EAST ELEVATION cot fs . 7 re “boa et Architect's. ‘drawings of the new second floor being added to the Terrace Air- -port terminal bullding show why radio operators wilt have a batter view of the " surrounding area. Airport Manager. Darryl Laurent says the building upgrade “witl enhance airport safety. Terrace Alrport rport Flight Service Station Manager Clint Dean shows the source of New support for Terrace Radio Operators. The steel mesh will supply rein-. forcing for concrete pillars which will Support the new escond fleor over the - present operations wing of the Terrace Airport terminal building. Major . tenants on the second floor, radio operators and meteorologists, should be able to move to their naw facilities in about 12months, — Official says local taxes - paying more of hospital bills | FERRACE — The funding of hospitals may be going in the same direction as public educa- tion funding, with a higher pro- portion of costs being paid through residential property y taxes and less from the provin- cial government, according to the chairman of the Kitimat- Stikine Regional District. - by Michael Kelly Les Watmough said in a re- cent interview: that contributions to hospital operating and capital equipment and replacement cost. from the Ministry of Health have been decreasing over the past five years, forcing hospitals to become more reliant on local taxation and charitable dona- tions to maintain adequate levels of service. Watmough pointed out that over the past several years reg- ional hospital districts have . begun paying for an increasing range of hospital costs that were formerly the responsibility of the Ministry of Health. In the Kitimat-Stikine district the funds raised by local taxation through Section 20 (2) have tra- ditionally been used for what Watmough termed ‘‘frill’’ items of equipment. ‘‘Recently they” ve been used for roof repairs, painting and even recruitment costs,’’ he said. Thereis a provision for the province to cost-share on a 60/40 basis for the purchase of some new equipment, but the cost-sharing i is only available for certain specific articles arid re- placement of worn equipment is not an eligible cost. “It’s almost impossible; the hospital has to find this funding, _ and the provincial dollars have really been tight in the past few ' years,’? Watmough said. The result, he said, is an in- creasing reliance on local taxa- tion. The Section 20 (2) fund is still sometimes referred to as the quarter-mill fund because of the original tax rate; Watmough also recalled that the provincial Social Services tax, presently set at six percent on the sale of most retail goods, was initially estab- lished by former Premier W.A.C, Bennett as a revenue source for the health care sys- tem.. The sales tax proceeds now go directly into general revenue. Watmough’s contentions are berne out by figures obtained from the Regional District of - Kitimat-Stikine. From 1985 to 1987 the taxation rate for Sec- tion 20 (2) has gone from .0576 to 2134, nearly quadrupling in order to raise just. over double the funding. The balance in Sec- tion 20 (2) went from $90,019 in 1985 to a projected $200,000 this ear. -In addition to the requirement ‘for greater local funding, - Teg- donal districts received another. blow this year with the B.C. government’s move to exempt machinery and equipment from régional district taxation. Kitimat-Stikine Regional . Dis- trict Treasurer Lucy Wood indi- — cated the exemption will reduce . -the local tax base from $1.5 billion to $900 million this year. Watmough said that while funding. .becomes. increasingly strained the channels for obtain- ing funds are’ becoming increas- ingly clogged, and he described the present delivery system with . its multitude of agencies, com- mittees and specific interest bod- ies as mess’’, In a recent study done for the Ministry of Health on regional hospital districts in the province, consultant Dan Campbell identi- ‘fa real bureaucratic — board of the Mills Memorial Hospital Association sent a fet- ter to all association members appealing for .donations. The letter stated that the hospital's ability to purchase new and re- placement equipment had been “drastically eroded by the deple- tion of the capital fund and by ‘the. inability of government ag- encies to approve all of our pro- ject and equipment requests’’, The stated | objective of, the | fund-raising appeal was to raise $200,000 within two years. In an interview Sept. 3 board chair- man Linda Hamilton said at that point the effort had netted be- tween $20,000..and $30,000. . ’ Hamilton said the board has decided to launch a continuous fied more than 90 separate en- [f- tities directly involved with health care. Within this area there are the regional hospital district board, the various hos- pital boards and societies, the Skeena Health Unit, the mental § health branch, the Skeena Union Board of Health, the Terrace- view Lodge Society, long-term §& and intermediate care facilities and a multitude of others.. The Terrace Review contacted Terry Moran, an information officer with the Ministry of | Health in Victoria, with a re- quest for a copy of Campbell’s report. Moran acknowledged that the report had been filed, but he said the material in it Hig not for public consumption’’ and refused to release a copy of it. In gathering material for the report, Campbell received sub- missions from several regional hospital districts calling for ‘single-agency regional health care delivery through regional § hospital districts. Watmough said the present system is virtual- ly directionless. ‘‘Nobody does hospital planning,’*® he said. “The regional hospital districts have the resources to do it, but they must have the authority to carry out planning. We do stud- ies for the Ministry of Health, but they just seem to disappear." MILLS MEMORIAL STILL SEEKING CAPITAL On May 12 of this year the ] Airport — ‘to get improved — Safety — TERRACE — Lowering the minimum ceiling from 900 ‘to 600 feet at the Terrace-Kitimat Airport has improved landing reliability. ‘Now, improvements to the airport terminal building ‘will increase landing safety ac- cording to Airport Manager — Darry! Laurent, The most obvious improve- ments underway at the present time, work on water and sewer _, ystems in the airport parking. fund-raising campaign through the establishment. of the Dr. R.E.M, Lee Foundation: Don- ors are also. ‘being honored: . through plaques in the hospital lobby and entries in a donor book. - Support from the Regional Hospital District of Kitimat-- _ Stikine in the form-of Section 20 (2) grants has amounted : to about $60,000 so far this year, . she said. Equipment on the tiospital’s acquisition list includes operat- ing room tables, ureteroscope,. heart items. zers, x-ray equipment, monitors and other - Hamilton said the list isia com- . bination of new and replacement equipment. . lot, is only the beginning of the 7 ‘improvements. ' Laurent, said. remodeling in. the basement - will- make room for a larger heating system to heat the enlarged building when a second floor is added on top of the present: operations wing of the terminal: He explained: that when the. flight service station and weather office move to the se- cond floor in about 12 months, although the public will not be affected: directly, travel will be © safer and easier. - “The radio people can only See a part of each runway right - now,”’ said Laurent. “But when they move upstairs they’re going to be able to see all of the field plus the approaches. . colonoscope, laboratory analy-_ . -“The radio operator will be able to see alot more of what’s going on, leading to improved .air safety and basically that’s what we're looking for,” ihe said. “TERRACE DIN ING GUIDE Let everyone know about your delicious Culsine — "Dinner Specialities! _ This spot could be yours for only $4.50 per week! oS “| — . Polly’s Cafe . 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