Page 4, The Herald, Wednasday, October 10, 1979

TERRACE/KITIMAT

daily herald

General Office - 635-6357
Circulation - 635-6157

Published by
Sterling Publishers

GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland

EDITOR - Greg Middleton

‘CIRCULATION. TERRACE - 635-6357
KITIMAT OF FICE - 632-2747
Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street,
Terrace, B.C. A member of Verifled Circulation.
Authorized as second class mall, Registration number
¥201, Postage pald In cash, return postage guaranteed,

NOTE OF COPYRIGHT

The Herald retains full, complete and sole copyright In
any advertisement produced and-or any editorial or
photographic content published In the Herald.
Reproduction Is not permitted.

EDITORIAL

The local hospital beard, the elected
and appointed officials who make policy
for the public health institution here held
elections last week.

You may not have heard about the
election, in fact, you may not have heard
much about the hospital board at all in
the last few years.

The hospital board has operated in
virtual secrecy for a number of years
now.

According to still serving hospital
board members, the board closed the
meeting after what the board saw as
Inaccurate and unfair reporting of
hospital board affairs by the news
media,

The hospital board operates with
public money. It operates the hospital!
for the benefit of the people who have
elected the members of the board.
Whether media coverage Is favorable or
not is no reason to close meetings.

There Is, according to what the Herald
staff has learned, a move within the
board to open meetings again. This Is a
move that would not only be applauded,
but is absolutely necessary.

There are rumors on the street about
problems in the hospital. The number of
resignations handed in by hospital
department heads over the past few
months would Indicate that at the very
least, there is a conflict of policy or
personality there.

We urge the board to open meetings.

I

EDITOR'S JOURNAL

BY GREG MIDDLETON

I have been following with some considerable in-
terest the protest over trophy hunting in the Spatsizi
Wilderness Park because one of the reasons I came up
to this area was that it might allow me to more readily
get into this wild and unspoiled land.

For those of you who are not familiar with the
Spatsizi, it is a gift to us from veteran woodsman,
Tommy Walker. Walker didn't own the land, it is the
last refuge of the Cold Fish Lake Indians, who
retreated there as the white man encroached on their
territory.

Walker was a guide and an outfitter. He came out
from England and was working in what is now
Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.

Through Walker’s efforts, the Tweedsmuir Park
was proclaimed but this also meant Walker had to
move on to make his living as a_ guide.

In bringing hunters in to the Spatsizi, Walker saw
how the area was being commercialized. He saw how
airplanes and the easier access they provided were
both a benefit to those in the outer regions and the end
of the isolation that made them attractive to him. He
lobbied for a wilderness preserve. Aplace where those
who were hardy enough could go in and enjoy the
splendor of completely untrammelled nature.

It is iranic that the very thing, big game hunting,
that allowed Walker to go into the area, was what he
later wanted to curtail and what is now being blamed
for what is seen as the possible destruction of the area.
There are two points of view on the question of trophy
hunting.

The Greenpeace lobby would have us believe that
trophy hunting kills off the best breeding males. The
Greenpeace team that went into the Spatsizi to disrupt
the hunting is being criticised by biologists for
possibiy causing problems with the breeding patterns
of the caribou by their actions as well, though.

Cyril Shelford, a man with years of guiding as his
credentials, says the trophy huners take the largest
but by then too old males. He states the old bulls prized
by the hunters are in their Jasi season and would no
longer breed ag healthy a progeny as younger males in
any case.

This is an academic debate, however, compared to
the controversy over the harassment Greenpeace
indulged in. The trophy hunters, who found the self-
styled environmentalists engaging in guerrilla tactics,
were there by permit and may well have a case of
legal action against the publicity hunters, as
Greenpeace is more and more being seen as.

if there is a protest, and a legitimate protest there
perhaps should be, it should be directed against the
provincial government,

This province Is large and open enough te allow for
areas to be set aside for specific purposes and left as a
legacy of wilderness. We must, however, set these
aside and make them untouchable.

I would sugges! we take the decision out of the hands
of the politicians and look for someone aboye reproach
to examine the potentials and reserve some places in
this province as free from industrial erosion and
hunting pressure.

