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Page 4, News, Tuesday, June 4, 1991 Editorial The Terrace Bay - Schreiber News is published every Tuesday by Laurentian Publishing Limited, Box 579, 13 Simcoe Plaza, Terrace Bay, Ont., POT 2W0 Tel.: 807-825-3747. Second class mailing permit 2264. Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Single copies 50 cents incl. Publisher...................:c006 Sandy Harbinson GST. Subscription rates: Advertising Mor. escawascssssces Linda Harbinson $18 per year/seniors $12 EGUtOM...............ccceeeeeeeseeseeeeee Robert Cotton (local); $29 per year (outof Sales Representative.............. Lisa LeClair Ap pe sae mi ns Admin. Asst...............0:.000 Gayle Fournier ie beak ol Production Asst................ Cheryl Kostecki Cancellation marks for more rural post offices Well, the federal government, this time through Canada Post Corporation, has begun yet another round of attacks on rural Canada. | The largest group of rural post offices ever, 150, will be closing by July eliminating 200 jobs. Post offices in rural Canada are being closed outright or replaced with private contractors providing service out of retail stores. Since 1987 this has happened to 920 rural post offices. There seems to be no redress. The cry of the rural population against the closure of these post offices falls on deaf federal ears. Canada, in the words of Cynthia Patterson, national co-ordinator for Rural Dignity, has become a nation of small towns with big nightmares not a nation of small towns with big dreams, as described by Mulroney in the 1984 election campaign. Terrace Bay's Post Office is still under the gun although not threatened by direct closure. Public Works Canada is going to sell the building and Canada Post, if it can't negotiate a 'suitable' lease it will have to consider other methods of providing postal service. Reginald Belair, our duly elected federal representative, sent a compelling letter in support of maintaining current postal services in Terrace Bay to Donald Lander, CEO of Canada Post Corporation. Mr Lander did not respond personally. The response came from an Officer of Federal Government Relations for CPC. We will call him J. Doe. J. Doe himself didn't sign his own name but somebody else signed for him. Did J. Doe ever read Belair's letter? Did Mr. Lander? The letters simply repeat what we already know - "if CPC can't sign a mutually agreeable lease... have to consider other options..." Gilles Pouliot, our duly elected provincial representative, also sent a letter to Mr. Lander in support of maintaining current postal service. Again, Mr. Lander assigned the task of answering mail from elected representatives of the people, to another. This time it was the Manager of CPC Provincial and Municipal Relations. The first three paragraphs of this letter are exactly the same. as the Corporation's response to Mr Belair.. It seems that those in charge of our Crown Corporations feel they don't have to pay attention to the needs or wants of the people of Terrace Bay as presented by their elected representatives. It has been said that the buzz word for the nineties is empowerment - regaining the power to be responsible for ones own life. Well, Terrace Bay will keep its Post Office as it is only if the people take some action to regain power over their own destiny. They might start by actively supporting the actions already taken by their federal, provincial and municipal representatives. Robert A. Cotton The following is the text of the letter sent to Mr. Lander, President and CEO of Canada Post Corporation by Mr. Reginald Belair, M.P. Cochrane-Superior. Dear Mr. Lander, In October, 1989, I received a notice from Canada Post Corporation stating that Public Works Canada intended to dispose of or renovate its facilities across Canada. CPC is a tenant in a Public Works building located in Terrace Bay Ont. Canada Post assured the community of Terrace Bay of their commitment to maintain and improve postal service in Terrace Bay. The Corporation also stated that there would be no reduction in service as a result of public works Canada's decision to dispose of its property. Since that date in 1989, Terrace Bay has watched as community after community across Canada lost their post office to postal outlets and super mail boxes. Canada Post's assessment of the level of service from this new system differs greatly from the assessment of Canadians who have seen the heart of their community torn out and disposed of. The new method of delivery may be cost effective judging from the profit figures of last year, but it has dehumanized the only federal presence in some communities. It isno wonder that Canadians .. ncn incre orinassliianithanaadaal einem ai. \ i MQ N | AW! LET THE i : \ 2 SQV = = 6 (MMA G. ae ¥ 'OK, ROLLER OUTSIDE | SUN GET }.\\ arin || =) | | sil Si N 4s <S: SY SS W NS S Year of the veggie The twentieth century belongs to Canada. Sir Wilfrid Laurier uttered that smug prediction, back at the turn of the last century. Sir Wilfrid was a tad premature. Here in the dying embers of the time period in question, one might argue that the twentieth century belonged to America, Russia, Europe, Japan -- maybe even Korea, but not to the Great White North. The past 91 years lavished many blessings and rewards upon Canucks, but not, I think, custodianship of the century. Pity. Would have been so tidy, being able to tag a hundred years of turmoil as "The Canadian Century". Historians like to catalogue periods of time that way. Thus we have the Pleistocene epoch, the Edwardian Era and the Iron Age. Journalists are fond of subdividing it even further into decades -- the Roaring Twenties; the Dirty Thirties, the Swinging Sixties, the Me Decade of the eighties. I have no idea how the Nineties §: will go down in the history books, & but I have a modest suggestion for # the year we're in -- 1991. How about The Year of the Veggie? These are volatile times for vegetables. Take the potato. Take, in fact, the only province in the Dominion that is known around the world for its potatoes -- PE.I. They don't call it Spud Island for nothing. It's received scant attention in the press, but the fact is, your average Prince Edward islander now faces criminal charges if he or she dares to grow potatoes in his vegetable garden. I am not making this up. The provincial government is trying to stomp out a virus -- called PVYN -- which likes to cohabit with potato plants. To that end, the government has created a brand new law enforcement agency called the Prince Edward Island Potato Police. Officers of the PEIPP come armed with court orders, search warrants and bulldozers to plough under bootleg potato patches. Lawbreakers who flout,the will of the Legislature and attempt to cultivate. home. grown-french-fries face a fine of Arthur Black up to $25,000. I swear I'm not making this up. What makes the story exceptionally loony is _the fact that_the PV YN..virus is.utterly. harmless to humans and potatoes. Officials want to stomp out the virus because it is lethal to tobacco plants. Which of course, kill Canadians by the tens of thousands every year. Would that the tubers of P.E.I. had a 'champion like Steven : Acquafresca of Colorado. Earlier this year Mister Acquafresca quarterbacked a bill through the Colorado enate that promised to fruits and vegetables from slander". As an apple grower, : Acquafresca was incensed 'over reports that the = chemical Alar, sprayed on apple trees, could cause cancer. Apple sales ; plummeted, even though the Alar data turned out to be inconclusive. Mr. Acquafresca contended that law abiding fruits and vegetables should be protected from such unsubstantiated rumours. Unhappily for Acquafresca, his bill amounted to so much applesauce. It was hooted down by Colorado legislators who complained that it would "prune the Constitution of the right of free speech" and "treat a lima like a human bean". That's the trouble with being a fruit or vegetable -- no respect. Although now that I think of it, the PEI. spud does have one Good Will Ambassador. This fella even wrote a song about them. One verse goes: It's Bud the Spud, from the big red mud, Rollin' down the highway smilin", The spuds are big, on the back of Bud's rig, They're from Prince Edward Island. That Stompin'..Tom -- he,sure.knows his ; onions. ----- ES ere See a eee ee