or aera The: three major supermarkets in. town were “forced to destroy hundreds. of . “pounds of. fruit last week after "the Canadian government de- ‘“¢lared an embargo on sales of “produce imported from Chile. . The embargo came as a result “ofan anonymous phone call to - : ‘the American embassy i in Santia- BO stating that an unspecified | amount of Chilean export fruit shipped to U.S. .markets had _been. contaminated with cya- ‘nide. Trace amounts’ of. the chemical were later found in _ grapes in Philadelphia, and the Canadian government ordered Chilean “produce off. grocery, shelves across the country. -be- cal markets dump “cause Canadian imports, come. « through the.U.S. Terrace Safeway ‘manager Eric Johanson said his store’s. primary. stock of Chilean fruit was grapes along with a smaller’ quantity ‘of nectarines. They were pulled out immediately, quently destroyed. The embargo Toate Review — expects new stock from Chile. to: -* be in the store. tomorrow or Friday. Johanson said he doesn’t have exact figures for his store, but he — did say the cost to Safeway _ across Canada is in excess of f $1 ~ million: - om held in cold storage, and subse- Stan Doll, produce. manager for Terrace Overwaitea, said that store destroyed 42 cases, or about 706 Ibs: ty of grapes, ‘nec: a ‘tarines, plums and peaches, Doll. ~ Guest editorial — Why B.C. farm land “\ Editor's note: the following. brief was submitted to the _ government-appointed commission of review that was.struck late last year ‘to examine the B.C. government Agricultural Land _ © Reserve policy. The ALR system was created in the mid-1970's in an effort to preserve B.C. farmland by preventing other forms of og development on agricultural land designated as reserve. 3 The author of the brief is Cyril Shelford, a former MLA for a Skeena and a well-known figure in the Northwest. His second book, } We Pioneered, is about to go into its second printing. “Mn Chairman, ‘I would like to thank you for this opportunity to offer my views on the Land Commission. I’m pleased to see you are looking for » ideas and comments from the public. Any program such as this oy should be reviewed after a number of years. First of all, I support the Land Commission — more so for the long-term needs of agriculture than the short-term, Many will argue ._it is cheaper for the consumer to bring in supplies from the U.S. and » elsewhere, which admittedly can be true in the short-term — -. however, a very dangerous policy in the long-term. As I’ve said ‘many times, lose your production units and lose your nation. _. «Without food, a nation is too vulnerable to pressures for water and ._ other resources, Water is our most valuable natural resource and foe | K: should be declared as such before some government is silly enough to give it away for a song. We paid $1.50 (American) for a litre of __. 1 water on a recent trip to Asia..This is only the start with the pollu- “ ‘fon of rivers in all parts of the world. ‘Even in the short-term, we as consumers gain. by. production at home. As an.example, when cherries come on sale from California, «they are up $2 a pound; when ours come on sale, the price to the : gonsumer drops to 70¢ or 80¢ a pound. This is true with potatoes s and other products, ‘If it wasn’t for our supply, the price would remain high all year : round. For these reasons, and many more, we must keep the _ Agricultural Land Reserve. There is only about'four percent of the _ total land in B.C. which is considered suitable for agriculture. Many - people think that when they look at a map. of B.C. there is an ; - unlimited land base for agriculture and forestry, but if you take the - mountains, lakes and swamp land away, we are not really a large province. Granted, there is a need for fine-tuning because some _; land in the Reserve shouldn’t be there. However, there is a need for 7 ‘buffers around farms to keep subdivisions away. You can subdivide "cup to five feet from the property line, yet if a farmer tried to put a . barn. that close, all hell would break loose. Those on the Commis- _- / gion have to understand the realities of life today, where people buy ’ =~ jn-a subdivision close to a farm, then sign a petition to get rid of the : _ farm. We always have to keep in mind not only the long-term need a of land but also the viability of the farm. Many who demonstrate to «Keep farm land, leave the demonstration to go and buy their milk, -."* eggs, and cheese in the U.S. Each year, 65,445,000 litres of milk “come in from the U.S., reducing our share of M.S.Q. (Market ~. Share Quota) by 1,300,000 litres a year, which our processors badly ‘need to supply our markets. I would strongly recommend you consider doing away with the ; : ‘Appeal to Cabinet which, no matter how you try, makes many deci- _. sions far too policital, Even if they are not, it looks to the general - ‘public that it is. It’s always easy to find someone in any organiza- tion who belongs to some party — whose name can be used in an at- _. tempt to show political favoritism, which is not good for the Com- mission, The government always has the right to change the Com- _ mission if too many mistakes are made. In order for the Cabinet to E -reach’a sound.decision on any given parcel of land, each Minister . _ would have to take as much time to research the issues involved as ...the Commission members spent in'the first place. If