Roa A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 23, 2005 TANDARD _, ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 - PUBLISHER: ROD LINK" ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. » V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 + FAX: (250) 638-8432 WEB: www.terracestandard.com te EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com Protocol plus IT’S A lot easier to get what you want out of some-. thing when you’ re in on the ground floor. Being a part of something from the beginning allows you’ - to shape the. direction of what’ S happening to suit your own needs. . That’s why it made perfect sense for the Nisga’a | ‘Lisims Government to sign in January a protocol with the provincial government giving the Nisga’a a seatat the offshore oil and gas table. , - Using provisions. of the ground- breaking Nisa a land claims and self government treaty “of 2000, the Nisga’ a have now locked in their in- volvement in whatever might happen off the coast. - that affects their territorial rights. . » ‘Nisga’a Lisims Government president Nelson - Leeson said the protocol continues efforts. of his _ government to secure an economic future for the People of the Nass Valley — provided, of course, that any offshore development does not harm the environment. : : “We want to do business: This. ‘opportunity, should it come, we intend to be meaningful par-— _ ticipants,” said Mr. Leeson ; at the January proto- | «col signing. _ The protocol signing is about the only piece of » good news for the provincial government to come out of the shambles that marks the debate over the potential of an offshore oil and gas industry. Despite spending huge amounts ‘of political "capital, the provincial government has yet to con- vince the federal government to even contemplate . lifting a decades-old moratorium on exploration. - Environmental groups are up in arms and na- . tive groups, save for the Nisga’a, generally op- pose any move to send out the drilling rigs. The feds appear to be paying more attention to these | groups: ‘than to the. > provincial government on this . Issue. ‘Even the energy industry doesn’ t seem that en- thralled with the prospect given that the prospects of finding something commercially viable appears to be fairly distant. — . Which is why it may seem strange for the ‘Nisga’ a to ink such a protocol concerning ‘such a controversial and divisive subject. — . The'answer is simple and speaks to that age-old. saying, “businéss is business.” ‘The Nisga’a-have . clearly staked their claim that whatever may — or tay not — happen will take so on a business basis consisting of specific guidelines regardless of the politics involved. | ! The protocol also builds an alliance with the province. Again that’s a business decision. It is -’ something the province can market in. dealing - with other groups. Just as important, it serves as a template for onshore resource development that may be contemplated in other areas where the Nisga’ a have an interest. a a oe ' .PUBLISHER/EDITOR: ~ Rod Link ~ ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach - PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS: Sarah A. Zimmerman . COMMUNITY: Dustin Quezada NEWS/SPORTS: Margaret Speirs FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping CIRCULATION: ‘SUPERVISOR: Alanna Bentham ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: : Bert Husband, Susan Willemen AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik PRODUCTION: Susan Credgeur .SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62.00 per year; Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54.55; Out of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73 | Outside of Canada-(6 months) $156.91(+10.98 GST)=167. 89 ~ MEMBER OF . é CN A. errr B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION . AND. : B.C. PRESS COUNCIL (www. bepresscouncil Org) Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2. Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., its illustration repro services and advertising agencies. Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited. ; Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Office Department, for payment of postage i in cash. ‘Special thanks toe all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents : “VICTORIA. - _ new ul OMICES UNDETERRED, ADRIENNE CLARKSON 7 PRESSES. AHEAD _ WITH PLANS FOR A ~ NATIONAL WOMEN'S | HOCKEY TROPHY: STV vote plan is a good idea Here’ s two quick, satisfying reasons for voting yes in’the referendum on a new way of electing, ~ MLAs. First, the NDP and Liberal party types are against the change, a sign that it would benefit. people interested in ‘good’ government,. not party _ politics. © . Second, ask yourself one . _ Simple’ question.’ Could the ° single-transferable-vote ; system be any worse ‘than the ~ Current model? ‘ ' British Columbians get to vote May 17 on ‘whether: to switch to a new way of elect- ing MLAs. If enough of us say « yes - 60 per cent overall, and a majority in 60 per cent of rid- ings - the new system ‘will be in place for the 2009 vote. If you’re happy with the current system, you can quit reading. But I can’t imagine how you could be. Barely half the eligible voters cast ballots in the 2001 election. - Our legislature is wildly unrepresentative - the 197,000 ‘people who voted Green in 2001 have no one to speak for _ them. Voters complain that - their MLAs seem more inter- . “ ested in serving their party than” the communities that elected them. Debate is frequently ugly and mindlessly partisan. And B.C. has swung back and forth between two _ polarized parties for 30 years. “It seems incredible that anyone could argue that the current system is working so FROMTHE CAPITALYI PAUL WILLCOCKS well that we shouldn’t even - consider whether there’s a bet- ter way. The question then becomes whether the single-transfer- able-vote system, recommend- ~ ed by a citizens’ assembly of. 160 average citizens, offers a better alternative. Under the new system, there would be fewer, larger ridings, with two to seven MLAs each, depending on their popula- tion. On election day, you would no longer just mark an X be- side one. candidate, condemn- ing the rest to the rubbish heap. didates as you liked, in