A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, duly 31, 2002
“TERRACE .

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 © FAX: (250) 638-8432
WEB: www.terracestandard.com
EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com

Crazy talk

INSANITY is the only word to describe a plan
to redraw the federal electoral boundaries
across the north, Under the proposal by the
Electoral Boundaries Commission, the Cariboo-
Chilcotin riding would be eliminated to make
room for growth in Vancouver’s suburbs.

The former Cariboo riding is to be cut into
pieces and glued onto the surrounding ridings.

Skeena, which now consists of the northwest
and parts of the central coast, would be re-
named Skeena-Chilcotin and gain responsibility
for towns like Williams Lake and Lillooet —
areas severed from the old Cariboo-Chilcotin.

The new Skeena would run to the outskirts of
Pemberton, not far north of Whistler, and to
Fraser Canyon areas a little over an hour north
of Hope. One could drive into the new Skeena-
Chilcotin riding from either Vancouver or
Whitehorse in less than three hours,

It is unreasonable, ridiculous and just plain
loony for anyone — even in Ottawa —to think
that a single MP can cover a riding that big.

It would include towns as far flung as Atlin,
Telegraph Creek, Stewart, Lillooet, Bella
Coola, Sandspit and Masset.

In fact, we’d challenge whoever cooked this
up to physically drive by road to each of those
towns and report back on how long it took.

If one started in Bella Coola and worked
counter-clockwise, we estimate it would take
more than 50 hours of straight driving time
— not counting the ferry to the Charlottes.

Lumping the cowboy and ranching issues of
the Chilcotin in with the northwest’s fish and
trees would do a disservice to both regions...

sage: go back to the drawing board.

Right call

KUDOS TO city council for at last giving the
green light to a plan that could eventually lead
to a riverside trail. The walkways plan is con-
tained within Terrace’s revised Official Com-
munity Plan, which is to be adopted in August.

A rough riverside trail that now runs under
the new bridge is part of the walkways plan.

If property developers there try to subdivide
or develop their land, they may be asked to turn
over the undevelopable shoreline for the trail.

This kind of vision is what’s needed in Ter-
race, before land crucial for the future enjoy-
ment of citizens is developed and locked up for-
ever. While the decision is welcome, several
councillors nearly bent to the wishes of one
commercial property owner who feared any re-
striction could hurt his property value.

It’s somewhat disconcerting that any council-
lor came close to overlooking a clear public
good because a single business owner squawked.

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Speclal thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
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_FOR THE

| WANT YOU

CLERGY.

@Hycear

MUNICH — After a rather slow ©
start, the euro is gaining in
strength. Last week, the new
European currency surpassed
the US dollar for the first time.

So far, only 10 of the 12
countries that form the Eur-
opean Union are using the
euro. England and Denmark
decided against abandoning
their old currency, at least for
the moment.

When | brought up the sub-
ject in conversation with a
young woman at the informa-
tion desk of the railway line
that runs the service between
London and Paris via the
Chunnel, she said, “yes, aren't
we clever?”

Clever or not, most Eur-
opeans believe that it’s only a
matter of time before the two
countries join the euro club.

Not that the launch of the
new currency has been without
problems, particularly in Ger-
manly. While all other coun-

af, vtries,.that..accepted the. euro.-.
The commission should be given a clear mes-

. passed legislation guarding.
against gouging during the
changeover, Germany trusted
the business community to
change prices fairly from the
old mark to the euro.

Unfortunately, many busi-
nesses took advantage of the
change to raise prices. In some
instances, there have been
Spectacular price increases.
Germans refer to the practice
as “abzocken,” meaning gou-

THIS holiday we drove to
Saskatchewan for our first
visit by car in 20 years.

A lot has changed, and
drought isn’t the only factor.
We took along four two-litre
plastic bottles of water for
tooth brushing and nightly
washups while visiting my
sister’s farm near Turtleford.
Her husband hauled a tank of
dugout water to fill the cistern
80 we were all able to shower
daily, but the outdoor biffy
serves again this summer.

Traffic is heavier now.
Still I noted how clean high-
way ditches appear, especial-
ly from Prince George to Ja-
sper where no fast food out-
lets supply motorists with
Styrofoam or plastic litter. Of
course, littering fines have in-
creased, which may persuade
more people to use an in-car
litter bag.

Hitchhikers are a rarity. In
4,500 kilometres, I counted
three, all between Terrace and
Prince George. Guess six
missing women along the
“Highway of Tears” hasn’t ~

Euro poll

FROM THE CAPITAL

HUBERT BEYER

ging.

When I asked for examples
of what businesses converted
their prices honestly, the an-
swer was again and again:
MacDonald’s and Burger King.
Cars, 1 was told, actuaily got ¢
little cheaper,

Still, the euro is not only
establishing itself as a compe-
tition to the US dollar, it is

different currencies. The com-
mon currency also makes it
easy to compare prices in the
various countries.

Economically, things in
Germany aren’t what they
used to be.

