PAGE 4, THE HERALO, Wednesday, June 28, 1978

EDITORIAL

Just suppose a law was enacted in British
Columbia ordering the Department of Highways,
when it planted trees or shrubbery along its
highways, approaches, turn-offs —and
every place it landscaped with trees -- to use
food-bearing varieties, such as fruit trees and
nut trees, exclusively.

Just supposing that all provincial parks in
B.C., wherever tree planting for picnic. and
trailer-camps was carried out, planted fruit trees
and nut trees; .

Just supposing that municipalities had to use
focd-use trees, the same way, whenever they
were laying out boulevards, parks, grounds, etc.,
for public buildings.

The cost of nursery stock when buying such
trees as apple, peach, pear, plum, cherry,
crabapple, quince, beechnut, hazelnut, etc., etc.
is no more than that of trees that have no use for
food purposes, and are just as decorative.

It would cost the government — and therefore
the taxpayer — very little more (if at all) — but
the effects would be highly visible and dramatic.

OTTAWA OFFBEAT

by Richard Jackson

Ottawa,- How do you like that ... the folks who
brought you wage and price and dividend con-
trol, the federal boffins, managed a massive end
Tun around them.

But that’s the way they've always done it -- one
set of regulations applied two different ways.

One way for the ruled, another for the rulers.

That’s one of the reasons -- the other being that
they’ve become built-in components of the
Liberal tax-and-spend machine -- that Winnipeg
Conservative MP Dan McKenzie has come out

for a top-to-bottom housecleaning of the Public

Service executive. :

If the Conservatives win the next election, and
want to govern, he says, they'll have no choice
but to purge the Liberal-appointed army of
deputy ministers and their hordes of assistant
and associated deputies.

As McKenzie put it: “‘We've got to break up
the Old Boys’ network.”

Otherwise the Conservatives again -- as they
did when Prime Minister Diefenbaker was
trying to run things -- will find themselves
helpless in the hands of a Public Service
executive busy keeping the light on the govern-
ment window for the return of the Liberals.

The Liberals and the senior public service
have not merely been compatible - but in-
terchangeable for more than 40 years.

If the Public Service ever was truly politically
impartial, that ended abruptly in the early 1930's
when former. Conservative Prime Minister
Richard Bedford Bennett shut down the old
Department of the Interior resulting in mass

g.

It was a trauma for Ottawa and the Public
Service that became a legend of horror and still
haunts the Conservatives.

But apart from that accident of history —
caused by the Great Depression -- the Liberals
have been geod to. the Public Service.

In fact, in the last going-on-50-years they have
appointed all-but one of the hundreds of deputy
ministers who have run the government

A Roadside harvest for everyone

Imagine, driving along the highways and
living in towns where all the trees burst into a
riotious display of blossoms in the Spring!

What a gorgeous sight it would be — and the
air, instead of carrying just the stench of sulphur
and smoke pollution would loft the sweet scent of
apple blossoms and peach blossoms!

The fruit would be free to any and all, There
would be enough apples for apple pie; apples for
cider in che Fall, ete. Youngsters would never
have to go without nourishing fruit, nor would the
aged, to whom fruit can also be medicinal.

What a tourist attraction it would add to the
other beauties of our Beautiful B.C. It would
make our province such a wonder that people
would flock from all over the world to see and
photograph the thousands of miles of trees —
first, when they are in blossom, in the Spring —
and later when they are in the fruit bearing stage
in the fall.

The fruit should be free to all — the local
resident and the visitors within our boundaries.
_ Some places in California give each visitor a

Civil Duplicity

operation for them.

And in running it have expanded it to better
than 500,000 when the head-count includes crown
corporations, boards, bureaux, commissions and
assorted agencies.

Slowly, but gathering momentum in recent
years, a backlash has been building against “‘big
government.”

And the Liberals, quickly on the defensive, are
trying to tell you that at last full tabulation they

had held the public service increase to a heroic .

1.2 percent. :

But don't you believe them.

For while they boast about that 1.2 percent as
the overall figure, they conveniently neglect to
say anything about the 4.4 percent increase in
the administrative levels and the 4.1 percent at
the foreign service level.

