A6 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 01, 2003 TERRACE .. STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3216 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 » FAX: (250) 638-8432 WEB: www.terracestandard.com EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com Only in B.C. YOU KNOW you’re living in B.C. when one of the province’s toughest business executives, Jack Poole, tries to divert the debate about the 2010 Winter Olympics away from questions about money. Mr. Poole is the chairman of the Vancouver- Whistler 2010 Bid Corporation, the entity charged with bringing home the Olympic bacon. In a past life, he was one of Vancouver’s better known real estate developers but is now volunteering his time on the bid. Mr. Poole writes an occasional column for a major daily newspaper touting the value of the Olympics.. His most recent one lamented the constant questions he gets-about the cost of sta- ging the multi-billion dollar event. “That seems to be the top-of-mind concern, rather than such things as the arts and cultural celebrations, environmental sustainability or the Olympic ideal of promoting peace through sport,” Mr. Poole writes. Oh, really? Only in B.C. can we have a top- ranked business executive telling us it’s not about the money. Of course the Olympic bid is about the money. It has to be. There is no other way to look at the proposition. Either the thing makes economic sense or it doesn’t. The rest is mere fluff. . . Mr. Poole and the bid corporation are posi- tioning themselves for the upcoming City of Vancouver plebiscite on whether the city should host the Olympics. Newly-elected Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell is personally in favour of the Olympics but campaigned on holding a vote and is following through. A “no” vote would be a huge problem for Mr. Poole and his corporation leading into the final stages of the bid competition, hence his de- sire to concentrate on the “feel good” aspects about staging the Olympics in hopes of gather- ing support. The vote won’t be binding as the city several years ago legally committed itself to supporting the bid, but at least it gives Vancouver residents an opportunity to say “yes” or “no.” And that opportunity is more than anybody else in the province has. The other Mr. Camp- bell, the Premier, is content to say that when voters chose him, they chose to have his gov- ernment champion the Olympic bid. Case closed. It means we’re on the outside looking in once again. We won’t have the chance to participate in the debate about committing tax money — money gathered from around the province — for an event concentrated in the lower mainland at a time when the government’s own MLAs warn of major problems in the rural areas. Only in B.C. could this happen. 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Stories, photographs, ‘lustrallons, designs and typastyles in tha Terrace Standard are tha property of the copyright holders, Including Cariboo Prass (1869) Ltd, its iftustration repro servicaa and advertising agencies, Reproduction in whole orin part, wilhout written permission, is specilically prohibited. Authorized as sacond-class mail pending the Post Oifica Cepartmant, for payment af postaga In cash, Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents VICTORIA — The solution to Canada’s health care problems recommended by Roy Roma- now is an infusion of $15 bil- lion dollars over the next three years. A rough calculation shows that this recipe will cost every Canadian man, woman and child about $500. It means that the Beyers living in Canada will have to cough up a total of $4,500 over the next three years. The $15 billion question is: can the Beyers and the rest of Canadians afford it? Actually, the better question is: can they afford not to go for Romanow’s recipe? In a 356-page report of the Royal Commission on Health care, Romanow’s fix breaks down like this: * $6.5 billion to ensure Ot- tawa funds at least 25 per cent of insured health services. * $1.5 billion over two years to improve rural access. - * $2.5 billion over two years for primary health care. * $2 billion over two years te start building a national home-care program. * $1 billion in 2004-05 to help buy expensive drugs. Romanow, the former NDP premier of Saskatchewan, calls his proposal “a bold transformative change.” That it is and then some. And jud- ging from the reaction Roma- -FROM THE CAPITAL. HUBERT BEYER now is getting, chances that his recommendations are im- plemented are slim. The forces lining up against Romanow are formidable. Leading the charge is the Ca- nadian Alliance. Stephen Har- per, the Alliance leader, called the report a “pie-in-the- sky” document that makes re- commendations the federal government cannot . possibly . deliver. . “It’s unrealistic. This has been on the wrong track right from the beginning, for the government to have an exclus- ively federal study in an area of largely provincial jurisdic- tion,” said Harper. Jean: Chrétien, in his fam- ously folksy style, gives the report faint praise. Romanow, he said, got it mostly right, but added that he’s not about to Health care collides with politics commit the large sums of money the report asks for. “You just don’t throw money after a problem, not knowing what will be the re- sults. It is noi my money, it is your money,” the prime mini- Ster said. “We could find some money. Probably not as much as Mr. Romanow is recom- mending.” ° What he did like, however, was Romanow’s recommenda- tion that federal health care dollars to provinces come with strings attached. Bui