Page 4, The Heratd, Wednesday, October 3, 1979

TERRACE/KITIMAT

daily herald

General Office - 635-4357 Published by
Circulation - 435-4357 Sterling Publishers

GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland
EDITOR - Greg Middleton

CERCULATION - TERRACE - 635-6357
KITIMAT OFFICE - 632-2747
Published every weekday at 3212 -Kalum Street,
Terrace, B.C. A member of Variflad Circulation.
Authorlzed as second class mall, Registration number
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EDITORIAL —

Frank Howard, the Member of the
Legislative Assembly for Skeena, has
recently levelled an attack at the
provincial government for spending
$500,000 on an anti-alcohol abuse
program,

Howard charges the program Is a
complete waste of money, saying the
government would be better off spending

e half million dollars on additional
drug and alcohol counsellors and
detoxification centres.

We think Howard doesn’t go far
enough with his eriticism of the Social
Credit government on this issue. The
very slick and professional advertising
is more than a way of saying thank you
to the advertising men and a way of
trying to keep newspaper publishers and
radio and television station owners pro-
Socred.

Like much government advertising it
is primarily concerned with the image of
the government and its members.

It is difficult to give much credence to
advertising shich suggests concern for
people when there are not the programs
to back it up.

A half a million dollars would go a long
way toward opening the empty wards In
the Kitimat hospital as an alcohol
treatment centre for the North.

EDITOR'S
JOURNAL

BY GREG MIDDLETON

The Anik-B Interactive Instructional Television
Program, & combined effort of the community

colleges and the British Columbia. ‘Institute .of .

Technology opened with a crackle,a hiss, the pops ofa
couple of wine bottle tops and the question,
“Whitehorse are you there?”

The media event was planned to give dignitaries in a
number of centres an opportunity to see how the
r2west innovation In education, one which allows
students @ communicate with televised instructors in
a main centre, with only the twosecond delay of
satellite communication to confuse things. ‘

While the signal was good and transmission of both
the signal bounced off the satellite and the B.C. Tel-
rigged phone lines good, there was enough confusion
about how you worked the apparatus to tie things up
for about half an hour.

The slight technical complications resulted in some
most musical feedback providing background sound
for us here, while nearty ripping the ears off the host in
Vancouver,

Only a few of the assembled guests here, Dave
Maroney, Frank Howard, Val George and the high-
ways department head, Dan Doyle, got to play with
Dr. Pat McGeers new toy.

The purpose of the experiment, and it is just an
experiment, isn’t to give the local politicos from
around the province a chance to chat, however.

The provincial government has arranged for time
on the federal department of communications leased
channel of Telsat’s satellite. This program ends In
May 1990, though. The hope is that Anik-C will be In
place by then and a number of channels will be open
for use by groups such as provincial education
departments. The costs, however, are said to be
enormols for more than just experiments.

McGeer touled the trial program as the ‘most
signifigant education experiment in this country.” He
also suggested it might revolutionize the way we
deliver education. -

As no one took the initiative to pick up one of the
phones and tell the good doctor his prescription for the
ailing education system is just a bandaide, he went on
fo tell us it would be the tonic to cure the country’s
unity crisis.

Although the live television programming of
courges, with the added facility of the newly designed
conference call, might deal with problems In getting
enough enrolment for certain kinds of upgrading and
specialized course throughout the province, and might
offer some additional access to resource personel in
the larger souther centres, it remains second best.

Real live teachers in a classroom, where the
dynamics of human interaction can be put to work as
part of the learning experience, can’t be replaced.

I'll not go into the problems of sophisticated
television viewers and the problema they'll have
firatly with the less professional BCIT productions and
secondly just talking back to the idiot box. Nor will I
dwell on the problems involved in classrooms without
instructors.

I will, however, make the observation that if
alexander Graham Bell had allowed the politicians in
on the first telephone call, they'd still be on the line.

“First, the

PLN A

good news — the Soviet combat troops are out of Cuba...”

a

Major po

By ALEX BINKLEY
‘AWA (CP) — Liberal
and New Democratic Party
MPs say they are not
prepared ‘to let Fisheries
Minister Jim McGrath off
the hook unt} a major
fisheries policy * review - Is

completed in the spring.

