44 - The Terrace Sianoard, Wednesday, December 18, 1996

TERRACE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 198%

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432
MODEM: (250) 638-7247

Weiner roast

AS HARD as it is to justify spending tax monies
nowadays, some plane tickets to Victoria are in
order for there are two oulstanding and un-
answered issues affecting this area.

One concerns the future local government plan
for Terrace and Thornhill and the other is the
slimmed down renovations plan for Mills
Memorial Hospital. :

Both are vitally important to place Terrace and
areca in the position of providing a solid base
upon which to enter the next century.

The ad hoc version of government in Thornhill
can’t continue any longer as a regional district
style government simply doesn’t fit the urban en-
vironment of that community. A concentrated
period of negotiations earlier this fall appeared to
produce some progress. But now things seem to
be stuck in some kind of bureaucratic Twilight
Zone.

Mills Memorial Hospital is being asked to do
more and more with less and less in facilities that
were designed for a much different health care
system than is the case today. Those renovations
are to meet the new, slimmed-down health care
spending limits. Without them, any attempts at
cost saving are futile and contradictory. .

And while we’re paying for those plane tickets,
chuck in an amount for some tents and camping
supplies. Having the mayor, regional district
directors and chairman of the health care society
setting up shop on the lawn in front of the legis-
lature just might be the kind of drastic tactic
needed to gain attention and get some answers.

Just think — a pork and beans and roasted
weiners cook out. Food for thought.

Good vibes

IT WAS called Black Wednesday last week as
the CBC issued yet more lay off notices in the at-
tempt to cope with a slashed budget courtesy of
the federal government’s deficit battle.

Even blacker was the effect on one of the areas
targeted —- Radio Canada International, a stand
alone service aimed at broadcasting news about
our country to the rest of the world.

Radio Canada International’s been threatened
before and has suffered its share of cuts over the
past few years.

Going into last week the powers that be decided
there is no way to afford the approximately $14
million a year it takes to keep the system on the
air.

Radio Canada International broadcasts in seven
languages, including English. One of those,
Chinese, represents a healthy chunk of the
world’s population.

While the 90s may be the time to trim spending,
closing down Radio Canada International is a
disservice to Canada as it removes a vital con-
nection to how it is represented to the rest of the
world,

Granted, $14 million is a fair chunk of money.
But it’s less than one-half the cost of a CF-18
fighter jet and less than one-third of the annual
cost of keeping the Senate warm and toasty. So it
was welcome news as the week ended to hear
that a commitment wil! be made to find the
money to keep the system on the air.

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MEMBER OF B.C. PRESS COUNCIL ©
Serving the Tenace and Thombil area. Published on Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Prass (1969)
Lid, af 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, Y8G 5R2.

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COMMLEETT Nera:
a perweerm id on
‘Hsivtel Colomite ead Polen

NO SANTA CLUUS w.

SEE... |TOLD YOU...

I oRTH OLE

school fees called ‘il

VICTORIA — At long last
we know for certain that the
trickle-down theory works, but
not the way — economists
espousing the hypothesis
would have us believe.

According to the trickle-
down concept, you give tax
breaks to the rich, powerful
and beautiful people, who will
then invest the savings to their
hearts’ content, creating jobs
and wealth that will ultimately
tickle down to slobs like you
and me.

White Canada’s poor and
disenfranchised are still wait-
ing for the scraps to reach
them, a trickle of quite another
sort has worked its way
through the system and is
finally hitting them with a ven-
geance. I’m talking about the
effects of off-loading.

It all started some years back
when our august right-wing
economic gurus and think
tanks bad finally persuaded the
federal government that the
country’s only salvation lay in
belt-tightening. Deficit reduc-
tion and eventual elimination
became the battle cry.

In the ensuing years, Ottawa
cut programs, laid off thou-
sands of public servants and
slashed transfer payments to
the provinces, which now had

Off-loading bas reached the
proverbial little guy.

As a result, property taxes
are going up, which means
rents will also increase,
Schools, starved for funds, are
charging more and more for
special ‘‘school fees.”’

A Victoria couple recently
decided enough is enough and
have taken their case to the
Supreme Court of British
Columbia. Jack McDonald, a
failed New Democratic Party
leadership candidate, and his
spouse, Jennifer Chamak, will
argue that the fees charged by

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

to pay a bigger share for every many schools for certain
service jointly provided by the courses are illegal under the
federal and provincial gavern- School Act.

The amount involved is $82,
The breakdown is $10 for

ments,

The provinces, in tum, were
forced to slash programs of tbooks,: $25 a for: a
their own. and lay off public booK,'a $16 ‘‘activity:fee,’* $6"
servants, adding to unemploy- for Art 11 and $25 for Tourism
ment and welfare rolls. 11,

And when there was no more The school board says any
meat left to cut from the parent who can’t afford to pay
provincial budget bone, the the extra fees can approach the
provinces began to off-load teacher and have them waived,
costs on municipal govern- but McDonald says that’s not
ments. good enough.

