Wednesday, November 11, 1992 @ PAGE = INtON pe Dave McCullough Publisher Scott David Harrison Editor Bob Proctor Marketing Manager Mickey Read Composing Room Foreman Warren Chernoff Accountant Mary Ann Fullerton Circulation Manager Burt Campbell Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbell Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 i Wednesday, November 11, 1992 OurWiEWS Keeping the faith ne year into the New Democrat government’s mandate and you have to look far and wide for any signs of real leadership. The new kids on the political block have been exactly that, fumbling through dispute after dispute, showing no signs of the leadership that was promised British Columbians. Mike Harcourt has been anything but a stalwart during his first 12 months as this province’s leading man. He has allowed such keynote issues as the medical services budget to be addressed, redressed and undressed because of an obvious lack in his own loosely-constructed cabinet. Even the most hearty projections about this province’s deficit have turned out to be a cruel hoax for taxpayers who continue to foot the bill for an overspending and under- productive government. The New Democrats promised to reduce this province's deficit in the first year, yet it has been revealed that the endless money pit has grown by another $1 billion. Locally, the new government has done little to endear itself with its faithful followers, stalling on its new labor code, saying little when the Columbia River Treaty reduced our water levels to a trickle and standing quietly by while the economic fate of our biggest employer — Cominco — hangs in the balance. No one expects a rookie government to perform miracles, economic or other. But, what we do expect is at least some sign of the leadership that was promised us on Oct. 17, 1991. To date, this hasn’t happened. Adrian RAESIDE : ——_ THERES A RESERVOIR OF GOODNESS IN THE CANADIAN PEOPLE... THAT TENDS TO COME. OUT ONLY WHEN THERE |S A GREAT CHALLENGE...” Wei Vines Gos hy NAFTA equals the If you think Canada’s SS BS . demise 0 With that said, I must economic troubles are bad, wait — it could get worse. Under the misdirection of Prime Sinister Brian Mulroney, Canada has all but locked itself into the North American Free Trade Agreement. And the only thing that can prevent our country’s economic decay is a federal election (please, please, please) or President- elect Bill Clinton’s rejection of this big business agenda. Let’s examine NAFTA, if you will. The tri-lateral trade agreement would all but eliminate barriers between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, making North America the ultimate haven for capitalist and corporate cronies. As if it isn’t already? Now, I’m not opposed to making money. Heck, if I was smart enough to think of Velcro, I would have pocketed the profits and jumped a slow-moving boat to the D.HARRISON Bahamas by now. Harrison w% Comparison | admit that I worry for our jobs should NAFTA be adopted. According to a recent report, the Canada- U:S8. Free Trade Agreement has_ seen Canadian workers losing three jobs to everyone one job lost in the States. | Wonderful. Why our government | would now want to further those losses by signing a | pact with a cheap-labor _ country like Mexico, I . simply don’t know. Call me an alarmist, but I see the North American Free Trade Agreement as the death of unionism, the death of our high standard of living and the death of Canadian ingenuity. Put yourself in the shoe of big business, if you will. Here you are with your multi- million dollar company producing widgets in Yahk, B.C., at a production cost of 30 cents per unit. please see HARRISON page 7 S irect TALK Geaevcli: Should we recognize Remembrance Day with a day off like we do now? Luanne Labreche Blueberry Trail “Yes, because we are remembering our country.” Samuel Lyon “No, I think we get too many days off.” Marg Desenbrini Trail “Yes, I think it’s nice to have a day off.” Jack Kelly Castlegar “Certainly. People wouldn’t bother with a couple hours off.” Theo deKruyf Castlegar “I’m undecided. I could take it, or leave it.” ws! OtherVIE 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 be 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. and 5 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 toWHE EDITOR Bus services leaving stude Oh sure, some may well say you should use that time to study, am doing quite well wi don’t appreciate my time being dictated to me because of a poor system. How do I get As a student and new resident of this beautiful city, I’m unsure if I have the right to complain about something that seems to ongoing problem... nevertheless I am going to do just that. There is one thing that just doesn’t seem to sit right with me, and that is the transit system in the city (or lack thereof). Why is it that a city with a population of roughly 6,800 people can’t provide a decent transit the college that consists of a further 1,500 or so people? Is it just. me or does this system seem quite inadequate. I attend college five days a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have a class at 9 a.m. and finish at roughly 4 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday I start at 2 have been an itself or for system for p.m. and finish at 6 p.m. Those people who know the bus schedule realize right away what my problem is. For those that don’t, let me clarify. Where I live there are two buses that go to the college in the morning, at and 10:20 a.m.. I think I’ll be giving up Christmas this year. No, I haven’t taken up a new religion. Nor am I an atheist or a grinch. But when Christmas catalogues start showing up in October, that’s the last straw. One such catalogue even warned that the sale prices were good only until Nov. 21. What is this, a threat to spend your Christmas money early, before some other shopkeeper gets it? The ride to school is only about 25 minutes long, giving me a large amount of wasted time to deal with. home after 6 p.m.? on a cab is wasteful. also infuriating. 