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L Remedy needed

- Last week's tragic death of a ‘college ; fig £Vlumes. ' student. on the. Sande Overpass: points ; out once. again: ‘the: need for changes. *

: Mo mn drivers around: here have ‘horror.

end: and a change in the traffic. ‘light se-

emove that merging of traffic on th “overpass as. ite enters from both, sides of Greig Ave. eearen There. are ‘other posiilities,- ‘pai. - theularly to improve pedestrian safety. In England, for example, Bolisha. beacons ' mark: pedestrian crossings, These ‘are

is: the ‘overpass Kita - of s ‘snuck up onus. It ‘was never intended — to. be both pa vital artery, between: the |

A study coriducted this. 1 ing for ‘he

. But. the. study did list some shortsterm | : measures to improve safety. on the « over- | pass.: These include lights on the hospital

quence: én the other end.. This latter -

highways | ministry; touched very subject: It indicated th } traffic on the overpass stays wit city,

hin the -° Such a: ‘system might better alert a driver

highly. visible ‘flashing orange globes atop of striped black and white poles.

“to the presence of the pedestrian cross-

sal ne has pureaucra atic and serene ~ ing, especially on dark and wet mornings pica ecause the provinci when visibility i is extremely limited.

government is responsible for highways - as routes for traffic between populated “The highways ministry. study was sub- “mitted to the city for its consideration

areas. Municipalities are: responsible ‘for

routes within their boundaries, What we __ this past spring. The word from the have with the overpass: and its connec- _—* Ministry is that itis still waiting for a rep- ly,

ting roads then is an ugly hybrid of both : . It shouldn't take the death of soieone

those responsibilities, -

That highways ministry study laid out . to prompt that response. But if it does, some long term options, including a se- the reply should come fast. The overpass cond overpass and an alternate highway ranks as probably the most : dangerous

stretch of Hwy16 between the coast and

corridor through the city, It also pointed out that the project was some years away Prince George. It’s hardly an enviable situation, a

because of the limited through-city traf- “we eT ricl Chi

eon JIRA ail it - wad eie ce Ubu Gin yaa Myer

Hey, how ‘about that Moe Sihota. There was no way, said Mr. Sthoti, What a guy. What a trickster. There he that he was going to carry the can for was on TV last week, a look of horror © -high-rates to compensate - ‘forthe past and wounded indignation on his face,” government's sins,’ OF course. he won't, The subject was the government-owned The only can Mr. Sihota will carry is the ICBC and the possibility of vehicle in- one into which we’ll stuff what’s left of surance rates going sky high. _ our tapidly depleting after-tax pay che-

Mr.- Sihota,. the cabinet minister ques. responsible for ICBC, said the previous The sooner Mr. Sihota. gives up

’ government manipulated insurance rates . amateur theatrics the better. Of all peo- to keep:them low and politically accep- ple, Mr. Sihota should be familiar with table. That means more money next | the. way ‘the nasty game of: politics is year, , played,

Bearly coping |

Anytime I drag my feet on a

deadline, everything and everyone reminds me of it until misery overload moves me. Through For months I’ve put off mak- Bifecals ing a teddybear for our grand- child, Throughout, Grandpa’s by Claudette Sandeck!

hagged me as doggedly as ac- tivists hounding Harcourt for

~ funding.

At first I argued she was too young, too small, for an 18-inch kapok-stuffed animal. Grandpa disagreed, predictably.

- Looking for'support, I check-

_ ed the family photo album. Sure - enough. Pinning . ‘teddy to: her ' playpen mat was our diapered

_ Hulk Hogan, five months-old.

. So ‘pleaded lack of time.

Besides the fuss of hanging,

wrinkles out of the fun. fur,,

ironing the tissue pattern, and

a

Be meget ceciton iat age aren ae a Rn BN om

- trimming eight pattern - pieces,

the pile of every'seam has io be’

| painstakingly smoothed i in one } direction: before stitching.

I feél. inept... Meticulously, join-

‘foreign ( to someoric | used to ing 84 inches before’

. for. thread, with. "A needle that

| Sapemarkee flyers. Oni’ televi.

. bruin who backs out: of bed to...

“Mainly ’Ve dawdled because | ing. fifteenodd- bits. of design si

: direction, using boy: scout “cord

:. Slon:., There’s the blity brown

fetch the cough medicine; the

friendly fuzzy fellow in the fabric softener ad; A and W's bottom-bulging’ mascot; and Zeddy.

a According to an unscientific

notion, ‘Bears when. first born are shapeless: masses of white flesh: The mother then licks them. gradually into shape, - Live bears in the wild, maybe. Teddybears begin as perfect Winnie the Poohs — if they’re

crafted by fingers as nimble as: Aunt Fay! s, Her teddybears ar: _

rived with pink satin bows under their soft, brown chins. — It_ took. years of loving to pummel them ‘out. of shape. They were our daughters’ com:

‘panions ‘atid ‘pillows. “From . - room to” room, they bounced’

along behind, dragged” ‘by One. arm. During sibling rivalries,

they were wound. up: like | : . helicopter rotors, then let pe as. | at

-miidsiles “aime

antl

Lb hen. sc earedouten as reBets 's seat is TREAT EO ea tet ead :

‘own merits;:

2A direct” hit inlet rupture wat On*“searh am, Pgh ‘would . teak.

her pillow.

Any teddybear I sew must be able to survive a 20-year assign- ment. His seams must be stur- dy, his nose and eyes safely an- chored: Yet he must . be. clean.

