Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wecnesday, September 1, 1999 STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 " TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net Let it flow SAFE DRINKING water is something we regard as a right in a country as water-rich as Canada. So it’s shocking many residents as close to Ter- race as Braun’s Island are relying on boiled or bottled water after contamination of island wells. | Residents there hold the city responsible for a’ spill of treated sewage that contaminated nearby, river channels, and possibly the well water. i While it’s not proven that the sewage spill is' the culprit — flood waters may have simply caused island septic fields to mingle with wells. ~— this episode does underscore areas of concern.. How is it that wells are allowed literally a couple hundred feet downstream of a sewage. trealment plant when there’s perfectly good municipal water in easy connection range? That’s perhaps a question best put to provincial ofticials responsible for health and water use, A report tabled last week by B.C. auditor gener- al George Morfitt calls on Victoria to take steps to protect drinking water both for the protection’ of health and to save money down the road. If the province takes Morfitt’s recommenda- tions seriously, it should table a generous offer to subsidize development of a water system on Braun’s Island that would hook up to city water. The province may be reluctant to give money without gelting something in return, like island residents agreeing to amalgamate with Terrace. It may be a bit early to reconsider that issue — voters on Braun’s Island rejected amalgamation, two years ago by a three-to-one margin. If the province feels stingy, it could take some money from the restructuring grants it has earmarked for the city and rural areas to support eventual amalgamation. Or they could just chalk it up to the cost of keeping taxpayers up to a 20th century drinking: | water standard as we enter the 21st century. Cost-conscious FROM THE vacillations of recent weeks it seems city councillors are far from certain voters will agree to pay for a $7.5 million multiplex. Even if both design and price are utterly guar- ; anteed — an attractive but increasingly impracti- cal idea — regional district reps don’t believe a Teferendum will pass outside city limits. Nevertheless, council voted Aug, 23 to go to referendum Nov. 20 and abandon efforts to find more contributors and cut the taxpayers’ share. Those who honestly believe voters will author- ize $7 million of borrowing appear out of touch with local spending appetites. Those who don’t but who agree to go to referendum now anyway are Willingly driving this project over a cliff. ° The best way forward now might be for council to settle on a smaller, more saleable number that taxpayers would shoulder. That might be $6 mil- lion, $5 million, or whatever. Voters would then vote knowing they’ll only pay that amount of a $7.5 million multiplex, and that it will only be built if the difference comes from some combination of corporate sponsor- ships, government grants, innovative joint ven- tures and local donations, PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens 1998 WINNER NEWS/COMMUNITY: Alex Hamilton CCNA BETTER NEWSPAPERS FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping COMPETITION CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Carole Kirkaldy ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Bunnie Cote, Mark Beaupre TELEMARKETER: Tabatha Orange DARKROOM/COMPOSING: Susan Credgcur AD ASSISTANT: Julie Davidson, Andrea Malo SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.30 per year; Seniors $50.75; Out of Province $64,39 Outside of Canada (6 months) $158.25 {ALL PRICES ENCLUDE GST) a MEMBER OF B.C, AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. + CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCLATION @cn A 8.6. PRESS COUNCIL - Serving the Tertaca and Thomhil area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Steet, Terace, British Columbia, VEG 5R2, Stories, photographs, Hustutions, designa end typestyles in tha Terrace Standard are tha proparty of the Copyrigit holders, including Caritoo Press (1969) Lid., its illustration repro services. and advertising agendes. Repraductice in whole of in part, without written pecrission, is specifically prohibited, ‘ Aulhorited as second-class mail pending tha Post Cifice Department, lor paymanl of postage in cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondants Taal aH for thelr time and talents FANTASTIC GOING E WEEK NE SLEA ALMOST ON AND NOTO YET.» 1) SCANDAL DAN.,.. OFFICE The system isn't working ~ VICTORIA —- By the sum- mer of next year, British Columbians will have their sev- enth premier in 10 years, but will have gone to the polls only three times. For newcomers to this province, here’s a brief primer on how we ended up with more than twice the premiers than elections: ; Bill Vander Zalm (1) is forced to resign. Rita Johnston (2) becomes premier, then loses the election to Mike Harcourt (3). Harcourt resigns over something he didn't do. Glen Clark (4) becomes premier. Clark resigns. Dan Miller (5) takes over. By this fall, the NDP -will elect a new leader (6) to serve until the next election, And unless pigs learn to fly between now and then, Gordon Campbell (7) will be the-pre-: mier afler next years election, Don’t tell me there’s nothing wrong with this picture. As things stood, Clark had no choice but to resign. Ever since the RCMP raided his home, TV crews in tow, he was effectively paralyzed as pre- mier. And on that basis, I said . months ago that he should resign. | also felt that his family had endured enough, It is important, however, to E CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER enough: to make‘him resign. 