_Page 4, Tha Harald, Thursday, February 5 1981 a a TERE AWE. ALIA Circulation - 635-6357 We Aeon n rate eee eneenee omamanes 6 postage guaranteed General Otice - 615-6357 ; ’ Publisher — Garry Husak Editor — Pete Nadeau CLASS. ADS. - TERRACE . 435-4000 CIRCULATION . TERRACE - 635.6357 “1. Published every weekday af 3010 Kalum Street, Terrace. B.C. Authorized a5 second Registration number !2701. Postage paid in cash. return NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT The Herald retains tull. complete and sole copyright in any advertisement produced’ andar dny editorial or if , photographic confent published in fhe Herald. |... Reproduction is not permitted without the written \ bermissian of the Publisher, Li a . Py, +. Published by . Sterling Publishers daily herald | lass © mail. + et 7 LETTERS TO = THE EDITOR > .. To the Editor, dust a note to remind you : that Monday, February 16, is, Naticnal Heritage Day. “Last year when I urged the day be made a holiday, ; some newspapers said it wasn't necessary: that we -eouid just as easily mark Wee day and remember our . bujlt-up heritage without taking it off. The fact is, however, that Heyitage Day has been sigfound for some years and Anti we suggested that it San attention to it, = The ‘heritage Canada [Foundation has been given ihe mandate of trying to e some of the built- ip heritage of the nation, sthose buildings which give =a texture to our cities, tell been around for a long time Saund is likely to be around Sor a long time to come. 23 In short, we're in the : tinuity business. We're in the Save Energy, . iness.* There art ters “thousands of perfectly eperviceable buildings in aes country facing: the wrecker’ s ball for no good reason. All of them contain -vast amounts of stored-up energy: in every eight bricks there’s the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline. Most can be recycled effectively and efficiently at an enormous saving in cost. We're also in the em- ployment business. Renovation is more labour intensive than demolition. Though it's cheaper to recycle an old building than to tear it down and build a new one, the recycling provides more jobs. For these reasons alone we believe in heritage preservation. But we also think our cities would be pretty dull places in which to live if everything were brand . new, if there was nothing on our main streets or our side streets to remind us of our past or to suggest that the country hasn't a rich and varied history — and, therefore, arich and varied future. So we're in the national unity business, too. i With all best wishes, =° Pierre Berton Chairman of the Board of Governors a2. __ SKE ENA M.P. |ViEWPOINT by JIM FULTON Residents-of Skeena and the rest of British Columbia . have been receiving weather information from weather station PAPA for a number of years. The two weather- ships Vancouver" and “Quadra’’ have provided an immeasurably valuable service to fishermen, mariners, flyers and farmers, The federal liberal government has ‘ decided to do away with the weather station and replace it : with a new and untested technology. The so-called . alternative is not adequate. | “In 1978 the Department of Environment recommended : that the service be continued until 1984 so that an alter- ! mative source of Pacific weather data could be found. The i Department report said withdrawal of the weatherships i would have “a major impact west of the Rockies, in that advance warning of stormy weather may at times be Teduced to a point where the incidents of weather-related” i fatalities increase and unnecessary loas of property oc- northeast Pacific. ne nope me nemse emcee cure.” The government was told thal withdrawal of the service would also affect oceanography, search and fescue operations and weather communications in the Ih December, 1980 both the Minister of Fisheries and the Minister of National Defence said that weather data will pow be incomplete and inferior.” Last month the Pacific | feegional Director of the Atmospheric Environment ? Service said that the withdrawal of the ships will result in : a significant decline in the quality of weather reporting. tn eee essi st fact, the Canadian Oceanographic Society has estimated that the new system ‘(floating buoys and a satellite station) will only provide 10 percentof the information that PAPA presently provides. Meteorological. and ! “The buoys measure only surface pressure and water ; temperature. They are extremely