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Wednesday’Aprit 1,°1992 m@-

THE FAR SIDE

By GARY LARSON

es

'© 1982 Universal Press Syndicate

“Well, here we are, my little chickadee.”

Glen Freeman | NEWS REPORTER

Members of the Hospital Employees’ -Union areone phone call away from a strike.

Results of an HEU rejec- tion vote were announced Friday. and the outcome was just as local union chair Jean Weir predicted — no deal.

The HEU voted 78 per cent against accepting a Health Labor Relations As- sociation offer of a five per cent increase over the next

“Castlegar voted 87.5 per cent against accepting their offer,” Weir said. “I think people in this area are espe- cially fed up after seeing that other unions are getting bet- ter treatment.”

To show their dismay, workers staged a three-hour study session at the Castle- gar hospital yesterday.

“I have pulled a certain

-| HEU ready to hit the bricks

number of members out,” Weir said, “but we have left some working. The last thing

—we want to do is affect pa-_

tient care.”

Weir also added that no HEU staff were pulled from the Mountain View Lodge, because “we wouldn’t want to upset the residents there.”

However, the HLRA’s

Martin Livingston says it’s |.

too late for that.

“This is the most disrup- tive job action the HEU could stage,” Livingston said,“b ith facili: ties cannot prepare for this type of action.”

Livingston added that the HEU is now demanding a 56 per cent increase in wages and benefits, down from 63 per cent last week.

Hospital Administrator Ken Talarico said that ser- vices would be curtailed should a strike be called.

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CALL THE NEWS

Glen Freeman NEWS REPORTER

Castlegar carpenters are as mad as hell, and they took to Selkirk College Monday to vent their frustrations.

About 45 members of the Kootenay District Council of Carpenters swarmed the college’s front entrance Monday to protest the awarding of jobs to out-of-town contractors.

“This protest is the end result of a lot of serious frustration on the part of locally unemployed people,” representative Len Embree said.

“There are all kinds of

area who are out of work. Why the hell should the (Selkirk College) board give work to out-of-towners.”

Embree added that those who marched on Selkirk “are not going to stand by and have all this work tendered to out-of- town, out-of-province people who refuse to put local people to work.”

The carpenters insist their action Monday was not only about jobs.

“This is also a matter of education,” said Embree, who also acts as a trustee on the board of the Carpentry Apprenticeship and Training Committee.

“The college board is passing up an opportunity to train and educate potential taxpayers,” Embree said.

College President Leo Perra says he can’t see what all the fuss is about.

local employment may be unfounded.

“It’s my understanding that most of the sub-contractors and sub-traders are local people,” Perra said.

Embree disagrees, though.

“They do have some sub- trades from the area over there, but the vast majority of the workers are from out of town,” he said.

As for training students in the field of carpentry, Perra says his hands are tied.

“We would love to provide that service, but we just don’t have the facilities right now,” he said.

skilled trades people in the Local MLA Ed Conroy said

Carpenters demand work

he was unaware of the protest, but added that his government will be addressing contracting out and labor problems when it presents its Fair Wages Policy to the B.C. legislature.

“In the past in B.C., non- union companies have underbid unions by one or two per cent, and then have paid their workers as much as 25 per cent less than union workers get paid,” Conroy said. “We'd like to change that.”

Conroy also added that employing local workers makes sense, saying money paid out will circulate in the local economy, benefitting Castlegar inthelongrun.

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‘Tm not too sure why they’re unhappy,” Perra said. “The college has been required to go to the lowest tender on jobs, by directives of the ministry.”

And Perra added that Embree’s concerns over non-

News photo by Glen Freeman

About 45 members of the Kootenay District Council of Carpenters protested at the Selkirk College Monday, and as this sign shows, they had no trouble expressing themselves.

Lightle’s killers get eight years

Ed Mills NEWS REPORTER A tiring and torturing process

finally came to an end Friday

for the family of murdered Castlegar native Mark Lightle.

Almost two years after the 28-year-old Lightle was beaten te death on a Calgary street, his killers were sent to prison.

David Ian Olson, 22, and Timothy Stuart Steer, 28, both of Calgary, were sentenced to eight years each Friday by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Waite in Calgary.

A jury found the two men guilty of manslaughter in Lightle’ death after a two week trial ended March 20.

“It’s been horrendous, just horrendous,” said Mark’s mother Colleen Lightle.

“It’s been a year and a half our life’s been on hold, hopefully we can get back to normal. Hopefully, now that we’ve seen some justice done, maybe, maybe the hurt will end,” she said.

Mark’s aunt, Chris Mac- Pherson of Castlegar, said the Crown prosecutors were preparing the family for a sentence of 3-5 years, so they are pleased with the outcome.

Still, MacPherson said the Zamily feels cheated by the

“We feel the Fastses system is too lax and unfair. We feel in light of the fact that Mark’s life is taken and is forever gone, that murder sentences in Canada should be longerterm,” MacPherson said

Lasca Creek a step backwards

Jonathan Green NEWS REPORTER

The Slocan Valley Watershed Alliance may have won one battle last week, but the war rages on.

Last Monday, Environment Minister John Cashore and Forests Minister Dan Miller made a joint announcement that deferred logging in the Hasty Creek watershed for 24 months.

The decision was ‘made to Commission on Resources and Environment a chance to carry out.a second-phase of regional land use p

Alliance director Richard Allin said the decision was a step in the right direction.

“We were pleased with the

deferral” he said. “It’s certainly good for Hasty Creek.”

But at the same time, the two ministers announced that road building in the Lasca Creek area would continue as planned while a local resource-use planning process identifies how the drainage will be managed on an integrated use basis.

The plan is scheduled to be completed this year, with timber harvesting to begin in the fall of 1993.

stated that in light of the Hasty Creek decision, the government has taken a step backwards at Lasca Creek.

“There’s a contradiction in the cabinet’s decision. They have ‘called for a delay in logging Hasty Creek pending’

improvements to the planning process, yet they are allowing the flawed process to continue in other valley watersheds.”

Allin continued by stating the importance of. establishing logging and road-building standards before any work is done, not during.

“The Owen commission may finally address these issues, but we’re not prepared to let our watersheds be logged under Integrated watershed

commission does its work.”

Lee Hutton of the Kootenay Planned Use Society said the government’s decision to proceed with Lasca Creek is like a slap in the face. He said that when Premier Mike Harcourt unveiled the Owen commission

in January, Lasca Creek was one of three areas considered contentious for a log around.

The government said a decision on the three areas would be announced: by the end of February to support the associated regional planning process.

Now, over a week after Miller and Cashore’s. announcement, Hutton says Lasca Creek has been overlooked.

“We feel a bit betrayed by

ment e they ‘J

said they would support the planning process and that included Lasca Creek,” he said.

The Lasca Creek area is about 10 kilometres north-east of Nelson.

Miller was unavailable for comment,