| Herbal regs
| termed just ©
acash grab |

THE FEDERAL government's announcement March 25 to

: Tegulate herbal remedies is simply a government cash grab,

Says a local health food store owner.

4 . Greta Brorup, owner of Dynamic Health Service, said

4 more regulation isn’t necessary because there's no cvi-

i dence herbs are harming people.

~. Federal health minister Allan Rock, however, says the

4 industry needs governance to ensure Canadians have betler

a access to a variety of safe natural health products,

_ +Brorup: said-the health food industry is currently repu--
lated by the Food and Drugs Act, which does a fine job of
ensuring products are safe. a

**You never hear of people dying of herbal remedies,”
she said, “If the government wanted to protect people
_from harming themselves, they’d protect them from illegal
drugs, not this.” ,
~ Brorup added that most of her customers are very edu-
cated, and don’t need the government’s stamp of approval
fo use natural health food producis,
“It’s only a money game,” she said of the government's
decision to regulate the industry.
Since more than half of all Canadians use natural food
_ Supplements, she says the government is trying to cash in
on a profitable market.
She fears the government will start overtaxing manufac-
. turers of herbal products, which, in tum, would jack up

Rrra et a Tee ag SS,

Loner

"2:

See

Se ae a RN eet

: ’ store prices,

3 One good thing regulation will do, says Brorup, is inform
4 the public better of the use of natural health products.

i She said the regulatory body’s stict labelling will advise
i people how to use natural medicine and inform the public

of its medicinal effects,

The new federal Office of Natural Health Products will
open next year, It will be made up of experts who will
f evaluate health products as well as control licensing of
i health food stores, monitor approved herbal products, and
u assess pre-market licensing.
\

; Y2kK fix now at $250,000

Beevers

CITY COUNCILLORS
were aware three ycars ago
that the new city computer

evenlual upgrade to make its
specialized municipal
government software Year
2000-compliant would come

quired in the new millen-
nium, Vadim conducted a
major redesign of the soft-

system they were buying ware.
: would not work in the year in at around half of current Councillor David Hull
2000, estimates. said that included moving
They did not, however, While still expressing the software up from a DOS

frustiation over the tum of
events, councillors said
they're now confident based
on meetings between city
staff and Vadim that the up-
‘grade: is“hecessary ‘and’ that ©
the céstis justified: =.
’ Rather than simply fixin
all the lines of code to
ensure all programs could
handle four-digit dates re-

suspect the final bill for the

expected upgrade to handle
; the millennium bug would
, likely top $250,000.

‘We knew about it,’’ said
councillor:«"Val- George
“But we didn't: “know : it’
wouid be this much.’ °

Mayor Jack Talstra said
all indications at ihe time
were thal Vadim Software’s

to a Windows platform and
overhauling major parts of
cach program.

“We're not really buying
an uperade,’” Hull said,

buying is new software,’”
Other municipalities on
the new system have found
“its use of larger files and
more graphics have slowed

“Let's, face it what ‘we'Fe

JUST ONE of the herbal remedies to be requlated by a new federal office is held
by local health food store owner Greta Brorup. She and other store owners say
the move is simply another way for the government to raise money.

operations down and forced
addition of more hardware
— which also boosted up-
grade costs.

In 1996, the city spent
nearly $250,000 on Vadim's
system, which replaced the
city’s old mainframe com-
puter with a system of
networked PCs. Software
firm Concorde had ceased to
support the software used by

the mainframe)...

Support’ is essential be-

cause municipal ” software
has to be adjusted each year
to reflect changes in legisla-
tion, taxation and how the

City knew computers wouldn’t work

cily operates. For that tea-
son, hanging on for a few
years with the old Concorde
system was not an option,

“They abandoned us es-
sentially,”’ Hull said. “‘And
at that point we bad to make
a decision,”

And Vadim’s new system
was on the drawing board
but not yet ready.

Council has approved

spending. $235,000 on the

system but that could well
tise by another $30,000 iE it
proves too slow, forcing the
addition of a file/print server
at city hall.

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 7, 1999 - A3

~ News In Brief

Arson suspected

in Thornhill fire

TERRACE RCMP are looking for three or four
youths spotted near Desjardins and Koefed in
Thornhill on Saturday, March 27.

At about 11:30 p.m. the Thornhill fire department
was called to a small fire in an old boxcar, “There was
just minimal damage,’’ said RCMP investigating of-
ficer Jamie Saxton .

He said the youths, who RCMP believe are
responsible for the fire, were. secn al a distance and
were not able to be identified. ;

RCMP swoop down

on grow operations

MARCH WAS a busy month for the RCMP
serious crimes unit in Terrace.

The unit arrested and charged nine local residents in
four different hydroponic grow operations in Terrace
and Thornhill.

The largest marijuana bust took place March 31 in
the 3900 block of Desjardin. Avenue of Thornhill
where officers seized more than 3,000 plants of various
sizes. Officers’ consider the operation commercial.
Three people were charged with production of
marijuana, possession of marijuana for the purpose of
trafficking and thell of hydro.

The three other grow operations were all much small-
er in nature. Two people were arrested March 3 at a
home in the 2900 block of Apple Street on Terrace’s
south side, Later the same day, three adults were ar-
rested with starter and vegelative plants in the 4900
block of Medeck Avenue.

And on March 13, a resident of the Lucky Break
Trailer Court on Old Lakelse Lake Road in Thornhill,
was arrested with possession for the purposes of traf:
ficking with a small grow operation. ;

In-door grow operations have become very popular in
B,C. and this has resulted in the drug becoming an ex-
port commodity.

New highways manager
starts this week

A NEW district manager for the highways minis-
try started his new job yesterday,

Don Ramsay will oversee avalanche crews, electric
crews and radio activily in the Terrace and Kitimat area:
as Well as the Nass Valley and Hwyi6 on both sides of
Terrace. .

Ramsay will also be the regional manager of rehabili-
tation and maintenance, placing him in charge of
paving, ditching, and bridge work.

Before coming here, he was the acting district high-
ways manager in Courtney, B.C.

Ramsay has been working for the ministry for five
years. Prior to that, he worked for B.C. Tel.

The position became vacant Jast year when Dan
Stead retired. It had been filled by acting district man-
agers.

We want you to play the game!

FASTBALL iS FUN!

A great way to meet new friends, old friends & perhaps dis-
cover your hidden talent for the game. Whatever the reason,
we want you to give it a try, mast of the league games are
played Tuesdays and Thursdays from épm fo 9pm.

CALUNG ALL BOYS!

HELP! Our numbers in our boys divisions for Squirts, Pee-Wees
and Bantams are too low. We must have more boys register
for the current season or we may be forced to drop these divi-
sions for the current year. We sincerely hope that this is not
going to be the case. Talk to your buddies and get them inter-
ested in the game. It is worth a try! If you are playing another
sport, perhaps fastball can be worked into your weekly sched-
ule 00. For more info one our boys divisions call Kelly at
635-7144,

There is a possibility of playing once a week in Kitimat if we
are able to register enough ployers for ot least one team in
each division.

od

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This is a fun and fast moving game played with the underhand windmill pitch and a larger ball. Pitches reach speeds of up
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Don't be alarmed though, we begin our fastball divisions with bball and gradually ease them into fastball. :

COACHES COACHES COACHES!!! ;
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For this reason we are constantly seeking aut new coaches. Time given is minimal, but the rewards are amazing. If you, or

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