The idea of multiple yse of land is nice, if you have
no other choice,

_alr co

An open letter to
The Board of School

Trustees,

School District Nbr. 88,
Terrace, B.C.
Dear Sirs and Madams:
You may be bored to tears
with mention of the Two Mile
School closure, but I can
assure you the families in-
volved are far from satified
with your decision, nor am I
convinced that it is indeed
your decision.
After reading the file on this
seven month controversy I
cannot help but conclude the
decision to close the school
was arrived at by Mr.
Hamilton, Superintendent of
Schools, and Mr. Bergsma,
Director of Instruction; that
the members of the Board
simply nodded agreement in
a bored fashion to the
recommendations presented
by your “educational ad-
‘yisors.”

And we all kmow how
reliable the advice of your
“educational advisors” can
be, for was it not Mr.
Hamilton who stood in front
ofa CFTK news camera halt
an hour after an afternoon
confrontation with more
than 60 parents to state
without batting an eye,
“Copper Mountain School
has no problems.” And the
Board was quoted in the
Terrace Herald as saying
Mr. Hamilton spoke for
them. .

The parents of Two Mile
School wish to reopen their
school for sound reasons-the
school is within walking
distance of the kids who
attend it; they have a
comforatble classroom with
modern facilities; their
educational standards are
high and well served by one
teacher; the parents are
gatified with the education
their children receive there.

Shouldn't the judgement of
the parents count for
something? Not necessarily,

Quebec has the pow

TO THE BOARD

Open letter on Two Mile

according to the Board,

Mr. Bergama feels the
children, particularly the
older ones, are being
shortchanged because,
lacking a gym, they cannot
take part in sports activities
or music; they do not have
the help of special teachéra;
they have no large library;
they miss out on field trips.

Deo you note that Mr.
Bergsma's concerns all deal
with extracurricular events,
not the basic studies such as
reading, math or science?

The other two elementary
schools in Hazelton are
overcrowded, in the words of
Mr. Wells yet Mr. Bergsma
and Mr. Hazelton feel these
country students should have
their comfortable school
closed and be wedged into

‘already crowded
classrooms, maybe even
portable classrooms lacking
washroom facilities so that
they have to don overshoes
and jackets each time they
yislt the washroom.

The Two Mile school has
ten ‘scenic acres complete
with trees and a stream
where in season the kids
swim, skate, nature hike,
ete. Mr. Bergsma and Mr,

Hamilton advise you to take

that away from the kids and

give them a gym and con-
crete playground instead.
They there is‘ everyone's
favorite excuse--the kids
- have no chance to socialize

in their small school. Now 1

ask you--what requires

greater skill—-to get along
with the same few people all
day every day, or to move as

a stranger among 400

people? You don’t need an

“educational advisor” to

help you answer that one-all

you have to do is think for
yourself,

When pushed to the wall,
both Hamilton and Bergsma
point to the declining
enrollment. Granted; and

that is due largely to the fact
the school District has been
toying with the thought of
closing the school since early
1977 when Mr. Hamilton
buesed a kindergarten clasa
from Hazelton to Two Mile ,
echeol in echange for Two
Mile grade five and six
students. Mr. Hamilton, does
not mention that when the
kindergarten class returned
to Hazelton, he did not give
back the grade five and six
students. He has mot ex-
Plained thiseither, though he
has been directly questioned
by the parents and even Mr.
Frank Howard, MLA, Mr.
Wayne McMorrls, in a letter
dated May 18, 1978, explains
that he switched his children
to Hazelton because he
feared impending closure of
the school at any time, No
doubt other parents felt the
same.

Atno time has anyone ever
said that the school had to be
closed due to financial
problems. So obviously
heating, lighting, and ser-
icing the school is of no
import, Then why close It?
Everyone knows the rapid
vandalization that occurs in
a vacant building. For that
reason alone I would deem it
a same judgement to keep
the school operation,
Besides, the nelghborhood
uses. the school as a com-
munity center. Why deprive
them of the use of a building
thelr tax dollars have helped
to build? What do Bergsma
and Hamilton have to gain
from that? The perverted
satisfaction of lording it over
someone?

~The ‘‘educational ad-
visora” also state that one
teacher cannot adequately
teacher several grades. Yet
did not Mr. Hamilton and
Mr. Bergsma consent to the
French immersion courses
being taught to four grades
by one teacher? They should
make up their own minds

DAM THE REST

By ERIC HAMOVITCH lunate: Its mighty rivers
MONTREAL (CP) ~ Will provide more than 99 per
the James Bay project make cent of the electricity it uses.

Quebec the Saudi Arabla of

hydro power?