They say McGraib should
start explaining, when
Parliament opens next week,
decisions he made during his
four months as minister,

McGrath, 47, has sald he
doea not plan any major
policy shifta or new
legislation until completion
of a policy review ordered
when he took affice in June,
Tt will lead to a white paper
outlining legislative plans
for the Common.

But Liberals Bill Rompke
of Newfoundland and Her
Breau of New Brunswick and
NDP fisheries spokesman
Ted Miller of British
Columbia say there are
atrong indications “that
McGrath of Newfoundland
has already made changes.

And former fisheries
minister Romeo LeBlanc,

FISHERL

now the Liberal welfare
spokesman, says McGrath {fs
quietly undoing policies

Bigned to balance the in-
terests of the large com-
panies and small in-
dependent fishermen.

LeBlanc, who haa sald
little on fisheries matters
aince his government's
defeat in the May 22 election,
says he plans to speak in
Parilament about several
fisheriea issues,

Breau whose Gloucester
riding contains many small
fishermen, says McGrath is
playlng down a major policy
change which shows a strong
blas towards the ilshing
companies.

Miller, a freshman MP
from the Vancouver Island
riding of Nanaimo-Albeml,
1s his party’s first full-time
fisheries spokesman. He
says fishermen are not.
getting any anawers to their
queations from McGrath or
his department.

Rompkey says McGrath
can’t hide behind his policy
revlew because there are too
many important decisions to

be made before the spring.

Since taking - office,
McGrath has crlss-crossed
the country meeting
fishermen and company

.Tepresentatives,

He plans to ask the
Commona fisheries com-
mittee to begin studying all
aspects of the fishug in-
dustry. ‘‘He wants the MPs
to look at everything," an
aide sald,

While backed by the other
parties In his decision to
press charges agalnati9 U.S,
tunaboat captains who
llegally entered the 200-mile
zone off British Columbia to
fish albacore tuna, McGrath
has beén criticized for ac-
Hons on the East Coast.

Breau blasted a decision in
late August to reverse a
threeyear policy and allow.
large vessels into the Gulf of
St, Lawrence to fish 6,000
metric tonnes of cod.

The move ‘“‘smelia of
disaster for the fishing in-
dustries of northeastern New
Brunswick and the Gaape
because it means the new
government will not protect

.

licy review call

the Gulf for smaller vessels
with which it is not economic
to go out to the Atlantic to
flah in view of the distance,”
“The larger vessels can go
out in the Atlantic to fish
Why should they be allowed
to fish in the Gulf?”
Rompkey, the Liberal fish-
eries spokesman, says that
while McGrath told a Corner
Brook, Nfld., audience he

would glve priority to in-
shore fisherm off
Labrador, “he ‘is con-

tradicting that promise in
the Gulf.” '

Rompkey saye the govern-
ment has to make some deci-
sions about the fate of the At-
lantic salmon fishery, and
that includes a treaty with
Denmark to protect the

salmon from Greenland —

fishermen.
McGrath also must
respond to the demand of the

Conservative Newfoundland
government for increased
jurisdiction over the fishery,
Rompkey said. The Liberals
are against it but the Can-
seryatives are unclear, he
sald.

VANCOUVER (CP) —
A search Is under way for
someone to oversee
creation of a $300,000
management plan for the
Fraser River estuary and
balance the interests of
environmental groupe,
| industry, commercial
fishing and four layers of
government,

The coordinator, ex-
pected to be hired for the
federal-provinclal plan
within a month for an
unspecified salary, will
have extensive biological
and engineering expertlne
and great political skill to
reconcile conflicting in-
tereasts,

A report written under
the program’s first phase,
which began In 1977,
warned that federal,
provincial and municipal
agencies had policies for
the river that were not
mutually reconcilable,

In addition, there are

NEED A JOB

the plans of the Greater
Vancouver Regional

Diatrict, Hshermen who -

want to preserve the
salmon resource, logging
companies who use the
river, at least one In-
dustrial park and en-
vironmentalists who want
to preserve the wetlands
flora and fauna.

The federal and.
provincial environment
ministera John Fraser
and Rafe Mair signed the
phase two agreement
Monday under which
Ottuwa and Victoria will
gach conte #180,-000

a two-year term
finance the co-ordinator
and public participation
in an overall
management plan far the
ecologically sensitive

estuary.

