OurWiEWS Faith in the community he Castlegar Festival Society must have a lot.of faith in this community. How else could you explain its willingness to throw a five-hour party to coincide with Sunfest 92? To say the society is taking a risk by hosting the outdoor dance is an understatement. Quite frankly, the society is gambling that residents of this and surrounding communities remember a little thing called common sense when this certain-to- be-enjoyable event kicks off at Kinsmen Park. The society is hosting the event to promote this city and what better way to reward its ingenuity by behaving like the rational human beings that we are. The June 26 gala is NOT an opportunity for each and everyone of us to. free-wheel as we wish. Instead, uninformed, but I’m having a hard time understanding Castlegar’s newest traffic si Dd “oo PHS G S.S\. WW Hil ANT i z i if i) \ nih CAA AU We i : ih i \ | | Enlighten me about newest light Forgive me if I’m ‘You know the one, located and from the Castlegar hospital and it will give school children a fighting chance at crossing Columbia at its traffic peak, but it does little to @ Wednesday, May 20, 1992 4The News Letters toWHE EDITOR And labors’ love is not lost with the retirement of Jack Munro, the often combustible and highly thought of chief of the IWA-Canada union. Are there any takers to the input that Munro can provide the B.C. Forest Alliance with a new vision. After all, who can parallel the vast knowledge that he will take into the boardroom of the Alliance by providing labors’ views on how best to labor/manage the forests, which incidentally are owned by the people of the province? Right on Jack! Indeed, the Alliance ought to be commended for offering an ‘olive branch’ to effect labors input and insight into a harmonious relationship of peace in the wood industry. By doing so, both the Alliance and labor have begun the evolution of good labor/management pratices. Munro is right in that, the old confrontational methods of ‘no-contract-no- work’ philosophy is evolving into more sophisticated methods to cause labor ~ peace/input and the continuity of employment for all forest workers. However, both the Alliance and labor must adhere'to the workable theory that, the total utilization of our wood product will be paramount in their collective thoughts since the majority of Scandinavian countries already manage their forests as vast seas, or farms in a mannner that is indeed conducive to the excellent husbandry of their forest farms. And we can do no better. Moreso, the Alliance, with the knowledge of labor, have a golden opportunity to re- start the forest industry by addressing what it did with the old cut and run, slash and burn butcher-harvesting methods as in the past. In their antediluvian zeal to clear-cut the forests they have unknowingly created another industry that will take all their consummate skills and talents to rebuild our forests that is in keeping with the new forest technology of the Scandinavians. It is an industry whose time has come and the environment is that industry. Our forests, its air, its water are but the Union Jack can provide new vision breeding grounds of same and this will not be missed. Since the Alliance is the corporate tool of the free enterprise system, (the multi- nationals euphemism for capitalism) so it must be for labor. Labor must also evolve into an effective voice for the workers by rebirthing the one- union-in-wood philosophy and join the wood, pulp, paper and ancillary forest- oriented trades into one union. Union one is not a new union, for its roots go deep and it has earned its spurs through the dedication of all those true trade-unionists that went before Jack — and Munro would surely know of some of these early union warriors that died prematurely and believed that the union would insure and make safe their widows and families with their pensions. But this is not the case with all unions and the pulp, paper and wood workers union is the example that other unions ought not to emulate since it can be shown that the PPWC does not practice what it preaches. Larry Braaten Victoria OtherVIEWS it is incumbent upon all of us to support this evening in a manner that does Castlegar proud. on the corner of 10th Street - and Columbia Avenue. To be blunt, I don’t like it. help the average Joe and Jill get home after a long day’s work. Canada Post must be forever preserved Dave McCullough If we fail to do that, it would be a black eye against those hard-working volunteers who have sacrificed so many hours to ensure that Sunfest 92 will be enjoyable for all. The society is taking a huge risk by putting its name to this once-in-a- lifetime event and for that it must be congratulated. Anything but the best of behavior from everyone would be the last time Castlegar could expect to host such a spirited party. Enjoy the outdoor dance, but be sure to respect those who have made it possible. simple — I can’t understand why a city already crippled by traffic tie-ups would install another obstacle to vehicle flow. Why, you say? To me it’s sp HARRISON. Harrison Ci omparison complete-stop light? Wouldn’t a pedestrian- controlled traffic signal be that much better than a full-scale, roll-to-a- Think about it for a moment, next to the neglected state