Page A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 17, 1993 g ERRACE STANDAR <7 Dp, Registration No, 7820 Phone (604) 638-7283 (1968) Ltd, it's itustratlon repro serviess. and adverlising agencies, Reproduction In whola or in pari, without wrtlen permission, is specifically prohibited, Authorized as second-class mail pending ths Post Gffica Department, for payment of postage in cash. Serving the Terrace area. Published en Wednesday of aach week by Cariboo Press (!969} Lid, at 4647 Lazelle Ave., )? British Columbia. Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in tho Terraca Standard are (he proparty of the copyright hoiders, inciiding Cariboo Press Jaff Nagel « News/Communily, Malcolm Saxter - News /Sporis, . Publisher/Editor: Rose Fisher - Front Otfice Manager, Pam Odell - Typesatter, Rod Link | Arlene Watts - Typeselter, Susan Credgeur-Composing/Darkroom, = | Special thanks to ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1938 : Janel Vivelros - Advertising Consultant, Sam Colliar.- Advertising Consultant, uN fan ree i Advertising Charlene Matihaws - Circulalion Manager all our 4647 Lazelle Ave,, “Terrace, B. C., V8G 188 Manager: contributors and Mike L. Hamm Rae cy correspondents Production Manager: a ele tas “or 5 CINEGEATION talents. wis Papen one : we Gin A Edouard Credgeur SP apERS © rermernett EDITORIAL Too much at stake Forests minister Dan Miller and West Fraser have found themselves in a tricky situation. ° West Fraser kicked things off two years ago when it bought a forest licence tied to a closed Prince Rupert sawmill. It did so by agreeing to open the mill which, says the forest service, employed 70 people. _ That didn’t happen because West Fraser says the wood is needed at Skeena Saw- mills here instead. The company’s wood supply has been. cut back in the two years. since it made the Prince Rupert purchase. It says there now isn’t enough. wood to feed both that mill and Skeena Sawmills here and that if it has to open the former, there may be layoffs at the latter. To West Fraser’s credit, it says it knew wood supply was tight when it made the purchase two years ago. And Mr. Miller acknowledges sawmilling capacity exceeds wood supply. But he says the intent of the forest licence, first granted in 1983, to pro- vide jobs in Prince Rupert, must be kept. So while he’s not ordering West Fraser to. open the mill, he’s told the company to ® look at a secondary manufacturing facility. That would:be fine except it begs the fol- 7 lowing question. If a secondary manufac- turing facility in Prince Rupert was viable J in the first place, there would be one in op- & eration there right now. Mr. Miller’s decision also reaffirms the " unfortunate choice of mill. made by Wedeene. It simply wasn’t the right kind Fiye™22 of plant for the kind of wood the company was logging. That’s why it closed in the first place. By suggesting that West Fraser replace job for job those that were lost when Wedeene closed, Mr. Miller’s logic is faulty. . It may be that West Fraser took a calcu- lated gamble and lost. And it may be that Mr. Miller is looking for some way to save face in his home riding by trying to find some jobs, Yet the woods industry history of B.C. is littered with bad decisions. Now is not the time to continue that string. There is too much at stake. Enough, already Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger once said that rock and roll is meant to be enjoyed from the head down. And that fits perfectly’ the unfounded fuss over Liberal leader Gordon Wilson and Judi Tyabji, the party’s SSrhouge,, leader. he situation. js. or her, emotional state whenever there’s a. being..judged..on:. the Aitillation, ‘Factor: i iBri-9 stead:oftomteality: * Stan So what if the two have. fallen in love and . want | to -get married once their previous marriages end, So what if the two have declinéd to give the most intimate details of their private | lives. The: publicity surrounding the two has been justified on the basis that if the two love each other, it somehow clouds their ability to do their jobs, It’s a stupid justification. _People who buy into this should seek professional help. If