AG - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 9, 1998

Bike fee found upsetting

Dear Sir:

I travelled recently on an
Air B.C. direct fight from
Terrace to Vancouver. I had
a small carry-on bag, as
cargo baggage I had one
moderately small backpack
(approx. 10kg) and my al-
loyed frame mountain bike
{approx. 12kg) already cor-
rectly prepared and con-
tainerized for transport in an
Air Canada poly-flight bag.

The employee at the
check-in counter advised me
that the special fee for
bicycle transport was now
$65 plus GST $4.55 for a
total $69.55, constituting
half of my personal fare.

When I asked for an ex-
planation, I was given some
Vague reason along the lines
that it involved ‘special han-
dling’, and that the sur-
charge increase, nearly 300
per cent of the former

charge, had = occurred
Canada-wide sometime in
Feb. 1998.

Since I work in marine
transport, I demanded to see
this hefty new tariff in pub-

SS
CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD

The Mail Bag

lished documentary form.
None of the airlines nor any
terminals could produce it in
print. In fact, my own travel
agency of great expertise,
had no record of this in-
crease cither.

Tt is - worth emphasizing
that my relatively light,
unitised bicycle was only
my second piece of cargo
baggage, my two picces
within the maximum weight
limit of 30kg - total as
permissible.

I have travelled extensive-
ly throughout Canada, U.S,
west coast and northern
Europe with my own
bicycle under the former
bike tariff of $25 with many
connections. Sometimes the
airlines had even clected to
waive ihe fee.

In this case, rather thaa at-
tempt to drive my truck 18
hours ta Vancouver (for a

business/leisure trip), or rent
a vehicle at exorbitant rates
in. the heavily congested
Lower Mainland, my inten-
tions were to bring my
bicycle with me down to the

‘cily as an alternate, more

environmentaily . friendly,
true costs accounted for, ef-
ficient form of local transit.

I felt like I'd been puni-
lively punished for doing
sol

This prohibitive bicycle
baggage surcharge for na-
tional and regional flights is
absolutely discriminatory
against those opting for
mare green-compatible
altemate modes of local
transit,

There are those who may
be economically challenged
ie. college and university
students with tight budgets,
or from a tourism perspec-
live, those wishing io

Coho claims all wrong

Dear Sir:

On a recent editorial page
you got the cartoon right on
fishing right. However your
editorial ‘Fish First’ was ab-
solute nonsense.

Steps were taken some
years ago to conserve steel-
head with the commercial
fleet.

Also T have been told by
DFO officers that if there
ever was a steelhead crisis it
was very overblown and
most of the measures taken
by the commercial fleet
(blue box) were as they put
it, ‘A sop to the sporties up
Tiver.””

Whether this was true or
not it is obvious that this
current coho crisis is being
used io destroy the small
commercial fishing boat
fleet. But of course that’s
what the sports sector al-
ways wanted.

However by reading Noel
Gyger’s letter which uses
the nonsensical coho catch
figures’ of 2 per cent and 4
per cent, I can see where the
sports sector is coming
from.

I just want to point out
that unlike the commercial

sector, the sports fishermen
have had no accountability
for years.

The sports figure of $1.2
billion — or is it $1.6 bil-
lion -—- to the B.C. economy
is part fact, part fiction. The
figures that Noel Gyger uses
are pure fantasy.

Tt doesn’t take a rocket
scientist ta see that while
there may be a problem with
some coho runs in the
Skeena, it is being used to
set the sports against the
commercial fishermen.

ms Ministry of

RIFISH = Environment,
OLUMBIA Lands and Parks

hospitality stakeholders.

The draft Angling Use Plan for the Bulkley River is now
available for public review and comment.

The recommendations are consensus-based and represent
the views of a diverse group of area angling, tourism and

The plan aims to maintain quality angling opportunities,
while sustaining the important angling guide industry and
also enhancing tourism opportunities in northwest B.C, |
The plan is consistent with Ministry objectives to pratect
and conserve steelhead populations on the Bulkley River.

There is an old saying, fig-
ures don’t lie but fiars love
using figures. Mr. Gyger
and The Terrace Standard
should be aware of ‘this!

Dennis Peacock,

4

tour/travel both domestical-
ly or foreign as Canadians.

It is also wrong to ar-
bitrarily raise a public trans-
port. tariff unilaterally
without any notification to
travel agencies or the gener-
al public, and also not to be
able to produce such altered
tariff in writing in spite of
my repeated requests at
every location questioned.

Bicycling as a form of
sport, health conscious com-
munity endeavour, job com-
muting, eco-tourism, and as
a lessened ecological foot-
print in busy urban corridors
cross-Canada.. is growing
phenomenally, but this new
airline tariff is an extreme’
deterrent and disincentive
striking at the very cardio
heart of cycling’s positive
attributes,

And once again in the eco-
nomically depressed, forgot-
ten northern and interior of
Tural Canada, where
yegional flights are already
very expensive, roads are
inferior. and less weather
teliable for vehicular travel,
where airline service con-
tinues to deteriorate, where
a way of life is increasingly
becoming almost extinct in
a two-tiered == systemic

demise, it puts us hinter-

lands at yet another com-
paralive disadvantage,

Gerald Bloomer,

Kitimat, B.C.

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“1.” The Nisga’a will be subject to all provincial and federal taxes and are the first
ee aboriginal group in Canada to agree to give up their Indian Act tax exemptions,

Ege of Private land is not part of the Nisga’a final agreement and won't be on the table in any
_ ©», treaties the:B.C, government negotiates. When all treaties are complete, the total amount .
“of land held by First Nations will be proportional to their population — less than 5%,

The Nisga'a Government

~The Treaty allows the Nisga’a people to govern themselves in a way comparable
‘to'a municipal government. The Canadian Constitution, the Charter of Rights |

The Land

Dawn Sewn ei ae as

Copies of the document are available from ministry
offices in Smithers, and from the regional website at
www.elp.gov.be.ca\ske,

and Freedoms, and the Criminal Code will apply to the Nisga'a people,

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““members-to vote with their conscience, not along party lines. A vote will also be held:in the
>» Federal Parliament in Ottawa. The Nisga’a people will hold their own ratification vote.

The deadline for comments is Friday, Oct. 30/98. ne cee Snes Bo : ; a, : a ee

A Public Process

Sores con. “Over 400 public meetings were held, and an all-party committee of ;
“i... >>. the legislature travelled B.C. to hear views on the Nisga’a and other treaties.
et The Agreement in Principle has been widely available since 1996.

A Cost Shared by All Canadians
“BC. taxpayers will pay less than 1/4th of the total cash cost of $312 million,
spread over fifteen years, while Canadian taxpayers outside of B.C. will pay the rest.

Public comment may be directed to Regional Fish and
Wildlife Manager Reid While at: Fax (250) 847-7728:
Email, rwhite@smithers.env.gov.be.ca; or mailed: to
Ministry offices at Bag 5000, Smithers, BC, YO! 2NO.

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Mud Bogg & Tuff ©
‘Truck Competition
Sept 13,
at 12:00 pm

Economic Certainty

Come out and ;
find out who's ye - KPMG and Price Waterhouse, two national accounting firms, have found that
got the __ the prolonged uncertainty of unresolved land claims has cost B.C. billions’
Toughtest of dollars in lost investment and jobs.

Truck around!!! 3 7

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Featuring:
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