Page 4, The Herald, Tuesday, Ociober 23, 1979

TERRACE/KITEIMAT

daily herald |

GaneralOffice- 435-6357 Published by
Circulation - 435-4357 Starling Publishers

GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland
EOITOR - Greg Middleton

CIRCULATION - TERRACE - 635-6357
KITIMATOFFICE «632-2747
Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street,
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Authorized as second class mall. Registration number
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permission of the Publisher.

EDITOR'S
JOURNAL

BY
GREG
MIDDLETON

Another shoe has fallen.

It took long enough, We've been listening for it for
quite some time now. The silence from Mills Memorial
Hospital had become almost deafening.

During the summer almost half the department
heads at Mills Memorial Hospital quit almost
simultaneously. At that time the just recently
resigned administrator, John Allen, denied there were
any personnel problems at the hospital. He said those
who left did so for personal reasons. This is what
Wayne Epp, the chairman of the hospital board, is now
saying of John Allen’s recent resignation.

Mills has had considerable trouble keeping staff,
especially accountants. Graham Palmer has,
however, stepped back into that job now that Allen has
eft.

Part of the problem seems to be budget. Allen ap-
parently put considerable pressure on to keep the

pital within the government guidelines, Some now
say the hospital is suffering as a result. Allen’s sharp
pencil left middle management facing a reluctant
staff, a staff bent on making certin they weren’t the
part cut back.

The other part of the problem seems to be in the
confusion caused by having staff, especially ac-
countants, leave.

The hospital has had to hire an outside firm of
chartered accountants to do not only the regular audit
but also the day-to-day accounting and a special audit
of the over $ million building expansion and
renovation.

Some members of the board will criticize Alien, for

his handling of personnel matters. Others will suggest
that keeping within government guidelines was not
politically smart. The government did pick up the
deficits and added that money to next year’s budget.
Tobe fair, board members also praise some aspects of
Allen’s administration. Board members do, however,
get considerably nervous when rumors of financial
finagling within the hospital are mentioned.

These questions are all toberouted through Epp. He
blythely denies any knowledge of them and says he
isn't concerned.

Epp also denies knowledge of did Gusbions tynbditipended barller this week

whether or not there were fiscal improprietles.
Discussions which other sources say led the board to
come to certain conclusions about questions with Jim
Allen's expense account. It did not involve real fraud,
the board decided. It was, as one board member said,
“vather like the Jack Davis affair.’ They seem ta
have ignored the fact that Davis was convicted,
however,

The Herald called Epp for a comment on Monday.
Epp was asked about an investigation by police and
charges contemplated in connection with fiddling an
expense account. Epp said it was news to him.

It is rather curious that, as the police went in with a
search warrant some time ago and have been going
through hospital files, Epp was unaware of the in-
vestigation.

Police sources say it is usually the board that calls
in police in cases like this. It would normally be on the
board’s invitation that the police would descend on the
hospital. In this case, however, it may be an outsider
who called in the cops. In any case, Epps’s blase at-
titude is somewhat puzzling.

And if the Jack of an accountant left the hospital's
ledgers in the confusion that you would expect books
not diligently kept in good order to be in, how much
more may be hidden there?

Is the board being ever so quiet because they are
walting for a third shoe to drop? One which will in-
dicate that there must have been partners involved in
the dancing to the tune of the fiddle Wayne Epp claims:
not to have heard.

nae

‘Plus $9.

95 for storage!

By GARRY FAIRBAIRN

OTTAWA (CP) — Take the
$3.5-billlon Petro-Canada
empire, divide it among 23
million Canadians, and each
man, woman and child is
richer by $152.17, right?

Dead wrong, saya: Cyril
Symes.

In fact, the NDP energy
spokesman said Thursday,
they would end up being a lot
poorer — not just in abstract
ideological terms, but in
hard dollars.

