Page 4, The Herald, Tuesday, July 24, 1979 TERRACE/KITIMAT daily herald Published by Sterling Publishers General Of, ce = 438-6157 Circulation - 635-6337 GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland EDITOR - Greg Middleton CIRCULATION- TERRACE. 495.6957 KITIMAT OF FICE - 632-2747 Published every weakday at 3212 Kalum Street, Terrace, 8.C. A member of Verified Circulation. Authorized as second class mail. Registration number 1201. Postage pald In cash, return postage guaranteed. NOTE OF COPYRIGHT . The Heratd retains full, camplete and sole copyright in any advertisement produced and-or any editorial or Photographic content pubilshed In the Heraid, Reproduction Is not permitted. . LETTERS TO THE EDITOR | Dear. Editor: Due to the short length of time we have left . until September to gather letters of support, we would appreciate the publicizing of the list of names and addresses. below. This will allow a faster support of the Two-Mile -School’s ening. If you. would like to.see the Two-Mile Elementary School kept open, it would be very helpful if you could write a letter of protest to any of the following persons. It would be appreciated if you could sent a copy of your letter to: Two- Mile Community Committee, David McCreery, RR. No.1, Box 12, ard Avenue, Hazelton, B.C. Pat McGeer, Mrs. Linda McDonald, Minister of Education, Hazelton School Trustee, Parliament Buildings, New Hazelton, B.C. toria, B.C. vieto Mrs. N, Harrison, Premier Bill Bennett, Vice-Chairman, Parliament Buildings, Boix 460, Victoria, B.C. . Terrace, B.C, Mr. Frank Howard, MLA Mr. M. Bergsma, Parliament Buildings, Director of Instruction, Victoria, BEC, Box 460, Terrace, B.C, Mr. J.E. Cook, Chairman of the School Boagd, Box 460, Terrace, B.C. The follo is a list of School Trustees. “Letters shoilld bé'sent to: School DistrictNo. 68° (Terrace), 3211 Kenny Street, Box 460,.Terrace, . B.C. . ) Mra. E. Johnson Mr. J. Babcock Mrs, J. Krause Mrs. D. Cornell Mr. D.W. Brewer Mr. G. Williams Respectfully yours, Two-Milé Community Committee Lillian Gogag Secretary MLA’s REPORT by Frank Howard Have you heard of BCBC? Probably, but as with so many other alphabetical contractions, the label hides the organization underneath. The full name of the organization is British Columbia Buildings Cor- poration. It is a Crown Corporation set up by the Social Credit government. The purpose of BCBC is to own the public bulldings which you, the taxpayer, paid for and then to rent those buildings back to your government. . [think you are entitled to ask whether this is tom- foolery or a valuable, helpful thing to do. If we ask the question~is it valuable to the Social: Credit | government-the answer ig yes. - By setting up BCBC the Socreds have been able to say that there are fewer government employees. The government employees who used to work for the Department of Public Works are now working for BCBC, which is a separate agency just as B.C. Hydro is a sep ‘rate agency. By setting up BCBC the government has been able to hide the fact that we are borrowing money and going into debt to build public buildings. The last annual report of BCBC shows that we have a long term debt of $68,086,000 and that $35,096,000 of that was borrowed in 1979 ‘ Is it valuable to the people of B.C.? I think the an- swer is no for BCBC hides from us the fact that we are incurring a debt and are paying a net amount of in- terest on that debt of some $6,000,000 a year. Setting up BCBC also permitted the government to appoint a so-called Board of Directors arid pay that -Board Directors fees. The Chairman of the Board, for instance, gets paid $1,000 every quarter plus $225.00 per day for each day he spends on board business. I think it is patently dishonest for a government to take something which the people own, (in this case government buildings) give it away to a corporation (in this case BCBC) and then pay rent to that cor- poration for facilities which we the people owned in the firat place. What BCBC reflects is the so-called business-like approach to government which the Socreds say is fundamental to their philosphy. But, BCBC is not run on a business-like basis, It is a monopoly which can go into debt and then charge the tenant (you the taxpayer) whatever it likes to cover its expepnes and the cost of servicing that debt. This is chicdnery and no self-respecting businessman would have anything to do with such an arrangement, “Usually about this time of year, Chard gets a bit disenchanted with garden ing.”” ‘ CALGARY (CP) — Jim Craig has the perfect job for a hot, muggy summer day when the temperature is in the mid-20s, . Cralg makes ice and lots of it. In &n average year, he oversees the manufacture of 7,000 tons of the frozen stuff at Alberta Ice Co. Lid., which has been making ice since 1912. Tee is atill in demand, even in an age of modern refrigeration, especially in the warm months from June to September when the plant produces about 5,000 tons of its annual output, “Some people seem to think that ice is a dying business," says Cralg, superintendent of the company. “I don’t know where they think all the ice they get at service stations and | INHOT WEATHER Ice business still thrives restaurants comes from,” But the ice business is different from the days of the kitchen ice box when large ice btocks were delivered door-to-door. Craig, who joined Alberta Ice in 1946, has his own place in history. In the early 19608, he made the last home delivery of an ice block in Calgary — to an oldtimer who was late switching to a modern refrigerator. Today, almost all of the ice made at Alberta Ice is bound .for the commercial and . industrial market in Calgary and southern Alberta. About 60 per cent of the company’s product is sold as crushed ice and the remaizider as large blocks. Bars, restaurants, hospitals and 300 con- venience stores and service Stations are among the largest users of ice. Even sparta teams use the ice to pack sore limbs. The railways stlll buy ice but in far smaller quantities than before the arrival of the modern refrigerator and so does the province’s fishing industry to pack Its catch, “The army is a good cus- tomer in the summer,” saya Craig. The military buys ice to provide water and food storage for troops par- licipating in war games at Camp Wainwright. Manufacturing the Ice ts a simple but specialized task which employs up to 15 during the summer peak, Tap water 1s filtered at the plant and then poured into reclangular moulds of about halia cubic metre. Hot air is injected into the water — to remove any cloudiness in the resulting ice — ‘and several moulds are lowered together into a huge vat of brine at about minus 100. The brine draws the heat out of the water and a block of ice appearg within a few minutes. The block can be beoken into various sizes of cubes, placed in bags and marketed. 