Ad - The Terrace Standard, nate! at 28, 1999 STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL. 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. « VBG SR2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 « FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net Healthy step ONE HAS only to look down the road to Kitimat to see the worst of what can happen with local health care. There the medical community and the local community health have been conducting an underground war, Casualties so far include the health council’s chair, several of its mem- a mountain of good will and a public that’s confused and frightened. The issue in Kitimat surrounds what’s assumed to be a declining standard of health care centered on the difficulty of that community finding and: keeping an orthopedic surgeon. A second item has now been added with the moving away of the community’s only general surgeon and the need to find a replacement. And now there are hints of the same friction surfacing between the Terrace medical com- munity and the Terrace and Area Health Council which runs Mills Memorial Hospital and Ter- taceview Lodge. This friction is exposed in the Klein report, a document prepared by three Vancouver pediatric experts on the state of children’s care at Mills. It has two central themes. The first is that Mills op- erates as a de facto pediatrics centre for the northwest without being financed as such. And the second is a lack of communication and co- ordination between the health council and local physicians because of the way pediatric care is managed at the hospital. Overlaying both of these themes is control — as in who gets to make decisions on how things run at the hospital. Is it the health council which makes policy based on its budget or is it doctors who have an influence on what happens at the hospital because of the way they conduct their business, ee Some of what happened is the natural con- sequence when groups of people with conflicting aims and goals are placed together. But because dealing with health care, the ultimate re- quirement is that when we’re sick and need medical help, the system be as free of internal politics and egos as possible. One welcome step is having another Vancouver pediatrics expert begin the job of assembling a northwest vision for pediatric care. If that works and if the players can set aside their differences then it could and should be used as model for further co-operation. We can’t afford another Kitimat. Hey there THEY’RE HERE, Tourists, that is, You'll see them fishing, buying food and other goods in lo- cal stores. They might look lost and need ans- wers to questions. So don’t hesitate to help out. A friendly greet- ing and an answer to a query just might result in an extra dollar being spent here. We not only need every tourist dollar possible, but helping out is just the right thing to do. PUBLISHER/ EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens NEWS/COMMUNITY: Alex Hamilton FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Carole Kirkaldy ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Bunnie Cote, Mark Beaupre TELEMARKETER: Tabatha Orange. DARKROOM/COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Julie Davidson, Andrea Malo SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.30 per year; Seniors $50.75; Out of Province $64.39 Outside of Canada (6 months) $158.25 {ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF os B.C, AND YUKOH COMMURITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. ty CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION ¢ ‘ abe ber ats om Sic Cleels ool Woda NEWSPAPERS COMPETITION D 8.0, PRESS COUNCIL Serving the Terrace and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week al 3210 Clinton Straet, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2, Stories, photograph, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Temaca Standard are the property of the copyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., its illustration repro services and advortising agencies, Reproduction in whola or in pavt, without writlen permission, is specifically prohibited, Authorized a3 apnd dase wah pending ihe Post Office Department, for payment of postage in cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents . AGREE. WITH THAT STORY ANDT'LL SLAP YOU SILLY.t.. LAY JUST ONE FINGER ON HIM AND I'LL BREAK BOTH YOUR ARMS ". . (Y VICTORIA For some obscure reason, 1 was over- looked once again in Premier Glen Clark’s latest cabinet shuffle. You'd think that after spend- ing nearly 40 years in close proximity to politicians, I might have earned a minor portfolio, Maybe it’s got some- thing to do with my attitude which isn’t always favourable towards politicians. Whatever the reason for the premier’s slight, I'll live with ‘it and he’s got to live with me or more specifically, with what I write. Missed your chance again, Premier, to gel me out of your hair. Helmut Giesbrecht, on the other hand, was luckier. After spending almost as much time hanging around the fringes of power as | have — well, eight... years anyway — he’s landed a , cabinet post. at last — public . service minister. Now, | hate to rain on Hel- mul’s parade, but let’s face it, he got a job on the Lusitania which is perilously close to being torpedoed by Gordon Campbell’s Liberal U-boat. How’s that for getting around the worn Titanic metaphor? The other drawback for Gies- brecht is that he won't be able to join the regular morning coffee crowd anymore. He’ll be loo busy bailing the rising water, Sorry, Helmut, to be such a prick, but when you join the Gang of 22, the lines be- FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER tween job and friendship get a little more tightly drawn. As cabinet shuffics go, this one didn’t make a lot of rip- ples, Clark proved the pundits