Bernard Landry, Quebec's
suave minister of economic
development, says
Quebecers will: be the
“permanent Arabs!’ of
electricity. Ol can run out,
but hydroelectric energy is
inexhaustible — it’s renswed
every time it rains,

Robert Bourassa, the
former premier who got the

James Bay project started, JU

saya HydroQuebee should
move quickly to hamess
more rivers and generate
surpluses for lucrative ex-
port markets.

“Water that flows without
diving turbines Is a waste,’”
he said with his usual

veness in a recent

interview.

But olficlals of Hydro-
Quebec — and of the utliity’s
overseers, the Quebec
government — see things in
a different light.

“Our firat consideration is
to fill Quebec’s needs," saya
Hydro treasurer Georges
Lafond. ‘If we have any
power leit over, all very
well, but internal needs have
to come first."

As Lafond and other Hydro
olficials explalned, demand
for electric power works in
annual cycles: Quebecera
are heavy comumers in the
dark, cold winter months.
Come summer, they use 35

per cent less and send the heat
er to New York's .

surplus
ir tioners,

It doesn't cmt much lo
export surplua power;
nobody bought it, the water
would just rush through the
apill gates at the generating

ta without benefitting
anyone. The oaly extra cost
is for transmission lines,

Hydro power told to New
York — or to Ontario, New
Brunswick or Vermont ~— re-
places expensive fossil fuela
that utillties there would
otherwise have to burn.

Tho selling price Is setat a
rate 20 per cent below the
buyer's own generating cost,
and that still gives Hydro-
Quebec a tidy profit on ita
external sales, which vary
from five to eight per cent of
annual production. Last
year's sales outside Quebec
earned $134 million.

With coal, oil and natural
gas becoming so expensive
and nuclear power raising 40
many safety questions,
hydro power looks better

Abam aan Piunhan ta fap.

Ontario Hydro, in contrast,
geta only 37 per cent of its
electric power from hydro
dams, with most of the rest
coming from uranium and
coal, Several other provinces
depend heavily on oil-fired
thermal statlons.

Hydro-Quebec's
generating capacity, now.
13,000 megawatts (13 billion
watts), will grow by 10,000
megawatts within six years,
at with the initlal phase of
the gigantic James Bay
project.

Future work in the James
Bay watershed will add
another 11,000 megawatts to
the grid by 1992 under
current plans, Capacity will
be added a few turbine
groups at a time.

Quebec's electricity use is
growing at an.annual rate of
about seven per cent and,
unlike Ontario, where
growth is falling below
predictions, officials here
see no drol in sight.

Clean, safe, abundant
electric power is one of
Quebec's chief economic
assets, and it accounts for
just 22 per cent of the
province's total energy con-
sumption. .

The Quebec government,
which wants to cut reliance

. on imported oil, expects
electricity to jump to 40 per
cent of energy consumption
by 1990, replacing fuel oil in

A ing. .
Moat new buildings in La
_Belle Province are, elec-
_trically heated,
older buildings
converted.

Quebec also hopes its
cheap electricity — sold at
one-quarter New York's
price — will create new jobs
in energygobbling Industries
auch a8 aluminum, glass,
Inorganic chemicals and
related fields. [ta newsprint
producers are looking at
energy-intensive mechanical
processes to replace more
expensive chemical
methods.

“With our local con-
sumption Increasing, there
just won't be much left over
to assure any long-term
contracts with our neigh-
bors,” Jean-Claude Richard,
a Hydro-Quebec official in-
volved with export sales,
sald recently.

Even when two more
major developments — the
Great Whale and NBR
developments — are com-
pleed in the James Bay

ronian fla wan't hava

and many -
are being.

enough to supply them
(export markels) on a year-
round basis.”

The Great Whale River
lies north of Le Grande,
whose potential is being
developed now, Work wiil
begin about 1981 to build
generating stations along the
Great Whale and later. on

NBR — a:project to tap,

NottaWay, Broadback '

Rupert rivera to the south:

"There are countries
which have oll which would
gladiy change places with
Quebec, even though Quebec
hasn’t any oll," says Guy
Joron, a Quebec cabinet
minister who held the energy
portfolio from 1976 until a
shuffle this fall,

“Just the first phase of the
La Grande project will
produce the equivalent of
300,000 barrels of oil a day.”

Joron, once an advocate of
nuclear power, attacked the
cost of the James Bay
project when Bourassa
launched it in 1971 but he has
since changed his mind,

“Like everyone at that
time, I thought nuclear was
the technology. of the future
but there are a lot of un-
solved problems,’’ he said as
he sipped tea:in:His spacious
office facing” the Quebec

national assembly building.

