AA - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 2, 2003
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
WEB: www.terracestandard.com
EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com

No, not again

IT’S BEEN more than a decade now that provin-
cial officials all but put “Do Not Enter” signs up
in front of hospitals, The idea grew out of a royal
commission into health care and came with a
handy slogan - Closer To Home. The intent was
to shift medical services away from institutions to
community care.

There were several very good reasons for this
grand adventure. Medical costs never go down.
They only go up and in percentage amounts that |
far outstrip increases for any other service. Hus- ,
tling people out of hospitals as soon as possible
was viewed as a way of containing these costs.
Medical technological advances allowed far more .
day surgeries with new equipment, doing away
with the need for long periods of hospital re-
cuperation.

This translated into the need for fewer beds and
for fewer nurses. It’s hard to believe it now, but
nursing school seats were cut back and there were
generous provisions for existing nurses to leave —
the profession.

Unfortunately, “Closer To Home” never
caught on with the public. As hospital beds and
staff were cut, the perception was that of a loss —
not a gain — on the community health services
end. The number of beds in a hospital was a
community status symbol. Closing them reduced
that status.

Because all of this went on under the NDP
government of 1991-2001, bed closures and hos-
pital cuts became a political liability which con-
tributed to its unpopularity and contributed to its
election defeat.

And now. a new, provincial, government is go--«}:~

ing to try it again, this time when it comes to sen- ©
ior care. Terraceview Lodge is to lose 25 of its 75
beds under the premise that more will be done to
allow seniors and others who need care to stay in
their homes so that admission to a facility is de-
layed as long as possible.

On the surface, it is an admirable plan. Most
people will want to stay in familiar surroundings
for as long as possible. But as people age and the
level of care required increases, those services
must be available.

Al\though the Northern Health Authority has re-
leased its plan for the next several years, it is rath-
er thin on detail. There is talk of boosting com-
munity care, but no budget figures as to what will .
be saved by closing those 25 Terraceview beds.
Neither are there any immediate budget figures |
on what will be spent on community and home
care, how it will be structured and exactly what
will transpire.

This has to happen and happen soon to avoid
yet again a growing sense of public doubt, fear
and mistrust. A repeat of “Closer To Home” can-.
not be allowed to take place. :

ER a
PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur
NEWS: Jeff Nagel
NEWS/SPORTS Sarah A. Zimmerman
2002 WINNER NEWS/COMMUNITY: Jennifer Lang
CCNA BETTER FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping & Caro! McKay
NEWSPAPERS  GIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Terri Gordon
COMPETITION ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:
Bert Husband & Denise Young
TELEMARKETER: Denise Young
COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur
AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik

SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL:
$57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62.00 per year;
Seniors $50.98 (4$3.57 GST)=54.55;
Out of Province $65.17 (494.56 GST)=69.73
Outside of Canada (6 months) $156,91(+10.98 GST)=167.89

MEMBER OF aa

B.C, AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION \

CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION (We CINTA, coos treat

B.C, PRESS COUNCIL (www.bcpresscounell.org) ore

Serving tha Terrace and Thomhill ataa, Published on Wednesday of each wook at 3210 Clinton Street,
Tetraca, British Columbia, V8G 5R2.
Stories, pholographs, illustrations, designs and typastyles In the Terrace Standard are the property of tha
copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., its illustration repro sarvices and advertising
agencias.
Reproduction in whote of in part, without writlen pamission, Is specifically prohibited,
Authorized as sacond-class mail pending the Post Ofice Department, for payment of postage in cash.

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

VICTORIA — I have long be-
lieved that there comes a time
in a man’s life when he’s
overtaken by the world he
lives in, when he no longer
understands the forces that
shape his time.

For my father that time
came when we, the young
generation, embraced the new
musical genre, new for post-
war Germany, called jazz. He
didn’t understand it and he
certainly didn’t like it.

Some 55 years later, I have
a hunch that I have finally
reached the threshold of losing
touch with my world.

Music, it appears, isn’t the
problem for me. In spite of
having spent many a memio-
rable evening in concert halls
and opera houses, I enthusias-
tically embraced every new
form of music that came
alang, from the early rock n’
roll to modern rock. ,

Of all things, it is Ottawa’s
decision to recognize’ gay
marriages that leaves me
doubting the sanity of the so-

' home so many years ago. -
Don’t get me wrong. I am
not approaching this issue
from a religious angle. At
least, I don’t think so,
although I can’t be quite cer-
tain, because, lapsed Catholic
or not, the power of early re-
ligious instruction or indoctri-
nalion cannot and should not
ever be underestimated.
Intellectually, I have abso-

DO-IT-YOURSELF surgical

amputation is becaming a

popular pastime among out-
’ doorsmen.

In May, a Colorado moun-
taineer extricated himself from
under a rock.’ More recently, a
53-year-old Saskatchewan
farmer used his. pocketknife to
free two fingers trapped bet-
ween steel rods on a rock
picker.

The farmer spent 66 hours
in his field pinned to the spat
like a coyote in a leg hold
trap. Lacking food or water, he
had only his seven year old
border collie, Gopher, to keep
him warm during the cool
nights.

While confined by the
stone picker, he could hear his
cell phone ringing in his trac-
tor cab but had no way to an-
swer it. Neither did any pas-
serby nolice him, though his
tractor was within a kilometre
of the read,

When he tried banging a
wrench on the steel frame to
draw attention, two neighbours
who heard his pounding pre-
sumed he was repairing ma-

ciety I adopted ‘as:my sévond”!

