: f - i Page 4 The Herald, Friday 33. : a au . TERRACE/AITEWAT daily herald © - General Office - 635-4957 : ” Pubtished by. Circulation - 635-6387 Sterling Publishers PUBLISHER. - Calvin McCarthy” . EDITOR.- Greg Middleton CIRCULATION TERRACE & KITIMAT n,n Published every weekday af 3212 Kalum -Street, Terrace, B.C. A member of Verified Circulation. Authorized as second class mall. Regisiration number 1201. Postage pald In cash, refurn postage guaranteed. NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT The Herald retains ful}, complete and sole copyright in any advertisement produced and-or ary editorial’ or photographic content” published in the Herald. Reproduction Is not permiited without the written permission of the Publisher. ~ mT no cn Balt a Ooo) OTHER VIEWS | It was to be expected that once Skeena was reaf- firmed as an NDP stronghold after a brief flirtation © with the federal Liberals, the riding would be taken off the government’s gift list, Such action was delayed during the brief Progressive Conservative tenure, but that hiatus is now passed, and the party is obviously . over. ; That point was brought.solidly home recently with the revelation thata Queen Charlotte Island air rebate . program, initiated to assauge anger over the Nor- thland Navigation Subsidy withdrawal, has. been cancelled. It seems, not only are we no longer going to receive gratuitous favors, but the government wants to take back as muchas possible of what it has already contributed. = . The move is poor politics. Any wily. politician (and what other kind are there?) could have a field day with the implications of the cancellation.. © The thing is that with ferry service to the Queen. Charlotte Islands imminent, the federal government would only have had to maintain the program for. another half year at the outside. Judging from reported annual costs of the program in the past three years, it would have meant an expenditure of between $17,000 and $20,000. The transport officials could have . made a big deal out of the fact they were going to maintain the rebate program until the ferry started in the fall, showering themselves with praise while simultaneously putting pressure on province. , Instead they're lidble to end up with considerably more than $20,000 worth of bad publicity, ~ COMMENT | By TONY ATHERTON Prince Rupert Daily News If the Liberals had hired consultants to come up with the best way of alienating the largest number of Skeena riding constituents with the least amount of effort, they couldn't have come up with anything more effective than thé can- * * gelation of the Queen Charlotte Island air fare subsidy: It's not ‘a large amoung - $10 on a round trip ~ and the Islands 6,000-odd residents are not an overly-large proportion of the riding’s total populace, but the move is a heavy-handed reminder that the pork hag drained from the barrel now that we no ionger have a representative seated on the govern- ment’s side of the house. - , In 1976, a red-faced Iona Campagnolo was trying to pour oil on stormy constituency waters after the withdrawal of a $4 million subsidy to Northland Navigation Ltd. fer regular . freight and passenger service to the Queen Charlotte Islands, ees _ Canada cares enough about those citizens to remove _ ' this” even going so far as threatening to quit her brand-new cabinet post if subsidies were not reintroduced. _ , During the months after the subsidy cancallation, relations between Campagnolo and cabinet colleague Otto Lang, then Minister of Transport, were sirained at best. It was Lang, strong-willed, high profile, and respected by the prime minister, who engineered the subsidy withdrawal. It's to Jona's credit that she remained equally resolute about the needs of her constituents, although what she (and more importantly, the B.C. government) settled for was, In the end, less than what was required. - The air fare rebate program was the government's initial peace offering. It gave Iona something tangible to point to while promising that a marine subsidy program would be negotiated with the provincial government. The ferry pace was announced in April 1977: an $8 million annual subsidy to the B.C, government adjusted each year to the Vancouver consumer price index. What the agreement lacked was specifics: the province was given almost. unlimited jurisdiction over how the subsidy was to be distributed. The only mention of Queen Charlotte Island service was oblique, binding the: provitice to providing “appropriate passenger service a8 soon as reasonably - possible, establishing effective links on the coast between . communities and principal air and water service.’ The province's answer to that obscure reference was & subsidized freight service on Rivlow barges, doing .ab- solutely nothing to improve passenger transportation. So . when the time came for reconsideration of air rebate scheme in 1978 and 1979, Ottawa, bending an ear to its comely Minister of Fitness, was convinced of the political axpedience of retaining the program. This is the first opportunity the government has had to reconsider the program since Ms, Campagnolo’a passing, and it has certalnly wasted no time relegating It to the scrap heap. But then, to add insull to injury, the transport man- daring have tried to slip the cancellation by without anyone noticing. including members of the opposition. When the withdrawal of a program affecting a hefty slice of the con- stituents in a riding is orchestrated without a general at- nouncement,. or even informing the riding’s