A8 Terrace Review —

Wednesday, March 14, 1990

YorrrspencK

Education singled out

The Socreds latest scheme of
referendums for education is not
motivated by any concern about
elected bodies being held ac-
countable to the public. If that
really was the case, they would
not have just singled out educa-
tion — they would have at least
included themselves as having to
abide by the same set of rules.

Of course, the provincial
government knows that if they
were required to hold referen-
dums for anything above basic
expenditures, the public would
probably consider many costs
unnecessary. The government’s
frequent partisan TV ads might
be rejected. The expense of ad-
ding political hacks to the
payroll to support a faltering
MLA or Premier might invoke a
public rejection. The public
might even vote ‘no’ just to send
a message to a government
which had lost the confidence of
the people. The worst conse-
quence of a provincial referen-
dum being rejected would be
that an important project in a
remote area of the province
would not go ahead simply
because too few people would
see any direct benefit to
themselves. Great disparities in
levels of service around the pro-
vince would result.

School boards are
democratically elected. Trustees
must go to the people for re-
election every three years, more
frequently than their provincial
counterparts. To single out
education is both politically
motivated and blatantly
hypocritical.

Whatever happened to the
recognition that everyone
benefits from a sound education
system whether you have a child
in school or whether you attend
school! Where are the benefits
of education, research,
technology supposed to come
from! Only 30 percent of the
people in the province have
children in the schools. Why
woul we want an educational

system which relied on the other
70 percent to be charitable and

support an increase in taxes!

Senior citizens and taxpayers
who had no children in the
schools helped pay for my
education. Why wouldn’t it be
right for me to pay school taxes
even after I no longer have
children in schools!

B.C. is 10th among Canadian
provinces on school spending as
a percentage of income, 10th as
a percentage of GNP, and 9th
on a per capita basis. But we are
tops in homeowner taxes
because the province won’t pay
its fair share.

We have had our experience
with referendums in education.
From 1969 to 1972 B.C. school
districts ran 38 referendums, on-
ly six passed. In Kitimat, in one
of the 32 rejected referendums,
55.5 percent voted ‘‘yes’’, but a
60 percent yes vote was required.
Cuts in the band program,
custodial staff, athletics, and
teaching staff were the result.
The. long range effects of
referendums are apparent in the
U.S., where cost per student
vary from $2,00 to $11,000
depending on the tax base of the
region.

The School Act requires that
public schools provide every stu-
dent with an education. The
public school must provide
suitable programs for students
with different abilities, different
interests, different behavior
standards, and different social
needs. Public schools do not
discriminate on the basis of

Shelford prescribes tough medicine

The Honourable Michael Wilson
Minister of Finance

House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario

K1A O0A6

Dear Mr. Wilson:

Having been.in government
for 23 years until 1979, I would
first like to compliment you on
the delivery of the Budget. You
spelled out the problems facing
Canada very clearly, and I hope
the people of Canada take note.
There are no easy solutions. In
fact, there may not be any solu-
tion at all — I don’t think you
went far enough. Shifting the
debt onto the richer provinces
does nothing, as it’s the same
taxpayer. Furthermore, it penal-
izes thrift and rewards irrespon-
sible spending, which is a bad
principle.

It’s regrettable that tough
enough measures weren’t taken
20 years ago by the Libera's who
started the problem and by your
government in 1984 during good
times in the Canadian economy.
It is far more difficult to-do it
now when we are headed into a
slow down for a few years.
There are, however; 10 things I
would like to suggest.

(1) I don’t like to see Petro-
Canada sold; however, when

‘you are broke you have to do

many things you don’t like.

* With the sale of Petro-Canada

ability, race, social behavior, or

religion as is the case with many
private schools. Public schools
do not ‘‘select”’ only the ‘‘cream
of the crop”. Referendums in
California have created a system
where only parents who cannot
afford private school tuition
send their child to a public
school. Do we want an educa-
tion system where, those who
can afford it get a first class
education and children of
poorer families get a poorer
education!

Helmut Giesbrecht
Terrace

Dr. David Kuntz : a gift

To the Editor;

In 1981 Dr. J.D. Kuntz
operated on my wrist enabeling
me for the first time in 21 years

-to function without pain and
also to have full movement.
Several other doctors had ex-
amined my wrist stating they
could fuse it and I'd be rid of the
- pain but the wrist would be per-
manently stiff. By waiting and
getting Dr. Kuntz I now enjoy a
wrist as good as new.

In 1983 Dr. Kuntz Operated
on my neck. And as far as 1 am
concerned it was, the best thing
that. ever happened. I would

have been in a wheel chair
without the operation. I have
full mobility and absolutely no
pain. If I had had another doc-
tor perform the operation and
‘put in a bone, I would have a
stiff neck now and for the rest of
my life.

It seems to me that with such a
gifted man as Dr. J.D, Kuntz in
our midst, the world, especially
B.C., should be proud and not
have him and us suffer because
of some political garbage among
less gifted doctors.

Walter R. Read
Fraser Lake, B.C.

with assets of $8.5 billion ac-
cording to the news media, all of
this and other assets sold should
go to debt reduction. Absolutely

none of this money, should got to

improved programs”

(2) No program of any kind,
for any reason, should be started
until the debt is under control
and no program should receive.
any increase above the inflation
rate.

(3) All programs to special in-
terest groups should be discon-
tinued as of now. How much
was spent on these last year?

