s 6. Terrace Review — Wednesday, June 241989. “Hts: the e R-word again | ~ Regionatization — it was touted like snake. oil in the . last election as the medicine that would restore health to the provincial government. To switch from: liquid to_ solid metaphors, it was the magic bullet that would ‘slay bad decision-making in Victoria by involving . localities-in the Processes that. affect them. where they live. ; What has actually emerged i is a sort of geographical cookie-cutter that’s been used as.a template for a Ot of half-baked theories. The word “regionalization” i ‘on the verge of becoming an obscenity. _ The latest exercise in map-redrafting involves | whacking up the North by Northwest tourism zone in- to three separate fiefs — the regional development - gones in the north. The North by Northwest zone is _ certainly of gigantic proportions, encompassing the en-. tire length of the Yellowhead Highway and arching northward to take in the Highway 37 route north to the Yukon border. That allows it, however, to be ad- ministered and marketed as one entity. As expert Michael Kolesar pointed out here last: month, taken singly the communitiés along the Yellowhead cannot be tourist destinations. If the route is. sold as one big attraction, it could prove irresistable. _ Just when it looks like local leaders are starting to realize they’ve got to ‘cooperate instead of competing, _ the government decides to Balkanize the region. In- — stead of a single entity we’ll have three administrative areas ‘and in all probability a geometric growth in. _ bureaucrats, committeés, hangers-on, flaks, con- _sultants, theoreticians and. the production of useless documents. . '. Everyone with a local. interest in the tourism in-. dustry is vehemently opposed to this move. These are - the people ‘who live here, care about development and:: prosperity, and have learned a great deal about what it’s going to take to make the North by Northwest - area. a viable tourist attraction. =. . Despite all that, the Minister of Tourism, Bill Reid, _was reliably reported’ to‘have told a local represen- tative that we’re not going to like it, but we're going - to get it anyway. _ Is this someone’s idea of consultation? _ “Regionalization’”” is a real-mouthful for a child, but it’s easy to imagine the emerging generation hav- ing their mouths washed out with soap if they. ever manage to-get that one past their- lips: Second-class mail Established May 1, 1985 I fagistration No. 6896. The Terrace Review is published each Wednesday by Close-Up Business Services Ltd. protected under Canadian eopyright Registra- tlon No, 362775 and cannot legally be regro- duced for any reason without pevmiasion of the publisher. Errore and omissions. 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VaG 1M7 Phone: 635-7840 Fax: 635-7269 One year eubsctiptiona: In Canada $24.00° : * Qut of Canada $50.00 . Seniors in-Terrace and District $12.00 ~ Seniors oul of Terrace and District $15.00, - ayes we corisidered tor biléat fed te pul ica veda to condense. 4 earl! Wy those ot the: bb ra At material appearing In ihe Terrace Review is rt OF VANDER ZaunIs DAGON i sa on a8 Pe mR 1 NAT CleCTiON FILTERS THROUGH BE... hee Pres wan | SIDED CHEERLEADERS | ~ ANIWARY._.- Sam eRe SOCETY OF LOYAL SOROS... TEN saver lt Ic SE]: : eed | laa “e i oc NP... when gold loses its magic The deteriorating market price of gold on world ex- . . changes has a lot of analysts scratching their heads these . days.-If the one I talked to last week has the answer, the im- plications for gold mining and . exptoration i in the Northwest _ are not good. vi ~ by Michael Kelly : " All the mining companies, large and small, that have been pouring millions of dollars in exploration and mine develop- _ ment into this region over the past couple of years trade on : They: rely on sale of shares to raise capital. The VSE has: had- problems — . over the past year that no one . would wish on their most - despised relative, Events began ~ with the gutting of flow- through shares by the federal government, which used to bea’ - sort of magic wand for raising exploration money, an invest- ment that guaranteed tax write- offs no matter what the drilling results were or, consequently, how well or poorly the stock performed. During the same period ‘we've witnessed one headline- ‘spawning scandal after another - hit the exchange, culminating last month in a story published _by an internationally respected business magazine that branded. the VSE ‘‘the scam capital of the world’’. Fair-or unfair, the article has damaged the VSE’s credibility. -. We haven’t seen any bodies | plummeting down onto the - pavement of Howe St., but the value of paper traded on the exchange has fallen several floors, It’s a grim situation, . and even the affable and ever- smiling Murray Pezim was recently quoted as snatling, ‘what the hell do people ex- pect for 30 cents (a share)?”’ If the VSE cleans up its act, - the scandals will fade into memory, but the real mystery- . and the factor that is draining , “There are some fundamental economics . entering the gold market.”’ — Brian Parrott. cash out of the exchange is .the _ price of gold. With the Bank of Canada’s tightrope-walking in- terest rate policy, investors are '.. teetering between. fears of infla- -tion and fears of recession. * Conditions should be perfect for the value of gold to go up. because it has traditionally been the magic suit of armor .- _ that repels the slings and ar- rows of an unstable economy. It keeps its value no matter | - what happens ‘in the real world. . the Vancouver Stock Exchange. ‘With these conditions, the price of gold should be on a steady rise. It isn’t. It’s falling. Brian Parrott is an economist | and director of research for the Mining Association ‘of B.C. He thinks that. gold ‘is starting to’ behave like a market commodi- “ty instead of... well, gold. Parrot explains it like’ this: in. ’ the early 1980's thé value of base metals like lead, zinc and copper hit bottom, and the ma-. jor mining companies had to ook for something to generate cash. Most.of them — the big ones, world wide — decided on precious metals. Predictably, there being a recession playing at the time, the price of gold was m the treetops and still go-. ing up. “There was a tremendous amount of development across the world,’’ Parrot said, a development of gold fields he calls ‘the first wave’’. The process from the initial stages of exploration for minerals to the completion of a producing mine takes years, and Parrott says that the fruit of gold-mining ideas crafted _ several years ago is just now, . hitting the market. Just after the first bullion is being poured at Johnny Mountain, the Northwest's. first producing | gold mine in this latest binge of exploration, the market is discovering that there’s a glut of gold in the world. ‘*There are some furidamen- tal coonoihics entering the gold | market,”’ Parrott says. In other words, gold may. not be exempt from supply and demand. Par- rott notes that. ‘the situation is - complicated; with other factors | _ such as the relative attrac- - tiveness of equities, but he also thinks’ the companies who © drove all that frenzied explora- _ tion in this area are now having second thoughts about what. - gomes next. ‘‘There’s no denying that the’ downturn in gold has caused - companies to re-evaluate their exploration plans,’’ he says. “This isthe ‘second wave’, and they’ re asking themselves, "Well, do we do it?’.”’ Apparently, the answer for some is a qualified “‘Yes"’. North American Metals recent-~ ~ ly announced it will go ahead . ‘with the Golden Bear project .. despite the drop in gold and ghastly underestimates of developmient.costs. After months of futile searching for a buyer or joint venture partner ~ for Johnny Mountain, Skyline decided to go it on their own ‘and plow another $2 million in- — to exploration for increasing — the level of proven reserves. Newhawk, Cominco and West- _ min show no indications of cold feet about their. various. properties. - Whien all of these: projects started the price of gold was over US$400. It’s now stalled at around US$360 when anyone would think that it should be going up, Projected recovery © cost for an ounce of gold in. - most of the Northwest opera, . tions is around US$240. It isn t quite the bonanza it seemed at - the beginning, but there’s still money to be made. The question is, if gold . becomes just another metal, will those rugged and ore-laced peaks north of us become just . ’ another range of mountains, for, the ¢ mining industry?