Page 4, The Herald, Wednesday. September 19, 1979

TERRACE/KITIMAT

daily herald

Ganeral Office - 635.4357
Circutation - 635-4357

Published by
Stertlng Publishers

GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland
EDITOR- Greg Middlaton

CIRCULATION - TERRACE - 635-6357
KITIMAT OF FICE - 632-2747
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EDITORIAL |

Kitimat’s Mayor George Thom Is to be
commended for taking a strang stand on
& ferry to his town.

It Is essential that there be better
coastal transportation if the Pacific
Northwest and the province is going to
prosper.

The sea [s the traditional trade route
for this part of the province but has been
ignored of late by the politicians.

That there are already some facilities
at Kitimat makes Thom’‘s insistence that
the provincial government put ferry
service into that city only more
reasonable.

To service the expanding mining and
industrial development of the northern
area the government is spending
millions of dollars to upgrade the roads
north of us, only to rely on already busy
highways from the south and east.

hat additional ferry service from the
south is a viable proposition is easy
enough to determine, look at the booking
for the solitary Queen of Prince Rupert.

With sensible loading policies, ones
that would allow trailers to be dropped
on the ferry at one terminal and then
picked up at the other, the freight would
also move in the winter when the road Is
more hazardous and the ferry not
hooked = with tourists too.

CONSUMER
COMMENT

Before making a major purchase of goods or ser-
vices , do you do your homework? Do you afford
yourself the time to research your proposed purchase,
and comparison shop for it?

In today’s large and complex marketplace where,
the variety and choice in goods and services is im-
mense, the wise consumer can't afford not to.

As consumers, we have‘the right to choice, as well
as the right to accurate information about the goods
ond services that we are choosing from. But in
exercising our rights, we must also accept our
responsibilities as consumers, We must be willing to
seek out necessary information before we purchase,
and use that information to shop comparatively.

In determining what we want or need, consideration
should first be given to such factors as how much we
are willing or can afford to spend, what quarantee or
warranty assurances will be acceptable, and what
features or added options are desirable. Then, some
basic research is in order.

Knowing something about the product or service
you are buying is an invaluable form of protection, It
not only helps you to make an intelligent purchase, but
can prevent your being taken advantage of by an
unscrupulous operator, The public library is an ex-
cellent source of this type of prepurchase information
, whether what you require is of a general nature or is
Bpecific and detailed. Various government depart-
ments and agencies, at the municipal, provincial and
federal level, may also have useful publications
available according to thelr areas of concern.

Other worthwhile sources of pre-purchase in-
formation that should be considered are: the Con-
gumers’ Association of Canada, the Better Business
Bureau, B.C. Hydro and in the Vancouver and Victoria
areas, the Consumer Infotel telephone. tape library.

Once you have equipped yourself with some
knowledge about the product or service, you will want
to compare brands and models, or companies. Ad-
vertising will tell you much about what Is availablebu
to find out how a particular product compares with
other such products, you can consult magazines and
buying guides such as ‘‘Canadian Consumer" and
“Consumer Reports.” To find out ifa company or firm
offering a particular service is reputable, you can
contact your local Better Business Bureau. It Is also
usually worthwhile to listen to what your friends or
relatives have to say about a product or sevice that
they have had experience with.

Finally, your research should include price in-
formation. It is important to remember that the in-
dividual retailers and businesses set their own prices,
and so these may vary from one store or firm to the
next. This information can be obtained from ad-
vertisements for both regular and special prices, from
catalogues, if they are available , a by phoning or
visiting the stores or businesses.

When purchasing products, it is often worthwhile to
check for the avatlability of floor models or demon-
etrators, or to consider buying second-hand or rebuilt
goods, This will of course depend upon a brand or
model of your cheice being available in good conditon
at a fair price, as well as upon your personal
rene in buying new, used or slightly used

5.

GSP recrerar OounyA..

-PORKBARREL CUTS

Tiny Tory steps seen

LONDON (CP) ~— After
little more than four months
in office, the British
government is taking some
positive — if somewhat tiny
— steps to make good on one
particular election promise.

Like ita Canadian counter-
part, the new-broom Con-
servative government is
pledged to cut public
spending. The first to foel the
steel here is the muddled
tangle of quangos.

Do not look for ‘‘quango"
in the dictlonary. You look
for it in government
departments, It stands for
“quasi-autonomous non-
governmental organ-
izations” or, more simply,
“jobs for the boys.” -

Some aswell into private
empires accountable to
almost nobody. Others,
equally unaccountable, cost
relatively little.

Environment Minister Mi-
chael Heseltine is the first
minister toannounce his cuts
and they are expected to

By BRUCE LEVETT

save the taxpayer &1.4
million ($3.6 million) a year.

Of the 119 quangos
associated with Heseltine’s
department, 57 will disap-
pear completely and three
wil] be fobbed off on the arts
ministry.

Axed are organizations
ranging from the Location of
Offices Bureau with a
&400,000 ($1 milllon) annual
budget to the Committee to
Examine the Standards of
Lawn Tennis in Great
Britain, which spends vir-
tually nothing.

