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While the concept of public input is a

Picking up the pieces

ike it or not, the future of | Castlegar will be decided this Friday.

On this day, Forests Minister Dan Miller will take a peek outside his ivory tower to tell us whether Castlegar’s logging industry lives or dies. To many, Friday’s announcement has been a long time coming. Too long.

The B.C. government has failed miserably in its first-ever attempt to hold wide-spread public hearings regarding the use of Crown lands.

noble one, it must never come at the expense of unemployed workers.

In Castlegar and area, some 800 families have been subjected to two months of public hearing torture, never knowing if their jobs would be returned. These are the same 800 families that had their worlds turned upside down when Westar shutdown its local operation in November.

Pope and Talbot has offered to take over Westar’s operations for $22 million U.S. That, and the restoration of 800 local jobs in an area suddenly- tattered by recession, should have been enough to allow Miller to speed up the process. Shamefully, though, he never budged.

Kirk Duff is in no hurry

Via Fes Gram: la “The

QOS

interests of the community

to accommodate the latest mall proposal.

If you missed it, the Castlegar alderman with the ’90s version of the flattop says he is “hesitant” about pushing ahead with a request from a Vancouver- based developer to rezone three parcels of land from residential to service commercial.

The rezoning would allow First Allied Development Corp. to proceed with plans

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Comments from the Crossroads

for the sake of the economic benefits it will generate? Or do you stick with your community plan and hope that the developer chooses a more acceptable site and doesn’t just say “so long”?

I don’t have the answer — if there is one — other than that each proposal must be judged on its own merits. But I do believe that in this instance Duff has a good case for going

-

for a 130,000-square-foot-

mall on the south side of the Sandman-Inn

slow. For one thing e

Deciding Castlegar’s forestry future isn’t easy, but a prompt decision should have been rendered. Miller and his cohorts allowed Castlegar to be the governmental Guinea pig, something that won't be forgotten when shattered lives are being pieced back together.

on Columbia Avenue.

At first blush, Duff’s heel-dragging would appear to be anti-development. And it wouldn’t surprise me if some started accusing him of just that. It has happened in the past when council has taken a long look at a development proposal.

But do you allow a development to proceed that may not be in the best

Mall proposals for Castlegar are more common than an Irishman at a St. Patrick’s Day parade. But malls — actual places where consumers can walk into stores — are another matter.

The city could rezone the property and the mall might never get off the ground. It has happened before.

please see NORMAN page 7

OtherWIEWS |

Circulation Manager

Street WALK

Burt Camp Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbell

Aug. 7, 1947-. Feb. 15, 1973

' Le ‘Rob MacPherson . Castlegar “Yes. It would be a : shame to see the Canucks knocked out by a strike.”

“Of course.

nuts.”

Donald Stooshnoff Crescent Valley

and I are really hockey

if the NHL players went on strike? _

ee

Diana Pilla Castlegar

“Not really. It’s not a

My son priority for me.”

Scott Meredith Castlegar

“No, not really.”

Lorna Morin Pass Creek

“Yes. I'm really

looking forward to the

playoffs.”

rn Tar

ml Wednesday. March 38-4562"

Please address all letters to: Letters to the Editor Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C.

197 Columbia Ave.

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,

phone number of

to edit letters for

, Clarity, legality, grammar and taste.

Letters toW HE

EDITOR

Driving the point home

. Impaired driving is decreasing in Canada and The Castlegar News and all medias have played a major role in bringing about th is decline.

However, when nearly 40 per cent of fatal automobile accidents in 1990 can be directly attributed to drivers under the influence, impaired driving remains a serious health problem in this country.

For four years now, Health and Welfare

Canada has conducted the “Play It Smart/Moi, j‘ai toute ma tete!” awareness campaign. - This is an integral part of the National Program on Impaired Driving, a multi- faceted approach involving all levels of government and the private sector.

Directed at youths aged 16 to 24, the campaign is designed to discourage young people from driving after having consumed alcohol or other drugs and to sensitize young people to their responsibilities as passengers. : :

On-going tracking studies have consistently shown a high awareness of both the “Play it Smart” and “Moi j‘ai toute ma tete!” slogans among our target group.

As a result, tolerance towards drinking and driving has been declining.

Especially, though, among francophone

youth, and young people exposed to our campaign are less likely to drive under the influence. . In fact, reports show a 36 per cent decrease in impaired driving offenses among the target group since the early 1980s.

Your assistance will play a vital role in reminding young people in your area that driving under the influence of any substance is socially unacceptable.

’ In addition to saving lives, you will be helping to reduce related losses in productivity due to absenteeism, as well as

i ures on the health care

system. Jim Mintz : Director Program Promotion Division

: TFL audit tells half the story

The recent audit of Tree Farm Licence No. 23 proves that the Socred instituted audit system is a failure.

At the time that the audit system was instituted people throughout the province voiced their concerns that the fox was being employed to watch over the hen house.

