on i Bie it 44 - Tha Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 29, 1994 OTERRACE’ STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 188 TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432 MODEM: 638-7247 Fish wars NO MATTER how many laws, rules and regula- tions are enacted, life always comes down to one thing — the need of a person to put food on his or her own table. A perfect example is the brewing fish war be- - tween Canada, the United States and American ~ states over the Pacific fishery. Once a bountiful free-for-all harvest, the fishery is now a depleted shadow of its former self. The fishery is probably one of the most regu- lated industries in North America. Complex regulations have been drafted which then affect the life cycle of a natural resource. In turn, catch- ing those fish has created a way of life not easily understood by outsiders. The combination of all of these results in a delicate circumstance. Any change means big problems. At the heart of this is the idea that everybody has a chance to snap up returning salmon at every juncture. But we’re relying on fewer and fewer genetic stocks to provide the bulk of B.C.’s salmon. The fewer stocks there are, the greater there is a chance that a disease could wipe out large amounts of fish now and for the future. The idea of the Pacific Salmon Treaty is that no country takes more than what its own rivers can produce, When one country, the United States, does take more, it puts pressure on Canadian salmon and Canadian fishermen. This pressure is as much economic and social as it is ecological. The inherent drive of humans to provide for themselves and for those in their care in the short term is often harmful over long - periods of time. That’s what is happening with the dispute be- tween Canada and the United States. The prob- lem is that we don’t often recognize this brutal . \tedlity until-it.is too late. Taxing times THE BRITISH group The Who said it best back in the 1960s with ‘“‘Won’t Get Fooled Again.’’ In it was a line that went something like this: . ‘Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss.’’ So it is with a House of Commons com- mittee’s recommendations for a new kind of Goods and Services Tax. The idea is to carve a couple of points off of the seven per cent. It?ll make up any loss by spread- ing the tax over more areas. Better yet, from a politician’s point of view, is the plan to hide the tax along with provincial sales taxes in the price of a good or service. That way the consumer won't be able to see the exact impact. Combining federal and provincial taxes is dangerous for consumers because it'll enable governments to add the bite to areas not now covered, Reading material is a good example. Books, magazines and periodicals are subject to the GST but not to the provincial tax. | It was horribly wrong of Brian Mulroney’s government to tax reading material. It would be equally as wrong to bring in a tax whereby the provincial government could easily and sneakily. do the same. : If there is any one area that should never be hit by taxation it’s reading. The ability to freely con- vey ideas and information is the cornerstone of any democracy. CONA y —? y GNA PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link czemde,. ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS COMMUNITY: Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter . OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher _DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janct Viveiros, Howie Oram CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Charlene Malthews Serving the Terrace area Published on Wednesday of each waek by Cariboo Presa (1980) Lid. at 4647 Lazelle Ave, Terrace, Brilish Columbia, . Stoties, photographs, Illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of (ha copyright holdets, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd, i's illustration repro services and advertising agencdes, , Reproduction in whole of In par, without written permission, is speciically prohibiled. Authorized as second-class mail pending the Pos! Office Dapartment, for payment of postage In cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents a te es i el pte Yi , Vg Wr, - commu oe yh de _ | va deer MY YOU'RE AVERY LOCKY MAN... COLLEAGUE HERE SECURED YOU YET ANOTHER PARK... sf \ plan a good dea VICTORIA — A few com- munity leaders with their own political agenda may not like the Vancouver Island Jand use plan, announced Wednesday by Premier Mike Harcourt in a television address. And the environmental fringe can howl all it wants about the government selling out to the multi-nationals.. The average British Columbian got a damned good deal. And so did future generations. I have no problem whal- soever buying into the plan In fact, if I were Harcourt, ’'d take it to the people and meet my critics on the hustings. Twenty-three new parks, in- cluding the Upper Carmanah, the Walbran and Tabhsish- Kwois isn’t too shabby, and '. the ‘Green Party, which at- tacked the land use plan as a sellout to big forest companies, should give its head a shake. An additional three per cent of Vancouver Island’s land base will be reserved for agri- culture, and another three per cent for local communities. That leaves 81 per cent for forestry. A real sleeper is the new Forest Land Reserve which will apply not only to Crown land dedicated to forestry, but to private forest land as well. FROMTHE CA HUBERT BEYER - And private forest land owners would be well advised to fa- miliarize themselves with the new niles. No land can, for instance, be removed from the reserve without the advice from local government, and if land is. remoyed, the owners