And that’s where the money is.

That’s where the going-on 10,000 who draw
down better than $30,000 a year are in the pay
pecking order.

And that’s how they end-run around the con-
trols. .

Promotions through reclassification.

At last count there were 40,638 promotions or
upwardly mobile reclassifications in a year.

Reclassify and promote, and the Public Ser-
vice beneficiary of this bureaucratic end run
receives a larger salary increase than would
have been allowed under the controls program
that kept your pay in line. ao,

Now they've refined even that end-run play.

An audit of 2,000 promotions in the Ottawa
offices of the Public service discloses that 28
percent were overclassified -- that is, slotted
above their salary qualification level.

The same percentage of overpromotion ~ not
just among the audited 2,000 but through the
entire 75,000 working in Ottawa ~ would cost the
taxpayers $500,000,000 a year.

And for the whole 500,000 Public Service across
the country?

The Liberals aren’t telling.

. of the advisory committee to

glass of orange juice when. they enter the
boundaries of the State — and their Chamber of
Commerce says it is a worthwhile “gimmick”,
Here, in B.C. with every street and park ablaze
with blossoms at first, then later, aglow with
ripening greens, yellow and red of fruit of every
description, it would be an artists’ paradise.

The preserving of fruit — canning, bottling,
pickling, freezing — would be a profitable
secondary business in itself. Every household
would be enabled to stock its cupboards and
cellars and freezers with fruit. No one would
need to go hungry, to bed,

Special varieties of fruit could be developed on
experimental farms and as they prove superior,
added to those already planted. There could be
“Snow Apples”, and the Siberian hardy varieties
of pears, plums, cherries, “crabs” and quinces
that last right into the seasons of frost, beyond
the hardiest “Winter” fruit.

~ And the same with nut trees — one could goon

and on about the possibilities there.

Think, for a moment, of what such a bounty
would also do for the birds!

Think again, of what it could mean to
beekeepers, The blossoms would make possible
British Columbia establishing a record for honey
production of the highest quality, since Apple
Blossom and Peach Blossom honeys are said to
be among the best tasting of ll.

What would it take for this dream ever to be
translated into reality?

Money? Not a great deal.

Just someone, with persistence, dogged
determination; stubbornness or — ...someone
with a bit of “influence” in the right place;
someone who knows his (her) way around the
politicians.

Do we have anyone like that here?

If we do have, we hope they will please speak
‘Lp.

And ... remember where they heard it first!
We'll co-operate all we can.

If anyone is listening...

ny

All very well, but will we have a COUNTRY for the constit

frei ok

tion by 1981?”

‘If B.C, Indians disobey fishing laws
B.G. salmon industry will disappear

B.C. Indian Chiefs at a
meeting held in Vancouver
on Friday.

The first motion called on

VICTORIA (CP)
Howard English, a member

the International Salmon

to ignore federal fishery authority and regulations

By JOE DARY,

CALGARY (CP) — Calling
the Athabasea oil sands of
northeastern Alberta an
“ace in the hole,” Alberta
Premier Peter Lougheed

‘said Monday the oil sands

should be developed te meet
Canada’s long-term goal of
energy self-sufficiency.

He told the opening session:
of the Canadian Society of
Petroleum Geologists such
development would enhance
economic stablity for
Alberta and Canada.

He said the oil sands,
which have an estimated one
billion barrels of heavy oil,
are near existing pipeline
systems, unlike reserves in

the Canadian Arctic or off
the East Coast.

But it is also important to
realize that any such
development should be or-
derly and consistent, he
added.

Great Canadian Oil Sands
Ltd., currently the only oper-
ating ofl sands plant in
Canada, will soon be joined
by Syncrude Canada Ltd.
PROJECT IS CRUCIAL

“The Syncrude project has
been a crucial one for
Canada and this province,”
Lougheed told the 2,00q
delegates. “it's been com-
pleted on schedule, orf
budget, and that really is a
commendation, in my judg-

NEW YORK (AP) — A
popular song of a few months
ago suggested that short
people have no reason for
living. Now comes a
magazine study indicating

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short men live longer than
talier fellows.

