TERRACE:

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
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Too much pain

DEPUTY PREMIER Dan Miller received a
warm reaction when he outlined details of the
province’s ownership of Skeena Cellulose in his
hometown of Prince Rupert. Mayor Jack Mussal-
lem, for one, thanked Mr. Miller for his work.
And so he should for what’s been given to
Skeena Cellulose’s pulp mill workers there far
outshines what unsecured creditors here face.
Those workers are getting, as succintly put by
Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce
president Sharalyn Palagian to Mr. Miller, a-
“real cherry deal’’. It’s not hard to understand

the resentment and bitterness behind Ms. Palag-'

ian’s remark.

Sure, the pulp mill workers are taking a wage
cut but it will be returned in the form of a 20 per
cent ownership stake in the company. Now that.
the province is the majority owner, its stake in
keeping the company afloat has increased

dramatically so the share owned by the workers:

is more secure than it was before.

When the Toronto Dominion and Roya! Banks
wanted more concessions from the workers early
on, the province stepped in with money to stem
the prospect of further wage cuts. It also agreed
to pay for the workers’ full benefits costs over
the next seven years, The cost? A cool $26 mil-
lion. ;

The province argues that this was necessary to
bring down the company’s cost of production.
It’s a valid argument. But asking unsecured
creditors to take $10,000 and five per cent of
what’s owed them, which also reduces the com-
pany’s costs because it wipes out debt, isn’t
close to the soft landing afforded the Rupert
workers,

The province. can also argue the banks took a
big hit in writing off Skeena Cellulose debt. And
credit must go to Mr. Miller for helping this
along for it puts the company on a more solid
foundation. But banks, like any business, always
tuck away an amount for bad debt. Besides, the
Royal and Toronto Dominion can write off their
losses against profits. Note that the Royal held
out for 40 cents on the dollar in selling its share
to the province. That’s substantially more than
the five cents on the dollar being offered the un-
secureds.

Mr. Miller dearly wants the unsecured creditors
to accept what’s being offered and to move on.
Yet in the end, despite a bill hitting the $250 mil-
lion mark, unsecured creditors are justified in

thinking they’re sharing more than their fair

amount of pain.

Modern ways

NOW THIS IS interesting. The education minis-
try wants to give high school students credits for
various out of school activities. This will be an
enormous benefit for all concerned,

Instead of playing hookey, itll be playing
hockey. Hacking into computer systems will be
known as advanced software engineering. Stu-
dents will no longer hang out in clumps
downtown. They’ll be taking part in urban
anthropological studies.

a a
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al

A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 10, 1997

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Healthy children help us all

VICTORIA — I would like
send a few kudos Reform MP
Keith Martin’s way. The last
time I wrote about Martin I
didn't have a lot of good to
say. That was when he
predicted ihat native self-
government would result in
conditions resembling South
Africa’s former Apartheid sys-
tem.

Alas, the Member of Pazlia-
ment for Esquimalt-Juan de
Fuca on Vancouver Island has
more than redeemed himself
with his recent tabling in the
House of Commons of a mo-
tion to develop a national
strategy to assist children in
their first eight years of life.

Martin's proposal is aimed at
the core of the most glaring
problems our children face:
rising dropout rates, teen preg-
nancies and youth crime.
Martin says the old ways of
dealing with those problems no
longer work, if they ever did.

“Historically, our response
to this social blight has always
been detection, detention and
deterrence. But these punitive
measures are not only ex-
pensive, but they simply don’t
work,”

He points out that it costs
about $95,000 a year to keep a

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

youth in detention. That’s an
atrocious figure, and the worst
investment possible in our

" young generation,

To decrease teenage crime,
Martin believes, “we must
shift our energies from crime
Management to crime pre-
vention.’ And that, he says,
means identifying the tue
causes of criminal behaviour,

“Verbal, physical and sexual
abuse, experiencing the victim-
ization of others, and poor
nutrition are all obvious threats
to normal psychological devel-
opment,’’ Martin says.

‘However, more subtle fac-
tors a lack of supervision by
caring adults, parental re-
jection, and inconsistent care

can also have devastating ¢f-
fects,’’ he adds.