offictal representative something's wrong. , It gets worse. Not only wag to announcement made, but the letters that were supposed to be Issued {o passengers. telling them not to apply for the rebate, have been delayed for nearly two months, And the reason? There was a problem getting the letters translated into French. Now, 1 don’t know If that’s just been made up by some enthusiastic junior In Transport’s PR department (maybe it’s a standard-issue excuse ib Ottawa), but real or imagined, such justification can only inflame bitter sentiments in a part of the cmmmtry already looking askance at bilingualism. =, * ‘pensioners. “E> “Grow: old along with me Pear -|-:" “Phe last of life, for which the first was made.” - lately \ ry es i a a s . _ minister assures me that in his interpretation he is not. | ‘ ) ByBILLBENNETT. There has been a certain amount of controversy télevision signals from communications satellites, There have even been some suggestions that a decision by Dr. Patrick McGeer, B.C.’s Minister of . Universities, Science and Communications, to set up’ such an antenna at the legislature is illegal. : Let me first of all say that we would not as a government, break the law, nor would any minister of this government knowingly break the law - Se * Dr, McGeer advises me that the interpretation he oe "PBEMIER COMMENTS 5. a : 7 oor Report from the legislature =: about the use of dish antenna to receive | _Dr. McGeer’s actions aren’t something he had done on a whim. _ ne The -3.8 meter dish and associated electronic ‘equipment, which are manufactured in Canada, are an example of what Canadian technology can produce to provide television .entertainment, and com- munications to jsolated.communities throughout the sword, Canada’s Anik satellites, developed under. the auspices of the federal. Department of Com- | munications, can provide services all: across Canada ‘as well as to a good portion of the United States. has received on the particular federal act is that he is’ Similarily, American satellites can provide alternate doing nothing illegal. Now, if it is the view of , the federal government ,- and the federal minister °:' ‘of . communications, ‘Francis Fox, that what: ‘Dr. McGeer is doing is © against the law the federal government’ would presumably move to require him to cease as >. rd , ut, if such a course were to be followed, we woul expect that they would move to deal in the same way with other individuals who have such devices, not only. in British Columbia but all across this country. We “would expect the federal government to be even handed. I think, yeally, the best thing the federal government "gould do, would be to clarify the law. Because as it now stands it is unclear. Federal officials are the minister is breaking the law. But the te indeed the federal position is that the operation of ‘dish antennas is illegal, then we would hope that they ‘take immediate action to clarify the matter. — “+ Because what it is doing is putting into jeopardy Canadian citizens, particularly in remote com-. ‘munities, and we have many of them in British Columbia, who rely on television for some'relief from - ’ isolation. 7 1 would certainly ‘expect that the government of uncertainty from over their heads. We happen to think that the air waves should be free. to.individual citizens. We recognize that if there are ‘commercial aspects involved we are faced with a. different question. But in cases where it is individuals ‘setting up receivers or groups of individuals doing it _gn.a non-profit basis there is no reason for government to interfere so far as we can see." There is too much government interference right now in what the individual may - or may not'do. And for faceless federal bureaucrats to dictate what free | individuals in a free country may view to on their television sets, seems to us absolutely unreasonable. . This is a matter of principle. And, in our view the federal communications minister rather than threatening to make personal legal mores again in- dividual Canadians, shouldbemoving to clarify the law for all Canadians. . If the law is such that people in outlying areas of the province are deprived of a major source of not only : entertainment but of Jearning, then the law should be changed to ensure that they have the right to free - access to it.. oe services in Canada. Dr. McGeer has installed the earth station te show what people throughout British Columbia arid many other parts ‘of Canada could see using similar in- stallations. _ The television signals are technically far superior to what many people receive off air from local’ rebroadcast transmitters. te ; Dr. MeGeer will also be installing a 1.8 meter dish which will receive the educational programming locations throughout the province. On that same in- iatallation;«the experimental project whereby, two standard ‘broadcast channels, are carried on one satellite. channel wil] be recieved. J, This is Canadian technology at work. Satellite receiving equipment is an industry which could provide employment and manufacturing in the future. Itis a clean, high technology industry, the products of which are exportable throughout the world. Through the recently developed Discovery Parks concept, manufacturers will find a favourable en- vironment and encouragement from the ‘provincial government to pursue the necessary research and development to,improve the quality and reduce the. “cost of future TRVO equipment. “This is what Dr. McGeer had to say about the federal position: | ’ “It is my opinion, upon