wrong by not punishing some .. . ' of the critics inside the cabinet, Attomey General Ujjal ‘Dosanjh, rumoured to have leadership aspirations, keeps his job. So does agriculture minister Corky Evans, Both are believed to have been among those who pri- vately asked the premier io step dawn for the goad of the _ party. Of course, two major detrac- tors beat him to the punch. Joy MacPhail resigned as finance minister and Sue Hammell quit her job as women’s equality minister, Both probably junped believing they'd be -try of Human pushed. Gordon Wilson took over the finance portfolio, while keep- ing responsibilily for B.C. Fer- ries, the day MacPhail resigned. Hammell’s former jab goes to Jenny Kwan, while her for- mer portfolio, municipal af- fairs, was given 10 newcomer, Jim Doyle. Moe Sihota, a.k.a. Minister of Everything, a title he now Shares with Wilson, got even more. His new job is Minister of Social Development and Economic Security. The new monster ministry incorporates (he former Minis- Resources, skills, training, housing and child care. He will also chair the Economic Council of Min- islers. _.oJM addition 19, Giesbrecht and ” Doyle, two other backbenchers .- Giesbrecht joins ship’s crew are joining the cabinet. Joan | Sawicki, Speaker of the Legis- lature a few years back, gets environment, lands and parks, and Joan Smallwood, a former cabinet minister, is back in, heading the labour ministry. Former environment minister Cathy McGregor was sent to the backbench. In the press release, announc- ing the cabinet shuffle, the fa- miliar mantra of ‘‘protecting health care and education” was amended by changing pro- lecling to ‘‘improving,’’ and adding ‘‘diversifying the B.C, economy.” cosmetic propaganda changes are notewarthy, It seems the government, too, has realized it’s been protecting a pretty shaky health care system and a somewhat deficient education system, As for matters eco- nomic, nuff said. The shuffle will probably not send British Columbians into a frenzy of optimism and, if Campbell's reaction to the ap- pointinent of Wilson as finance minister is any indication, is bound to be greeted with deri- sion by the opposition. “Wilson not fit to be finance minister,”’ was the bottom line of Campbell’s reaction, when actually 1 think that Wilson will probably do a pretty decent job, considering what he's got to work with — major . past deficits and a — crushing « debt load. me The ‘four newly-appointed ministers will probably get a bit of a honeymoon from the media and special interest groups. The pressure on Clark and the old-time ministers will remain. When all’s said and done, [ think PH stick with what I’m doing. I’ve managed to survive four decades as a Natlering Nellie of Negativism. Beat that, Premier. Beyer can be reached at — Tel; (250) 920-9300; e-mail: hubert@coolcom.com; Fax: (978) 477-5656 web; Attp:|iwww.hubertheyer.cosm/ Vacant lots equal happy kids VACANT LOTS and kids have always fitted together like peanut butter and jelly. From Russell Baker to Mordecai Richler, writers eulogize the vacant lots of their childhood where they whiled away free time improvising games with their friends. For the past year kids in our subdivision have enjoyed an instant vacant lot, thanks to a developer. The property boasts no parallel bars, shiny slides, or swings. It has no climbing poles, monkey bars, or cedar bridges. It does offer plenty of space, unbreakable dirt, and Hmitiess possibilities to the imagination. Kids are free to engage in whatever game strikes their fancy at the moment. Once supper is over, kids gather on their bikes. They ride in on streets, None of this trespassing through someone’s yard and cither lifting a few tools or vandalizing a shed as ~ SEE? L-TOLD You THROUGH. BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI they go by, For hours each evening and weekend, they exercise their masclss pedalling up and down dirt mounds, playing games desigied on the spot. The casual observer sees a knot of six or eight kids, usual- ly boys, interacting in an un- Structured way. But I’m sure, up close, the kids are engaged BUT WE SFENT A LIFETIME in planning, compromising, give and lake. To have any fun together, they must agree on what they’re going to do, the rules that govern, aid whose turn it is, Quite an outcome for no financial investment in toys. Neighbours have an un- obstructed view of the goings on, 4 comfort to any parents concerned about their children. Purple clover is all the kids can hide in or behind, other than the dirt piles. Every move the kids make is in full view of at Icast cight homes and travel- lers along four perimeter Slrects. The lot is large cnough to buffer surrowiding backyards from the kids faughter and whoops of joy. Until you see them, you don’t know they're there, Say that about the aver- age dirtbiker, The lot's tetrain has same-— thing for every age and interest - wild flowers for litte girls who pick bouquets for Mom; hills and rock plateaus for climbers, after a rain, instant ponds for pebble skippers, mud for rock painters, and patches of level sand for autograph writers. Junior bikers get a thrill Zooming down _ topsoil mounds. Rock hounds toad their pockets with white or Speckled beauties. Six-year-old Suzuki’s marvel at foot deep crevasses carved) =o by =a rainstorm. From time to time as lots are sold to builders, the land’s to- pography shifts; topsoil is spread or more heaped up, gravel is excavated or piled elsewhere. The kids look ‘it over, assess the current terrain, and plunge in to play whatever the lay of the land suggests, For sheer joy, nothing tickles the heart of a child like un- feltered space, Never should a city or regional governnent accept cash~ licu of green space. NORTHERNERS ALL NOT RECYCLING, DUMPING m GO-TO HEAVEN ! GARBAGE IN THE ISUSH, THROWING STUFF OUT OF CAR WINDOWS...