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Page A4 ~ Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 18, 1992

TERRACE STANDA R

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Production Manager:
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nore 4 Rod Link Arlene Watts — Typesatter, Susan Credgeur — Composing/Darkroom,

Janel Vidairas — Advertising Consultant, Sam Collier - Advertising Consultant,
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FWspa pens con

Special thanks fo all
our contributors and
correspondents for
thelr tine and
talents.

EDITORIAL,

What a waste

Suppose a company set up a manufac-
turing plant, The raw material went in
one end and the finished product out the
other. But three-quarters, or 75 per cent,
of all that went in was wasted — tossed
out and abandoned.

This is what’s happening with native
students entering the public school
system, The estimate is that 75 per cent
of them drop out by Grade 10. Try it
another way. Three out of four young
people don’t have the bare minimum
needed nowadays to even attempt to sur-
vive in a society that is consistently
demanding more and more education.

These young people are either doomed
to become part of or enter into the
depressing cycle of dependence upon and
assistance from the various organs of the
State.

The result is a massive social and
economic problem — one that strains the
ability of society and of the taxpayer to
cope. The lack of education arises in the
most interesting places. One of the

GST

Fight on, Kyla Cleator. She’s an Ed-

. .Aponton, teacher who, wants to take the
; federal. government to court.

The issue is simple —- the GST charge
against tampons and sanitary napkins
discriminates against women. And in do-
ing so, it violates the Charter of Rights
and Freedoms.

The case is also based on exemptions
from the GST already given to basic
groceries and some medical devices.

Of course, Kyla Cleator is right. It’s
not as if tampons and sanitary napkins
are some kind of luxury that perhaps
deserve some kind of taxation. They are
a basic necessity for a significant portion
of the population.

recommendations of the recent provin-
cial royal commission into health care
and costs was for better health through
having more native children finish high
school.

Even the biggest bleeding heart liberal
has to admit that the drop out rate is an
inexcusable waste of tax money. And
even the most bloody-minded conser-
vative knows that the resulting waste in
human beings confounds all attempts to
create a better society.

Into this comes the Su-Sit-Tah Educa-
tion Society, meant as a support group
for native students. Su-Sit-Tah means
‘‘new beginnings”’ in Tsimshian, an ap-
propriate name for such an undertaking.

What has gone on before did. not
work, And all that the education society
might do at the beginning may not work.
But it does represent an effort to correct
an appalling and for the most part, hid-
den an unacknowledged problem plagu-
ing northern British Columbia.

aitle

There are other goods to which GST
applies that are equally as odious,
Reading material,
under that category. A government that
taxes reading, places a burden against
democracy.

But, back to Kyla Cleator. She has a
problem. The federal government used
to have a program that financed court
challenges involving the charter. That
program was cut several weeks ago when
the new budget was announced.

Kyla Cleator says she’s more deter-
mined than ever to take the issue through
the courts. For that, she deserves our
support.

The travel bu

Until The Journal reported

last week how Rosetown,
Saskatchewan is surviving the
recession, I didn’t realize my
aversion to travel goes back toa
weekend trip with my family
when I was 10 years old.
Persuaded by Mom’s arm-
twisting — years of milking

Through
Bifocals
by Claudette Sandecki

cows gave her powerful wrists
— Dad seized upon the lull
twixt summerfallowing and
haying for a rare drive to visit
an elderly couple who had
homesteaded beside Mom's
parents,

As caretakers of Rosetown’s
community hall, the retired cou-
ple offered to put all seven of us
up in the hall’s cavernous base-
ment. Upstairs, the hall’s dance
floor would have parked a com-
bine dealer’s entire wares with
space for drive-through shopp-
ing.

Much of the basement’s con-
crete floor was stacked with
folding tables and chairs. But
running the center length of the
hall was a two foot wide borad-
walk. To either side of its, dor-
mitory style, sat double beds
made up with crisp white sheets
and puffy quilts. Beside each
bed was a mult-coloured rag rug
for wiping grit from bare feet,

That night, while our parents
visited, we lay awake in the dark
listening to the scrape of danc-
ing feet and fiddle of a country
hoedown. Overhead, beams
creaked, making me doubt the
craftmanship of the builder.

Lalso worried about drunken

revelers breaching our sleeping
quarters, separated as they were
from the public washrooms by
thin panelling and a diary lock.

I’ve been a reluctant traveller
ever since, And over the years,
unfortunate motel experiences
have reinforced my resolve to
stay home.

There was the funnel-shaped
motel bed, high around the
edges but sagging in the center.
All night we clung to our respec-
tive sides like ferry survivors
awaiting Coast Guard rescue.
Whenever we tired and relaxed
our grip, we crashed together
like boulders in a ravine.

Another memorable night,
the mattress resembled an over-
turned canoe, By lacing wrists
and ankles, we balanced until
daylight.

Misshapen mattresses aren’t
the only distress. There are
pillows flat as communion
wafers, or as overstuffed as a
puppy bingeing on hamburger.

Ample thermal blankets area
priority with me. I refuse to fall
asleep if there’s risk [’ll wake up
frozen to death. So | deduct
stars for any desk clerk who
reacls to my request for extra

quilts as though I'd demanded a
45 per cent rental discount at
gunpoint.

