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Page A4 — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 4, 1990

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cial thanks io al
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talents.’ .

EDITORIAL.

“Today the Nisga’a nation is in active
negotiation with the federal government
about how our land and resources are to
be shared — a goal that our people have’
insisted on since the country of Canada
was first formed, These negotiations are
expected to be completed by 1993. In the
meantime, the Nisga’a people are arnx-
ious to get on with serious economic
development.”

These sentences are contained in a
pamphlet handed out by the Nisga’a
Tribal Council at the recent Globe ’90
environmental trade show in Vancouver.
In effect, the pamphiet through very
clever writing and presentation, indicates
the Nisga’a of the Nass Valley consider
themselves a quasi-independent region
within Canada.

That’s not terribly surprising for the
Nisga’a are very smart, very determined
and, as their leaders always state, very
patient. It’s also an indication the

beyond

Nisga’a have been and continue to be :
very succesful in packaging a presenta-.-
tion designed for those who don’t live in |

the northwest but who make decisions
that affect all of us who live here. —
What’s lacking, however, is a line of
communication between the Nisga’a and
the rest of us who live in the northwest.
We've been given assurances over the
years that whatever happens with the
Nisga’a, any change will be of benefit to

‘the entire northwest.

If that is the case, perhaps it is time for
the Nisga’a — and the federal govern-
ment which is supposed to be negotiating
on our behalf — to start speaking direct-
ly to northwestern residents. Otherwise
we face a settlement about which we
have had no information. We won't
have had the chance to make comments
and we won’t have had a chance to deter-
mine if the settlement fits in with the
aspirations of the rest of us.

It’s here at last.

It’s: a ‘confusing time to be a Canadian: aa
The pushes and pulls inflicted upon our

society by politicians and others exerting
their particular agenda make for a
divisive, contradictory and harmful at-
titude.

That’s why it is a relief to finally ap-
proach the Stanley Cup. It’s the one
common denominator Canadians can
share. The long season leading to the
playoffs is particularly Canadian. Com-
pare it to the bureaucracy we have allow-
ed to run our lives — things take longer
to accomplish, you kind of lose track of
what is really going on and there’s a lot
of bafflegab to cut through.

"Hockey is also Canadian - because: it
- absorbs and encourages immigrants to
become part of our society. First it was
the Europeans, now it has players from
countries once behind the Iron Curtain
and the odd Russian for contrast. It’s a
value added commodity because Cana-
dians play in other countries and stands
as a fine export product.

So, for the next while, toss aside the
odious panderings of the politicians. En-
joy the one thing we all can understand.
Watch a couple games on the French
channel. Switch to English for Don

' Cherry during the intermission. Flames

versus Bruins in the final.

Memorable days

It was far from a ho-hum

weekend.
Sunday, March 25, Canada’s

Through

@

female hockey team won the
first women’s hockey cham- Bifocals .
pionship ever to be recognized by Claudette Sandecki ban

by the International Ide Hockey

Federation. On ice, the eight
teams who took part in the week

long tournament played by the
same rules that govern men’s
hockey — including body
checking.

Only off the ice were the dif-
ferences between the sexes
noticeable. .The women inter-
viewed spoke English articulate-
ly. None of that “Like, you
know’? drivel male athletes ladle
out to reporters. ;

Every player on the Canadian
team was cognizant she was
clearing a path for other girls to
follow, so she had to do her
best.

- Saturday, March 24 would
have been the 100th birthday of
Agnes Macphail, Canada’s first
female member of parliament.
She was the only woman elected

in 1921, the first federal election. -

in which women had the vote.
*. Macphail fought for the bet-

terment of farmers, supported

women’s civil rights, and work-

ed toward prison reform. Years

later, as one of Ontario’s first
women MPPs, she was.
responsible for Ontario's first
equal pay egislation, passed i in.
1951.

‘She never. married, Instead

she served=:as .an elected:
repiesenitative,: conducting cher 8 with

- occupation demonstrated: .her.’-

her career on hold in the wink”

legislative battles on men’s
terms. Even when parliamen-
tary life passed her by because
so much wheeling and dealing
took place in men’s washrooms,
she hoisted her chin a notch and
hung in, not wanting to be
labelled a quitter. She, too,
knew she was breaking trail for
allwomen. =~

Friday, March 23, -Rick and
Amanda Hansen became proud
parents of a daughter, Emma
Kathleen. Emma Kathleen's ar-
rival might have gone unherald-

- ed outside of her immediate

family had she not selected an
illustrious father.

She did a good job of picking
a role model mother, too.

Amanda Hansen is 30. years .
old, She married late, when here
career as a physiotherapist was
well established, Earning a liv.
ing at a less than run-of-the-mill

independence, So did putting ~
of an eyé to accompany Rick on

his two-year odyssey, :
Despite. the stresses” and

discomfatta’ ‘of “We rowridsttibe: |

world. ‘assignment, she too,
ittick. to“her.

successful conclusion,

These three disparate events,
each a happy situation in and of
itself,
memorable weekend. ;

Little Emma Hansen has
three excellent role madels to
emulate, Whether she opts for
an independent career, & life in
public service, or a stint in
Sports, she has a heroine to
emulate.