Developing new energy
supplies is g long, costly
road, he said in an interview.
Bribing profit-motivated oil
companies to travel that
road would eventually cost
billions in ofl prices in-
creases and tax concessions,

. “While giving out free

‘sharés “may, sound. good in
the short run, in the long run
I think they're going ta be
paylng more out cf their
other pockets in financing
these high-risk, longterm
developments,”’
Confronting that bleak
interpretation is the
unabashed = freeenterprise
Philosophy of the Con-:
servative government and
its task force that recom:

organization and
“privatization” of Petro-
Canada.

“MaxLmum benefit resulta
when government limits ite
role to public-interest ac-
tivities that are not com-
mercial," the task force
report declares, “This
leaves to private-sector
citizens activities that are
mot efficiently handled in a
privatesector organizational
mode,”

This means the govern-

ment stays out of profitable
activities,

Starting irom that
premise, the four-man group
concludes that Petro-Canada
has often-incompatible
goals: Acting as an in-
strument of national energy
policy on one hand and
“showing an appropriate
profit from the use af the
resources under its control”
on the other,

The clash of these twin
principtes, the report says,

NDP CRITIC CLAIMS

PetroCanada plan flawed

js performing: ‘‘Losses
which may actually be due to
bad business judgment may
be attribu to fulfilling
national objectives,”

As analternative ta what it
holds is a haphazard, am-
biguous situation, the report
calls for Petro-Canada to be-
come a private companny,
with a normal mix of short-
and longterm investments
and debt and equity,

The bulk of costly frontier

research and exploration,
which might not yield
returns for decades, would
be transferred to a new
government agency.
“Privatization” would be
achieved by the simple ex-
pedient of giving Canadians
shares in the company,
limiting individual holding to
a@ maximum of one per cent,
Shares could be sold on stock
markela six months after
initlal distribution, with

ATRILL

By THOMAS ATRILL

THINKS |

Itis a case of the blindleading the blind.
The Peanut President, te paraphrase a couple of old

slogans, wrestled the eco

nomy into the ground, and

got inflation moving again; and our own Pet Pierre
did much the same for Canada. .

Apologists blame our present economic ills on such
nebulous factors as multinationals, windfall profits,
world conditions and human greed. John Maynard
Keynes, who should take most of the blame, is safely
in his grave, while his disciples carry on the economic
policies that he advocated in his .Gereral Theory,

many decades ago. |...

Since most of the Free

World based its economic

policies on Keynes’ foolish theories, as interpreted by
Galbraith and others, it should come as no surprise
that most of our economies are suffering similar

symptoms.

A Marxist, Keynes first obliterated the facts and
then built his Theory on suppositions, clothed in
equations and other gobbledygook. Perhaps he did not
succeed in fooling himself, but he certainly did
mislead a long line of latter-day economists. Our

present economic ills are
Ignoring all the age old

the result.
rules of income and outgo;

profit and loss, and substituting his own pet slogans

and notions, Keynes advocated such nonsense as
printing more money for more prosperity and spen-
ding as a virtue. He cast aside the old rules, one of
which makes a balanced budget mandatory. He
scorned the idea that a nation’s wealth, and that alone,
can lirait the amount of money allowed to circulate. In
short, Keynes lived in a dream world.

Decades of ‘pump-priming’, public works, increased
dollar supply and tax-financed giveaways, have
proven the bankruptcy of Keynsian economics. Unless
we reverse the trend, we face economic collapse in
many free countries, . ee

Let us put an end to this farce. Let us return to the
old principles of a balanced budget, free enterprise
and anhonest money supply, readily exchangeable for

business institutions each
limited to a three-per-ecent
holding.

That, the report contends,
would produce the best of all
worlds: Continued necessary
government involvement In
energy development, plus an
efficient, large, Canadian-
owned oil company.

While Prime Minister
Clark has declared his liking
for the report, opposition
Liberals and New
Democrats are vehement In
their denunciations.