of our roadways, traffic congestion is probably the biggest complaint of every citizen. This new light does nothing to ease Castlegar’s traffic burden. Instead, if you'll excuse the weak pun, it only adds fuel an ever-increasing problem. : I know the light was installed with the very best of intentions, after all, it will enable emergency vehicles free access to Me, I count myself lucky— at The News my work days run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., or so I tell my too-trusting publisher. And even on those days when I sneak out the back door, you can bet Tm on the road before 4:05 p.m. so I can miss the Celgar crawl. T’m quite familiar with the Celgar crawl, I see the streams of trucks and cars roll past my office window every pr Heck, it’s almost enough to set snc dapat ht by. oii ece? Strec( TALK Question: What are you going to do for your summer vacation? Castlegar “[’'m going to work.” Kerry Heichert Donnie Mota Castlegar: “Pm going to have fun this summer.” Jason Estabrooks Castlegar “Probably just work.” Chris Archambault Castlegar “I hope to go camping in Banff.” Jeff Matell Castlegar “Work.” “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 9am.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. The Honorable Harvie Andre claimed last week on announcing an employee shareholders plan for Canada Post that “This is not in any way a first step towards privatization.” Since this is the same person who claims we rural Canadians don’t mind having our post offices closed (because we apparently believe frozen superboxes provide “better service” than postmasters) you can understand our reluctance to accept Andre’s statement as the whole truth. We fear Canadians will wake up to the reality that our national postal service is being privatized only when the auctioneer’s mallet hits the block, signalling Canada Post is sold, sold, sold! If Canadians allow Canada Post to be sold, we will be the only country in the world to have a privatized postal service. * : It’s a distinction we don’t want. A privatized postal service will have no guarantees for an equitable, affordable, e and ac table mail service for Canadians in all parts of this vast country. : Should the government undertake to set up a regulatory agency to provide these service guarantees,'we tax payers will end up paying for the watch dog, having sold off the money- making part of the system. Canada Post employees, like other Canadians, are already shareholders of the crown corporation by virtue of being taxpayers. Why buy something they already own? If Andre really wants to encourage their employees, how about stopping the service cutbacks and providing them with such basic supplies as elastics, pens and receipt books? Cynthia Patterson National Co-ordinator Rural Dignity of Canada Barachois de Malbaie, Que. Harrison continued from page 6 : I made a conscience effort of bringing up the newest light with a number of people this past weekend. Their comments ranged from ‘it’s stupid’ to ‘thank God I’m on night shift,’ to things that can’t be written. One fellow hit the nail on the head, though. A teammate on my fastball team, this Glade resident brought in the Pope and Talbot factor, saying the return of the local sawmill to the ranks of the living only adds that many more vehicles to the city’s traffic woes. Silly me, I forgot about that. Let’s face it, traffic in our tiny city is a problem. So, too, are vehicle accidents. According to the latest Castlegar RCMP figures, car accidents in our city are on the increase. In March 1991, police recorded four accidents in Castlegar. That figure ballooned to 15 in March 1992. I’m not suggesting that the traffic congestion was responsible for each and every accident, but it certainly is a contributing factor. Why, if you doubt that ask News reporter Jonathan Green, who has covered several of” those accidents, snapping photos with one hand and crossing his fingers in the other, hoping that no one has been seriously injured. There is an easy but expensive solution to Castlegar’s traffic problem that is continuously ignored, though. That is the much-debated, never-financed second access. In the six-plus months that I have called Castlegar my home, I have heard plenty about this second access, but much to my surprise nothing has been done to implement it. Why, a quick flip through the city’s own five-year plan says nothing about a second access. Instead, the city is planning on spending some $4 million to refurbish several routes. I’m lead to believe this is a cosmetic solution when major surgery is required. It is time to put the heat on city officials and MLA Ed Conroy to get our traffic problems solved. I could suggest honking your horn every time you drive by city hall, but I won’t. That’s your choice. Instead, we should be writing Transport. Minister Art Charbonneau to complain about traffic as we know it. Heck, forward those same letters to city council and Conroy so they can use them as ammunition in their fight for the Castlegar-- Robson bridge, that so-called igh priority project” that was axed quicker than the Pat Sajak Show. - = Until then, do what you’ve been doing all along, bear with it. If you can’t, do your best to sneak out of the office early. It works for me... right Mr. Publisher?