Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 7, 2003 ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com by the Terrace-Kitimat Airport Society to spend upward of $2.5 million to extend its main run- would return phone calls. That’s because the name of the phenomenally has been inextricably linked to the project to add 1,500 feet to the 6,000-foot main runway. WestJet won’t consider service to Terrace until and unless the airport society lengthens the run- ier 737s. Although WestJet officials have visited Ter- presentative has used potential passenger figures he says were supplied by WestJet in at least one company to date isn’t saying anything, Its silence simply adds to the other premise would damage locally-owned and operated Hawkair, which is a success story equal to that On the surface, the WestJet service model doesn’t appear to fit Terrace. The company the case between Vancouver and Terrace. Ra- ther it operates milk runs. Climb on a WestJet take you to Hamilton — but only after four or more stops along the way. S PUBLISHER: ROD LINK WEB: www.terracestandard.com THE VIGOROUS debate surrounding the plan way would become clearer if only WestJet successful Calgary-based discount air carrier The premise circulating out there is that way for the company’s newer larger and heav- race and although the city’s airport society re- report to council promoting the extension, the floating out there — any service by WestJet of WestJet. doesn’t offer A to B and back to A service as is aircraft in Kelowna, for instance, and it will WestJet makes its money not on the basis of people flying to-one-destination and then ‘back~ again, but;on, the cumulative’ impact of péople © flying to multiple destinations. To make sense, a WestJet aircraft leaving Vancouver for Terrace would then go on to an- other destination. But where would that be? Whitehorse? Prince George? Either one would simply add to the travelling time of a Vancou- ver-bound passenger boarding in Terrace. And would each provide the passenger load to justify the milk run service model? To be sure, no company will ever say never to the idea of adding to its revenues. But the sooner somebody can convince WestJet to speak directly about its plans - if any — for Terrace and for the northwest, the sooner the debate can shift away from any potential impact on Haw- kair and to the merits of the extension project itself. The extension plan deserves a rigorous ex- amination. It should be an examination based on a sound business plan and on a certain amount of confidence in the future of the northwest. It would be a shame if the examination was clou- ded by what WestJet may or may not do. SRE aaa a eS oy EEC ae oo PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS: Jelf Nagel NEWS /SPORTS Sarah A. Zimmerman 2002 WINNER NEWS /COMMUNITY: Jennifer Lang CCNA BETTER FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping & Carol McKay NEWSPAPERS ~~ CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Terri Gordon COMPETITION ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Bert Husband & Stacy Gyger TELEMARKETER: Stacy Gyger COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (44.06 GST)=62.00 per year; Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54,55: Out of Province $65.17 (+$4,56 GST)=69.73 Outside of Canada (6 months) $156,91(+10,98 GST)=167,89 MEMBER OF B.C, AND YUXON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATIO CANADIAN COMMUNITY ens ASSOCIATION A B.C, PRESS COUNCIL (www.bepresscouncll.crg) Serving the Tarraca and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of each weak at 3210 Clinton Stroet, Terrace, British Columbla, V6G 5A. Stories, photographs, Ittustrations, designs and typestylas in tha Terrace Standard are the property of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid., its illustration rapro services and advariising agancies. Reproduction In whole of in pari, wilhoul written permission, 6 specifically prohibitad, Authorized as second-class mall pending the Post Oilice Department, for payment of postage in cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents PREMIER CAM OF Course WE CARE AGOuT THE CHILDREN IN 8.c'S INTERIOR Ce SS) . \N an PBELL ASSUAGES THE CONCERNS 7 WE'RE GIVING YOu $600 MILLION To MAKE SURE YOU ( ¢) ARNE ROADS FOR DRIVING THEM To THE NEXT SCHOOL DISTRICT eae a SO J ay a ry > a wea) SAC ee OF HEARTLAND PARENTS. Knowledge will defeat SARS VICTORIA — I had vowed to sit out the war on SARS, but _the daily sensational newspa- “per. headlines and scary TV coverage prompted me to jain the coalition of the willing. You may have noticed that the vocabulary the media em- ploys to cover the SARS out- break has an uncanny resem- blance to that which was used during the war in Iraq. It is a war or battle against SARS that is being waged. SARS is being described as an indiscriminate killer. The people in the medical and health car professions are the front-line troops. And be- fore you know it, the economy is under siege. It isn’t WHO, the World Health Organization, but TMM, The Mass Media, that has spread confusion fear and loathing since the first cases of SARS were detected in Ca- nada. The relentless coverage, describing the virus and its ef- has: 'contributed::far more to; ‘Toronto's jitters, health and: economy-wise, than the damn virus itself, Actually, I should rephrase that. Torontonians themselves are dealing rather weil with the SARS issue. It's everybody else who would rather live in the ruined Information Ministry building in Baghdad than visit Toronto. To date, just over 20 people have died from the effects of SARS in Toronto. During the same time, twice as many Ca- FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER nadians have been killed in traffic accidents. That doesn’t keep us from driving, but we certainly wouldn't want to go to Toronto, would we? Very few newspaper stories have made attempts to put the SARS outbreak in perspective. The Spanish flu, a distant relative of the SARS virus, killed about 50 million people in 1918-19, most of them in Europe whose populations _ fect.on people, in. lurid terms, -: werensexhausted::from:four.