Saturday, June 20, 1992 @ Dave McCullough Publisher Scott David Harrison Editor Mickey Read Composing Room Foreman Warren Chernoff Accountant Heather Hadiey Circulation Manager OurViEWS AdrianRAESIDE ul < 7 ~ ~< - & NDP faces challenge ight months into its political Bye: the New Democratic Party must be wondering who turned the clocks back. The bullheadedness of B.C.’s labor movement must have New Democrats shaking in their collective boots. It was, after all, only a: short 20 years ago that the NDP kissed dreams of political rule aside when it tried to double-cross its own labor roots. With that in mind, the government must walk softly with B.C.’s labor movement and be sure to leave the big stick at home. New Democrats can ill afford to be key players during this time of labor unrest. Instead, the labor-fueled party must stand at a distance and allow the collective bargaining process to proceed uninhibited. The NDP has always had an interesting relationship with the labor movement. As a political party, it relies on labor votes and cash to win elections, yet it discards labor’s importance the moment it takes office. : Such is the case with the province’s pulp industry. Pointing to the millions the province stands to lose, Labor Minister Moe Sihota said he would consider stepping in the fray. What a mistake. New Democratic meddling has already managed to tick off B.C.’s teachers, nurses, doctors and lawyers. The party can hardly afford to have 12,000 angry pulp workers breathing down its suddenly sensitive neck. Works yard relocation makes sense Castlegar council’s You’d be surprised, but decision to move the city works yard to the industrial park is a little like eating a strong onion: just when you thought you’d finished it, it comes back on you. But then that’s the way it is with ‘controversial political decisions; they refuse to go away. Ask Brian Mulroney. He’s still dealing with free-trade and GST. And when you have a group like the Coalition Ron NORMAN {..-" x Comments from the Crossroads most of the people I talk to haven’t any clear idea why the city is moving the works yard. Most suggest council just wanted to get it out of the downtown area. That’s partly right, but that’s not the whole story. City administrator Gary Williams says there were a number of reasons for moving the works yard — foremost among them cold hard cash. He said the 4 Unaccepting Rash Bureaucracy you can bet that the city works yard will be an issue for the next 18 months — right up to the 1993 municipal election when all seven council positions will be up for grabs. CURB isn’t going to let Castlegar voters forget. that council spent hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to park its street cleaner in a different spot. But what about council’s decision? Why did it agree to move the works yard? existing works yard buildings just aren’t adequate and the city was faced with spending a “fair amount” of money to bring them up to snuff. As well, the present works yard isn’t big enough now, let alone for future expansion. And Williams says using downtown commercial property to stockpile sand and park large trucks is poor use of valuable land. please see NORMAN page 7 Street TALK Burt Campb Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbell Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 Question: Are we sending too much water to the United States? Mike Roberts Castlegar “Most definitely.” Larry Ingham Robson “Far too much.” Bob Lloyd Castlegar “Sure we are.” Mark Gyurkouits Eire Lake “No doubt about it we are.” @ Saturday, June 20, 1992 dThe News 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 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 tow Pe aa ITO BR The doctors of B.C. about funding concerns. education. are spending a considerable sum of money to inform the public My association of 6,000 technologists and technicians does not have the doctors’ public awareness budget, but we do-have an important issue that requires the attention of the public, industry and governments in B.C. and Canada... the need for greater emphasis — which usually means more money — for Two points. We are not graduating a sufficient number of qualified technicians, technologists, engineers, highly skilled tradespeople and others who produce wealth for our province. Secondly, far too few young people are progressing beyond Grade 12 into trades, colleges and universities. Consider that 30 per Education must come first institution. cent of our students do not complete Grade 12. Of those that do graduate, 70 per cent do not go on to complete post-secondary education. In fact, only one-in-five students who enter Grade 1 will graduate from a post secondary We know Finance Minister Glen Clark and Education Minister Tom Perry have only so much money to allocate. But one thing is for certain, if we do not provide funding to educate and train ‘wealth producers’ like technologists and technicians there will be precious little money: for doctors and health and social programs in general. Applied Science Technologists and Wayne Chernoff, AScT Community Representative Technicians of B.C. Thanks a lot On behalf of the Castlegar Little League teams, we would sincerely like to thank all the people who participated in the upgrading and reconditioning of the middle field at Kinnaird Park. A very