Reta at a TORE

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A surprise

To the editor,

The British Columbia

Council for the Family has
notified me that my name
was forwarded from this
community as one of 60
nominees for the first Dis-
tinguished Service to
Families Award in B.C. .

‘I have also been. in-
formed that this year’s re-
cipients of the award are:
Hamid Ireland — Queen
Charlotte City, B.C.; La
Leche League of B.C. —
Yukon; Lock and Joanne
Mawhinney — Couriney,
B.C.; Edna Nash — West
Vancouver, B.C. and
Westside Family Place —
Vancouver, B.C, ©

My own nomination
was a great surprise and
honor, I would like - all
those involved, mothers,
physicians, nurses and
members of the Terrace

Breastfeeding Support .

Group, -to know how
much I appreciate their ef-
forts and. letters on my
behalf. = =
Thank you all for your

. thoughtfulness and ‘en-

couragement. 7

Pamela E. Straker ;
-: Terrace, B.C. -

* Letters to the editor wiil be
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_ only when signed. Please
include your. phone
number. The~ editor.
reserves the right ‘to
condense and edit letters.
Opinions expressed are
not necessarily those of
the Terrace Review.

= Terrace

Review

Established May 1, 1985

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ee a

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Terrace. Review.

Act falls short of expectations
: Hubert =|

Victoria Correspondent

Is that all there is? went a popular song of the late

50s, a question which might well be asked of the govern- .

ment’s new Expropriation Act introduced in the legisla-
ture a few weeks back. - a

Considering the work that went into the project — -

green papers, white papers, public input and what have
-you — the final product gives cost-benefit ratios a bad
name, ,

For decades, successive governments in British Col-

umbia have wielded expropriation powers that would 7 !
affected by a proposed expropriation to request a public
inquiry. In case of such a request, the compensation

have delighted the feudal barons of medieval Europe.
Horror stories of government expropriation are legion.

Few communities in B.C, escaped the land-grabbing . -

power vested in the provincial government and _ its
Crown corporations through ancient statutes. .

And as eacli government came to power, it decided to
stay with the oppressive laws. Even the self-professed
protector of the underdog, the NDP, didn’t touch the

- expropriation laws while it was in. power. They made —

things so much easier. Fairness, after all, doesn’t come
cheap, and there’s. always the old excuse of having to

- gave the taxpayers’ money.

-- Former Liberal MLA Garde Gardom, reborn as a
Socred when the smell of power became irresistible, was
the first lone voice demanding fairer treatment of
citizens whose land the government needed for projects

. “in the public interest”. . oo
. * At Gardom’s urging, the Bill Bennett government .

‘produced a white paper which set out proposals for new

expropriation laws. For a while, there was a flurry-of ac-
tivity. Dozens of briefs and representations advised the .

‘In Terrace Provincial
Court on Friday, May 1
Joseph Lopes was jailed
seven days‘ for possession
of a. narcotic. .

kkk
On Friday, May 1 in
Terrace Provincial Court

- Kevin Simpson was fined

$50 for possession of a
narcotic. —
k*ae*

In Terrace. Provincial
Court on Friday, May 1
Joseph Lopes'.was jailed

4S days and put on proba-

sae
aoe

\Terrace court report!

tion for one year for

possession of a narcotic

for the purpose of traf-
ficking. |

Harvey Johnston was fin-

ed $50 for being drunk in.

a public place.
kkk _
On Friday, May 1 in
Terrace Provincial Court
on Arlene Christie was
found guilty of theft and
fined $125.y w x _

xk * Se
On Friday, May 1 in

Terrace Provincial Court : made’’, can set the date, time and place for an inquiry

government on what.was right or wrong with the white

paper, but nothing happened. The exercise even outliv-
ed Gardon’s political career. ;

As long as: there was a chance that the difficult

“pregnancy: would result in a beautiful baby, we could
~” tell ourselves that the new legislation was well worth ©

waiting for. But when the baby was delivered on April
28, it wasn’t all that beautiful. re
Parts of the act look okay, such as the appointment
by cabinet of an Expropriation Compensation Board.
The chairman of the board would be appointed for a
five-year term while an unspecified number of members