studying the act, that the average citizen should not be asked to apply for a licence. The satellite dish operates in a comparable ~ fashion to a radio or television antenna and therefore should qualify as a ‘radio apparatus’. CRTC have defined all satellite dishes as casting undertakings’ whether or not they were in- stalled by cablevision operators. Since it is aur in-" tention to receive only ‘broadcasting’ signals, then this antenna should be exempt from any licence requirements as specified under section 3 (3) of the Radio Act Canada. To be doubly sure that the U.S. signals received by our dish are intended for our personal use if we do no rebroadcast them, our ministry has been contacting the U.S. originators to determine their intention.” I earnestly hope the federal government will make every effort to assist us in providing, as fully,as we can, these entertainment and: educational op- portunities to British Columbians. Surely the Canadian identity is not so fragile that it needs government coddling to the extent that we must shut our citizens away from the opportunity to see for themselves what our neighbors in the United States are saying and doing. . a In the end, of course; the issue is quite simple. It is ‘freedom of information, the right of our citizens to see and hear what they like, without government ine - _terference.. - Site- originating at BCIT and currently being received at . The DOC and . ‘broad- J OFFBEAT | BY eva Ottawa,- He hasn't been in the business as long a5 - ‘New Democratic veteran Stanley Knowles, ~ nobody. since Dief has ~ but New Brunswick's Conservative.” MP and former Minister of State for Transport Robert Howje was every bit as effective, and perhaps a shade. > more;peetic and graceful; in pleading the cause ofthe... He was supporting the Trudeau government’s bill: “|” providing an extra $35 monthly per household, for’ . pensioners below the poverty line and drawing the: income supplement, itself & sign that their life has. : become a cruel joke. 7 ee “Another. cruel joke, Robert Howie reminded the - " House, for the.deprived aged without any savings or . income of their. own, had become. the moving Mines of | poet Robert Browning: ee .. -, “Phe best Is yet to be : ‘That was a favorite quotation for former Liberal:* Prime Minister Louis §t, Laurent, when “Uncle!” Louie” was fighting the. losing 1957 election, and °. . having offered a $6 monthly increase in the then, - relatively new old age pension, became nationally: : . + imown — courtesy of Dief -- as leader of ‘The six buck Ww j Cobos See ah "Robert: Browning, agreed Mr. Howie, like: old: - “Unele Louie”! had a “wonderful idea,” but it was nat - Tf the olderly did save in their productive ‘years, inflation, to which uncontrolled federal spending and excessive “me-first” wage demands have largely - - edntributed, had wiped out - many of them: Statistics Canada calculates that: the 1949 dollar -.” once the valuation base or measuring stick for pur- chasing power -- by 1954 had shrunk'to 86 cents; to79' cents in 1959; to 72 cents in 1965; and to 36 cents in 1977, “If Stats-Can knows what the 1949 dollar now is worth * in 1980, it hasn't said - perhaps it dosn't dare for fear of creating:a crisis of confidence. '" © 7 From that perspective, Robert Howie viewed the aging. * ane “Tn more difficult tires than we ehjoy,” he related, they ever had. - “they created for jis-a much better Way of Hfe than _ “They did it with a lot of hard work and a measure of self-sacrifice. : “And today, hundreds of thousands of them live ‘out worried lives in want and fear; not sharing in any fair or decent measure the prosperity their work and - sacrifice did so much to create.” - What to do about it? bovet for one thing, Mr. howe would change the se'of | AC exing: the id'‘age. 0 ‘from ‘ithe: con-l4>* sumer pricé'index' to'#:kpetial bakit of sohit?16° basics for the aged, “food, heat, and living ac- commodation.” | or And with luck, he added, they might have “a bit left for clothing.”’ _ Cost of these essentials of life rise, he has calculated, much faster and more regularly than the wide variety of goods and services covered by the broadly based consumer price _ index. His idea then: apply the indexing for pensions-where . it counts -- on food, housing, heat and clothing - and. forget about the cars, the movies, the holiday trips, . the move-up-in-the-world homes, the smokes and. other luxuries at least some of the younger and still ~—. work-able Canadians enjoy. , 0 a The basing of indexing on the consumer price index. does nothing but “average dovin” cost-of-living: in- . : creases in pensions. ; ‘. Mr. ‘Howie _ spilled - Among them: Some way of nationalizing indexing of public service pensions with retirementincome in the private sector, ‘Ideally, he'd like to match them because the — disparity between indexed public service pensions and... not-or-partially indexed private pensions has been. causing increasingly intense dissatisfaction. and. © protest. : moe There are organized groups springing up, some of out a _ dozen ideas.” - _ them wiel-funded, which are hammering govern-. ments for forcing the usually unindixed Canadian, working to build up a pension, or already drawing one, _« to shell out for the income-and-pension-protected - public employee. - a The thoughtful Conservative ‘MP from York- 4, : Sunbury is working a lot of his ideas into bills which sooner or later will reach the floor of the Commons. © "Theat guy gave us three ice-cream | . ones for Dad's camera.” whet <- Fi oe } oe '