A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 20, 1998 |
TERRACE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432
EMAIL: standard@kermode.net

Wood wonders

A NATIONAL HARDWARE and lumber sup-
plies chain is now broadcasting a commercial
featuring a man holding a piece of lumber. He
extols the virtue of wood, saying you can make
anything out of this precious natural resource.
He’s right, of course. Two weeks ago in our na-
tional forest week supplement we told you about
Roland Messervier who builds log furniture,
Larry Sealey who whittles walking sticks out of

wood nobody else wants, Som Pun who hopes to —

use his forestry training from Northwest Com-
munity College to help his people back home in:
Nepal and of a Forest Renewal B.C./Metlakatla:
Development Corporation project to build walk-
ing trails in the forests of Pike Island.

All of these people and organizations have one
thing in common — they’re taking what the
forest provides and are turning it into com-|

modities for sale and for education. 1

To be sure, the provincial economy is taking a
kicking because of the downturn in the forest

sector but these people and organizations men-—
tioned above prove once again that the human —

Spirit can adapt, grow and prosper no matter
what the circumstances.

In Terrace, the city has been proposing the es-—
tablishment of a community forest just north of

the city, the trees from which would feed small, -

local enterprises. Proof again that doing some-
thing, anything, is better than standing still.

This is not to suggest that the forest economy °

can turn from large mills to cottage-style enter-
prises. Our way of life will continue to need
those multi-million operations which in turn gen-
erate income for other, supporting businesses.

But there is reason to hope that the same human
spirit which is working on all the above can be
used to revive operations such as Skeena Cel.

lulose. And with that, we urge Skeena Cel-”

lulose’s masters to quickly appoint a board of
directors with sufficient northwestern representa-
tion.

The reasoning that a board of directors must
contain experienced people in the big world of
big business is far too limiting. Good ideas, com-
mon sense, that human spirit is not the sole
domain of those more comfortable in the large
office towers containing governments, banks and
deal makers. After all, it’s that kind of thinking
which affected Skeena Cellulose in the first
place.

Our safety

WHAT’S INTRIGUING about the strike of aux--

iliary RCMP officers is not the issue of their car-
rying firearms.

Instead it’s the notion that the regular force
depends so much on these volunteers that not
having them will place a heavy workload on the
regular members to the point that public safety
may be compromised.

And that should have us asking if the budget for
police services has been so diminished in this era
of slash and burn governments that it is only by
volunteers that the RCMP can effectively do the
job we ask of it.

an a
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Sarving the Terrace and Thormhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clintan Strest,
Terrace, British Columbia, VaG SA2.

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SOK NAN

GWE IT UP SON...
MP-ROCK CAN T
HEAR YOU...

Children

VICTORIA — In 1995, the
violent and tragic death of
five-year-old Matthew
Vaudreuil at the hands of his
own mother shocked the na-
tion.

We all hoped that little Mat-
thew’s death would turn out
not to have been in vain. We
prayed that something good
would come out of this
unimaginable tragedy. Alas, it
was not to be.

Three years after the last
breath was beaten ant of Mat-
thew, children in British
Columbia are still at grave
risk. And the disturbing aspect
is that many children are still
at risk not because of flaws in
the system that is to protect
them, but because the govern-
ment isn’t spending. enough

money to, make, the system
Wonk oo

Don’t take my word for it.
Just ask Joyce Preston, the pro-
vince’s child and youth advo-
cate,

“There are simply not ade-
quate resources, 1 am frustrated
beyond belicf,’’ Preston told
reporters at a press conference.

Preston was appointed in the
wake of the Gove inquiry into
the death of Matthew
Vaudreuil. Her mandate was to
make sure thai the system that
failed Matthew would never

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

fail another child.

Preston tried, but has been
hamstrung at every tum by a
parsimonious government that
can find millions to bail out
Skeena Cellulose, bul refuses

to-allocate adequate funding to ~~

the protection of children.

She told reporters that the
government has reneged on its
commitment to improve child
protection services, and
without significant increases in
funding, all the promised
changes will not add up to any-
thing more than a paper ex-
ercise.

“Promises were made and
not kept,’ Preston said. “I
challenge the government to
get on with it.”’

The number of young people

in government care, she said,
has grown by 45 per cent in the
last five years, but funding
hasn’t kept pace with that in-
crease.

Children and families minis-
ter Lois Boone offered in-
sultingly lame excuses for the
deplorable situation.

‘It’s easy for someone to say
we should have more funding.
There isn’t a ministry that
doesn’t require more funding.
But taxpayers right now, I
don’t think, have the interest in
putting a pile more money into
government,”’ she said in the
legislature.

