NEWS photo Mike Wokafleld NINE-YEAR-CLD Amanda (left) and Courtney, 7, are getting ready for the Lynn Valley Lions third annual Easter Egg Hunt set for Easter Sunday at 1 p.m. in Kirkstone Park. The North Shore News will be providing approximately 200 stuffed teddy bears for the hunt. They will be hidden along with the Easter eggs. The event goes ahead rain or shine for kids 12 and under. an awar EIGHT HUNDRED feet above the icy ground below, the 30- year-old North Vancouver man - jumped out of the big Canadian Forces plane and into the Arctic darkness. By Michael Becker News Reporter It was risky, but it was his call. A 30-knot wind pushed Master-Cpl. parachute a quick three miles (4.8 km) to the crash site of the Her- cules. All but blind in the sub-zero blizzard, O’Reilly found himself hitting the ground about 100 feet (30 m) from the wreckage. Hours eartier he had just been sitting down to supper in the Halifax area after returning from a mission responding to vessels in distress on the east coast. _O’Reilly and fellow rescue technicians with the 413 Search and Rescue Squadron based at Canadian Forces Base Green- wood, Nova Scotia, are responsi- ble for civilian and military search and rescue response in an area covering 1.8 million square miles. This rescue call wouid test to Ronald O’Reilly’s — e the limit: all aspects of O’Reilly’s training and abilities. A Hercules aircraft had crashed Oct. 30, 9.7 miles (15.7 km) from Station Alert in the Northwest Territories. The plane, heavy with 3,400 litres (748 gallons) of diesel fuel, 77 n its way to the station on a routine re-supply mission. A crew of five and 13 passengers were on board. The Hercules disintegrated upon impact. Hampered by white-out condi- tions, rescuers worked 32 hours to reach crash survivors. Five died and 13 survived the ordeal in -20 C (-4 F) and -30 C (-22 F) temperatures. . O’Reilly and 15 other search and rescue (SAR) _ technicians parachuted into unknown surface conditions, using an untried night procedure. At the scene they carried out triage and provided emergency medical treatment. For their efforts, inembers of the squadron and others involved in the rescue recently were named as recipients of meritorious service awards in recognition of ‘‘a mili- tary deed or activity that has been performed in a highly professional manner or is of a very high Master-Cpl. Ronald O’Fleilly standard that brings benefit or honor to the Canadian Forces.”’ SAR technicians from 440 Squadron in Edmonton had arriv- ed at the crash site first, but were forced to refuel. “When we arrived we knew roughly where the site was, but we couldn’t sec it because of the bliz- zard,”’ O'Reilly said. His squadron returned to Thule, Greenland, to refuel. ; Friday, April 9, 1993 - Norih Shore News — 3 TAX REVOLT Crist calls for more municipal control of Lxes Schreck blames media for public outrage over budget A NORTH Vancouver District councillor said it’s time Victoria gave municipal governments more taxing powers and turned over several provincial government ministries to local governments, as a result of the provincial budget delivered last week by Finance Minister Glen Clark. Meanwhile, the North Shore's only NDP MLA has attacked media coverage of the budget story, saying both the media and political ory: nizations are focus- ing only on the negative impact of Clark's budget. “In my experience | have never seen the North Shore News run front page stories on the budgets of former government,’' said North Vancouver-Lonsdale NDP MLA David Schreck. ‘*We are going through a media phenomenon right now. We have the North Shore News and other media playing up the so-called tax revolt,"’ said Schreck. He added that the budget has many advantages for people living in his constituency, many of “whom are renters and low-income earners. Schreck also dismissed a com- ment by West Vancouver Mayor Sager, who said this week that his municipality is now experiencing a “genuine emergency’? as a resull of the budget’s impact. The budget has eliminated the provincial homeowner's grant ($470 for non-seniors and $745 for seniors) for anyone owning a house worth $447,000 or more. Removal of the homeowner’s grant will have a direct impact on approximately 1,800 West Van- couver seniors and approximately 6,300 homes in the municipality alone. “*I see no tax emergency at this stage. There is a manufactured political emergency, and that’s what I-told Mr..Sager,”’ said Schreck. But West Vancouver-Garibaldi MLA David Mitchell called By Surj Rattan News Reporter Schreck’s comment that the media is to blame for playing up the tax revolt ‘‘pure nonsense." “I believe it's very important for newspapers to give front-page coverage to budgets. People on the North Shore are outraged. Mr. Schreck is so out of touch with the people on the North Shore. “You can't blame this tax revolt on the media. When Mr. Clark backed down on the school surtax (eliminated this week from the budget), he showed the NDP for what they really are. “They’re trying to create class warfare,”’ said Mitchell. Meanwhile, North Vancouver District Coun. Ernie Crist said senior levels of government should give more taxing power to municipal governments. He said Victoria should deal with health, education, social ser- vices and transportation and highways and give all other ser- vices to municipal governments. Crist also said both the federal and provincial governments should tax people's income and not what they choose to spend their money on. . “You should not be punished for living in a nice home. That’s what’s wrong with this taxation, it’s a waste of time,’’ said Crist. Mitchell said people are willing to pay their fair share of taxes if the senior levels of government are first committed to reducing spending. ctic bravery The Edmonton crew continued the search for seven hours, but without luck. O’Reilly’s squadron was mobilized to continue the air search and coordinate the efforts of ground searchers. “On the last hour of our fuel we started getting a break in the weather a bit. It was still blizzard conditions on the ground, but for some reason we could see through it from above,'’ he said. ‘*We could just barely make out where the crash site was. We were dropping flares and directing our snow track vehicles. Being so- far up north their compasses wouldn’t work. They were trying to deviate around a big gorge that was caus- ing a big delay in trying to get at them from the ground,’’ he add- ed. The site was located and O'Reilly and fellow squadron members jumped. . Said O'Reilly, ‘“‘We knew it was dangerous and the problem with the blizzard on the ground was we couldn’: distinguish objects very well. So when you’re travelling through the air under the flares, you really didn’t realize how fast you were travelling. You couldn’t see anything passing you.”’ On the ground, the rescuers could barely see each other despite the strobe lights attached to ea:h member. They grouped together and headed for the tail section of the Hercules, the largest object in view. , “As we got there and started working, looking around it didn’t look good at all. We were surpris- ed there were survivors. ““Ti.2 plane was spread over a quarter mile distance. The wing was totally ripped off. from the main fuselage. ‘The main fuselage was disintegrated. The only thing left was the tail and a bit of the nose which was totally burnt out,” O’Reilly said. The survivors were hypother- mic. “They were delusive. There were only two of them out of the whole group who even had an idea that there were pecple there, and they thought that they were dreaming by that time,’’ he said. Three hours later ground sear- chers and the SAR. technicians from Edmonton arrived at the scene. The rescuers remained at the site for 14 hours before they were eventually evacuated.