Page Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 7, 1993 &CSTERRACE STANDART) i Registration No, 7820 Phone (604) 638-7283 — (1969) Ltd,, it's illustration repro services and advertising agencies, Serving the Tertace area, Published on Wednesday of each weal-by Caviboo Press (1969 Lid. al 4647 Lazolle Ave., Terrace, Briish Columbia. Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are tha property of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press Raptoduction in whole or In par, whhout written permission, is specifically prohibtied, Authorized aa second-class mail pending the Post Office Department, for payment of postage in cash, Jeff Nagel - News/Community, Malcolm Baxter - News/S ports, Publlsher/Editor: Rose Fisher - Front Cifice Manager, Pam Odell - Typeseltar, 7 ~~ ——— Rod Link ~ "” Arane Watts - Typesatter, Susan Credgaur - Composing/Darkroom, Special thanks to ESTALISHED APRIL 27, 1986 Janet Vivelros = Advertising Consuttant, Sam Collier - Advertising Consultant, eee : Advertising ” Charlene Matthawa - Circulalion Manager alt our 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C., V8G 158 Manager: contributors and - Mike L. Hamm ee ccna fg correspondents | Fax (604) 638-8432 | : se cre 4% 2S for their time and Production Manager: " NO sie, scene | ane ATION: talents. - G3 Edouard Credgeur Qaerss -CIREUEATION + : CONTIVOLLED It’s ‘not so much that the provincial government raised taxes last week. It’s the feeling that the increases are going into some black financial hole far and away from our control. This comes despite the province’s mighty sales pitch that the budget reduces the growth of spending and will also reduce the yearly operating deficit. . . That’s because spending and revenue cal- culations are based on assumptions. If revenues are more than forecast and spend- ing is less than what is calculated, it’s good news. But it’s bad news if the reverse is true. And there’s all sorts of room within any governnient’s financial system for all sorts of political shenanigans designed to obscure the true picture. . Instead, the provincial government would have picked up valuable and valid political points, not to mention ‘a sense of fiscal sanity, by creating a budget reduction ac- count. Here’s how it might work. The Upthecreek | Over’. the years some of the most vociferous opponents of federal Depart- ment of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) policies have claimed it is not overly inter-. ested inconservation. a The Deep Creek hatchery decision proves they were right. oe The Terrace: Salmonid Enhancement | Society asked for two separate grants. — - The. fing, $53,000, , wouldy allow. the ‘hatchery 0, stay..in the business’ fish. an pre The second, $52,000, would cover the cost of the annual count of Kalum River chinook. , So, The DFO has now told the society it'll get the money to do the fish census but not “of raiding HIRST ated tro EDITORIAL, = Boldmessage | government does raise taxes. But the in- poe creases go directly into the account, The. . paperwork is handled-by a body indepen-.’|* - : dent of the province. Each month whatever: - has been collected is delivered to wherever we owe it to ina very public ceremony. - There was even one suggestion making the rounds last week of how to publicize this. Drivers by now will have noticed the . new message sign heading west on Hwyl16. It’s big, bold and can be pro- grammed to send out any kind of message. How about a deficit reduction clock? As money pours into the account, the clock shows the decrease, And there’s more. Tie the clock into a highway toll system. Each time a car goes through and pays a toll, the amount decreases. Heck, we could even send out young offenders to comb the sides of the highway a couple of times a month for emply beer cans to run the ‘clock dow even further. - a penny for the hatchery operation. ~ In other words, DFO would rather count fish than help maintain or increase their” numbers, - And it doesn’t take a genius to predict what the counts will show in a few years - your fate was sealed. You lay — . time. The society estimates up to four per — cent. of returning Kalum chinook and as many as 40 per cent of Cedar chinook have been raised at the Deep Creek facility... ““hetefore, ‘take away~the- hatchery: and you guarantee a decline in chinook in those’ streams. , And when that eventually happens, it will : also probably be the point at which some netle 4 Willa AOE OP RL LE aan evaeenaaenenees: SSAARAASARAAIARS RR _AND ML HEEP BOING AND GOING. AND GOI ‘despite VICTORIA — When you woke up on the morning of March 30, Glen Clark had you = in his sights. By 2:30 p.m., bleeding on the floor. The wounds inflicted by the finance minister’s budget vary, depending on the vic- - tim’s wealth; income and life. .. style. bright spark at DFO will suggest the solu- tion to the problem is:.... a hatchery. - Welfare breeding | masters of fraud Welfare is intended for those who’ve had the mg yanked out from-under them by cruel cir- cumstances. But in B:C. it’s a career goal for fraud artists, Vancouver cops have busted Bifocals : a ring of welfare’ cheats . who've ripped off hundreds of thousands of welfare dollars, - g Police know of .at. least 50 people in half a dozen groups, ree each collecting welfare under half a dozen names. Through | _by Claudette Sandecki One man arrested had docu- ments -involvingover .200 . separate identities, Another man began collecting welfare without showing any identi- fication at all! Why, even the . Terrace library asks applicants . for one piece of mail showing their name and current ad- dress. ce Nonetheless social: services minister Joan . ‘Smallwood claims she’s trying to ‘fraud. How? See Smallwood rules out .finger- proof the system. =. prints or special identity cards. . . ‘Yet aside from DNA testing - still too slow and costly to use for anything less ‘than: murder’. investigations: -' ‘fingerprints’ ate the only sure: means: of . checking fraud. For regardless — what type-of identity card the . ministry might devise, crooks: would _ work overtime out. smarting it... Some might argue thumbprints. would be anit position to welfare recipients, | Tough. We don’t force anyone to accept ..welfare...They; re. never asked {0 ‘fepay, even a .. percentage . °. ey. $ receive, unlike: student loans for which documentation. is exact, lengthy,: and’ the hand-: out limited in amount and duration. A steady living al- lowance in exchange for one smudged finger is easy money. Certainly easier money than - having:to show up for work on lime, every-day, spend all day - on the job; and perform well. Hell, they don’t even have to pick up their cheque. Mail ‘delivers it to their door, . At the moment, the’ post of- fice forwards welfare cheques, enabling -fraud recipients to ‘skip: from’ province to. pro- ‘vince, applying and collecting. as they travel. Now, though, the post office has. agreed'not ‘to forward. cheques’ and to tell” the .ministry. if an unusual number df cheques go to one. _ address. High time. . Wonder © ‘how: many equal ‘‘unusual’’? It's in’ the interest ‘of every genuine recipient: to eliminate. - fraud. :.- More * than. 300,000 people: are:.on assistance in . B.C. Eliminating fraud would - allow us:to increase rates for those in need: while. reducing ‘total. welfare:..costs,. currently billion. annually in the. province. _If you earn $60,000 a year or more, live ina'$400,000 .. home, drive'a $30,000 care, © smoke and drink; don’t bother calling a doctor. You're as good as dead. . ’ Middle-income earners with modest homes and tastes are still severely bruised by Clark’s assault. And while low-income eafners are getting a break, it’s not enough to make them feel a lot better. Few of the budget measures came as a surprise. ‘The fi- nance minister, aided:-by government spin doctors, has. been so busy speculating on what the budget may or may not contain that any journalist with a modicum of training could have written most of the budget story the day before Clark tabled it in the legisla- ture, — There had been little doubt about the increase in the sales . tax from six per cent lo seven . _ In Jast week’s budget, Har- court increased the welfare ministry’s budget and upped many ‘taxes to collect the extra amount. It’s sad. so. many British _ Columbians need welfare, sad- der still. our economy doesn’t offer more of the right kind of jobs, saddest of all govern- ment can’t (or won’t) do a bet- ter job screening out fraudu- lent applicants. — a ‘I-don’t begrudge welfare to per cent, which will cram an additional $385 million a year into government coffers. Equally transparent was the increase in income tax for those eaming $60,000 and up. Large corporations may not like the hike in corporate in- come tax by half a percentage “point, but they'd have to be _ qualified. applicants, .I | do- resent government making’ it. at a smorgasbord, . \ _as availgble as paper napkins: TTHEY MIGHT LOOK S77) BETTER WITHA] THWNER BELT? © foolish not to have anticipated it. The tried and proven govern- ment cash cows of liquor and tobacco were, of course, pressed into service, once. again. Both will go up, liquor by 2.5 per cent to three per: cent and tobacco by $la ~ BELTS ! I. Deficit still there No WAY EaLL TE oo | Me eaR THICK From the - ‘Capital — by Hubert Beyer . carton of cigarettes. Gas will go up by $1 cent a litre. The sneakiest new revenue — measure has to do with automobiles, which might easily be interpreted as the NDP’s final revenge for what was called ‘“‘the night of the car dealers,’ back in 1975, . when the Barrett government was drummed out of office by the Socreds, whose ranks in- _ cluded half a dozen or so car - dealers. _ To start with, the NDP eliminated the sales tax trade-. in allowance. That means, you - . the proverbial average family now pay the sales tax on the _ car's total price, rather than on.’ the difference between the new-car price and the trade-in. In addition, the government -is hammering the purchasers of luxury cars with price tags of $30,000 and up within extra three percentage points on the sales fax. Let’s say, you want to buy a_ $50,000 car and trade in the model you bought two years earlier for $30,000. Before the budget, you’d have paid $1,200 sales tax; now you'll — pay an even $5,000. Throughout the budget, there. are examples of the NDP’s - Robin Hood philosophy, taken a step further. They take alot - . from the rich and give a little to the poor. = . Low-income eamers, for in- stance, will get a $50-a-year- sales jax rebate. The Home Owners Grant gocs up to $470. for $450 and.to $745 from. ! $720 for seniors. | Moat see wart "YOU, MEAN II Owners of homes with a’. market value of $400,000, on the other hand, will have their | | grant reduced by $10 for every ~ $1,000 above the $400,000- —... mark. - _ ~ “Middle and high-income eamers will pay more for _ medical coverage -'$1 a month | - for singles and $2 for families - but an estimated 430,000 lower-income earners won't . have to pay any premiums, . while another 135,000 will. have their premiums reduced, What's the budget mean.to- - with two kids.and an-average. - income? Assuming modest - consumption of alcohol ‘and ownership of two cars, that family will pay an additional. ~~ , 927 a year for liquor, $25 for medical coverage, $52 for gas and.$150 for sales tax, fora. total of $253 a year. If they - smoke, add another $36 per person peryear, -The structure for increases in personal income tax is too" complicated to explain here; safe to say that if you earn in excess of $60,000 a year, you'll pay more. TO , Despite all the rhetoric about.» the need to reduce. the deficit, .- government spending will go up more than $1 billion inthe new fiscal years Se _ And the province's total ac- =. cumulated debt, including that of Crown corporations, will =: - tise to $26,379 billion, up _from about $21 billion when. — the NDP took office’...