SAME YAIR Hj el lO eri IB Saturday, January 11, 1992 @ ._OurWIEWS Adrian RAESIDE New party, new game en the British Columbia ‘legislature opens with its . 35th parliament this month, people are in for a surprise. Not only are the. once-proud Socreds one election away from extinction, but the New Democrats are about to face the biggest test of - their political lives. And who will be doing ate this testing, you ask? Why, the Liberals of course — that merry band of 17 nameless faces who had the good fortune to be running for a right-of-centre political party | when British Columbians closed the fe (eitloute Not GOOD NEWS... WE WAMU tap pee etinezes.. 8S SL Mla MUM ddl orahcannaaibaki book on 19 years of Socred rule. Just who are-these Liberals, anyway? Who are thése previously unheard of political powerbrokers who promise to return fair debate to the” liveliest legislature in the nation? Ken Jones, ring a bell? Gary Farrell-Collins, perhaps. Wilf Hurd, maybe? The best thing the Liberal party has going for it as we enter the new year is its anonymity. Fresh Liberal faces will provide some much-needed relief to our tiresome legislature where personalities were paramount to policy. The Liberals can ensure that honest debate and forthright criticism take centre stage And if done right, the Liberal party will ride this public wave of curiosity into the government seat within five years. The choice is clearly theirs. ZA, 6 Em lz = a S| Oh, give me a seat on the board Oh,-to be a municipal director on the Regional District of Central Kootenay board. I’d be getting more than a $620-a-month increase in my stipend this year. Not bad pay, if you can get it. Here’s how the regional district stipend works. Each director — there are 21 in total on the board — receives $550 a month, or $6,600 a year. Ron NORMAN Comments _ fromthe | Cressroads recreation complex, the dump, etc.). Add another $90 per committee meeting. Without figuring in committee meetings, penione directors will e $9, 480 a year. To give you an idea of how that compares with the City of Castlegar, the mayor was paid $11,887 in 1991 and city aldermen were paid $5,942. But that’s not all. But that’s not all. : Each director gets another $180 for attending a board meeting: There are 16 board meetings a year, so that figures to be another $2,880 a year. : But that’s not all. Each director also gets paid for attending committee meetings (not commission meetings, though. They’re different. Committees are struck by the board, commissions operate things like the The regional board chairman, who happens to be George Cady of Electoral Area D (Lardeau Valley), gets an additional $1,100 a month — on top of all the other payments he gets as a director. But that’s not all. Last year Cady was paid an additional $550 a month for being-chairman (half what he gets this year), on top of his payments as director for Electoral Area D. please see NORMAN page 7 Heather Hadley Circulation Manager Burt C. b Street WALK Publisher Emeritus LV. Campbell Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 Calib Stanwood Castlegar “Not good at all, I don’t trust him.” a She Robert Jackson Castlegar “So far it seems | Question: How would you rate the first three months of the Mike Harcourt government? Fred Hadikin Brilliant “] think he’s doing a pretty good job.” Alice Hunchack Blueberry Creek “He’s doing a good job, considering what he has to deal with.” Liz Madrigga Blueberry Creek “I think you need to give him more time.” Other Saturday, January 11, 1992 Z ; IEWS' 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. 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 Ticspepe ‘coWNHE EDITOR Let the Robson ferry go I find it samewhat disturbing to see the Rob- son-Raspberry Ferry Ad Hoc Committee at- tacking the politicians again. The new NDP government has tough eco- nomic choices to make. Presenting the ‘Walk and Chew’ Award and calling the premier a ‘typical politician’ does not seem to be the best - way to gain the government’s sympathetic ear. I don’t believe this committee speaks for the majority of Robson residents when it persists in using negative tactics in public. so lost. Will they then wonder why? If this committee can not use positive tac- tics, then maybe it should at least be quiet. Af- ter all, we donot want the ill-advised actions of a few people to reflect on the rest of the com- munity. Perhaps a better approach might be to work together with our elected MLA to ensure that the bridge project proceeds as soon as possible. Let’s all face reality. The ferry is gone. For good. : Let’s move forward. Norman is out of line I am afraid that Ron Norman has been tak- en advantage of by an impostor. The Robson-Raspberry Ferry Users Ad Hoc Committee will not shift its sights to bringing back the dollar bill, even if we do have one of Brian Mulroney’s frosty Fridays next July. The Committee is not shifting its sights that far. Of greater importance is the drawing up of acode of ethics for B.C. politicians. This will not be an onerous undertaking. We expect to be able to put all that need be made explicit on the ernments everywhere to alienate everyone and satisfy no one. Premier Harcourt’s NDP gov- ernment is no exception. When Forest Minister Dan Miller ordered three forest compa- nies last week to reduce their cut- ting levels in old-growth forests on southern Vancouver island, a howl of protest ensued. The chorus of scorched cats in- cluded both industry officials and environmentalists. Miller had managed to incur the wrath of both groups. ' Industry representatives said the reductions will cost jobs. Envi- ronmentalists were upset because the: government didn’t go far enough. Bill Cafferata, general manag- ‘er of MacMillan Bloedel’s Alberni region, said the announcement will take about $150 million out of the economy