ee

OPINION

ay r,

MEMBER OF THE B.C, PRESS COUNCIL

-£STABLISHED AUGUST 7, 194
THE MID-WEEK

PUBLISHER — Burt Campbell
EDITOR — Simon Birch

Castlégar News

PAGE A4, SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1991

TWICE WEEKLY MAY 4, 1980
ISHED SEPTEMBER 12,

LV. CAMPBELL — PUBLISHER, AUGUST 7, 1947-FEBRUARY 15, 1979

AUGUST 27, 1980

PLANT FOREMAN — Peter Harvey
prea yes MANAGER — Wayne Stoiz
OFFICE MANAGER — Warren Chernoft
CIRCULATION MANAGER — Heather Hadley

EDITORIAL

Downtown plan
looks good

Urban Systems Ltd. of Kamloops has come up with a sensible
concept plan for revitalization of downtown Castlegar.

Unveiled Thursday for the Downtown Business Association at an
open-house meeting in Castlegar city council chambers, the concept is
straightforward and pulls no punches.

**Given the current situation, a few minor touch-ups will have lit-
tle or no impact on downtown esthetics,”’ the firm writes in a point-
by-point summary of the concept plan. ‘‘Major changes are required
to transform the downtown into an attractive commercial setting. In
other words, a few trees and benches is not the answer.’’

Details, of course, have yet to be worked out, but

/

il ZZ
WM

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

ban Systems’ concept includes removing overhead nisi Arh
sidewalks, new curbs and gutters, new lighting, furnishings and trees,
road rebuilding with upgraded storm drainage, and, of course, refur-
bished storefronts.
We A

like the ofa y and clean
image. id Pad 's ‘the logical way to go since downtown Castlegar has few
gs on which to italize as Nelson has done.

Feds slow in approving traps

When my column relating to trapping
appeared in the Castlegar News on Feb. 16 1 had
expected some flak which ordinarily I would have

“Dr lacks the ar ‘al stock and devel den-

sity to achieve an effective heritage theme,’’ Urban Systems writes.
**Instead, the overall design in combination with facade improvemen-
ts will produce a contemporary look with undertones of local history,
economy and culture.’’

Naturally, a revitalization project for downtown Castlegar will
likely be fairly expensive. But the provincial government has said it’s
increasing the amount of money available to municipalities for down-
town revitalization and that will help, provided a new government,
regardless of its political stripe, carries through With the commitment.

Nevertheless, downtown business people will be asked to share
the costs, so expenses must be kept reasonable.

We hope downtown merchants don’t balk.

It’s a cliche, but sometimes you do have to spend money to make

|. But when George Clements
responded in the manner in which he did, I feel
that I cannot disregard it.

George and I had corresponded off and on
for several years in the past and I thought we had
a mutual feeling about cruel trapping. I thought
that with enough pressure George Clements and
others would persuade our government to bring
about better tools for the trade. And this it did.

A program was sponsored about 18 years ago
by the Canadian government to search for a”
humane trap. This turned out to be a bigger task
than anyone had anticipated. The Canadian

money. As Urban Systems says: “Although phy
alone do not ah , a better looking down-
town Castlegar is a prerequisite to success.’’

We couldn’t have said it better.

are very rigid for a humane trap.

At the end of the first eight years, the
research centre at Guelph, Ont., had received 348
inventions and ideas from people all over Canada
and the United States. Now, 10 years and more
inventions later, only three new traps met the
Canadian standards and were approved humane.
The Kania trap exceeded these standards.

Now, Mr. Clements says, ‘‘Humane it is not,
cruel it is.”” There is no foundation to his claim. If
he is truly sincere about wanting to bring about
humane trapping methods then he should not be
condemning these traps.

These traps were invented by experienced
trappers and tested by qualified engineers and
scientists of the Alberta Environmental Centre at
Vegreville and the Alberta Research Council in
Edmonton.

The Kania traps are very well accepted in
Norway as well as Finland and Sweden. They are
also gaining popularity in Germany and central
Europe where trapping is strictly controlled. The
department of agriculture in England at this very
time is testing these traps for pest control.

People who are so concerned about humane
trapping could be doing something constructive by

ing their of i to ask our
government to give a public report on the progress
of trap development and tests as well as the
government’s reasons for not legislating the
approved traps to replace existing traps that do
not meet the Canadian standards.

Do we have to wait another 18 years to get
some action?

Ed Kania
Vallican

VIEWPOINT

Idea behind
program not new

An “‘increased perceived and real
risk of apprehénsion’’ is the rather
dry and technical police term for it.

In practice it means standing by
the side of the road, usually in the
cold and dark, and stopping about
100,000 vehicles a week. The public
knows it as the Drinking Driving
CounterAttack Program police road-
check campaigns. But they’re worth
every cold, dark minute, because
they work.

