Page A4 — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 3, 1990

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EDITORIAL

He’s smiling now

Somewhere, W.A.C, Bennett is smil-
ing. He’s smiling because another
government has taken up his vision of
the Dease Lake rail extension.

When Mr, Bennett was premier, the
extension was part of the Pacific Great
Eastern (now B.C. Rail) rail line, It was,
he said, to be another transportation
connector, reaching north and to the
west of Prince George, to develop the in-

terior of the province.

But all was not well with this par-
ticular part of the vision. A railbed was
built but massive cost overruns added
up. Even NDP Premier Dave Barrett
gave it a go, finally cancelling the project
because of the financial implications.

And there the vision slumbered. Con-
struction camps became targets for those
seeking ready building material.
Resource companies began using the
railbed as a highway to reach into the in-

terior.

The vision has now come back in the
form of improvements so that woods
companies, using Prince George and
James as operations bases,
could reach the Sustut-Takla wood north

Fort St.

of.Hazelton, .. .

aM a

“That decision in 1988” ‘Sain Over: the
strenuous objections of companies and
local governments in our areas. It also,
judging from a provincial Ombudsman’s
report, took place in contravention of

legislation at the time.

The forests minister at the time,
Skeena MLA Dave Parker, apparently
told the deputy chief forester to award
the timber to the Prince George and Fort
St. James companies. According to the
the deputy chief

rules in place then,

vince.

There are,

nightmare.

corridors to

forester was supposed to make the deci-
sion independently. And, the great ma-
jority of evidence supported the applica-
tion by companies in our part of the pro-

At last week’s town hall meeting
Premier Bill Vander Zalm and forests
minister Claude Richmond gave some of
the most candid reasons yet for the deci-
sion. To do otherwise, they said, would
have cost 400-500 jobs in Prince George

’ area mills and wood processing facilities.
Richmond, too
many sawmills chasing too little timber.

So where once W.A.C. Bennett had a
vision of resource development in
building the rail line, the present govern-
ment had prospects of an unemployment

said Mr.

Yet there remains the hope of further
resource development from the construc-
tion of the line. That hope had better
materialize given the strong suggestions
that in despite of pronouncements that
the line will not cost taxpayers any
money, there will be some sort of sub-
sidy for its operation.

Yet somehow there remains the im-
pression that W.A.C. Bennett’s vision is
“coming true, His stamp,on B:C. of pro=)
viding the province with transportation

exploit resources continues

on, But in this case of allocating scarce
wood resources to keep sawmills afloat
the vision has a bit of a tarnish.

It’s another example of how govern-

evils.

ments function nowadays. Governments
used to formulate and execute policy
based on hopes and expectations. They
now take action as a rearguard reflex to
fend off any number of accumulated

Appealing methods

Principals haven’t even
tallied their official enrolment
for this school year and already
we're grooved into another 10
months of meetings, sports, and
fundraising.

Band students have criss-
crossed the neighbourhood
tempting us with Hershey bars;
we've been coaxed to pledge the
Terry Fox run;and Terrace Arts
Council has warned us Join now
or see the council disband.

Thanks to our Matsqui fenc-
ing and a pair of small but
possessive mutts, even illiterate
canvassers skirt our property,
Determined solicitors — such as
for the heart fund — gauge the
reliability of our fence, then
stretch their arm way out to
drop a pre-addressed envelope
into our gate mailbox,

One form of appeal that
makes me cringe like Lucien
Bouchard sneaking past
Mulroney to take his seat in
parliament, is canvassers who
flank store entrances expecting
me to donate spontaneously as
an “Open Sesame’? to my
weekend shopping.

Regardless of how worthy

their cause — whether its
firemen proffering a rubber
boot to be stuffed with $10 bills
in aid of muscular dystrophy;
veterans hawking Remem-
brance Day poppies; or a
polyester Santa jangling belis

beside the Salvation Army's:
plastic "kettle’’ — alms-seekers -
are a speed bump on the drag

strip of bargain hunting. .

Another canvasser - “that

Through |

Bifocals
by Claudette Sandeck!

tightens the drawstring on my
handbag is the affable fellow
who phenes, calls me by my
first name, and introduces.
himself in the manner of a
Lakelse Avenue booster whom ]
should recognize. He turns opt
to be in Vancouver, and far
from representing a charity, he
profits from printing programs

for childrens’ sports competi- -

tions.

When it comes to picking the
knot out of my purse strings, 1
respond intuitively. I never jab
my finger into a canvasser’s
breast bone and demand what
percentage of my contribution
will go to good works and what
portion wii] be squandered, on
administration.

E long ago settled on those
charities | prop up; I trust them
to put my money to good use
locally, Usually, they reach out
through B.C. Tel to touch me.

They make it convenient for

me to back them: A short phone

call requesting my continued
patronage. (There’s a word with
unfortunate overtones. at. :the

moment.) Soon someone arrives

to pocket my cheque. Voila.
Fait accompli. And J have a tax
record to. satisfy Michael

- Wilson next March, : aa
‘Phone solicitations should os

make it easier for me to say No,
Sorry. But even then I can be
talked into forking over cash |
really can’t afford. What to do?

I thought I'd been handed the
answer by a pitchman who
pushes car wax on fair mid-
ways,

After running through his
spiel while waxing his gleaming
Cadillac to a blinding lustre, he
invites observers to step up and
pay $8 for a container of wax
smaller than a hockey puck.

Some do. Others hem and
haw, but don’t buy.

