“Page 4, Tha Herald, Wednesday, Avaust §, 1979 | TERRACE/KITIM AT daily herald ' General Office . 635-6357 Clreulation - 635-6357 GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland EDITOR - Greg Middleton CIRCULATION- TERRACE- 635-6357 : KITIMAT OF FICE .632-2747 Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street, Terrace, B.C. A member of Verifled Circulation. Authorized as second class mall. Registration number 1291. Postage paid In cash, return postage guaranteed. NOTE OF COPYRIGHT The Herald retains full, complete and sole copyright In any advertisement produced and-or any editorial or photographic content published in the Reproduction ts not permitted. Pubilihed by Sterling Publishers Herald. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Editor: We see the following as favorable points for keeping Two-Mile School open: 1. Location is very ideal, within walking distance of fo students, lo g is necessary, thus a financial saving as well, 10-acre site is perfectly suited for nature studies, as well as an ideal recreational area. A beautiful creek is used for swimming, fishing, skating, hockey, etc, The school is situated away from the highway and heavy traffic. Also, the large acreage peovides for future ex- pansion if needed. The school also serves as a community centre, as it is our only large building adequate for public meetings, and social activities of the communtty The ding has been there for 17 years, and is in excellent condition. The portables being set. up in New Hazelton Elementary and John Field Elementary in Old - Hazelton have poor in-- sulation and ho washroom facilities. This means bathroom breaks during the morning and high electricity bills during the winter. These portables are no sub- stitute for the fully facilitated school at Two- e. - 4. Briefly the following are the reasons given by the schoo] board for the school closure. (a) Declining enrolment; (b) Lack of adequate facilities to provide a high standard of education, in particular a - lack of gymnasium and library. . parents However, : the. enrolment figures quoted by the school board were completely -errorous. Their initial claim was that only four: students would be enrolled in 1979 - 1980. This was in error. Actual enrolment is to be 17, which is quite adequate. The usual minimum is 10 students, As to the other point of: facilities, We believe that the gymnasium and library are not a necessity for this school. There are two reasons, There is a small library in the school. Also, most take their children to the com- munity library in Hazelton. This is a per- feetly suitable arrangement. The gymnasium is not necessary, and we do not want it. There are numerous other activities for physical develop- ment Further, we believe that school policies should be a result of the. co-operative effort between the parents and the school board. It should not be a result of a dictorial decision by a few people 130 kilometers away, without any consideration ‘from the parents of the children . involved. The other two existing ‘ dlementary schools in the area have been expanded to their reasonable limits, while the Two-Mile School has 10-acres of property which allows plenty of room for ex- pansion. Sincerély, Lillian Gogag Secretary Two-Mile Community ’ Committee Letters welcome The Herald welcomes its readers comments. All letters to the editor of general public interest will be printed. We do, however, retain the right to refuse to print letters on grounds of possible libel or bad taste. We may also edit letters for style and length. All letters to be considered for publication must be signed. : HERMAN 81778 Untrectol Prose "1 told you you'd need more than 4 gallon.” Ane wah me You Gent To $2... IP TAE HEABORS C. LET You Gfort = 5 ‘OTTAWA OFFBEAT. BY RICHARD JACKSON STUDY REVEALS Secrets Act is overkill OTTAWA (CP) — The Official Secrets Act, aimed at espionage, is drafted so broadly that it could be held to prohibit public servants “fo soguhing rate the ope , Says a BI ne foe the Law Reform Com- mission of Canada, R.T, Franson of Var- couver, who ‘did the atudy, made public Tuesday, says the oath of secrecy public servanta must take under the Public Service Employment - Act is another obstacle to informing the public. Under the oath, public ser- nything th not disclose ey learn as a resultof their job unless they have “due authority” to do - 50. “Unfortunately, no clear epecification of authority for OTTAWA (CP) — Prime Minister Clark has given cabinet ministers, their wives, children and senior staff members until Sept. 25 to disecloge publicly their financial holdings under tough new conflict-of- interest guides. The guides, made public Tuesday, require ministers and their families either to. * sell all publicly-traded ahares and speculative in- vestments or to place them ‘in a blind trust over which they have no control. ‘Ministers also must disclose any gifts worth more than $100 — other than official gifts — which they recelye from anyone outside their family. Public declarations of ' financial interests must be filed with the assistant ty registrar general, an io ependent government official, by the September deadiine, Clark said in a letter delivered to ministers last, Friday. ’ The declarations must be Sharp has sleepless nights — TORONTO (CP) — If Ian Sharp has sleepless nights, one reason may be that he has hes snternational cor- porate customers to wo: about my Sharp is president of IP. . Sharp ‘Assoc jates which is in the iness of computer Ume-sharing. Computer time sharing is not new but Sharp has turned it into an art, serving clients over. more than half the @obe from two giant com- puters in the heart of n Toronto. ‘One aspect of the operation which now is the fact that up to 230 clients from around the world can — and have — tapped Into the system at the * same time with no hint of “that he‘ will, disclosure appears to exist in ‘most departments or agencies,’” says Franson, © _ “The public servant is left ‘$9. make hia own decision respecting disclosure and must therefore face the risk j he’ on review, be “found to be without authority to disclose if the information proves embarrassing.” Franson, who studied public access to information held by government agen. cles, says he waa unable to eoordinate his study with one being done by the former Liberal government because the government study was kept confidential. - He. concludes that the ‘public has no right to jn- ation held by agencies: Buch as the National Parole Board, the National Energy Board ‘and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, although some of these agencies volunteer auch information, : Even people appearing before auch agencies on mattera of interest to them, such as licence applications, had trouble getting in- formation about the policies and Practices of the agen- es. Section 28 of the Federal Court Act is “notoriously un- clear” and court decisions on whethSrgistim’zmust release information had left the situation fuzzy. Franson recommended . . that the public have a right to any information in the files of administrative agencies, as long as the ON INVESTMENTS | Clark restricts cabinet updated every year. The guldes do not have the force of law, but are a condition of joining the cabinet, a government Spokesman sald. The gov: ernment has promised legislation by Christmas establishing slmilar rules for all parliamentarians. In ‘his letter, Clark said cabinet ministers and thelr senior staff must never appear to benefit financially from their positions or from confidential information they acquire. The guides, which are stricter than those imposed by former prime minister Pierre Trudeau on his cabinet, prohibit a minister fram giving preferential treatment on any official matter to a relative, friend, or organization in which they have an interest. Ministers also are prohibited from practising a profession, serving as a paid consultant, serving .aB & director of a company, or serving in a union or ’ professional association. Ministers are directed to abide by the spirit as well aa the letter of the guides. As were members of Trudeau's cabinet, Clark's ministers are prohibited from acting a8 a lobbyist or ’ doing business with their old department for two years after they jeave the cabinet. In his letter, Clark . Bpecifically warns ministers and their staff to be careful about approaching judges or members of quasi-judicial bodies, ‘ Trudeau was. forced to establish similar rules for his cabinet in March, 1078, after public works minister Bud Drury telephoned a Quebec judge on behalf of then consumer affairs minister Andre Ouellet, who was charged with contemp!, ‘of court. - John Munro resigned as labor miniater a year ago for violating the rules by calling OVER CUSTOMERS © slowdown or response. Most of Sharp's 600 customers of his global village network are multinational companies that require Inatant inter- national hookups on a moment's notice and during any time of the day, The company has just opened its newest branch in Oslo. _ Sharp started the company in 1969 with connections to Washington and Ottawa. Its first transoceanle hop was made in 1973 to Europe. Business has reached $24 million a year, at almost 40 per cent a year. Sharp's competitor is Datacrown, No. 1 in business with an annual gross of $50 million. But Sharp's in- tercontinental aspect makes it an object of both curiosity and awe in the industry. Many of Sharp's customers are big cor- porations with their own computer centres, such as the big five Canadian chartered banks But they subscribe to his service because of the array of data banks and calculating procedures, Another reason is the price, Users pay $1 an hour for a network connection, but ara charged for the time they are using the system, Citents: get access to the two big computers by information could be re- leased without creating harm. He proposed exemp- tions to disclosure that would cover data relating to the security of the ‘state, in- ternational relations, relations with the provinces, pending negotiations, cabinet debates and policies, staff advice,’ valyable commercial information, and personal informatlon. He also recommended that staff manuals, directives and other interpretative materials be made public, and that agencies be required to identify, index and publish such material. Franson.is an ad- ministrative law professor at the University of Britist Columbia. oo a Hamilton judge on behalf of a constituent. Clark's rules give ministers, their families and staff fewer options for arranging their financial affairs than Liberal ministers had under the guides issued by Trudeau in’ 1973. Frozen trusts — under which ministers could: not control their assets but atill knew what they owned — are ruled out. All assets, other than a home, cars, savings ac- counts, pensions and savings bonds, must either be sold or placed in a blind trust, with the trustee to be selected from a list of trust com-. panies approved by Clark. - “The trustee is prohibited from informing the minister of any changes in his port- folic. . For the first time, a $10,000 limit is placed on holdings of foreign currency. Any deposits in foreign banks over this amount must go. Into the blind trust, making a direct dial telephone call to the nearest Sharp office. There, mini- computers are on line con- Btantly to the Toronto. facility. A question can travel from Melbourne, be considered and an answer travel back,. all in the time it takes to blink an eye. 605 Ancther popular service ig the mailbox, which allows the user to send an electronic letter which is stored in the Toronto computer to await the arrival of the receiver to | his or her office. The letter can be displayed on a video screen or printer, depending on the type of recelver, — - gould be rallied and re Ottawa — Remember — it was only this spring — when Conservative Leader Joe Clark, campaigning for power, promised what he called parliamentary reform of the