This mode of high visibility enfor-
cement to prevent crime is not new.
In fact, it was the idea behind the
creation of the first uniformed police

force — the ‘‘Bobbies’* — created
by Sir Robert Peel in London,
England, in the 1830s.

It will come as no surprise that
people are much less likely to com-
mit a crime if they see police and are
convinced that they will be caught.

In B.C., from 1977 to 1983, that
philosophy was applied to drinking-
driving in the Christmas CounterAt-
tack four-week roadcheck cam-
paigns, resulting in those periods
now having the lowest level of
alcohol-related crashes of any time
of the year.
please see PROGRAM page AS

Socreds switch campaign gears

By GERARD YOUNG

VICTORIA — A week after a
disgraced Bill Vander Zalm resigned
as B.C. premier, Social Credit mem-
bers say they've got new life while

New Democrats insist his spirit
lingers.

And their top strategists differ on
how his exit will affect strategies in
an election, which must be called by
fall. Vander Zalm quit after being
found in conflict of interest over. his
business dealings.

“It’s been more Bill Vander Zalm
and his private affairs, so with Bill
Vander Zalm removed from the for-
mula it takes a lot of that with him,”
said Jess Ketchum, Socred election
readiness director.

“I don’t know that we ever forget,
the media, or the elected people, or
the people that support them or the
party. We’ve been through a terribly
difficult time.""

But the party should benefit from
the attention it receives through July

20 when it chooses the leader who
will take Socreds into the next
general election, he said.

And Socreds will gain from the
publicity surrounding Rita Johnston,
the country’s first woman premier,
Ketchum said.

Johnston hasn’t said whether she
will run in the leadership campaign.

The overall benefit will be
measured by how unified the party is
after the leadership race, Ketchum
said.

“Coming out of that, from a
Strtegist’s point of view, you would
hope you would have a lot of
momentum,’ he said.

Although most Socreds admit they
have a big rebuilding job, they insist
the government accomplished much
despite Vander Zalm.

Johnston, considered one of Van-
der Zalm’s staunchest supporters,
took the first step in distancing her-
self from her former leader when she

apologized Monday to
betrayed.

She also returned Mel Couvelier to
his old post as finance minister. He
quit a month ago after Vander Zalm
refused to give up his legislative
duties while under investigation for
conflict of interest.

those he

But NDP campaign manager Hans
Brown contends that shifting the
focus to another leader won’t wash
with voters.

“Part of the record is that this is
the most ethically blinded gover-
mment in Canada,”’ he said. ‘You
can’t separate that from the record,
nor... that it was only Bill Vander
Zalm that had a moral and ethical
blind spot.

“The rest of the cabinet by-and-
large either saw no problem or
backed down and sat silent and
that’s part of the record too.’”

Seven Socred cabinet ministers
have quit amid scandal since 1987.

Party polling in January suggested
60 per cent of voters believed there
was more wrong with Social Credit
than just leadership, Brown said, so
Vander Zalm’s departure won't
make a big difference to NDP elec-
tion strategy.

The NDP expected Vander Zaim
to quit in January 1990 during a
televised address several weeks after
the party suffered its sixth straight
byelection loss, he said.

“So ever since then we’ve been
Operating on two-track strategy,’’ he
said. ‘‘We are just switching tracks.

“Our latest polling in January
showed there was 75 per cent
dissatisfaction with Vander Zalm’s
performance and. 70 per cent

ion with the

“*Which suggests to us that people
believe that we not only have had a
bad premier, but we've also had bad
government.’’

Gerard Young writes for The
Canadian Press.

Like bears rousing from hibernation, I am
instinctively draw t6 seasonal patterns of behavior.

Every. year around this time, I get the urge to
pack my bags and travel to British Columbia. In
what has become an annual rite of spring, I have

After last year’s wanderings throughout B.C., I
decided to transplant myself to the Slocan Valley,
thereby ending my annual spring migration from
Toronto. People no longer ask ‘‘why don’t you
move?"’ but ‘‘why did you move?"’

Three years ago, in a letter preparing for my
annual adventures in the West, I wrestled to describe
what I was looking for:

living — rather than philosophizing — acc:
the spirit of the bioregional/biocentric visior
wrote.

some degree of connectedness to the natural
environment.’*
As it turned out, no one articulated it as such.
“*Be damned if I can figure out what the spirit
of the bioregional/biocentric vision is,”” one person

a case of blinding with science or baffling with grass
fertilizer?””

My understanding was that it is neither,
although admittedly I had never met an actual
bioregionalist, let alone someone living or
philosophizing according to the vision. Everything I
knew about bioregionalism I encountered through
readings in alternative papers such as The New
Catalyst (then published in an ‘‘intentional
community’’ located in remote mountains north of
Lillooet).