8:15 a.m. Next the Christmas craft bazaars join the stampede with their admittedly attractive (and somewhat more practical) gift displays. Soon the stores will jump on the alread overcrowded bandwagon with their tacky displays of semi- funny Christmas cards. What happened to the Christmas that was a spontaneous occasion? You know, the infectious holiday spirit that you caught from your children as they th my studies and I There are no buses at all in the evening, it is really too far to walk, not to mention the danger of walking along the highway at night. A taxi costs $10 from campus to home. A student doesn’t normally have much of an income, so wasting that much Finding a ride with another student is also not that easy, mostly because many of us come from other places, and hardly know anyone here. I have spoken to many of my fellow students, as well as just regular citizens of Castlegar and area. The overwhelming consensus is that the system as it exists now is not only inadequate, but This is not a slam against the contractor that is running the service on behalf of the province, to the contrary, it seems the contractor wants to improve the service but can’t.because of provincial bureaucracy. Commercialized Christmas co but quite honestly I nts in limbo The taxi companies seem to be in favor of a shuttle service for the college, operating on an on-the-hour basis to Castlegar. They can’t seem to do anything though as a result of some motor carrier licence regulation prohibiting another licence system. issued in an area with an existing transit What a merry go round. I would like to know if anyone else has something to input to this dilemma. Even if it is to correct some of my information, which of course I could not have researched completely. Any ideas or thoughts would also be quite useful to hear. I especially would like to hear work at Celgar to see experiencing similar problems. The merchants in town must have some input here as the student body reflects a large portion of the population and I’m sure from the people who if they are their money being spent in town would help seriously became excited about a week before St. Nick’s nocturnal visit. Or what about the happy anticipation of sharing festivities with friends and relatives; a quiet religious service with your family? Oh sure, I know you should make some preparations. Thanks to Canada Post, we need to mail cards and parcels a month in advance. And some mail order houses take a few weeks to deliver the goods. But that doesn’t mean we the tax base and the community as a whole. I think it is time we address this problem so that it may be resolved effectively for future generations to come. Samy Bishay mes far too early for me need to be bombarded from all directions with sales propaganda the day after Thanksgiving. In their frenzy to extract the last dollar from the shopper, the merchant is quickly killing the goose that lays the Christmas egg. This year I will give a special letter or phone call to those on my shopping list. I will save my gifts for random special occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries. George Stein Our recent blood d __ 441 individuals volunteered th resulting in 378 units being collected. largest turnout in the past five years the minimum that is needed to keep the clinic viable in Castlegar. The local Red Cross branch would like to thank The News for its the businesses that donated their tting up our banner, and the d telephoning, Castlegar shows its support This was the and well surpasses support, as well as signs, B.C. Tel for pu volunteers that worke posters and working at the clinic itself. onor clinic was a huge success eir time and blood, ongoing need. putting up This is truly a community event and we can take pride in how Castlegar has responded to this Debbie Briggeman, Orla Granstrom, Hattie Heichert, Keith Merritt, Ann Robertson, Joanne Swetlishoff and Jean Weir Castlegar Blood Donor Committee Harrison continued from page 6 Consider also that your union- ized workforce of 400 is being paid $18.86 an hour. Now, as the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement has shown us, workers earn less in the States than we do. Despite that, you de- cide to continue to produce your widgets in Yahk — after all, the cost of relocating to Walla Walla, Wash., just didn’t make economic sense in the long-term considering the equal uncertainty of the U.S economy. Enter Mexico. Here we have a country which considers my nephew’s $5 allowance a healthy day’s wage. Remembering that you are the president of a multi-million dollar company and remembering that, by the nature of your position, profit is your only mandate, doesn’t Mexico look attractive? You bet it does. With that, you serve the appro- priate notices to the Widget Work- ers Union Local 101 (Yahk), promise compensation packages and job retraining incentives to your 400 employees and promptly lock the gates three months later. Bingo — you're rolling in the dough, drinking pina coladas un- der the sun and reaping the bene- fits of a sound businesses decision. All this despite the fact that your forgotten Yahk workforce have been left without jobs and see no point in retraining programs be- cause 60 other Canadian-based, profit-minded companies have joined you in this mass exodus to the land of cheap labor. So with all that said and done, * who benefits from a North Ameri- can Free Trade Agreement? Canada? Right, and being a cod fisherman in Newfoundland is a good career move. The United States? Sure, and Ross Perot would have made a good president. Mexico? Okay, so the exploited masses get a whopping $1-a-day raise and they can afford to buy lean beef for the first time in their lives. The simple truth about the North American Free Trade Agreement is that big business benefits because it allows corpo- rate powerbrokers to rid them- selves of those pesky Canadians and Americans who had the au- dacity to demand a comfortable standard of living. We've already seen the demise of our nation’s once-thriving man- ufacturing industry thanks to the Canada-US. agreement. As work- ing men and women, we have every right to be scared. As ridiculous as she sounds, I must concur with New Democrat leader Audrey McLaughlin and say ‘No to NAFTA’ And I say that not as a Canadi- an who is afraid to compete, but as a Canadian who won't be given the opportunity to compete.