Opinion

CNR’s locomotive
leaves:
Another chug backwards

Instead of looking at transportation alternatives that
remove the pressure on roads and reduce the demand for
fossil fuels, governments are elimating rail service com-
pletely around here. It was demonstrated again with last
week’s announcement that the last CNR locomotive has left
the Island.

Then there’s the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway. It may
have been handed a reprieve, but unless the Via Rail
passenger service gets a badly needed reinvestment, the
federal government will — by sheer neglect — ensure its
demise.

Luckily, friends at the Saanich Historical Artifacts Society
are doing more than their bit to preserve rail history, And
unfortunately, history may soon be all there is for rail
transportation on the Island.

A short rail line, entirely on the Artifacts Society’s
property next to the Pat Bay Highway in Central Saanich, has
been built, and a small train, representative of the ones that
used to ply the Peninsula and Greater Victoria, will run up
and down for visitors’ enjoyment.

At one time three trains ran up and down the Peninsula.
Now there is one, but it is only for fun.

Transportation Minister Rita Johnston has promised to
look at alternatives. Perhaps it was an empty promise. After
all, what does looking take?

The artifacts society should be commended for aquiring so
much rolling stock. We’d like to be able to commend the
government for putting new rolling stock into place.
Unfortunately, it may never happen.

Sharing the road:

Cars, bikes, horses, pedestrians

It’s time for all users of the Peninsula’s roadways to note
the season’s arrival with more than a jump for joy.

Enjoying the outdoors isn’t the preserve of convertible
drivers. Spring means more bicycles, pedestrians, motorcy-
cles and horses on and beside the road.

So, drivers, watch for small but fast moving objects that

come out of nowhere. Don’t pass that group of cycles at the
crest of a hill. And expect something other than asphalt
around the corner.

Cyclists, refrain from riding two or three abreast into
comers. Pedal carefully along the inside of line-ups; expect
cars to pull right without seeing you.

And parents, remind your children of the rules of the road.

Last year, there were at least two bike/car accidents on the
Peninsula. One of them ended tragically.

With a little care, there should be room for everyone to
enjoy the outdoors.

TheReview

Serving The Saanich Peninsula
Since 1912
9781 2nd Street
Sidney, B.C. V8L 4P8
or PO. Box 2070
Sidney, B.C. V8L 3S5
Second Class Mail Registration #0128

656-1151

Publisher: Vic Swan Editor: George Lee
AN ISLAND PUBLISHERS NEWSPAPER
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@CcNA .

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~ VERIFIED
CIRCULATION

CONTROLLED

Volume 76 Issue No.13

TheReview Wednesday, March 28,1990 — AG

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BRAKES... YOURE INVULNERABIE |
ANYWAY —- NOTHING CAN HURT You

|

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3

Outrageous
statements

Editor:

We are writing in response to
Mark Dickinson’s outrageous edi-
torial statement in Wednesday’s

Review “Huberts saw North’s
future.”

What right does he have to say
Such utter nonsense? He is suppo-
sed to be in an unbiased position
of responsibility.

As to the constituency nominat-
ing meeting he referred to, we were
there and saw how Mel Couvel-
ier’s group acted. If anyone should
have been upset it was Terry
Huberts.

We are disappointed that Terry
has decided not to run, but respect
his reasons. As for Couvelier’s
momentum, there would have been
no contest. A person has to do
more than change their residence
to become part of a community, as
Terry already was.

If Mark Dickinson’s reason for
saying such things was to draw the
party together, he had an absolute
opposite effect.

Ron Tidman
Judy Tidman
Sidney

No subsidy

Editor:

The disposal companies are told
they will have to eat a 33 per cent
increase in tipping fees, that a user
fee system has to be instigated at
the Hartland Avenue Iandfill.

Polluters are told they are the
ones who will have to pay.

Businesses such as roofers are
told not to expect the taxpayers to
subsidize them, so how come tax-
payers are picking up the tab for
the collection of piles of junk that
people are too lazy, cheap or both
to get rid of themselves?

Tom Frew
Sidney

Veiled attempi for
one-way sireets

Editor:
A visitor from California was
told that Sidney was to have an

interchange for its 12,000 people.

He suggested it was a stupid,
expensive idea and we would lose
the small town feeling that Sidney
presently has.

Also, various businesses people
said that it would do no good for
the two years of construction. This
has been proven by the mess on
Beacon Avenue and Fifth Street
for the past six months.

It was suggested that this move
is merely a way of getting the
one-way streets that our town
council seems to want.

Wonder if there is such a thing
as a Sidney Taxpayers Associa-
tion? It seems that we need one.

John W.H. Hopper
Sidney

Restrict Beyer

Editor:

Congratulations Jim Fulton - in
his letter (“Barb for Buyer,” The
Review, March 21) replying to
Hubert Beyer’s effrontery in critic-
izing Canadians for objecting to
the unquestionable desecration of
the Mounties’ uniform (“An
unfortunate trend”’).

Beyer’s position is really akin to
the overbearing stance taken by
Victoria council on the French
language issue; it is purely for the
sake of wanting to appear “‘cul-
tured” or of superior knowledge,
and, like the misguided lady who
appeared on a recent T.V. com-
mentary on the turban issue who
had the gall to openly state that
ordinary Canadians didn’t know
what they were talking about.

Unfortunately for Beyer, Vic-
toria council and the commentator,
Canadians do — and it’s time that
such people get off their high
horses and talked straight sense.

I have read Beyer regularly —
and only once in two years have I
seen any real sense in his attitudes.
His only value lies in ‘Beyers Bits’
which impart news of events, etc.
— and to this purpose alone he
should be relegated.

Bill Hayfield
Saanichton

Big forestry ads
propaganda tool

Editor:
Various expensive ads have been

appearing in the media that say
pulp and paper companies are
committed to renewal and forests
forever. If this were so, manipula-
tion of public opinion by way of
propaganda would not be neces-
sary. The job would be seen to
have been done in the observance.
Premier Bill Vander Zalm wants
the Feds to contribute $350 mil-
lion for reforestation in B:C. That
is asking the people of Canada to
further subsidize the forest indus-
try. We, the people, own the

» resources and when the coffers of
the Socred election slush-fund are #

threatened, our health and gener.
welfare considerations are jeopar-
dized as expendable.

If our premiers, past and pre-
sent, were worthy of their hire,
they would insist that the forest
corporations pay adequate com-
pensatory stumpage fees, that hab-
itat, watersheds, reforestation and
all other laws of nature are factored
in the costs of operation, according

tO Our requirements and not those “*E

of the corporations.

Only then, will their passive
slogans become a fait accompli.
The day of atonement is at hand.

W. Rowden
Brentwood Bay

Sticking up for the
pheasant farmers

Editor:

It is very unfortunate that Dr
Terry Tuddenham lost her cat to a
trap (Cat dead in illegally set killer
trap — The Review, March 21). I
too am a cat lover, and know the
pain of losing a feline family
member

I also know the pain and frustra-
tion of losing pets to senseless
killing. Not to traps — to preda-
tors. I raise pheasants and exotic
poultry, and work hard to keep my
pens predator proof. However,
some predators such as raccoon
and mink are next to impossible to
divert.

In your story, SPCA director
Lynn West is quoted as saying that
there is a humane way to trap
raccoons. Yes, there is a humane
trap, but it does not trap the
cunning raccoon.

When my chickens were first
attacked by a raccoon, the SPCA
told me to rent a humane trap from

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