A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 27, 1993 TERRACE: STANDARD. ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C, * V8G 158 TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432 MODEM: 638-7247 Sad state ONE OF the great tragedies of the public service in B.C, is the state of the forests ministry. A severe victim of budget cuts in the 1980s, the ministry hasn’t recovered sufficiently to do the job it should be doing. It’s undermanned and un- dergunned in the attempt to deal with the grow- ing crisis of wood supply in the province. What’s worse is that the ministry is too often embroiled in the politics of wood supply — en- -vironmentalists vs. corporations, natives vs. governments, etc. It’s a fair bet the amount of paperwork accumulated daily by the ministry matches the daily output of your average paper mill. Look no further than northwest B.C. for exam- ples of all of this. It’s no secret the northwest is running out of the wood needed to keep the saw- milling and pulping industry operating in the next 20 or 30-years in the same fashion as it does now. And it’s no.secret the existing milling capacities strip what wood there is now, let alone in the future. And it’s no secret that there are. - problems, unintended ones to be sure, in the growing. of new generations of the forest that are expected to provide future jobs. Some of this is laid out in various studies and reports. Some of it is hinted at in studies and reports yet to be released. A lot of it is evident in listening closely to the underlying message of what government and industry people have to Say. , One of the: reports released this year suggested the creation of some kind of regional decision making body to give broad direction to what should happen up here with the forest industry. It became a theme of former forests minister ‘Dan. (Miller, daly i ci ude ion : Now that Mr-Mi Milier-has 4 aio cabinet” job! ‘the 7 “suggéstion ‘Seems’ to’ have: “disappeared. It, of - course, should be revived. And so should a fully functioning forests minisiry. Good information is needed to make good decisions. Taking less SOME MIGHT call it blackmail. Others might call it the will of the people. Whatever label is _attached, provincial NDP Skeena representative ‘Helmut Giesbrecht was pretty blunt a couple of weeks ago about what could happen if B.C. resi- dents voted for the Tories or Reformers this past Monday. ‘Both parties favour spending cuts to balance the federal government’s budget. Doing that means ‘less money transferred to the provinces for social and medical programs. And that, says Mr. Gies- brecht, is a sign B.C. residents will accept sub- sequent lower levels of services. .. Obviously. Mr. Giesbrecht made his comments to sway people away from voting for Tories or Reformers. He knew when:he- made -the ‘com- _ments that neither party had a chance of forming a government and so enact their deficit cutting plans. | ’ But if we follow Mr. Giesbrecht’s logic correct- ‘ly, the provincial government has an opportunity” to do what the people want. And it ddesn’t have to take the blame for the consequences. If people want less, says Mr. Giesbrecht, we’ll give them less, The NDP is already working on plans for. the next provincial election. Who knows. As an ‘election strategy it just might work. : ‘puBLasHeR /EbiTOR: Rod Link oe ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm “PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur ‘etl NEWS" COMMUNITY: Jeff Nagel « NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter "--: OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher . COMPOSING: Pam. Odell * TYPESETTER: Tricia Walker : .. “DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur . ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros . CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Charlene Matthews ~ Sarving the Terese roa. Pubished on Wednosiy af. each week by Cailtoo Pres (1969) Lid, al 464? ~ Laraie Ave, Teriaba, Brtlsh Columnbla St i 4, Hustiatlons, designe and yperles in the Terrace Standard ate the property of the . co an nag Cariboo Prats (1865) Md W's Rustraion toro services and advertising ; prereciatan i whol orn pat wlhodt wrt parison i special poi prohibited. ; ‘ Ml ee et nha pee a ae Incest’ . Special thanks to: all our contributors and ‘correspondents . ‘for thelr tiie and talents veritio SIRCUEATION ==, Vy ie aA Z we eee Gp Li ie es Ye, 7, LOE “tty QE . hee Cx Rn Ar SS Ls a ‘ 88 " SSS VICTORIA —.Five southern Vancouver Island NDP MLAs sniffed the wind and have run for cover. If it happened in the military during armed combat, the five would be court-martialled, shot for cowardice, and the Hatcourt government would be minus four cabinet ministers andone backbencher. . . - If you or anyoné’ you know caris a living in the forest, you'll want to remember the names of the five deserters. They are sports minister Robin Blencoe, finance minis- FROM THE CAPITAL. HUBERT BEYER ter Elizabeth Cull, environ- ment minister Moe - Sihota, forest minister Andrew Petter, and.. backbericher: ..Gretchen-. - ‘Brewinun bologis any. ada war. Ina letter, released last Mon- day, the five tried to distance themselves and ihe NDP government from the contempt of court proceedings that have, : $0 far, resulted in jail terms and heavy fines for the first 44 Of nearly 800 people arrested at the logging road blockade in Clayoquot Sound on Van- couver Island, . The cutely-phrased letter says in so many words that the five’ MLAs don’t like the heavy sentences and fines any Letter writing does trick - more than those who received them, but