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Sanat

When the regional district started
work on the marina, it knew excavation
was going to be needed. What they
didn’t realize was just how deep they
might to dig into their own coffers to br-
ing the project to completion. .

With the cost of the project now pois-

ed to break the $3. million mark, the
district now has to come up with an extra

$1.15 million. Otherwise it could end up .

with a top- -of-the-line marina missing all
the services that make a marina top-of-
the-line.

Of course, the district rightly points
out they have not been responsible for
the project so far — it’s been Public
Works Canada’s baby.

But that doesn’t mean it’s totally inno-

Deeper

cent. Come to think of: it, maybe that
was where the trouble all began — it was
just too innocent, as in naive.

Of course, the federal offer of $1
million was hard to refuse, but: when Ot-

‘tawa specified their boys would handle

the major part of the project, that’s
when the district should ‘have hastily
scribbled ‘‘Return to sender’ on the
grant confirmation.

By not doing so, they delivered the
project into the hands of a government
that specializes in profligate spending
and one that is so enamoured with the
concept of deficits that it can’t wait to
give other levels of government a chance
to experience them for themselves.

Parker

An editorial by Catherine Quanstrom
of the Smithers Interior News caught the
eye last week. Since it concerns our pro-
vincial legislative representative and of-
fers another tale of the not-so-niceties of
political reality, it is reproduced below.

Yoo hoo, Dave Parker. Where are
you?

The Skeena MLA is still the represen-
tative for this electoral area until the next
‘provincial election’ is'called, but he has
‘béen‘barely: visible “since the. electoral
boundaries were redrawn.

Yet in that time the Bulkley Valley has
been hit with some fairly substantial in-
cidents that could have benefitted from a
little action on the part of our elected
member.

The hospital funding crisis is a good
example.

_ Where has Dave Parker been while the
hospital. board and administration
‘pleads with Victoria for increased fun-
ding to control its daily deficit situation?

He has been noticeably absent.

And where was the. Minister for
Crown Lands while roads throughout
Skeena were being blockaded by native

. Indian bands? Maybe his eye was

already on the future, and this area
became a non-priority.

A perusal of other newspapers around
the constituency does turn up Parker’s
name, however.

It seems he has declared his intention
to run in the.newly , redrawn ,Skeena
riding. Hardly a surprise since his stomp-
ing grounds are Terrace and area.
Skeena is now minus Smithers and the
Hazeltons, encompassing only Kit-
wanga, Terrace and Kitimat.

But while the member for Skeena is
busy glad-handing his way around what
he hopes will be his future riding, half of
his old constituency is left in the lurch.

It has become clear to Bulkley Valley
residents that if your issue won’t further
his fortunes, you won’t hear a peep out
of Parker. .

Poverty no game

AS a topic of conversation or
a way of life, poverty is grim.
Yet someone’s marketing a

board game called the Poverty
Game, in which participants act Bifocals
the role of poor people tryingto by Claudette Sandeckl

stretch their welfare dollars.

Through

“Fancy squandering $15 on a
board ‘game for the fleeting
pleasure of being deprived by a

with built-in stereo.

If a pected to start working when

roll of the dice when Social Ser-'

vices can keep us permanently
below the poverty line with no
effort or expense on our part?

_ It would make better sense to
devise. a board game called
Welfare, for teaching-us how to
avoid insolvency by practicing
wise choices. Because - choices
are all that, separate the .down-
and-out: “from: the “Up: “and-
coming. ts

“Of course, for those in a
hurry, there are shoricuts to
pauperism. Recessions. Local
jobs going to out-of-town con-
tractors. Poor. health. Marriage
breakup. .

“But often the need for social
assistance is the culmination of
a: ilot: of poor, independent
choices, : ei

“Choices begin as early as high

school. Whether to. study for
high marks, or party;::

ar iduate, or drop out; to Pe on”

ta specialized education, or take
the. first available job regardless
of: ‘pay or prospects; to. save

‘money toward a goal, or spend

“tol credit card maximum,

‘We tippytoe through a sacial
minefield, We must weigh
‘dating,a man for. his personal :

: qualities. or r for: chis ‘Trans-Am:

othe penalty. of unfortunate

_ and. 36 percent (or about
14,520) are kids, St :
Choices diminish’ on social ,

finding their choices even fur- ff
thee restricted. NoW they are ch -

boyfriend slaps us, we must dif-
ferentiate between an isolated
incident or the trigger domino
in a battering pattern.

Parenthood is particularly
pivotal. Whether or not to flirt
with pregnancy, Once pregnant,
whether or not to keep the baby
and so perhaps doom both
ourselves and- our infant to
penury, or relinquish the baby
for adoption by someone able
to offer it all the comforts a
child deserves,

When married couples quar-
rel relentlessly, the wife must
ponder whether to limit the
family in case she ends up as a
single mother struggling to raise
the kids, or to bear ancther
child’ in the vain hope a new

~ baby: will stabilize the union.

. Judging. from statistics, plen-
ty.of B.C. residents are paying.

Selections,

Presently 207,000 British Cok!
umbians collect welfare. Of
those, 35,000 are single parents

assistance. Single mothers are

t

i

their youngest child reaches six ..

months oid — even if the

mother ears less than -she ..
receives on welfare...and even'if
she’s further behind, after pay-

ing for babysitting, transporta- ”

tion, and clothes,

Since the Vander Zalm
government came into power,
B.C. has gone’ from «being
number one in social services to

‘number eight in Canada. Guess

which two provinces are more
tight-fisted than ours? =

Too bad Pat Carney is the on-
ly single mother to be handed an!
$80,000 annual income as. a_
senator. Bul then review her
choices,

Loo’, Susr LIKE

ISNT ir STRANGE
THAT ALDER CONES -

SPRUCE CONES aL,

Peisvst!

