Eliminating
our cultural
foundation

Trustees must reverse
cuts to music and theatre

Dear Sir:

By closing the R.E.M. Lee Theatre, the trustees
are removing 4 cultural cornerstone of the com-
munity at large. The theatre is used by many groups
in addition to the schools, all of whom it must be
pointed out, pay both rent and a bead tax to the
school district each time they use the theatre,

It represents a major asset to the cultural life of
the community, and indeed of the entire northwest.

For example, as it is the only realistic venue for
the Terrace Concert Society to present its concert
series, the series proposed for next year will likely
be cancelled, Since block bookings with neighbour-
ing communities are normally arranged, closing this
theatre will have an impact on Kitimat, Prince
Rupert, Smithers, and the Queen Charlotte Islands,

The theatre also represents a major capital and

cultural asset for the School District, and I for one
do not see how the trustees can seriously consider
mothballing it.
- By cutting the grade 6 and 7 band programs, the
trustces have effectively killed the entire music pro-
gram for the district, as these programs are the
feeders for all later courses, The music program has
been built up over the years to something very spe-
cial, consistently achieving an outstanding quality,
to the point of winning gold and silver at national
competitions,

The trustees have obliterated all this with the
stroke of a pen. The value of music in an educa-
tional system bas been scientifically proven in any
number of wel} documented studies, recently
popularized as ‘‘the Mozart Effect’.

Several times since the amalgamation of the dis-
tricts and the concurrent budget problems, cuts to
the music programs have been proposed. Each time,
parents ard concerned citizens have turned out in
droves to protest, demoustrating the commitment of
the community to its music.

Many alternatives, ranging from the institution of
parking fees to holding meetings by conference
calls, have been presented by literally hundreds of
concerned parents and cilizens. Most suggestions
have been dismissed out of hand, often seemingly
because it was felt they would upset people.

Instead, the trustees have elected to disregard
public input and follow their own course. Twice
now efficiency teams from the Ministry of Educa-
tion have looked into the operations of School Dis-
trict 82 and presented recommendations to improve
its financial position. In both cases these recom-
mendations have been largely ignored.

This is the equivalent of scoraing the lifeboats on
asinking ship.

The Special Efficiency Advisory Report prepared
by Wayne Desharnais reveals some rather shocking
facts regarding the operations of the board over the
last three years,

For example, on page 31 it reveals that even after
all the Ginancial difficulties suffered over the last
three years ‘‘apparently the Board is still not being
presented with formal monthly financial reports’
and ‘‘they are not receiving at least quarterly
teports comparing actual and forccast expenditures
to revenue.” This is inexcusable.

Any group, but particularly one dealing with tax-
payer dollars, should know on a continuing basis
what its financial position is.

When you have an important goal to achieve,
should you not be tracking where you are in rela-
tion to that goal? As Mr. Deshamais states on page
25 “Tt appears the district is still attempting to op-
erate from crisis to crisis.”

I feel the Jack of direction and perceived un-
accountability to the public of the board has led to
the present sitnation, I therefore ask that the trustees
firstly revisit the reports filed by both of the Minis-
try consultants and implement the majority of their
recommendations, and secondly seriously review
the suggestions received from the public and utilize
those that are worthwhile. ,

Further, in view of the tremendous support
demonstrated by the public al large, ] ask that the
trustees reverse their decisions regarding the REM
Lee Theatre and the school music programs. The

benefits outweigh the costs.
Ken Juniper
Terrace, B.C,
Festival unrecognized
Dear Sir:

I awaited, with great excilemeant, the arrival of the
April 21 Terrace Standard ouly to be disappointed
once again.

On April 9th, The North West Music Festival was
held here in Terrace with a tremendous job done by
many volunteers and attended by many important
and respected people from the music community.