Ministry of Forests TFL No. 23 Operational Audit Report found major shortcomings and noncompliance with licence contract conditions in every activity that was monitored. :

Violations identified in the audit include high grading, excessive site disturbance, poor road engineering practices causing mudslides and even truckers weighing their own trucks and estimating tare weights.

The degree of Westar’s mismanagement of the TFL documented in auditing two cutting permits of this huge free farm licence points to the need for an immediate suspension of the licence and an immediate and comprehensive audit of the entire TFL.

A comprehensive audit should reveal just how much the area has. been highgraded, particularly the percentages of high, medium and low quality sites which have been cut and which remain uncut.

Based on the past high-grading and other factors, the annual allowable cut for the TFL must be significantly reduced.

If the company has failed to bring the tree farm up to standards during the three years since the audit was done, Tree Farm License No. 23 should be revoked.

Several years ago, an investigation by the B.C. Ombudsman confirmed the findings of forester Herb Hammond that basic statutory requirements were not being met in the management of TFL 1 in the Nass River Valley

It is common knowledge that TFL 3 in the Slocan Valley was creamed of its best timber over a decade ago. It is likely that

many other are in similar condition.

representatives and supporters of the forest industry but by. a Royal Commission with balanced repr tation of all stakehold extensive public involvement, adequate participant funding, and public hearing procedtires.

The poor performance of Westar on TFL No. 23 is prime evidence that the Ministry of Forest’s audit system fails to adequately look after the public interest. It also constitutes proof that companies cannot be trusted to manage a public resource without close and constant supervision.

The Ministry of Forests must be given definitive statutory requirements and regulations for forests management and along with it more authority and accountability to enforce these regulations.

It is also time to break up the large corporate ‘tenures over public land and involve communities to a much greater extent in forest management.

We only learned of the TFL No. 23 audit last week, nearly three years after the initial audit was done and after the recent public meeting held on the proposed sale of Westar to the giant U.S.-based Pope and Talbot.

What has the Ministry of Forests done to rectify the situation exposed three years ago in the audit? f

Has TFL No. 23 been suspended or revoked and if not why not?

What percentage of the NSR sites have been rehabilitated into productive forests since the audit was done?

Have roads been brought up to prescribed standard?

Have penalties been imposed for malpractice?

Will the Ministry of Forests utilize the opportunity provided by the violations of the contract and the indefinite termination of operations in TFL No. 23 to transition to sustainable forestry and increased value added?

Or will the Ministry of Forests simply

The irresponsible corporate forest mismanagement of these public tree farm licence areas which has been permitted by the Ministry of Forests constitutes more than adequate grounds for a full public investigation of all TFLs in this province, not by a commission loaded with

assign the management of TFL No. 23 to another fox? The public deserves answers to all of these questions. Now, before it is too late. Grant Copeland | - Director The Valhalla Society

continued from pege 6

The second thing is the city has just started updating its Official Community Plan, Castlegar’s blueprint for development over the next 10 to 20 years...

Duff says the new version of the Community Plan will be ready by summer and if the Plan has no problem with Allied’s rezoning re- quest, then neither does he.

But it’s not quite that simple. It never ii they say they are: plans.

And as such they are subject to

change. All that’s needed is a little pres- sure — usually economic.

What used to be service com-

Atug here... a pull there ... and voila!

mercial is suddenly industrial.

Acase in point is the very prop- erty proposed for the new mall. It wasn't so long ago that council was anxious for a bulk gasoline fa- cility to go in there. Right next to one major hotel and across the street from another.

Through a stroke of good for- tune the proposal fell through.

(Can you imagine what that would have done for the city’s im- age? High visitors on the new

terchange would have been star- ing eyeball-to-eyeball with a bulk gas outlet as they waited for the light to change. “So this is Castle- gar, Myrtle.” Wonderful.)

Even if the Official Community Plan rules out a mall in that area, that doesn’t mean there won't be a mall there.

The properties could still be re- zoned.

That raises another problem which Duff mentions: spot zoning.

We don’t have to look far to see

the trouble that spot zoning has created for us.

Jus t cast your eyes at 6th Av- enue in the south end.

Within 10 blocks we have a res- idential neighborhood, a recre- ation complex, an overnight RV

urches, heavy

trial business, a lumber yard and more residential.

It’s a planner’s nightmare.

And a major headache for those living and working in the area. With so many varied uses and competing interests, there are a

bucketful of problems.

Planning a city is like building a house.

You have a set of plans, but as you start building you may decide to change a few things — like the location of the bathroom and the entrance.

Of course, there’s no reason why you can’t change your house plans as long as it’s done carefully.

_ The same holds true for a com- munity plan.

current; that’s the reason for up- dating it every five years.

But it is important that any changes be well thought out.

Otherwise, like the house builder in a hurry, we could end up with an outside entrance that leads into the bathroom.