A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 28, 200]

—

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

Reality check

HOW MANY times has it been? Three? Four?
More?

It seems that no matter what anybody does,
every time Skeena Cellulose is rescued, it inevit-
ably reverts to being like an old dog. It just can’t
be taught any new tricks. That means rising debt
followed by the inability to pay bills followed by
creditor protection/bankruptcy followed by some
sort of new rescue plan involving public money
and hinging on creditors writing off a huge
whack of accounts payable.

This time, if there is a rescue, it won’t involve
public money from the provincial government
given the B.C. Liberals’ stand against subsidies.
If the rescue plan fails, there’ll instead be a heal-
thy sum paid out in the form of social and other
programs that’ll be needed as the northwest copes
with losing its largest employer. Whether that’!]
be more cost effective for the B.C. Liberals com-
pared to a bail out remains to be seen.

To be fair to this provincial government, it will
deliver to its new owners, if a rescue does hap-
pen, a company that won’t have any debt. It
means eating $400 million-plus of debt, not a pal-
try sum in anybody’s books.

' While operating, at least at first, without any ac-
cumulated debt would help contain costs, a real
benefit to a new-look SCI would be recognition

from the new provincial government that compa- |
nies here need a break from standard forestry re- :
gulations. Simply put, the kind of fibre in our :

northwest forests makes logging it uneconomical.

The region needs a different set of rules and re-
gulations compared to elsewhere. A failure to do
this will mean an inevitable-collapse.once again.
The call for new rules has gone ‘out.for years,

~ Next up is a continuation ‘of efforts to trim the

Prince Rupert pulp mill work force and to moder-
nize the facility. Granted, measures to achieve
both did take place several years ago and each has
enjoyed modest success. But high labour costs
and aging equipment remain a factor.
' If northwestern communities and the Northern
savings Credit Union are to receive broad sup-
port for their plan to raise $20 million for pre-
ferred SCI suitor Mercer International, then the
above-mentioned issues must be tackled first.

The kind of costs associated with the fibre sup-
ply and with the pulp mill work force outweigh
the $20 million offer.

It’s pretty obvious the $20 million won’t make
or break the Mercer deal. But what will hamper
any effort on the part of northwest mayors to
raise the money is the lack of information from
Mercer.

In the end, pretty much all of what Mercer
wants from us and from the province can be con-
strued as some kind of subsidy. If that’s the case,

the more we know now, the better we can make

up our minds later on.

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Serving the Terrace and Thomhill area, Published on Wednesday of each waek at $210 Clinton Streot,
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ORE

He was an honourable politician

VICTORIA — Four years ago, I
wrote a column in which [
said: “Whenever people say
politicians are all alike, can’t
be trusted and look out only
for themselves, IT tell them
they should meet Cyril
Shelford.”

T am sad to say, Cyril has
died. What I said then, still
stands: Cyril was the quintes-
sential honourable politician,
a man who wanted to give, not
take.

The piece I wrote four years
ago marked the occasion of
the publication of his book
“From Snowshoes to Politics,”
a true adventure stary,

Cyril grew up on a remote
homestead near Oatsa Lake in
north central British Columbia.
Because cf the remoteness, all
his schooling was through
home correspondence and his
parents.

Cyril hadn’t been in politics
for some years, but those who
remembered .him,, knew. -he;
was. a.true- gentleman. -Back -in-
the days of W.A.C. Bennett,
Cyril was Minister of Agricul-
ture.

His thanks for serving the
public faithfully and with de-
dication was a whack: across
the back with a two-by-four,
swung by an angry protester
during the 1972 election cam-
paign, at the end of which he
and the Social Credit Party
were defeated.

He would suffer from that

“FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

incident for the rest of his life.
Cyril came from true Brit-
ish Columbia pioneer stock.
His father, Jack Shelford, set-
tled in central British Colum-
bia, near Bella Coola, during
the early part of this century.
The Shelford Hills are
named after him. His father’s
journey to British Columbia,
via South Africa, where he
served, in..the,.Bogr, .War,-

- America, - ‘where. he: earned a

living: as a carpenter, and.
Alaska, where he became a
proficient trapper and woods-
man, aré the subject of the
book, I referred to earlier.

Cyril was quiet and unas-
suming, but when he spoke in
the Legislature, both the gov-
emment side and the opposi-
tion listened. Cyril was not
heckled,

In a way, Cyril was a
throwback. His roots, those of

a pioneer family, made him
something of an oddity in the
House which, even then, was
dominated by those latte-suck-
ing, condo-dwelling city slick-
ers.

I had coffee with Cyril often
over the years. It was a plea-
sure, always. He was soft-spo-
ken and without fail cognizant
of the other’s opinion. The de-
bates we had were worthwhile.

This morming, one of my
publishers, a friend of 18
years, called and asked me if I
would write a column about
Cyril. I said I was planning on
it. 1 had spent too much time
observing, reporting on and as-
sessing Cyril not to mark his
passing.