VICTORIA — Eli Sopow and
his little helpers at the Public
Information Bureau are about
to embark on another cam-
paign designed to save the
government’ s collective neck at

: the expense of the taxpayers.

' Sopaw is the chap who
worked for the Vancouver
Province and BCTY before
trading in his job of reporting

the n news from the legislative .
press gallery for one of: making

the news. Sopow is now

associate deputy minister with

the governments’ Public Af-

fairs Bureau or PAB for short.
It didn’t take Sopow very

' long to shed the baggage of

fairness, objectivity and impar-
tiality reporters are supposed

to possess. Like the reformed

smoker who heaps scom and
ridicule on those still addicted,
Sopow pursues his new duties
with a vengeance, treating

former colleagues with disdain .

and arrogance.

Heaping political manure on
innocent British Columbians
doesn’t seem to bother Sopow
too much. Consider the ‘‘News
Update” propaganda cam-
paign, a brainchild of his.
Dressed up as news items, the
30-second clips tell TV viewers
all about the wonderful things
their government is doing for ©
them.

And while I can understand
that BCTV is running the spots
— after all, advertising is
television’s only source of
revenue — it annoys.me to no
end that they run the damned
things during their news hour.
But then, I’m sure Sopow likes
that very much. He probably

thinks it’s the least BCTV can

do for a former employee.

A little unsolicited advice to
BCTV: check News Update
items for their truth content,
At the moment, they range
from mildly misleading to

downright lies.

‘Telling British Columbians
that the provincial government
will stop the GST” is
misleading at best, They can
Ary, but that’s all. If it works,
the provincial government can

~ and should take the credit, not
before.

3 THATS BECAUSE WE EVOLVED
. foo MILLION YEARS EARLIER

From the

Capliai
by Hubert Beyer

opow operas

Another spot gives the pro-
..vincial government sole. credit
for a $13.2 million assistance

« program to B.C. fruit growers.
. Federal Agriculture Minister
Dan Mazenkowski called the

spot misleading. I wouldn't be —
quite so charitable, I'd call it a.

lig, because half of the bill is
footed by the federal govern-
ment,

Orchardists are also up in
arms. They say the adver-
tisements praising provincial
initiatives for solving industry
problems are an insult. ‘'l
don’t think you could print
what I think of it,'’ said Allan
Claridge, an Oyama fruit
grower.

All of which doesn't seem to
deter Sopow who is taking his
News Updates where no B.S,

- has gone before. He’s working

on a regional version of the
tried and proven propaganda
tool. As with the version runn-
ing on BCTV, you, the tax-
payer, will pay for the regional
News Updates.
In a recent memo to all
cabinet ministers, Sopow
outlined his latest brainstorm, |
In each region of the province,
Sopow says, specific govern-_
ment initiatives will be, —
highlighted “‘in a regional
update-style television informa-
tion bulletin.’

These bulletins, Sopow says,
will feature local people suc-
cessfully doing projects with
which the government has
assisted them, The idea is to

use local television stations to
produce the spots, local en-
trepreneurs:to serve as-ex-
‘amples ‘and local announcers
to read the commercials. .

“This not-only adds an‘exira
element of credibility to the’
regional news’updates, but it
also provides some work and
job opportunities to local peo-

AND YOU COPIED From US’.

nye, ee

tee EN AE ches toe Be tema et rh ats gt

-sion., Why shouldn’t up

ple as well," says Sopow in his -

mema He adds that Tesponse —

from local TV stations has”

been “extremely positive,’” . Be
I'm nat surprised, Like. Ls

said, advertising i is the only.

source of revenue for televi-.” _

country TV stations be éx-
tremely positive about making. ;
a few extra bucks. And con-:

- sidering some of the gauche... 4

- - News Updates.

commercials that run on TV... :

I’m sure the operators of local :
TV stations aren’t losing any:>~
sleep over a few misleading “ ot

Sopow has, however, run in-.
to a slight problem, a glitch as’:
he calls.it, Certain key. oh
ministries, he says in: his.‘ ~
Memo, appear to have difficul-.

‘ty finding anything construc- |:

tive the government has done:
on a regional basis. '‘This is
rather surprising considering.
the scope and intensity of - :
government program develop-:..
ment over the past while,” he®.
says. %,

1 believe Sopow has it. all.
wrong. The reason some
ministries aren’t participating
in his little schemes is not’ that‘:
they have nothing goad to.
report; it’s just that some:
cabinet ministers ate embar-
rassed by the propaganda.
stratagems Sopow and his
PAB underlings dream up.

That's why they don’t res:
pond to his request to ‘put
every effort possible into fin:

any

- ding us ‘‘good news’” stories ° So

- of having to make a govern: a

ALDEREATIONS!

Op

ae

that are relevant to the) 2) y%
regions," 7. °
When lm nol g angry at.
Sopow, I feel sorry for him.
. I'd hate to: wake up in the: 5.
morning, facing another day ' ”

ment look better than- itis, :
Thank you very much, “but, rh,
take my job any time. . a

DID So! Did So/; DID Nor
DID SO!! ,

DID Not

DID.NoT!,
Me

ra’

rr