| Bristol, _. Coward of London, England are half of a team of young people. Ta ax ; Olsen, a 26-year-old from and 21-year-old Nic cycling from Fairbanks, Alaska to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, They stopped in Terrace last week. During the ten month long trip, these World Wildlife Fund supporters wildlife conservation projects and reporting back to the WWF in England. They are very im- pressed with the Canadian branch of the Fund, which manages tO put every penny donated directly into conserva- tion projects, ‘‘In the U.S. and Britain, 20 per cent of the money is used for administration costs,’’ Nic said. ‘‘But Canada’s WWE uses only the interest on the money to pay for ad- ministration.” Their own trip has been financed through fund raising activities initiated by the youths in the U.K., the sponsorship of the Ridgeback bicycle company which supplied the equipment, and from their own pockets. The cost is estimated at $6500 Cana- dian. “We're living on a tight - budget,”’ “camping, and comparing food prices in the supermarkets.”’ Jax said. ‘‘We’re ‘The trip is meant also to publicize the World Wildlife - Fund and the work it does. The ~ group is stopping first in Van- ~~ eouver Lifeline’, “designed a curriculum for schools. ‘‘It’s very interesting to Sus.Its a good way of making : the next generation aware of the ~jssues,’” Nic said. to study ‘‘Operation a WWE project which Next they’ll be touring eleven -zoos and wildlife parks in Seat- ~ ‘tle, Portland and California. Nic explained, England are quite outdated. We “want to see what the future is in -7008."" “The zoos in In central America they'll be - studying two projects: a jaguar wildlife park in Belize, and a - yainforest preservation project in’ Costa Rica. People can “buy? an acre of rainforest : through WWF. Finally, their work in the - "Amazon will focus on the Con- _.vention of the “Treaty for Endangered Species ~ (CITES). Jax explained CITES assists international customs to - identify endangered species and ~~ stop the trade of these animals at International borders. While this particular . project is not connected directly to WWE, they support its aims to preserve wildlife. The sun- and wind-burned -- duo explained they flew to Fair- “banks about a month ago, and cycled through steep mountain - passes - covering only 10 miles in 3 hours ~ in the rough country), to Haines ~~ Junction. From there two head- os ed east ~.-Cassiar while Jax and Nic went Sy south to Prince Rupert. They'll in Alaska (sometimes to Whitehorse and meet in New Hazelton and cycle to Prince George together where the group will split again, the “= two young women taking the © ~~ tfain to Vancouver to arrive in time for National Environment =: Week activities. “The cycling isn’t as, impor- “tant as the projects,”? Jax ex- ~~ plained, ‘although we'd like at feast two people to be cycling the» will be studying. distance."” Nic added that. in ‘some of the more unstable coun- tries the group might have to travel by air. ‘The trip is impor- tant, but not enough to be kill- ed.” They'll also be travelling by boat for part of the way in Peru. The four were not avid cyclists prior to the trip, and spent only three months doing some train- ing before arriving in north America. ‘‘But anyone can do it if they’re strong-willed, Jax claimed. When not cycling the length of a continent, Jax and: Nic don’t lead boring lives. Nic works for a tour operator and has been involved with the Royal Geographic Society and trav- elled extensively. Jax has work- ed as a ski guide in the Swiss Alps and as an assistant to an equestrian athlete — ‘‘looking after her young child, breaking horses, cooking, that sort of thing.’’ The pair’s impression of Ter- race is the fact that this is the place where their runners finally dried out, and being introduced to the wonders of buying from bulk bins in our local grocery stores. Nic Coward and Jax Olsen came wheeling throug enough, the day of the Community Fitness Challenge. The pair are half of a four-member team from England on ‘a.cycling tri They’re doing the tour in support of h Terrace last week on, appropriately p from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. the World Wildlife Fund. Government won’t sell existing liquor stores, but new ones will be private In January, B.C. Government Employee Union representatives visited Terrace to. warn buyers tempted by the provincial government’s proposal to privatize 140 of the 217 existing liquor stores. Local stores that had been targetted for sale in- cluded those in Kitimat, Hazelton, Houston, Stewart, Smithers and Burns Lake. Now that the government has re- versed its initial position, BCGEU representative Randy Pearson is pleased and relieved. The provincial government recently announced that existing stores will not be privatized, but that any new, additional stores will first be offered to private sector operators. “It’s a win, but only a-tem- porary win, The government is acting against the recommenda-— tions of its own report by privatizing new liquor stores. The Jansen: report (Liquor Policies for British Columbians) spent months ‘travelling to 16 different communities, where they were