As | write this, memories of
Cyril come flooding back. De-
cent to the core, always mind-
ful of the other’s opinion, Cyril
was the quintessential renais-
sance man. He had a dream
and he lived it.

wie . His dream was born of his ,

‘parents! \’pioneer spirit. He
lived out that spirit in politics,
not an easy task.

These days, politics appears
to have become a mean man’s
sporl, a preoccupation of law-
yers, developers and business-
men on the right side of the
political spectrum, and again
Jawyers, moral relativists and
community activists on the
left.

Cyril was a politician of an-
other age. He wanted to pay

back to the community what he
thought the community gave to
him and his family.

What always irked me about
Cyril was the fact that he was
a published author. I once told
him jokingly that [ would never
talk to him again if he pub-
lished another book. I wish he
had lived long enough to take
me by my word.

These days politics is a dirty
ward. Two of my sons have run
for politics federally, provinci-
ally and municipally. I believe
they are both disillusioned.

One was an NDP supporter
since the age of 12 and be-
came so disillusioned that he
ran for the Marijuana Party.

The other ran for Gordon
Wilson’s Progressive Demo-
eratic Alliance and was turned
off by Wilson’s brazen defec-
tion te the NDP for what could
only be interpreted as greed.

I wish I had had the fore-
sight to let them, talk.to,Cyril. .

DPm,sure hbe.would. have. told
. them not to lose the: faith.

You see, Cyril Shelford was
a man who gave politics a
good name. He was a most
honourable practitioner of the
craft that so many people de-
spise.

Cyril was a goad man. He
was my friend.

Beyer can be reached at:
E-mail: hubert@coelcom.com;
Tel (250) 381-6900; Web
htip:/[www.hubertbeyer.com

The Toll that Alzheimer’s takes

RARE I8 the family untou-
ched by Alzheimer’s. Burns
Lake writer June Fuller Moul-
ton in her book We Rage, We
Weep shares her experience
living with her husband,
Rusty, on an isolated ranch
during his years suffering from
Alzheimer’s disease.

Moulton waited six years
after Rusty’s death before wri-
ting this slim volume of prac-
tical advice for spouses and
families coping on their own
in rural isolation.

She was persuaded by their
doctor to move into town
where he could receive hame
care shortly before his death,
But while living at the ranch,
Moulton had onty her adult
son, Mike, to help her cope
with Rusty's quicksilver
moods, forgetfulness, and

childlike behaviour.

Using the nine signs of Alz-
heimer’s as the book’s frame-
work, Moulton reviews her
husband’s behaviours typical
of Alzheimer’s as his brain de-
teriorated.

THAT LOAD

Geiss

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; YY ne

AMAZING! AXEL
THE ' WONDER DOG"
CAN'T EVEN BREAK

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THROUGH BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

The nine guidelines are:

1. Difficulty in performing
simple or familiar tasks.

2. Time and/or place dys-
function.

3. Communications pro-
blems; difficulty following dir-
ections.

4, Misplacing things.

5. Financial abstraction,

6. Faulty judgment.

7; Mood changes: from
calm to tears to anger within

MAKING SKOoKUM
THE "UNDER- DOG '
THE WINNER !!

minules,

8. Personality changes that
are drastic or inappropriate.

9, Loss of initiative and re-
Iuctance to get involved.

She discloses her inventive
ways of outfoxing him when he
sought to spend money they
didn’t have on things he
couldn’t use and didn’t need;
highlights the professional ad-
vice she received from their
family doctor and other profes-
sionals; and, reveals how
neighbours and equipment
dealers cooperated to keep
Rusty safe whenever he left
the ranch.

Rusty had always repaired
his own machinery. Now he
mis-measured, misjudged, took
weeks to try to do what he had
formerly accomplished in
hours. He mislaid tools. He
couldy’t- remember after lunch
where he had been falling
trees before lunch.

Where he had been an im-
peccable dresser, he fumbled
buttons, forgot to zip his trou-
SErs.

= Sov ON
a ares JUDGES WERENT

From an industrious rancher
who managed money well, he
left his hay in the field until
snow covered it, and had little
understanding of his bank bal-
ance. A neighbour met him
driving on the wrong side of the
highway.

Formerly a public speaker
active in his community,
Randy avoided friends. And un-
characteristic for him, he swore
at his wife, especially if he
realized she was babysitling
him.

Moulton lived in dread of
disaster, They lived jin an old
log house, tinder dry. Rusty
would forget to close the wood-
box after filling the stove,

Moulton has written candid-
ly of Alzheimer’s effects on
Rusty, and herself and family.
If know your enemy is good ad-
vice, this book will shed some
light on the disease and its ef-
fects.

You can order We Rage, We
Weep from her at Box 539,
Burns Lake, B.C., VOJ 1E0.
The price Is $15,

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