That summer, I made a special trip to visit the

visited my favorite province for six consecutive years,
spending from four weeks to seven months at a time.

“*I'm interested in meeting folks who are actually

“They might not articulate it as such, but they
probably live rather simply, in a self-reliant way, with

replied, ‘‘but what the heck, it sure sounds good. Is it

Catherine
Shapcott

The theory of bioregionalism — also known as
“‘re-inhabitation”’ and ‘‘living-in-place’’ — energizes
North America.
It sounds like a quantum leap in environmental
consciousness. But how — and where — does theoty
make the leap into practice?

How about the Slocan Valley?

“The valley Presents interesting bioregional

ng to an article in
Sierra Report. “Forestry related activism remains the
major bioregional focus.’’

The article, written by Joel Russ — a writer and

community, just to meet a few people who were
articulating the bioregional vision. It seemed a shame
that such a great idea wasn’t keeping pace with Ninja
Turtles and rap music.

Imbued with idealism and purity of spirit,
bioregionalism drew me in like characters in search of
an author. The subject of a 1975 bioregional novel
entitled Ecotopia, bioregionalism is a way of life that
defines one’s place not according to political or
economic boundaries, but physical geography.

Bioregionally speaking, I am actually not a
resident of Passmore, with an address identified by a
rural route or a fire number. I am — to put it bluntly
— dweller in a drainage system whose features
include a forest dominated by hemlock, mammals
such as white-tailed deer and beaver, and a bedrock
of blue clay beneath our resident

who has lived in the valley for 18 years —
wee entitled ‘‘Slocan Valley residents struggle for a
“bioregional’ vision."

1 could hardly believe that I had unwittingly
chosen as my future home a place where people were
“*struggling’’ for a bioregional vision. Could they
also actually be living according to the spirit of the
vision?

I resolved to call Joel Russ to find out where and
when the local visionaries were meeting, as well as to
meet a real live re-inhabiter from the Upper

Russ expressed surprise and delight fo hear from
someone who even knew the meaning of
bioregionalism — it's not the sort of word he uses as
an ice-breaker in local conversations. He emphasized,
however, that he is not a local spokesman or

rity on the

According to this way of making sense of the
works, human beings adapt themselves to what their
’’ can support, rather than the other way
around. It’s a vision that values more intimate
connections between people and the places where
they live; it also values economies that are regionally
based and ecologically sustainable.

His role, tie the boreginasl movemens wishin
the valley, is **
end uo verdoa of the Dekd eam Soceey is whieh
Starry-eyed youth brainstorm a brave new bioregional

In the 67-mile long bioregion of the Slocan
Valley — a drainage that starts at Summit Lake and

Theory makes leap to practice in Slocan Valley

ends in South Slocan — bioregionalism is ‘‘ecological
information that flows at an almost unseen level,
says Russ.

Speaking from his home in Perry Siding (a non-
bioregional designation between Winlaw and Slocan),
Russ advises me that ‘‘bioregionalism’’ described by
city people is abstract and unrealistic: it’s theory, not
Practice.

“When you get down to what it’s like living in
a small valley, it comes down to real specific issues,”
says Russ. What that means is that people might be
talking on the doorstep of the Winlaw post office (or
the Duck Stop restaurant) about the prospect of
increased chip-truck traffic, or what to do about deer”
eating the garden.

Crsinadanet

such as the
De Cc i and the alliance
both function to some degree out of a ‘‘bioregional
sensibility,’ Russ suggests, as'do back-to-landers and
Doukhobors. Mainly, there’s a ‘‘shared
consciousness,”” involving ‘‘a lot of people who care
about the valley as a place.’’ That consciousness is
shared ‘‘by being human, by being an everyday
resident.”

1 was curious to know more about the
” of valley life.
Russ mentioned the “‘high drama”’ that takes place in
the Slocan Valley:

“There’s enough of a population that wants
but it’s not

|, and that creates lots of conflict. The

drama of our times is to reconcile economics with the
ecology.”*

Bioregionalism may not be a word that comes to
mind lo thinking about such drama, but the soieh of
its vision is what makes life in the Slocan Valley rich
and interesting. That's one of the reasons I decided
to move.

LS
REMEMBER WHEN

4 YEARS AGO
From the April 12, 1951
Castle News

The Castlegar District

Trail District Safety Council is
urging that a new highway should be
built to link Castlegar and Trail and

Society held a well-attended and en-
thusiastic meeting Tuesday night at
the Coronation Hall, under the
chairmanship of Mr. J. Kelly.

Mr. Kelly set the note of the
evening by stating that the Society
must raise funds and that inactivity
was costing public interest.

RNR” peace

The Castlegar Public Library
Board and members met for second
and third work periods this week at
the new library in the C

it wants to start this
year.

