A6 Terrace Review — Wednesday, July 3, 1991 ‘wr t is difficult to avoid questioning the integrity of the provincial Bl Major Project Review Process after seeing the manner in which “EE. both the Kitimat Marine Terminal Project and Orenda’s propo- "sal for building a pulp and paper mill have been handled. The ruling “handed down by Justice Walsh of the Supreme Court of Canada on the illegality of the federal cabinet’s sidestep of the Environmental Assessment and Review Process in Alcan’s Kemano Completion Project has cast particular doubts on what the provincial cabinet is © _ doing with the two projects under review in the Northwest. ‘For the past three weeks it has become nearly impossible to obtain concrete information on the status of the port project. Although Skeena MLA Dave Parker has stated publicly that the project is now going to Stage II of the MPRP, the bureaucrats who are in charge of the process say they don’t know because they haven’t been officially notified, and of the Cabinet committee members charged with pro- viding that instruction only Parker is talking. Concerns expressed by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, a member organi-- zation of the MPRP steering committee for the project, have gone without response. Responses to the prospectus for the port are still not public. The private developer or developers interested in building and running the operation have still not been identified. ‘The justification for delaying progress on the Orenda proposal is - still not clear. It seems bizarre that a company wanting to undertake a project of this magnitude would have to learn that their proposed .. location was not acceptable through being stalled and through being ‘told “informally”. This is a major forest industry project, but the Ministry of Forests has been virtually silent throughout the process. The Ministry of Environment is one of the two lead agencies in the ‘MPRP, yet Orenda was given indications that there are no environ- mental problems with the proposal. In this word-of-mouth governing, the objective is to avoid giving any indication that would allow the ‘public to trace the agency or individual responsible for a decision. ‘Who didn’t like the location: Development, Trade and Tourism? Lands and Parks? Native Affairs? Environment? Forests? Or what combination of ministers on the Cabinet Committee on Sustainable Development, the 11-ministry agency that make decisions on MPRP ‘applications? _ All we know at this point is that it is in somebody’s interests to get “the project moved. _» Orenda’s statements have only added murk to an already obscure “and speculative picture, It appears they will attempt to design a proposal for a location in the Terrace-Kitimat or Prince Rupert area. Tt would be easy to conclude that there is some sort of a master plan germinating inside the government involving both the mill and _ the port, to be announced at a moment politically advantageous for " the present provincial administration. There is no information in the "public realm that would contradict that conclusion. ~The federal court has already ruled in the Kemano decision that the _ BARP has the force of law, that decisions of the federal Cabinet cannot bypass the process. Perhaps the provincial government is now trying to find out the hard way if the same tuling applies to provin- cial government affairs. me - 34 CO . nd) TORRES? 7 Drench ’ Second-class mall Established May 14, 1985 registration No. 6896. lishe The Terrace eH by shed All material (including original art work) appear- d ing In ihe Terrace Review la protected under Close-Up Business Services Ltd. Canadian copyright Regitration No. 362776 and . cannot legally reproduced for any reason Publisher: without permission of the publisher. Y Betty Barton Estors and omissions. Advertising is accepted Editor: on the pfonaition thet oi ne event ot pographical errar, that portion of the advertla- Michael Kelly ing space occupied by the erraneous item will not be charged for, byt the balance of the adver- tisamant will be pald for at the applicable rate. . Advertisers must assume responeldtllly for er rora in any classified ad which Is supplied to the Staff Reporters: Tod Strachan, Betty Barton ' National Advertising: Terrace Review in handwritten form. _ Marjorie Twyford I cenplanes uit the 8 Hunan Fie Act Local Advertising: no advertisement will be published which Jack Beck discriminates against a parson due to age, race, Ottice/Typesetting: ape ail sex, nationally, ancestry or place Carrle Olson Production Manager: 4535 Greig Avenue, Jim Hall Vea av Production: Phone: 635-7840 Charles Costello, Gurbax Gill, Fax: 635-7269 Ranjit Nizar, George McLean , Accounting: One year pecriptions . su fe . Mat] Twyford, Harminder K. Dosanjh ‘ ircaneda $39.00 os Art and Graphics: Out of Canada $100.00 Marianne Brorup Weston Mark Twyford, President ‘. Close Up Business Services Ltd. Senlors in Terrace and