Martin’s remarks pack a spe-
cial punch. He’s a physician.
He’s seen his share of human
misery, because sooner or
later, malnourished and abused
children will end up at a doc-
for’s office, some closer to
death than alive,

His proposal is also timely,
as Victoria and, indeed, the
test of Canada, is riding an
emotional roller coaster, fol-
lowing the killing of a teenage
girl by her peers, an unprece-
dented crime in this relatively
sedate city,

Martin says that programs

similar to the he is advocating
exist elsewhere and have
proven to be very successful.
’ “Healthy Start,’’ an initia-
tive introduced in Hawaii
Several years ago, focuses on
high-risk families while a
woman is still pregnant, By ap-
plying basic parenting skills,
proper nutrition, conflict
tesolution and substance abuse
counter-measures, the outcome
of the Healthy Start program
has resulted in a 99-per-cent
reduction in child abuse.

Martin also points to a stic-
cessful program in Ypsilanti,
Michigan, that concentrates of

improving parental skills,
promoting healthy babies, in-
creasing family cohesion and
encouraging social skills.

That program is credited
with having reduced youth and
adult crime by 50 per cent,
lowered teen pregnancies by
40 per cent and resulted in
higher employment rates and
family incomes.

“The long-term savings for
taxpayers were enormous and
worked out to roughly $6 in
dividends for every dollar
spent,” says Martin.

“Tn order to give children 4
chance to build a normal.
psyche and break the cycle of
crime, punishment and in-
carceration, we must invest
resources that prevent children
from slipping through the
cracks of socicty in the first
Place rather than try to pick up
the pieces later at a much high-
er cost,”’

] hope Prime Minister Jean
Chretien and his Liberal
government are listening to
Martin. The man’s ideas have
merit and shouid be acted on,
regardless of party politics.

Beyer can be reached at:
Tel: (250) 920-9300; Fax:
(250) 385-6783; E-mail:
hubert@coolcom.com

Mall strike hurt businesses

AN AVERAGE family
receives aS much mail in one
day as our parents did in a
month and our grandparents in
a year, according to an organi-
zational expert who makes her
living helping individuals
streamline their — kitchens,
closets, and offices,

Certainly back in 1907 when
my grandfather hbomesteaded
in Saskatchewan, he didn't
look forward to much mail
when he made his twice-a-
year, three-day hike to and
from the nearest post office in
Battleford, 30 miles away.

His mail likely consisted of
only one or two letters form
relatives in Sweden, a bundle
of Swedish newspapers pub-
lished months earlier, and a
government notice of property
tax due.

Since I’m thoroughly spoiled
by daily mail, I looked forward
to an avalanche — okay, a
trickle — of subscription mag-
azines besides the build up of
bills when the strike ended.
Come the = first available

SKOOKUM'S
NORTHERN
EVOLUTION

J THROUGH BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

weekend, I plan to bibernate
with “B.C, Woman,”’
“Upholstery Journal’’, and
several writers’ magazines.

In my private life, the mail
strike had been more boon than
hardship: No one pestered me
to pen chatty letters to distant
felatives; I've saved on
stationery and postage. And
two weeks without junk mail
was as much of a treat as
Thanksgiving without weight
gain,

The two-week gap imposed
upon our routine revitalized
our marriage. When my bus-
band retums from his daily
supply run to town, I’ve been
in the habit of asking, ‘‘Any
mail?’? Usually there’s at least
one bill and an offer to clean
my carpels.

The strike forced me to im-
provise a substitute greeting,
‘Was town busy this morn-
ing?’’ Such a question allowed
our lunch time conversation to
range far and wide, Or “‘What
are the posties up to today?”’
His answer gauges his mood.

The strike’s main effect on
me has been two-fold: in Sas-
katoon, the ‘‘Westem Pro-
ducer’? — sold mairly by sub-
scriptions to farmers — laid
off 65 staff and idled produc-
tion. Fridays have always
brought the paper with its fic-
tion, columns, and humour,
And I worry the paper will
omit some of my favourite fea-
tures as it tries to catch up.

Secondly, as a small busi- -

ness, the strike has been costly,

For example, ta mect a
customer’s Christmas deadline,
I ordered the featherweight
amount of material I needed to
be delivered by courier at
$27.90. Bank-to-bank transfer
to pay the supplier cost $9.00.
In all, that bit of material cost
at least $30 more than if it and
the cheque could have traveled
by mail, Thal tells me how im-
portantI am to my posties,

Most upsetting was to hear a
postie union leader gleefully
declare, ‘““We've got the post
office against the wall. Busi-
ness is down fifly percent.’

As a taxpayer, the post office
is my business. If it loses
money, I'll be expected to sub-
sidize it.

How can postal workers ex-
pect a raise or greater job
security When their aim is to
serve only themselves?

Anyone who can’t come to a
workable agreement in eight
months of talks should try
making a living as an entrepre-
neur,

SURVIVAL
OF THE

UNFITTEST