Page A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 4, 1993 us Registration No. 7820 Phone (604) 638-7283 (1969) Lid., is illustration repro servicas and advertising agencies, Raproduction in whole or in part, without writan permission, is specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mai! pending tha Post Office Dapartment, for payment ot postage In cash. Serving the Terrace area. Published on Wednesday of each waek by Cariboo Press (1969) Lid, al 4647 Lazela Avs., Terrace, British Columbia Storias, photographs, ifusirations, designs and typastyles in tha Terrace Standard ave (he property of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press t Jaff Nai gel» Naws/Communily, Malcolm Baxter - Naws/Sports, ERRACE STANDART ) ity r/Editor: Rose Fisher - Front Office Manager, Pam Odell - Campositor, , we ” od Lin Tricia Walker - Typesetter, Susan Credgeur - Compnsing/Darkroom, Special thanks to ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 | Janet Viveiros - Advertising Consutant, Sam Collier Advertising Consultant, a our Charlene Matthews - Circulation Manager : 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C., V8G 188 Manages contributors and. Fax (604) 638-8432 Mikel. Hamm reas correspondents ‘ie 2 WT for their time and Productlon Manager: Gana ot “SERIES talents. CIRGUEA’ : Go CNA Edouard Credgeur — : EDITORIAL How will Howe go? There’s at least one person in the city who knows exactly what Howe Creek In- vestments is going through in its attempts io turn forested land between Howe Creek and the bench into residential lots. Richard Sandover-Sly’s application to rezone two lots on Park Ave, beside the Evangelical — Church to multi-residential took nearly a year to wind its way through council. In the end, it was denied. Although the reasons for wanting a zoning changed are different, there ‘are some fascinating parallels with the two cases. Each has been considered important enough by council to be put on hold until all aldermen are present for a vote, Each in its own way has drawn some attractors and detractors. The key connection between the Howe Creek proposal and that of Sandover-Sly is whether council will be evenly divided. If it is, that means Mayor Jack Talstra will be called in to break the tie. And, if past expe- rience with Sandover-Sly and other votes is any indication, Mr. Talstra will vote down the proposal. _ That’s because Mr, Talstra is a big advo- cate of the status quo. His is a consensus way of operating. If council acting as 4 body can’! figure out what to do, says Mr. Talstra, he'll vote to leave things Ihe way they ate, But those six aldermen will have to divide evenly before Mr. Talstra gets into the act. _ For now, consider Bob Cooper and’ Mo Takhar, both long standing development advocates, in favour. Rick King, the only NDP-type council member should be against. This leaves Danny Sheridan, Ruth ‘Hallock and Darryl Laurent unaccounted for. Mr, Sheridan has one eye on being Skeena’s next Member of Parliament and the other on the 500-name petition against the rezoning. Ms. Hallock once said she represents people, not developers. Mr. Laurent isn’t running again. Perhaps he’d like to leave office suffused in a rosy, people-type glow. There is lots council members can ignore here. The public hearing into the zoning change has already been held. Technically council can hear no more submissions be- fore taking its final vote. _ moe Yet any council member that doesn’t consider what has been brought up lately and doesn’t take into.account the petition does so at his or her own re-electoral peril. Fishy situation — IPiVS'Siiiiitiey! it must be time for anot er figh Gatéhing dust up.’ The players'are fa- miliar. Up the Skeena River are the recrea- tional anglers. On the coast are the com- mercial fishermen. The issue is the return of the steelhead. It returns the same time as salmon and so are often inadvertently caught by commercial boats. One solution this year is reducing the number of commercial fishing days to permit as many steelhead as possible to head up river. That has a lot of people on the coast angry, saying cuts in fishing days will severely affect the income of commercial fishermen, particularly natives; "They Say that. politics makes'sirange bed! “fellows. Well so ‘does the commercial fishery. In this case, the Northern Pro- cessors Association has been sounding ter- tibly pious in its pronunciations on behalf of native fishermen; -_ The association exists for one purpose — to get as much fish as possible for its mem- bers, Somehow it-is kind of difficult to completely accept the association’s stand that it’s concerned about the plight of na- tive fishermen. BO To use native fishermen as a foil for its own purposes might be good publicity. But its true agenda comés shining through in the end. Audrey McLaughlin, Leader, © New Democratic Party Dear Audrey: said, during your Prime Time in- - terview Sunday: night, ~ You “ Through ‘Canadians want change,’ you | Bifocals 770d NY %B “al WM0d LOOT (an SM SS HT “ON THE POSITIVESIDE..., ss | "YOUR NAME repeated the words several times, _, making me think, “Gee, maybe | Audrey understands what —I- wanted from her, a single mother from the North.’ ; Instead, throughout the entire interview you avoided answering a stralghtforward question, just like ‘all the other. politicians who. - lake responsibility only for ribbon . cuttings.; | “Did you offer your resignation . as leader of the party?’’ Wendy Mesley asked, Seldom is a politician asked so _ Straightfor- ward a question. ‘Yes’? or.‘‘No’’ would have answered it. "Yet you skittered around, twisting » and tuming like a‘ rattlesnake: nipped by a pounelng’ coyote.’ Do -you : suffer.a profound ‘hearing : loss?-. Finally, “disgusted, Mesley: said, . suc that line of: “We don’t. p questioning further” _T was’ uncomfortable,: then {r- ritated, watching | you .