Page A4 — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 29, 1992

TERRACE STANDAR

Publisher

xe |

"ESTABLISHED APRIL27, 1688

Rod Link

Registration No. 7820 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C., V8G 188
Fax (604) 638-8432

Serving the Terrace ara, Published on Wedntdday of bach waek by Cariboo Prass (7969) Ltd. at 4647 Larsle Ave., Terrace, Brilsh Columbia.
Stories, photographs, Wustrations, designs and typestyi#s {0 the Terrace Startard are lie property of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd,, ts l-

Phone (604) 638-7283

lustraton repro services and advertising agencies.

Rrorodvetion in whoie or In pert, without written pemmissica, is specifically proniblied.
Authorized as second-class mit pending the Post Office Department. for payment of postage In cash,

Editor:
Rod Link.

Production Manager: -

Jeo. 2 deft Nagel — News/Community, Malcolm Baxter ~ News/Sports
-:) Rose Fisher — Frant Office Manager, Carolyn Anderson — Typesetter
. Arlane Watts — Typesetter, Susan Credgaur — Composing/Qarkroom, -
Janet Vivelras — Advertising Consultant, Sam Coliler — Advertising Consultant, °
, Charlene Matthews — Circulation Supervisor

Special thanks to all
our contributors and
correspondents for.
their time and
talents.

G@cna Edouard Credgeur

(UDITORIAT,

It would be nice to think of Terrace as an
isolated place, living in a bubble and un-

affected by outside events.

But it’s not..Consider the Westar. situa-
tion in the Hazeltons with two mills there
suffering from a lack of usable wood. It’s a
situation that’s gone .on’ for years’ and is
still not’ solved despite’ the transfer of
Westar’s wood licence to: Repap and sale
of the Carnaby milk to Repap. —

Repap has until this Friday to decide if it
will meet conditions laid down by the pro- _
vince as part of the sale approval.

What’s being proposed by. Repap in the
pitch it made to the province is a formal-
ized regional transfer plan for saw and
pulp logs. Repap has secured a chip supply
for its Prince Rupert pulp mill and expects

to utilize the Carnaby mill

logs back and forth from other of its opera-

tions.

Still to be figured out is the political and

year. There’ is to'bé a further increase of ©
two per cent this December and a cost of ©
living adjustment next- August for a total
contract life of 32 months, Annual
unionized wage increases across the coun- _
try averaged 1.3 per: cent in May, down
from 2.8 per cent in April and 2.7 per cent.-

in March. Da,

And, given the tight economic squeeze.
faced by the province and by its long suf-
fering servants - the taxpayers - the in-

Inthe middle |
, social angle of the deal. Repap must. make
room for investment by a native company

_ in the deal as one of the sale conditions

' possibilities.

and the province has set up what it cheer--
fully calls an “action group’’ to pursue
‘further employment and remanufacturing Ke

x

All of this affects Terrace because as the
northwest regional service centre, we’re

. between the Hazeltons and Prince Rupert.

and shifting

' The health of those areas determines the
overall health of our economy. How Repap
makes out in the end ultimately plays a
role in the operations of its mill here.

Critics of forest policy can point out the
possible hazardous impact of placing a lot
of wood under one company’s roof. Back-
ers of the deal say: a rationalization of the
wood supply and its use is a requirement of
the modern age. And the rest of us should

be aware that tremulous times still exist for

i

my.

the backbone of our area. e

Unwise move |
The: provincial government has done. the
wrong thing in negotiating the recent con-
tract with its major labour pool, the B.C.
Government Employees’ Union. :
Wages increasés.of $1 an hour across the
board - amounting to between 5.5 and 6
_per cent — on an average hourly wage of
$17.64 outstrip the. level of inflation. Latest .
published figures, on an annual rate, put
inflatidn HEE. W"BePEine ii Yune. sind micsia a
‘The’ Conitact'is*tetrdactive to July of last:.--

crease doesn’t match the ability to pay. |
The increase is a far cry from. the two per.
cent a year the government was talking
about when it began negotiating. That kind
of offer seemed most. appropriate in.
response to the times in which we live. ©
While everyorie of us can understand the
desire of the employees union to-strike the
-best.deal possible, the overtiding consider. . «
ation “ofa massive’ deficit and ’stugeling®
- economy should not have been forgotten.
Governments should only spend money.
when it is first created by a health econo-

tag applies here:

-Some quarters allege the deal’ is a
sweetheart arrangement between the NDP
‘and labour. That kind of thing is hard to
pin down. Yet it does indicate that any:
"government is subject. to close. scrutiny,
Clearly, the ‘do.as I say and not as.I- do’

Only 10 days’ to showtime,

the due date of our second
grandchild. We supporting ac-
tors have rehearsed our par
as much as we can. —
_ Father’s timed the route to
the hospital on two emergency
runs with an eighteen-month-
old suffering from a severe
cold, His part in the delivery
room he cannot prepare for; he
has instead topped up the truck
with gasoline,

Each night for weeks he’s
subbed for Mom _ putting the
child to bed. He’s groggy from
losing sleep walking the floor
with a teething ‘toddler, and
driving to the. convenience
store at. odd ‘hours for
comdogs and popsicles in any
flavor but lime and orange.

Planning for baby

I've been asked to -babysit

the firstborn during — the
dramatic. finale to this nine
month buildup. I get the casy
job of changing diapers, refill-
ing juice bottles, and drying

tears until, Father has the -.
chance, and the composure, to, °

take over. 32) Sus
My stay-at-home role ‘satis-

fies. me. Twice in the past, .

while wailing for a doctor to.

examine one of ‘my children

‘fot, a tidy - ailment; I--almost
fainted. Delivery rooms aren’t
a place for the faint-hearted, -

I take seriously my fitst ex-

perience in a supporting rote at’

a birth. At bedtime, I undress
as precisely as the Rainman —
first the T-shirt spread out up-

side down on.a chair, with the.
tail rolled up. Next the slacks,

Through
Bifocals

by Claudette Sandecki -

also upside down. Socks
turned right. side -out... If I
have to scramble like an F18
fighter pilot, I’m set.

Should the birth happen dur-
ing daylight, my bicycle will
carry me the few blocks ta.our
daughter’s home. If, however,
the newborn plots a pre-dawn
arrival, Grandpa will drop me
off. He'll need the truck.
Though given no specific task,

if past experience holds tre,

he’ll be a floater, busier than a
Victoria paper shredder after
ai upset election.

Library books of baby names
have . been paged and
pondered, name combinations

tested, and inilials checked far:
“ vabsurdities.. Wee. sleepers, .~
“boxed for months, have been -

laundered in’ Ivory Snow,

dried -in-July. sunshine, -and
‘stacked in: anticipation of ‘an-.

* other gi

“A: second criby its -hand-me-

down mattress zippered into
waterproof, easy-to-clean,

‘tear-resistant ., boat; topping, .
waits to: be. assembled. “Sup- -

plies of newborm:sized diapers
are stockpiled.

Lately. Mother-to-be has

begun crossing. off the

calendar as eagerly as a pre-
schooler counting down the
days to St. Nick’s visit. her
feet are so puffed she can’t
feel her toes. It’s been weeks
since she saw them. Even tilt
steering no longer accom-
modates her bulging waistline,

She’s further stressed by
doctors withdrawing their ser-
vices like piqued construction

“workers,

But, while we've rehearsed

‘Our supporting roles, she — as

the lead, character — awaits
her cue to take center stage
relying on her single previous
performance months ago.

She says she remembers it

well. And she can’t wait’ to

take a bow; - ook

“HOsQU

aurio FRENZY !)
GONNA RAIN SOON!

7 isthere 4
fion rotating

*. VICTORIA -- "Hi, Hubert,
it’s Chris. I wonder if you can

- help. me with something?”
Now, I'll have you know that

a phone call from Chris
O'Connor, woodlands man-
ager at Lytton Lumber Lid.,
for any purpose other than
giving me hell for something I
wrote, is about as common as

fain in the Sahara desert...
‘iS Well, it turned out to be a’ nel
' rainy day in the Sahara. Chris

was mad at someone else,
namely B.C. Hydro, and for a
very good reason, as you will

 §@B.

At the heart of Chris’ anger.
is B.C. Hydro’s refusal to act
on a proposal by Canyon
Power Inc. to construct and

operate a 10 megawait co-

generation facility in Lytton.

. ‘The proposal incorporates

the best of all worlds. To start

~.. .with, the plant would create a
. ssecure power supply for the
. Village of Lytton and the

Fraser Canyon,

- Equally important, it would
provide Lytion Lumber with
‘an alternative power supply,

| Tlamely steam, for dry kilns

which are part of a $1.35 mil-
lion expansion to produce
value-added wood products.
Currently, the only alternative
to steam is propane.

