18 rerrace Review — Wednesday, December 9, 1987 Details emer TERRACE — In response to criticism of the B.C. govern- ment’s plan to privatize the Ministry of Highways bridge and maintenance operations, » Skeena MLA Dave Parker says the move will save the public money and will not compromise public safety. by Tod Strachan In response to predictions that road maintenance standards would be compromised, Parker said, ‘‘I can’t understand where they’re coming from. The in- dividual that was working as a grader operator suddenly, when he’s a private entrepreneur, he’s . lost all his safe work habits — lost all his common sense. He’s not able to look after his affairs and he’s going to be a threat to everyone in British Columbia. It’s amazing. I can’t really follow the thought process.” Parker said that the former government employee will know the routes, equipment and pro- cedures and ‘“‘he is going to have a contract that is going to re- quire him to work in a safe and workmanlike manner.’’ He said the government isn’t giving away its responsibility for the delivery of highways service or its management rights for the ministry’s assets and resources. *f¥ou still have the job to The third annual Kinsmen Gre tickets with winning scores. Six Jocal winners and Terrace Kinsmen President Steve Mclaack (extreme right), are (left to right) Ron Schmidt, the major final score deliver service to the people,’ he explained. ‘‘It’s just a matter of whether it’s a public servant ora private sector employee,” ~~ Parker said the. ministry’s district manager would monitor work done by private contrac- tors ‘‘to make sure the terms and conditions of the contract are being met’’. . ‘Employment standards, workers compensation, _ work safety, public safety, completing work to engineering specifica- tions — that’s our job,” Parker explained. So He added that the district manager would be the contact person for the public, not the private contractor, and_ there: would be no confusion over who the public should take their com- plaints to. “People should always be concerned,’’ Parker pointed out, ‘‘but contracts that are let for highways and bridge main- tenance will be ones which have the people’s best interest as .a basis.”’ He added that as far as safety is concerned there may be ad- vantages. According to Parker, if a private contractor were to do a poor job the contractor would simply be replaced, making dis- cipline, in some ways, much sim- pler. “Right now, if you do a ging | on hi 6¢ --» contracts that are let for highways and bridge maintenance will be ones which have the people’s best interest.as a basis.’ - Dave Parker poor job you have to go through a grievance procedure,” _ Parker went on to explain that privatization would save tax- payers dollars. Lo “The cost of doing the job will be finite, because it will be a contract price for a specific period of time,”’ he‘explained. ‘There will always be in- cremental costs due to unusual emergency circumstances,” he added, ‘‘but we will not have money, tied up in capital items that have been acquired through a bureaucratic process.”? Parker explained that it is becoming obvious as individuals explore the purchase of high- ways assets that much of equip- ment is unnecessary. ” ‘They don’t want to take on all the equipment because a bunch of it is unnecessary. So we save in capital items and ‘we save in operating costs. That's the two big areas,”’ said Parker. Parker cited several examples of regions where highways pri- vatization has been a fact of life for several years and proven to y Cup Pool has resulted In an early Christmas gift for a few lucky residents who held pictured above with Project Chalrman Scott Cooke (extreme left) prize winner of $1,000; Shelley Nordstrom, who won $25 for holding the reverse score after the first half; Margaret Bovens, $100 winner with the first quarter scor, Coutinho and his son Paulo, $150 for hatf time score! score. Missing in the picture is Prince George winner G third quarter score. A major oversight on the part of Terr an oversight which will probably not be repeated next ; Darryl Laurent, $25 for the third quarter reverse score; Jose and Jim McKenzie, who won $100 with the reverse final race Bush who won $200 with a ticket having the corract ace residents was falling to buy the eighth winning ticket,. year after witnessing the good fortune.of the winners. Welfare — continued trom page 16 port and shelter of up to almost eight percent during the first eight months of receipt of in- come assistance and over nine percent if unemployable and on assistance for more than eight months. . In addition to an increase in income assistance rates, income assistance recipients will receive a Christmas bonus. Single reci- pients will receive an additional $28 and families will receive an _additional $70 on their Decem- ber cheques. In addition to income assist-. ance benefits, the ministry pro- vides a number of programs to assist employable clients to re- enter the workforce. The current budget commitment for employ- | ment and training programs for employable income assistance recipients is $55.1 million. The Rotary Club of Terrace would like to thank all those who donated to the Rotary Auction and all who participated on Auction nights. Your support made our 27th annual Rotary Auction a great success! be both safe and cost efficient. He noted the privatization of highways maintenance at Tatla Lake in 1984 by then-Highways . Minister Alex Fraser which had resulted in an improved level of service, and the transfer of. road maintenance to the private sec- tor in 1982 in the Municipality of Whistler which, according to all reports, was being done effi- ciently and cost-effectively. Other examples. given by Parker included the Fording Mine road, 25 kilometers of high traffic, paved, two-lane road in a heavy snowfall area, where maintenance costs had dropped from $124,000 to $107,000 after -Just three years of privatization; . and the maintenance of the B.C. portion of the Alaska Highway, privatized for decades, where federal inspectors had indicated there was no appreciable change in the high-quality level of maintenance service following. privatization. Parker concluded by pointing out that since 1981, highways maintenance work carried out by the private sector-had increas- ed from 20 percent to the present ghway service sell-off level of about 40 percent, a cost- saving factor which had gone literally unnoticed because there _had been no measurable change in the quality of highways main- tenance service in the public view. . —_ According to figures released by the Ministry of Transporta- tion and Highways, all dust con- trol, road salt supply and deliv- ery, gravel crushing, asphalt mixing and the supply and clean- ing of uniforms is currently car- ried out by the private sector. In addition, over three- quarters of crack sealing, hot - mix patch paving, fencing in- stallation and maintenance and machine brushing, and more than a half of bridge painting and galvanizing, shoulder Sterilization and weed control, traffic control (flagging), bridge tending, seal coating and regravelling are done by private industry. . | Services listed -where the government still carried out more than 60 or 70 percent themselves included grader ser- vices, rest area maintenance, winter maintenance, sweeping and flushing, sign washing, mowing and bridge washing. According to Parker, under privatization, 100 percent of all these services will be contracted out to the private sector. _ In Terrace court In Terrace provincial court on In Terrace provincial court on Friday, November 27 Edna Tait Friday, November 27 Mary was fined $250 for theft. with us. give us a Call. 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