nr ni on ne ee ee ee ee : . to . a . + .Do you believe the B.C. Health Care oo Ss system can survive in Its. Present form? ae | Willlam Buck . _ If we can run a $70,000 home in Vancouver up to $300,000 without batting an eye, then we can afford a good health care sys- tem. If people can afford - $16,000 for a recreational vehicle), then we Can pay a decent wage to our nurses. Many are Jeaving B.C. to go to the states as It Is. “toy”, (eg.. -* Jim Cook (from Nelson, B.C.) _ [think It can — yes. We are losing a lot of our nurses because they are poorly pald. Any health care system in this coun- try should be able to. sur- vive. . .ever, needs to find out good wages, but costs Jackle Dale . | think It can. The government of B.C., how- ‘where all the money Is go- ing — there needs to be | more efficiency in the sys- tem. In order to have good nurses we need to pay. generally are much too high compared to Alberta. | health care > “top fom”, Ny “Margaret Raposo | |-think. it can because = : “necessity it is vital that -- we ensure the B.C. Health * Care system is always in is such a Gloria Kirkpatrick _ That is a hard question to answer — | think we . have an excellent health care system and can af- ford to keep it up in B.C. No students to China | It. appears that students and teachers in School District 88 did well to take their excursions to the People’s Republic of Chi- na last year. On June 6 the B.C. Ministry of Education issued a bulletin " urging all districts who intend td go to China this summer under | the Pacific Rim Initiatives pro- gram to cancel their travel plans due to the political unrest there. All Pacific Rim travel for School. District 88 this year is planned for Japan. . AIDS stable but virus - spreading in region | ~The number of reported cases of AIDS (Acquired Immune De- _ ficiency Disease) in the Skeena Health Unit area now stands at two. Reported clases of ‘the fatal . disease in the SHU area — from Houston to the Queen Charlotte Islands and north to the Yukon _ border — have not shown the dramatic increase in incidence. evident in Vancouver, but: Dr. David Bowering, chief medical health officer for the SHU, says the figures can be misleading. Bowering suggested recently that a more accurate indicator would be the number of con- firmed positive tests for HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Vi- rus) in the area. Those figures Letters to the ‘tell a different story. “HIV is the infection which. eventually — sometimes after-a. | period of years — develops into the series of symptomatic ill- nesses called AIDS. . - Bowering says an average of . -2§ to 30 people in the health unit area are tested each month for HIV; of those tests, an average of two each month come back positive; an indication that the disease is spreading i in this area, Anyone who suspects he or she may be infected can arrange to have a blood sample taken and tested through a family physician. Confidentiality of the _ tests. and their results are guar 7 anteed. . Editor Of hounds and humans _ To the Editor: Regarding the nurses’ strike, its interesting to note on my 1989 property tax notice for Thornhill that I’m paying $48.99 to the Kitimat-Stikine Regional Hospital District. Further down I note that I’m paying $97.19 for Thornhill dog control. It was quite a shock to find that the government or regional board thinks that dog control is twice as important as hopital - care. Perhaps this is why nurses are so low paid for their four years of training and working in life-threatening ‘situations, in comparison to other profes- sionals. -Well- spoken Veritas students p K. of C. competition Two Veritas students, Glenys George and Joelle Walker, placed second and third in a Knights of Columbus public speaking competition held in Kitimat recently. The competi- tion was open to grades five to seven students attending Catholic schools in Terrace, Kitimat and Prince George. First place was won by a Prince George student. Veritas representatives for the event were chosen by an in- school competition held earlier and this was won by George, Pifer — continued from page 6 disputed that they are not out of control, proportionately, | with other years, the philosophy and policy of the Social Credit government is to see the user paying more... and if that means the only way it can be done is to have everyone | pay more, so be it. @ Parting Thought; Surely | Labour and Consumer Affairs Minister Lyall Hanson must want this session to wind up more than any other MLA, if just to get some relief from the‘ It’s time we got our priorities — straightened out and put humans before dogs. N. McFarland Editor’s note: Without disputing Mr. McFarland’s point we feel compelled to point out for our readers’ benefit that hospital operating costs and some of their major capital costs are wholly funded by the Ministry. of Health; the, Kitimat-Stikine Regional Hospital District funds minor capital expenditures and équipment replacement costs through the property tax levy, Local government is entirely : responsible for dog control, lace in. followed by Walker and Edlynn’ Okano: The trio then went on to the Knights of Columbus com- petition, where they were -re- quired to deliver a three-minute- prepared speech followed .by a two minute impromptu presen-| tation selected by each speaker from a choice of topics. According to a spokesman at Veritas School, the Knights of _ Columbus public speaking com- . petition began in northern B.C. 25 years ago and the club do- nates plaques for each winner as well as district awards. 7 _ incessant barrage of questions _ .and demands for his resigna- ° tion over the lies (not his, I: hasten to add) surrounding the infamous Knight Street Pub af- fair. Chances are Vander Zalm will shuffle the Cabinet just before of just after the end of the session, and it will include’ . a change for Hanson, most likely into a different portfolio. : I do not think he will be dumped altogether, even _ though the Premier is under. considerable public and private: oe - pressure to do-so. so: eR ey, Sn, wl ieee) wine pum. fot aE Oa a F-Pt pear Nae al abe nh att Nee: Vile alle as Ce Mew)