The plant would create 20
permanent jobs, For an arca
whose population is about
1,500 (Lytton and environs),

that’s the equivalent of 20,000 |

jobs in the Lower Mainland.
But here’s the best part: the
proposed co-generation plant
would use wood waste as fuel,
allowing Lytton Lumber to
close down its beehive bumer
and dispose of its waste
through the co-generation
plant in a much more environ-
mentally friendly manner.
And finally, not a bad little
incentive, the project wouldn’t
cost B.C, Hydro and the tax- —
payers asolitary penny.
With all that going for it,
you'd think the project would
be welcomed by B.C. Hydro

with all the enthusiasm a
- Crown corporation can .

4

Time for B.C. Hydro >
to shake dust free —

From the
Capital

by Hubert Beyer

was

miusteriNot sO... -.:f ee aces

An exchange of letters be

- tween Canyon Power, the Vil-

‘lage of Lytton and B.C. .
Hydro, shows the Crown cor-
poration to be singularly

dense. Rather than getting of
‘its corporate rear end and

endorsing the project, B.C.
Hydro has been hiding behind
the excuse that, on the orders
of the provincial government,
it is currently conducting a
review of Independent Power
Production (IPP).

On the other hand, everyone
with a stake in the proposal,
Canyon Power, the Lytton Vil-
lage council, the Lytton Indian
band, and Lytton Lumber, in-
sists that, this project should be
considered apart from other
IPP projects for the simple
reason that it won’t cost B.C.
Hydro or the taxpayers any
money. _

As far as B.C. Hydro service
is concerned, Lytton might as
well be at the north pole. The
village is not part of a looped
circuit within the hydro grid.
_and, therefore, subject to the
frequent power failures. °

Between 1985 and 1990,
there were 25 outages, leaving
the town without power for a
total of about 87 hours. The
‘longest outage was on Decem-
ber 27,1990, when a fallen tree
left the town without elec-
tricity for more than 1:7 hours.

And despite numerous re-
quests from Lytton over the
years, B.C. Hydro has refused’
to do something about the
problem. [n fact, the Crown
corporation recently informed
ihe Thompson-Nicola
Regional District that plans to
complete the loop grid with a

line from Spences Bridge have

Br

Ce
eee!

it's Just THE NOON
RISE) IT LL PouR
Bown AGAIN BY
TWO O'CLOCK II,

[BACKED AROUND!
| GONNA CLEAR UP Now.

+:
eo

P WELL THE WIND HAS, S27 AND To THINK OF THE

YA MILLIONS WE WASTE

eens vee HE
—_,

= FR HE
CACHE
Pt:

been shelved... _; _

So why doesn’t B.C. Hydro.
jump al the chance of resolv=-.-.
ing the problem atnocostto =

itself? Fear, I’d say. With the

new government putting _
tighter and tighter controls on. «

the Crown corporations, naked... - .

fear is permeating the execu- -.
tive offices, and no-one makes:
a move, unless specifically in- —
structed by the government,

So, I thought Id go to the
guy who has been spooking
the Crown Corporation chiefs’
— Moe Sihota, minister of
labor and in charge of Crown
corps. Yes, Sihotais familiar —-
with the Canyon Power .
proposal for Lytton. And yes,
he promises to get off his duff
and do something about its im-
plementation, and do it soon.

"T agree that a co-gen plant

. like this one shouldn’t have to .

wait for the report on Indepen-
dent Power Production. And I. .
think I'll be able to do some- | -
thing about co-generating. =~

facilities fairly soon," Sihota ~~

told me in an interview.
One of the problems about
power generation, Sihota said,
was public perception. Ina |
recent survey, people were
asked whether British Colum-. ©
bia should export surplus Z
power to the U.S., and about
80percentsaidno, ©. *”
"Frankly, I think that’s:
crazy. Why nat export power. -
It’s there and it’s renewable.
We couldn’t ask fora better
export product," he said. ws
That’s why he wants to have ~

a complete report on Indepen: .

dent Power Production, but he
repeated that the Lytton pro-

" ject shouldn't be held up until”

that report is completed. ©. *:
We’re all waiting, Moe: 3.

ON
1 A

EEN Bee