“The more nuclear plants
there are, the more environ-

: mental problems there sre,"

Then there is the sky-
Tocketing cost of nuclear
‘power as more and more
safeguards are required to
soothe a nervous public.

“In 1971 and 1972, prices
were comparable with
hydroelectric power,” Joron
‘paid. “But now we know that
nuclear costs 40 per cent
more,”

Joron is Intrigued with
Bourasea's suggestion to
speed construction and boost
exports, including a finan-
cing formula under which
‘export customers would pay
for their power in advance.
But he aces some hitches.

“We could presume that if
we didn’t need part of the
power before the year 2000,
we coull say to our
customers, ‘Help us pay for
the dam and you'll hava
electricity, but we'll take It
back as thine goesan to meet
our needs,’

“However, to get them to
agree to finance the project
that way, we would have to
offer them long-term con-
tracts, maybe 15 or 20 years,

and we can’t be sure we'll
havea syening nawor in 40

whether one teacher can
competently instruct several
grades or not. They can’t ba

‘Tight both ways.
parents themselves -

' The
state unequivocally that
their children not only
receive & good education, but
have no difficulty keeping up
when they transfer to other
schools.

“Mr. Cook, in his letter to -
* Mr. David MecCreery dated

70.07 08 states; “The Board of
School Trustees has con-
sidered in depth every
aspect of the situation in Two
Mileand firmly believes that
the recommendations of its
educational advisors Lo be in
the best interests of those
most immediately affected
by its decision-the children
themselves,”

1 disagree. I’ believe that
decision is primarily in the
best interests of the people
who pull the strings behind
the Board of Trustees.

If the: parents of the
children involved feel that
the Two Mile School offers
their children the quality of
education they seek for their
children, I cannot see where.
Mr. Hamilton and Mr?

Bergama can entertain the ©

presumption that their
Position as ‘‘educational
advisors” grants them the
right to put their judgement
above that of twenty or mare
earnest parents.

In a letter the Parents of
Children Currently At:
tending. the Two Mile School,
Mr. Hamilton states, ‘‘the
majority of parents in this
area have indicated that
they agree with the School
Board's action.”

With a file of protest
almost one inch thick, how
can Mr. Hamilton make such,
a statement? And how can.
any prospective'trusted

defend it at the’tAll Can- ~

didates Forum? .

Sincerely yours,
Claudette Sandecki

r LAG ibe t

eect (pant ais

years, It's just too tight. We
can't take risks that might
affect cur domestic cus-.
tomera.”

Hydro-Quebec president
Robert Boyd has another
abjection to large-scale,
year-round sales outside
Quebec: “If we export a lot
of energy, it won't create
many jobs in --Quebec.
Electric power 24aff create
obs. here.'' aA PA
The James Bay project is
as expensive as it is im-
mense. The first phase jn-
volving three generating
stations on the La Grande
River and the diversion of
three smaller rivers, comes
to $15.1 billion.

Recent estimates suggest
the second phase of La
Grande will cost $5.4 billion,”
the Great Whale $6 billion,
NBR $11.5 biliion, and high- |
voltage transmission lines
addititional billions. Sub-
sequent projects will be still
more expensive.

Quebec electricity rates
will have to rise, Hydro
officials say, but not by
much compared § with
elsewhere.

_

Even without guarantees
of year-round sales to United
States customers, American
financiers are more than
happy to Joan Hydro-Quebec
the lion’s share of the
roughly $2 billion a year the
utility raiges on world bond
markets.

Analysts in New York say
Hydro is a good bet — it has
sound management, it is free
to raise ite rates without
golng through any
regulatory body, and it
showed 1979 profits of §523
million on sales of $1.55 bi-
lion, making it one of the
most profitable utilities in
North America.

But Hydro treasurer
Lafond says he is reluctant
to push borrowing much
beyond $2 billion annually
for the ime being. “4

Under current Canadian
regulations, Hydro-Quebec
must give Canadian utilities
first optlon on its surplus
power, but it lan't obliged to
sell at a lower price than it
can get from the U.S.

In practice, that means the
bulk of external shipmenta
go to New York, although

Ontario and New Brunswick’ .

can always call on Hydro-
Quebec in emergencies.
Joron says that even under
the sovereignty-assoclation
plan his government ia
promoting, Canadian nelgh-
bors would continue to have

Bed rab! oe

eee Ct Ur ae a

OTTAWA OFFBEAT

BY RICHARD JACKSON

-” Ottawa-For a government that seems to like to talk
tough, Prime Minister Clark's Conservatives do a lot
of timid tippy-toeing. .