Bands from near and far attended and performed
as well as receiving a work-shop with comments,
lips and help from these people. This was not free

CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD

the —
Mail Bag

PARENTS AGAINST MUSIC CUTS: More than a dozen

parents, students and teachers played

their instruments outside the schoo! district office April 28 to protest the elimination of kindergar-
ten, Grade 6 and Grade 7 band classes and 9th and 10th black music classes. School board
trustees have cut various school programs to balance the district's deficit budget by next year,

but we all were more than happy to travel, spend
the weekend and bask in the enjoyment of seeing
mouths of hard work appreciated by our peers as
well as the Terrace community,

Our own Skeena Band, about 85 Gr. 9 & 10 stu-
dents received a gold medal for their efforts. Think
of it, 85 students worked together for months to
achieve this honor. They gave up their free time
alter school etc. in order to do this.

Their performance brought tears to many an eye
with their exceptional playing, Did our local paper
even bother to show up?

Other than a single picture of one student, noth-
ing! This band was even invited to attend the Cana-
da Music Festival being held in Toronto, Our local
community band performed and was wonderful,
Our newest band, consisting of parents, teachers,
grandparents and assorted other, most of whom
have never played an instrument previously, were
there. Were you?

Possibly, if we had strapped snow boards to our
feet, our Terrace Standard might have seen fit to
give this event a-touch more coverage,

‘We parents and our families have fought long and
hard to keep music within our community. This
fight is far from over, A little coverage from you
might have helped. The powers to be feel that
music, drama and choir are something that can be
dropped from our school system in order to free up
money needed else where in the school system.

Of course, they also feel it is necessary to add two
additional members to an already top heavy school
board. The two new positions will, of course, have
to be paid and we can see where this will come
from. At the rate they are going, we will have set
our school system back a hundred years.

Donna Kurth
oe, Terrace B,C,
French school is an
insult to taxpayers

Dear Sir:

Once again, the racial nature of Canada’s Jan-
guage policy is about to place an unfair burden on
the laxpaying majority while rewarding a miniscule
French minority.

How else can you describe a situation where a
paltry enrolment of 25 students is about to get its
own French school?

For the past three decades our federal government
has been trying in vain to push a language into parts
of the country where it isn’t needed. The dismal
result is that there are more unilingual Canadians
per capita now than when this experiment in social
enginecring began over 30 years ago.

And this failed experiment bas come al
tremendous cost to all Canadians, Currently we
spend aver $5 billion per year on Official
Bilingualism, $2 billion just for labelling laws
which cause you to pay an extra 50 cents for every
box of breakfast cereal you buy, or require that a
French sticker be placed over some part of the
English labe}, thus rendering it unreadable,

At the same time, our local school board has been
forced to slash programs in order to attain a
balanced budget. And balanced it Is, on the backs of
hundreds of students, not a mere 25, whose only

chance at some education in music comes from
being a member of the school band.

And how about the 15 teachers who are soon to
join the ranks of the unemployed? Is a French
school for 25 kids more important than them?

And by the way, I almost forgot to mention, the
interest payments on Canada’s $700 billion national
debt are costing taxpayers $115 million every day.

But don’t despair, Terrace will have its very own
all-French school, for 25 students.

Aad all you single moms on welfare, for whom it
is a daily struggle to feed and cloth your kids, well
you just aren’t as important,

Rob Hargrove
Terrace B.C,

Money wins over parks

Dear Sir:

The Standard’s Wednesday May 5 article stating
thal Mayor Talstra was able to pay $22,000 instead
of developing a small park in bis new subdivision
across from the College near Franks ficld raises
some concerns.

I can’t believe that the people of Terrace would

agree with council and Talstra that it is better to
have the moncy instead of the green space or park.

Residents of our area continue to watch other de-
velopments on the bench follow the same path
where they put in house lots for 150 houses and pay
money to city council instead of developing a park.

All you have to do is take a Sunday drive to the
far end of Mountain Vista Drive or Jook at a map.

There is no plan for any green space in those
areas. At the moment most of the young people
from Cory Street and surrounding neighbourhoods
have to travel half a kilometer to visit the only park
near Floyd St.

The health of our city and its people is directly re-
lated to a quality of life we enjoy. What kind of a
life is it if young parents with children and others
who enjoy parks and green spaces have to go else-
where to enjoy themselves?

The health of wildlife is also a concern consider-
ing that in planning and development of this sub-
division he and bis company have destroyed acres
of habitat for plants and animals.