this were done . - on each occasion, then there would be no reason for the Commis- a sion in the first place. We all know full well that Cabinets of any ~-sgovernment don’t have this kind of time to spend on such issues, - ‘because they have so many other responsibilities to-attend to. «Jf there is need for appeal in controversial cases, then set up an in- dependent appeal panel but get away from the Cabinet appeals — it’s not good for the image of governments, “TE we are to preserve our ability as a province to produce food for our own needs a hundred or two hundred years from now, we, as a society, must make a firm decision now to protect our limited land. © ‘The report in thé Globe and Mail of January 26, 1989 should be a -\. Sywarning to all of us that shortages can develop quickly with drought : - jf fahy areas of the world at the same time. As the report states, "this is the first year in decades when the U.S. farmers have not been _ service for Terrace. . “paramount to seniors’ needs’’ ‘here, and that compounds their has Ss been lifted, and Johanson should be preserved “able to raise enough food to feed ‘their own people and that they have had to dig into reserves. As Lester Brown, president of the prestigious Worldwatch Institute in Washington, stated in his recent- ‘study on world food supply, the outlook is bleak with the large areas of. drought, especially in Kansas, Texas and Argentina, where ‘they could lose the entire crop. As he stated, if we get another drought next year, all hell will break loose. The world stocks in millions of metric tons on July | were: 1988 1989 Normal 4987 Wheat . (175 144 112. 135 Feed Grains 233 - 209 #4116 #8 120 - Rice oo 50 42 40 50 AllGrains = ~—«-458-«| «396-289-305 Soybeans §=.-—s._- 20 20 14 20 Source: Schnitiker Assoc. Hopefully, next year will be far better and will bring world stocks back to normal. However, even if it does, this should be a fair warn- ing not only to the world community, but also to all of us right here in B.C, — don’t rely on others for our food supply or we will live to regret it. . Cyril M. Shelford. - Wednesday, Match 22,1989 Fa noted that Overwaitea’s head office may be attempting to get some form of compensation for their loss from the federal Bov- ernment. Overwaitea \ will be. receiving stocks of Chilean produce soon. “When asked if he: thought cus-° - tomers Would be wary, Doll said he expects it may’ take a while for some people to regain confi- dence in ‘the products. “Most - people I’ve talked to thought it was an overreaction by the gov- ernment,’” he remarkéd. Reg Piercey, produce manag- er at the local Co-op, was more cautious: the Co-op will not. replenish its stocks of Chilean produce. They also had to de- stroy an unspecified amount of grapes, nectarines, tangerines and peaches, Piercey thinks it will take some time to rebuild consumer confidence in Chilean fruit. ‘“‘The demand won’t be there for a while,’’ he fore- casted. In the mean time, there won't be any grapes in the Co-op’s — bins and there will be an absence of many other kinds of soft fruit . — all three store representatives confirmed that Chile is the only source for those products at this time of year, Piercey said other sources will start shipping in about a month. Diamond Dinner tickets on sale Tickéts for one of the gala social events of the year — the Terrace Centennial . Lions Ladies’ Diamond Dinner — wil! be sold on a limited-ayailability basis at Erwin’s Jewellers Friday from $ to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Only "250 tickets will be sold. Transportation task force — hearings — continued from page 7 a hs | _Taxation Grundmann, who repeated a position presented to the task force on transportation and the disabled held in Terrace a month ago. It requested a HandiDart Grundmann noted that a transportation support system is in terms of social activities and health, ‘‘The winters are hard isolation. Transportation is part of a healthy lifestyle for them,” she said. Talstra noted that Terrace city council had received the same proposal and the municipality has invited B.C. Transit to dis- cuss the possibility. Grundmann said, ‘We're lobbying whoever we can.’’ ' The Task Force committee held a total of eight public hearings in the Northwest. Rick Wozney said the committee will meet shortly after April 1 to establish priorities and then re- port to the regional advisory council, That council is sched- uled to report to North Coast Minister of State Terry Huberts by July 1. tax guide. Revenue Canada Organizers say this year’s tributed by Erwin’s. event will feature fewer but “bigger and better’’ prizes. The evening of April 15 at the Inn of major prize is a diamond con- The dinner takes in on the the West. : Revenu Canada impét . _ Tax questions? | We've got the answers! If questions crop up when you’re fill- ing out your tax return, there’s no need to leave home for help. The answers to your questions are a phone call away. _ Revenue Canada, Taxation will be available with answers-to your questions. From now to the end of April, Monday through Thursday, this service will be available to 9 p.m. Look for our local and toll-free long- distance numbers in your telephone directory, or.at the back of your income When you need help, we're close at hand. Canada co SS ae ce, Ready tear el oes, senor ve se i TSE ae ee a ieee ee ae . Be sof a S an 7 eis