A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 10, 1996

TERRACE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. « V8G SR2
TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432
E-MAIL: terrace.standard@sasquat.com
MODEM: (604) 638-7247

Big news soon

GET READY for a propaganda airburst of mam-
moth proportions once a provincial election is
called.

Premier Glen Clark’s current red hot
announcement-a-day pace is a signal that the tra-
dition of buying voters’ support with their own
tax money will continue.

But the premier will have to do more, lots more
to keep his steamroller of a campaign at a full tilt
boogie level.

So expect a shift in what is being announced.
Now that Premier Clark has pretty well got the
provincial good news scene figured out he and
his ministers will concentrate on regional and lo-
cal situations,

A test run of sorts took place last week when
tourism minister Bill Barlee showed up in
Thornhill to announce money for tennis courts
for that community. This is not to suggest Thorn-
hill doesn’t need tennis courts or that the grant of
government money for such a thing isn’t a good
idea.

But to have something like tennis courts com-
mand the time and attention of a cabinet minister
is a bit of a stretch even in an election prepara-
tion frenzy.

We prefer waiting for the real good election-
timed announcements that’ll be happening.

Expect to see a lucrative package for Thornhill-
Terrace amalgamation. This is a very touchy
subject — a sort of land claim of a different kind
— and the provincial government that doesn’t
address the nebulous issue of pride and the prac-
tical issue of sewer and water lines isn’t going to
be looked upon favourably come the day of a

provincial vote.’ ' |

Also expect to see a deal made between the
provincial government and the City of Terrace
over the provincial lands surrounding the airport.
The city has made it quite clear that control over
and subsequent development of those lands is the
only way the airport can survive once federal
subsidies disappear.

Airporis are very much a healthy and sexy sign
of progress in the north and the vote-seeking
government that doesn’t agree is in real trouble.

Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht is in for
a challenging ride this election and a regional
goodies gravy train will be welcome news to him
indeed.

In the hole

SPRING MAY have trouble sprunging but that
hasn’t stopped city work crews from using spray
bombs to circle potholes and other craters need-
ing patchwork.

Very soon the asphalt truck will be winding
through the streets with driver and workers on
the lookout for the bright red orbs,

And once again it’ll be a reminder that the
city’s new paving plan will do wonders toward
providing seamless and comfortable roadways.

Gon PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
A ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur
NEWS Jeff Nagel» NEWS SPORTS: Kathleen Brandsma
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MEMBER OF B.C. PRESS COUNCIL oo
Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Press (1969)
Ltd. at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, Brilish Columbia, V8G SR2. : : co
Stories, photographs, illustiations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the
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nigieg, ~ ; aa ee
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Authorized as secand-class mait pending the Pasi Office Department, {or payment af postage In cash,
Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
for their time and talents

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from http: // www.galaxy/ planet earth/ far
nay (od knowswhere.com long enough
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SLES ALARA PE

Act now

VICTORIA — ‘No less
reprehensible than the
slaughter of African elephants
for their ivory is the hidden
scandal of Canada’s grizzly
kingdom under siege by
chainsaw and gun.”?

Thus warns the Raincoast
Conservation Society in a

recent report on the grizzly —

bear population that depends
for its habilat on the rainforest
valleys of British Columbia's
central and northern mainland
coast.

“Ecologically catastrophic °
effects of clearcut logging are
driving these old-growth-

dependent monarchs from their
homes in one coastal valley
after another. Logging and
over- fishing are reducing their
principle food source - salinon.
And the’ coastal grizzlies face
an additional threat as hunters
and poachers continue taking
their poll,’’ the report says.

The society accuses the
government of doing little to
preserve British Columbia's
grizzly population or worse,
hastening ils demise.

“British Columbia’s grizzly
bear population is headed for
extinction due to the combined
pressures of clearcut- logging,
trophy hunting and
bureaucratic indifference,’’ the
report says.

t—

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

to 1,000 grizzlies may survive
on the entire west coast,’’ the
report says,

Aside from logging and li-
censed hunting, poaching is the
most serious threal to grizzlies.
Following an RCMP sting op-
eration last year, 60 bear paws
were seized in a raid, and 29
charges were laid against 11
individuals and businesses for
trafficking in and possession of
bear gall bladders,

One man was fined $3,500
for possession of 33 gail blad-
ders, hardly a deterrent when

The Rainforest Conservation
Society’s report admits that
last year’s dedication by the
B.C, goverment of the Khut-
zeymateen Valley as a grizzly
bear ‘sanctuary ‘was <4 ‘com-

mendable move, but adds that’

the area is too small to
preserve the loca] population
of grizzlies,

B.C. environment ministry
figures suggest that aboul
3,000 grizelies should have
come out of hibernation last
spring. That estimate has
changed {little over the last 20
years, and the Raincoast Con-
servation Society. the figures
are way off base.