‘FROM THE CAPITAL.
HUBERT BEYER

lutely no quarrel with the Qn-
tario Court of Appeal’s deci-
sion to rewrite the definition of
marriage to include same-sex
couples,

But man is not just made
up of intellect. There is the
other sidé of the brain, which
whispers to me that the under-
lying reason of marriage was
never meant to make two peo-
ple of whatever sex make feel
good and accepted as part of
society, but to protect the

‘childrén Who could! reasonably

be’ expected to’ ‘spring from
such a union. ,

] entered into such a church
and state-sanctioned-union 44
years ago and four children
sprang from it.

Now as then, to me mar-
tiage was the bond that was
designed to give stability to
the family, to ensure that
children resulting from said
marriage would have the pro-

Tel v

THROUGH BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

story is, a minister’s wife re-
marked, “He'd better be a
bachelor. If his wife didn’t
bother to go looking for him
for three days, she’s in big
trouble.”

His trouble, according to a
heavy duty mechanic who
makes his living repairing all
kinds of farm equipment,
comes from not keeping his
equipment well maintained. If
the rock picker had been
working properly, he would not
have resorted to hammering on

“set the stage for the judges to”

Ss
~~
= : SS.
r Ss ‘ss
=
S ¥z
we m
~ in
Zhe
it
KOMP HORT +

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN FORESTRY IN B.C.

Get the state out of marriages

and essentially divisive debate .
is for the state 10 get out of the
marriage business altogether. It
would be quite feasible.

The institution of marriage
originally fell within the sole
responsibility of churches,
States adopted it as a conveni-
ent means of control.

However, today, the govern-
ment could opt our of the mar-.
riage business without losing.
any control. Common law is
more than sufficient to sort out
the tricky issues of property
rights that are very much part
of modern marriage.

That would leave the issue
of marriage to synagogues,
churches and mosques. They
would be free to bless or not to
bless same-sex unions, ,

Charter challenges to the
aforementioned religions for re-
fusing to “marry” same-sex
couples would have little
chance to succeed under the-
charter’s religious freedom sec-
tion,

To sum up: I am confused. I
have a feeling that the fast-
track course of modertt'Cana- ”
-‘dian society has left me in the

dust.

Then again, maybe I can
catch up. Hell, I was a classi-
cal music nut and ! learned to
like the Barenaked Ladies,

However, I draw the line at
compulsory same-sex marriag-
es. You've got to give me that.

Beyer can be reached at:
E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com.
Or phone him at (250) 38]-6900,

tection they need to make it to
adulthood.

Not that homosexuals could
do any more damage to the in-
stitution of marriage than het-
erosexuals have, what with
more than one-third of all mar-
riages ending in failure.

In fact, the opposite seems
true in my personal experi-
ence. Two friends of ours have
now lived with their same-sex
partner for more than 20 years.

One thing I should mention
for the benefit of those who
blame “activist judges’ for
what has become a heated na-
tional debate.

The judges are no more ac-
tivist than you and I. When
Canada adopted the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms, Parlia-
ment left the field wide open
for the interpretation of said
charter by the courts.

If you want to blame
someone, blame Pierre Tru-
deau. He's the person who
brought home the constitution
and brought in the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms which

have extraordinary powers af-
fecting us all.

So don’t blame the judges.

And now the issue is being
sent to Parliament which will,
by next year, be considering
legislation to implement what
the judges have determined.

It promises to be quite the
battle.

One way te resolve what
promises to be a long, bitter

where you are

Mountain climbers and hik-
ers know to file a “flight plan”,
Farmers and other outdoorsmen
seldom do. Bachelors especial-
ly would do well to let a reli-
able neighbour know which
field they are going to, with
what equipment, and when
they expect to return for the
day. Then if he failed to return
home on lime, someone would
check on him.

This farmer might still have
Spent several hours in agony
but he would have both hands. —
Infection demanded amputation
of his left hand.

Many accidents happen
when a farmer crawls into or .
under a piece of machinery to
fix some little thing, Monkey
wrenching in the field while all
alone can be a killer. Proper
maintenance during off season
is wise and safer. :

Anyone who works alone,
fisherman, forester, hunter,
needs to take extra care to stay
safe. Filing a flight plan, using
sound equipment, and keeping
a cell phone on the person are
especially important for safety,
and a pocketknife honed to sur-

machine from highway height
to field position.

Farmers are as competitive
about their operations as ath-
letes. Yet neither farmer who
heard his repetitive pounding
thought to drive over and see
why he was in one spot for so
long.

Quite likely, little traffic
passes his field. Unless an
alert neighbour drove by soon
after the mishap, about 7 p.m,
returned several hours later
and wondered why his tractor
was running yet the outfit
hadn't moved in several hours,
he would be left to rescue
himself.

Too bad his cell phone was
sitting in his tractor cab. He
could hear it ringing but was
unable to answer it. (This often
happens at home to seniors or
others who live alone, fail in
the bathroom, and spend the
night on the floor, unable to
get up, yet within inches of the
phone).

GWG or some other maker
of overalls and coveralls
should manufacture a phone.
pouch easily switched from

chinery. a wrench to try to wedge apart ‘one garment to another so the t
Sad though this farmer's two steel bars to lower the phone is always on the person, gical sharpness just in case.
Miso A Yor REALLY! \ ROOTS STRANGLING, | ALL You SEE ISTHE SEuNUIKE HU
PEACEFUL, \JUST THAT.) EACH OMER! TOXINS! | LUNGS AND REPRODUCTIVE) SEX AND ea
A SCENE EN? ALL THE ACTION, MYCELIUM! BLIGHTS! | ORGANS ABOVE GROUND!/ BREATIUNG IS
FERMAFROST? Soil. NV CTE BoRING-
QaLh 4