a SLAB OO ALE LI ies come with hardware items from my suppliers, - home will be condemned by the _ fire marshall, Already whenever a the fire chief's truck ap- the dash like a hostage taker -Tunning a police roadblock. " governments discuss, and delay - establishing a recycling depot, the world is closing in about me, LO _ESTABUSHED APRIL 27, 1988 - iustraton repro services. and advertising agencies. Repecducton in whole or. in pat, withcut write pirmission is cpaclielty promlied. ‘Registration No. 7820 4647 Lazella Ave., | Terrace, B.C., vea 188 (604) 638-7283 ose Sgt Trew, td ot Wainy fh wk by ab en (4 Lf GH aaa, ta, British Columbia, , LIGA ge seven erat PE nt Tac Saw gary a ta ip ki, ery Caton Pri (10 Le, te Pp Acerived 3 sacond ess mal pending tha Post Ces Department, fr paymmnt of postage in cash uo Cau r Edouard. Gredgeur : lon Managot: | att Nagel cys peers = note . ware sane Viweros — ‘sot Cons é ‘Sports, Macoen Bates“ aw, a "Special thanks to ell “| our contributors and correspondents far. their: time and. a talents, G. . DITORIAJ_ Library expansion backers are talking ‘about a slogan to promote their cause. It’s “Take a friend (as in a book)'to’ bed. ” Better yet is to take a friend to the Polls. «Phat may be the only way to achieve some sort of balance over the issue of - building an expansion to the library in contrast to council’s plans to foist a _Convention-community centre on the ci- ty. The latest is that council has _ torpedoed the idea of a referendum to expand the library — it says it will con- sider the idea next year. "Instead council is carefully manuever- ing its plan for a convention-community centre. Expect grand announcements artfully timed to coincide with a referen- dum for this November’s municipal elec- tions. After all, convention-community centre is bigger, thus meeting the Freu- dian impulses that drive all politicians. It’s also perceived as being more ego ap- pealing as an election issue. To accomplish council’s desires, it has adopted several specious positions. One is that the rural area surrounding Ter- ace should contribute to construction .costs. As things stand now, the rural area pays $42, 000 in taxes toward an of There’, Ss. hope yet for the world now that: ‘businesses have re-discovered the . old'adage -- a penny saved is a penny earned, Conspicuous consumption i is out — conspicuous conservation is in. One of the more prominent converts in B.C. is the provincial crown corpora- tion B.C. Hydro. Where once B.C. ‘Hydro was the engine for the province's growth by striding across the land and 7 Yes to reading Operating budget of $242,000. It con- tributes nothing to paying any capital debt. Of course, the regional district should help pay for an expansion yet not one .word has been heard about the same principle applying to a convention- community centre. Council’s Position is that it will need time to negotiate a more equitable financial position’ with ‘the regional district for a library expansion, That’s why it now says it will consider such a referendum next year. Surely, the same kind of thinking should apply to the convention-community centre plans. And when council reveals its convention-community centre plans it will point to the economic development potential of attracting out-of-town visitors. But while that's all well and good, the track record of local govern- ments in economic development — and its affect on local taxpayers — hasn’t €X- actly. been stellar. Overail the impression is that the fix is in. The library board has asked for a lot- tery grant. You can bet council will ask ° for the same when for its convention- community centre plan. You can decide for yourself who will win out, damming rivers at will, it is concen- trating on the little things to reduce energy demand and thus horrendously expensive projects to produce electricity. It may be ironic that B.C, Hydro has undertaken the measures to save money, but it is a sign that public Shemons are beginning to act as they should — the best interests of the people they serve. She suffers gladly To be beautiful, ‘suffer. you must ‘That was one of my mother’s maxims. She adopted it in the Through ares @ .1920s-when it was fashionable ‘for young women to coif their Bifocals _ - party hair-dos witha hot curling by Claudette Sandecki iron. . And today’ Mom’s maxim ap- plies equally to the greening of our environment. ‘In my fervor to reduce, re- “use, and recycle, portions of our -Tesidence resemble the storage ‘Section of a moving company’s da! warehouse, - . We have shelves of ‘Magazines, pillars - of ‘Newspapers, crates of glass jars and bottles, steeples of styrofoam containers, and heaps of cardboard cartons that fills... If a local recycling depot doesn't open soon, I fear our “proaches, I hunker down below ' While provincial and local _ resort. ‘Soon our house won't need par- Always I reach the crunch where 1 must deal with the discards and debris. What to - Guilt, rather than a holier- than-thou attitude, motivates me. Burning plastics or other garbage in the wood stove is a no-no; too much risk of releas- ing toxins into the atmosphere, Stuffing refuse willy-nilly into a garbage can disregards the ultimate limitations of our Jand- To curtail the amount of packaging we must sort and store, we grocery shop not by brand, but by container, Thus -we give preference to return- for-deposit bottles, glass, or. biodegradable paper.. packed in plastics, foil,’ styrofoam are choices. of last Mutroney’s consiimption is” safeguarded by. his food taster. 1; My diet is regulated by laziness.’ a gathering up the peels and toting them to the compost con- tainer. That’s why I’m buying more apples, As a kid I learned to eat the entire apple except the stem, as a way of disposing of the evidence. We were an average income farming family and apples, like all fresh fruit from the store, was next to a luxury item. I tended to eat more than my share of MclIn- . tosh. So | wait for an environmen- tally friendly option, tackling my weekend cleaning with a Rubbermaid bucket of hot ‘water, an all-purpose cleaner, ‘. and keys to a forklift. Doesn't everyone? But now and then I remind myself, to be beautiful; you must suffer. So [ suffer, Gladly. Rapes MISS QUR Favor) ane ti Well; I The DENTAL APPOIICMENT Ril:00 : ‘ ALREADY Woe we LL Get to the heart (of the matter © VICTORIA — You've seen and heard those before-and- after testimonials on TV, tell- ing you how some guy turned . from a 90-pound weakling into a 110-pound weakling. Have I got. one of those for ct ied “ ian a week or so: peigt about to become part of British ‘Col- ‘umbia’s latest export articles — heart surgery patients. Actually, by the time you - * read this, I will already be recovering from double-bypass surgery in Seattle. I'd like to * mention al this point that I had no intention of boring you with my health care tales, but ' the columnist in me picked up a few things along the way I thought might interest you, A lot of people, I found out, are playing games with open-heart surgery. Some surgeons have long waiting lists, others have short ones, but nobody tells the patients that. Cardiologists, I found out, don’t seem to be very keen on informing their patients that they can go to Seattle to have bypass surgery. One might almost think they try to discourage the option. The Hospital Employees’ Union, 1 found out, is using the issue for its own purposes, lying through its collective teeth to its members and anyone else adventurous enough to read its publication, The Hospital Guardian. And all the while, the ' government is taking the flak, even though it is probably least to blame for the backlog of patients waiting to get open- heart surgery. More than three months ago, the government entered | into contracts with four Seattle . hospitals to do bypass surgery on. 200 B.C, patients. The idea ’ was trim the waiting list which is somewhere at the 700-mark. The Hospital Employees’ Union says in the latest issue of the Guardian that the Seat- MOU) 00'S C250 AND J Tit MiSs THE TRUCK. J. AUCT ''¢”| tions, We'll creep around like field mice in a stack of hay ales. I’ve never had trouble war- ding off compliments about my ‘housekeeping, but I find myself “ever less inclined to plug ina Vacuum: cleaner’ or to take a. : weigh’ the © “inconvenience” of No Jonger can :J snack on. a banana at my desk and absent: mindedly discard the peel in my Office ‘wastebasket. Instead 1 must trek to the kitchen and add the peel to the compost collec- tion, or risk a tongue-lashing - for depriving the earthworms of their rightful rations, Before I choose. an orange, I Vi CHINESE SMaROAS BARD WERE GONG f0R eis. DONT WORRY... ae From the Capital by Hubert Beyer ‘tle Program: has atoiitéd “*czia- tions comparable to the fren- zied anticipation of a lottery draw.” It goes on to say that a 71-year-old White Rock patient is begging the government to “'pick me, pick me’’ {0 go to Seattle. _ “That’s absolute rubbish,” ' says health minister John Jansen. So far, he says, only 60 people have gone the Seattle route. The government wishes it could Gonvince more people to go, but some don’t like the idea of having to go to a’ foreign country for major surgery, -an understandable albeit néedless fear, while others probably aren’t even aware of the possibility. ‘ Contrary to popular belief, a belief not discouraged by the union, it’s not budget restraints that have caused the backlog of people waiting for heart surgery. When the government decid- ed to have 200 operations done in Seattle, B.C. hospitals were 300 to 400 cases behind last year. The money was there. Funding-wasn't creating the bottleneck. ° “We needed a short-term solution and a long-term solu- tion. Sending 200 people to Seattle would help reduce the backlog, opening up new heart surgery wards, at the Royal Columbians and in Kelowna after that, will provide the long-range solution,” gays Jansen, Jansen puts ‘another myth to rest, The price tag of an opera- tion done in Seattle is not a lot higher than if it'were done. here in B.C. In the case of one hospital, it’s about $1,000 more; the other three charge about $1,000 less, ‘But jaon't get me wrong. ‘The’ price was‘hot a criterion” in the selection of the four hospitals, We had detailed bids from 10 Seattle hospitals, and we based our decision solely on the quality of patient-care they offered,”’ the minister. says. NDP health critic Tom Perry doesn't criticize the Seat- tle program. He says the level of care at the Seattle hospitals is every bit as good as.in British Columbia, On the other hand, he adds, he understands some people's reluctance ta go to another country for such an - operation, Perry says it’s difficult to ’ pin down the reasons for the backlog. A shortage of critical- care nurses, may be one. ‘‘It*s a high-stress job and people get fed up with it,” he says, Another reason, according " to Perry, is probably ad- mininstrative inefficiency. While some surgeons have very long waiting lists, others have very short ones, As far as the patients: are concerned, it doesn’t really, . matter who does the opera- tions, says Perry. The pro- - cedures are so routine and. standardized that one heart: surgeon is as good as another. There’s one aspect that < speaks against sending patients : out of the country, None of . the money the province spends comes back here. At $20,000: --,each, the 200 operations to be done i in Seattle-will cost about $4 million. If that money, Were “spent here, ‘at least some of it would come back into public. - coffers i in the form of taxes. - Still, Pm glad I can get’ it. done with quickly, It beats waiting for six months or 10. Talk to you when I get back, Dour. EVER EVERE. DovSle Book AN. ont oF oun Patent!