2 0 * “People think we put the cold into the water to make ice," says Craig. “But, actually, it's the reverse. We take the heat water," To overcome the seasonal fluctuation in the ice ness, Al Ice has diversified somewhat and out of the now acts a5 a service con-_ “tractor to CP Rail.’ Alberta Tce crews clean up after railway accidents, look after shipments: of perishable goods and even adjust loads of lumber coming into the Calgary yards. — , . OTTAWA (CP) Although they may not know it, thousands of Canadians face severe penalties and even loss of property — for hot registering land they own in the United States by Aug.2. | Embarrassed acknowledge that they have been inefficient in informing these Canadians of the need to register land and are considering giving them some form of special dispensation, But they also say they are not sure which lan- dholders need to register. For example, a small, vacation home on it may, or may nol, be covered under the act. And nobody knows how American officials weil-treed lot with a - LAND REGISTRATION Americans fail to warn us | By STEPHEN SCOTT many Canadians are involved, except it is assumed there must be thousands with property just over the border. The situation is this: In February the United States government, concerned that Arab oil money might be buying up too much agricultural land, passed the Agriculture Forelgn Disclosure Act. Under the act, all holders of one acre or more used for agri- culture, forestry or timber production must register it with local county officials by Aug. 2, Registration is necessary if the land has been in- production in the last.five years. - Non-registration by the deadline means a fine equal to 25 per cent of the value of the property, Non-payment of the fine could mean ex- propriation, But, as an official in the U.S. Embassy here acknowledged, a program to tell Canadian landowners of the new act failed, One interpretation of the act has been that a lot with growing trees can be considered productive and thus must be regis- tered. That could cover considerable vacation Property. The agriculture department in Washington. promised a clarifying news release last week but nothing had shown by Monday. An information offleer speculated that President Carter's cabinet changes have left nobody to an- swer queries from Ot- tawa, The embassy official said officials last week were considering forgiving the penalty for Canadians who missed the registration deadiine. But no decision had been relayed here, The external affairs department has been concerned about the situation and has made inquiries in Washington. bong awtile, the em- ssy said the necessary forms are being sent here from Washington. Ca- nadians can gel them by writing to the agriculture attache. An official suggested that any Canadian who Owns an acre or more of Agriculture or treed land send for a form. “Hopefully we'll have some leniency for late filers.” Inflation continues to rise By JOHN FERGUSON OTTAWA (CP) — When the government introduced wage and price controls in 1975, it predicted the in- flation rate would drop to four per cent by the the final year of the program in 1978, Actual rate of inflation in 1978: nine per cent. Last fall, when former fi- nance minister Jean Chretien introduced what was to be the final budget of the Liberal government, he predicted inflation would drop te 6.5 per cent.in 1979, Al about the same time, the Conference Board in. Canada, a private business service organization, predicted the inflation rate this year would be "in the range of 7.5 per cent,” This was followed by several other pitivate predictions for the 1979" In- flation rate ranging from:a low of 6.5 per cent by Enform- étrica, another forecasting agency, to 7.4 per cent by the Toronto-Dominion Bank, seven per cent by the Bank of Nova Scotia and 7.4 per cent by Wood Gundy Ltd, of Toronto, Current rate of inflation: 8.9 per cent, And the Conference Board released another review of the economy this week that predicted inflation would average 9.2 per cent this year, up from a prediction of 8.3 per cent issued just three months ago. Does anyone really know what the inflation rate will A review of various government and private sector predictions over the last few years indicates that the simple answer is no. - “No forecaster willéver be right consistently,” says Nathan Laurie, director of national economic forecasting for the con- ference board. Swings in food prices, energy cost increases or even the: devaluation of the dollar, which makes imports more expensive, are juat’ too difficult to foresee ac- curately. “People need forecasts and if you don’t give them ane, they'll have to come with one of their own,” he says. But both the forecaster | and the user "have to recognize that the forecasts wil most probably be wrong.” Laurie argues that th. forecasts at least represent an educated guess of the range of inflation. Labor unions use the predictions when they sit down at the, bargaining table and businessmen use them when they try to estimate what might happen to their costs over the next year. “If we didn't do this, the union may say itneeds 