a bow. AA - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 14, 2005 TERRACE _ STANDARD. ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK _ ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. - V8G5R2_. TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 - FAX: (250) 638-8432 » WEB: www.terracestandard.com = EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com ~ Welcome back _ AND ‘A hearty welcome back to the Members of the Legislative Assembly in’ Victoria. First up for the government is the thorny and _ persistent problem of teachers. They’ve got a ‘Strike vote scheduled for next week concerning . two main issues — money and class sizes with the latter also translating into learning conditions. — Neither issue has gone well so far in negotia- tions between the B. Cc. Teachers Federation and public sector negotiators. The problem with the first issue is that teachers received: ‘a wage increase.a little over three years ago that was legislated, not negotiated. Other pro- . vincial public sector employees have not received | _ .any wage increase over the same period given the Liberal government’s policy of zero hikes i in pay and benefits. ‘That zero increase policy was: 5 introduced in the ‘context of the Liberals seeking to gain control of the provincial finances in a time when deficits _ Were high. It’s a tricky situation for the province in that while ‘it did legislate a teacher increase, - it then introduced the zero policy for everybody else. . Now that the economy is better and. the pro- “vincial government is running healthy surpluses, teachers can make the argument there’s money to. “bevhad for a wage increase. But the government’ S position iS that teachers ‘must accept»zero increases to fall in line with the policy no matter that economic ‘conditions have’ changed. If other public sector employees were subject to zero, then so’ should-the teachers, says _ the government. That policy. of. zero increases may not have been fair when introduced. Yet giving teachers an increase would not be fair now. In this context, the government probably has the support of the public. Where the government is more. vulnerable i is in class size and learning conditions. Class size and learning conditions have now been removed as bargaining items in teacher negotiations. But there’s a general uneasiness among the public when it comes to cramming in large num- bers of young students with just one teacher. Even "more so when school districts, struggling to meet _ budget limits, introduce split classes. Who out there would like to be the teacher of Grade 5/6 class of 32 students as is the case in this district? More to the point, are parents comfort- able with having their children placed i in such a class? ‘Hiring more teachers makes for a stronger union, something the Liberals probably don’t want. But crowded classes, harried teachers and students who may not get the education they need as a result is something the public doesn’t want either. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach - PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur ~ NEWS: Sarah A. Zimmerman 8 _ COMMUNITY: Dustin Quezada ; NEWS/SPORTS: Margaret Speirs aa FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping, Carolyn Anderson CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Alanna Bentham ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Bert Husband, Susan Willemen 2005 WINNER _ AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik CONA Berres 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 ; s B.C. AND YUKON GOMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, tf CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION + CN A a AND - eee Nowsrarens "B.C, PRESS COUNCIL (www.bcpresscouncil.org) Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area. 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Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents \ , & ‘ COMPETITION $O NOU SEE, BILLY, Food Fist tS IMPORTANT BuT WE ALSO REQUIRE FISH FOR CEREMONIAL PURPOSES AND OURS IS A CULTURE WITH A RICH = 7 HiSTORN OF SALMON | CEREMONIES: : THE FILLTHEREFRIGERATEDTRUCK CEREMONY THE SUPPLYTHESPECIALOFTHEDAY CEREMONY, “THE PASSING OFSALMONTOWHITE GUY WITH BBG CEREMONY, THE SALMONUNDERTARPIN BACKOF PICKUPPARKEDONSIDE STREET CEREMONY... x erRhe G os AS THE price shock of rising fuel prices sets in, all of us get to experience wallet surgery every time we fill up the fam- ily vehicle. There is no doubt that the predominate news story this — year is not just the rising fuel prices themselves but the rate at which they continue to go “up. ? _ As one price threshold af- ter another continues to be broken, the cycle seem to have. no end in sight. ' The attention of most of , the media is less focussed on the oil companies and appears to target in on the tax compo- nent of fuel. The impression left is gov- ernments are the ones making windfall profits and in general the public is » being ripped- off. . There isnow acall for politicians to step to the table - and support this view and in true opportunistic fashion, the line-up is starting build. One of the more curious public figures joining the pa- rade calling for government tax reductions is NDP MLA Jenny Kwan. ‘This is the same Jenny Kwan who for the last four years has riled away on gov- ernments because of the evils of tax cuts. . Curiously enough, she is _ also one of the politicians leading the charge on the en- ‘vironmental front. . But let’s step back and. take a look at this fuel crisis. - Prices increase when demand -is higher than the ability to supply. ROGER HARRIS In this case North America continues .to experience sig- nificant economic success and now the emerging powers in Asia — China and India ~ are experiencing record levels of. economic activity as well. The way to keep the supply chain and with it the pricing model intact would be for a- similar level of increased ac- tivity in oil exploration and development. Equally, this would require a need for an increase in re- fining capacity and transpor- tation infrastructure like pipe- lines and supertankers. Take one look at the chal- lenges any investor faces in ‘developing new