that they can’t com- ment on mallers before the iva oman ‘hcdstNew! Democrats; “we baven’t ‘aban- * ‘doned' our commitment to - people’s tights to protest, but we can’t comment or try to in- fluence the outcome of the cousequences,’” said Petter, - The’ letter in question took the form of an ‘open letter’ to constituents. It said that the five MLAs are concerned about suggestions that- the government, somehow, was responsible for the ‘conduct of — the trial and the sentences. “Tt was the courts that com- WHY VOTE for Reform’s patliamentary recall when a federal party leader takes oyr- ders from an average citizen? Recently I wrote an open let- ter column to Audrey McLaughin complaining about her evasiveness during a CBC. television interview. At the time, according io inside reports, McLaughlin had of- fered to resign as leader be- causc the New Democratic party was-so low in the polls. But the party rejected her of- fer. -, THROUGH BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI During. the interview she evaded the resignation ques- tion as though she were deaf. Her deliberate evasivencss up- set me; told her so. Be honest, I advised, : Seven weeks after I mailed a copy of the column to her, I -tecelved her personal reply. That’s a quicker response than any parliamentary recall. Con- sidering she was in the run-up to an election, she had every ‘excuse to procrastinate. BUTT HEAD?! It’s also five weeks quicker than the two pages of jargon I got from Marcel Masse when he. was defence minister. I wrote to him about the poor quality of meals served non-. coms aboan! ship during NATO exercises. Masse took so long to answer I suspected he had gone incognito to pet- sonally check cuisine quality. Steering a politician by letter is far cheaper than recall. Our . I- oo put nan | Sours Wrenn! aoe OH : SERIOUS! THEY REALLY. MEAN {Tt}! * menced and conducted action against the Clayoquot Sound protesters, not the govern- ment,” the letter says. It’s a strange message, in- deed, the five are sending. They are saying, in effect, that the government had noth- ing to do with the matter. Let me refresh their memories. It was the goverament which de- cided to allow partial logging of the Clayoquot Sound. Tt also was attomey general’s staff that led the case in court against the protesters. Premier Harcourt, in typical fashion, jumpéd off the fence just long enough to find a stur- dier one to climb. No; he'said;-the five weren’t.- what they “jean terpret the letter as the first in- dication that the government is weakening on its Clayoquot stand. _ They will smell blood and not only renew their efforts to - have the decision reversed but step up their activities. I believe the protesters got everything they. deserved, They chose the route of civil. disobedience, knowing the consequences. ; Throughout the Clayoquot . Sound conttoversy, .- the protesters claimed to be acting in the true traditions of his- tory’s great civil-disobedience - leaders such as Dr, Martin Luther King and Mahatma — - Ghandi... Mr. . Justice!“ Bouck givthy- 16 présdire: from he sdeumaife:short Shriftiof thet argu. environmenialists. They were just setting the record straight and telling people that neither the premier nor any of his govemment MLAs had anything to do with the book Supreme Court Jus- tice John Bouck threw at the people who chose to ignore a Supreme Court order and then proceeded to turn the. court proceedings into acircus. Make no mistake, the en- vironmental groups, mainstream and fringe, will in- exchange of views cost each of | us 43 cents. Weigh that against the cost of a recall procedure, Prhatever | that procedure might e McLaughlin's response - in- - formal and amusing - ack- . nowledges . my concerns ‘and *), Fanks.me with her top advisors. Stephen ‘Lewis. Howard Pawiey. Even her signature is... hand -written, not inked with a Signature slamp. Oh, Pl bet it’s a personal let- ter, you say. The letter’ was probably drafted by an aide, you say, All Audry had to do was sign, No way. Although [ know secretaries who can draft let- ters that read as though the boss had written them, Even - T'vedone-that. ’ When I worked for a South African orthopedic surgeon who had trained in Liverpool, I learmed to” draft non-medical correspondence in his tone, By liberally sprinkling paragraphs . with British expressions = in- ment, Sih paw al Unlike. Ghandi and Ring, he said, the environmentalists had “access to a democratic system. - He also pointed out that when Ghandi was before the British - courts in India for the first time in 1929, he acknowledged that - he broke the law and. asked - that the court impose the maxi- ; mum sentence on him. ° mon : Our protesters, on the other hand, sniveled and whined. Some protest, some civil dis- obedience. deed, -hlst,. forinight recipients couldn’t tell’ my iet- ‘ ters from the bone doctor's. He . signed them as willingly as Henry Blake initialing Radar’s - bogus requisilions. . Anyhow, a3 a result of my advice, McLaughlin switched : stopped saying the NDP will © form the next government after ‘ als on their way to becoming the’ government, and only |; promised the NDP would be an . effective opposition, i Following my suggestion hasn’t lost the NDP any sup- port in the polls, They’ve held _ steady, Am I surprised McLaughlin heeded my advice? Heck, no. - New ‘Democrats are forever saying they want to hear from — us. I took them at their word. I obliged. Next, I must tell Mike Har- . court to drop the 7 percent sales tax on furniture reuphol- ~ _ Stering. an ns) to telling it like it is. She oy Cctober 25, declaréd the Liber-. :