told that increasing li- quor outlets increased consump- tion and abuse,’’ Pearson said from Prince George. ‘The June, 1987 report had recommended the current sys- tem of liquor retailing be main- tained. The report stated, ‘“We Chimo seeks taxi license Ada Solowoniuk of Chimo Delivery is making another bid to start a mew taxi service in town, and she has been asked by the Ministry of Transportation and Highways to submit written confirmation that Terrace coun- cil supports the idea. And for that, she will have to wait. Council has referred the matter to the Finance Committee for a recommendation. in her application to the ministry, Solowoniuk says she would like to begin operating periods, both companies would have the advantage of offering better service by referring customers when all cars are busy. **We need a good, competitive taxi service to + complement Kalum Kabs,’’ Solowoniuk argues, ‘We find Terrace to be a vital, growing community, with more and more business starting up, and doing well. It is no longer okay for one cab com- pany to have a monopoly.”’ three cars in an area within a © radius of 25 miles of the city. *¢One of the reasons we are mak- . ing this application,’’ states Solowoniuk, ‘“‘is by popular de- mand.”’ She says the Chamber of Commerce attests to their ‘‘sood, clean business’’, and she adds that the city is growing and in need of a second taxi service. ‘We believe that competition is healthy,’? says Solowoniuk. ‘‘I ‘regard Kalum Kabs not as a competitor resource.” She explains that during peak but rather as a Solowoniuk says she was sur- prised at the opposition to her first application over a year ago. ““T had no idea there would be any objection since Chimo Delivery has never objected to any competition — and we have’ a lot of it.” According to Solowoniuk, Chimo Delivery rates have not changed in the last four years in spite of rising costs for fuel and insurance. And, she says, ‘We will do the same with our taxi service,” do not believe that privatization is strongly supported by the ma- jority of British Columbians and we are concerned that such a move would lead to ‘increased consumption and abuse.... This liquor policy review heard 400 oral submissions and receiv- ed 1,200 written submissions. In making the announcement, Consumer Services Minister Lyall Hanson explained, “We expect any additional liquor store needs will be met by the private sector. Where we iden- tify a need for additional stores, the private sector will be given the first opportunity to bid on the operation of these stores.” A spokesperson for the department, Rick Stevens, said the Liquor Distribution Branch would follow the same model that exists now for determining the need for a new liquor store, studying the demographics and ‘ market, and looking at social and economic factors. If the decision is made to have a new store, entrepreneurs may be allowed to operate it. Pearson ‘said that muni- cipalities, medical associations, and others who opposed privatization should be concern- ed about the decision. The Jansen report listed hotel and pub operators, alcoholism treat- ment groups, unions, most municipalities, some liquor agents and suppliers as well as most private citizens as recom- mending no further privatiza- tion, ‘‘or, indeed, recommend- ing a return to a government- opérated absolute monopoly.”’ Doug Foster. of Northwest Drug and Alcohol Counselling had made a presentation that did not oppose privatization itself, but opposed increasing the availability of alcohol. ‘‘We told the Jansen review that increased availablity was shown to - in- crease the problems that people have with alcohol. I don’t think we need more availablity, through longer hours of opera- ‘tion or ‘more liquor stores.’ What we really need, he said, was more research on the effects that promotion of alcohol con- sumption has, especially on chemically dependent people. “We need research into the ef- fect of alcohol advertising. For many alcoholic people, viewing such an ad on TV creates a crav- ing to use alcohol.’’ Foster was not aware of the more recent evaluation of the privatization proposal undertaken by Dennis Murray. Murray’s report of the Action Group on Privatization that looked into the matter early in 1988 recommended the gradual increase of private sector par- ticipation. Privatization Group co-ordinator Peter Clark said the more recent study did not use a system of public meetings, but did receive a lot of letters on the subject. The Jansen report had been used, he said, as “terms of reference’. In an- ‘nouncing the decision, Premier Vander Zalm said, ‘‘After receiving input from the in- dustry and the public, and after careful study, we have deter- mined that competition between public and private sector liquor retailers best serves British Col- umbians.”’ In opposing the initial pro- posal to sell existing liquor stores, the BCGEU had pointed out that the Liquor Distribution Branch generates more direct in-" come for the provincial govern- ment than all Corporate Income Taxes combined, and is the fourth largest source of govern. — ment revenue in B.C. -behind Personal Income Tax, Federal — Transfer Payments, and Sales and Fuel Tax.