“Can I do it? Or will I mail off a - teddybear grubby as yeast rolls.

shaped by a preschooler. As a young aunt I made many toys, without ‘a ‘pattern. : Whatever resulted had to be judged — — and énjoyed — on its . ‘But’ making: . something . fron. a pattern.

_ qualifies even kids to find flaws, Have I delayed too long? -

EAT LAST | CRACKED he OUR CANOE IN A GALE!

_ 4 document, across the top of which is printed the word.

“CONFIDENTIAL,” and the |

professional saliva starts flow- ing.

The temptation to fire up the old computer, call up the. word processor and start typ-

‘ing becomes even greater when

you realize that said:confiden- . ©

fiat Hear eae is addressed.to "British Columbia’s forestry... giants, Fletcher Challenge, - Canada, - oe - So what, if it’s 14 months old and probably no longer

“operative”, as Tricky Dickie

used to refer to things which, upon reflection, he’d rather not have said. The immediate reaction is: pick the thing over and let her rip. .Confidential memoranda make for juicy reading, particularly if they’ re called “Darwin,” implying a _ fight of the fittest for survival. At this point, responsible os ‘journalists part company with those who don't want to run: : the risk of letting facts get in

: way of a good colunin, You

-call your contacts at Fletcher Challenge and ask them about Darwin,

‘Yes, Darwin was written in September of 1990, Its pur-

_ pose: to impress on the com- pany that any major changes in its financial and business structure must be com- municated to the various con- stituencies in advance. ‘These constituencies include the : employees, the shareholders, the government and the public,

-- When the memorandum was _-

prepared by Fletcher's in-house public. affairs staff, the com- ' pany was facing a bleak "future, anticipating a $60 “million loss for ‘1991, That ‘forecast, it turns out, was con- ‘servative, Losses will be well -over $100 million this year.

_ The. company could either * cotitinue to sustain. losses - something I am not’ too keen’ “onin:my own economic endeavours, or seek other solu- ‘tons, including the, liquidation: of aésets or entering into joint

_ ventures with other investors. a

a HERE THE 26

WADED THROUGH MUSKEE 9): IN A FREAK BLIZZARD | FoR 2 DAYS CAASED BY

A BEAR EATEN ALIVE. BY MOSQUITOES | i

thie separ, executives. of one,of i for: ‘fitute investment, but .

; media, :

Don’ t let facts ce ruin good story

_ VICTORIA — Give a reporter -

From the

_ Capital _ by Hubert Beyer

The memo does indicate that , Fletcher is looking to the U.S.

vthen, that’s not very surpris~

; ing. If they think they < can stop: “losing money by investing in

the U.S., they will do so. _Apart from that, the only

- purpose of the memo was to

teli Fletcher's senior executives that whatever action the com- pany would take, it must com- _municate its intentions in ad- Vance, |

Now, I've got to tell you

‘ that the boys at public affairs’

did one hell of a job pulling together all the pieces, right

: _ down to the:negative responses "it warned the company to an- ~-ticipate. | i

~ “Bottom-line mentality,,,un- caring foreign owners...com- pany is stripping assets. ..op-

: portunistic company taking ad-

“vantage of downturn to pursue

» its ‘real agenda’ ...more union-

‘ busting," are among the com- ments the memorandum says may come from the public, the

‘employees and the politicians, _

. It should be noted that the memorandum recommended that not only-the government * but also the then’ NDP opposi- tion be appraised of the com." pany’s plans. . —

Well, as it turns out, ‘the

* company: ‘bought into the ideas 7 ‘outlined i in.the Darwin a

memorandum, ‘Last: -March,.

~ Fletcher’ Challenge announced : that it: wants to sell off most

‘of its forestry Operations and confine. the future activity to the pulp‘ ‘sector; But it’ did so .

., only-after informing all the : players, including its " employees and: -shareholders Ys

the government, the oppositio and the’ Public. fhrough | the

1 must say that I was, sina

_ they cannot and should’: ‘not!

ly somewhat sceptical of the‘ process recommended by the -

se a seman nub faded

: “in: the memoranduny:Some.

“the wording smacked ‘o manipulation. : ; When I. re-read the docu- ment after talking to my Flet-- cher Challenge ‘contacts, I: found my suspicions of. manipulation allayed, althéligh

some of the phrases; such BS

“neutralizing negative 7 responses,’’ uren’t, very welll, chosen.

On the other hand, it might

- be argued that the memoran-

dum was, of course, never in- tended for the scrutiny of the media, It was an internal. docu- ment’ addressed to the com- pany’s senior executives, : ~The reason 'I deal with the: memorandum at all is:to point out how the word CON. . A: FIDENTIAL seems. to. 2}. automatically qualify a docu, ment for front-page treatment. ‘I think that the people. who prepared the Darwin’ memorandum did a preit good job convincing their ‘ senior company executives that

confrorit. the public with: ca terse statement after the fact: Fletcher Chaltenge'r “may: not be the best corporate citizen. in British Columbia, but r ‘cannot . see anything wrong with how they went about informing < everybody of their intentions” to downsize, no matter what. you may read elsewhere about the Darwin memorandum, a As for the’ compahy’ s plans

“to divest itself of § some B.C.

holdings, I'm not: ‘surprised,

_ Forestry analyst Jaak Puasepp

said at a‘recent seitinar at thie Paci “Paper Expo in Van- .

ies __souver that “the industry: ~ could technically: be declared | _ bankrupt. " i