- For months the semi-official “‘word" has been
around ‘that the Cabinet, distrusting the senior

- bureaucracy—especially-“the deputy ministers, ap-

inted, trained and given ever-increasing power by
fhe Liberals over the last 14 years--was going to roll a
few heads.

Names were even dropped of those deputies
suspected of Liberal loyalty and capable of Con-
servative betrayal--who were due for the chop.

The fear was—and still, toa large extent, is that the
mandarins would do to Joe Clark what they did tp John
Diefenbaker., -

And that is regard Joe, like Dief, as an aberration,
just an inconvenient interruption of long-established
Liberal supremacy and rule, and so, in expectation of
areturn to “normalcy,” undermine the “temporary”
Tories.

Then the ‘word’ was that these deputies were
destroying former Liberal government documents _
and conspiring to keep the new Conservative Cabinet
in the dark.

It was no secret--in fact it became a badge of honor~
that Liberal occupants of well-paid government posts, .
still on the payroll, openly talked of the coming decline
and fall of the Conservatives.

All of thls was put around by reliable sources~some
of them members of the Conservative Cabinet and
their aides and leading members of the party.

But onto the record, between quotes to make it of-
ficial, has come Sinclair Stevens, the so-called
“slasher,” president of the supposedly all-powerful
Treasury Board.

To a blue-ribbon audience of 500 members of
Finance Management Institute~who are the govern-
ment’s public service money managers, all appointed
by the Liberals but stil] hanging:in there at the trough:
Stevens let this fly: con att 7

“Some people are still not willing to believe there
aré new boys in town’, a thw team on Parliament Hill

running the show yt tie Aw

That was telling thems. oo asa,
unevethsle se Reba ue ab te
Vetus Sa eit Al ie of con-

trol”—wnder the Liberals when you were the money
managers--"‘and it is now up to this government with
your assistance, to bring them back into line.”

That can only mean that the government demands
that the former Big Spenders become the new
Tightwads.

There was the threat of ‘‘or else” thinly disguised.
- But the truth is that while a Cabinet Minister may
command, even threaten, plead or pray, there are
many ways a deputy and other senior public servants

can, appear. to. fallow. instructions... / iin gis
t

vdead) dt cebsaatan peatdt erage aoe bate rt

With determination, enthusiasm and conviction, or

reluctantly, with hesitation and even resistance.

The Conservatives know this and are very aware of
cells of hard-core Liberal loyalists in the senior ranks
of the public service resisting and even obstructing the
new government.

But trained, reliable and instantly available

replacements have been difficult to find, especially

wien the senior public service doesn't seem to think
e Conservative rule will prevail. ;
Further, there is Conservative fear that.purge of

. Some of the deputies might bring ona revolt, or more

likely passive resistance in the middle and low
ranks of the bureaucracy. ;
_ So what to do?

Talk tough, drop hints of heads to roll, even have
Sinclair Stevens put hard and thinly-veiled threats on
the record. | .

Even then, not much changes.

So fire two- Big Guns in the public service as a hint
of destructive salvo of dismissals to come.
- And still nothing much happens.

Then shuffle a few deputies from one job to another
with some subtle demotions.

That's timid tippy-toeing for you.

And the Liberals are laughing.

LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR

Why do people abuse the

floor 60 why should we clean

use of community services?
I'm speaking specifically of
the Thornhill Community
Centre, A friend and myself
hold Dog Obedience Classes
there every Sunday and, like
‘others who use this facility,
we have lo clean up after
each use, The complaint is
with those who do not clean
up ‘after themselves, Twice
since we slarted our classes,
we have had to sweep the
floor before we could allow
any dogs in because of
broken glass and spilled

quor.
Our dogs do not break beer
bottles or spill liquor on the

it up? Also, our dogs do not
mark the walls, destroy
furnishings or take equip-
ment out of the building that
does not belong to them, The ”
dogs in our classes are
taught to be mannerly,
respectable citizens in the

community. Maybe some of.

the people who use the hall
Saturday nights should take
this course.

The people looking after
the Community Centre are
doing a great job of fixing the
place up for everyane's
benefit, so please do not
abuse the use of this factlity,

C. Croas

Letters Welcome

The Herald welcomes its readers comments.
Ailletters to the editor of general public interest
will be printed. We do, however, retain the right
fo refuse to print letters on grounds of possible
libel or bad taste. We may also edit letters for.
style and length. All letters to be considered for
publication must be signed. ,

eee