A4 - The Terrace Standard, races October 16, 1996

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (6()4) 638-7283 + FAX: (604) 638-8432
MODEM: (604) 638-7247

Pie slicers
WHEN YOU only have one pie and you want to
save some pretty big slices for some pretty needy
folks, there isn’t a lot left for anyone else.

Such is the situation facing the NDP govern-
ment in its announced need to cut $750 million
from the provincial budget this year — and in
succeeding years — to cope with a horrendous
financial situation of its own making.

The pastry chefs have so far indicated health
and education spending won’t be touched to the
point where they are impaired. (Funny, we heard
the same thing about Forest Renewal B.C.)

Health and education are pretty big slices of the

spending pie which, according to this spring’s :

budget documents, is just shy of $21 billion.
Those two areas make up about $13 billion. That
leaves $8 billion in all the other ministries from
which the $750 million is to come.

Let’s assume the government isn’t going to
touch the politically sensitive new family and
children’s ministry’s budget of $1 billion. This
leaves $7 billion. Do a bit more math and it turns
out the government is going to have to cut about
11 per cent of that $7 billion if it is to reach its
goal.

All this means some pretty big hits coming to
some pretty crucial ministries. We’ve already
been told that grants to municipalities are to suf-
fer. And there’s talk of drastic chopping to the
multitude of grants, loans, incentives etc. which
go to business and industry.

You can’t cut spending without affecting jobs
and the number of people to lose out ranges from
1,500 to 3,000 depending upon who is doing the
talking,

The pastry chefs are probably now working on
cuts to areas where they will take the least politi-
cal heat. This unfortunately means things which
appeal to the more populated urban centres
should be relatively safe. a

What’s it to be for the north? One conservation
officer based in Prince George but without gas to
run his truck? Hang on. It’s going to be a rough
ride.

|
Waste not ....

POOR JOHN SHIELDS. BCTV sticks a camera
in front of his face and asks him about the pros-
pect of layoffs affecting his provincial govern-
ment employees union.

Mr. Shields does his job and goes on the of-
fensive. He mentions he can release each day
enough horror stories on waste in government
spending to last an entire year.

But then Mr. Shields can’t — or won’t — fol-
low up. It seems he has fallen victim to the af-
fliction of making a great speech without being
able to provide examples.

That’s a shame. It gives the impression Mr.
Shields doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Or
Mr. Shields is protecting his members. Or Mr.
Shields is protecting the government to which he
is politically aligned.

Stories about government waste are legend.
Some are true. Some are not. If Mr. Shields does
have examples it’s best he quit putzing around
and pony up with the goods. If there is waste,
trimming it could save some jobs of his mem-
bers. And Mr. Shields would be doing his bit to
ensure the taxpayers’ dollar is well spent.

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Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
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Premier does leopard act

VICTORIA — If a picture
speaks a thousand words,
political cartoonists are chroni-
cling history in a much more
prolific way than any colum-
nist could possibly hope for.
Take Rob Krieger’s cartoon
in the Province newspaper last
week. There was the mug of &-
nance minister Andrew Petter,
A caption af the top said, ‘The
bad news: things will get
worse.” At the bottom, anoth-
er caplion said, “The good
news: you can’t trust him.”
Ain’ tit the truth. The bloody
mess this government has got
itself into has relegated iis
credibility to the scrap heap. It
reminds me of a proverb my
mother hauled out every once
in a while. She had an in-
credible store of proverbs,
befitting every occasion you
can think of, but this once was

reserved for when she caught

me telling. a lie:

“Wer ecinmal luegt, dem
glaubt man nicht, und wenn er
auch die Wahrheit spricht.”’
For those of you who can’t
speak German, it translates
into ‘‘He who lies once will
never be believed again, even
ifhe speaks the truth,’’

Even if by some miracle the
NDP get it right at least once
before the next election and
manage to balance the budget,
who is going to believe them,
after having so blatantly lied to

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

us about the last budget?
Which reminds me of anoth-
er of my mother’s proverbs.
“He who lies, also steals.’’
True enough again. First, the
NDP lied about the budget and
then, partly on the strength of
that lie, they stole the election.

But try they will, mightily, .

And in their quest to make us
believe that they can, indeed,
bring some semblance of order
to the province’s fiscal dis-
array, we're all going to do
some pretty bad hurting.
Compare ihe Glen Clark
storming aloug the last election
trail lo the Glen Clark now,
Then he promised the moon
and then some to every interest
group around; now he speaks
of difficult decision and
sacrifices thal must be made.
Then he boasted of two
balanced budgets under the

NDP’s belt; now he is forced
to admit to a deficit that may
reach or even surpass a billion
dollars. Or will it?

There’s no doubt that during
the next six months, Clark will
deliver a pretty good im-
personation of a right-wing,
tight-fisted, boltom-line-
oriented premier. He will, in
fact, come away from trying to
reduce the deficit looking
much worse than Gordon
Campbell would have looked
had be won the election and
implemented his version of fis-
cal management.