Municipalities will now have “I: refuse to submit to the
to lock after some roads the humiliation of having to ex-
province maintained before, pose my poverty to the admin-
Grants to municipalities were istration of the school in order
slashed this year. Funding for to ebtain a waiver of fees,”’ he
school boards has been cul, says.

‘textbooks, $25 a forfa yédr- ~~

legal’

Now, $82 may not sound like
a lot, but there’s no doubt in
my mind that having to come
up with these extra fees is ‘a
hardship for a lot of people.
And then there’s the principle.
Education is a guaranteed
tight, and it’s supposed to be
free.

Charging extra fees for edu-
cation is no different than im-
posing user fees for medial ser-
vices, a concept the NDP
loathes with a passion. Why
not apply the same standards to
education?

But above all, the example
shows thal the battle for the
deficit is being fought on the
backs of the poor. Government
efforts to eliminate deficits
have trickled down to those

‘jwho.can least afford it,
’"Heaven ‘forbid that big cor-
porations such as our banks
pay more to get the country’s
finances back on track, Even
the NDP, the self-proclaimed
champion of the poor, would
rather squeeze another few
dollars out of the dispossessed
than upset the apple cart of the
wealthy,

Welcome to the brave new
world,

Beyer can be reached at Tel;
920-9300; Fax: 385-6783; E-
Mail: kubert@coolcom.com

Column writing for the birds

NOW THAT I have written
proof my column is regularly
read by those with birds, 1
must further narrow my topics,
lighten up, and censor my lan-
guage ta avoid any remarks
hugful to that section of my
teadersbip,

It seems some subscribers
we my column to line their
bird’s cage. In other words,
they put my ‘‘dribble” to work
catching that of their budgie,

Recycling is always com-
mendable, But forcing an in-
carcerated canary to read my
column, over and over, for as
long as several days, while the
subscriber herself cannot bear
to read it first, is cruel and un-
usual punishment of a defense-
less bird.

Where is inmate advocate
Elizabeth Fry when she’s truly
necded? Leaving caged
canaries to wing it, that's
where. The Humane Socicty
would do well to investigate
such barbaric treatment.

have I pictures myself clutch-
ing a perch between Twectie
Bird and Woodstock, cracking
seeds and twitlering.

Fortunately for me, I’m no
Sally Field. My rank on any
subscriber's pecking order of
columnists doesn’t knock me
off my roast.

Letters to the editor offer a
bird’s cye view of a newspa-
per. One comment I cannot
duck: being told by column
alienated all the teenage girls
in terrace and all the people of
Scottish ancestry in town.
Wow! Talk about influence! _

The local health board
should take note. If they ever
want to inform teenagers about
life-threatening issues such as

THROUGH BIFOCALS.
_CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

For years Haartz has sup-
plied everything a bird could
ever need or want form
birdseeds to toys. Perhaps |
could contract with Haartz to

columnist for the Province,
lold me a columnist can do
squal about changing public
opinion, All a columnist can
do is bring an issue to readers’
attention, and express an
opinion that many others may
hold but aie reluctant to voice.

An orchestrated onslaught of
letters to the editor can ex-
aggerate the gravity of an is-
sue, the influence of a column,

In the future, keeping in
mind the delicate sensibilities
of my avian-minded readers, I
shalt avoid writing such
thoughtless expressions as
“for the birds,”? [1] steer clear
of saying anything Is ‘selling
for a song.’? And if tempted to
wrile ‘birds of a [cather’, I

WELL MARTEN !
You vé Done i !!

package my columns as cage
liners, an inexpensive Depends
for the finely feathered.

As a columnist, 1 try to im-
agine a typical reader, 7 write
to that person as though in a
letter, or as though we might
be chatting over coffee, Never

AIDS, alcohol, or drugs, they
can hand the job to me. One
column and every teenager
without a bird in the house will
be aware.

I have a more realistic sense
of my column’s importance.
Jim Taylor, former sports

| YOU FIGURED A WAY S98) TUL CALL mY
To MAKE A LIVIN & LAWYER ABOUT
FRom THE BusH!!

OKAY: SEND THE
FLUGHT WITH MORE
RooZe AND GRUB
Nb A NEW Coo!

dt as

Shall study my thesaurus to
find a more politically correct
term. VI never mention clip-
ping wings,

As for a subscriber who sees
the word ‘‘motorist” but reads
“teenager” Why
should [ ruffle more feathers,

I'vé GOT AN vecER!
ICANT SLEEP!
MY FAMILY HATES
ME AND Tim '
50,000 1A) DEBT.

|