While the country brought
in millions of guest workers in
the 1960s, unemployment
today is stubbornly hovering

THROUGH BIFOCALS.
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

deterred everyone,

Wildlife was abundant:
four young black bears, nine
Canada geese, half a dozen
goats feeding unperturbed be-
side the highway near Jasper,
elk in groups of two or three,
deer, numerous foxes and
two wolves. Though drought
has reduced most prairie
sloughs. to cracked alkali,
some with a decent depth of
water provide homes for fu-
ture hunting targets.

Remarkably few animals

also a boon the anyone travel-.
ling Europe. No’ longer ddes"'
- one-have to pack a handful of |

around the nine-per-cent mark,
Unemployment is the number
one issue in the campaign
leading up to the September
general elections.

In what the opposition par-
ties call smoke and mirror po-
litics, Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder of the ruling Social
Democratic Party has estab-
lished a special commission,
headed by a former Volkswa-
gen executive, to find answers
to the problem of unemploy-
meal, His report is expected
before the election.

Canadians would agree with
the critics. They know that
Royal Commissions have
never solved any problem.

One labour problem recent-
ly addressed concerned low
wages paid to workers who
have entered Germany illegal-
ly.

These workers were usually
employed by subcontractors
not subject to union regula-
‘tions that are ‘arrived -at in na
tiou-wide bargaining. """"

Thus illegal workers,mast-
ly from Poland and Croatia,
were paid as little as Euro 2,
whereas the regular wage
would be about Euro 12. Ac-
cording to a new law, all
workers, legal or illegal, must
be paid the same wage.

In a mood, not unfamiliar
to Canadians, voters here are
trying to decide which of the
two major parties is the lesser

show up as road kill, save for
foxes, porcupines, and go-
phers. Around Lloydminster,
gophers pop up everywhere,
criss-crossing highways in
defiance.

Lloydminster’s gopher po-
pulation persists despite a
province-wide competition
this spring which brought in
61,107 gopher tails. Yet Big-
gar and Rosetown seem
cleared of the tiny rodents.

Conversely, Lloydminster
has no meadowlarks, In a
five day visit I neither saw
nor heard one, At the same
time, driving from Biggar to
Rosetown the morning trilled
with the warbles of meadow-
larks perched on fenceposts
or, swooping by.

Since I graduated from
high school, farmers have
taken to growing strange
crops I can’t identity from the
highway — blue-flowered
flax, golden-topped canola,
pulse, field peas, and canary
seed. The oddest crops are
golf courses, Every second
sign points the way to links.

(4
RECRUITING Youth To THE CATHOLIC CLERG
PROVES DIFFICULT

BRING IN THE CHOPPERS: )~ |

tics smack of B.C. issues

evil.

The ruling Social Demo-
crats (SPD) under Schroeder
are being blamed for every-
thing that is wrong, and people
want a change.

On the other hand, voters
don’t trust the Christian Demo-
cratic Union (CDU),

They fear, and perhaps
tightly so, that to save money,
the CDU would dismantle
many of Germany’s social pro-
prams.

Polls show that so far, none
of ‘the two parties can achieve
a majority, which means that a
government can only be formed
through a coalition with one or
more of the three other parties
in contention, the Greens, the
Liberals and the former Com-
munists, none of whom are ex-
pected to get much more than
the five per cent of the total
vote necessary to get into par-
liament,

People have said to me the

- whole’ political’ més& ‘makes

“them ‘Wish ‘they colild cotnie
and join me in Canada.

I told them that if they
value their social programs,
they should stay as far away
from British Columbia as pos-
sible.

Beyer can be reached at:
E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com:
Tel {250) 381-6900; Web
http: /iwww.hubertbeyer.com
while on the road:
hmbeyer@hotmail.com

Car trip exposes effects of drought

As kids, we made jokes
about knobby-kneed bank
managers in plaid shorts
whacking a ball then chasing it
all afternoon. But golf has be-
come the “in” thing. Even the
implement dealer and heavy
duty mechanic take time off to
play a round,

Lush green courses
abound, while fields and pas-
tures nearby bake brown, drif-
ted with topsoil. Swift Current
gardeners suffer water ration-
ing though the nine-hole golf
course enjoys all the water it
fancies. My sister-in-law is a
law-abiding flower gardener
but she dug in her heels when
the golf course escaped re-
strictions. “As long as the golf
course waters its greens, I'l]
water my flowers,” she pro-
mises.

Near Lloydminster, the
only pasture is roadside grass
where livestock would be at
risk and a hazard to speeding
motorists. That's when I
wished we had made the trip
by plane. From the air every-
thing looks quilt pretty.

TM WHeor! GOLDBERG t fi P
HERE To SAVE THE BEARS ey SELL BETTER THAN
FROM HIBER-THERM (A! THE. BEST NAMETHE
BUT You KNow \) CONSERVATION @ULDG ET:
NOTHING ABoUT, | [~\, GIERE GONNA MAKE
STYROFOAM DENS ,
AROUND PEACH BEAR: ,