Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 23, 2003 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 WEB: www.terracestandard.com EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com Power play IF TERRACE is the central shopping, medical and recreation centre of the northwest, it stands to reason it should also take a regional leader- ship role. By and large, that’s been the case over the years and particularly in recent times when the economy has been in such a downturn. Using his lawyerly skills, Mayor Jack Talstra worked to form a common front amongst mu- nicipalities in facing the various melt-down sce- narios undergone by Skeena Cellulose since it went into bankruptcy protection for the first time in 1997. Although there were some early-on misgiv- ings about how the Nisga’a treaty was being ne- gotiated, city council backed the agreement and is now enjoying the benefits of economic growth in the Nass Valley. And the city has been behind Prince Rupert in its efforts to develop a cruise ship industry. The benefit may not come directly from cruise pas- sengers but from the employment of Prince Ru- pert residents who will bring their shopping dollars to our town. But when it comes to the future of Alcan, more properly the future of the power Alcan generates from its Kemano hydro-electric faci- lities, Terrace council has stood back. Kitimat has tied itself in knots on the power issue. Its council fears Alcan is more interested in generating power for re-sale outside the re- gion than in producing aluminum. A worst-case scenario is a new Alcan plant turning out more aluminum with fewer workers, resulting in eco- nomic loss. In this fear, Kitimat council is on side with Alcan union-members. - ‘ Terrace council has listened unofficially to its Kitimat counterparts and has a more formal session planned for April 28, It’s also heard from Alcan in a roundabout way. Given that Terrace is home to an estimated 250 unionized Alcan commuters and a healthy amount of non- union Alcan employees making that company — in the continuing closure of the New Skeena sawmill — a major employer here, it’s odd that Terrace council is taking its time on this issue. It may be that Kitimat has traditionally never involved in regional affairs, content to cocoon itself in its Alcan security blanket — a “I’m all right, Jack” approach. As an example, Kitimat council declined to become a part of the airport society despite that facility benefiting Kitima- tians as much as people from Terrace, Or it may be that Terrace council views Alcan power sales as a potentially good thing provided the power stays in the region, stimula- ting investment and diversifying the economy. But because Alcan and its employees form such a major portion of the economy, city council should take more of an interest. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS: Jeff Nagel NEWS/SPORTS Sarah A. Zimmerman 2002 WINNER NEWS/COMMUNITY: Jennifer Lang CCNA BETTER FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping & Carol McKay NEWSPAPERS CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Teri Gordon COMPETITION ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Bert Husband & Stacy Gyger TELEMARKETER: Stacy Gyger COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62.00 per year; Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54,55; Out of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73 Outside of Canada (6 months) $156.91(+10.98 GST)=167.89 MEMBER OF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION AND 8.C, PRESS COUNCIL (www.bepresscouncl!.org) eons A. Serving the Terrace and Thomhill area, Published on Wednesday af each weak al 3210 Clinton Street, Tarrace, British Columbia, VAG 5R2, Storlas, photographs, ilustrations, dasigns and typastyles in tha Terrace Standard are the property of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., Ils Mlustration rapro services and advertising cles. Anproduction In whole oF in part, without wiittan permission, is specifically prohibited, Authorized as second-class malt pending tha Post Ortica Department, for payment of In cash, Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for thalr time and talents | U.S. MILITARY DEPARTMENT OF CARTOGRAPHY _ReISSUE MAP OF THE MIDBLE EAST REGION a TEN What's a million or two anyway > VICTORIA - When the infa- mous fast ferries turned out to cost British Columbia tax- payers $450 million instead of the estimated $275 million, the then-Liberal opposition went ballistic. The fastcat fallout, along with accusations of fiscal ire- sponsibility, was at least the partial reason, the NDP was reduced to two seats in the last election. Now, what would you call a government that initiated a program with only $2.5 million available to implement, but ends up costing $18 million? Fiscally responsible? The program in question is the Internet Portal, a project initiated in the premier's office to upgrade the government Web site. Confronted a few months ago with charges that the pro- ject had already reached a price tag of $6 million, Gordon Campbell, the Premier, insis- ted that the cost was only $4.5 million, already similar to the“; ratio of the estitatéed and’ final * # WivesTSttake d"Silarfte 1 be-*" Bhough tb bring the "Brdjeot*oh, _ fast-ferry bill, : cause “he couldn't “meet chis., It took Joy MacPhail, at the moment the only Opposition MLA in the legislature, to bring out the truth. During the debates of the Ministry of Management Ser- vices, Sandy Santori, the minister, admitted that the cost of the Internet Portal pro- ject now stands at $7.1 million and is believed to top out at $18 million. Missing WHAT SHOULD you do if the novel that cost you $24 is mis- sing its last few pages? Get in touch with the author? Ap- proach the bookseller for a re- placement? Visit the library to read the ending in their copy? Recently my Saskatchewan brother-in-law discovered his copy of Stali Side Manner, written by veterinarian Dave Perrin, repeated pages 287 to 294, then ended abruptly be- fore tying up the story. Sask Tel was unable to supply a phone number for the B.C. author; Sask Tel couldn't