“J think It is of fun-
damental importance
that the people who live
and play in this area be

Here’s a real challenge

heard and listened to,’
Fraser told a newa
conference. :

“There would be public
meetings and workshops
and there would be every
input from environmental
groups and interested
cltizens. The public will
haveaninput, It's not just
a case of holding a
meeting to tell the public
what somebody is doing.”

However, the federal
minister said it would not
be possible to appoint
somebody from every
environmental group or
trade union in B.C. to the
elght-member inter-
governmenta] group
which will oversee the co-
ordinator.

Mair said there has
been mo consideration
given yet to whether
environmental groups’
participation In the study
should be funded by
governments.

. last year called for an end

we have funding of
environmen ps
other exercises that are
going on... we will Iook
at that as the time
comes,’ Mair said, “If
there is a demonstrated
need we deat look at it
sympathetically,

Fraser acknowledged
there are humerous
factors and interests to be
considered in developing
& comprehensive
management plan.

An
Canada re

Environment
rt obtained

to expansion in the
eatuary until a plan was
drawn up, but Fraser said
there are no complete
solutions.

“There is always a
temptation to say don’t do
anything until we can
work out a master plan
with an absolute solution ,
1. regret to say I don't
think that is possible.”

By JEFFREY ULBRICH

PARIS (AF) -- The over-
throw of Jean Bede] Bokassa
as the emperor of the Central
African Empire underscores
the pivotal role France
continues to play in her
former African colonies.

Bokassa was ousted, while
visiting Libya, in a bloodless
coup in which France played
an active role,

Her participation brought
quick denunclations from all
points of the French political
spectrum — not for in-
terferlng in the offaira of an
independent country, but for
not having done so sooner.

That Prealdent Valery
Giscard d’Estaing and his
government should work
with a dissident facting

IN AFRICA |
France still plays role

within the Central African
Empire and help to plan and
lo execute the downfall of a
head of state it had sup-
ported for almost 14 years
does not. appear to have
shocked the people here.

What did shock Frén-
chmen, was the tardiness
with which their government
moved to end what it opie
"acts contrary to the rights
of man," referring to the
recent, brutal killings in the
emplre'a caplial of Bangul.

An official atatement on
the Sept. 20 coup that
brought former President
David Dacko back to power
and restored the old Central
African Republic, said the
French government decided

to take action after the firat

reports of violence reached

Paris in January, But the

statement said France had
en waiting for the a

to come from within “the

country.

In the two decades since
France divested itself of its
vast African empire, it has
continued to play the role of
father protector, main-
talning troops in and around
the contlnent to back up pro-
Western regimes and to
ensure the security of
thousands of French
civilians.

It also has poured billions
of ald dollars into the
francophone countries,
many of which are sources of

‘Horn of Africa:

vital raw materials,

The {nitlal 700 French
troops sent into the Central
African Empire to support
Dacko were drawn from a
1,500-man French force
maintaining order tn ‘strife-
torn Chad, Qthérs were
brought in. frém a smaller
force (n-Libreville, Gabon.

French military
authorities say France has
about 3,000 troops stationed
in the East African country
of Djibouti, on the sensitive
1,600 in
Senegal, also the location of
a major air base, in Weal Af-
rita; about 600 in Gabon on
the west-central coast, and
about 400 more in Ivory
Coast on the underbelly of
the West African bulge.

OTTAWA
OFFBEAT

BY RICHARD JACKSON

Ottawa - It sounded like a quiet summer.. and fall -

here in the Capital. ; .
But the soft sounds of summer, carrying only faint

_ echoes of the government at work, are turning out to

have been deceiving.

For behind the padded green lea ther doors of Prime
Minister Clark and his advisers in the Langevin Black
— Ottawa’s oldest government edifice ~ as within the
executive suites of his cabinet, there was the rumble
af the changing of gears in the process of government
and the hum‘ of administrative machinery ac-

celerating.
X In bore in the deceptive silence, things have been
j|. happening.
It has been a change of pace, of style, of philosophy,
of attitude - a whole new stance. .
Big spending is out.
Frugality is in. .

Government by bureaucracy is becoming a thing of
the past, with the mandarins no longer manipulating
the cabinet, : ;

Government by Parliament is on its way back, with
the Prime Minister and his cabinet still listening to the
bureaucracy, but out from under its self-serving
thumb and determined to take command of decisien-
But don’t take this column's word for it -- opinion
based on 40 years of government-watching ~ listen to
Prime Minister Clark:

" ‘It has been a "very busy and exciting summer and
fall,” he says. :

Doing what, when Ottawa seemed to be cocooned in
silence?

Changing things, he Says. First the method of
government, the policies and programs. ~

The cabinet is smaller, he goes on, with power once
concentrated in the Prime Minister now diffused and
distributed within a strong cabinet committee
structure, '

He is strong for what he calls “open government
dedicated to the principle of freedom of information
legislation. ; .

“Open government,” he believes, important fo all
Canadians,‘is even more essential to the Prime
Minister, ‘because it is essential I know what is going
on and what may be going wrong with my government
and the best guarantee thatI will knowis for you, the
taxpayers, to know.”

In the determination for openness of government,.
the Prime Minister puts his finger squarely on the
reason, in the past, government ‘was 50 secret.

-To blame: the public service and its paranoia that
everyone --even sometimes the cabinet -- should know
whatit was up to and might tresspass on its sweeping
field of power.

Everything was “Secret” - even some junk lower
level memoranda - and if not “secret,” then ‘“‘top
secret,” or ‘for your eyes only.” ~

Now that's allover. .

While still accepting what he terms “the often in
valuable assistance of senior bureaucrats ," the Prime
Minister “is determined that the public service shall
not be the sole source of advice available to the
ministers,”

He is putting it diplomatically.

He could have said the public service no longer was
going to run the shop in what was largely the ex-

nsion of its influence, and self-interest in tightening
fs ip on the levers of power.

nally, the most important of what the Prime
Minister has celled ‘sunset laws" -- designed to shut
down obsolete agencies and programs — will apply to
the Big Spenders. .

The bureaucracy, through the ignorance or finan-
cial ‘slovenliness of its ministers, no longer will be
writing its own budget ticket. .

“From the top down,” says the Prime Minister,
membets of cabinet, restored to their proper place of
command and decision over the bureaucrats, will be
told each year what they have to spend - that much
and no more ~ and project it over a four-year period.
_ The fundamental change, essentially, then, is in the
management ~ which means control - of spending,
and in who has the power of decision,
"Jt could be that government is back in the hands of
the elected representatives of Parliament, and out of
thee greedy self-promoting clutches of the bureaucrats.

laybe.

CONSUMER
COMMENT

A corisumer. who regularly shopped in her local
shopping centre recently strayed into an unfamiliar
store, and was rather distressed to find a notable
difference in prices between the two stores, She
wondered that this was allowed, and wanted to mow
how the consumer Is protected if the stores were at
liberty toset any price they wanted on their goods,

In Canada, the marketplace is based on a free en-
terprisesystem, and the price that the consumer pays
for goods is normally set by the retailer, with con-
straints on those prices provided by marketplace
demand. In determining the prices he will charge, the
retailer must consider such factors as turnover rate of
goods, employee wages, overhead costs, and the
amount of profit desired. Since these factors differ
with each store, prices therefore differ, and the
consumer is thus afforded a chdce in price ard store.

the consumer encounters an increase in the
price of a product, it may be due to increases in the
retailer’s operating costs, or to increases in the
wholesale price which he must pay for the product.
Wholesale price increases may be due to any of a
number of factors, auch as weather conditions, supply
shortages, higher energy and labour costs, or the
value of the dollar in relation to foreigh currencies.

Tt is the responsibility of the consumer to keep in
formed of current trends and to excercise good con-
sumer habits and judgement in the marketplace; for
example, shopping around for the best value, reading

bels, and looking for substitute items.

If you are concerned about a price increase, it may
be worthwhile to consult the retailer or the
manufacturer about the reason for the increase. If
you feel that the increase is unwarranted, make them
aware of your dissatisfaction, elther verbally or by
refusing to purchase the product at that price. A
retailer who contimes to charge a price that is
unacceptable to his ‘customers will soon lose those
customers