In its July issue, Science
Digest reports that U.S.
presidents, sherter than five

deet eight inches lived an

TERRACE/KITIMAT

daily heraid

Pubilahed by
Sterling Publishers

TAR SANDS: “An ace in the hol

ment, to many people who
made it so. ; :
“It’s an expensive project,
in terms of some $2.5-billion
total expenditure, to produce
125,000 barrels of oil a day.”
Referring to the industry-
government consortium
behind Syncrude, the
premier said he was pleased
it was Working well, =~
The consortium’s mem-
bership includes Imperial
Oil Ltd., Gulf Canada Lid.,
Canada-Cities Service Ltd.,
the federal, Alberta and
Ontario governments.
Although Lougheed said
there were future mining
projects that have been
discussed and during the

e”

next few months they would
be looked, he did not name
them. .

" Shell Canada Ltd. has pro-
posed to develop an oil sands
plant near Fort McMurray
with several other com-

panies, but has been having .

some difficulty in ralsing the
capital, -
Lougheed said the

provincial government was
also involved in the Alberta
oil sands technology and
research authority, which
provides funds to the in-
dustry for research inte
developing new ways of
extracting the oil,

little people

average of 90.2 years while
those taller than six feet
lived an average of 66.6

years.

Along with presidents, the
magazine studied the life
spans of successful
businessmen, boxers and
baseball players, A total af
760 men were studied,

The magazine conclu
that “the shortest men i
each grouping lived longer
than the tallest group.”

Among boxers, for in-
stance, 18 who were shorter
than flve feet elght inches
lived an average of 71.8
years while 16 taller than six
feet lived an average of 64.7
years,

Among baseball players,
22 who were shorter than five
foot 8%“ inches lived an
average of 76.09 years while
30 who were taller than six
feet one inch lived an
average of 66.2 years,

Among ‘‘suecessful
people,” 45 men under five
feet eight inches lived an
average of 82 years and 97
men who were taller than
five feet 11 inches lived an
average of 74.8 years.

The average height of U.S.
men now is five feet nine
inches, the magazine saya,

The, article offers no’

suggestions on why the short
men {t studied lived longer
than the tall ones. ;

- SEA LIFE RETURNS

LOS ANGELES (AP) —
Marine wildlife, victim of an
oi] tanker explosion in
December, 1976, has
returned to the ocean bottom
in Loa Angeles Harbor.
Divers recently reported

finding '‘a lot of oll” on the
ocean floor with marine life
“happily living around the
oil pools,’’ Some smali
creatures were even Ilving
on silt on top of globs of oil.

'
Be oS Sa ne Soa

Commission, says that if
British Columbia Indians are
allowed to ignore federal
fishery regulations the
salmon fishing industry will
be destroyed.

“A valuable food resource
will disappear from this
continent,” English said in
an inter-view on Saturday.

He was commenting on
two motions passed by the
executive of the Union of

by Frank Oberle

At last the Prime Minister
has brought forward his
much anticipated con-
stitutional reform proposals,

He has even condescended
to place ‘A Time for Action’,
as the proposal is called,
before Parliament.

In the next few weeks all
Members of Parliament will
be asked to look at and
comment upon the new

package and that should

prove most interesting. A
constitution is essential to
any democratic. society.
Within it are contained the
fundamental principles to
which any government must
adhere. We have made do
with the British . North
America Act for more than
110 years, and most agree
that it is time that we
assumed control over our
own constitution and made
some changes Init, That is
the problem which
Parllament and the
provinces will debate in the
coming months and years in
what promises to be perhaps
the major challenge that
governments in Canada
must face,

The Senate

The Senate, Mr. Trudeau
tells us, will be transformed
into’ a Howse of the
Federation, and. the
provinces will have some
input inte the appointments,
The new Senate then will be
both a House of the
Provinces as well as
retaining ita characteristic
features ag an Ineffective

all band councils to begin
preparing thei own fishing
regulations for their areas,

The second asked that
bands start assembling
historical, anthropological
and legal evidence to support
Indian rights to regulate
fishing in B.C, rivers ‘and
creeks,

A statement issued by
George Manuel, president of.
the union, also urged Indians

and powerless forum for
discussion. The new ap-
pointees, however, will have
to rest with shorter terms,
because after every election
they will be changed.

