NEWS BRIEF

MLA to probe constitution

SKEENA MLA Helmut Giesbrecht has been appointed to
an all-party legislative committee on the constitution.

Constitutional affairs minister Moe Sihota has asked the
committee to provide an interim report on constitutional
change by Feb. 15.

The committee is to provide advice to the government on
constitutional issues, receive submissions from the public,
and help prepare a constitutional conference representing the
views of British Columbians. ,

Fourteen MLAs are to sit on the committee — eight New
Democrats, four Liberals and two Socreds.

Strike vote called

STRIKE VOTES have been ordered at hospitals around the
province by the Hospital Employees Union..

The HEU is blaming the Health Labour Relations Associa-
tion (HLRA) for stalled contract talks involving most of its
35,000 members.

“After the completion of our strike vote, HEU’s major
goal willbe. fo return to the bargaining table to get. our
members.a fair contract,’’ said union spokesman Carmela
Allevato, ‘‘But if employers continue to press for insulting
concessions, we will be ready to take job actions that put
pressure on employers while having the least impact possible
on patient care.”

The union continued to fire barbs at the employer last
week, releasing salary figures for hospital administrators.

The HEU pointed to salaries as high as $200,000 for some
administrators. The union said administrators received
average pay hikes of 37 per cent over the last three years,

The HLRA responded by pointing out that B.C. ad-

ministrators’ salaries lag behind those of other provinces.

“When you look at the salaries health care executives
receive in other provinces, B.C.’s administrators are not in-
dustry competitive,’’ noted HLRA president Gordon Austin.
“In Ontario, for example, health care administrators earn up-
wards of $300,000 to $400,000 annually,”

No parking, anywhere
To give crews a clear run at snow removal, the city has in-
troduced a by-law amendment aimed at getting parked
vehicles off the streets.
The proposed regulation will allow the mayor to prohibit

- parking on any roadway designated as a snow removal route

for a specified period of time. It also defines ‘‘each and
every” city street as a snow removal route.

The amendment allows the city to either ask the owner of
the illegally parked vehicle to move it or to have it towed
away. The by-law change goes to committee this week.

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TERRACE — School trustees
are going on a $1.3 million
spending spree.

Local schools could be get-
ting everything from computers
and books to furniture and new
phone lines after the school
board voted last week to spend
its entire operating surplus.

The $1.3 million worth of ex-
penditures approved at the Jan.
14 board meeting include:

* $260,000 for networking of
computer systems inside cach
school, and to network the main
office computer of each school
with the school board office
computer.

e© $100,000 for extra
telephones and phone lines.

* $100,000 for school im-
provement projects, such as
sinks, blinds, shelving,

® $90,000 to improve the ap-
peayances of the front entrances
of schools.

* $80,000 to instruct teachers
on the new computer and net-
working systems. The money
pays for substitute teachers
while regular teachers are
undergoing training.

* $60,000 for classroom
resources to help with im-
plementation of the Year 2000
education reforms. This could
include learning centres, books,
videos and other supplies.

e $45,000 for library circula-
tion systems at Caledonia and
Thornhill Jr. Secondary, and a
library security system at
Skeena Jr. Secondary.

* $15,000 to subsidize pur-
chase of personal computers by
teachers.. ;

® $10,000 for new Year 2000
materials and books for
teachers to review.

“This.is one-time money that

-we will probably never have

again,’’ said school board chair-
man Edna Cooper. ‘So we

wanted to spend it on things ,

that will help us fora long time
in the future without having a
continual expense in the budget
every year.”

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Board spends $1.3m

Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 22, 1992 — Page A3

surplus

Edna Cooper

The approved expenditures
use up all of the $975,000 ac-
cumulated surplus fer the
1990-91 school year, as weil as
the projected surplus of about
$325,000 expected for the cur-
rent 1991-92 budget year.

The school district saved
money last year when Victoria
cancelled the dual-entry
kindergarten system. Revenue
was up because a board office
computer system change
resulted in later-than-usual pay-
ment of bills, and the district
consequently received more in-
terest. Also, more money was
taken in when more Alaskan
students enrolled in classes than
had been expected.

Cooper said some af the
items, such as the front entrance

improvements, will help im-
prove morale.
“Schools tend to be very

utilitarian places,”’ she said.
“Our objective is to make
schools places where people
want to be.”? .

Other items, such as the add-
ed telephone lines, are designed
to help as teachers adapt to the
Year 2000 education reforms.

“Tf we want teachers to com-
municate with parents on a

amore regular basis, they’re not,
going to doit if they have to run:
down to the office and wait in

line for a phone,” Cooper add-
ed.

a pro

BRACING FOR impact, goalie Alan Austin takes a hard shot
Saturday afternoon during a game of rollerblade street
hockey in the Veritas school parking lot.

Road company fined

TERRACE — North Coast
Road Maintenance has been fin-
ed $200 for last year’s spill of
PCB-contaminated transformer
oil into the Skeena River.

The area’s former road
maintenance contractor was
issued the ticket for introducing
business waste into the environ-
ment — a violation of the Waste
Management Act.

' One of the. company's: trueks.:,
sagged power lines. on'Sept.
30, toppling four B.C. Hydro °
transformers, which leaked oil
into Howe Creek,

Environment ministry of-
ficials later determined the 88
gallons of tranformer oii that
escaped contained low levels of
polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs). Four tests measured
concentrations between zero
and 12 parts per million — well
below the 50 ppm threshold at
which the substance is declared
a special hazardous waste. ~~
CN GU iS ewi ai wide Now dt uy

_ District conservation officer

Peter Kalina said ‘the -company,:
has 30 days to either pay: the.:
fine or dispute it.

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