-. Agrim prospect —
as winter sets in

Early this year
88 and the Terrace District Teachers’ Association had.
lots of time to carefully and judiciously craft their
first collective agreement under the new rules ushered
in by the the Industrial Relations Act and the
Teaching Profession Act, known previously as Bills 19
and 20. ° a

Apprehension began to set in over the lack of pro-
gress before the summer break, and now a full-scale |
teachers’ strike in the district’s schools appears to be
looming around the corner. The bargaining sessions
between the two sides have been infrequent, brief and
inconclusive: after 62 hours of talking, one clause has
been signed off regarding bulletin boards in staff
rooms. How can this be happening?

The latest interruption in negotiations occurred Oc-.
tober 8 over the question of whether markers in the
newly opened North Coast Regional Correspondence
School should be treated as part of the teachers’
bargaining unit. The school district says they aren’t
because members of the union have to be certified
teachers. The union is consulting legal experts.

Prior to this episode a question of procedure stalled
the talks for weeks, and was finally set aside to let
everyone get on with it. They haven’t.

- On November 1 the TDTA has a general member-
ship meeting scheduled, at which the teachers will
decide whether or not to hold a strike vote. If they’re
in favor of it, the vote will take weeks to organize and
tabulate. But if a strike does go ahead, it will last as
long as it takes to conclude the collective agreement.

TDTA president Helmut Giesbrecht puts forward
the example of the Fort St. John school district, where

bargaining required 114 hours from start to
signature... and, as he says, ‘‘They were probably a
lot further along at 62 hours than we are.”

The bottom line is that a.strike will shut down our
schools for weeks. Angry parents and students will be
looking around for someone to blame for the substan-
tial and unnecessary disruption in their lives, and that
blame should land squarely on the shoulders of the
negotiators — for both sides.

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it seemed as though School District _ |

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Terrace Review G&A

‘ paligion, cofor, sex, nationally, ancestry o7 place

fia

fare
(wes

Ag

-MLA’s sacrifice

shows need

for conflict of interest law

by Victoria corresponden

Mark Collins

It is sad to see Advanced
Education Minister Stan -
Hagen’s ready mix concrete
business in serious financial
trouble, because it probably
would not have happened if he —
‘had stayed in Comox to mind
the store.

Hagen, 48, grew up in
Greater Vancouver and pitched
fish, served gasoline and ran a
general store in the central
coast area while working his —
way through university. He was
atticling to be a Chartered Ac-
ccountant when he was hired. by
a paving contractor. He moved
with that company to
Courtenay in 1968, and in 1978
he bought Comox Valley Ready
Mix which employs about @ .
dozen people. > a,

. With his good business —
background, the company did
well even during the six years
he served on the school board.
After he won the Comox seat

jp the 1986 provincial election
and was appointed to cabinet,
he put the company in a blind
trust with his wife in control of

operations. At least that’s what
he intended to do.

- In July 1987 he e
still listed as president of the

mi company. and it had.obtained.a_

found he was |

contract to provide cement to
the University of B.C. research
farm near Comox. Considering

how independent the UBC

board of governors is, the con-
flict of interest connection is
pretty weak. A company such.
as Hagen’s should be able to
bid for government business as
tong as sealed tenders are used

to ensure fairness. The minister

did the honorable thing and

_ resigned from ‘cabinet but an

investigation by Deputy At-
torney General Ted Hughes
cleared him and Hagen was
reappointed to cabinet.
Attracting good people with
lots to contribute to, the
political process is crucial to
our system of government, but
so is the need to prevent politi-
cians from making private

gains: with public money. We

have measures in place design-_
ed to prevent abuses, but the
rules are confusing and con-.

tradictory. No one really knows

what they can or cannot do.
‘When it comes to conflict of
interest rules, Stephen Rogers is
the expert. The former cabinet
minister from a rich family has
taken more abuse over his per-
sonal holdings than any B.C.

- politician in the last two

decades, He says it was not
legal for some of his former
cabinet colleagues to put their
holdings in a blind trust unless
they also disclosed the contents
of the trust.

“The law is very badly writ-
ten,’ Rogers said in a recent .
interview. ‘‘There’s really two
ways you can go. You can go
the divestiture route or you can
go the disclosure route. The
disclosure is intended so you
state what you have, and then
you come out when it is time
and say, ‘I have a conflict .

well defined and there are all
kinds of people who have con-
flicts. If I say you have a con-
flict you have to defend -
yourself and say, ‘Well I don’t
think I have a conflict’, and
then it is left to the media to
decide whether or not there is a
conflict.” |
Moe Sihota, the NDP justice
critic, agrees there’s a problem. -
“There should be conflict of —

_ interest legislation introduced |
‘so it’s a breach of the law, an

illegality, to breach the rules,”””
he said recently. Politicians
would comply if they faced loss

of their seat for breaching the -

rules.

“The decision as to whether 7
or not the conflict of interest
‘rules have been breached ought ~

to be reserved for the courts.
Finally, there should be a pro- _
cedure stipulated in the law | —
telling a politician exactly what
steps he or she has to take to ..
avoid conflict of interest so
that there’s.a defence provided.
If somebody is charged and”
goes to court, they can say they
satisfied all the elements of the
law and that would do it.”

The government seems to be

_ in no hurry to do anything

about this issue, but it should:
be resolved. As long as we re-
main in this undefined situation .
there will be more conflict of
interest charges than there.
should be. Even if found to be.
unjustified, conflict charges
tend to place everyone in
politics in a bad light, The .
absence of clear rules also
keeps some of the most capable
British Columbians out of
politics because they cannot tell
whether it would only hurta
little or whether it-would result
in receivership for the business °

i ~ yentures they have worked hard.” 2
here’. One of the problems is Ce yeaa
that conflict'is not too terribly. yee on

to build. ©