Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 17, 1998 TERRACE 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 Leave u us alone LET’S HOPE the electoral boundary commis- sion left Terrace this week with a strong message to leave the Skeena riding alone. This is not to suggest that northerners should ever dive into a victim culture where we think we deserve special treatment for real or imagined sins, but messing with our electoral ridings is plain wrong, As things stand now, the Skeena riding’s popu- lation is below the level set out in legislation for a tiding to exist. Should the commission follow its mandate of adjusting boundaries after every two elections, Skeena stands to either be ab- sorbed by neighbouring ridings or become much larger in geographic area to come close to the re- "quired population levels. And that becomes the central problem when considering the north. Although the goal of set-, ting riding boundaries to come close to the prin-‘ ciple of one person, one vote is laudable, com- mon sense when it comes to the north overrides that target. Unlike the vast suburban sprawl of the lower mainland where the populace is more or less one homogenized mass, northern communities have. specific and unique social identities. As North Coast NDP MLA Dan Miller succintly puts it, for instance, there’s a big 90° mile gap between Prince Rupert and Terrace and it’s more than simply miles on an odometer. There’s also the argument to be made that the. north should retain its current boundaries simply’ because the economic and population weight of the lower mainland is so large. That principle of one vote, one person has to be balanced off when - the combined presence of a large mass of people threatens to suppress everyone else. -All in all, keeping northern ridings as they are flow gives us at least a solid shot at equal repre- sentation. Changing that would add to the per- ception there are really two British Columbia’s — the lower mainland and the rest of us. A precedent HERE’S SOME good news for the Terrace and Area Community Health Council which has been , trying to wrest some extra dollars from the provincial government to ease a budget deficit at Mills Memorial Hospital. It comes from the Okanagan. Hospitals there are to get money for 60 new long term care beds. What happened is that there weren’t enough of these kinds of beds so long term care patients were placed in more expense genera] acute care beds. And that put hospitals into deep deficits. This isn’t exactly like the situation with the in- tensive care unit at Mills. Here, close to 25 per cent of the hospital’s intensive care unit patients come from outside the geographic area used to calculate the facility’s budget. That drives up ex- penses for which there is no balancing com- pensation. But what happened in the Okanagan is a sign that the health ministry can be moved from its standard line of ‘‘there’s no more money.”’ PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS: Anita Dolman NEWS COMMUNITY: Alex Hamilton OFFICE MANAGER: Sheila Sandover-Sly 1 ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: CCNA BETTER Ce ee Vina NEWSPAPERS am Bedford, Janet Viveiros . COMPETITION TELEMARKETER: Patricia Schubrin ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Kelly Jean TYPESETTING: Sylvana Broman DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Brunette " SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $56.18 per year; Seniors $49.76; Out of Province $63.13 Outside of Canada (6 months} $155.15 (ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. CANADIAN COMMUNTTY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION AND B.C, PRESS COUNCIL Serving the Tanace and Thornhil! ara. Published on Wednesday of each weak af 3210 Cllnicn Streel, Terrace, British Columbia, VEG SR2. Stories, pholographs, illustrations, dasigns and typestyles in the Terace Standard are the property of the copyright holders, including Carlboo Frees (1869) Ltd,, its illustration repro services and advertising in whole or in part, without writien permission, i specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class malt poriding the Post Office Department, for payment of postage in cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents and economic YOU HAVE SEVERE INSOMNIA. . HOWEVER WATCHING A FEW NHL PLAY-OFF CAMES WILL SOON FIX THAT. . Don’t count out Karl Marx VICTORIA — This century, according to Mackenzie King, was to belong to Canada. The way it looks to me, the old codger got that prediction from his dog on a bad bair day. Those of us wha have work, inherited a mest egg or got lucky along the way, might say things aren’t all that bad in 1998 Canada, but some 400,000 young people without jobs would dispute that notion. The federal Liberals are mighty proud of the current jobless rate, just under nine per cent for the first time in seven years. Some achievement. Our provincial government isn’t doing any better, I wonder where all those thou- sands of jobs are Premier Glen Clark lays claim to having cre- ated, Meanwhile, the wholesale export of jobs to Mexico and other countries with cheap labor continues unabated, The restructuring that followed the Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) sucked close to 13 per cent of all manufacturing jobs out of Can- ada. Alas, we must be grateful for small mercies. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), a kind of NAFTA on stercids, has been derailed for the moment, FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER "Far more dangerous than all previous steps towards a global - economy, the MAI would not only make it still easier to ex- port jobs in a race to the bot tom, but pose a direct threat to the autonomy of our federal and provincial governments. Some of my business friends complain that the minimum wage is too high and makes us non-competitive. True, al $7.15 an hour, it’s the highest in Canada, but f would invite anyone to survive on it with any dignity, leave alone house, feed and clothe a family. Meanwhile, the captains of business are getting fatter and fatter. I'm sure they can justify their million-dollar salaries by ‘delivering healthy profits to Shareholders, but at what price? There seems to be a direct re- lationship between how many jobs a chief exccutive officer can cut and the salary he makes. If Canada’s four big banks are allowed to go through with their proposed Mergers, tens of thousands of jobs will disappear. The Royal Bank and the Bank of Montreal are already admitting that their merger could result in the loss of up to 10,000 jobs. Statistics Canada has some interesting figures about Cana- da’s standard of living. Cana- da, according to Stats Can, is the only industrialized nation where living standards fell in the 1990s. The average family income between 1989 and 1996 (ad- justed for inflation) fell by $2,300 or 3,9 per cent. During that same period, real income in the U.S. rose by 6.2 per cent, and in Western Europe by between six per cent and 13 per cent I recently told a good friend that ] have been observing a definite trend towards dusting off and re-establishing Karl Marx's credibility as an economist. The only thing he blew, I said, was his prediction that the workers of the world would be the instrument of an economic revalution we know as communism. My friend’s reply was: “Who says it’s over, Perhaps. : the revolution Marx predicted wasn’t even played out in the rise and fail of communism. Maybe it’s still to come.” What a concept, but not all - that absurd, I certainly have no doubt that if the race to the bottom, manifesting itself in big business finding the cheapest labour markets, con- tinues, those of us in the devel- oped world, who pay more than just lip service to human rights and labour and environ- mental standards, will be in deep trouble. More and more jobs will move to third-world countries and there won*i be enough people Iefl who can afford to purchase the goods produced elsewhere. And in the end, we will be mired in a depression that makes the Dirty Thirties lock like a picnic, If that happens, the armies of unemployed will not settle for riding freight trains as they did in the Thirties. And they won't be intimidated by a bunch of Pinkertons, They will look for someone to blame. And as my friend said, maybe Karl Marx’s finest hour is yet to come, Beyer can be reached at: Tel: (250) 920-9300; Fax: (250) 356-9597; E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com Givea ANOTHER CROP of know-it- all graduates is about to whoop out of high school, flinging their billed caps into the air for the last time. Teachers have done their best to teach them to read, write, and count. If, along the way, these grads picked up some everyday skills for which no exam exists, theyll have the jump on many of their peers. With luck, these grads have learned to appreciate their own company and moments of solitude. They have developed the back bone to say ‘no’ to doing onerous favours, to tak- ing part in risky escapades, or to attending uncomfortable get-togethers. They like what they can af- ford, and covet possessions more to satisfy themselves that to live up to or surpass the Joneses. They shun credit, and pay cash for their modest wants. They've mastered the rudi- » MYGOD! maRTEN 'S f THROUGH BIFOCALS — CLAUDETTE SANDECKI ments of operating the washing machine, dryer, and kitchen range. When they cook a simple meal the fire depart- ment doesn’t respond. They've acquired the dis- cipline to sidestep procrastina- lion, accept responsibilities, and do their best to complete tasks willingly and well. They’re prompt, dependable, Responsible. Honest. Am- bilious, or at least persistent in SN BOUGHT A SK 1D00 1” TO Kide US (1) AND HE'S GOT A KNIFE! HE'S Gots, their goals. They see the joy in being kind and generous. Over ithe years [ve often regretted my lack of know- how in fringe subjects. Plumb- ing, for instance. With labour tates of $65 an hour, I wish [ knew how to rebalance the float in the toilet bowl, and clean outa sink trap. I could have used more of my electrician brother's trade: how to replace the plug end of an electrical cord, and how to release the connection of a skidoo’s tail light. One ability I've needed recently is how to remove a splash from a painted ceiling without having to wash the whole room. These are all untaught sav- vies worth a mint at today’s trade Jabour rates. Too bad there’s no catch-all course to teach just these scattershot competencies. Grads with these basic proficiencics will sail through daily living, secure in their capacity to take Ke , HEY: HEY: WHAT'S GIAO A RUTHE MATTER WITH little, receive a lot care of themselves. For grads who want to go on with formal education but jack tuition funding, the B.C. government is offering tuition credits of $8 per hour in ¢x- change for up to 300 hours of community service. A gener- ous, innovalive offer. Oddly, so far civil libertarians haven’t screamed - foul. Yet when the government suggested social assistance: recipients should perform com- munity service in retum for their monthly cheques, civil libertarians screamed it was too demeaning. No ore should expect to receive without giving in return. Student who do meaningful community service to the best of their abilities stand to gain valuable skills and work experience. At the same time, they'll be repaying society for underwriting a year of post postgraduate training. A fair and valuable ex- change. “ YOU DOGS?! ZA (ia mae ie. ~ pa