columbia’s total exports, proof of the importance of our location on the Pacific Rim. Statistics further show that 100 Japanese companies in British Columbia employ about 3,000 people. Add to that a burgeoning Japanese tourism market, growing by about 20 per cent a year, and you've got a trading partner that can’t be Majesty’s Loyal During his visit, the premier also pointed out to his Japanese hosts that more than n was worth every penny 3,000 British Columbia students are studying the Japanese language. The cost of Harcourt’s one- week trip is about $800,000. That sounds like an awful lot, but it includes the bill for B.C. Week in Tokyo, the province’s largest and most ambitious trade initiative and off-shore trade show since Expo 86. The displays for B.C. Week, organized by the government and more than 60 B.C. companies, were expected to attract up to 5,000 visitors. Trade seminars on investment, forestry, agriculture, high technology and advanced education were expected to be attended by representatives from 1,300 person. Same with international trading ties. Persenal contacts are everything. That’s why we have a B.C. House in London, currently run by Garde Gardom. And that’s why it makes good economic sense to send the premier to Japan and Hong Kong. While in Tokyo, Harcourt also told his Japanese hosts that British Columbia welcomes immigrants from Asia. “We're proud of our immigration policies, which are the most liberal in the world,” the premier said. “We have worked hard to have good race relations programs and proper immersion for immigrants targe' p c Exposure like that costs money, but it’s money well spent. Harcourt estimates that his trip will generate $45 million worth of additional business. Some of the benefits from the trip may not materialize for some time, but that doesn’t make it any less necessary to lay on these trips. Any successful business person will tell you that personal contact is absolutely essential. That goes for business on a small scale as much as it does for the export clout of a province or a country. If you want to buy insurance, you can pick a company out of the phone book, but chances are that you'll buy from someone you have met in to learn the language and culture to become Canadians as soon as possible, and I intend to do more in that that prospective immigrants with money to invest get preferential treatment. That policy was brought in by the Socreds a few years ago and is, I suppose, still in effect. Still, there are about 200,000 Asian citizens in British Columbia, and two-thirds of the approximately 20,000 immigrants coming to British Columbia every year are Asian. Put it all together, and you've got more than you need to justify Harcourt’s visit to the far east, despite the $800,000 price tag.