For the longest time I have enjoyed watching the
fox that lives close by and the geese which migrate
through the area, Those animals are long gone now.

If you feel that this is wrong and you would like
to register a complainl, phone your local council
member anid say no more fo money-grubbing devel-
opers like Mayor Talstra, ,

, Greg McDonald
Terrace B.C.

Log export saved jobs
and bought us time

Dear Sir:

Hats off to Job Protection Commissioner Eric
Yan Soeren, West Fraser and the WA.

West Fraser Mills, West Fraser’s contractors, the
JWA and the government finally signed off on the
economic plan that would see logging contractors
go back to work and market logs for export.

A novel, yel controversial plan aimed at malntain-

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 19, 1999 - AS

ing employment levels in the area, as opposed ta
job losses. Despite the criticisms regarding export-
ing B.C.’s raw materials it was the best solution in
a desperate situation. -

While the plan does not ensure increased employ-
ment at-West Frascr’s mills, it does put hundreds of
woodland workers, ihat- would have otherwise

. remained idle, back to work. | ;

Obviously, processing the logs at home would
make belter sense; however, poor markets, ex-
cessive governnient regulation, the U.S, Softwood
Lumber Agreement and high fibre costs have vir-
tually suak the local forest industry as we once
knew it - :

Until these parameters change, tht industry will
have to look at solutions such as export to keep the
industry alive.

Today, it would appéar that B.C. can not compete
globally in commodily markets such as dimension
jumber because of the above reasons,

It is vital that the industry ook to value added
products and the government look very seriously at
tenure reform.

Critics will argue that radical ideas such as
privatization of forest lands are unacceptable. Yet if
the industry is to evolve and be competitive, the in-
stitution of a free market approach for our resources
will be necessary.

One has to only look at the B.C. wine. industry.
Under protection and regulation, wineries and grape
growers operated within a false economy that dis-
couraged innovation and technology.

Today, in an open market B.C. is producing some
of the finest wines, developing niche markels (ice
wine) thal are value added and growing grape vari-
eties best suited to our cooler climate.

In a free market, the B.C. forest industry has the
same capability to produce first class value added
products and develop niche markets. Exporting logs
is the first step in the process,

Let’s hope government and industry can foster
ways to make the forest industry in B.C. more com-
pelitive and profitable through innovative ideas.

Justin Rigshy
Terrace B.C.

Our national shame

Dear Sir;

Tolerance, fair play, peaceful co-existence, and
social justice were the rcasons that Canada became
my choice of a home and country.

I must admit that lately 1 am having some prob-
lems reconciling all the virtues that made Canada
respected all over the world with the contradictions
and performance of the federal government,

We can only afford 30-year old search and rescue
aircrafts that literally are falling out of the sky kill-
ing the crews, But that same goverment has no
‘problem sending dozens of airplanes worth billions
armed with bombs and rockets, some worth one
million dollars each to bomb people in Europe.

We are told that we must stop this dictator that
this war is necessary for peace. Now there is an
oxymoron,

Every war at least since the crusaders was fought

because we were told that the enemy was satanic
and God was on our side. § find it interesting that
actions were not taken in other parts of the world
where activilies by dictators were as bad or worse.
- Could this be because of the colour of those
peoples skin or as this wriler believes; since the col-
lapse of the Soviet Union, NATO, who has no rea-
Son to exist sces this war as a make work program,
justifying ils existence while testing its ‘smart’?
bombs.

While this is going on, the premier of China, a
country with a dismal record of human rights inter-

nally.and genocide cxtemally, gets the red carpet
treatment in Canada, is the difference between
China and Yugoslavia only the fact that we do busi-
ness with China?

Canada has for decades sent peacekeepers all over
the world to ensure peoples’ freedom while at home
we Ory not to embarass another dictator. Last year
students were pepper sprayed and arresied while
doing nothing more than free speech and assembly
—- the very issues that the blue berets were enfore-
ing around the world.

