A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 10, 1996

TERRACE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 158
TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432
MODEM: (604) 638-7247

Money counts

IN THE latter part of the 19th century, a smail
army of Canadian Pacific Railway agents
scoured central and eastern Europe.

The lure was undeveloped land on the Prairies
with the promise of religious, political, social
and cultural freedom to make a new start. A
wave of immigrants resulted which, when com-
bined with several other massive influxes in this
century, now means that approximately one in
every 10 Canadians can trace their roots back to
that part of the world.

The CPR made a pile of money — immigrants
came over on company ships, took the compa-
ny’s trains and bought the company’s land. And
now the provincial government has created an-
other immigrant opportunity.

It has established the British Columbia Invest-
ment Fund, a $35 million pool open to well-
heeled immigrants. This is an adaptation of an
existing federal provision which opens the im-
migration door to newcomers who have substan-
tial amounts of money to invest in Canada.

B.C. has benefited indirectly by having large
numbers of immigrant investors living here. But
most of their money is put into other parts of the
country.

The new investment fund will encourage im-
migrants to not only live here but to keep their
money within the province’s borders. If all goes
according to plan, the money will be spent on the
hi-tech industry, on value-added industries and
on infrastructure improvements. Most of the in-
terested investors will come from Asian coun-
tries.

The CPR scheme of the last century fit in well
with the Canadian government’s. goal of settling
the Prairies —- a nifty and profitable packagé of
state-sponsored capitalism.

This latest effort is very much like the one of
the Jast century. Only this time the emphasis is
on money and not so much on people. And that
about sums up how things are to go in the latter
part of the 1990s. Cash counts big time.

i a ce ee,

Bad math

NOBODY EVER said the Canadian justice sys-
tem is perfect. It’s even less so with the three and
a half year sentence given to the Prince George
driver who, when drunk, struck and killed a for-
mer Prince Rupert resident and two of his chil-
dren last fall.

Now contrast that with the new Criminal Code
provision for people who commit crimes using
firearms. That act is to carry a mandatory jail
sentence of four years on top of any other
sentence handed down.

Kill somebody with a vehicle and you get three
and a half years, Carry a gun while committing a
crime and you get four years.

While the lawmakers deserve congratulations
for stiffening sentences for gun-toting criminals,
those who drive while drunk are every bit as
much as a hazard on our streets. The math just
doesn’t add up.

Gana = PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
raf ADVERTISING MANAGER; Mike L. Hamm
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NEWS Jett Nagel * NEWS SPORTS:
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OFFICE MANAGER: Audra Creek
ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:
: Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Tracey Tomas
ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Emma Law
DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur COMPOSITOR: Kelly Jean
CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunette
MEMBER OF 6.C. PRESS COUNCIL
Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area, Published on Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Press (1969)
Lid, at 4847 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, British Columbia.
Storias, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are tha property of the
copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid, ils illustration repro services and advertising
agencies, .

Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is spacifically prohibited.
Authorized as second-class mall pending (he Post Office Department, for payment of postaga incash.

CONA 4
ERED
COMTAD: 1 FE

Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
for their time and talents

FIRSTTHINGS FIRST... Yay
DO You USE A CELLULAR 77”
PHONE ?.,,.

C'mon. Give until it hurts

VICTORIA — It's official:
British Columbians are among
the meanest misers. According
to figures, just released by
Statistics Canada, only Yukon
and Quebec taxpayers gave
less to charitable causes in
1994 than British Columbians.

At the other end of the scale,
as well as the country, the At
lantic provinces were the most
generous. Saskatchewan also
acquitted itself rather well, In
other wards, those with the
least gave the most, while the
citizens of one of the richest
provinces with the most
buoyant cconomy made
Scrooge before his conversion
look like a philanthropist.

The waning gencrosity of
British Columbians is all the
more lamentable in the light of
government cutbacks.

Talk to anyone involved with
charilable organizations and
they’li tell you that whatever
government funding they were
able to depend on in the past is
either being cut back or
scrapped, which leaves them
all the more dependent on indi-
vidual donations.

And J’m not talking about
the two dollars you may have
put in the Salvation Amy ket-
Ue at Christmas, the tins of
food you may have dropped
off at your local food bank, or
the four bits you may have

FROM THE CAPITAL

HUBERT BEYER

Statistics Canada’s figures, It’s
the income-tax deductible
donations that have dried up.
Fewer people are parting with
$25 or $50 donations 10 the
charity of their choice,

There are those who refuse
on principle io make donations

“to charitable’ ‘organizations. |

Their somewhat warped rea-
soning goes like this: the more
people donate to voluntecr or-
ganizations, the more govern-
ments will cut their funding,

Supporting charitable works,
they say, not only lets govern-
ments off the hook, but also
big business which gels away
with contributing less than its
fair share to the country’s so-
cial fabric,

The logic of the argument
may have been compelling
when governments still had

The whole nation is on a
deficit-cutting roll, = and
whether or not charities are
supported by _ individuals,
they’ll get less and Iess from
the public purse.