20 per cent and management might think three per cent. A forecast may be wrong but at - least It's a common meeting ground.” _ But increasingly, labor unions are refusing to accept these inaccurate projections and are bargaining for cost- of-living clauses in collective agreements. ' . cents plus postage. LAW TALK According to a recent story in the Toronto Globe and Mail, federal immigration officials acknowledge that anyone with a business sense and about $150,000 can immigrate to Canada almost automatically. Immigration regulations iabel this pérsoh an en- trepreneur He is defined as a person wanting to immigrate to Canada who intends to start or purchase a controlling interest in a Canadian business in which at least five Canadians or permanent residents will be employed, _ Immigration officials say it is an entrepreneur's drive and ability, rather than his money, that merits special preference for this class of immigrant. The entrepreneur category is an example of how Immigration Canada interprets. immigration regulations, which were designed to admit to Canada those immigrants that the government feels will. contribute most to society. . . In addition to this criterion, there are many others by which a peraon can quality to immigrate to Canada. But attaining landed immigrant status is not always easy, partly because of Canada’s economic by Miguel Moya. _ Ssituaiion.- Many Canadians have no work and ‘seriously question the desirability of adding to the country’s working population, Yet Canada has, to a large ex- tent, been builé by immigrants and the government will probably continue to admit persons who can contribute to our country, One way in which a person can obtain landed im- migrant status is to be sponsored by a relative. Generally, the relatives who may be sponsored are close relatives who are likely to be dependent on their relative in Canada. ; Relatives who can be sponsored include: a husband or wife, a husband or wife to be, and an unmarried sou or daughter under 21. Under certain conditions, parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces, and grandsons and granddaughters can also be sponsored. _ Vancouver lawyer Kit Rigg, who handles- many immigration cases, says a common misconception is that any person will qualify as a sponsor. “But basically, for all practical purposes, there's nothing a friend or cousin can do,” he explains. “There’s no procedure under the Act for a friend or cousin to assiat you in getting landed immigrant status.”’ A person who acts as a sponsor is required to accept certain responsibilities. He or she must give a written - undertaking to Immigration Canada that he will provide lodging, care and maintenance for up to 10 years for the one he is sponsoring and any ac- companying dependents. Ti. sponsorship will not be approved if immigration ““offici.Js are not satisfied the sponsor wilt be able to fulfill this undertaking. If the federal or provincial government must sup- port a sponsored immigrant, they can collect their costs from the sponsor. However, this does not apply to unemployment insurance, old age pension or Canada Pension Plan. ' The Act also includes provisions to assist Con- vention refugees in obtaining landed immigrant status. A Convention refugee is a person who faces persecution in his or her country. As with other applicants for landed immigrant status, a Convention refugee must satisfy an im- migration official that he or she will be able to become successfully established in Canada. Retired persons may also be granted landed: im- . Migrant status if the visa officer assessing thelr ap- Plication decides they will be able to become suc- cessfully established in Canade. An important con- sideration is whether these applicants have sufficient financial resources to support themselves and ac- companying dependents without receiving financial assistance from government, All other applicants for landed immigrant status, other than sponsored relatives, Convention refugees ‘and retired persons, must qualify under a point system, This system is intended to make the selection of landed immigrants a more objective process by reducing the amount of discretion in the hands of immigration officials, The point system reflects the government's ideas as to the qualities it wants its immigrants to have, It favors persons who speak English or French, who have the skills needed in an industrial soctety and who fill gaps in Canada’s labor market. _ How does the point system work? A person who applies for landed immigrant status recelyes points in 10 categories. The number any applicant must obtain depends on what type of applicant he or she is: an assisted relative, an entrepreneur, a self-amployed - person or & person employed by someone else. An assisted relative is a person related to someone in Canada who is not a close enough relative to act asa sponsor. The assisted relative will probably be granted landed immigrant status if he or she obtains the required number of points in the 10 categories and if his or her relative in Canada has given a written undertaking to provide for lodging, care and main- tenance for five years. Important categories in the point system include the amount of education the applicant hag had, specific vocational preparation and the job demand in his or her field. Points are also awarded for having arranged acceptable employment, age and a knowledge of French or English. ’ Rigg points out that employment requirements are the most difficult to fulfill. “The one that really hits people is the requirement of a job or a job offer,” he says. ''An immigration visa won't be issued unless you have a job or work in an area where there is some “Pe pmon dss no ha 4 person doea not have a job, 10 can be deducted, he ads. Hob, 10 points ean For more information contact the People’s Law School for its booklet on Immigration Law Coat is 50 Write to 2110-C West 12th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. or call 734-1126, ;