order of preference. When the votes are counted, the results reflect the rankings. (I explained the method in a previous col- ‘umn; it’s. at www.willcocks. ~ blogspot.com.) Why is that better? Right now, you get one choice. If you care about which > party forms: government, then that drives your vote,‘ and the candidate i is largely in: ‘elevant. People who run as indepen- dents, or for an. alternative party, have little chanc:e of be- ing elected. Nomination con- tests — often undemocratic and ° flawed — matter more t chan the _ election. ' » But under the new ‘system, “you have a number. of Choices. In a four-candidate riding, a Liberal supporter mig't ‘ht rank three of the party’s canididates -as the 1, 2 and 3 choices. But if “he admired an individual from another party, or felt it:s yoice . should be heard, thiat - per- son might’ become his: fourth | choice. Your first choice might be for a probably doomied can- didate, because you know your other choices will still ::ount. It should result in a (diverse, representative legislatu re. But that’s not the only ef- . fect. Remember, voters will also rank candidates from the same party, and those rankings’ will determine who is «lected. People who want to vote NDP, for example, now take: what- ever candidate the party: offers. Under the new system party candidates will compete with each other for your supyport. The ones who: shcw the greatest understanding of lo- cal issues, the highest lt2vel of competence — and the wiilling- ness to work for local voters, and not the party — will be elected. A more representative leg- islature, increased attention to voters’ needs and ‘less to the - parties’ needs, more power for MLAs, less for the party leader — those are pretty good selling points. “And then there’ s the legisla- ture itself. It would be more di- verse, in terms of the individu-. — als involved-and the number of parties represented. MLAs. . would have to be focused on the needs of their communi- _ ties, and not just their party, _if they hoped to be re- -elected, and would be encouraged to speak out in support of local — interests. ° It’s alarming to leap into something new (although STV is already proven in other ju- risdictions). But our current system serves us badly. This is a ‘rare chance to try a positive change. Footnote: More representa- tive legislatures might mean more minority governments. But there’s no evidence to suggest any risk of instability, especially in B.C. where the two main parties have strong core support. For more infor- mation, see the government information site at www.gov. be.ca/referendum_info, or call. 1-800-668-2800. And this year’s big surplus munities affected by the pine beetle epidemic. Instead, 80 per cent of the surplus went to paying down the debt, a re- sponse out of step with the pri- orities of most people. Alarms aren‘t only answer ALARMS BY themselves are useless. Someone must’notice- their urgent call and respond. : ' The killing of three people in an Atlanta, Georgia courtroom by Brian Nichols March 11 proves that. CNN says when the. may- hem began, the judge’s sec- retary twice pressed-the silent alarm, but no security person- nel responded: In fact, as of ~ March 15, it hadn’t been. de- termined if any security staff even heard the alarm. Besides‘ the silent alarms ~ 1. on the judge’s bench and else- - where in the’ Atlanta ‘court- room, the courthouse has no fewer than 40 security camer- . as. One camera caught Nichols overpowering the 51-year- old female deputy as the pair exit- ed the elevator, assaulting her severely, and making off with her gun. But apparently no one was monitoring the surveil-- lance cameras either. Smoke detectors, too, . are intended to notify us of imped- ' ing disaster so we have time to exit the building. By them- selves, they can’t save your home from destruction unless THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI they are noticed. . Before leaving the house for a doctor’s appointment, a - housewife turned on her,range to self-clean its oven while she was gone, something she had done many times before with- out incident. This time, in a porary home for her Gieorge Forman grill, had stowed it in the oven. Part of the grill is plastic. This family, due to their . unique experience, is extra ' cautious about hazards of all kinds, especially: fire. ‘Their house ,is guarded by nine smoke detectors, some of _them battery powered, cithers hard wired. five hours. Upon their re:turn, though the. grill had not set _ the house on fire, the high hurry, she forgot to check the | oven for stray pans. In the days before her ap- . pointment she had given her kitchen an extra thorough cleaning and needing a tem- temperature necessary tc self . Clean the oven had melted the plastic parts of the grill, filling - the house with an.overpcrwer- | ing odour impossible to grt rid of. The insurance company conceded the family could not’ live in the house any more: and authorized it to be torn clown and a replacement built. . The end might have ‘been different if at least one,of the smoke detectors had been wired to an outside siren or flashing light. A neighbouar or passing motorist might /have noticed the alarm and called the fire department. A fireman might have been able to turn off the main power supply to the range and at least reduce the damage. But what if no neighbours notices the outside siren? Sup- pose all your neighbours. are gone to a special event? Or no ‘one hears the siren over their TV, stereo, or chain saw? Well, those are the odds. But about an outside alarm could | help.. Homes unattended aren’t the only situations where an . outside alarm could be a life saver. Think of handicapped people unable to move, or slow to reach the phone for help. Or a person living alone who gets into difficulty while cooking is unable to reach a phone. That was the situation of an elderly Vancouver woman who had eggs boiling on the offered a great opportunity to — provide money for the com- * letting your neighbours know The trip to the doctor took. stove when she fell and was — unable to regain her feet. She couldn’t turn off the stove or reach her phone. While she waited for rescue, the sauce- pan boiled dry and set off the smoke detector but her deaf neighbours couldn’t help.