What rot, We’re not talking
about putting money “‘ilto
government.”” We're talking
about adequate funding for the
protection of children.

gram these days wilhout hav-
ing to sit through some self-
serving government commer-
cial, masquerading as informa-
tion. The money the NDP
government spends on those
commercials alane would be
more than enough to fund the
best child-protection system in
the country,

The problem is that only a
few cabinet ministers are paw-
erful enough to get what they
want. Dan Miller had no prob-
lem getting ihe Skeena deal by

remain in danger

Premier Gien Clark and his all-
powerful deputy, Doug
McArthur.

The rest of the cabinet minis-
ters are manipulated from the
premicr’s office
marionettes. They can't go to
the bathroom without asking
permission. And when they
feebly voice their requests for
more funding at the cabinet
lable, they get slapped down.
Lois Boone is one of those.

It is clear that the child and
youth advocate needs an advo-
cate of her own, an advocate
who can exert enough pressure
on the premier and his advisors

to open the purse strings.

Boone has failed miserably. in
that role.

The only thing that can per-
suade this government to keep
You can’t..watch.a. TV.pro-,,.,its promises and start. provid. ..
; ~ ‘ing adequate funding for the...

protection of children in
government care is public
pressure. For the sake of little
Matthew’s memory and the
safety of so many other chil-
dren, British Columbians
should shout their disgust with
the status quo from every
rooftop.

Beyer can be reached at:
Tel: (250) 920-9300; Fax;
(250) 356-9597; E-mail:
hubert@coolcom.com

Hey, let’s raffle off a quilt

WHILE SCHOOLS = are
anyway teaching our kids
street proofing against attacks
by strangers, how to roll on a
condom in Child Care 9/10,
and budgeting and banking, we
should add what is fast becom-
ing a vital skill — fundraising.

Before long our taxes will
pay no more than salarics,
perks and jaunts to Italy for
our elected officials. We al-
ready hold plant sales to fi-
nance city beautification, raf-
fles to build senior housing,
and bingos to fund community
groups, not to mention Lotto
649 and other gambling to
boost government revenue.

Soon our kids will have to
fundraise for everything from
hospital equipment such as
CAT scanners, and nurses,
school theatres, and books. A!-
ready two such fundraisers are
taking place, one to supply
Talking Books to a library, the
other to sponsor essential texts
for school kids.

In Vancouver, Johnny Post, 4
sight-impaired 85-year-old, has

= DON'T BOTHER
WITH ALL THAT
STOVE PIFE

BPA CLEANING GEAR!

“THROUGH BIFOCALS:
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

set up a joke contest where
each five dollar entry {ec goes
te Vancouver Public Library’s
Talking Books budget, a
budget that was slashed from
$90,000 to $45,000, The prize
for the best joke will be to
have a mountain near Terrace
named after the winner.

And in Mortlach, Sas-
katchewan, parents of the
school’s 180 students have
organized a quilt raffle to raise
$15,000 for school books,
computer and playground

OLD TIMERS JUST
BUILT A ROARING
FIRE. TO BURN

af OUT THE CREOSOTE!

equipment.

In recent years the Sas-
katchewan government has
severely cut the school’s
grants, until parents feel it .is
just a matter of time before the
school closes and their kids
tide 30 miles by bus to Moose
Jaw.

Mortlach’s quilt is made up
of 26 prairie scenes reproduced
from the pages of the best sell-
ing children’s book, ‘‘A Prairie
Alphabet,’ written by a city
nurse who martied a farmer
and couldn’t find a book ex-
plaining farming life satisfac-
torily for her children.

It took four years to hurdic
ihe problems of gaining
permission to use the book’s
paintings, figuring out how to
teproduce the colourful scenes
on squares of fabric, and final-
ly involving everyone in the
community.

Some contributed by looking
after the toddlers while
mothers were away baiting the
quilt or stitching the layers to-
gether.

So! HAL! THAT oD
TIMER'S TRICK.
Fix YouR PIPES 7

) CLEAN AS A r,
Oe WHISTLE!

Mortlach’s first prize will be
a treat to the cyes as well as to
the toes, Second prize is a

framed Prairie Alphabet print
of your choice. Third prize is a’

copy of the book, signed by
artist Yvette Moore.

’ Ticket - $2 each or three for
$5 ~ are available from Mort-:

lach Parent Association, Box
296, Mortlach, Sask., S0H
3E0, The draw takes place
September 14.

Deadline for joke entries is
June 15. Judging — by con-
sensus of a group of members
of the B.C. Humonr Sociely —
will be June 30. Exactly what
criteria will determine the win-
ning joke is not clear to me,

but with his background work-°

ing with Bob Hope, no doubt
Johnny Post will know a win-
ner when he sees it.

With cutbacks and govern-
ment funding less and less, if
we can’t teach our children the
art of fundraising, maybe we
can at least nurse their sense of
humour. How else will they
survive?

“dike. .

I-42,

re ee