44 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 5, 1995 m TERRACE STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 . ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 188 TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432 MODEM: (604) 638-7247 Job well done ‘IF THERE’S anybody who deserves a vote of thanks and best wishes it’s Lieutenant Governor David Lam. He’s due to step down after seven and half years of service to the people of the pro- vince. . Originally from Hong Kong, Mr. Lam arrived in B.C. in 1967 and established himself in real estate. He grew wealthy from that enterprise and began to donate money to various worthy causes. Mr. Lam’s appointment to the vice-regal posi- tion in 1988 also recognized the changing nature of the province’s population. During his seven and a half years, Mr. Lam maintained and enhanced the dignity and presence of the Lieutenant-Governor’s office. He and his wife were constant travellers around the province and did much to entertain visitors from outside. . But there’s more. It relates to the events of 1991 over then-Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s con- duct concerning the sale of Fantasy Gardens. A probe uncovered disturbing conflict of interest circumstances. Although the office of Lieutenant Governor is largely symbolic, the office still carries with it the authority to remove Premiers from office. Had not Mr. Vander Zalm left on his own ac- cord, Mr. Lam was prepared to fire him. This kind of action may seem undemocratic, even dictatorial, but it does serve to show there remains a place for the office of Lieutenant Gov- ernor and for people such as Mr. Lam who con- ducted himself accordingly. FOR YEARS Mills Memorial Hospital and the Dr. R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation have been moving mountains to purchase better equipment and to locate more services here. The list is long and includes nuclear medicine, the massive, community-backed effort to pur- chase the CT scan device and just lately, the pur- chase of an ultrasound machine. Moving those mountains for better services has reduced the number of people who need to fly over them for treatment down south. (As a mat- ter of fact, we wonder if the airlines are getting just a little bit nervous with the reduced demand to fly south.) . But just as those mountains are being moved, others are rising up to take their place. Chief among them is the continued budget freeze at Mills which has resulted in four years of having its operating base eroded by inflation. That’s resulted in two rounds of bed reductions, from 89 at the beginning of the 1990s to the current 52. The people at Mills have said they’re able to cope — so far. But that coping ability must be strained. Just recently a combination of illnesses and full facilities elsewhere resulted in a full house with little room to maneuver or to adjust to new circumstances. For the health of Mills and for us all, the provincial government’s Closer to Home pro- gram can’t waste any time in working well and properly in the north. oo Gona'5) PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS J:ff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher, Terry Miller DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur TYPESETTER: Susie Anderton ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Tracey Tomas CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Karen Brunette MEMBER OF B,C, PRESS COUNCIL ; Serving (ha Terrace and Thornhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Press (1969) Lid, at 4847 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, British Columbia. . sO Starias, photographs, ilfustralions, designs and typestyles in tha Terrace Standald ate the property of the copyright holders, Including Cariboo Prass {1969) Ltd., its illustration repro servicas and adverlising agencies. . . : Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mall pending the Post Offica Department, for payment of postage in cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents CONT ACRES t a WHAT DO YOU HAVE IF YOu TAKE A DWINDLING FISH STOCK, A SPANISH FISHING FLEET AND ALIBERAL GOVERNMENT ®.... WII A DWINDLING FISH STOCK, A SPANISH FISHING FEET... = | ANDA LIGERAL GOVERNMENT... | ji VICTORIA — When it rains, it pours. Having already been targeted with more bombs than London during the Blitz, the Harcourt government was bet- ting on the budget to turn its fortunes around, It’s a gond-news budget by any measure. It's an election budget, a sunshine budget. It's a balanced budget. In fact, it shows a small surplus, The stage seemed set for fi- nance minister Elizabeth Cull to read the first deficit-free budget speech when disaster struck. The day before budget day, an anonymous mole leaked details of the budget to Les Leyne, legislative bureau chief for the Victoria Times- Colonist. Like any self-respecting jour- natist, he accepted the informa- tion, verified it, and ran with it, When he informed Cull that he had details of the budget, she was stunned, calling the leak “an act of sabolage.’’ She is, of course, right. Whoever leaked the budget details, probably the same per- son who previously leaked other documents, is a trailor, pure and simple. His or her Motivations ‘are not only suspect, but downright nasty. As Reform leader Jack Weis- Barrel THINK WHERE - strikers would be without a barrel bon- fire. Cold, Lacking a focus when RCMP arrive to serve a picket fimiting injunction. Minus a pastime to relieve the stress of sprawling in lawn chairs while wind whips pave- ment gril into their bloodshot eyes, Every strike needs placards, a loud hailer, and a bonfire barrel ordered by Visa or Mastercard from Strike Bartels Inc. in Mississauga. In the Mississauga plant, gasoline drums recycled for logging camps and oil fields are dented to match by retrained antique furniture refinishers, then packaged wilh 4 ten-day supp- ly of splintered lumber retrieved from construction siles, How else to explain the homogeneity of picket sites from St. John’s to Yellowknife and Surrey? Like Macbeth’s witches, stikers mill round the faming barrel, warming their hands BAR LAST NIGHT 7 ‘FROM THE CAPITAL — HUBERT BEYER gerber said: ‘‘The individual should be found, fired and heavily fined.” Having gotten that out of the way, let’s look at the budget. As I said, it’s definitely an election budget, forecasting 4 $114 million surplus for the 1995-96 fiscal year. Aside from the modest sur- plus, the budget’s most noteworthy component is. a four-pronged debt- management plan, aimed at paying off the $10.2 billion of debt incurred from previous annual budget deficits. The debt reduction starts with a pay-down of $414 mil- ‘lion this fiscal year. That money will come from the fires a THROUGH BIFOGALS: LET'S GET THIS STRAIGHT! You JUST HELPED A GUY You ARGUEP wiTH IN THE CLAUDETTE SANDECKI and dropping in cigarette butts. ' When the union office notifies them there’s been a setback, strikers vent their impatience jabbing the fire until sparks fly. Need to hide tears of frusira- tion of anger? Huddle downwind of the fire where smoke gets in your eyes. Black smoke rolling up from oily scrap timbers silently com- ments on contempt charges. The barrel bonfire fuses _ (HE'S FROM DoGGEREL !}. ) GREAT! THEN ANYONE. FROM THE CITY SHoudD $114 million budget surplus and from proceeds of the final sale of the B.C. Endowment Fund assets, The debt-management plan also includes a provision that is to hold goverment to spend- ing less than the growth of the economy, which would result in an actual decline of govern- ment cost over time, The third part of the plan is to cap ihe cost. of taxpayer- supported debt at 8.5 per cent for every dollar of goverment revenues, And finally, the plan calls for cutting the taxpayer- supported debt from 19 per cent of the provincial economy today to 10 per cent in 20 years’ time, Through a variety of waste- culting and cost-efficlency measures, the budget forecasts a spending cut of more than $100 million this fiscal year. Meanwhile, the three-year freeze on personal or corporate income tax, sales tax and other consumer taxes, continues, Is it a smoke-and-mirror budget, as the opposition claims? Yes and no. Yes, the government has rolled a lot of big-ticket items into Crown corporations, which will pay back the money over 15 and 20-year terms. Those include Election budget looks fine mostly infrastructure projects such as schools and highways. On the other hand, govern- ment everywhere have been changing their accounting praciices, and it was high time, There is no reason why a . billion-dollar highway or $200 million worth of schools should be paid for in one year out of the annual operating budget. No private company would dream of doing business that way. ; To pay for big projects which constitute real assets, over a 15 or 20-year period makes eminent sense, It's th. operating deficit that had to be brought under control, and Cull has delivered on tha score. Her debtemanagement plan, cas even though it doesn’t bind fu- , ture goveraments, is a genuine aftempt to gradually pay down the accumulated debt, and the NDP deserves full marks for it. For my money, it’s 2 good budget the NDP showlda’t have any problem taking into an election campaign. Whether or not British, Columbians will buy it, depends entirely on the level of public cynicism that seems to _ be so prevalent these days, sad symbol Strikers into a solid opposition the way campfires bond boy scouts. It also beckons police aad media like a cell phone, Is it mere coincidence most ‘| strikes occur at a time when outdoor burning permits aren’t needed? F think not, Sales staff from Strike Barrels Inc, per- suade employers and union of- ficials to pull the plug then. Bonfires rekindle memories of cheerier times — end-of- the-school-year picnics, lakeside wiener roasts, back- yard barbecues. Manning a picket line week after week is no fun, but warmth from a bonfire lightens the mood of Strikers as they calculate their lost carnings and tally unpaid mortgage payments, Having no stocks in - Strike Barrels Inc., I fail to see why employee contracts can't be achleved without a strike; why employers and employees can’t negotiate an amicable settlement before a contract runs out, ; Canada is sadly in debt. youRE NOT ™ FROM DOGGEREL | Thousands are unemployed. We need every export sale, particularly those contracted after costly delegations travelled to distant continents to drum up markets, Why, then, do we allow our railways to be tied up, commodity movements halted nationwide, and hundreds more laid off while negotiations stall? Aller cach major strike, everyone says there has to be a better way. Losing hard won markets and billlons in gross national product harms every- onc. But does aayone devise a saner settlement method? No. Each time a contract comes up| for renewal, everyone dans a loin cloth, shoulders a club, and gathers around the bonfire barrel. Maybe we'd have fewer and shoricr work stoppages if CEOs and union leaders got no pay during a strike. And it coulda’t hurt to limit their shares in bonfire barrels; THE “NORTHERN BROTHER Hoop ” A SOUTHERN CONUNDRUM ! :