The barker sneers, ‘‘Why
make excuses? If I have the guts
to ask for your money, you
should have the guts to say
'No’’?,

Oh, that I did.

SKOOK | YoU GOTTA. HELP
ME ESCAPE FROM AN

OUTATTER! HE STARVES
US AND LoADS 0S PowN
WITH FAT HUNTERS |!

aR ATLL LAN, SICK FEATHER N Mis HEADBIND..
xan BEADS ... SCKOUNGE qREN

D FOR KATEW OD BaNeS

Province appears
to be under siege

VICTORIA — The political
and judicial systems are under
siege in British Columbia.
Cynicism is taking the place of
trust. The public is losing con-
fidence in the insitutions that
separate parliamentary
democracies from autocracies,
benevolent or otherwise.

After four years of blunder-
ing from one scandal to the
next, Premier Vander Zalm
has brought’ us to a'point ‘Pied

where the mere mention of in- .

tegrity and honesty in politics
causes British Columbians to
doubt your sanity.

Vander Zalm promised in-
tegrity and open government,
but I cannot remember a four-
year period in B.C, politics
that was marked by more scan-
dals, embarrassments and
public disgrace than Vander
Zalm's term in office to date.

Let’s skip the David Pool
story, the Cliff Michael
debacle, the Bill Reid scandal
and all the other political
calamities that have rocked
this government almost con-
tinuously, and deal only with
the last two controversies —
the sale of Fantasy Garden
World and the subsequent
discovery that the premier had
never relinquished his majority
shareholder status in the fami-
ly business.

Vander Zalm's total
disregard for or, at best, ig-
norance of tradition
manifested itself in the way in
which he sold Fantasy Garden
World. Instead of being far
away on the day of the sale,
addressing some chamber of
commerce on the benefits of
investing in British Columbia,
the premier rolled out the red
government carpet for the pur-
chaser of his Richmond theme
park,

Treating the billion-dollar
woman, Emilia Roxas, like
some head of state, he even
took her to see Lieutenant
Governor David Lam, thereby,
in a very real sense, dragging
the queen into his own private

. dealing.

That wasn't the intent, the
premier said later, The deal
had already been signed, and
he was only trying to woo a

ME FoR SURE!

Od.ve quasar

From the

Capital .
by Hubert Beyer

ui -OHTHERE'S Is
SUPERCUS! HELL SPoT

potential investor in British
Columbia, What the premier
forgot was that appearances
aré? ‘as'itportant as:reality; °
What he'also forgot was yb it it
was he who spoke of the great
importance of appearances, —
shortly after becoming

premier.

And just when this par-
ticular controversy had died
down a bit, we got hit with
another, An enterprising
reporter checked the company
records at his lawyer's office
and found that Vander Zalm
had never relinquished his ma-
jority ownership of the family
business until it was sold to
Roxas. :

The papers showed the
premier owning 83 per cent of
the shares in Fantasy Garden
World Inc., when all along he
had told British Columbians
that it was Lillian’s business.

Initially, the premier blamed
the press, saying they had only
assumed that he didn’t own
the majority of shares. Then
he changed his tune, blaming
his ‘‘stupidity”’ for the mixup.
When he relinquished his
directorsip in the business in
1986, he was led to believe that
there was also a transfer of the
shares.

Opposition leader Mike Har-
court accused Vander Zalm of
a “monstrous lie.‘ There was
no way he couldn’t have
known that he still owned Fan-
tasy Garden World, Harcourt
said. ; .

Without accusing the
premier of lying, deliberately
or inadvertently, 1 also find it
hard to believe that a man who
parleyed a relatively obscure
nursery business into a $15
million theme park with castle
and all, wouldn’t know that he
still owns the place. Stupid
people don’t make million-
dollar profits in business,

[ watched in some agony as

DANG! THE Wolves
ALREADY GT OLD”
BLAZE THERE'S ONE
ST CHEM’ ON Him!

Set a

some of his ardent supporters
tried to make light of the mat-
ter. What was the big deal
anyway, asked Cliff Michael. +
What-indéed? It .was}/of (3 ""
course! Michael who was ‘sack-
ed by the premier for mixing
private business with public _
duties when he tried to peddle
recreational property to people
with whom he was dealing as

highways minister. This is pro-

bably Michael’s way of paying
his debts to the premier For’ let-
ting him back into cabinet,

All the while, public trust, in
the system is fading. Cynicism
and the suspension of disbelief:
are, so far, the greatest legacy
of the Vander Zalm years. _
And that is the greatest danger
to which our system of © ©
parliamentary democracy can
be exposed,

“The rule of law | Nao <4
democracy requires the =. |:
public’s ongoing consent and ©
confidence to survive,’ ~"""
Stephen Owen said in his in-~
terim report on the Bill Reid ;
affair,

‘Any widespread unease
with the essential fairness of
our system can cripple it,
Perception becomes reality
when suspicion of injustice is
allowed to fester. The system.
must be capable of quickly and
convincingly resolving any.
such doubt,”’ Owen added.”

The validity of the om- ~~
budstnen’s remarks isn’t con:
fined to the justice systemy i it
applies to the entire process of
parliamentary democracy
which has been crippled time ©
and again.

There can and should be no.
more well-meaning excuses, for -
Vander Zalm’s blunders,
must be held accountable, : and
the sooner, the better. Unfpr- -
tunately, some very capable
people in cabinet will have to’
share the blame with him on;

election day, rT oe

WELL WE BETIER GET
BACK To Came AND”
PUT THAT FAT OL
HERMAN Guy on gessiy

woe ewe ee ee

1,

ew SaT