A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 28, 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

Heave ho

IF RUDY Schwartz had been an actor in the
Titanic movie, he would have been one of those
perched on the stern of the vessel as it slid into,
the sea. Alive, but just for now. You knew what
was going to happen.

It was with no great surprise last week to learn’
that Mr. Schwartz, the vice president of Skeena
Cellulose, was tossed out the door as the strange
corporate bedfellow partnership of the NDP and
Toronto-Dominion bank began changing things.

Somebody had to be seen to take the big fall for
what happened to the company and the biggest
candidate around was Mr. Schwartz, the man in
charge of the company’s finances. George Petty,
who created Skeena Cellulose and who set up the
system whereby cash flowed eastward and debt
flowed westward which crippled the company in
the first place, had already gone. Vice chairman’
Harry Papushka is still around because he’s the
only person who knows the ins and outs of
Skeena Cellulose’s customers. He’ll be gone as
soon as the new people figure out where he
keeps his persona] phone directory.

Mr. Schwartz’s forced departure, and those of
others, has been hinted at for some time by
employment and investment minister Dan Miller.
He’s made no secret of saying there were going
to be upper management changes in the compa-
ny.

It’s fairly standard for new owners of com-
panies to take a scythe to the ranks of senior
management. Replacing those people with your
people is just one of the laws of the corporate
jungle.

The key thing here is whether Skeena Cel-
lulose’s new owners are acting in the search for
sacrificial lambs or for the good of the company.

We'll know, that when.new, executives are hired.
And we'll know even more whertithe new board'}"
“df diyectots is announced.

Deadly cost

ONE OF the more significant events of the past
couple months is also the one in which there has
been no excitement about — the decision to pull
firefighters out of the majority of British Colum-
bia’s airports.

Somewhere in Ottawa somebody has figured
out that the cost of dealing with a plane load of
dead people is less than what it takes to run air-,
port fire departments.

We’ve heard absolutely nothing out of the
Reform party, the official opposition in Ottawa
or the New Democratic Party, the people that
supposedly care about the average Canadian.

It?s as if the mathematical equation of dead
people versus fire department costs meets with
the approval of these two parties as just another
way of driving down the federal deficit.

Of course, there’s another mathematical equa-
tion at work. The federal government is getting
out of the smaller airport business. Cutting fire
departments makes for fewer expenses for the
new airport authorities which, for the most part,
consist of local municipal governments. Sounds
like a pre-arranged deal, eh?
a

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Serving tha Terrace and Thamhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Street,
Terrace, British Columbia, VBG SR2, .

Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the
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Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
for thelr time and talants

QAODY....

AM | YOUR LITTLE Boy :
OR AM | YOOR LITTLE CLONE

2

5

North sucks gas once

VICTORIA — Imagine a
stranger bunking in your home.
He eats at your table. He runs
up your hydro bill. He contrib-
ules to the wear and tear of
your property. Yet, he doesn’t
pay a cent for the privileges he
enjoys. That’s the situation
Peace River communities find
themselves in.

Peace River towns such as

- Dawson Creek, Fort St. Joln
‘and Pouce Coupe are going

broke in the midst of an oil and
gas boom in their region.
All of the resource-extracting

companies in the area are lo-

cated outside of municipal
boundaries and, therefore, pay

_f0 municipal taxes. Yet, their

employees live in the com-
munities and enjoy the benefiis

__ the.towns no longer can afford. , ,.
vo The... strangers .. banking _,

without paying their fair share
are, of course, not the émploy-’
ees themselves, bui the com-
panies,

In other resource-based com-
munities, industry pays its fair
share. Some would claim they

‘pay too much. Port Alberni

gets 49 per cent of ils property
taxes from industry; Quesnel

‘— 7) per cent; Castlegar — 61

per cent, Kitinat — 83 per
cent; Powell River — 60 per
cent.

Fort St. John, on the other

Please s

‘Men aft some time are

masters of their fates:

The fault, dear Brutus, is
not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we
are unierlings.’? -—- Wir.
Stakespeare

Once again, Terrace city
council is hunting for a better
microphone, one that will let
Channel 10 viewers not only
see but hear council meetings.

Council may search in vain.
To put their speech problem in
Shakespearian terms:

the fault, dear Council, is
not in your mikes

But in yourselves, that you
are mumbling.

No sound system works well
when speakers slouch in their
chairs, way back, tuck their
chins into their collars, and
practise ventriloquism.

If hockey players, ballet dan-
cers, even salespersons make it
a habit to view videotapes of
their performances to identify
flaws, why doesn’t council
watch — and listen — to a
Channel 10 broadcast of any

7 I MUST LEAVE

oe boos

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

hand, gets a paltry three per
cent of its property tax from
industrial operations; Dawson
Creek sits al four per cent and
Pouce Coupe at 10 per cent.

. Those, aren’t exactly, the, kind
98 bag inapes Vibrant AOS aps,

made of.