unreliable (of six buoys : launched to-date, five failed in a few days). The satellite 3 eéntre, which was planned years ago, will now receive : Information direct from the weather satellite (which is an Improvement) but will not adda great deal to the present information. The pictures of cloud formations received on i this system are no replacement for the atmospheric i measurements that PAPA takes, 1 PAPA has also assisted in a large number of search and ; rescue cases and is helpful for SAR because of on-board ! equipment (helicopter pad, meiiical facilities, etc.). i Parlier liberal plans to scuttle the ships were cancelled ‘ beeause of a large public sutery. Like its failure to : Upgrade search and rescue on the west coast and its } mismanagement of the west coast fisheries, the liberals fmveonce again shown their insensitivity to the west. : "On behalf of the entire B.C. Caucuse of NDP Members } ol Parliament, I have written to the Minister of En- } vironment urging him to cancel the plans todo away with : PAPA. An important service like PAPA must be main- ‘ tained so that we can continue Getting the weather in- : formation we peed. [ TALKING. POLITICS. “This space offers your provincial and federat elected officials'a place to say their plece. Columns are selected on the basis of relevance, not party preference and are the opinions of the author not the editor or ‘this. _ Land dealing i is still profitable GRAND CENTRE, Alta. (CP) — In 1968, Clifford Reid bought about 39 hectares of commercial land in this northeastern Alberta town for $5,400 Almost 10 years later, in dune, 1977, Mondial In- vesiment Ltd. and Navus Management Ltd. bought the parcel for $325,000. In December, 1975, Grandbay Developments Lid. paid $1,480,-183 for the same land. And in March, 1980, Grandbay sold it to Carma Developers for $3,308,390 — an increase in value of more than 61.000 per cent lp about a dozen yearsn:> “I think it’s a reasonable Price . . . that’s why we haven't exactly panicked,” says Barry Wong, senior vice-president of Carma’s commercial and shopping centre division. What makes the price reasonable to Wong, and the legion of other developers who've swarmed into this area, is the Esso Hesources Canada Ltd. heavy oil project proposed fer nearby Cold Lake. Why Wong mentions panicking is because. the project has been held up since October, caught in the energy dispute between Alberta and Ottawa. With land prices driven up beyond wildest ex- pectations by the speculation surrounding the multi-billion project, Plenty of companies and people are sitting on premium-priced land. And they're unable to make the high returns they expected as long as the plant is in ‘limbo, or abeyanceas Premier Peter Lougheed termed it when be delayed approval of Esso's proposal pending a satisfactory energy agreement. Carma's plans to put upa shopping centre on about a quarter of the 39 hectares and subdivide the rest for housing have been delayed for a year, says Wong. “‘] don't think we're sorry “we went in. We're still optimistic something will happen up here.” Even without the plant, he says, there will be enough people to support the 21,000-square-metre shopping centre when It opens in 1983. ‘Wong's optimism — that even without the Esso plant the area is still ripe for development -— isn't priceslashing in residential market among the 4,600 people who live in Cold Lake and Grand Centre combined, four real estate firms in Grand Centre have cheed and small businesses are stretched thin with big in- yentories and even bigger interest charges. All have watched the boomtown — pyschology make scrubland precious, and now they're watching politics turn it into a risky Froposition.: Still, ‘some overnight millionaires do exist. They're the locals who sold cut when the prices were highest. About a year ago, Tony LeFebvre was a retired commercial fishermen who used to trap, log and raise mink. He was also owner of about 40 hectares of far- miland Lf COMP Lakes Tody le and: his ‘wife Florence are millionaires. A deal closed with a developer, netted them just iess than $2 million. “Thad Jots of offers, but I wasn't for sale until they offered me something 1 took a second Jook at," says LeFebvre, father of 13. - *“] never did want to move, but 1 was kind of forced out. You can't keep the town from expanding.” ‘He recalls buying land when a quarter section (about 65 hectares) was $750 in the late 1340s in the 1950s, he gave four of his sons 