-squirm from the truth, After all, for two _by Claudette Sandeck| | * bebo gts time to replace you as leader be- fore Kim Campbell calls a federal election. . : ’ So why pretend like you never offered to resign? We're not nin- “Everyone. goofs occasionally. fies reporters and clears the path for progress. What’s the worst that could happen if you ad- mitted, ‘Yes, ] offered to: resign. . But the executive refused to ac- cept my resignation. Now I'm _. going into a federal election with . the full support of the party.”” You made much of repeating “-you had the full support of the party. "You would have had my supporl, too, if:you -had given an honest reply ‘to the reparter’s simple question. =~ : Life is short. Don’t waste pre- cloud tine ‘denying. “You'll be — found out, ard when you are, your credibility will more than your Gallup rating, ‘Brian Mulroney frittered away . precious ‘parliamentary time ‘denying one scandal after another for until painted into a: comer. And it recently Kim Campbell's leacier- ‘Prompt acknowledgement: satis- - ship race nearly foundered while she denied knowledge of the Somalia murder/attempted suicide incident. : When you became NDP leader I hoped for real change. I thought raising kids would fave . taught you the benefits ‘of honesty at all -costs, Isn’t that what you expect from your children? That's what I expect from politicians, too. Want to impress this voter? Try Mark Twaln’s advice: "Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.” Astonish me. A MESS!! - y's THE SAME. Every SPRING! F THE YARD iS | Everybody’s talking » about B.C.’s forests — VICTORIA — Let’s talk about trees. Everybody else docs. The government is under’ siege over its decision to allow limited logging in the Clayo- quot Sound. Scores of en- vironmentalists are having - themselves arrested every week and the courts are send- ing them to jail, for six months in one case. © > Meanwhile, environmental- -‘Srpanizations are workitig’ !" hard at getting European coun- tries to boycott forest products from British Columbia, claim- ing that our forest practices make this province the ‘Brazil of the North.’’ The campaign is successful. The New York Times recently ran a story about ‘Canada’s dirty secret war against its forests,’ and the British Broadcasting Corporation had acrew here last week to do a. story about the Clayoquot Sound, , - And while I am somewhat reluctant to pre-judge the ~ “Tesults, I fear that it won’t be ~ the.most balanced piece the _ “TV network has produced, But -there is an even more damag- ing critic who is undermining British Columbia’s forest-in- dustry and the province’s . “economy — the federal government, In its latest report on the state of the environment, the federal government stated that the British Columbia coast has only 15 years worth of old growth left, Not only is that statement contentious, it’s a blatant lie Ottawa has, so far, refused to retract. B.C. forest minister Dan Miller was furious when he first heard of the report. He says intelligence from the Ca~ nadian embassy inGermany - indicates that the report is the single most damaging factor in tt: _ million hectares of old growth British Columbia’s struggle to convince Europe that the pro- vince is moving toward a - sustainable forest industry. Miller adds that a rigorous ’ campaign by the provincial government is needed to OKAY, OKAY J. ~ A JUST GIVE ME PA | THREE WEEKS!) From the Capital by Hubert Beyer counter the damaging effect environmentalists and the fed- eral government have had.on ‘this province’s forest industry. He suggests more professional exchanges between European - and British Columbia foresters — and discussions with European. . parliamentarians. ._ The Association of British Columbia Foresters has dohe its best to dispel the myth that we're going to run out of old growth in 15 years. Bruce Devitt, the organization’s ex- ecutive vice-president, de- - scribes Ottawa’s claim as ‘alarmist and inaccurate.”’ Statistics on which the claim was based, Devitt says, came from an economic study that © had absolutely nothing to do. with how much old growth. there is left in British Colum- bia. oe Devitt says British Colum- ‘bia’s coastal forests contain a total of five million hectares of old growth, of which two mil- ° lion are working forest, leav- - ing three million hectares of old growth that will never be logged. **The forest industry current- ly logs 40,000 hectares an- nually on the coast. At this rate, it will take 50 years to log the remaining old growth in the two million hectares of working forest,’’ he says. Equally misleading is the fact that the federal report only mentioned coastal forests, ig- noring-old growth in the rest of the. province. Devitt says there are 26.6 forests in British Columbia _ which would fuel the forest in- dustry for another 71 years. And the 26.6 million hectares don’t include any old growth forests located in parks, ~~ voA! summer! ecological reserves and dedi-. cated wildermess areas, How to deai with the prob-., lem? Miller’s suggestion-of *:' discussions with European ©. ° ‘ parliamentarian and more: professional forester ex- - changes is good in the short: fun. ot It addresses the immediate _ problem of lies and misin- - formation, butamore = - permanent solution is needed. The promise of such a solu- - tion exists today. The Com-. - fnission on Resources and En- - vironment is. charged with es- fablishing a proyinct-wide) blueprint for'a sustainable: .; - forestindustry, = Commissioner Stephen © Owen said at the outset that ~ the commission's mandate. , could only be achieved with a ~ _ lot of local input. He’s right, . of course, The days when Vic- toria could decided the fate of cities towns and hamlets in the " provinée’s vast hinterland are aver. The people want io be-in charge of their destiny. .° To that end, the commission has established so-called regional tables on Vancouver Island, in the Cariboo and the: Kootenays. At those tables, representatives from every im- aginable stakeholder are trying io develop a strategy for the’ forest industry’s future in their area. — ; Whether the approach will » work remains to be seen. I’m optimistic, The participants in the process are determined to make it work, Those I’ve talked to believe they can and will succeed. And if they do, we will have lanced one of the nastiest boils that has ever... festered on British Columbia's body politic and body eco-° nomic. Dc