rd

Page 2, The Herald, Tuesday, January 6, 1981 a
‘a
TERRA FALULMAT

daily herald

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Editor —- Bete Nadeau

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f TALKING
POLITICS

This space offers your provincial and federal
elected officials a place to say their plece.
Columns are selected on the basis of
relevance, not party preference and are the
opinions of the author not the editor or this:

newspaper.
_ a

By BILL BENNETT
British Columbia looks to the New Year
with optimism and confidence based on
solid performance in the Province’s
economy over the last four years and
particularly the year just past.

The Canadian West is the engine of
economic growth in Canada and the
relative strength of | the Western
economy has never been more apparent
than In the last few years.

Economic growth in British Columbia’
is forecast to outstrip both the Canadian
average as well as that in the United
States next year. Real growth for B.C. és
expected to increase by 1.8 per cent,

» compared to a decline of 1.0 per cen? for:
Canada and a decline of 1.4per cent in the
U.S. .

During the past 12.months the British
Columbia economy created 65,000 jobs,
an increase of 5.6 per cent compared to
the average job creation of 2.2 per cent in
nada asa Whole. =.

Unemployment fell to 5.8 per cent in
November on a seasonally adjusted
basis, the lowest figure for about 15
years, compared to 7.3 per cent Canada
wide. The Vancovver unemployment .-
rate fell to 4.5 per cent.

The number of new companies in-
corporated In British Coiumbla totalled
20,600. The number of both businesses
and non-business bankruptcies in the
Pravince declined significantly this year

-- 12 per cent and 35 per cent respectively |

- compared to last year, while the
number of bankruptcies everywhere else -
in Canada -- Including oil-rich Alberta --
rose In comparison to last year.

- Investment In British Columbia In fhe
past year totalled $11.4 billion, up 22.4 per
cent, compared to 13.6 per cent for
Canada as a whole.

The Province's $200 million low-.
Interest housing program initiated In
January, 1980 created 5,078 new homes in
the” Province ‘by Dec. 31. A major
government Initiative to put land for
19,000 new housing units on the market in
the Power Mainland along with other: .
major housing initiatives, was just an-
nounced.

A major rapid transit system will be
bullt for the Lower Mainland with the
first major tine finished In time for
Transpo “8. . ;

Let me |ust alsa review some of our:
long-term record: 7

For the past few years, British
Columbia has had a much stronger
economic performance than most of the
rest of Canada. .

After shrinking by 1.9 per cent in 1975,
the B.C. economy experienced strong
growth, averaging 4.9 per cent annually
from 1976 to 1979. At the same time the
Canadian economy grew at a rate of only
3.5 per cent.

, Inthe past five years the B.C: economy
created 184,000 new jobs, representing 13
per cent of fhe total number nationally.

Unempleyment has deciined every
year-over the past four years.

* When the fina! figures for 1980 are In,
total Investment is expected to.increase
by 26.7 per cent over the last year, twice
the Canadian average. In 1975, the total
Investment growth in the provinee was
only 8.0 per cent -- less than half of

_ Canadian average. ..

# That is just a small part.of the success
story we have to tellin British Columbia.

We look forward with faith ‘and con-
fidence, certain that with courage and
determination we will achleve a great .
future. °

iy

Ct sag Steg pee

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W YEAR'S”

— Gomer, wnere Dw You SAY You WERE
WHEN JIE GAVE You Tose NE

=

by RICHARD GWYN

$8 tne :

\..

OTTAWA - If you squint hard at today’s
headlines, much as {f heading into a blizzard,
itis possible to see here and there a few causes
for seasonabie cheer. -

in Alberta, the separatist movement, which
lacks both a leader and a program, already

‘has passed its peak. The attitude which
remains to be addressed is that of a profound
sense of estrangement from the east and fram
the federal government, but estrangement
implies anger at being left out rather than a
sentiment of wariting to get out.
_ Across the country, exorbitant interest rates
‘have failed. to reduce the economy to the
catatonic state they usually do. in general,
the economy may be more resilient than we
recognized. In particular, businessmen and
retailers have learned from past, painful,
experience, how fo control their inventories.

Otherwise, the news Is just about a white-
oul. We are stumbling Into 1981, each blindly
frying to make it on our: own.

_The case examples of what we are daing to ©

each other all are familiar. 6.C. is
withholding $175 million worth: of gas excise

, taxes on the grounds it belleves this new

federal levy is illegal. Alberta is cutting back
oll production by 15 per cent, and has halted
_work on the two heavy. oil projects without
which national self-sufficiency is unat-
talnable." Lastly, Saskatchewan Premier Alan

Blakeney has said he may withhold the new
federal § per cent tax on oll companies unless

‘he is granted higher’- oil prices.