must. repay some past tax benefits. Considering ihat privately- owned land has been the scene of some of the worst forest practices, this is a welcome move, Reaction to the land use plan was good. Aside from a few strange characters, such as Green = party = = members, stakeholders didn’t offer any substantive criticism. TWA chief Gerry Stoney said he hopes that this plan will end the ‘‘war in the woods.” Rick Careless of the B.C. Wildlife Society said that plan recognized the necd to set aside whole eco systems, as well as preserve jobs and sustain communities, The only demand he voiced was that any forest worker who loses his or her job as a result of this plan will get anather quality job. In his speech, Harcourt dealt with that point. A Forest Jobs Commissioner, he said, will be appointed to work with com- panies, unions, communities and the goverment to secure stab And three new community skills centres will be opened on Vancouver Island to provide workers with the training they need for'the jobs of iomorrow. On"* the ' potéiittal” job “loss * front, the premier said that over the next 12 months, fewer than 50 forestry jobs will be lost due to the implementation of the Jand use plan. And those workers, he promised, will get other, equally good jobs, “Pm not going to let those people down, and 1 stand by my pledge: not one forest worker will be left without the option to work in the forest as a result of the land use deci- sion,”’ he said. Harcourt didn’t miss the op- portunity to level a few broad- sides at past critics, at home and abroad. “You will be hearing from the radical fringe who oppose anything less than a complete ban on logging, but I have no intention of kow-towing to every crackpot with a megaphone,’ he sald. “And we're not going to be pushed around by a small group of well-financed interna- - tional agitators, who are spend- ing millions to spread lies about Brilish Columbia in an altempt to bully, blackmail and boycott us out of business.’’ I'll be interested to find out what her Majesty’s Loyal Op- position is going to say about the land use plan. Well, speak ‘of the devil,. as I wrote. this line; Gordon Campbell called. What does he think about the plan? ‘‘*T think Harcourt has just signed the layoff notices of thousands of forest workers on Vancouver Isiand. He sold them out.”’ Well, there you have it. Hat- court says not one worker will be without a job in the woods, . and Campbell predicts thou- sands of jobs lost. On this one, I’m with Harcourt. And I have a hunch that Campbell! will eat his words, come the next elec- tion. Wondering about by-laws ‘Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but Jet wasps and hornets break through.” Jonathan Swift, By-laws are written narrow enough to squelch upstarts yet | sufficiently vague and subjec- tive to allow wide interpreta- tion, and perpetual employ- ment of lawyers who must define them. Terrace is amending the 1966 zoning by-law regulating home businesses in residentiai areas, One stipulation of the proposed by-law is broad enough to corral a herd of fer- ral horses. It reads, ‘No one may establish a business that creates any noise, nuisance or on-street parking other than whal’s normally experienced in that residential zone.” A hornel’s nest, if ever one was man-made, Consider noise. Some residential zones experience, in summer, whining chain saws, snarling weed whackers, dron- ing lawn mowers, pulsating CIRCLE GAG IS LYM DING- Dow ? THROUGH BIEOCALS OKAY! The. FOREST W wt NEED CLAUDETTE SANDECKI Stereos, thumping boom cars, and motorbikes ridden at their noislest. Add to the cacophony bodypersons pounding out fender dents with hefty ham- ‘mers, barking dogs powered by Duracell dogfood, and ear- splitting skidoos test-driving a snowstorm down the center of * the street. Throw in a family or two of ‘swearing parents, teenagers backtalking down the block, and screaming NoBopY HAS VIC N aoe eer Si SIAN SATELLI OM THIN S THAT CRASHED ON =f "S$ TRAPLINE 72g toddlers throwing lantrums on the pavement. On such streets a revving 747 would feel right at zone. And what about on-street parking? Pve lived in areas where some neighbours made more daily car trips fom their homes than Vancouver black cabs serving International flights, How is the by-law enforce- ment officer to gauge normal parking? Will he station sum- mer students with clipboards to count ihe ins and outs at each driveway, or sictch counling cables the way clty council does before judging the traffic on a street facing multi-family construction? As for nuisance, how is it defined, and by whom? One man’s nuisance may be anoth- er man’s freedom of expres. sion. Plastic bags floating about bother me, but not everyone, Wrecked vehicles parked bumper to bumper along major roadways offend me, but not BB OKAY | BURN OFF ALL THE WIPENTIFICATION AND We 'tl gue SALT IT WITH RARE METALS | ROM OUR ASSAY SAMPLES! the parker. Weeds camouflag- ing enough Detroit steel to re- cycle into a fleet of D-Day tanks degrades. the neighbor- hoad in my eyes but not in others. Why should the normally ex- perienced noise, nuisance and random parking of a residential zone set the guidelines for a home-based entrepreneur? And what if several neighbors com- plain vociferously about the zone’s status quo? Will their opinions count in this matter of establishing the ~ zonc’s *“normal experience’’? None of this would excite me if it weren't I gel the feeling Terrace is amending this by- law in place, Thornhill resi- dents would be restricted in Pn ee se TT what newcomers here do best — living their own way. . This by-law makes me feel like a duck circled by sharks, : As Yogi Berra sald, ‘‘Ii’s deja vu all over again.’* amendment ©