Margaret
Krulsselbrink

Hopefully they will
go down more. It's
nice to see they have’
dropped. It has got-
ten expensive to go
anywhere when you
have to drive an
automobile.

Herman Brandstra

Gasoline costs
should go down
more. | am a former
Terrace resident and
currently live in Ab-
botsford. Many peo-

ple in the lower
mainland go across
the border and pur-
chase gas in the U.S.
| am in favor of sup-
porting the B.C.
economy so | pur-
chase gas in Canada
but to be com-

The Terrace Review asked: |

Have gasoline prices
gone down enough?

Ray Warner
No.. It doesn’t take
a mathematician to
calculate that the
drop in the price per
barrel has not been

relayed to con-
sumers at gas sta-
tions. 1! think
someone is making a
lot of money along
the way. | feel
gasoline prices

could go down much
more.

Betty Ann Guerreiro
No. | think gasoline
prices should go
down to what they

originally were
many, many years
ago. But, on the

other hand, with the
higher costs people

_become more Inclin-

ed to walk or ride
bicycles. to destina-
tions which are
healthy occupations

petitive, prices that create less air don't want to see
should drop. pollution. another rerun of that.

mh ma

Paul Johnston

| understand the
argument that there
is old or higher-
priced oil in the
pipeline but costs
certainly went up a
lot more quickly than
they went down. |

The plummeting price of crude oll recently reached the con-
sumer level in Terrace. The pump price for a litre of gasoline
fall nine cants In less than a month, but the lower prices may

have yet to under-| not last for long.

stand the differentia-
tion between the
higher cost of

gasoline in the north
compared to prices in
the lower mainland.

Terrace automobile
owners have recently en-
joyed less expensive
operating costs due to a
sudden drop in the pump
price of gasoline. In less
than a month the cost of
a litre of regular leaded
gasoline has gone from a
local average of 59.4
cents to 50.2 cents.
Public attention has
recently been focused on
the world price of crude
oil, which last week
dropped below $10 U.S.

time Since the mid-

Brian Gre }
No. Nowevee we 1970’s. Policy confusion
don’t want to get | ®mong OPEC members

would appear to have
resulted in a minor wind-
fall for ‘fuel consumers.

The pump price of
gasoline, however, ac-
cording to Esso Cana-
da’s Bob McLean, is in-
fluenced by a whole
complexity of factors.

boxed into a corner
like we did in 1972
with OPEC. As a
result of that oil em-
bargo, we faced an
energy crisis and |

(wa HE
Wem cas PUMP

Steering Wheel Pull

When acar pulls to one side
during braking suspect the
brakes: usually the front
brakes, but the rear brakes
canalso be responsible. When
the wheel pulls to one side
during normal driving, check
the tires first. Tire wear on
one side indicates incorrect
camber and could be from
wheel misalignment. If the
tire wear is spotty it’s usually
camber changes from a worn
suspension.

\. _/

Spring weather.

Terrace residents get outside to take advantae of the

McLean, public relations
manager for the petro-
leum giant’s western
regional office in Van-
couver, said in a recent
statement to the Review,
“Prices are flipping all
over the place. The
ultimate cost of products
to the consumer is in-
fluenced by market
forces of many and
various origins,’’ In ex-
plaining the difficulty of
tracking those market
forces to the pump,
McLean compared it to
adding sugar to tea.

“How do you figure out
which particular grain of
sugar causes what degree
of sweetness?’’ he said.
McLean did say, how-

Ske

Sherry Halfyard photo

per barrel for the first.

Lower gas prices
may be short-lived

ever, that the present
price of gasoline in B.C,
is artificially low due toa
bout of competition
among domestic pro-
ducers. In breaking
down the recent nine-
cent-per-litre price drop,
he attributed five cents
to the overall reduction
in crude prices following
the federal governments’
60-day pass-through
period (the time it takes
for the crude to go
through the refining pro-
cess). The remaining

- four cents, he said, came

off due to competition
among refiners.

McLean pointed out
that during January
when the consumer cost
of gasoline was highest,
Esso’s refiner margin
was in the range of 15 to
16 cents. It is now in the
11-12 cent area, he said.
“We're the variable,’” he
concluded, ‘‘The govern-
ment gets its share no
matter what.”

What could
we build if
we worked
together?

To the editor,

The recent Nielson
Report has found that
the federal government
gives out close to $13
billion a year to business
and in return, - the
government gets very lit-
tle besides political
leverage.

What the amount is
for provincial govern-
ments I don’t know, but
I believe that we could
safely assume that it
would be an amount of
the same magnitude.

In total that amount is
more than Canada in-
vests in education. In
British Columbia we in-
vest $1.6 billion a year in
education and this
amount has been con-
stantly under attack as
being too much. That
amount, by the way, is
about I6 percent of the
total provincial budget
and is the lowest in
Canada. In B.C. we
spend more on advertis-
ing and new car sales
than we do on our public
schools.

The attack on our
young and our poor has
been relentless for the
past few years. The
Socreds don’t seem to
understand the costs in-
volved in their pursuit.
The lack of opportunity
for our young has
created a social time
bomb.

A. John Hopkins
University study con-
cluded that for each one
percent increase in
unemployment sustained
over a six year period
created a four percent
rise in prison admissions,
a4.3 percent rise in men-
tal hospital admissions, a
5.7 percent rise in
homicides, and a 4.1 per-
cent rise in suicides.

We are paying for the
social costs one way or
another. We know that
when the economy takes
a downward turn it is

continued on page 12

their next program.

Deadline May 2, 1986.

to Kermode Centre.

Kermode Friendship Society

Pre-employment
Program

The pre-employment Program for Native
Women is now accepting applications for

Start date May 20, 1986.

This Is a sixteen week program and consists
of 8 weeks lifeskills, 4 weeks job search
techniques and 4 weeks practicum.

For more Information call 635-9481 or drop In-