1 remind ourselves that as far as we know, Clark has done noth- ing wrong, not in a legal sense anyway. And it is entirely. passi- ble, perhaps even likely, that the criminal. investigation, now underway, comes to the same conclusion. You may feel that his lying about,:the budget. was “reason disagree. If it were illegal: to make: false statements during election campaigns, we would- tt have room in our prisons for murderers because all the cells would be taken up by ex-politi- cians. ae The time to deal with the fudged budget and -anything else that has displeased voters should have been the next elec- tion. Still, for all intents and purposes, Clark had to resign, even though none of the allega- tions invalving the granting of a casino licence-may turn out to have any foundation in fact. But a system that allows pre- miers to be hounded from office for something they didn’t do or may turn out not to have done, is in serious need of repair. Allow me to make a predic- tion today. I'll give it two years from the time Campbell wins the next election and he'll be embroiled in a controversy that will threaten his career. I have no idea what might trigger the scandal, but a skeleton will be found, probably one the exis- tence of which he still has no clue. ; a As Canadians we tend to believe that our system of par- liamentary democracy is supe- tior to that of the United States but, in fact, wejcould learn, alpt, ' from our closest neighbor-* *”’ If a serious enough allega- tion arises against the president Or, say, a governor, there is an impeachment process in place to deal with it. When it is invoked, his or her peers, the senators, become judge and jury. As is the case with military coutts, the matter is taken out of the regular criminal process, allowing the person to continue in office, albeit under often dif- of ficult circumstances. The dif- ference is that stable gover- nance isn’t being threatened-at - - every turn. ; We have pushed the conflict- of-interest envelope ‘so far. that: : it has become nearly impossible . for politicians to avoid the pit- falls of conflict of interest. What's worse, perceived con- flict of interest has become every bit as lethal to political ~ careers as the real thing. In the brutal world: of poli- tics, which has never allowed ‘ much room for niceties, we have set standards that Mother Theresa would have had diffi- culty meeting. And even if she had, I’m not sure she would have been good premier mater- jal. I half expect the calls for Miller’s resignation to start later, this: week. With-diligence - -anda'‘little lick, maybe. we can squeeze two or three more tes- ignations in before the next election. [f, on the other hand, British - Columbia is to return to some normalcy in governing itself, eh some of the rules that have | made the job of politics so dan- gerous to its practitioners, must ; be changed, Contad by email: hubert@cool- com.com; Fax: (978) 477-5656: web: hitpy/ wawwhubentbe yer.com/ Unruly patients a challenge OVER RECENT months a number of ex-patients have written lengthy letters tot he editor relating their stays in Mills Memorial Hospital. Many detailed the defi- ciencies resulting from budget cutbacks and staff shartages. I don’t recall reading a sin- ale letter critical of their nurs- ing care. In fact, most writers went out of their way to praise the care and attention the received from overworked and harried nurses. How, then, is it possible for one patient, a pregnant woman, to be subjected to so much tudeness, crankiness, and roughness not only at Mills Memorial Hospital, but also at B.C. Women’s Hospital in Van- couver, unless the patient behaved in a way to invite such treatment, Heaven help the patient who ". is difficult to deal with. Three of my aunts worked as THROUGH ‘BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI nurses all their lives. Aunt Peg retired shortly after serving in the Army in Europe during the Second World War. Aunt Vera pounded the corridors af Win- nipeg General Hospital, And Aunt Fay stayed on staff after she graduated from Saskatoon City Hospital) When those three swapped stories, they had over 90 years of experience ta select from. One of their pet topics was how the dealt with uppity patients, patients who were demanding beyond reason, or plain obnoxious, Their choice defence was deafness. Let a pesky patient lean on the pillow buzzer for no good reason and my aunts’ hearing faded to zero. Keeping a snot waiting fifteen minutes for a bedpan was a weapon easy ta alibi. They had plenty of other hard-to-argue inconve- niences for rude people. The later stages of any preg: nancy can be trying. Ahigh risk pregnancy must be even more unseitling, Nonetheless nurses shouldn’t suffer as a whipping boy. - Indeed, nurses may lack the time to talk to a patient and explain her medical situation. It’s also possible they’ve found their efforts rebuffed, even ignored, TMiSSinG SOMETHNG?, ovay! rogVx.. HAT? WHEY CAN'T $20,000!" } yey!,,. am | Cur Trees IN THEIR COUNTRY... Complaints about nursing care, a personnel matter, might be better formally addressed to the Director of Nursing or to the hospital administrator. Cor- * reclive action could then. be taken for the good. of future patients. To call down nurses publicly gives them no opportunity to defend their actions or to tell their side of the story. For them to publicly rebut any patients public criticism in a no-no. Even the local shop steward, asked fot her take on this com- « plaint, could not speak forth- tightly without risking dis- - missal or other disciplinary action for breaching patient pri- vacy. Pregnancy affects the equi- librium of many women; high tisk pregnancies more so. But nurses don’t deserve to be pub- licly slammed when they're gagged by professional ethics.