I

A6 > Terrace Review — Wednesday, J uly 10, 1991

he Terrace Health Care Society was created under
conditions established by the Ministry of Health to
run Mills Memorial Hospital and the Terraceview
Lodge for the benefit of people in the greater Terrace
area. The society, as the insertion of the term "regional" would
indicate, has done its job too well. .

The closure of beds in several wards at Mills Memorial, .
although accompanied by assurances from the society that the
government will soon see the light and rectify the matter, is
indicative that the health ministry has failed to perceive the
situation here correctly. As guardians of the public purse it is
the duty of provincial politicians and bureaucrats to think
carefully before releasing half a million dollars a year in per-
manent operating commitments, ‘but the society and its admin-
istrators and workers have all the numbers crunched and justi-
fications in order.

From every point of view — cost effectiveness, service
delivery, quality of life — we have created a structure here
worthy of support and enhancement. Delays in making those
idle beds once again available to serve the purpose for which
they were intended endanger the success of a system bought
with a tremendous amount of human talent, energy and deter-
mination. Medical specialists and other workers with prized
skills cannot be held here indefinitely, waiting for Victoria to
cough up the word "regional" in relation. to Terrace.

When regions or localities are given a degree of autonomy,
there is always the danger that they might go ahead and actual-
ly exercise it. If that autonomy is exercised in a manner that —
comes into conflict with a larger agenda, flaws in governing
structure become obvious. Beds are closed in an ambitious
hospital, capital funding is strangled for a school board con-
cerned with the quality of education, new and creative -
approaches to the needs of communities and the aspirations of
their residents are met with studious puzzlement by the con-
trolling agencies in remote centres. Expectations are squashed
and efforts go unrewarded.

‘Tt has become fashionable in recent years, sometimes appro-

- priately so, to remove health care from the list of motherhood

issues and take a hard-headed look at the cost of it. The system
here stands up well to such an examination. If the stewards of
health care in Victoria don’t bring this situation to a satisfac-
tory conclusion, there will be a failure not only of an expertly
crafted and successful effort in health care but also a failure of
confidence in the government’s ability to accommodate local
solutions to local challenges.

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by

The view from |
Victoria— f

by John Pifer ee :

VICTORIA — As the paint
continues to dry in the Social
Credit Party leadership race,
let’s look beyond the outcome on
July 20, to the fall election itself.

First of all, it is extremely
likely that the province-wide vote
to determine the next government
of B.C, will be held within two
months, probably less, of the
convention.

Whoever wins will want to cash
in on whatever momentum is
built up for the party during the
leadership sweepstakes. The
Socreds may well edge within
seven or eight percentage points
of the NDP, just on the strength
of the sustained media focus.

Political strategists believe that
spread to be within winning
distance, provided the party’s
popularity is on the upswing, and
provided its leader and candidates
don’t do anything outrageously ©
dumb during the campaign.

Socred insiders are saying the
election call could come any-
where from Aug. 28 on, with the
favoured betting being on or
about Sept. 10, From there, 28
days of campaigning follow to
election day itself.

The significance of the Aug.
26/27 Premiers’ Conference at
Whistler will not be lost on the
Socreds, either. Basking in the
prominence of national media
exposure, B.C.'s new Premier can
score a lot of points provided he
or she doesn’t do or say some-
thing exceptionally stupid —
always a possibility, I suppose!

(Incidentally, the phrase "new
Premier" does not mean that |
have ruled out Rita Johnston,
the present wearer of the crown,
as a possible winner. It's just the

easiest way to describe whoever
wins the convention).

So what can we expect during
the campaign? This humble
scribe suggests that you, the

‘voters, are likely to hear and sce

the following:

» Everything possible about the
dire straits the people of Ontario
are in, because of what the So-
creds will label as the incompe-
tent, free-spending NDP govern-
ment and its $10 billion budget.
They will take great pains to
equate that with the threat of
Mike Harcourt and the socialist
hordes at the gates.

e Repeated reminders from the
New Democrats that new leader
or not, the government of the last
five years has been plagued with
scandals, deals for friends and
insiders, and a pathetic list of
resignations and abuse of power.
And that’s without even having
to mention disgraced former
premier Bill Vander Zalm!

+ An carnest but hopeless appeal
from. Liberal leader Gordon
Wilson to try to salvage some
seats for his party, on the
strength of votes from disaffected
Socreds fed up with the circus of
the last few years.

¢ An attempt by the Socreds to
iurn into a PR coup for their side,
the tapes scandal which buried
their former attorney-general Bud
Smith. Watch for NDP justice
critic Moe Sihota to be painted
as an eavesdropping little sneak
who lacks a conscience, which is
something some government
MLAs have already been push-
ing. (The facts of the case —
that Sihota was not involved in
the listening-in to Cuddly Bud-
dly’s car phone conversations,

and that it was not he who ,
released the tapes which revealed
a close personal relationship with
a female television reporter —
will of course be irrelevant as far
as the Socreds are concerned).

« An attack by the NDP on what
they consider to be the complete-
ly undeserved reputation of the a
Socreds for fiscal responsibility. .
Led by Harcourt and the fiery

finance critic Glen Clark, the
Opposition will maintain that the
provincial debt has doubled to $9 .
billion in the last five years, and

that the $1.2 billion deficit in the

current Budget shows incompe-

tence rather than financial acu-

men. .
Harcourt maintains the Socreds
are desperate, and will try any- —

thing to retain power. For their

part, the main leadership candi-

dates maintain that honesty, integ-
rity and trust have returned to q
Social Credit, and that the NDP

is merely trying to cash in on the

internal squabbling, without pro-

ducing its own agenda for gov-

eming.

It all has the makings for a
good, old-fashioned heavyweight
prize fight. It would be hard to :
disagree that so far, the New {
Democrats have won most of the
preliminary bouts, and are well-
positioned to take the title.

But this being politics, in which
a week is an eternity, you would
be wise to hold your bets for a
while yet.

Parting Thought: There are |
two ways to look at the an-
nouncement from Grace
McCarthy that if she loses the

— Continued on page A7