nfttuoob - Salt Spring Island Archives

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Page Four
(Suit Sjslantr JSrifttooob!
537-2211/537-2613
Box 250, Ganges, B.C. VOS 1EO
Published every Wednesday at Ganges by:
riftwood Publishing Ltd.
(J ;
GULF ISLANDS DRIFTWOOD Wednesday, October 22, 1980
Tony Richards, Editor
Subscription Rates:
To the Gulf Islands: $8 per year
Elsewhere in Canada: $10 per year
Foreign (including U.S.A.): $17 per year
(January to January)
Member: Canadian Community Newspapers' Association
B.C. and Yukon Community Newspapers' Association
Second Class Mail Registration No. OKOJ
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1980
Let the businessman pay!
In a small community such as the islands, there are few
businessmen who earn as much as an employee of the public
services. It is likely that most government employees are
substantially better paid than most small businessmen.
There are many reasons for being in business and the disparity
in earning capacity is usually balanced out by greater liberty of
action and independence. Nobody is beefing about it.
But an increasing burden is being placed on the businessman.
If a small merchant wants a telephone hooked up in his home he
will pay less for the job than if it is to be hooked up for his
business. The same technician may well do both jobs. The job at
the house will be discreetly built into the walls. The job at the store
will be neatly tacked to the outside of the wall. And the
commercial premises will pay a higher price because the
community assumes that businesses are always wealthy.
When the transit levy was imposed in the Capital Regional
District, two rates were established. The residential user was
charged $1 per month. The commercial user faced a charge of
$7.50 a month.
The Sooke director, Don Rittaler, reported in the Sooke
Mirror last week that it is now proposed to charge the
businessman between 5% and 10% of his Hydro bill to help meet
the cost of urban transit. There would be a ceiling of between $500
and $1,000 a year.
There was no attempt made at justifying the heavy burden on
small businessmen.
Rittaler resorted to irony.
"It seems that the attitude of the day is to tax anything viable
into bankruptcy," he told the Sooke Forum, "and then anything
bankrupt is subsidized with forgivable loans from taxpayers'
dollars."
The islands have been relieved of the transit cost, but the
potential is still there.
Where will it end
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation started construction,
several years ago, of a new television transmitting station at
Saturna Island. Its purpose was to serve the projected new CBC
station in Victoria.
Half-way through the project it was curtailed in the interests of
economy. Such an economy might have crippled a lesser man.
Today, the facilities are half-built and will probably be left to
rot in order to save money.
In the meantime, residents of the coastal communities who
relied on the national news service to keep them informed were
deprived of the news that Mount St. Helens had erupted again.
And why should they be told
They should be informed because the volcano is on their
doorstep and because it means more to us on the coast than it does
to the people in Toronto, where the news is gathered and
distributed.
It is time the CBC was a national structure with adequate
coastal news services. Perhaps it is time the new structures were
completed and put into use for the west coast so that we could see
Knowlton Nash with the Pacific National News tonight!
Fashions and death
Fashions are fabulous. So we are told.
They might also be fatal, at times.
The fashion on island roads is to wear dark pants and dark
shirts and then thumb a ride after dark.
The driver with sharp vision often sees the hitch-hiker yards
before they meet. The jeans are out of this world. The shirt is dirtresistant
and it will be clean to the end. They are a danger to the
well-dressed young man.
If your son is dressed in this manner get him to wear something j
that shows lip in the night sue ho rf*fty ftOtl
Letters to the Editor
Bicycle viable alternative to gas-guzzler
Sir,
Your attack of bicyclists in your
editorial of September 3 is not a
credit to the usually sane views of
Driftwood. In a recent Driftwood
article the fact was noted that cars
and motorcycles are on the increase
in the islands. In many
issues of the paper I read about
terrible accidents and often serious
Several questions raised
Sir,
I was interested in Frank Richards'
recent article on the Constitution.
Having followed the subject
rather closely myself, I found real
food for thought in what he had to
say. The article also raised several
questions in my mind.
One question concerns representation.
A point made by Mr.
Richards, which I have heard
elsewhere, is that those speaking
on behalf of the provinces do not
really represent what the people
accept. It is a sort of a third level
approach: the federal government,
the provincial government, and the
people - with nobody speaking for
the people.
In the ordinary course of affairs,
we operate on the basis of electing
someone to speak for us, presumably
because most people have
neither the time nor the inclination
to inform themselves on the issues.
Those who do can make their
wishes known to their representatives.
So decisions are made, and
people generally seem prepared to
accept the process. My first question,
then, is where do you draw
the line between ordinary law
making procedure, and "The voice
of the people" type of procedure
which Mr. Richards seems to
advocate
My second question concerns the
process itself. Just how would you
(a) determine what items were on
the agenda for decision; (b) advise
the population at large on all the
ins and outs of the issues; (c) arrive
at any sort of consensus
- In my experience it is hard
enough to get more than three
people to agree on a time and place
to eat. How one could hope to make
any progress on something as
genuinely difficult as writing the
recipe for running a country by
appealing to all the individuals
comprising that country is an
* " • i »= =di
exercis
intrigues me. Or did I miss a turn
somewhere
HAROLD J. PAGE,
4432 Narvaez Crescent,
Victoria, B.C.
October 14, 1980.
(And Isabella Point Road!)
P.S. I'd like to hear from Mr.
Richards.
That's why
he's running
Sir,
In announcing my intention to
seek re-election for the Islands
Trust, I would like to give my
reasons for so doing.
(1) I believe in the principle of
the trust, to protect and preserve
these islands for all the people,
both present and in the future.
(2) I believe in adherence to the
community plan, selected by the
people, both present and future.
(3) I believe in orderly planning
to uphold the community plan.
(4) I believe water and planning
must be integrated
(5) Living on Salt Spring is
country living and must so remain.
(6) My idea of responsibility of
the elected trustee is to impersonally
administer the by-laws in
respect to planning and zoning.
(7) I am devoted to the job.
(8) I have applied these rules
over the past two years and will
continue to do so if re-elected.
BUDKREISSL,
RR1,
step
injuries from car and motorcycle
accidents.
Yet you run down a form of
transportation that is both nonpolluting,
non-congesting and
healthful. Of course the editor may
not be in good enough shape to
pedal to work. The answer is not to
discourage the tourist bucks that
are increasingly going to come
from touring cyclists but to encourage
roadways that include bike
lanes, to encourage programs of
bicycle safety through the schools
and to provide a few bicycle
storage racks in the urban core.
The statistics show that bicycle
purchases are up all over North
America and especially in the
affluent Northwest. The bicycle is
becoming a viable alternative to
the gas guzzler, not only to save
money but to get much needed
aerobic exercise and tone up flabby
bodies. The internal combustion
engine is on the way out.
It seems wise to start planning
now for more bicycles on the road
than to show fear of a future that is
inevitable. I've had several of my
friends slaughtered by drunken
greasers in their four-wheeled
muscle machines. A bicyclist takes
his life in his hands when he's on
the pavement. He has to be
constantly alert to traffic and try to
guess the whims of drivers.
But I personally prefer travelling
in the open air, by my own energy,
observing the world at a casual
pace despite insecure, out of shape
drivers roaring by giving me the
finger.
B. FULLERTON,
Seattle, Wash.
October, 1980
$$$ u.s
Premium
15c
This Week,
says the Salt Spring
Island Chamber
of Commerce.