‘Actual counts were never

__ conducted, but we belicve that
an unstable population closer

grizzly gall bladders can fetch
thousands of dollars in Asia,

The report claims that
government policing is vir-
tually non-existent, ‘‘On the
entire central coast, one or two
conservation officers were in
the field a total of three days in
1994, It falls to guide outfitters
themselves to report kills and
sightings that make up official
data on bears,”

One of the society’s directors
is Peter McAllister, and I
Should tel! you that I’ve been
less than kind to him in the
past.

It was McAllister who told
the European Parliament some
time ago ‘that despite govern-
ment initiatives to mcrease the
province’s park land from six
to 12 per cent, British Colum-

before it’s too late

bia was still the ‘‘Brazil of the .

North.”’

Al the time, Stephen Owen, :

then chief of the now dis-
banded Commission on
Resources and Environment,
just happened to be in Europe
and was able to also get a hear-
ing before the European Parlia-
ment and set the record
straight,

Yes, McAllister is a rebel,
even by mainstream environ-

mental movement standards, -

and yes, I’ve tanned his hide
on several occasions for his all
too frequent and irresponsible

outbursts, but the Raincoast ;

Forest Society’s fears of a

dangerously declining grizzly :

population is shared by many
other environmentalisis who

are Jess radical -than -McAl- .

lister. ie ted
In a nutshell: I’m willing to

listen to his concerns, and if *

the government has conclusive
evidence that McAllister is
wrong, I’d like to see it,

The last word goes to the
Raincoast Conservation
Society: ‘History has taught
us that we rately come to the
rescue of a species until it’s
toa late.””

Beyer can be reached at:
Tel(604) 920-9300;
Fax:(604) 385- 6783; E-Mail:
Abeyer@direct.ca

This statue is for the birds

‘I would much rather have
nen ask why | have no statue,
than why I have one.’ Cato.

Ninety-thousand dollars — a
big or small sum?

If you’re an average Joe who
has just won with a 649 lotto
licket, it can be a windfall.

If you’re Jimmy Pattison,
$90,000 will almast buy. you
another car.

Anywhere in B.C. today,
$90,000 is hard to come by.
It’s salaries for two classroom
teachers or for two hospital
nurses; enough to import Mike
Miller to talk teens out of
suicide in a dozen com-
munities; the amount we're
short fo maintain special needs
services for another year in
Terrace schools,

So how did Nanaimo spend
their $90,000 collected from
donations, bingos and car
washes? They erected a stone

-
a

THROUGH BIFOCALS:

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

But in this age of shriveling
funding for everything from
education and health to fish
hatcheries and affordable hous-
ing, why invest in a stone
statue? That’s for the birds!

If Nanaimo needed some-
thing tangible to demonstrate
their appreciation for Ney’s
years of dedication, why didn’t
they commemorate his
achievements in a style less
passive and useless.

For instance, they could have
bought two more riverboats or
other equipment for search and

slatue in memory of Mayor

Frank Ney.

Now it’s clear Frank Ney
was well liked by the majority
of bis townspeople, We’re told
he worked hard to improve his
community and to promote it
to tourists. He’s credited with
the popularity of the annual
Nanaimo bathtub races,

OF WORK
VETE RAN

EARS EVER ALERT
TOTHE SOUND

QUIETLY DEPARTS.

tescue (goodness knows many
a bathtub racer has been
plucked from the drink);
named a soccer field after him;
provided swimming lessons for
under privileged — children;
manned a lighthouse for one
more year; dedicated a public
library wing in his honour;
stocked a high school with

THE
HUSKY

SD as
AY \ { wd
af \! Y ; | r
“ne, 18-03 aah othe

HUMANS ARE SO 4
DUMB! THEY NEVER
NOTICE. WHAT'S

reference books; bought musi-
cal instruments for a high
school bank; paid the at-
tendance fees for handicapped
kids at a summer camp; filled a
playground with equipment.

Or they could have done
something for the city’s
seniors.

They could have added an
additional HandyDart to their
transit service; supplied an
electric wheelchair for the
nursing home: built a wheel-

chair ramp beside a fishing =

hole; constructed wheelchair
accessible curbs on more streel
comers.

Instead Nanaimo will have a
gigantic stone monument
around which soft drink cups
and pizza plates will swirl in
the wind, while flying crows
and seagulls bank over it leav-
ing messy deposits.

Only the sculptor benefits.

GIN gen SHEE
Boys ?7_-