64 hectares. They sold the land last year for 92,370,000. : He and the sons have put a large chunk of their newly-acquired wealth into & threésectioa atm shoul 10 ‘kilomeres--south: 61° Grand Centre, where the Jand ia far superior to their ad Researcher says: pool resources + VANCOUVER (CP)- The head of research and development for Canada’s largest forest products company says the industry and government should ' pool research efforts. Otto Forgaca of Mac- Millan Bloedel said Canadian forest companies on average spend less than per cent of their net sales rem on research and development - con- siderably less than com- petitors in the U.S, For example, Forgacs said ‘the giant Weyerhaeuser Corp. in the U.S. spent about $49 million on research and development in 1979 - more than the entire Canadian polp and paper industry. Althowh Weyerhaeuser was listed as an ex- ceptional. example by Forgacs, he also said that the amount spent by the company, about one per cent of sales, was about right for a company of that sire, ‘He said MB spent more than .4 per cent of its sales ' or about $10 million in the 1960 fiscal year on research but that amount ‘will in- — crease to .8 per cent of sales in the next year, research bagel is syent in BC. - at labe in Vancouver and on Vancouver lsland, but funding also gors to Mb's operations in the U.S. He sald Canada’s forest industry “suffers from a lick of entrepeneurial . activity", and speculated part of the resson was i their research in the U.S.,” he paid, Unlike some fields, Forgacs said there are few fast breakthroughs in forestry, but. mostly in- eremental. improvements leading to increased ef- ficiency or better reforestation and har- vesting techniques. “We always hope an unconventional iden may _ lead to a new breakthrough and a new industry segment. But we're usually e there are Tisks involved. “There's usually al0 te ii-year gap between completion .in the laboratory and = in- troduction «= fo ~-—sthe Forgacs said this MB will look at the cost of switching from water transport of logs because the sea water they float in causes corrosion damage to equipment of up to $30 million a year. . Resides the corrosive factor, about two per cent ° ‘of MB's logs are lost to' - sinkage, same break’ away Forgact said most of the — ag i Hl insects. Forgecs said MB is also looking at better ways to move timber out of the forest, partictilarly a2 tres sizes start to get amalier because of secondgrowth wood He sald about five per cent of MB's wood came trom “*thinnings” this year, F if it 7 Tony's brother Alex . year’. |. Blsee, hasn't sold, and doesn’t plan to. A year ago he turned down an offer of $700,000 for bis four-hectare parcel of poor farmiand. Jittery developers have since dropped the price toa ” "half a million sime the plant was stalled. But Alex, a vigorous man of 81 with shoulder-length white hair, doesn’t regret up the better offer. “The real estate people bug us every day to sell... but if 1 sell, my youngest son will be out on the was a caretaker al the Cold Lake air force bese for. several years. Today, with grain and vegetables from his farm and 16 head of cattle on relative's land, be and his wife Olivine are self- sufficient. And perbaps more important, the land has been in thefamily since — Alex's father squatted on a quarter section after arriving in Alberta in 1910 with a wife and six chil- “That’s too much money," said Olivine. “We'd have to lock the doors because someone might come and shoot us — we might as well enjoy the land until we die.” In nearby Bonnyville, the — ‘mayor of the lown was one of the local residents who did his own speculating. And now Bill Slawuta is ‘owner of an empty warehouse. . “The warehouse project is costing me five grand a month, but I won't be concerned for another six - months... after that, yes, Tl cry like the rest of them,” Slawuta says. Is 1977, shortly after Esso announced § the _ Project, he bought a 290. equare-metre plot of land for $50,000. Today he estimates the fand to be worth $200,000. Slawuta believes the: “only a breather” that will give the ” toivn time to put the neces- sary infrastructure in The number of businesses in Bonnyville has doubled since 1977, and the population has in- creased 50 per cent in the - three years, to 4,256. Slawuta says the population could be 10,000 by 1985 if the plant is ap- proved. From interviews in the towns surrounding the project, it seems no one with big money invested is