Gov’t camera caper draws political ire SOME TERRACE city councillors are angry with what they call the govern- ment’s heavy handed ap- proach to photo radar. Atlomey general Ujjal Dosanjh announced fast Wednesday that approval from rounicipalities will no longer be ‘required. for. the .. implementation ‘of photo radar. This means that council- lors will no longer have a say as lo whether or not photo radar will be brought to their streets. To date, city council has voted against bringing in cameras. “This is another act from a desperate government, | honestly and truly feel that this is just another cash grab,” said councillor David Hull, adding that photo radar is more of a business rather than a law enforcement issue. “There was some hope that government would listen to the people,’? said councillor Linda Hawes, ‘I don’t feel there is enough research to say yes, photo tadar is the be all and end all.” oo. Hawes is not adverse to photo radar, and would have welcomed it on a six month trial to determine its effects on traffic accidents, But she is not pleased with the way the government chose to ig- nore what elected council- lors had to say. The Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce al- ready supports the idea of introducing photo radar into the city. “We supported photo radar, and were «dis- appointed that council de- cided not to invite them, and I think it was for the wrong reasons,’’ said chamber president Skip Bates. “We are pleased to hear that they would come back, but obviously it would bave been better if we had an op- tion,” Bates also said that in light of cutbacks and reduced services, the pos- sibility of revenue sharing could be of benefit to the municipality. Sgt. Rick Plantinga of the Integrated Traffic. Camera Unit in Prince George feels thai politics have to be kept out of policing. “Our major objective is to. work with local RCMP detachments, there really isn’t a big problem in Ter- race,'’ said Plantinga, stat- ing that his unit doesn’t have unlimited resources to set up in every municipality. Plantinga also suggested that local council might change its tune if there was some revenue sharing. While revenue sharing from the money generated by the photo radar units is still being discussed by municipal affairs minister Mike Farnworth, some councillors don’t believe it justifies the government’s latest actions. “It’s still a cash grab, and it doesn’t make it any better if they share it with us,”’ said Hull about the pas- sibility of revenue sharing, “T can guarantee that it will be an issue in the next provincial election and iii be oul,’”” added Hull -in reference to Ontario’s Mike Harris government that booted photo radar oul o the province. : Councillor Rich McDaniel also opposes the province’s latest announcement and Suggests a better use for Rich McDaniel what he calls professionally tained RCMP members sit- ting in a van clicking pic- tures. “Tam for taking these po- lice officers out of this duty” cat LaCe Linda Hawes and replacing them with ful- ly trained ‘photo radar tech- nicians’. . and putting them to stop once and for al} this scourge in our cily and area and rid our city of drugs.’’ 60/40 split.rear seat * Dual air bags * A\ Council angered over method used to call emergency crews CITY COUNCIL is threatening to pull the plug on Kamloops-based ambulance dispatchers after com- plaints of more problems in dispatching emergency crews. City councillor Tim Down raised the issue last week, saying there have been two recent occasions where am- bulances took more than 10 minutes to-arrive to a ‘call in the horseshoe area, and the fire department's first responders were not notified. That goes against policy that says the firefighters trained as first responders will always be notified in serious medical emergencies or car crashes, Since firefighters are at the hall all the time and am- bulance attendants sometimes have to be paged in from elsewhere, there’s a possibility that an injured person could wait longer than necessary for treatment if first responders aren't dispatched. It’s not the first time the issue has been raised. Coun- cillors late in 1995 took on ambulance dispatchers, ac- cusing them of being involved in a turf war between firefighters’ and paramedics’ unions in southem B.C. “I'm sick and tired of it,’’ councillor David Huil said last week, urging the city to look at abandoning use of the Kamloops-based dispatch system. Other councillors agreed to send a letter to the dis- patch service saying the city will investigate other op- tions. Fire chief Randy Smith said the firefighters are now called out more than 200 times a year, adding that’s a big’ improvement ‘over 19¢4 when dispatchers were only notifying firefighters on 30 to 40 calls a year. It seems to be hit and miss,'’ Smith said, adding there are still missed calls. Sometimes the dispatch centre just gets too busy, he said. Hull predicted locals would get better service — and in particular dispatchers who better understand the lo- cal area —~ if local ambulance calls were handled by the Terrace Fire Department instead of the Kamloops- based dispalch centre. “If we dispatched calls I'm sure we'd have 100 per cent success in getting both the ambulance and first responders io the sile at the appropriate time,’’ Hull said. Smith will prepare a report for council on how to deliver the best level of emergency service in Terrace. 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