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•\t 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.
Wednesday, October 22, 1980 GULF ISLANDS DRIFTWOOD 'Page Five Stereotyped ideas surface like whales in Trincomali Sir. Thoughts after reading the edition of October 15 and "The Anarchist". O come off it Anarchist, don't be like that! Is it that you despise those who allow fervent moral indignation to dictate their actions But your own articles are full of fervent moral indignation. Is it that you condemn social They are not the problem Sir, At a recent public meeting of the Islands Trust, as reported in the Driftwood, several suggestions were made by W.E. Delmonico regarding water quality problems at St. Mary Lake. Mr. Delmonico felt that the lake should be dosed with powdered chlorine to reduce the suspended solids levels. While chlorine is sometimes used to kill algae in reservoirs, its use in a lake would not be acceptable because even low levels of chlorine are toxic to many fish and aquatic organisms. Furthermore, rapid and massive die-off of algae can induce severe oxygen depletion, creating further water quality problems. Apart from these considerations and the expense involved, the killing of algae bv the use of chlorine or other algicides such as copper sulphate can only provide a very temporary relief since nutrients from the decaying algae are recycled within the lake to promote renewed algae growth. Mr. Delmonico further suggested that the flushing rate of the lake was adversely affected when the lake became a source of water for the North Salt Spring Waterworks District, but in fact, whether the water is removed by a water utility or overflows down the creek, the effect is identical on the flushing rate. Finally, Mr. Delmonico felt that the use of power boats would be beneficial due to aeration of the water. Data obtained from lake sampling indicates that the surface waters consistently contain oxygen levels at or near saturation (the maximum possible). As with other lakes, oxygen enters the surface waters of St. Mary Lake from the air through the water surface, especially if wind-driven wave action is present, also considerable excess oxygen is given off into the water by algae during the process of photosynthesis. A very small amount of aeration is created by wave action from power boats. On the other hand, oil spread on a water surface from boating interferes with the natural process of oxygen absorption from the air. Thus it can be seen that dissolved oxygen levels are not a problem in the surface waters of St. Mary Lake and boating will not contribute in a positive way to lake water quality. MIKE LARMOUR, Secretary North Salt Spring Waterworks District, Ganges, October 15, 1980 action to oppose laws thought to be wrong Surely not. You are an anarchist, remember Is it that you deplore conformity to established views and standards Perhaps you have forgotten that you belong to one of the strongest establishments of human history, the bloc of opinion-makers, educators and news media personnel, plus the. masses of ordinary people who swallow uncritically your liberal-humanist agnostic philosophy. (I was immersed in this mythology for six years at the University of London). Stereotyped ideas surface in your article like killer-whales in Trincomali Channel. The Pope is thought to speak for all Christians. St. Paul, taken out of context, is jeered at. The Bible is made to support the subjugation of women, and even the Panama Canal, the Pentagon and "church-related pressure groups" are somehow dragged into the argument. Presumably Adam and Eve, Billy Graham, Galileo and the multi-nationals were omitted only for lack of space. Should you not head your column "The Conformist" instead HUGH L. MACLURE, M.B., R.R. 1. Galiano Island. October 18. 1980. Only those taxed He doesn't accept her figures should be given vote Sir, I have just finished reading yet another epistle from the pen of Mary C. Williamson. I refer to her letter concerning the proposed recreation centre published in your edition of the 15th. Personally, I believe that the centre is not justified by our small rural population, that it could create problems and that it would eventually cost a great deal more than the advertised, mill rate increase. But the facility itself is not the matter on which I wish to take issue with Ms. Williamson. My objection is to the contention that those who own property appraised at over $60,000 (and I wonder what "authority" chose that magic figure and why) are morally obligated to pay for a facility which many of us do not want, would not use and would be hard put to afford. We subscribe to the maxim of "No taxation without representation"; surely it is also only right that only those who would be taxed as the result of a referendum should be permitted to vote. Otherwise any majority could bully a minority into giving said majority a free ride by means of such referendums. Yet Ms. Williamson regrets that even children cannot vote on the issue in question. As yet I have read nothing pertaining to who may vote in the forthcoming referendum, but if Letters to the editor must be brief and the editor reserves the right to abbreviate any letter in the interest
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