In the throne speech
debate, Opposition Leader
Plerre Trudeau reminded
the Commons that his
government created Petra-
Candda in 1975 to be “a
vehicle by which the gov-
ernment could seek to obtain
knowledge “of the domestic
and international petroleum

industry.”

it acted, he said, becawe
91 per cent of Canada's ol]
and gas was owned by elght
multinational corporations.
Now, “Petro-Canada {a a
company that allows
Canadians for the firat time
to know what is going on in
this industry and
on,” git

Like the Liberals, the NDP
attacked the Conservative
approach as one that would
weaken Petro-Canada,
splitting it in the face of giant
competitora.

The task force recom-
mendations, however, would
still leave Petro-Canada in
privatized form with $24
billion in assets, compared
with today's $3.5 billion. -

The lost $600 million,
covering primarily  In-
vestments in longrange
northern exploration, would
go ta the proposed new
government agency.

By that Symes and other
critics see in that proposed
division the seeds of doom.

How, Symes asks, will a
restraint-minded govern-
ment find the will to invest
massive sums in such an
agency’s work?

The danger, he says, is
that the agency would elther
find frontier oll and turn It
over to the multinationals, or
the agency would wither

J 4 ve.
Ne ae ae nM
some say in wi ott froin: agricultural reserve status, is a Socred. So

make decisions difficult and gold, and let us begin t long hau back ‘to economic while Canada relied on
tan make it hard to deter- responsibility. private companies to
Keynes will turn over in his grave! develop frontler oil,

mine how well management

tetera

-PERSKY’'S
PERSPECTIVE

By STAN PERSKY

Phoney letter
to the editor

Dear Terrace Daily Trumpet, .

Iwas having a wonderful time visiting Japan, South
Korea, Taiwan and other major democracies and
sweatshops in the Free World. You can imagine my
disappointment upon returning to Victoria tofind that,
my government had come apart at the seams.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear. It's wrong to

_ write phoney letters. Absolutely wrong. (For the

record, I’m also against kicking dogs, children, and
Mr, Hitler’s execution of the Jews in WW2.)

I'm perfectly willing to admit that the gutless
wretch who advised Socred members to write phoney
letters was employed by my government. Of course, I
had no knowledge of what he was doing, but I accept
full responsibility for his desplcable actions.

Even though this rat was under the supervision of .
Education Minister Pat McGeer’s present executive
assistant, although J have no knowledge of what Mr.
McGeer or his executive assistant are doing, I accept
full responsibility for them. And although I, of course,
had no knowledge of what Human Resources Minister
Grace McCarthy’s executive assistant was doing
when he tape recorded the advice to write phoney
letters, and have no knowledge whatsoever of what
Mrs, McCarthy is doing, l accept full responsibility for
them also.

And although I had no knowledge whatsoever of
what my chief personal assistant, Mr. Halde-, Imean,
Mr. Dan Campbell was doing when he authorized the
distribution of these shameful tapes during the
election campaign, I want to say that I know Mr,
Campbell to be one of the finest, most loyal and sin-
cere public servants who has ever been paid out of the
public porkbarrel. I, of course, accept full respon-
sibility for whatever he did, since I’m in charge here
(isn't that right, Grace? ).

lrealize that phoney letters and dirty tricks aren't
the only ‘issues confronting my government. There's
the millions of dollars we've squandered on that
beanbrained compulsory heroin scheme, and there’s

the giveaway of valuable B.C. farmland to Socred

cronies. I know that these are serious charges and I’m
perfectly prepared to accept responsibility for them.

When we began the compulsory heroin program, I
can only say that I sincerely believed that this was the
best way to get these disgusting creeps off the street.
Even though every expert in the field told.us we were
viclating federal law, I assure you I had no intention of
violating the law. And now that the courts have
decided against us, and justice has once again
prevailed, my government will of course fully abide

. by the court’s. decision while at the same time we:

sneak around Ottawa trying to get Joe Clark to change
the law.