That just does not meet the
needs of Canada. If weare to
give the provinces a direct
yaice in the federal decision
making process, we must
make the Senate an elected
body and grant it substantial
powers to monitor and
control the federal govern-
ment to a limited extent ‘at
least. The Trudeau
suggestions do not alter the
basic facts that the Senate
has little if any effective
power; nor does it eradicate
the stigma that senators
must bear as appointed
political hacks, In order to
instill some power and
prestige, as well as ef-
fectiveness into the Senate, it
must have more than meray
marginal importance
withing the context of a
redefined confederation.
Other Proposals

Other polnts of
signifleance In the new

‘package include a charter on

fundamental rights and
liberties, provincial input
into Supreme Court ap-
pointmenta, protection of
minority language rights,
and the affirmation that
Canada must remain a
strong federation,

[wonder how the govern-
ment will possibly succeed In
rationalizing a new
statement . on human

regulations. . strictly enforced."

Eniglish said he is sympa-
thetic to the claims of native NEW YORK (AP) — A
Indians but not te the extent Be¥ generation of com-
that individual bands be mercial buildings, in-
allowed to draft thelr own ‘Otporating energy-saving

fishing regulations.

“They (Indians) should
have more say :
management of the resource
and their needs should be
looked after,” he said.

“But the salmon fisheries -.

cannot survive if it is not
managed by a central

liberties with its dogmatic
stand on overnment secrecy
and the inherent flaws in the
Official Secrets Act. We
already have a com-
prehensive Bill of Rights
brought in under Mr,
Diefenbaker. All the
government needs to do is
expand and entrench it into a
new constitution.

The Supreme Court is
independent ‘of the govern-
ment under the definition of
the independence of the
judiciary from the political
arm of government. That
will not be challenged or
changed but the provinces
should be given a larger say
in who directs the final legal
authority of this nation.
wie affirmation of the wish

eep Canada as a strong
federation is fine in prin-
ciple, but it ignores, con-
yeniently, the decisive clash
brewing once these
proposals reach the second
lage and the provinces sit
down with the Federal
Government and negotlate
the division of powers bet:

.ween them, A principle Is

designs and features was
predicted at the recent
Energy Conservation
Awards presentation. One
speaker said soon large
financial institutions will
probably insist that the com-
mercial buildings on which
they hold mortgages are
energy efficient. .

A view from the opposite side .

provinces presently hold that

power and most seem willing

to approach the iasue

Nationally. .Quebec and

Ontario seem to be the most

intransigent of the lot insofar .
as language rights are

concerned, It is precisely in

this sensitive area where the

Prime Minister wishes to
assert his jurisdiction and
this will be the issue on
which the Prime Minister's
proposals will flounder,

Time Frame
, The Gime frame that ‘the
government has placed upon
constitutional reform is
inappropriate. to say the
least. When decisions that
are made will reflect the
character of Canadian . in-
stitutions for generations to
come, accord is far more
important than meeting a
timetable which has been
arbitrarily set by the Prime
Minister. ;

Mr. Truceau’s proposal

hardly differs from his

earlier Victoria Charter

which was unacceptable to

the provinces then, and will
Vv

no more than a general. “ ewed with a great deal
statement of Intent. Mr. of scepticliam now.

Trudeau knows that he does .

notenjoy the support of most Compared with our own

provincial administrations,
and obviously, until the Parti
Quebecola defeated in
Quebec, these principles are
meaningless,

I do not wish to embroil
myself in the sensitive
dispute: over minority
language rights, The

proposal which was an-
nounced by Joe Clark two
months ago, this attempt by
the Prime Minister to
eatablish a place for himself
in our history books, has in
its present form ~ while it is
“worthy of conaideration

little chance of success. ,