Page A4 — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 28, 1990 (vation repro services and advertising agencies,‘ Faproduction In whole or in part, without writfen permission, ls specifically pronbited. Serving tho Terrace ses. Publtied on Werinesday of each woek by Carte Pass (1480) Lu, at 4847 Larote Ave, Terrace, British Columbia,’ Stee, photugrapte, usa, desgas ard typestyle the Teraca Standard ar he ptcpory oft capht hikes, including Crboo Pass (1989) Lid, its Authorited 28 second-class mall pending the Post Office Department, {or paymant of pastage in cash. O ae. | ERRACE STANDAI oes —— " ESTADUSHEC APR 27, 1980 . ‘Editor: Registration No. 7820 4647 Lazelte Ave., Terrace, B.C., VBG 188 (0a) 638-7283 ~ fod Link : Production Manager: Edouard Credgeur oy “tet Nagei — Sam Colle. = I" Willoughby: — - Compesitor, Rosa Fisher —'Front Oflice. Man 7 os Carolyn Christiansen =~ _ Typesatting/Darkroom. a ye Cary Rodin ~ Advertising Manager, Janet Vivelros — = Advertising Consultant . ‘ Adve sing Consultant, Katheting Hicks’ Sp, Maléoim | Baxtor — News, Graphic Artist <:.). . Special thanks to al |° our contributors: and - | carraspondents for” 4 thelr. time and. _EDITORIAT, — Kinder counell Two years ago American presidential candidate George Bush made much of his platform of asking for a ‘‘kinder and gentler’ society. That worked and it seems the same attitude has popped up here with the local council. Witness its newest budget. Yes, there are tax increases but there is also an in- crease in what might be called ‘‘people projects”’. Whereas public works expenditures has declined from $532,000 in 1989 to $276,000 for 1990, recreation spending is rising from $79,000 in 1989 to $102,500 in 1990. Grants to community organiza- tions have jumped from $25,000 in 1989 to an amazing projection of $118,750 in 1990, An optimistic view might be that council is changing its course from roads and sidewalks to activities that involve people -~ certainly a welcome sign. And. let’s not forget council wants to spend $10,000 to develop a community recrea- tion centre plan. Consider this the start of the rumoured provincial government offer of a goody to the city, A less optimistic view might be that 1990 is an election year and the various council members want to soften and im- prove their image for the voters. Witness again the $10,000 for the. community centre. It’s considered a vote-getter for council and for the provincial govern- ment — tag team politics. Then again, council has carried over a rather large surplus — $630,000 — so it had to do something with the money. Turning some of the money council has squirreled away into projects for people is a far better political maneuver than having to explain why it is raising taxes when it has bucks in the bank. lt all depends Let’s see if we can get this straight. Federal finance minister Michael Wilson didn’t announce new taxes last week. He did say he’s reducing the amount of money going to the richer provinces — that’s us — for education, health and social welfare. en at Premier Bill Vander Zalm and provin- ° cial finance minister Mel Couvelier react — with horror. The cuts, they say, could + mean increased provincial taxes. All Mr, Wilson did was sneakily pass on the responsibility to the provinces, But wait. Are we not one of the richer provinces? Do we not have a billion and change in something called the budget stabilization fund (which now the pro- vincial government says is a piece of creative bookkeeping)? Have we not suf- fered increased provincial taxes over the last 10 years to accumulate this amount of money which may or may not exist? Haven’t we been subject to provincial government pronouncements of how Jwell.it is managing the economy?’ ‘Arewe, e if NDP says that’ bark expansion ‘not the victims of increased hydro’ bills because the provincial government has’ found a way of boosting taxes in a roun- © dabout method by telling B.C. Hydro to - pay it more money? Should the provincial government now feel justified in making loud noises about possible tax increases of its own? Should we put up with this nice little act of political breast beating? It all depends, as they say, upon whose ox is being gored. The old soft shoe As a rule, whenever a politi- cian opens his mouth, he checks his shoe size. “In‘the old days, the junket Through ¢ allowed an elected official to BIfocals ho make a spectacle of himself by Claudette Sandecki a where it couldn’t cost him votes. Now, with satellite signals beaming into every hut, a microphone on every lapel, and a videocamera scanning every podium, a legislator's words make it home before he does, Included may be some sen- timents he ad libed, thinking the news crew had gotten their ‘sound bite’? and left. Often the politician finds he spoke too soon. Instances abound. The fiasco of Dave Barrett - adn Simon DeJong striking a deal at last fall’s NDP conven- : ‘tion comes to mind. Or the Socred cabinet minister who addressed an ‘‘in crowd at a Vancouver Island luncheon. Oblivious to an unobtrusive reporter, he said Vander Zalm’s government couldn’t be expected to invest money in a fiding that had elected an NDP MLA to Vic- toria. . Of course, when -his unwise remarks were broadcast to the general public, the discomfitted individual claimed he was mis- quoted, his words taken out of context -— despite his tape- recorded statement, . Well, a similar faux pas hap- pened “recently ‘when a. state ‘representative for Wrangell, Alaska, addressed a banquet meeting of the Terface. and District. : Chamber of” Com: MOTOR ae i ora y a In his talk to the chamber, Robin Taylor stressed the urgency of building an access road to the [skut mine, cannec- ting Highway 37 and Wrangell. _ He predicted once a road went in, a B,C, Hydro line would follow, spurring. significant in- dustrial and resource develop- ment, As well, traffic flowing from- the coast into northern B.C, would “funnel tourists’ to our area. There would also be a sharp upswing in visits by southeastern Alaskan tourists “(no doubt packing an arsenal capable of “taking out’’ our grizzly, moose and other game.) Taylor ‘knew’ he was: being videotaped by a TV néws crew, His comic routine attests to that. But. chances are he depended on the videotape be- ing edited to report only