As for the land taken out of the agricultural preserve
and given to a Socred crony for industrial develop-
ment, I’m prepared to accept full responsibility, if it
can be proven that my government has broken any’
laws in doing this, but 1 don’t think you'll ever nail us

"in court on this one. It's true that Ainslie Loretto,

director of Gloucester Properties, which will make a
Baindle now that their 626 acres has been removed

what? There are many, many Socreds in B.C. Yes, it's
true that she worked out of Health Minister Bob
McClelland’s campaign office ‘during the last
provincial election. (By the way, I accept” full
responsibility for Mr. McClelland, though of course I
have no idea what he is doing,)

And yes, it’s true that Mr. McClelland was a
member of the cabinet's Environment and Land Use
Committee that overruled the Land Commission’s
decision that Mrs, Loretto’s land not be removed from
the agricultural reserve. So what? Sure, it looks bad.
And morning breath smells bad. But there’s a big
difference between looking bad and losing in court.

As for the discrepancies between the Land Com-
mission and ELUC, I agsure you those will be cleared
up shortly, even if we have to abolish the Land
Commission to do so. While I’m at it, I wish to
categorically deny the rumour that I'm planning to
build the new Lower Mainland sports stadium on any
farmland now held by any Socred crony. .

So there. We've put all those things behind us, and
now it’s time to get on with the business of governing
the province. I will go on serving you as your premier
until 1 decide it’s time to get re-elected, Right now,
however, we've got to get on with the business of
governing. Therefore, 1 wish to announce that the next
session of the legislature will begin April 1, 1983.

Sincerely,
Bili Bandit
Prime Monster of B.C

Suggestions regarding children’s rights

By KEN ROBINSON |
Skeena Junior Secondary School

In this Year of the Child, it seems appropriate that
some discussion should be given over te children
(students). Many teachers in the Province are
currenly discussing the rights and obligations of
students, however, it only makes sense io discuss
students in the context in which they function {1.e. the
school] system).

The rights of students, parents and teachers, and
their responsibilities, a3 well as those of the schoo] and
community, the school district, the board and its staff,
and the province and the Ministry of Education are:

1, To be informed of the rights and responsibilities of
students,

2. To enjoy freedom of speech and assembly.

3. To enjoy equal access to free public school
education.

4, Toenjoy access to stimulating learning resources-
-both human and material.

5, To enjoy basic communication skills, including
functional literacy. Comment: “Any philosophy of
education must recognize the need for the basic
communication skills,’ Literacy includes abilities in
listening, reading, writing, speaking, viewing and the
subltleies of non-verbal communication.

6. To be provided with opportunities for optimum
growth and development through varlous learning

processea~manipulative, imaginative, creative, in-
tellectual.

7. To appropriate diagnosis and remediation where
handicaps of any kind exist.

8. To have access to educational options and
alternatives to suit needs (i.e. recognition and ap-
preciation of uniqueness.)

9. To receive guidance for developing individual's
own integrated system of values. -

10. To enjoy opportunities for developing self-
confidence, self-discipline and self-reliance.

11, To retain an ethnic, cultural and linguist
heritage. |

12, To be made aware of the ethnic, cultural and
linguistic heritage of others.

13. To be exposed

14. To due process. .

15. To participate in decisions in accord with the
growth of maturity of the student, both as an in-
dividual and as part of a group.

16. To physical environments which are hygienic,
safe and conducive to learning (appropriate tem-
perature, lighting, colors, humidity and cleanliness),

i7. To enjoy freedom from physical and
paychological abuse. .

to global concerns.

18. To have access to his-her personal records in
accord with the growth of maturity of the student, both
ag an merida and as part of a group.

. TO enjoy access to adequate
housing, eq food, clothing and

0. To safety.

2l. To enjoy access to health instruction and
facilities.

2. To protection from contagious diseases,

- %. To enjoy access to recreation facilities and
programs,

or ‘The prove Is a list whe eek, that I have gathered

reading on Subject of student rights,
October 23, 1979 is the Day of the Child. Perhaps sms
or all of the above points should be thought about for a

moment. How do we treat our chil
each of these points? ur children with respect to