(4) Health care. A user fee of
$10 should be applied to
discourage use. Those Cana-
dians under a certain income
level would be exempted.

(5) Advanced education
should be encouraged with stu-
dent loans. All of these would

have to be paid back when the -

recipient was established in a
job. This would help pay for the
next generation. Over 25 percent
don’t bother to try and pay back
student loans.

(6) All able-bodied unem-
ployed should be required to do
forest, park or other enhance-
ment projects to improve our
forest base in order to make
economic development possible
to create more jobs. Canada can
no longer afford to pay out
billions of dollars of assistance
and get nothing back. With a
debt of $350 billion, we are no

longer a rich country and all

who are capable of doing some-
thing should contribute effort,
no matter how little. They did
this during World War I and II
and will do so again if leadership
is shown.

(7) Government advertising
should be reduced by 50 percent
and held at that level until the
debt is paid off.

(3) In order to show real
leadership to reduce costs, all
elected members should have

their salaries and expenses
frozen till the debt is under con-
trol. This might encourage all
parties to work together for a

change in order to resolve the |

most serious problem we have
faced since Canada became a na-
tion. The number of members
should also be frozen to the
present number, as we have far
too many now.

(9) All government wages and

salaries should be kept to an in-

crease of not more than the rate
of inflation. In addition, the
government travel abroad
should be cut by half. -
_ (10) Your leader should bring
in a law to restrict government
expenditures to less than the
total tax collected (which I
understand from your speech
you are doing now). This, of
course, is only true if you don’t
take debt charges into account.
Once this is done, then expen-
ditures should be restricted to
the amount of tax collected.
All of this would send a clear
signal to the international com-
munity that we, as Canadians,
really do mean business. We
want to put our house in order
and not just talk about it as we
have done for the last 20 years.
During this time we have been
spending more than we earn in
taxes and thus mortgaging our
children and grandchildren. It is

not only .bad economic policy
but is also morally wrong to sad-
dle them with a crippling debt in
order that we may enjoy a stan-
dard of living far in excess of

our ability to pay and thus leav- ©

ing them with less opportunity
than we enjoyed. All members
(i.e., both Government and Op-
position) share the blame equal-
ly, as Oppositions nearly always
blame Governments for ‘not
spending more knowing full well
‘they are already spending more
than the tax collected. This, in
turn, causes high interest rates
‘and further problems for the
young people who are getting
started and upon whom we have
saddied our overspending debts.
I feel ashamed of my generation
for letting this happen.

I fully realize what I propose

is tough medicine to. take; how-

ever, nothing short of this will

do the job. I’m taking the liberty
of sending this to the other par-
ties who: also must share the
blame and who must help find
solutions and not just criticize
others. I'd like to quote my
mother who always told me:
‘You don’t raise your stature by
tearing down others. You only
bring them down to your levei.’’

Cyril M. Shelford,
Victoria, B.C.

An uncommon resource

To the Editor;

I think. J.understand both of
the arguments regarding the “‘to
be or not to be” unification of
chief medical health officer and
manager of Skeena Health Unit
(Health Unit Director). Granted,
the combined responsibilities
would entail a heavier workload.
However, the stress factor of
such -a re-organization would
likely be less. Functioning under
a “‘two bosses’ system’’ can be
incredibly frustrating. Being a
teacher, I would not like having
two principals running the
“ship’’. Inefficiency and a lack
of direction would likely ger-
minate.

Still, there is the legitimate
concern of overburdening one
man — in this case Dr. Bower-
ing. I may be naive, but couldn’t
a compromise be the appointing
of the joint position and also the
hiring of an assistant to handle
some of the duties? Then you
would have one person who is
ultimately responsible for co-
ordination and direction, and

‘who would also delegate respon-

sibility and, hopefully, lessen
potentially unwieldy demands.

I know the Skeena Union
Board of Health is comprised of
caring, hardworking, conscien-
tious individuals. 1 also know
that Dave Bowering is a dedi-
cated, far-sighted, innovative
person who lives and breathes
health issues. I think the region
would lose an uncommon,
special resource that would be
hard to replace if he ‘‘moves
on’’,

I grew to respect the efforts of
both the Skeena Union Board of
Health and Dr. Bowering when I
was involved with Project
Squeeze, a combined enterprise
of the school community and the
health community, that was con-
cerned with teens and alcohol
abuse. Because of the support of
Skeena Union Board of Health
members and Dr. Bowering, a

pressurized project, unique in -

B.C., was allowed to happen.

When people work together, it is

amazing what can be resolved.
Brian Koven,
Terrace, B.C.

Whitewood searches for
centennial party- goers

To the Editor;

The Town of Whitewood,
Saskatchewan will celebrate its
Centennial in 1992, July 1 to 5.
We are compiling a history book
and request your assistance in
locating any person or family
who has lived in Whitewood or
surrounding area.

Anyone interested in sub-
mitting family and/or personal
history, photos (named and la-
belled), anecdotes, etc., must do
so by Sept. 1, 1990. All photos

will be returned. A brochure.

secon nerce eo A MRRP RRR Ame ate Payer Aste rat eas writer | ARM EL URE pe ree

containing pertinent informa-
tion about the celebrations and
an order form for the. book is
available from the undersigned.

We thank you most sincerely

for’ your assistance and co-

operation in helping us to com-

plete this very worthwhile
volunteer project.

Doreen Westcott,

Whitewood Centennial

History Book

Committee Secretary,

Box 82, Whitewood, .
.. Saskatchewan. S0G 5CO .

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