even find his hometown of Lister, So Friday my sister phoned me. Telus promptly supplied me with two B.C. phone numbers. The first one failed to answer. The second number was an- swered by a woman whom I correctly judged to be the au- thors wife. “Did your husband write a book?” I asked, wanting to be sure ] was calling the correct Perrin, “Yes,” she said, and rattled off his cell phone num- ber. His cellphone didn't an- swer, so I passed the three Wow-WHAT A DAY!) fax WEGoT I2 PIKE! HoPE THERE'S Room IN THE FREEZER | M THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER Santori’s ministry got stuck with the project when the pre- mier’s office realized that the spiralling cost would probably result in a 10-per-cent salary cut for the premier. This thanks to Campbell's budget law that yanks 10 per cent of any minister's salary whose expenditures exceed his or her budget. Since it would be extreme- ly embarrassing, to say the least, for the First Ministersto own budget estimates, ‘the por- tal thing was kicked over to Santori, “There you are, buddy, you deal with it and if you can't without going over your own budget, well, you take the pay cut,” Grilled by MacPhail, San- tori said that the project was originally estimated to cost $6, but that only $2.5 million were available from the pre- mier’s office. To raise the re- maining $3.5 million, the pre- mier’s office sent letters to other ministries ordering them to pick up a share of the cost. It doesn’t take rocket sci- ence to figure out what this meant. The money the various ministries had to raise for the premier's project came out of their budgets and were not available for their original pur- pose such as education, health and social programs. Santori had- an interesting take on the issue. The portal, he said, was necessary in a time of cost-cutting and re- straint, even, I suppose, if it comes in at three times or maybe even five times the es- timated cost, depending on whether or not you believe that the $2.5 million originally al- located by the premier's office was to cover the entire cost of the project. I believe that this is exactly what happened. When the $2.5 million turned out not ta be line, the, other ministries: were’ 7 raided. Why did the government in- itiate the project in the first piace? Because the present Web site, it says, is not user- friendly, which comes as a surprise to me. I call up the government Web site regularly and find it extremely useful and user-friendly, Try it for yourself at www.gev.be.ca. The site is well organized and with little problem can take you to your local MLA, to ° cabinet ministers, all ministries and Crown corporations. _ Want to find out what the legislature debated yesterday? — Follow the jink to Hansard. ° Heck, those who want to read every word the premier ut- ters have to go only to the first page of the government site. A top story last week, along with a lovely picture of the premier says: “Premier Gordon’ Campbell announces $22.5 miltion in im- provements for roadways north of Vernon.” 7 So, why fix what isn’t broke? The current Web site was developed by the NDP for a few hundred thousand dollars. And, as the Liberals keep tell- ing us, if it was brought in by the New Democrats, it can’t be good. You may argue that the fast- ferry project which ended up costing taxpayers $475 million can’t begcompared tovan $18 ge*ilion Project, ‘however ue * id cessary it as. To which 1 would say that the amount is irrelevant. Whe- ther you take $18 million out of my pocket or $475 million, it's a my money, not the govern- - ment’s. And taking it for pro- jects that aren't necessary is the next-best thing to theft. Beyer can be reached at: E-mail: hubert@coolcon.com; Tel (250) 381-6900 pages are a nuisance THROUGH BIFOCALS™ CLAUDETTE SANDECKI phone numbers along to my sister. She owned the fun of tracking down a solution. Not content to leave it there, I phoned Misty River Books and Coles and ex- plained the situation. Coles had four copies on hand. At least one was defec- tive. Both booksellers offered to replace my brother-in-law's incomplete book with a cor- rect copy. Monday my sister phoned to tell me she had spoken with the vet. He had complaints from other book buyers, and WELL, THERE WILL BE n+ apologized for his printer's er- rors, My sister said all she nee- ded was a faxed copy of the ending, but he insisted she should have a perfect capy and referred her to his Saskatoon publisher, Houghton-Baston. The publisher, though un- able to explain the duplicated or omitted pages, willingly un- dertook to mail my sister a good copy without waiting to receive her defective copy in exchange. Though no one else can ac- count for the printing errors, my guess is the publisher is working short staffed to cut costs, with each person doing several procedures in the print- ing process, and thus staying so close to the text for so long they have become oblivious to errors. A larger staff, each one skilled in one procedure, might produce a higher quality book. I flinch when I find a spelling error or a printing boo- boo in a book or magazine, especially if the book costs $40 as many do today. For instance, my auto- graphed copy of Monkey ONCE You TAKE OUT ALL THE PIKE ERoM LAST YEAR!!! Beach, written by Kitimat’s Eden Robinson, has one chap- ter where three lines were re- peated several pages: farther along. That shouldn’t happen. Nor should misspellings occur; my book has many. In days gone by, publishers employed a team, Each mem- ber'was qualified to deal with one aspect. editing, proofread- ing, printing or binding. . These days many publishers have few staff, use compuler programs, yet hope for quality tesults throughout the produc- tion of a book. With poor spelling a hall mark of so many high school grads today, spelling sloppiness has to dribble down to where it shows up in printed books. just as it does in bank managers letters. Al one time, magazines like Maclean’s and Chatelaine never printed a misspelled word. No niore. While their er- rors are infrequent, they have become more routine. But ending a book before the author intended is a new shortcut.