A6 Terrace Review — Wednesday, February 7, 1990

Dealing with a
revolting situation _

We've been saved by the Minister of Education. Last week .
Tony Brummet suddenly saw a taxpayers’ revolt on the verge of
breaking out, and acted swiftly and decisively to defend us. It’s
all the fault of those damned school trustees. °

In East Germany it was political freedom, in Poland it was .
food rationing, and in B.C. it was education property taxes. The
citizens of this province could take the closure of a mine after
giving Cominco over $100 million to keep it open, getting swin-
died like a bunch of rubes on the Expo lands sale, and having to
line up in front of U.S. hospitals for heart surgery, but another
increase in property taxes and we'll take to the streets,

In announcing the new “block funding”’ system for financing
schools, Brummet said in effect that school boards had failed to
act responsibly and accountably because they kept raising proper-
ty taxes, and from now on if boards want anything beyond what
t province is prepared to give them, they’ll have to put it to a
v te. The message hidden in this announcement is that voters are
capable of deciding what education programs they wish to
finance through tax increases, but they're incapable of electing
local officials who can make those decisions for them.

If our local board of trustees has such a cavalier attitude about
throwing our tax money around, could Mr. Brummet kindly ex-
plain why we went through a six-week strike in our schools at
this time last year? Or why the teachers, administrators and
trustees here ran every maze and jumped through every hoop the
ministry set up to obtain special grants and funding for specific
programs?

Although the board is waiting to find out exactly how much
money it will have to work with in the coming year, the indica-
tions are that it will be last year’s budget with a cost-of-living
(“economic adjustment”’) factor added on. Brummet also stated
that there will be “‘significant relief?’ in property taxes coming up
in the provincial budget. Finance Minister Mel Couvelier may
_ have given us sign of what that means when he was here for the
Property Tax Forum hearings last year. He noted that what gets.
spent by government has to be collected somewhere in the form
of taxes; if education spending doesn’t go down but there is
“relief”? in property taxes, where will it come from? On our
property tax notices, at least we can see what we’re paying and
what it’s being used for. The term “‘accountability”’ comes to
mind. In his crusade to save us from the fiscal ravaging of our
school trustees, how does Mr. Brummet define ‘‘accountable’’?

And in setting the ceiling on education expenditures (aside
from referendum-approved taxation), can Mr. Brummet teil the
difference between stability and stagnation?

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VICTORIA — There is a colli-
sion course ahead for environ-

. mentalists and forest companies

in B.C., and it is spelled
CARMANAH.

For- years the crucial debate
between development and log-
ging versus preservation and
environmental protection has |
been building towards a climax.

And that is sure to arrive
later this month, with politi-
cians from both sides caught
right in the middle.

The Social Credit govern-
ment of Bill Vander Zalm is
certain to allow some logging ~
of the Carmanah Valley on
Vancouver Island, when it an-
nounces its decision. .

The political implications are
considerable, especially for the
New Democrats, who are going
to be caught in a wedge be-
tween two groups of some of
their strongest supporters —
those who work in the forests.
and related industries, and =~
those who want more preserva-
tion and environmental safe- '
guards, a

(Yes, I know that some log-

gers are environmentalists, to”
some degree, and that some en-
vironmentalists accept that
there has to be some industry.
Generally, though, they are
fairly far apart).
When Forests Minister
Claude Richmond unveils the
plan for some logging in that
region, be it selective or not, it
looks more and more likely

that all helt will break loose. -

The combatants include
forest giant MacMillan Bloedel
on one side, and assorted en- —
vironment groups and activists

.. on the other.

The view from
Victoria — |

by John Plter

The government proposal ©
will be a compromise position
between the amount that -
MacBlo wants to log; and what
the preservationists want to
save in the river valley which is
home to some of the world’s
largest Sitka spruce.

But the more rabid ‘‘tree
huggers’’, as some label them,
won't accept any compromise
quietly, I understand. The
prospect of people lying down
in front of bulldozers and play-
ing to the adoring media is a
very real one, regardless of all
of the commissions, round
tables, task forces and com-
mittees trying to resolve the im-
passe. -

It also is fascinating to watch
both of the major parties adopt
the phrase ‘‘sustainable
development” as theirown
theme. It must be awfully con- ,
fusing to you, the voters... it _
certainly is to this observer.

The Carmanah with.its _
mighty wooded giants will be —
preserved, but much of the fer-
tile forest surrounding it can be
logged without damaging the
ecosystem, says experts,

MacBlo has been moaning
about the lack of logs for its
mills on the Island, and says up
to one-third of the wood sup-
ply in its tree farm licence area
is not available because of en-
vironmental disputes or
arguments. —

In revealing a bit more of its
poker hand, the forest giant

- says the longer the delay in ad-

dressing the supply issue, the

more likely it is that jobs will

be lost and mills closed.
‘Meanwhile, the’ wilderness

-and environment groups call

'
regia

that “‘blackmail’’, and threaten
civil disorder or disruption iff
MacBlo is handed most of the
valley on a platter.

Richmond is aware of the
risk involved in trying to find a
middle ground in a complex
issue where there is no such
thing as a simple answer, but
he believes it can be done...
and has to be done,

**In all of these land-use |
decisions there will be a price
to pay, and there will be com-
promises,’’ he says.

Whether the price is right, or
too high, will be the next big
political argument in this prov-
ince,

. There is one other political
implication in the Carmanah
issue, and it involves Graham
Bruce, the leader of the four
MLAs who left the Socred
caucus in October over con-
cerns with the leadership of
Vander Zalm. .

Not only is Bruce the chair-

man of the legislature’s select .

standing committee on forests,

- he also chairs the Carmanah

Community Committee of the

’ Cowichan Valley in his home ~

riding.
That group recommended in
June 1989 that the majestic
stand of spruce in the core of
the valley be saved, and that a
public board be set up ‘‘to ap-.
prove and (to) monitor all
harvesting plans’’ in the re-
mainder of the valley.
The local committee included
representatives from the IWA,
from Share the Forests and
from the very environmentally

continued on page A7