Provincial governments have ralled at
Ottawa in the past. . Federal-provinctal
bickering Is ournational art form. Blackmail,
though, is something quite new to the

Canadian experience. _

: Each of the three provincial governments
justifies its action by blaming Ottawa, which
provides 4 convenient, and above all a distant,
scapegoat. Yet just as a public service union

-when It goes on strike -- air traffic controllers. : :
as an example -- blackmails its employer by”

pressuring fhe public, so do ‘provincial

governments now ciaim the right fo blackmall.

Ottawa by. pressuring Canadians. In other

provinces, whether as consumers or as eax-

payers.
Blackmail,

din Quebec. There Is something ironic, to put it
at its mildest, In the spectacle of Premier
Rene Levesque joining flve other provinces in
a legal challenge of Ottawa’‘s-right fo change
the constitutjon unilaterally by inviting
Quebecers to vote Yes to soverelgnty-
assoclation. (During the Quiet Revolution of
- the '60s,‘the tate Jean Lesage employed ‘a
milder version of ihe same tactic.)
On the premise that a desirable end justifies

-- RESOLVT)

, 8s an’ instrément of con...
- ‘temporary political negotiation, was invented

the means, a case can be made that political
blackmail has at times been proven to be both
necessary and effective. For instance,
‘English-Canada only accepted bilingualism
after the Parti Quebecois victory of «1977;
conveniently forgotten now by the rest of the
country Is the Bilingualism in the Air crisis of
1976 which preceeded the PQ election.

_ Similarjy.. although the west made’ the

the mid-'70s, It was only this year that the rest

_of the country, and Ottawa In particular,

treated western alienation as anything more
than a modern variation of age-old complaints
about the CPR. [1 will be a long time before

ons SP

_ LETTERS TO
_THE EDITOR

So Larry Moore, the

” . hative representative from

of ey

westerners overcome the psychic shock .of -

furaing on their’ tv sets last February 18 to
discover that Ontario and Quebec already had
elécted_a national Libera! government on their

_ behalf.

But blackmail still is blackmail, it
represents the ultimate violation of trust. it

substitutes power for the rule of law. In .

cutting back oil supplies,- for instance,
Lougheed Is doing fo other Canadians what he
would not allow his own oil companies, say, to
do as.-a protest against_ the burden of
provincial royaities. In withholding federal

-gas excise. revenyes, Bennett is doing to

federal taxpayers what he would not allow

B.C. storekeepers, say, to do to him as a -

’ challenge to the provincial sales tax,

Blakeney*s outburst is the most surprising.
Not because he’s known as a federalist, but
because he once was blackmailed himself. In
1976, Saskatchewan potash companies
withheld payments on a new provincial tax.

’ Blakeney’s response was to nationalize them.

ry

Kitwanga,was not in al-

_ creative, ‘connection: between its, qwn’ en." ” Yendance at the December

_ treprenurial energy and the accidental
location of its natural resources as farbackas ©

‘Oth gekéol board iheeting
when the other dewly

* elected trustees were

sworn in, because he had
no knowledge of the

‘meeting. And as of
December 31, he also had

‘no notification of the .

meeting scheduled for
_January 13th where his
swearing in is first on the
agenda,

_ Ted Wells,’ secretary-
treasurer of School District
6, says he is certain
“without a doubt” that
notices of meetings -have
been sent out to Moore.
The fact that Moore has
received copies of the
minutes, ‘properly ad-

. dressed, would suggest

that the post office ix not at
fault. But if the notices
were mailed as Wells says,
why haven't they reached

Moore?

- Why didn’t Wells phone
Moore to make sure Mowe

meetings? And when

Also, as of January
1981, Moore had not yet

recelved a copy of the .

Public Schools Act, or of
the School Board Palicy.
However, when Diana

would know af ih co

Mciay was acclaimed a”

trustee, she received bath
these publications Irom

Wells within % bows. .

Moore was acclaimed ten

Last May when the board
was considering dropping
the number of trustees

. from nine to seven, one of

their main reasons . for
doing so was the fact the
native representative irom

Kitwanga attended so few |

‘weeks ago on October 27. -

meetings as lo indicale he

had no interest in being a
trustee. Perhaps the
reason he was absent so
often was because he was

‘never informed of the dates

of the meetings?

"Mra. Claudette Sandecki:

The Herald welcomes its readérs comments.
All letters to the editor of general public interest -
will be printed. We do, however, retain the right
to refuse to print letters on grounds of possible
libel ‘or bad taste. We may also edil lelters for
styte and length. All letters to be considered for

‘publication must be signed.

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