of southern Vancou- ver Island. Sydney. Haskell of the Car- manah Forestry Society, members -of which have been very active participants in logging blockades on Vancouver Island, went as far as to accuse the government of selling out to the industry. “Somehow, the combination of money and direction from Burson Marsetellar’s Forestry Alliance has been able to persuade Mr. Harcourt’s cabinet to support Their actions may very well evoke an equal- ly negative reaction from government, ensur- ing that not only the ferry but the bridge is al- Rep ort from Victoria Hubert B rer business as usual in a forest of shame,” Haskell said. And as usual, the truth lies somewhere in between. First, in a nutshell, the an- nouncement: MacMillan Bloedel must reduce cutting in Tree Farm Licence No. 44 by 14 per cent. Fletcher Challenge and Interna- tional Forest Products must re- duce cutting in TFL No. 46 by nearly 30 per cent. The effect will be to reduce the number of trees cut by nearly 790,000 cubic metres, which amounts to about 21,600 truck- loads. It should be mentioned, howev- er, that the three companies have already reduced their cuts due to slumping lumber, pulp.and paper markets. The order to reduce cuts will, therefore, only affect jobs if and when the economy improves. Tom Lang Robson More important, the govern- ment’s decision to reduce annual cuts is, I believe, just the first step in an ‘overall policy of achieving ‘sustained yield in the forest in- | dustry. Few people will disagree that prior to the current slump, the in- dustry has been overcutting, a practice that, if continwed, will eventually lead to disaster. The-problem is that our young forests may not be ready for har- vest by the time the old growth supply has been exhausted. If that happens, the whole industry may be forced to sit idle-for 10 or 15 years, awaiting the maturing of new growth. By reducing the overall annual cut now, we may be able to stretch current supplies until the new supply of timber is ready for har- vesting. The choice is reduced em- ployment in the forest sector now or massive unemployment in the woods 25 years from now. The government’s next step, I believe, will be to deal with mat- ters in the context of an overall land-use policy, an approach rec- ommended on a number of occa- sions by ombudsman Stephen Owen. The present conflict over use involves a myriad of interest groups, all competing for the same prize —Crown land, owned-by the people of British Columbia, which back of one small envelope. Fred G. Marsh Castlegar Harcourt government committed to forests It appears to be the fate of gov- . comprises more than 90 per cent of the province’s total land base. It seems ludicrous that there is © no mechanism that would allow all stakeholders to sit at the same _table and arrive at a consensus. Tn an interview some years ago, Owen told me that there must be such a mechanism if the dispute over Crown land is to be resolved. IT have a hunch that the Har¢ aw, government will do just that. The advantages seem clear. With some sort of independent commission looking after land use, all interest groups can be giv- en a voice. Radical environmen- talists, such as Haskell, as well as the forest industry, will no longer be able to make unsubstantiated charges. They will have to back up their claims in an arena other than the media. In the meantime, work on a forestry practices code is proceed- ing, in time for introduction dur- ing the next session of the legisla- ture. That code may also cause some consternation in the industry, pro- vided it deals with such controver- sial matters as limits on clear-cut- ting and intensive reforestation and silviculture. All of which will bode well for a - bewildered public which has been used largely as a pawn by all sides in the land-use warfare of the past. ~ Norman continued from page 6 He will get a total of $22,680. But that’s not all. Until this year, municipal directors did not get a monthly stipend; only rural directors were paid a monthly stipend of $479. Municipal directors were paid only for attending board meetings and ~ committee meetings. So in effect, they went from zero to $550. Quite a step. (It works out to a total $620- a-month hike when you figure in the increase for attending board meetings which went and taste. from $149 last year to $180 this year, or 21 per cent). ; - Rural directors didn’t do too badly out of the package either. They got a $71 increase in their monthly stipend ($479 to $550, or 15 per cent). And everyone did well out of the 20 per cent increase in the rate for attending committee meetings (from $75 to $90 per meeting). The new rate structure came from a special committee the board established to look into costs. The committee was made up of board members. If that seems a little like appointing the fox to tuck the hens in at night, you’re right. (The City of Castlegar, by the way, appointed an independent citizen committee several years ago when it decided to examine its stipends). The committee reasoned that all regional board members should be getting the same rates because they are all equal members of the board. But it ignores that municipal members — like Ald. Doreen Smecher of Castlegar — are already paid a stipend by the city. Her duties as the regional district director representing Castlegar are part of her aldermanic responsibilities. It’s the same as Ald: Bob Pakula representing the city on the library board, for which he gets a pat on the back and thanks from the library people. To equate her duties on the regional board to those of directors for rural areas is crazy. We have a council to look after the city’s affairs. People in Robson, Ootischenia and Pass Creek have only ee regional director. Now, that’s all. Oh, to be a municipal director on the Regional District of Central Kootenay board.