‘While
ture is crumbling, outside their
boundaries, industrial activity
continues unabated. And to
add insult to injury, the provin-
cial government is continuing
to off-load services onto
municipalities.

Faced with such insurmount-
able odds, the Peace River
Regional District has come up
with a plan, called Fair Share,
that would put the com-
niunilies on the road to eco-

THROUGH BIFOCALS:
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

council meeling?

Let council watch even ane
of their typical meetings on
tape and they’d see why
viewers complain about the
sound: talking while chewing
on a ballpoint, murmured
asides because the person’s
seated next to them; raising
new business and at the same
lime checking the shine on
their shocs.

The only time Channel 10
viewers are guaranteed ex-

Moth Pariah tee
the towns’ infrasiruc-

top th

nomic recovery,

The Fair Share proposal
would give the Peace River
Regional District the authority
to collect property taxes in the
region, taxes that are now
siphoned off by Victoria. Al
that’s needed to pul (he plan
into action is a cabinet order.

The proposed levy would be
against Industrial Classes 2,4
and 5, which covers utilities,
light and heavy industries, al a
tate that would ensure all com-
munities in the district receive
uo less than 50 per cent of their
property taxes from industry.
That’s the average of industrial
property tax paid to resource
communities elsewhere in the
province.

To hammer home their mes-

sent a letter to Premier Glen
Clark, stressing the urgency of
the problem.

“It is a sad fact that our com-
munities are going bust in a
petroleum sector boom. We
can’t afford the luxury of eco-
nomic development. There
isn’t even enough of a property
tax base to fill the thousands of
potholes or upgrade and ex-
pand sewer systems,’’ the let-
ler says.

again »

“Our communities are home
to the majority of the region’s
work force and provide social,
recreational, business and ser-
vice suppor for resource de- |
velopment. They are decay-
ing.”’

In the hope of forcing Vic-
toria’s hand, the Peace River
communilies will resort to
some extraordinary action:
they will become interveners
in a series of petroleum project
hearings before the National |
Energy Board and the B.C.
Utilities Commission.

“We ate not trying to halt or
delay vital economic develop-
ment in the region, we are
simply making sure that our
communities have the industri-
al property taxation resources

SBS, Peace River, municipal,....pecessary,to support it,”’ says

yileaders met, with cabinet tasTy
¥ bens a Victoria. Prior to thelr

“arrival, “the regional district

adgacs. River Regional District

chair Karen Goodings. - 4...

All of which leaves me as-
king the question I have often
asked before: why is it always
the people in our vast central
and northern region, the ones
who produce most of British
Columbia’s wealth, who are
being short-shrifted by govern-
ments in Victoria?

Beyer can be reached at:
Tel; (250) 920-9300; Fax:
(250) 385-6783; - E-mail:
hubert@coolcom.com

at mumbling

cellent sound is when a coun-
cilor delivers a cutting remark
about another level of govern-
ment or one of its elected rep-
resentatives. Then he looks
straight into the camera, cranks
up his volume, and enunciates
as meticulously as a
veterinarian tiptoeing through
a winter feedlot.

Former councillor Ruth Hal-
lock was a treat to listen to.
The Ethel Merman of elected
representatives, Hallock al-
ways pitched her voice to be
understocd by the most distant
spectalars. She gave full
weight to everything she said,
never clipping her words like a
nervous six-year-old. And
even when she spoke to the
person beside her, we shared
thal, too.

Now council’s only role
model is Bob Hallsor. Like any
proper administrator, Hallsor
always speaks up, talks clearly,
aud whatever he says is meant
to be heard not only by the
councillor, asking, but by the
other six council members as

well as the audience, both in
chambers and at home watch-
ing TV.

Instead of badgering CFTK
to find an even better sound
system, council should exam-
ine their own skills. Terrace’s
chief Toastmaster - or any
teacher who’s coached kids
through a Christmas concert -
could help council analyze a
few of their videotaped meet-
ings and advise them on ways
to minimize their audibility
handicap,

I could tell them to sit up
straight, lift their ribs out of
their belts, and look viewers in
the eye. Some could even give
up their Edgar Bergen routine.

If any councillor complains
he can’t speak louder, ask him
to say a few words about the
regional district, Thornhill, or
Les Watmough. Then watch
him become as animated —
and audible —- as the Chip.
munks.

Forget the expense of a betier
microphone, Quit mumbling.

me YOU NOW AND Go
mm IOTHE PLACE oF

Pa T0b MUCH TIME
Mm SMOKING Hoops!

WITH YOU rl THE
COMMUNITIES!!

T THINK OLD RALPH
HAS BEEN SPENDING-

A CIGARETTE BREAK AT
A GOVERNMENT OFFICE
WHEN IT'S 35 BELoWw!

Pon'T WORRY !
T's Just Somé.
BUSH CODE HE

PICKED UP FOR...

fe,

CaAatewer

Zig pe RE