on his financial dream. After all, who cares. about. the impact of in- dustrial: development on.the en- vironment? . - [ do, for one, In his. sales. pitch to the chamber, Taylor noted the com- bination of highway, hydra, and resource development could devastate much old growth forest. ; Now, old growth forest, for some reason scientists haven't . discovered, is essential habitat. to the spotted owl. Nonetheless the Alaskan bragged he'd denude the Nor- thwest of old growth forest until the spotted owl was as extinct as the carrier pigeon, if that’s alt it. took to achieve a profitable bot- tom line, Had his subject been trivial, I could have overlooked his Don Rickles skit. As it was,: his ar- rogant. disregard for our wilderness made me squirm. - And Chamber’ of ‘Commerce © members’ tittering at this sadistic schtick sickened me. - Taylor’s spotted owl threat seems to have escaped newspapers. Mercifully, it was yanked from TV after only one newscast. I wonder how it played 3 in Alaska? MARTEN FISHER AND IN THE SNOW .2..° NDP fails badly — on park planning VICTORIA — If you ask me, they blew it. A pound and a half worth.ofNDP position papers-and not a word about the need for expansion of our provincial parks system, The Socreds, on the other hand, knowing a popular issue when they see one, have just concluded that British Colum- bians want more parkland. In its:position paper on sus- tainable development, the ~ and wilderness protection should be amiong the topics for further policy development, but let it go at that. What has happened to previous demands for the doubling of British Columbia's parkland inventory, which now stands at about six per cenit of the province’s total area? Why did that demand, expressed on many occasions by NDP MLAs, not find its way into the policy papers to be debated at the party’s convention in March? The Socreds base their new- found commitment to enlarg- ing the provincial parks system on a recent parks ministry survey which found that British Columbians see the ac- quisition of more parkland as the second-highest priority, se- cond only to the prtotection of natural resources in existing parks. | This sampling of 2,899 British Columbians produced results credible and convincing enough for the government to include the acquisition of more parkland in its platform, while the NDP is missing the boat by not dealing with the issue right now. — Not that the NDP lacks commitment to environmental issues. In the contrary. The : party's platform on sustainable development is built of pretty solid planks. What the NDP - lacks at times is political smarts. : More parkland j is dear to the hearts-of British Columbians. The Socreds found that out. and are using the information to their advantage, thereby ' heading off the NDP at the ‘pass. The rest of the NDP posi- tion paper on sustainable development is sound, "ASA, ‘ wAgeric. |) 7écopuess unk! [P? NCTO WHAT f° URVIY, (¢) f We BEWER GET on EARTH ARE. wou. _ |p TUST GoTTHE vides: ONE FoR our, POING DOWN THERE. INTHE MAIL. HEALTH CLUB! Frem the Capital by Hubert Beyer © although it also contains a good deal of rhetoric. . - More detailed input into’ ‘the ‘parks debate ‘came récently™; from Jim Fulton, NDP- member of Parliament for. Skeena, Fulton told the Com- mons earlier this month thatin all of Canada the total parks — area — national, provincial, regional and municipal — is 9.9 million square-kilometre. That may sound like a lot, but it doesn’t amount to more than 6.3 per cent of Canada’s total area. Furthermore, Fulton pointed out that the areas in which no logging, mining or any other commer- cial activity is allowed, comes to a mere 2.6 per cent. or AND ONE AND Two AND THREE AND FOUR. More parkland is dear to the hearts of British Columbians. - The Socreds found: that out and are us- ing the information to their advantage “Some of the poorest coun- tries on the globe are light years ahead of Canada, We have 2.6 per cent of our land- protected seriously as wilderness, Tanzania, which is a poor country, has 17 per. _cent of its land set aside and, of course, a great deal of the pressure that has been exerted for that has come from Canada,”’ Fulton said. Adding to our inventory of parkland is important for a ‘Number of reasons, of which recreation is only ‘the most ob- _ vious one, As Canada’s population grows, so does the need for more ‘‘green lungs.”' Today's parkland may seem more than enough for 25. - _ million Canadians, but what of the 250 million who will surely - ’ live here some day? Equally important reasons are given in the famous Brund- tland report, the “‘World Com- -mission.on Environmental - t "Development"; ‘The report * says the conservation of “liv-° ing natural resources”” will be all-important to our future food. supply, economy, and medical research, a “Species and their genetic’ materials promise to play an - _ expanding role in development, and a powerful economic ra- tionale is emerging to bolster the ethical, aesthetic and scien- tific cases for preserving them. ‘The genetic variability and. germplasm material of species make (their) contributions to . agriculture, medicine and in- ‘ dustry worth many billions of dollars per year,” the report - says. “Scientists have intensively investigated only one in every. 100 of earth's plant species, and a far smaller proportion . of animal species. If nations can assure the survivalof species, the world can look forward to new and-improved ‘foods, new drugs and medicines, and new raw materials for industry. — “This — the scope for species to make a fast-growing contribution to human’ ‘welfare in-myriad forms — is a major: justification for expanded ef- | ’ forts to safeguard earth’s millions of species,” the com-: mission said, But to assure.the survival and thriving of millions of-- animal and plant species,- the commission stressed, there... must be adequate natural. areas, and that spells more : wilderness parks; |---| :. - s ~I suggest that the NDP. lose. no time developing a detailed i, strategy.on future parkland ac- quisition, ready for implemen: tation if it.wins the next elec :’ tion. Failing that, the party ‘will at least be able to push and shove the government in ¢ f the right direction, =. 4 QUICK. THINK INC wR Two MACHO TRAPPERS, ; MAKING SNOW) ANGELS!