There are a couple of things
Clark can do to repair some of
the damage he’s done. The
first is to resign, but I wouldn’t
hold my breath for that.

The second is more prac-

ticable but would require a lot.
of audacity, something that,

comes ‘natural ‘to the premier.

He could steal two of the main’

planks in Campbell’s piatform.
Having some experience in
Stealing an election, there
should be no major obstacle to
this exercise, Here’s what he
should do:

Campbell based his fiscal
election platfonn on two major
pieces of legislation he said a
Liberal governinent would
bring in - truth in budgeting
and = mandatory balanced
budgets. The latter would
ensure that the govcrnment’s

books are indeed balanced,
while the former would guar-
atitee that they aren’t cooked to
make the budget appear
balanced.

With those two acts in place,
no premier could ever again
mn around the province,
claiming that the budget is
balanced and all is well, when
in fact he or she knows that the
whecls have already fallen off
the ofd fiscal cart,

No party leader could ever
again litter the election trail
with promises that are bound
to be broken the moment the
election is over.

Elections might actually
again resemble the democratic
exercise they once were and
still should be. By having to
stick to the truth, by law, the
candidates’ election rhetoric
might tum into a reasonable

" discussion of ideas.

Instead of playing the elec-
torate for fools who believe
anything, the beggars would
have to actually tell us: just
what it is their parties have in
mind for us.

The question is: has the
premier enough intestinal forti-
tude to do it? Probably nat. As
my mother would have said:
“A leopard doesn’t change his
spots,’’ And mother knew best.

Beyer can be reached at Tel:
920-9300; Fax: 385-6783; E-
Mail: hubert@coolcom.com

Resign, with all our thanks

“Government can do any-

thing.”
So sayeth forests minister
David Zisnhelt recently

defending Victoria’s intention
to wrest $400 million from the
Forest Renewal fund to beef up
general revenue.

If Zirnhelt’s correct, Victoria
should finish what it started
when it legislated amalgamat-
ing many of B.C.’s 75 school
districts. In those districts
facing amalgamation, Victoria
should cancel all existing ad-
ministrators’ contracts,

As things stand, future amal-
gamated districts such as our
Coast Mountain must hire only
two top administrators where
currently a total of four are un-
der contract.

New, amalgamated boards
should have free rein to hire
thelr own choice of superinten-
dent and assistant superinten-
dent. After all who knows
what criteria or personal biases

THROUGH BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

led to hiring of incumbents.

Assuming the new board de-
cides to keep two of the in-
cumbents, the two castoffs
must resign or be let go,

I can’t picture a six-figure
administrator resigning of his
own free will. And letting
them go may mean buying out
their contracts,

Where's the saving of cduca-

ay / MEANWHILE BACK AT :
PROGRESS PARTY H@u.

TOE vic, WELL TRUST YOU
TO PROMOTE. OUR PARTY'S
PLANS TO SELL OUT TOURISTS |
OUTFITTING, MINING OIL
AND 20G6/Né- TO FOREIGN

INTERESTS ft

“| ACTUALLY, PEORE
LUANT MoRE Loca
CONTROL OVE 2.
SUCH THINGS /

WHICH (S WHY

You HAVE To

FIND A Locad. #77.

FRONT MAN FOR -2.

EACH BUsiNEss! poe 6
vA

tion dollars if a contract must
be bought out? Especially if a

contract is a continuous five-—

year contract which automati-
cally renews each year, as in
the case of Terrace’s two top
administrators.

You have to ask, when the
Terrace board signed this pair
of five-year contracts, what
were they thinking? Plainly
they gave no thought to how
every board henceforth would
be servant rather than master.

Can Terrace taxpayers afford
to buy out one or both of these
half million dollar contracts?
Should we have to?

The Terrace and Kitimat
school districts have hired a
labour law expert to advise
them on the contract issue,
Let’s hope she brings along a
powerful trouble light.

IVs fascinating, in case the
two Terrace contracts must be
bought out, that the rough total
- one million dollars - is pre-

THAT BE >
PISHONEST ~

But WwoulDy't~

cisely the amount Mills
Memorial Hospital is short to
complete renovations. Mills
laid off nurses to fulfill staff
cutbacks. Now Victoria has no
funds to renovate the wards
down to an area the decimated
staff can care for.

Wouldn't it be the ultimate
gesture of community support
if the two unbired administra-
tors - whoever they might be -
resigned graciously and retired
to Galiano Island. Resigning
would be filling thanks - for
many years of reliable gener-
ous income paid for by work-
ing jocs who sulfered repeat
downtums, layoffs, even
bankruptcies.

Surely, unless these people
slept through the Michael
Campbell-type seminars at an-
nual conventions, they have
eagle-sized nests lined with
more feathers than a Canada
goose,

Wow ! you've GOT A
REAL SENSE OF