4 Terrace Review — Wednesday, July 30, 1986

Lotter

Taxpayer is being
asked to pay

To the editor,

Once again the respon-
sible taxpayer is being
asked to pay for the sins
and/or pleasures of the
less responsible.

Worse still is that this
time around, we will be
’ asked to pay not only in
terms of dollars, that
often can be ill afforded
in these times, but with
tears and heartbreak as
well. I am talking about
the bylaw that has been
proposed that would
limit the number of pets
to two per household.

Which of my three
cats am I to give up? Af-
fectionate 8% year old
Siamese ‘‘Bandit’’?, who
my husband and: I
brought all the way back
from Vancouver in the
early years of our mar-
riage, or aloof 64 year
old ‘Momma Cat’’, who
we brought home shortly
after our first son’s
birth, or perhaps the
youngest, shy 344 year
old ‘“Marmalade’’ who

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Terrace
Review

Established May 1, 1985

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Editor:
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Phone: 635-4339
po

we kept from one of
‘Momma Cats’ rare lit-
ters (she has only had a
total of five kittens in her
life) when I was pregnant
with our second son, in
anticipation of his need
for a pet of his own.

Which one am I to pay
for the murder of? Since
to us it would be murder
to have to ‘‘put down’’
any one of these animals
that is more a part of our
family than it is a ‘pet’.
Would you like to be the
one that has to explain to
a six or three year old
that one of his best
friends must die, because
of a bylaw passed,
because of some ir-
responsible people?

I certainly can see that
something needs to be
done about the problem,
but not this, please don’t
ask us to do this!

We permanent town
residents have some fault

in this, as we were the -

ones who had the extra
animals to give to those
who would later aban-
don them. What you fail
to take into considera-
tion, is that these excess
abandoned animals are
for the most part aban-
doned by the more tran-
sient members of our
population, who pro-
bably wouldn't be af-
fected by the bylaw, as
being more transient
they are harder to patrol
and control.

I would like to suggest
that your approach is a
bit off base on this one.
Perhaps a far better idea
would be to, not just
promote the spaying or
neutering of local
animals, but for the
town to be approached
for help in a program to
subsidize, or completely
pay for the cost of
neutering and spaying
residents’ pets.

I am sure that if you
looked into the long term
costs of such a program,
you would find that as

the reproductive portion |

of the towns’ pets declin-
ed so would the amount
of, and cost of ter-
minating abandoned
pets.

The cost to the town
for such a program ex-
tended over a number of
years should be far less
than the cost of an in-
creasing amount of ‘ter-
continued on page 23

Don McLean (left), vice-president of information services for ICBC, conferred wit

Brownlea, during a recent fieid trip to the Northwest.

h Terrace claims cantre manager, Bob

Michael Kelly photo

ICBC systems specialist
tours local claims centre

TERRACE — The man
in charge of the massive
and complex computer
system which intercon-
nects the various In-
surance Corporation of
British Columbia ICBC)
claim centres was in Ter-
race recently to meet the
local staff and have a
look at the new Terrace
claims centre that open-
ed late last year.

Don McLean, vice-
president of information
services for the provin-
cial auto insurance giant,
emphasized that fast
distribution of data is

critical to efficient:

operations for the com-
pany. The organization
is technology-intensive,
employing only 2,350
people directly although
it is the only agency in
B.C, that provides auto
insurance. The com-
pany’s data bank in-
cludes information on
clients, their automobiles
and policy coverage,
statistics, police and
highways accident
reports and driver
records, and a mass of
other facts essential to
insurance underwriting
and claims settlement.
All claims centres in the
province, McLean said,
are connected by com-
puter both with one
another and the com-
pany’s main terminal in
North Vancouver.
McLean could not
confirm speculation that
insurance rates will go up

in 1987, but he did say
that in terms of claims
1986 appears to be ex-
periencing an upward
trend compared to 1985.
Last year, he said, was
‘Ssomething of an
anomaly” with a reduc-
tion in net claims. He

suggested that: the high -

price of gasoline may
have had a restrictive ef-
fect on the total number
of kilometres driven by
B.C. residents, saying
that there is definitely a
direct relationship be-
tween aggregate distance
driven and the number
of claims in a given year.

McLean said that the
number of automobiles
registered in B.C. has re-
mained constant over
several years. He stated
that the corporation’s
surplus this year is less
than planned for because
of an unexpected escala-
tion in the number of

claims; untike liability
insurance settlements,
the amount awarded in
individual claims has not
increased dramatically.
The biggest uncertain-
ty in ICBC’s budgeting,
he said, is setting
reserves for future
claims. The reserves are
established annually and
reviewed periodically
during the year. McLean
pointed out that one of
the ironic side effects of
the corporation’s suc-
cessful long-term safety
campaign is an increase
in claims for medical
treatment and rehabilita-
tion services. People
wearing helmets or seat
belts, he explained, are
now surviving accidents
which would have been
fatal without the safety
devices, but the victims
often experience injuries

requiring extensive -

recovery programs.

Insurance rates are
slightly higher in the
northwest than some
other ‘areas of the pro-
vince, McLean said,
primarily due to driving
conditions rather than
driver quality. ‘‘We in
the Lower Mainland
sympathize with you for
the difficult roads and
weather you have up
here,’ he said with a
smile.

With regard to the
local operation, McLean
expressed satisfaction,

saying that things are go-

ing smoothly. ‘‘The staff
morale here seems to be
very good, they’re a
young staff and they
have a genuine interest in
the insurance business.””

McLean’s northwest

tour also included visits

to the ancillary claims
centres in Prince Rupert,
Kitimat and Smithers.

There has to be some balance

To the editor,

I'm not happy with
what local Socreds are
doing. —

Here’s a_ leadership
convention and from
Kitimat we have only
four delegates out of a
total of 25. Terrace,
however, has 14, That’s
more than half of the
total. I think thet’s not
fair to Kitimat and it
shows that the local
Social Credit organiza-

Letter

tion is dominated by one
community.

I've got nothing
against Terrace, but
there has to be’ some
balance. Kitimat is an
important part of this
riding and deserves bet-
ter consideration than it

is getting from the Social
Credit group.

We had the candidate
from Kitimat in the last
election and maybe with
this 14 to four delegate
business, there is some

‘truth to the rumour that

the next Social Credit
candidate has already
been decided upon by
Socreds in Terrace. They
seem to have had their
way with delegates.
Dave Marsh.