District $30.00 Sentors out of Terrace and District $33.00 GST will be addad to the sbova prices. em) _°" Letters to the editor will be considered for publication -: Please Include your telephone number. P on only when signed. - “The editor raserves the right to condense and edit letters. Opin axpressed are not necessarily those of the Terrace Review. * Opinions nee ae ae NIREATED SEWAGE... _TSWDGE.... OIL TANKERS... _-TOXIG WASTE DUMPS... __1S THIS OUR, ONLY WAY OUT OF HERE?.. “" EDITORIAL ti AN 5 MK Lye Po Mee SAE, 7 : on y a 5 th spersr seer ttEPINEEEL IEEE! RELY YY eoar LEAD own ETL: —— | Cli ij ares ore estate alt eencentce ples iret VICTORIA — And then there were five. Seventeen days from now, one of five Social Credit MLAs will be crowned as monarch to pre- side over the government of B.C. . "” did:so only to protect himself from being dumped as an MLA - The new king or queen of the hill will inherit a tamished mantle, and will face a mountain- high struggle to keep the Socreds in power. | So here’s a brief look — in alphabetical order — at the con- tenders, with my opening odds on their chances for success. 1. Former finance minister Mel “Couveller, 60, has had a helluva year. He quit his post in March because of concems about now- disgraced, then-premier Bill . Vander Zaim. | - Barely a month later, with The Zalm gone, he was welcomed back into the fold by caucus- elected premier Rita Johnston. And less than a month after that, in early May, Mr. Couvelier was sacked by her over a minor breach of a minor statute. Was it malicious, designed to take an opponent out of conten- tion? Many of Couvelier’s sup- porters think so, and that is why they will look elsewhere than Mrs. Johnston if the leadership vote goes to more than one ballot and their Mel is not near the top. Mr. Couvelier is a sincere man with a tendency to drone on about finance and its importance, and he is far from charismatic. - Nevertheless, he served for four- and-a-half years in a senior Cabi- net post and will command some respect and some delegates. He is likely to be third on the opening ballot, with little chance of improving upon that. Chances The view from Victoria — . by John Pifer _ from the Socred caucus (with beope y of w g it all: 8 to 1. 2. Little-known to the general public, Columbia River MLA Duane Crandall was a surprise entry into the contest. His opponents are suggesting he | candidate in his home riding, | where it is acknowledged that he is unlikely to win re-election. At 44, Mr. Crandall is the youngest of the five, and may try to cash in on that fact. However, his inexperience and relative obscurity from the public eye — other than an ill-fated 1989 exit three others) in an anti-Vander Zalm protest — will play against him. It is probable that his voice on some of the policy plans for the party’s future will be listened to. Chances of winning it all: 50 to 1. 3. Social Services Minister Norm Jacobsen is one of the most respected MLAs within the Socred caucus, yet has a public profile almost as low as Duane Crandall’s. Viewed as a no-nonsense, hon- est man who invokes memories of W.A.C. Bennett in appearance and in his behind-closed-doors frankness, the former mayor of Maple Ridge could be a sleeper... the one to come up the middle as a compromise candidate between the two female front runners if they get snarled in acrimony on the convention floor. In decided contrast to the flam- boyance of Mr. Vander Zalm, the fatherly 61-year-old Jacobsen has a chance, yes, but it is not much greater than Mr. Couvelier’s. Chances of winning it all: 6 to 1. 4. Premier Rita Johnston had what many considered to be a distinct advantage — running as a candidate while holding down the office, thus having access to its power and prestige. The fact that she was Canada’s first women Premier also should ‘have worked in her favour. However, after nearly three months in the chair, public opin- ion polls show that Mrs. Johnsto1 is barely level with Mr. Couve- lier, a far poorer showing than her followers had expected. Complacency from believing that she had the title sewed up might be the reason, but one als¢ has to include her average (dare say mediocre-at-best) perform- ance as Premier as an explanatio for the lack of fire and interest {1 _ the campaign. Dubbed "Premier Mom", the 56-year-old Johnston may lack the killer instinct needed for this race and for leadership. She is hard to dislike; but equally hard to get too charged up about on the basis of her workmanlike political career to date. Chances of winning it all: 3 to 1. 5. The woman dubbed the grande dame of Social Credit, Grace McCarthy, waited until the second-last day before sweep ing into the contest on a well- orchestrated wave of excitement, The wily political veteran cre- ated the perception of being dragged unwillingly into the contest, as a saviour (yet again) of a party destined for defeat at the hands of the NDP. — Continued on page A7 ' fren eb