Which leaves it pretty much
up to you and me and everyone
else who hasn't given up on
the idea that we are our
brothers’ keepers, a phrase that
should be awakened from its
biblical slumber to find univer-
sal acceptance in everyday life,

To be sure, government must

not be allowed to completely -

withdraw from its social
responsibilities. Basic human
needs should be and must be
guaranteed by government
which, after all, is no mare
than the instrument of
socicty’s collective will. ;

To that end, what’s happen-
Ontario comes
dangerously close to plunging
society back into the
compassion-less vacuum of
capitalism, where only the fit
survive.

But aside from fulfilling its
direct obligations to socicty,
government can help by
making it more attractive for
individuals lo contribute to
charitable causes.

Raising the ceiling on de-
ductible donations from the
current 20 per cent on taxable
income would help. In the U.S,

groups than Canadians do.

Meanwhile, we should all
perhaps consider a belated
New Year’s resolution. Give
till it hurts, God knows there's
no shortage of organizations in
need of donations.

Making out a $50 cheque to
the heart foundation beats
flowers for someone who died
every time. Giving a little
more to community charilies
than last year is a good way to
share one’s own good fortune
with those who have less.

AIDS suppert groups and
rape victim centres are forever
om the edge of financial dis-
aster and could use a few
donations. So could hospices
for the terminally ill. The list
goes on and on,

.... Leaving it all to government
“is a: cop-out. Ask yourself, if -

not | than who? Look around,
find a worthy cause and make
a difference in someone else's
life.

The figures compiled by
Statistics Canada provide a
compelling argument in favour
af making the Christmas spirit
last year-round.

Lels gel to it And maybe
next year, British Columbians
won't have to be ashamed of
being among the — stingicst
when it comes to being their
brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.

Beyer can be reached at:

slipped a panhandler, Jats of money. Today, how- it’s 50 per cent, which is one Tel:(604) 360-6442;
Important as these gestures ever, governments don’t need of the main reasons Americans Fax:(604) 381- 6922; E-Mail:
are, they’re not included in an excuse to trim expenditures. donate a lot more to charitable hbeyer@direct.ca

COMEDY HAS running gags
such as Air Farce’s lunchroom
fellow sugaring his coffee,
Each episode you wait to see
what twist he'll give the sugar
gag. Likewise, each year you
wonder what novel plan
Shames Mountain Ski Corpo-
ration will have for reschedul-
ing its debt.

Annually regional district
hosts a Whine and Geez party
so the corporation can whine il
can’t make its payment; that it
overbid when it bought Kit-
sumkalum ski hill’s assets in
1986; it shouldn’t have to pay.

Equally choreographed, dis-
trict directors groan. ‘Geez,
nobody forced the corporation
io «bid §=6$306,000; we've
tenegotiated your payment
schedule four times, cancelled
$100,000 interest, and let you
use our clubhouse, chairlift and
T-bar six seasons even though
you've paid only $3,000."

Does Shames’ financiat ad-

ROSIE IS FEp UP
WITH DRUNKEAS

“THROUGH™BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

i tude,

visor run an after-school
lemonade stand? Docs the
regional district seck its cue
from a failed hotdog vendor?

Last year Shames offered
five dollars to square their
$345,000 debt, Haw they
could do it, 1 don’t know. Bob
Hope couldn’t deliver that line
with a straight face.

This year Shames proposes

ANP SHES GONG
0 STAND UP TO

It's been downhill too

to pay $85,000 over five years.
That’s $17,000 per year. An-
other insult, Based on their
nine year. record, we'd never
See a dime of that, either.

By contrast, the Terrace Pub-
lic Library repaid to the city
one year ahead of schedule
$66,121 of a two-year $77,121
loan, But the library took on a
reasonable debt intending to
pay, on time,

Enthusiasm and gung ho atti-
makers of kamikaze
skiers, don’t necessarily work
in the boardroom. Similarly,
regional district directors too
sympathetic and lenient toward
Shames don’t serve the interest
of their electors.

Last month Ski Canada
declared Shames Mountain Ski
Hill to be westem Canada’s
best kept sectet. How add,
since many Shames board
members and investors are
masters at promoting their own
businesses. Fishing guides

_

«

long

with one riverboat put more ef-
fort than docs Shames in
making itsel€ widely known,

Twenty cars in Shanes’
parking lot on a weekday don’t
go fat toward mecting any an-
nual payment,

The corporation’ spokesper-
son was quoted November 22
in this mewspaper as saying,
‘We have a strong board that

has been supportive of the op- |

eration bul al some point in
lime that’s going lo come to an
end because people aren't
gaing to be willing to do that
forever.”

Ditto for regional district

directors; taxpayers withdrew.

their support in a 1985
referendum,

If Shames Mountain Ski Cor-
poration had opened a
lausdromat instead of a ski
hill, they'd be doling out
dividends. They’re expert at
taking us to the cleaners.

Se eee

HUNTERS... Hind LIKE A REAL 3
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whisey [O“fIN THe colonies ~ Rigi. WHICH
CAPTAIN, , | o | TALWAYS CARRY IS WHY, F

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SPIRITS IN CASE

MORANGIE:
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