Even in expensive motels,
soundproofing can be as absent
as in doctors’ examining rooms
where partitions end short of
walls or ceiling. Without: turn-
ing on a radio or TV, you can
tune in to drama, Suspense,
farce..

Security is another bugbear.

I've paid for accomodations so
subject to. criminals’ whims]
figured to take along a chair to
jam under
baseball bat, and an attack dog.
The Journal*’s Rosetown
report brought it all back,

:

for instance, ° falls ~

KR. BOSH.. SIR...

VA oo
ve

IF THERE'S ANY MORE
INTERFERENCE WITH
FREE TRADE,,.ILL..ULL.MLL..

~ puuiy FOR You, o0N
THAT'LL TEACH THOSE
LOW FUNCTIONARIES

OF MINE...

NDP gives unions
one tough message

VICTORIA — Those who
predicted that the Harcourt
government would give away
the kitchen sink to reward
trade unions for their support
in the last election, should
start thinking about eating
their words.

The message the premier has
for anyone lining up at the
public: -‘trough-couldn’t be any
louder’ anid’léarer: ‘forget’it;
pal,

When an angry crowd of
about 500 Hospital Employees
Union members descended on
Victoria the other day, they
got the same message, this
time from health minister
Elizabeth Cull.

Drowned out by shouts of
“we got you elected’’ and
“make good on your
promises,’’ Cull told the
hospital workers that the
government has no intention
of becoming involved in the
dispute between the union and
ihe- Health Labour Relations

. Association.

doorknobs, a=

‘Hareourt had met with the
union’s executive earlier and
told them much the same
thing. Public sector unions, he
said, shouldn’t expect much
this year or next year in the
way of pay equity, a major
issue in the hospital dispute.

The union's demands in the
current round of negotiations
are fairly steep, considering the
provinee's financial position.
The union wants a seven-per-
cent increase, as well as more
money to implement pay equi-
ty.

The Hospital Labour Rela-
tions Association has
countered with an offer of 3.5
per cent in the first year of a
new contract and 1.5 per cent
in the second year, plus a
‘small amount for pay equity
for those two years.

‘Yes, pay equity is a priori-

‘ty for us but there is a limit

the amount that we can do this
year and probably next year,’’

~ the premier later told
-reporters.

His most telling comment
came when he said that there
had been enough favouritism
to friends and insiders by the

WELL, THANK You CHARLENE. -AND Now FoR A
ABITCH FoR THAT. iN DE PTH

‘LIFE 4 ISTaRY OF THE
WOOPLAND CARIBOU--

From the
Capital
by Hubert Beyer

previous government. it wasn’t
thé unions who got the NDP

elected; it was the people of!

British Columbia, and his
government was determined to
govern on behalf of all British
Columbians.

In other words, unions may
be a friend of the NDP, but
they had better not expect
preferential treatment.

The premier held out only
one carrot. In the coming
years, he said, the government
planned to decentralize many
health care services, shifting
them from hospitals and their
inherently hgih costs of doc-
tors, equipment and expensive
drugs to community-based
preventive-care facilities,

This shift, Harcourt said,
will free up money which
could then be used to achieve
things such as pay equity. It’s
a theme he has been repeating
ever since the election victory.
Do more with less and squeeze
more value out of existing tax
dollars.

There may be some other
reasons why the NDP is taking
such 2 tough stance with the
Hospital Employees Union.
There have, for instance been
bad feelings between the
HEU?’s president, Carmela
Allevato and Ken Georgetti,
chief of the B.C. Federation of
Labour for some time.

But that alone doesn't ac-
count for Harcourt’s unben-
ding posture. He knows very
well that government interven-
tion in the hospital dispute and
giving the hospital workers
more money would only fuel
the expectations of other
public sector unions whose
contracts are up for renewal
this year.

Among those who will, no
doubt, also expect more than
the provincial economy can af-
ford this year are the B.C.

_~

o oe

oors' sorRy! OUR NEXT ITEM (Ss
THE DANGERS OF SKATEBOARDING
WITHOUT KNEE PADS..

., Government Employees Union,
“the B. (oF Nurses Union,

"teachers, as well as a number

of municipal, school board
and college employees.

Some private sector unions
have already a better grasp of
economic reality, Even though
IWA members have rejected a
tentative agreement with forest
industry employers by a slim
majority, the union executive
has made it clear that striking
is not an option,

The rejection by union
members came despite ithe
unanimous recommendation
from the presidents of all IWA
locals to accept the offer which
contained a modest improve-
ment in pensions, but no pay
increase for the first two years
and a five-per-cent pay hike in
the third year,

Such an offer would have
been considered an insult a few
years ago and sent IWA
members scurrying for their
picket signs. But times have
changed, and even the most
militant of private sector
unions has realized that our
economic health is tenuous at
best.

Public sector unions would
be well advised to take a cue
from their private sector
brothers and realize that their
expectations far outstrip the
taxpayers’ ability to pay.

Meanwhile, it’s reassuring ta
see that the Harcourt govern-
ment is taking seriously the
fiscal dangers that come with
excessive spending. The stark
findings of the independent
auditors about our financial
mess have obviously made an
impact on the government.

For the Hospital Employees
Union that means one thing
only: strike if you want, but
won't get you any more in the
end.

es |
Fa -G

KINDA MAKES
You SCARED TO
Go BACK INTO

TOWN! I!