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 . Sas os Tote gu aie FO Br ag tae ey led ae BTW eg ae Tt i EER ae noe . = a _ - . os err, eaten — ea, coe ge - — ie permeate ia ten aE a ae . a . i a eee een ne 7 a net SEI ar Ea Di ee mee, aE ae te ea ee ee ae BAe each pane epee Tia ee ee ON eae : Tas eee pS ma ee Tole j wl SONS E Seas ot a Se Siphon