- cilyeats! of war andrdeprivation: flu virus. The name Spanish flu, by the way, is one of the great misnomers, Spain pe. stuck with the connotation because that’s where it first appeared, The virus originated in the same place ~ Guangdong pro- vince in China. It appears that in the Great War, the French army used Chinese labourers to help dig trenches. From them it spread to the soldiers. ‘the: destructive “effects of the: amedia ‘scaré“on’- Toronto, econ wand had little resistance: toi the-- This time, the SARS virus wriggled out of Guangdong and spread to Beijing. Like any good dictatorship, China’s first response was to deny every- thing. When in doubt, cover up. By the time they admitted that there was, indeed, an out- break of SARS in China, the virus had jumped to Toronto, an easy thing for viruses in these days of world-wide tra- vel, The moment it got here, our media, once again, moved into high gear. Saddam had been beaten and another war was on. A new battle was being waged. Daily headlines blaming everybody from the Chinese to Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, for not having done enough fast enough began to rattle people. Cough in public these days and see the strange looks you get. Mel Lastman, Toronto’s colourful mayor, tried to stem omy. Unfortunately, he probab- ly did more harm than good, On CNN, he first blamed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control] for having slapped a travel advisory on Toronto. When informed that it was the WHO, he snapped “who the hell are they?” There are times when it is better for poli- ticians to rely on the experts rather than their own instincts, The fallout was predictable. Conventions were cancelled. Toronto hotels have vacancy rates not seen in years. Tourists’: are staying away in droves.) | That’s when our prime mini- ster waded into the fray. He will hold a cabinet meeting in Toronto, he said, stay in'a Tor- onto hotel and, by gosh, “will sleep very, very, very well.” A nice: gesture, but against the onslaught of the mass media's twist on the story, des- tined to be ineffective. I am not saying the media should ignore SARS. A virus that can and has killed 20 people can’t and shouldn’t be ignored. What I am saying is that th media should cover such ..‘is- sues more responsibly, with less of a sensational slant. -. * Perhaps that is expecting too much. The old adage that dog bites man is no story, but’ man bites dog is, seems to hold as true as ever, ‘ Perhaps it will take a little. longer to drive SARS back-into — the box than it took to topple . Saddam. a But-the thousandsof:seient- ists“working: on it. willbe suc- cessful. Instant communication makes it possible for resear-- chers to exchange their find- ings immediately. The SARS virus may have been able to quickly spread across continents, but so ‘does knowledge and information. And in a confrontation with those two, SARS won't have a chance for long. Beyer can be reached at: E-mail: hubert@coolcom.cam. Or you can phone him at (250) 381-6900. And so the season changes “THERE IS a tide in the af- fairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the veyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries.” -Shakespeare BIRDS KNOW better than anyone, ‘for everything there is a season’. Procrastination isn’t one of their shortcomings, Last week, no doubt re- sponding to the calendar, crows that had gathered in black clouds of 40 or more every morning to begin cawing at 5 a.m., vanished from the neighbourhood. Stellar jays, too, flew the coop. I wouldn’t have noticed the birds’ truancy except on Satur- day evening, I tidied the candy drawer dumping its buildup of stale cheesies, stray elbow macaroni (a favourite snack of my prandkids), and several handfuls of rancid pea- nuts in the shell. For the birds’ convenience, I shelled the peanuts before pouring the collection an a flat wae YOUR: TOURISTS Don'T gy LOOK T00 HAPP ¥! THROUGH BIFOCALS: CLAUDETTE SANDECKI rock beside the fence where crows congregate daily for ar- guments. But Sunday, no crows zoomed in fram treetops to in- spect my offerings. Even bik- ing 10 blocks before Sunday lunch, I saw only one crow, waddling about a neighbour's concrete driveway. Yet earlier, while snow was on the ground, crows had gob- bled chocolate-marshmallow cup cakes [ left in the same spot. Then, within minutes, crows side-stepped along the ia “yy CAKE YEAW why? DN TOOK THEM To ECHO , ECHO CANYON AND EcHo BLU FFE top of the wooden fence, eying the dark lumps. One brave bird dropped be- side a cupcake, stabbed an ex- ploratory peck into it, and re- assured, flew off with its booty. In no time every crumb was gone, Not so Sunday. Thinking the peanuts blended too much into the dried grass surrounding the rock, I topped the pile with a slice of white bread. Monday morning the pile was still undisturbed, Not wan- ting the food to melt into the ground and go to waste, I sa- crificed two macaroons, crum- bling one into several large pieces to target the peanuts. The second macaroon i centered on the level top of the nearest fencepost. Surely the snow white would draw the sharp eye of a passing bird. Yet nothing maved. Monday went by, sunny and serene, with no revitalization of the feathered population except for sparrows and purple martins who ignore handouts. I thought of gathering up the stash and offering it to a neighbour whose bird feeder serves snacks year round. But mixed in with the peanuts and macaroni were several sesame bars. Hard enough to chip a tooth, but still sticky. Moving the mound would be messy. Tuesday forenoon brought reprieve. By midmorning the macarcon was missing from the top of the fencepost. Inspection of the rock revealed no telltale signs of macaroni or peanuts, or sesame seeds. Still the only bird in sight was a perky robin, busily poking about in the short grass. Tt was then I noticed how, in. the middle of the lawn the grass rippled in the breeze. I was overdue making my. first cut of the season. And along the fence, grass wriggled up through the dried leaves, mak- ing them difficult to rake out. The sudden absence: of crows atd jays made me aware, more than any calendar, of the switch from spring to sunimer, While 1 procrastinated, - the birds got on with nesting, ig- nNoring food in favour of fea- thers and twigs. ANP ISN'T THIS SUPPOSED TOBE THE YEAR OF | 5) Mae Tse, i fil La HWA EcHo-TOORISM 21!