leaving. For the short: term, they're waiting, ” squabbling -, : By FRANK OBERLE “With the first an- niversary of the Liberal Party's 1980 election victory less than a month away, I feed that the time is right for us'to stand back and. examine’ the attitude which the prime minister’ has brought to his job of running our tountry. Several major events since the beginning of 1961 underline the fact that this government’ 3 Je characteristic is its detetmitiat refusal to Listen to you or to your elected representatives. “The government's stubborn reluctance to Listen to the people is most vividly Mustrated by the prime minister's obsession with asking the British Parliament to include a charter of rights in our constitution. A national Gallup poll released on Jan, 14 revealed that 64 per af rights to the British North America Act. In other words, two out of every three adults sur- veyed felt that the con- stitution should be brought home withou! amesdment. What is especially Trudeau's proposal . is intense throughout ali regions of the couniry. Those of you who feel that the prime minister's plan enjoys the strongest ported Trudeau’s initiative. In British Columbia, only 22 per cent favoured the Trudeau approach, while 64 per cent supported simple -patriation. When the government made the decision last October to proceed unjlaterally, the prime Iminisler and his cabinet were fond of justifying their mave by saying that a majority of Canadians favouwed their proposal. We must recognize the _Letus talk tu rkey — a The British are at it again — messing about ‘with the English language! It's their national pastime, ranking right up there with cricke on village green, Sunday -brunch and composing letters to The Times. They're either fighting a the infection of vulgar Americanisms, or they're among “Now, it must be un most sovereignty of the Canadian ‘Beople they . claimed. Their determination to ram = through ~—s their in the face of: wide-spread public op- position to their factics demonstrates the ‘in- sincerity of their October claims. This government is not at all interested in listening to you or heeding your advice on this fun- damental issue. Instead, they are prepared to push abead with one single man's vision of what our country should look Hike, a vision that a majority of you do not seem to share. Since this government refuses to listen to” the people on the constitutional tssue, we should not be surprised by the govern- ment's actions to prévent Members of Parliament from debating the legislation which it in- troduces. On Jan. 13 the Liberals arbitrarily ended parliaznentary debate: on. their proposed oil and gas begislation. Surely, a bill that affects our chances of altaining energy self- sulficiency deserves to be Fully debated by members from all parties. This. government obviously does not believe that even legislation of this im- portance should be open for lengthy debate in Parliament. To some extent, we are witnessing the results of this government's refusal to listen to you or to Members of Parliament whet we see the birth of yaratist paras an piotest'g ips. W a abe Efe strives tb deliberately muzzle Parliament and ignores public opinion, frustrated Canadians begin to doubt Ottawa's willingness to act . oo their concerns and start to look for other ways of satisfying their interests. Ht” this government continues to refuse to listen to the peopie, I am afraid the deep feelings of allenation and utter frustration’ will grow, with the result ‘of. serious division in our country and the increasing threat of separatism ... when will our prime minister come to his derstood that — in the - rarified atmosphere .. through which Miss Rippon - undulates — the letter “v'" is considered unclean and thus to be used as sparingly as possibie. ‘‘Harrich,'? pronounced, and- the switchboard exploded. There were letiers to The Nobody was objecting to - Miss Rippon amputating the letter “w". It was the ich’ that had them scratching. pronounced Harridge. Does it not rhyme with ‘ spinnidge? (He = wag phonetically for emphasis of course, because ‘ho matter how you pronounce that leafy, green, succulent viand, it's spelled spinach.) Lord Simon of Glaisdale is all for the removal forever of extraneous letters — such, a the un- prowunced “u in the ~ the *_ wriling a British spelling of honour, - humour, Savibur, etc. He seeks a return to the ald days when people said “we was" and “they was” fron the root “ was.” _.