reserves or acquiring the necessary per- mits to build refineries or. pipelines and it starts to be- come pretty obvious why the supply chain is now so out of sync with demand. It’s becoming. more diffi- cult to build and develop in an increasing number of ju- risdictions because of a call: from the public for better en- - vironmental stewardship of the land, something all of us support. Over the decades govern- ments of all stripes have intro- duced a number of initiative . to encourage the development of green energy projects. Today we see that BC Hy- dro has been instructed to en- sure at least 50 per cent of all new power generation in the . province is green in nature. The federal government has incentives in place to sup- . port the development of wind _ power. Every level of government is investing a small fortune in the development and con- struction of public transporta- tion projects. In the large urban centers ‘the public has reacted quickly to block any attempts to place power projects in those region that are not green in nature. Sumas 2 in the Fraser Val- ley, which is a proposal to use natural gas to fire electrical generation, and Duke Point on Vancouver Island come to mind. The focus of all of these and other government initiatives has been to get the public and industry to become more en- vironmentally conscious and to redtice their consumption of resources. So what is now happening in the market place as a result of the higher fuel prices? Well, first of all businesses are reviewing their business practices to absorb the higher costs of energy. _That’s also helping them 0 Gas tax cut call iS hypocritical — become ‘significantly more globally competitive. . Larger industries are being forced to look at the full range of energy resources they con- sume and are becoming more conservation driven for eco- nomic reasons. The general public has re- sponded by purchasing small- er fuel-efficient vehicles and the sale of SUVs and pick-. ups is down. The number of drivers and vehicles on our roads are down and public transit rider- — “Ship is up. All of this is having a sig- nificant positive: impact. on quality of air issues, especial- ly in the larger urban centers. But so far, of all of the ini- tiatives of governments over the decades to increase con- servation, none have had ‘any- where near the dramatic and ' immediate effect on changing the habits of people and in- dustries than the current rise in fuel prices. The noble goals of succes- sive governments are now be- ing achieved by market forces rather than legislative initia- tives. Interestingly, those same politicians that have been demanding more. green ini- tiatives are now out calling on government to reduce the taxes on fuel so that the pub- lic will pay less and consume more. 1 don’t like high gas prices either. But it seems to me there is a little political hypocrisy at work here on the part of those politicians. You have to write the ght way “SPELLING IS unimportant,” declared one of the leaders of a recent workshop for aspir- “ing writers. A groan of dis- belief rose from the mothers and grandmothers..-How could anyone who lIqves books and reading believe spelling i is un- important? Margaret Thompson, a Victoria author of: children’s books, flatly contradicted the leader’s statement. “If you send a manuscript containing spelling errors to a publisher, it will be dumped straight into’ the waste basket, unread.” Your story or article could be a gem; no matter. I would agree when a stu- dent is hurrying to get words .on paper for a creative writ- ing assignment, spelling is secondary. Capturing an idea: before it evaporates is tough enough without quibbling whether a word is spelled “e or “ei” But once the bones of the story are written down, surely - the student can devote a few minutes: to revise and correct all spelling errors. Checking spelling is eas- CLAUDETTE SANDECKI ily done with a dictionary or thesaurus, and is always time well spent. Knowing how to spell gives a person confi- dence when applying for a job, insurance, Or writing a letter to friends, even an e-mail.. Poor spelling makes you jook un- educated. I have no patience with poorly spelled correspondence. Before the last provincial elec- tion, when I received a vote- for-me letter from a candidate seeking the party nomination, I counted several spelling er- rors in the first page. That can-. didate lost my vote. ~ And when my local bank’ manager wrote encouraging me to sign up for more of his bank’s services, the spelling _ errors made me doubt the in- tegrity and judgment of a bank that would hire and promote someone who either can’t spel! or doesn’t consider spelling important. His secretary dem- onstrated similar disregard for the language. , Spelling is as much a tool as a typewriter or a computer. For any writer a machine that produces attractive clear print ranks. high. Why go through life leaving a trail of sloppy spelling to detract from your _ character. Ihave difficulty understand- ing why anyone would avoid learning to spell. As a kid in a country school where we were 42 kids in twelve grades, Friday morning spelling bees were a highlight of the week. . Teacher divided us into two teams, balanced by grade. Whoever misspelled a word had to drop out. If a grade four speller was the: last one stand- ing, what a feather in the kid’s cap! ‘Today teachers seem not to use spelling bees as a learning motivator. But this past spring, — British Columbia schools (ex- . cept those schools my grand- daughters attended) took part in, provincial spelling contests. The winner from Van- couver competed in Ottawa against the other provincial winners. The Ottawa winner was invited to compete against America’s best in _ Washihg- ton, D.C. ‘Sizeable money and book © prizes were handed out to the top competitors. Confidence -and pride of accomplishment were incidental winnings for all who took part. Spelling shows up every- where. Read classified ads and you’ll find items such as “slay bed for sale”. Maybe the typ- Ast doesn’t know a sleigh bed is shaped like Santa’s sleigh, with a gracefully curved foot- board. But as Judge Judy says, “Beauty fades. Dumb is for- ever.” \. > Big