Su rv) Castlegar News October 8, 1989 OPINION Tremendous news Announcement Wednesday by Celgar Pulp that its long-awaited and long-overdue expansion program is just about ready to go ahead is tremendous news for Castlegar, and for the greater Castlegar- Trail-Nelson region The $630-million modernization and expansion program, which still awaits final financing arrangements, receipt of operating per- mits" and other government approvals,” is close enough to reality to be treated as such. As the company’s industrial relations manager, Ron Belton, told this newspaper, approvals from government and other regulatory agenices must be forthcoming by the end of this month to allow a tight timetable to be met. A recovery boiler, for example, must be ordered before the end of November to be on site tor its scheduled installation date. One especially good piece of news contained in the announ- cement was the report that about 30 new permanent jobs will be created. With Cominco’s commendable expansion and mode nization program resulting in fewer jébs (but providing greater security for position holders), the expectation was that the same situation might hold true at Celgar In actual fact, the new jobs could range between 20 and 50 in number; depending ona favorable decision to restart. woodroom operations. Both Celgar general manager Wilf Sweeney and Mr. Belton em- ph d that the exp program is-“environmentaly-driven.”* Proof that the company believes it can build a mill which will have the best available technology installed to make it one of the en- vironmental leaders in the industrial pulp world is provided in-the anything-but-modest declaration of Mr. Sweeney that Celgar “will be both super-clean and super-efficient, Local residents and mill employees will look forward eagerly to further announcements as plans for the\huge project unfold. With completion scheduled for three years from now (in mid-1992), we will all await with great interest further information on construction labor-force sizes, timing of peak construction periods, and answers to important matters such as truck traffic and vehicular route alter- natives All this will unfold in time. In the meantime, congratulations to Celgar and its directors and for their d faith in British Columbia and in Castlegar Barrett fresh wind Entry of former B.C. premier Dave Barrett into the federal NDP leadership race is a fresh wind that will breath lite into what up to now has been a ho-hum race to succeed the popular Ed Broadbent. With Mr. Barrett a now-declared candidate, and the perceived ‘ation of Letters to the editor front-runner, the attention of the electorate will become incr igly focused on the formal debates being held by the candidates cross the country while the informal debates, through media interviews and their reporting, will increase ten-fold This can only be a good thing because there are literally scores of issues (the environment, the proposed goods and services tax, NATO, the hugely inflated federal budget deficit, to name just a few) that deserve wide and thoughtful consideration. While Mr. Barrett will talk about them in a loud voice, often humorously we're sure nonetheless the attention his views garner and the publicity that results as other candidates and commentators react will mean the public consciousness of these valid concerns will be raised con- siderably Mr. Barrett, who is 59, is in the prime of life. He had earlier said he wouldn't seek his party's leadership, saying the aggravation wasn't worth it. But he reconsidered, influenced greatly by the fact that 14 NDP Members of Parliament (including Kootenay West- Revelstoke MP Lyle Kristiansen) publicly endorsed him and asked him to reconsider his earlier decision. Dave Barrett is a western populist who is said to speak virtually no French (a fact he promises on to “try” to overcome). He has a real problem with middle and eastern Canadians, who often pay more attention to the noise he makes then the meat of what he is ac- tually saying. But these are factors party delegates will have to assess, and it is they who must decide how important they are. Immediately following the last federal election we suggested the federal Liberals and the New Democratic Party should meld. We suggested their views on many issues were not terribly tar apart, the issue of free trade with the United States being the most obvious. Such a marriage would be quite difficult (if in fact it's desirable at all) if Jean Chretien should become Liberal leader to succeed John Turner. Mr. Barrett and Mr. Chretien are just too much alike and could well be popularity opponents within any Liberal/NDP coalition But with someone like Pau! Martin Jr. as federal Liberal leader the matter could be entirely different Somehow we don't think Mr. Martin would be upset having a strong, capable, vocal cabinet minister out promoting government policies, while Mr. Barrett would likely be quite content to be recognized as a strong and popular minister entrusted with the full contidence of his prime minister One thing is for certain: thanks to Dave Barrett's decision to seek his party's leadership, Canadians are in for a very lively fall as the leadership race winds up to its culmination in Winnipeg Novem- ber 30 to December 3 Short-list WKP Twenty-five years is tomorrow in this business The speaker: B.C. Hydro chairman Larry Bell planning for power development His reference As repgrted in this newspaper last Sunday, Mr. Bell believes wide-ranging public debate must be undertaken soon in this province as to whether residents want hydro or thermal (coal-fired) electrical generation in this province, a happier choice then in other parts of this continent where the nuclear option has to be considered, too The Hydro chairman had just returned from the World Energy Conference in Montreal and reported its underlying theme “was how do we trade off the enviconment and yet maintian our prosperity He said the rest of the world “has run out of hydro resources, so for them it's coal versus nuclear. But for B.C. the options are different We still have abundant hydro resources Mr. Bell started the debate in earnest by announcing a short-list of five companies who will develop private power generating capacity and connect their multi-million-dollar projects to the Crown corporation's electricity grid (The power-generating project will use a variety of fuel sources including hydroelectric, coal, natural gas and wood waste. Hydro wants the contracts in place by the end of next March with the juice flowing within four years Of particular interest to our community and our region is Hydro’s call for expressions of interest in private power projects totalling 400-600 megawatts for the export of electricity. The Crown agency expects that short-list could be released as early as sometime this month. We hofe West Kootenay Power has made a proposal, and ap- pears on the hort-list There is nothing sacred about further Columbia River develdp- ment being carried out by a government agency. Private enterprise can do the job at least equally as well, and quite likely less expen- sively. And the debt incurred would be that of West Kootenay Power not that of a crown agency that is guaranteed by the already hard. pressed taxpayers of our province Development of generating