special thanks is extended to Henry Van de Vosse for the use of his company’s time and equipment. The hard work of all the volunteers has made the ball field a much safer place for our children to play. Thank you. Castlegar Baseball Association Separating Canada Post's fact from fiction I attended the city council meeting of June 16th and listened with some interest (and disbelief) to the comments of Canada Post spokesperson Tlona Beiks. Sent by the corporation on a damage control mission to deny that Castlegar’s post office would be closing (“at this time”), Beiks characterized Sandra Groepler’s dedicated efforts on the part of our community to try and pry the truth out of this evasive corporation as part of a “fictional world.” If only this were the case. In fact, in a fair and honest world, this ought to be the case. Just think about it. It ought to be mere fiction that one could take a parcel to a franchise postal outlet and, having waited 15 minutes for poorly trained staff to deliberate the postage price, find out later from a real postal worker that one had paid double the correct price. It ought to be mere fiction that a post office and its postmaster could be removed would label them “improvements.” But alas, as it is said, sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Unfortunately, these ‘It ought to be mere fiction that a post office and its postmaster could be removed from a community in favor of placing a postal franchise in a hotel, staffed by a bartender (e.g Ymir).’ from a community in favor of placing a postal franchise in a hotel, staffed by a bartender (e.g Ymir). And, most of all, one would: only expect it to be complete fiction that a postal corporation responsible for such changes occurrences, all a result of Canada Post’s continuing privatization ( a word which sticks in the throat of public relations people such as Beiks) are not fictional. They are real. As for fiction, I can only say that true fiction was uttered by Beiks when she said at the meeting that the residents of Robson were “consulted” two years ago about the loss of their post office. This is the kind of fictional “consultation” Castlegar can expect when closure of its post office is unilaterally announced by Canada Post. After all, since Beiks admitted, Canada Post’s closure announcement is always final even before the “consultation” process, what’s left to consult about? Fortunately, I think that most council members were aware of this, and I applaud their strong words at the meeting on behalf of keeping Castlegar’s Post Office and its workers’ jobs intact. ; Richard Widdifield Robson Norman continued from page 6 He said the city has already sold one parcel of land to the downtown revitalization commit- tee for $110,000 — the property’s assessed value. The property — presently used to stockpile sand — will be used for parking as part of the downtown revitalization plan. And Williams said as the down- town revitalization progresses, the rest of the city works yard properties will increase in value — to a total of around $200,000. He said some of that land will be sold off and some will be re- tained for other uses by the city. In addition, Williams says the south end works yard on 6th Av- enue will also be sold because the city will amalgamate all works yard materials in its new industri- al park site. In all, Williams expects the land sales to generate about $400,000, “which makes it a pret- ty good business venture.” In return, the city will get a new works yard building on five acres in the industrial park. (Ac- tually, the city purchased a total of nine acres for a cost of $80,000 but will only be using five acres for the works yard). The total cost of the relocation will be in the $875,000 range, a figure that came under fire re- cently from 5 CURB pointed out that the city’s budget indicated the reloca- tion would cost only $850,000. It said the $25,000 increase is just a sign of things to come. Maybe so. And taxpayers can’t be too vigilant when it comes to our tax dollars. We all have a vest- ed interest in ensuring the price tag for the works yard relocation doesn’t skyrocket. But everyone also knows that numbers in budgets are ballpark figures. The real figures come when tenders are called. And while $25,000 is a lot of money in anyone’s book, it is also less than three per cent of the budget cost of the relocation — not what I'd called exorbitant. Still, there’s no getting around the fact that the relocation will cost money, regardless of how much the city recovers from its sale of the present works yard lands. Ree rarer And renovating the existing works yard buildings would prob- ably have been the cheapest way to go. But is cheaper always better? Do we want a crowded works yard in a revitalized downtown? Sometimes it’s necessary to take a long-range view of things. In Castlegar, our politicians have all too often done just the opposite — and been roundly chastised for it. It seems that on the works yard, council is taking a long- range view for once. The issue then becomes where to relocate the works yard. I figure nine acres for $80,000 is as good a buy as any. The only other real concern — that city works crews would waste ‘too much time travelling back to — the works yard for coffee breaks — was dealt with in the recent con- tract settlement with city work- ers.