that is the one recom- mendation the. provinces are certain to oppose. They hate federal! strings. First out of the pate was Alberta Premier Ralph Klein: “Not a starter,” he told a press conference. “We think it’s an intrusion into constitu- tional authority over the deliv- ery of health care.” _, _The.,National Post, that staunchly right-wing nmewspa- per, is fired up, as usual, about anything that smells faintly of social democracy. “How could he have got it so wrong?” asks National Post columnist Andrew Coyne. “Mr. Romanow’s report is an asto- nishing tour de force of ideolo- gical rigidity.” Coyne knows his rigidity when he sees it. The paper he works for is the most ideolo- Give the veterans their AL TROTTER, an 83-year-old Second World War veteran, is about to receive a $20,000 pension cheque from the fed- eral government. This may sound like a windfall until you consider the details. Trotter flew 44 missions over Germany during the war, survived 268 days in a priso- ner-of-war camp, and was in line for $40,000 except several years back, he failed to notice a little-advertised change in pension rules. He missed an application deadline, forfeiting all chance of ever receiving his rightful pension. The government steadfastly denied his claim. That is, until a TV news item Nov. 11 of this year brought his plight to the atten- tion of viewers. They snowed Ottawa and the dithering Minister of Veteran Affairs under an avalanche of critical e-mails and letters, question- ing the federal government's fairness, generosity and sanity. At the time, Ottawa knew of only two other surviving Secand World War veterans that fit into Mr. Trotter’s cate- gory. But even then, and pushed by outraged citizens, Otlawa couldn’t bring itself to m WKY ARE You A TORNING HERE? PTHROUGH BIFOCALS: CLAUDETTE SANDECKI do the honourable thing and fork over $120,000 to the three veterans. Instead, begrudging- ly, Ottawa agreed to give Trotter half his due, a mere $20,000. ' Ottawa’s chintzy behaviour angers me. Here’s a govern- meni that daily collects far more airport tax than their se- curity plans call for, that has collected an excess $3 billion from employed workers; lhat has allowed the infant gun re- gistry to bloat into a $1 billion monster that may never crawl, let alone walk; that paid a $500 million penalty cancel- ling a helicopter order Prime Minister Jean Chretien didn’t ALWANS Do LUCKY SOCKS? BEFORE A GAME! }] ANO your Powe R UNDERWEAR? want to be seen following through on because if was a deal made by his Progressive Conservative predecessor, Brian Mulroney. Yet when it comes to one Kamloops veteran who missed the fine print, Ottawa tries to save money. As though that $20,000 comes out of politi- cians’ pockets. Since agreeing to pay Trot- ter half of what we owe him, Ottawa checked its records and discovered 120 surviving Second World War veterans or their families who have similar circumstances to Trotter wha are also in line for a $40,000 pension. Ottawa has set aside $2 million to pay them, too. That’s half of what we owe them. I’m happy Tratter gol $20,000 but it irks me to see Ottawa once again quit short of the mark. For years Chretien promised a sex offender registry. So what are we about to get? A registry that begins with no hames an it. The government will wait for offences to be committed. That leaves off an estimated 5,000 convicted sex offenders, unless or until they re-offend. Ober} gically rigid publication in Ca- nada. The brouhaha over Roma- now’s report is just another chapter in the familiar book of Canada. More like an invest- ment club than a cohesive na- tion, Canada always has and always will fail to come toge- ther on important issues. Political differences count - for more than the people’s needs. If Ottawa is for some- thing, the provinces, knee-jerk reaction is to be oppose it. The federal government had no problem extracting money from our pockets to slay the deficit dragon and build up a huge surplus. This surplus, Ro- manow says, could easily fi- nance his recommendations. Ah, but he’s a social demo- crat. Isn’t that almost as bad as a communist? The Canadian Alliance, the National Post, the Fraser Insti- tute and the other usual sus- pects would certainly: have’ you believe it, . With the will to set aside petty political and ideological differences, I believe Roma- nlow’s recommendations could ~ be implemented, but I wouldn’t bet a dotlar that they will be. Beyer can be reached at: E-mail: hubert@cooilcom.com; Tel (250) 381-6900; Web hitp:/[www.hubertbeyer.com full due In addition, to preserve their dignity and civil rights, convic- ted sex offenders will have 15 days from the time they leave jail in which to provide police with their address, phone num- ber and any descriptive infor- mation required. Isn't that sensitive of Otta- wa? Don’t you thrill to learn sex offenders’ civil rights will be so carefully protected? The fact public and espect- ally children will be vulnerable to future criminal acts by re- - leased sex offenders concerns Ottawa not a whit. Let public and kids fend for themselves. What’s imporlant to Chretien is having the law cosset sex of- fenders. It makes me wonder if Otta- wa is aftaid some of its own members might be entangled in © too tight rules. So as long as Ottawa col- lects my money, I wish they’d ask my approval before spend- ing it, and then follow through. I'd give Trotter and the other 120 veterans their full $40,000 pension and order convicted sex offenders to register before T unlock the jail door for them. If Skeena MP Andy Burton agrees with me, I’ve missed him say sc. Ae