If, with all that, she ‘adopts

her father’s. credo, ‘Be the best
you can be”, and superimposes
his philosophy of shooting for

the stars, who knows how high.

she will climb?

We ‘need more wonderful

weekends.

SOUTHERNERS: REALLY. LOVE,
THE ARCTIC RERO MAGE

combine to make a.

Putting railway —

back on track

VICTORIA — The more I
look at the havoc government
interference has wrought in
Eastern Europe, the more I
believe that John Meade could
operate a railway more pro-
fitably than VIA Rail. Who is .
John Meade?

John Meade is a 40-year-old

. conductor ‘from Revelstoke .

who’s madder than hell
because he believes that our
railroads are run into the
ground by governments, com-
panies and unions, all of which
have failed to make the transi-
tion into the 20th century. .-

’ Meadé worked for Canadian
Pacific Railway for 17 years;
now he wants to run his own
show, He and three partners
have formed a company,
Boundary Transportation, and
hope to run their own railroad,
the North Okanagan branch
line, running south from the
CPR mainline to Lumby and

- Kelowna. He believes that the

line is next on the list of lines _
to be abandoned by the CPR.

What makes Meade think he
can do what the CPR -
couldn’t? A number of things.
First off, they plan to tie —
employees’ wages to profits, a
good incentive for increased
productivity.

The company would also do
away with the union rules that
allow workers to perform only
specified and specialized tasks.
This move, the company says,
would allow quicker turn:
around of cars, producing a |

_50-per-cent reduction in on-line -
‘car costs,

“This reduction would
eliminate millions of. dollars
worth of equipment,’ Boun-
dary Transportation said in a
brief presented to the public
forum on property taxation
which held province-wide hear-
ings last year,

Property taxes, the brief said,
are the real obstacle to the
private operation of low-
density rail service.

: “Boundary Transporiation has
come to ihe conclusion, after
three years of studying the __
subject, that the private opera-
tion of low-density rail in the
province is not feasible due to
the present rates of property

. taxation on their physical

corridors, then the province |

From the

Capital
by Hubert Beyer

plants and real nate,” the
brief said: a

_ BC. levies the highest taxes
per kilometre of track in
Canada on privately-owned
railways. In the case of CP
Rail, 40 per cent of all its taxes

are paid in British Columbia.

That puts a little different light
on the big, bad CPR wanting
to abandon rail lines in B.C.

Such excessive taxation
makes private railway com-
panies less and less competitive
compared with other carriers
such as trucks and government
railways, and the result is more
applications for rail line aban-
‘donment.

“If direct rail service is
to continue beyond the
main line corridors,
then the province must
cease using the rail in-
frastructure as a vehi-
cle for transfer - of :
payments from the
federal. government to
the lower levels.”

Here’s an example. Two

- years ago, CP Rail was |

ordered to continue operating
the Boundary Subdivision line
in the Kootenays.. Last year,

_CP Rail was able to claim a

$500,000 subsidy for tosses in-
curred on the western 16!
miles of the line. Of that

$900,000, a whopping $553,000

was for properly taxes.
That isn’t something your

friendly nelghbourhood
- premier tells you when he -

bashes eastern institutions, i is
it? Here's what Boundary

Transportation's John Meade —

has to say about the property

‘tax grab.

“If direct rail service is to
continue beyond the main line

must ¢ cease using. the rail in-

frastructure as a vehicle for |
transfer of ‘payments from the
federal government to the
lower levels.

“The present rate of taxa-
tion on assets of $5,500 or
more per Jineak mile of rail line
amounts to between 10 per _
cent and 25 per cent of poten-

.. tial gross revenues 4 regional

carrier could expect to ‘
generate. .

“These exorbitant taxes are a
direct result of the assessment
commissioner’s statutory rates
for railway right-of-way and
track in place.”

Meade says the province has
two options. The first is to.
maintain present policies and.

. tax low-density rail service into
_ extinction. In that case, the :-

government would eventually..
lose all tax revenue potential.
the track, bridges and other.
structures represent, Mean- ‘
while, the government would:
have to absorb the cost of ac-
commodating increased traffic
on roads. That's one option. «
The other one is to: make the
necessary adjustments to the
property taxation structure and
allow the development of a :

healthy low-density rail service

by private operators. Shouldn’t
be too difficult a choice, con-
sidering this government's _
belief in private enterprise.

As I said at the outset,
nothing has made a better case
for private enterprise and
against government oppression
in the market place than the *
economic disaster brought’ on”
by decades of government

_ bungling in eastern Europe. +

The government has Boun-:.

_ dary Transportation's brief to...

the property tax hearings. My -
advice that cabinet’ take a good
look at it and start: ‘implemen-..
ting the 1 necessary changes, I...
for one would love to see John
Meade have a go at: running.
his rail line.

BT. TF WONDER IF.
THE ROMANCE woulD

FADE 1F THEY KWEW..

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