‘would serve on a full or part-time basis for three-year
.terms.. ee

The appointment of a compensation board is an im-
provement over existing rules under ‘which a person
whose land is taken away is at the mercy of the govern-

“ment in general and.the land-grabbing ministry in par-
ticular, 29 ee

‘The act.also contains a provision allowing a person

board appoints an inquiry officer who must conduct the

inquiry within 2) days of his appointment. =
Sounds good. Just what Garde Gardom had in mind,

if it weren’t for a few qualifiers which make me doubt

the government’s commitment to fairer expropriation .

procedures.

*

The compensation board, you see, has the power

under the act to deny requests for a public inquiry. The
reasons for such a denial are listed in the act.

If in the opinion of the board a request for an inquiry
is ‘frivolous, vexatious, or not made in good faith, or

based solely on a claim for compensation”’, it may deny

the request.

_- That grab bag of reasons should give any cabinet-
_ appointed board, eager to please its masters, enough ex-

cuses to deny just about any request for a public in-

* quiry. And even if a case goes before an inquiry, there.

isn’t enough time to mount a case against the govern-
ment, oo |

A request for an inquiry must be made within 30 days
of notification of the proposed expropriation. Counting

- the week within which an inquiry officer must be ap-
pointed and the three weeks within which the inquiry
_must. get underway, some poor bloke who is about to

lose his land to the government has no more than two

-months to build his case. -

To make things worse, any expropriating authority,
such as B.C. Hydro, B.C. Rail or a government
ministry, ‘“‘on being satisfied that an inquiry will be

and have it delivered to the person affected along with

_ the first notification. — .

All in all, the new act falls woefully short of what it
should have been, particularly considering the effort
that went into reviewing the whole expropriation mess
in this. province. ° re

I’ll be waiting for the official opposition to take the

act apart when it comes up for debate in the legislature.

To the editor, cg

_ Victoria.

Recently I received alet-.. -

ter from the Chairman of

Mills Memorial. Hospital -

Board. This letter was:sent .
to all members of the Ter- .

_ ‘race and District Hospital - .
_ Association,, In it .Ms. -

Hamilton, the Président, |

expressed concern about

the lack-of money in Mills
Memorial’s Capital Fund.

-and asked for-a donation,

Apparently the Ministry

of ‘Health in Victoria did. ;

not approve the La-.
bour/Delivery Room

‘Construction Project or =
the purchase ofa special X | -

Ray . unit. The hospital.

. must. now raise $200,000
to replenish the Hospital’s .

Now. if our Hospi

Capital Fund. -

Board needs funds to pro-

vide hospital care for us
you’d think they would
first make some noise at
The squeaky
wheel gets the grease, but I
haven’t. heard a word of
protest to Victoria for the
lack of funding. I’m ‘in-

clined to wonder if our. —
Hospital Board isn’t try-
‘ing to be too nice to their.

friends in Victoria.
I pay taxes for hospital
care and I shouldn’t have.

to contribute twice. Unless
this Board demands that -

the Ministry properly fund
hospitals, Victoria will use
tax money for something -

‘else, We need hospitals .

properly funded before we
need more bridges. and
ALRT extensions and we .

- need a Hospital Board to

look after local interests.

Sometimes that means giv-
ing Victoria some well-. -

deserved criticism. . _

- | would suggest that the -

Mills Memorial Hospital .

Board worry less about ©

making their boys in Vic-

‘toria look good before -
they ask for donations to.
-equip a hospital. I just -

don’t .want to find out.
after I have made my con--
tribution, additional . to
taxation, that Victoria is .
planning another Expo
with all the extra money
theyhave. ss.
Walter McConnell
Terrace, B.C. .

[In court |

In Terrace Provincial
Court on Friday, April 24 »
Clyde Martin was jailed 21.’
days for theft. co

te tee