we were to follow this through logical- ly, a politician should have to declare his »: desision:to be nade! "fin ii 'Sotty.” SO can’t deal with the déficit” today: ‘I just ‘had’ a" fight with my wife, Call me tomorrow.” Of course Mr. Wilson and Ms. Tyabji_ haven’t done a lot to-help their case, But can any reasonable person blame them? -. Better we should all get on with the busi- ness of real life than to spend time dealing with this. There are a lot more important things out there that deserve scrutiny. Tears keep flowing "Figure skating compeiitions unite a country’s citizens, ex- pecially those of us who. celebrate our skaters” victories by crying. |" As I watched Isabelle Bras- seur and Lloyd Eisler skate to the palts gold in Prague last week, there among the spec- lators. was skater Josee Through _ Bifocals _by Claudette Sandecki_ Chouinard, her- face a wash , with tears of j Joy. Later ° as: “the his jaw to check any tears. No doubt he was: recalling: Brian Orser caught: by the TV cameras with a single tear slid- ing down his cheek, Or Wayne Gretzky wiping away tears as he bid goodbye to Edmonton after, Pocklington traded him to the Los Angeles Kings, Whenever someone’ dis- solves in a puddle ‘news’ cameras zoom in- for a. closeup. TV news. revels: in capturing people at their blub- bering best. Such photos -are. shown again and again, and are sure to be part of the year- end news round-up. T come from a genetic line of - crybabies. In my ‘house boxes’ of tissues are spaced like elec-" trical outlets - every eight feet. If a situation had me yanking tissues faster than a two-year- - old left unattended beside a box of, them,-my. Dad. would be. clearing - his.- throat, or: coughing. He, too, had trouble, remaining. dry-eyed in happy. times unlike my" aunt who™ ‘seemed to lack tear:dicts.. ‘My earliest memory ¢ of em-_ fits > opportans bawling jos ‘wack barrassmént ' - due: Canadian . anthem played, ‘Lloyd: Eisler — stood on the podium ‘clenching. ~ the “one-room But I’m not alone. Even Gen- men and. women to ife- whenever he hears The Star Spangled Banner. “my sniveling as aft emotional to the eighth grade when we studied the book Jean ValJean, tale of a man imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. Every day for half an-hour-before lunch.’ teacher read to us from the ' book, I sobbed throughout. _ When my hanky became over- _ Saturated, T sopped my tears with a terry towel kept in my © desk. That was back in the days of schoolhouse. Each family brought a towel to school for all members to use when it. came. time. to. wash. - hands before lunch. As the. oldest girl in our family, it was’ my responsibility to look after the towel. Until teacher fin- _ished reading the book, I did a Sloppy job. ‘All sorts of unlikely things make me cty. Puppies. Colts. Kittens. The Road to the Isles, eral Schwarzkopf, mastermind of:.the. Gulf. War who.- un- flinchingly:. assigned young threatening roles, weeps I was 50 before I accepted expression aS legitimate as screaming, laughing, ‘or back- slapping, ‘and = uit feeling guilty about it. My «crying hurts no one, My granddaughter _ figured that our early. The first time she saw:-me cry it’ was. Thanksgiving. ‘We were enjoy- ing. a'small family reunion, aid I.was holding cher wee “baby. sister, At ihe’ sight of “tears running down my face play, . she abandoned her. hugged me fiercely, near tears, her forehead furrowed with concem. =. T reassured her Grandma was fine, not to worry. Now she. asks. “Cry?”, treats me to an’ understanding ear-to-ear smile; and goes on blowing .. her bubbles, unperturbed. * “Happy tears are best shared. A stadium full of cheering Ca- - padians is grand. If only my ‘bifocals were equipped with - Elton John windshield wipers. _ WHAT ON. EARTH: IS KEEPING YOUR FATHER 7! fi j de: 4a % De ay 7 Federal cost cuts | hurts the province | VICTORIA ~- Political warfare between Ottawa and the provinces is as old confed- eration, but there has been a decided change in the am- munition used by the com- batants. For decades, the relatively - Well-off provinces lamented? , that they paid more into con: federation than they got out of | it. In British Columbia, that - type of fed-bashing was honed to an art form by W.A.C, Ben- nett and used by successive - governments, right up to the ’ Bill Vander Zalm administra- tion. But in the past two years or so, the provinces’ attack strategy has changed from the we-don’l-get-enough cry to charges of being saddled with financial obligations that .