The Advisory Committee
on Bird Sanctuaries in the
Royal Parks has had it,
along with its sister body, the
Advisory Committee on
Trees in Royal Parks,

Swept aside also is the
Advisory Committee on
Hadrian’s Wall.

Few of these mini-bureau-
cracies are costing the

government and taxpayers 4
great deal.

Moet of them are prestige
“thank-you'’ posts for
political party faithful.

In fact, all but &400,000 of
Heseltine’s announced
saving is accounted for by
two bodies feeling the axe —
the Location of Offices
Bureau and the Centre for
Environmental Studies.

The bureau is a classic
case of how some quangos
survive. '

Sir Keith Joseph, now
secrelary of state for in-
dustry and regarded as chief
architect of the spending
cuts, was housing and local
government minister in 1963.

He set up the bureau, an-
nouncitig that there would be
more green belt housing
around London and that the
bureau would concentrate on
moving offices and jobs out

of the city.

However, the Con-
servative government oat
an election and the incoming
Labor administration —
worried about the flight of
jobs to the suburbs — or-
dered the bureau to reverse
its fleld and work to bring
jobs back into the city,

Now the Conservatives are
back and Sir Keith’s main
worry has switched from
green belts to spending cuts.

Anthony Prendergast,
bureau. chairman, Is
disappointed.

“We were offering a
unique service, giving ad-
vice on the development and
use of office accommodation
in ali areas of the country:

““We have a: tremendous
store of information bullt up
over 16 yeara which will all
now go to waste."

In the meantime,
Heseltine has set up tw new
quangos, to look into
development of the empty
London and. Liverpool
docklands.

OTTAWA
OFFBEAT

BY RICHARD JACKSON

Some days ya just gotta horse around

. But he didn’t.an

Photo by Greg Middleton

Ottawa,- Treasury Board President Sinclair Stevens
may take some satisfaction from being slanged by the
Public Service as  “Sinc *-the : Slasher."

But confidential Treasury Board documents would
suggest that in his undertaking to sweat 60,000 jobs out
of the bloated 500,000-strong Public Service over three
years by attrition—a most modest ambition- he might
better be called ‘Stevens the Patsy.”

For one thing, his is so vastly outnumbered and

outpowered by the bureawracy-whese mandaring ,

are known as the “implacable enemies’’ of the Con-
servative cabinet- that he'll never make it.

He just won’t be able to beat the “system” that
defied former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s
publicly sworn determination to break it.

Te aeeeaucrats re ay cabinet fon (one b
surtender power, nysmere cabinet. Te es

After using the ao ioigne on of former Bank’df
Canada Governor James Coyne, back in the early
1960’s, to undermine and destroy the Diefenbaker
government, they were given their. head-- and
supreme power- by Prime Minister Pearson.

Pierre Trudeau knew the situation and one of his
first promises after taking power as Prime Minister

_ was to retake ‘control.

The government, not the bureaucrats, will govern,
he swore at his first press conference.
t he,didn’t.and they did...

So now along comies-“‘Sinc the Slasher” and the
bureaucrats are laughing and the Conservatives

crying. '

At their first full post-election caucus just the other
day, the big beef of the Tory backbenchers was that
Joe Clark and the cabinet weren’t laying so much as a
finger on their “implacable enemy,” the bureaucracy
and its “systern,” '

So Joe retired a deputy finance minister, giving him
a well-paying temporary appointment until he can
profitable relocate, and “shuffled a few other
deputies between jobs.

But essentially ‘‘the same old bunch” remains in
control.

It’s not that “‘Sinc the Slasher" lacks the tools— a
sharp ministerial knife as Treasury Board
executioner-it’s simply that the bureaucracy has him
baffled and beaten before he starts,

Right around election time last Spring, a con-
fidential memo written by Treasury Board Secretary
Maurice LeClair--who since has made it into the CNR
executive suite-sutfaced along with some official
revelations about bureaucratic abuses,

The bureaucracy hates change and has been using
the Public Service Classification system—promotion
and pay~to frustrate any tampering with the status
quo, disclosed the documents,

“In many instances, " Treasury Board in-
vestigators wrote, “the system has been used to
fabricate organizational structures providing careers
for employees or solve non-existent problems.”

Tt was classic ‘‘empire-building,”’ the manufacture
of unnecessary jobs, and it ran high into the
thousands,

Not satisfied with this wasteful job creation, " the
bureaucrats further padded the payrolls by excessive
promotion and overpay. ~

Promote someone toa better job with more money
and appoint a replacement.

Neither the promotion, the pay increases nor the
replacement were necessary, the Treasury Board
sleuths determined—except to feed the system and
fatten the payroll, increase the supposed importance
of the department and the prestige ofits boffins, .

The ‘Treasury Board investigators called it
“classification creep,” the process of “inventing
jobs,” grading up positions and increasing levels of

pay.

It resulted, found Treasury Board, not only in ex-
patty an overstaffing and gross overpayment of
employees.

There were such distortions of pay for the value of
work performed that It became impossible,"reported
Treasury Board, ‘to compare the public and private
sector on any work for salary basis.”

So “Sine the Slasher” thinks he’s going to lick the
system bY gently paring 60,000 from the public

Litde wonder the Tory backbenchers are asking

. what's going on and what's happened to that new

broom Canadians thought they were electing to clean