In a resolution sent recently to
Highwaays Minister Phil Gaglardi,
the council emphasizes that only 20
per cent of the Castlegar-Trail sec-
tion of Highway 3 is safe for passing.
15 YEARS AGO
From the April 15, 1976
Castlegar News

Highway 3A was no sooner dug
out from under a 600-foot-long mud
slide, which happened shortly after 2

Hall.

Plans for the official opening and
tea on Friday; April 20 are going
ahead rapidly. Books have been sor-
ted and shelved, many new books
catalogued and a considerable
amount of sign painting is in
progress.

25 YEARS AGO
From the April 14, 1966
News

Selkirk College is the new name
for West Kootenay Regional College.

The formal name was given the
College by a provincial cabinet or-
der-in-council passed last week.

The initial name of the College ac-
curately described the nature and
geographical location of the College,
say College officials. However,
Canadian experience had made it
clear that the name was too long.

P-m. on of last week
midway between the Brilliant Bridge
and Thrums, when two additional
slides occurred Thursday.

Some observers. consider the
second slide a continuation of ‘the
first, causing no further damage.

The third slide was 200 feet long
and about 12 feet high which took
place around 3 a.m. Friday, half-a-
mile west of the other two slides.

.

As of today fire permits are
necessary for any burning in
unorganized areas,

Forest ranger Hugo Wood says the
area has already experienced three
fires. The latest was a grass fire at
Tarrys on the weekend, which bur-
ned 10 acres. Last week there were
two calls from the Robson area.

Mr. Wood says we are now ex-
Periencing the ‘‘spring flash hazard’’

Corky mon

from
successful run for the sherpa INDOP pamiunten five years

ago this week. —conews tile photo

ahd he reminds the public a person is
responsible for any fire that takes off
from their own property.
5 YEARS AGO
From the April 13, 1986
Castlegar News

Organizers of a public

forum
Wednesday on local hiring promi

to out-of-town contractors and
hiring out-of-town workers for the
projects.

oe
The Castlegar and District
Hospital board has received ap-
plications from two local chiroprac-

more demonstrations, protests,
petitions and meetings in an effort to
keep local jobs for local residents.
“*There will be-more meetings, and
demonstrations and protests,’’ Joe
Irving, coordinator of the Castlegar
Unemployment Action Centre told a
crowd of about 40 at Kinnaird Hall.
The meeting was called to discuss
the issue of awarding local projects

tors ges to treat
their patients in the hospital.

But rather than reject the ap-
plications, as some B.C. hospitals
have done, the local board has
chosen to proceed with the issue,
though with caution.

The board has referred the ap-
plications from Margaret Salmon
and David Williams to. the hospital
medical staff for comment.

iy

April 13, 1991 Conte News as

Top Sirloin

298

Sliced or Shaved
1

Program

continued from page A4

In 1984, police throughout B.C.
agreed to mount a second roadcheck
campaign. The spring period was
chosen because it statistically had
emerged as having the highest level
of drinking-driving accidents.

Nobody knows definitely why
drinking-driving accidents increase in
April and May, but some plausible
theories come to mind.

Spring marks the beginning of the
“*beer leagues’’ of amateur softball
and soccer, golfers discover the 19th
hole, pre-graduation and graduation
parties begin. Our roads, clear of

snow and ice, encourage drivers to
goa bit faster, and more daylight
hours mean more evening driving
and outdoor parties.

The result is devastating.

It takes a while for the driving
public to become aware of an enfor-
cement campaign, and if drivers are
not aware of increased enforcement,
it cannot deter them from drinking
and driving.

Consequently, during the first year
of spring CounterAttack (April 13 to
May 4, 1984), the drinking-driving
accidept level dropped slightly from

the previous year, but not much.
Similarly, the 1985 spring roadcheck
campaign produced only a slight
decrease in alcohol-related crashes.
However, by the third year drinking
drivers really started to take the
campaign seriously. The result was a
substantial decrease in accidents and
the first year on record when spring
was not the highest crash period.
Spring is still at, or near, the highest
point for drinking-driving but the
overall level has decreased. For
example, without spring CounterAt-
tack about 15 to 18 per cent of all
ing traffic i

were alcohol-related during the
April-May period, but since 1986,
that level has dropped to about nine
to 11 per cent. To put it in plain
terms — lives are being saved.

This year, when you are stopped
between April 13 and May 4 in a
CounterAttack roadcheck, you will
know the police are using Sir Robert
Peel’s technique of ‘‘increased per-
ceived and real risk of apprehen-
sion.”’ You will also know. that they
are protecting you from one of the
most ‘serious threats to your safety
on the road — the drinking driver.

99

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THANKS

My name is Jane-Anne Henderson. | am an
adopted daughter of loving parents and am
now attending university. | thank my birth
mother, who at 19 relinquished me for
adoption and who recognized me as a
human being from the earliest weeks of my
life within her womb

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