legislative process of what are known as ‘ Private Members’ Bills. . The hot item in the long, long list of Private Mem- bers’ Bills every Session has been the restoration of capital punishment. . ean abolitionist himself — he consistently "voted against the execution of murderers — Joe Clark, laying along with the overwhelming public support fe restoration of the death penalty, pledged that Parliament would be allowed a free decision. The basic idea was to limit the number of Private Menibers’ Bills to give more time to the debate and possible passage of those with public priorities. - At the top of the list, it was made clear, was restoration of the death penalty — or at least a chance for Parliament to speak for the people without " pressure from the prime minister and his cabinet. Tt sounded fair enough. . When up comes'a spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Walter Baker — who obviously must be eaking with Joe Clark's knowledge and approval that the necessary parliamentary reform to make ail this possible is a long way down the legislative road. Before anything is done there must be a thorough study of the pos lion by the Conservative Caucus, consultation then by parties, examination by a Commens committee and a report to Parliament, Then any changes in the processing of Private Members’ Bills must be approved by Commons and _ Senate How long till all this takes place? . Who knows. mo, The Deputy Prime Minister’s office says it could be done by Easter. . Could be, but don’t coint on it. And without this reform, there is absolutely no chance of the restoration of capital punishment because Mr. Clark has said, and very definitely, that he and his government will take no initiative on the issue. Not another broken promise, exactly, but a side- stepping,‘a hop, skip and jumping of what was made to sound like a serious undertaking, : So to the rescue if possible — alarmed by all this waltzing around the issue — come a dozen or more MPs, of both major’ parties, with. Private Members’ Bills for the return Of capital punishment. ‘Special among them is Peter Elzinga, five-year Conservative MP for Alberta’s Pembina constituency, who realizes that in Parliament as anywhere in unity ’ there is strength. Three times in the past, like a score of other parliamentarians, he has brought in capital punish- ment:bills and seen them “‘talked out” before there . could be a vote. . He bought Joe Clark’s campaign promise of letting one of these bills come to a final resolution, confident that the Prime Minister “‘will abide by the wishes of his MPs and the public.” _ Hé recalls how the last time there was a so-called “free vote” on the issue, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the Cabinet put pressure on the Liberal backbenches, making a joke of Parliament's supposed “freedom” of decision, beating the bill by six votes withthe help of a few Conservative abolitionists. be he is aware that parliamentary reform af the handling of Private Members’ Bills is still away off into the future, and maybe he isn't. . Anyway, in an open letter to Parliament he urges capital punishment advocates in the Commons to rally behind his bi) rather than “scatter their forces" in a dozen pieces of legislation. This way, he suggests, public opinion, which polls show favors the death penalty by 70 to 80 per cent, pressure brought to bear on Parliament. If you agree, he asks you drop him a line of support .. it's Peter Elzinga, MP, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, K1A 0X2. No postage needed. . ‘ MLA‘s REPORT by Frank Howard How would you like it if you had a bus system in, say Smithers and the proc from the operation of that bus system were used to buy new buses for Van- couver? Or, say the bus system was in Terrace or Kitimat, would you like that any better? It looks like that is what is going to happen, if we can believe the government and the Minister of Municipal Affairs, that is. Not long ago the Socreds set up a thing called the Urban Transit Authority. This authority has Jurisdiction over bus and other transit systems in the province. . . Now the Socreds are taking the second step in the direction of Urban Transportation. They have set up a company called the Metro Transit Operating Com- pany. This company will *‘... take over all public. passenger transportation operations from Hydro.” That means the B.C. Hydro bus systems in the lower mainland and Victoria. ' Now, we know that Hydro has operated the bus systems at a loss. The big question is whether the new Metro Traneit Operating Company will operate them at a loss, And, if it does, whe will make up the loss? The way Tread the bill which set this Metro thing up, it will be the Urban Transit Authority. . Where will the Urban Transit Authority et the money so to grant or lend? Why, from’ you the tax- payer. The Minister of Finance will lend money to the Urban Transit Authority who, in turn, may grant or: lend it to the Metro Transit Operating Company. Oh, it’s very carefully done — ali very carefully planned all done so as to mislead the general public to thinking that it won’t cost anything. But, Bill Vander Zalm, he of the wagging tongue, let the secret out in an item which appeared in the Vancouver Province on July 14, He said, “'The UTA (the Urban Transit Authority) will own all the buses in the province but will lease them to the operating company. The money from the leases will go into an equipment replacement fund.” Sounds fine — until one reads the next line in that Vancouver Province article. ; Let me quote it to you, “Vander Zalm gaid -this means that lease payments from, say Prince George or Terrace, would help pay for new buses in Van- couver. I've always felt that the Sccreds really didn’t much attention to the north, this recent propesel confirms that notion. Itrecognizes the north as merely the wide end of a funne) with the lower mainland’s mouth stuck on the narrow end. Bill Vander Zalm comes from the lower mainland, incidentally.