It is hard not to think that the $100 million
carmarked for bringing 5,000 refugees to Canada
and for mililary hardware docs not come from the
billions confiscated from employers and unemploy-
ed workers,

Such acts might impress someone who does not
know that we have similar numbers of Canadians
living on the strects, not to mention thousands
living on reserves rampant with tuberculosis and
other diseases linked to poverty.

It saddens me that Canada has traded in the peace
keepers’ blue beret probably forever for a badge
making our soldiers deputics to Uncle Sam, the
self-appointed Sheriff of the World.

John Jensen
Terrace, B.C,

About the Mail Bag

Letters to the editor can be malled to the
Terrace Standard at 3210 Clinton St Ter-
race, B.C., V8G 5A2. You can also fax let-
ters to us at 250-638-8432, Or you can emall
your letter to us at standard@kermode.net
Name, address and phone number Is re-
quired for verification.

Treaty offers little but the final road to assimilation.

Dear Sir:

The treaty process is another racist and
genocidal act orchestrated by the
Chretien government.

My opinion is in no way to be con-
stiued as to be against, to be putting
down, or to prejudice the Nisga’a people.
It is my view that the Chretien govera-
ment is enacting a policy that was
shelved thirly years ago by the Trudeau
government.

During 1969 Jean Chretien was ap-

pointed Minister of Indian Affairs, After
taking over that portfolio be forged into
it with a campaign attempting to imple-
ment the infamous White Paper policy.
' That policy was intended to dissolve
the Department of Indian Affairs and to
mvipe out the Indian Reserve system. To
rid Canada of the Indian Problem once
and for ail. oo

The Nalional Indian Brotherhood (now
known as the Assembly of First Nations)
fought against it adamantly, The White
Paper was shelved. The Nisga’a Deal
will inevitably end with the same objec-
tives and results.

Many political games and taclics have
been used to push this deal through, from
manipulation of funding, political
promises, bribery, to muzzling those that
oppose the deal, :

Waiching these games has been much
like watching the Mulroney government
and the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agrec-
tent being rammed through,

Very little time has been given to the
Nisga’a for open debate and discussion.
Very little dialogue has been open to dis-
cuss what exactly it is going to be Like
for each' and every individual. Nisga’a

person should this deal get passed.

What will buying and paying $50,000
or more for a house mean to them?
Paying for your own medical and educa-
tion? What will paying taxes on all these
things plus income tax mean to them?

Economic development has been a key
to selling this deal to the people. Where
is the economics in this deal? Funding
for social programs and economic devel-
opment will be harder and to get.

Furthermore, if the Nisga’a are to build
an economy to become self-sustaining
they need resources and resources come
from the land. So why do we give up 92
percent of our land? It does not make
any economic sense.

There is another side of the coin in
giving up 92 per cent of the land. That is
a cultural issue. A big part of the Nisga’a
culture comes from the Jand through
their tribal system,

There are four tribes in the Nisga’a
culture: Eagle, Wolf, Killer Whale, and
Frog. In those tribes are various houses
with chiefs. Each of these -houses and
chiefs use different parts of the land for
food gathering and other traditional uses,
Giving up the land will ultimately break
down and destroy that system, Again,
why?

This deal will leave the Nisga’a with a
very weak political foundation. Giving
up their tax exemption and becoming full
Canadian citizens will leave the Nisga’a
in a very shaky political position.

It will give the Nisga’a governments
merely a municipal goverment status.
When it comes to whatever rights left to
them from under the Indian Act (such as

- fishing and hunting rights etc.) the rest of

Canada will ask why you and not us?

‘Socially, this could prove to be a very

dangerous move. It is well known that
about 85 per cent of the population of the
Nass River are unemployed, Social prob-
lems are serious and these problems have
been brought In since the first contact
with Europeans.

This deal does not offer much (if any)
safety net to handle such problems given
the economic and political difficulties
that the Nisga’a will undoubtedly face
through the transitional period.

T look at this deal as nothing more than
submission to assimilation; Not a treaty.

A treaty is an honourable, equitable,
and.just thing. This is not, I look at it
with much skepticism and questioning.

Perhaps it's nothing more than the last
nail in the coffin of the aboriginal com-
munity in Canada,

Aaron J; GreyCloud
: _ Terrace, B.C,