AG Terrace Review — Wednesday, October 31, 1990, . - ‘ an noe ne , : ‘ Qo > . wo wo . : . Loe , 1 _ ‘education? If the response to this year’s call for people to come forward and stand up for what they believe are the right things in our schools is any indication, we may as well farm out the district to Vic- ~ -toria, or leave it to the administrators. We’re not. only deprived of an election, we don’t even have enough _ nominations to fill ‘up the chairs. — It appears that three of the trustees will be appointed by the provincial government. _ ; S ~ hall we just pack in the idea of local control over School trustees, like some animals and plants in the - tropics and elsewhere, seem to be under threat of extinc- tion due to loss of habitat. In an environment like the present one in this district, who in the world would want to sit on the board? It’s like volunteering to spend three years as an archery target. In an interview yesterday the president of the Terrace District Teachers’ Association described the block fund- ing system, as it relates.to negotiations between the board: and teachers, as "Machiavellian". The block system appears to place an upper limit on contract costs that is not difficult to calculate for an informed observer, even if that observer is not an accountant. In that sense, the money side of things is something of a foregone con- clusion, unless the board wants to go to referendum to prop up a settlement beyond the block, a chancy move the board is very unlikely to make. Well, how’s this for Machiavellian? A provincial government first sets up a financing system that is guaranteed to make it very hot for trustees during labour - negotiations. The same government then rings in over- whelming changes in the curriculum and the way children progress through school and leam while they’re in it, and as a bonus to local districts the government wants it implemented now. Another branch of the same govern- ment then declares that anyone who wants to leap into this cauldron of dissatisfaction has to serve no less than three years. Bingo, habitat destruction. And as a final touch, that government enables itself to appoint trustees to vacant seats, thus, in this district, gaining a one-third controlling interest on the board. If this seems to verge on paranoia, we’ ll find out when the appointments are announced. Established May 1, 1985 The Terrace Review is published _ ach Wednesday by Close-Up Business Services Ltd. . Publisher: Mark Twyford Editor: Michael Kelly Staff Reporters: ‘Tod Strachan, Betty Barton Advartising: Marj Twyford, Todd Vogt Typesatting: Carrle Olson Production Manager: Jim Hall Production: Charlies Costello, Gurbax Gill, “Linda Mercer, Ranjit Nizar Office: . Carria Olsan Accounting: Mar] Twyford, Harminder K. Dosanjh ' Second-class mail registration No. 6896. 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VBG 1M7 Phone: 635-7840 Fax: 635-7269 One year subscriptions: in Ganada $38.50 Out of Canada $100.00 Sentors in Terrace and District $30.00 Seniars out of Terrace and District $33.00 an osrmaeanmne eam renuamnenaieeisie ats ites tied naa - " SE : , 7 + Letters to the editor will be considered for publication only when signed. _. Please include- your telephone number. ~ * The editor reserves the right to condense and edit letters. Opinions - ‘expressed are not necessarily those of the Terrace Review, ——- ha Yeo a 1M SORRY... THE DOCTOR 1S OUT ON THE GOLF COURSE THIS VICTORIA — I know that The view from Victoria — by John Pifer Bennett, who arguably did con- some blindly loyal Social Credti siderably more for the province supporters out there will accuse this humble scribe of kicking poor o! Bill Reid when he is down, if I get into the cir- than Mr. Reid, only got a car, and a 10-year-old one at that! Even White Rock Socreds are asking questions about the - cumstances surrounding the gift special fund, especially given of a $15,000 car given to the retiring Surrey MLA by his home constituency executive. However, given Mr. Reid’s penchant for being less than upfront about his actions when he sat in Cabinet with his good buddy, Premier Bill Vander Zalm, this latest fiasco must not be ignored out of empathy or sympathy for the beleaguered, passe politician. And given that at its root, Mr. Reid’s used-car-salesman Reid’s decision (forced upon him by the party) not to run again, which he announced in August. There was $13,000 in the fund up until September, at which time the executive voted to have the money returned to _ the constituency association — something first reported by Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer. According to minutes of the Sept. 9th meeting of that group approach.to eyerything in life is — of which I have a copy — so similar to the much slicker and smoother methods of the Premier, it bears scrutiny in all parts of the province, not just in Surrey. Not for a moment would I suggest that Reid does not deserve some recognition for his eight years as Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale MLA (‘some’ being the key word here!). True, he has a $30,000-plus annual pension which many people would welcome as an annual wage. And true, he will keep pulling in about $4,000 _ per month as an ineffectual * backbench MLA until the next election. But still, he deserves some token of local recognition — say, a gold watch or a trip to Hawaii or whatever. But a car, apparently paid for out of the Re-elect Bill Reid Fund? Surely that’s a bit much, even for our ‘Bill. Hell, former premier Bill immediately after agreeing to have the Re-elect Bill funds returned, the executive voted to give the former used-car salesman a gift costing ‘‘up to $12,500.’’ (Maybe the extra $500 was a fee for all the paperwork?), The best tine in the minutes states that president Kent Smith would make the decision of what gift to get, ‘although a car was suggested.”’ Bosh. Now who could possibly have made that sugges- tion? My, my, we may never know! mc Later that month, Wild Bill got his gift — a foreign car pegged at... wait for it... $15,000! So it would appear to any logical thinker that not only did the funds raised by Socreds to elect an MLA end up buying a non-Canadian gift for the White Rock loser who was ‘dumped from Cabinet over a patronage scandal, but so- - meone even topped it up by $2,500. It is to gag. One wonders what poor Chip Barrett thought of it all as he sat at the Oct. 2nd executive meeting and heard the news about the car. ' Mr. Barrett, you see, is the social Credit candidate for Surrey-White Rock; and he may well have welcomed 10-or-15 thousand dollars to aid HIS campaign. I see that the letter-writing contingent of the Socreds’ righteous wing is firing off all sorts of missives to the editors which damn the media and _ bless the mendacious Mr. Vander Zalm. Before anyone takes their flood of furious flak too seriously, or reads it as an in- dication of what the majority feels out there, remember that for four years there have been anit-media and ‘‘we’re backing Bill’? campaigns which are all out of proportion to the actual support the man can call upon come the true test — the elec- tion. Thanks, Harry... Now that his column has ex- panded into Chilliwack and Abbotsford, the heart of the Fraser Valley, after years in Surrey and Langley, the Okanagan, Vancouver Island and northern B.C., it is not surprising to find more people out that way angered because I - dare to question Mr. Vander Zalm’s leadership and honesty. That was most dramatically brought home at the recent ~~ Continued an page A7