- should be Ottawa’s. Today’s. federal-provincial . battles are fought over Ot- tawa’s thinly-veiled attempt to reduce its own deficit by piling fiscal responsibilities on the provinces, a practice called off-loading. . ; There would be nothing wrong with that if the off- - loading were accompanied by. meaningful reductions in the federal government’s own spending, but such isnot the | case, according to a recent i in- dependent study. The study by the C.D. Howe Institute, a non-partisan re- search group, says that Ottawa is fighting its deficit on the backs of the provinces. - In doing so, the federal government last year short- changed the provinces by an estimated $4 billion, the study. says. , “Essentially, what they are doing, is they’re cutting cash transfers to provinces more than they’re cutting their own ‘programs, ’’ said Paul Booth, one of the report's authors. ‘And federal protestations to the contrary, one of the main targels of Federal deficit- HE'S CAOOS ING A HAT! SS Sk YE: : (2 From the Capital by Hubert Beyer , ‘cutting has been Medicare, ac- cording to the report. -. The effects of federal off- loading aren’t lost on the Har- court government, Finance Minister Glen Clark has, on numerous occasions, blamed - Ottawa for much of British Columbia's fiscal woes. Social services Minister Joan ‘Smallwood has joined the chorus, warning that federal off-loading is threatening to destroy British Columbia’s so- - cial safety net. -. Smallwood is wondering about the federal hype about economic recovery when more ‘than $300,000 British Colum- bians are relying on income assistance. In an outline of British Columbia’s welfare system, Smallwood said that 62 per _ cent of the province’s 75,000 single-parent families were receiving welfare at the end of | December, 1992. About 85 per cent of aboriginal families, « Smallwood said, are earning. under $10,000 a year. The welfare caseload, she said, increased 16 per cent in the past 12 months to more than 313,000. To deal with this crisis, : _ Smallwood demanded that the federal government ‘work with the provinces on reforms to the country’s social safety net. “Co-operative federal- provincial action to reform the _ system is urgently needed is we are to avoid creating in Canada a permanent un- derclass of people living in poverty, ’’ the minister said. - Unless changes are made, the minister warned, ‘‘our sys-. tem may no longer be able to © sustain the future needs and - aspirations of British Colum.” bians.*” Smallwood also announced the creation of a 15-member provincial advisory council on: income assistance torecom- — mend changes to the welfare system. The council is made a up of advocates for the poor, welfare recipients, trade union officials and academics... While it is doubtful that yet *: another advisory council will =. be able to improve anything, Smallwoad’s call for a co-- operative approach to deficit _ control makes eminent sense. The dangers of allowing © deficits to climb, be they provincial or federal, are'too great to be used for political. games. oe The fact is that if Oltawa hadn’t cut its transfer pay- ments to the provinces and lived up to its obligations, » - British Columbia’s deficit ee a : - would be insignificant or ornon- = s existent. Ottawa's approach i is un-- acceptable. Applied to a per- =" _ sonal level, it’s tantamount to reducing a spouse’s allotment “ . for grocery money, while con-:.*-. tinuing to irresponsibly spend ~ money himself or herself. - A national deficit-reduction = Strategy is absolutely essential’ .~ if we are to rid ourselves of" - the albatross of ever- increasing debts. SCAT". ,.7100 MACHO “FT DOGGEREL BORING \. SILLY to "DISNEYLAND". "ROT ROoTER ‘+. DULL. “EXPOS “. WRONG SEASON UNRA*,. . UNPOPULAR, “GREEN PEACE". NOT Cool *sKID00"? “HUSAVARNA'S ; Ovirequiner: