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More lost messages

_. Recent events in this region
should once again send signals
to Victoria that the manner in
which government does business
on several fronts is inflicting
damage on the Northwest.

The failure of the B.C.
government to engage in mean-

ingful participation on the issue .

of aboriginal land claims is:
creating racial divisions among
people who should be living in
harmony, and those divisions
were clearly illustrated in the
Gitksan Wet’suwet’an action
against loggers over the last
month. These people and others

- have made it clear they will not
stand passively while the
resources on land they claim are
rapidly depleted, and the shroud
of uncertainty that envelops
land usage in this region is of
deep concern to everyone who
lives here.

Reading a report filed on log-
ging practices in the Gitksan
tribal lands is like a trip
backward through time: the
same criticisms appear in this
report that appeared in two
others regarding timber manage-
ment on TFL | around Terrace

and, more specifically, in the |

Nass Valley. Once again we see
accusations of high-grading,
poor utilization and inadequate
reforestation. It hardly seems

Letters to the editor will be considered
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Please include your telephone number.
The editor reserves the right to con-
dense and edit letters. Opinions ex-
pressed are not necessarily those of
the Terrace Review.
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7 G@cna
Terrace
Review

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coincidental that a senior of-
ficial at Westar in Hazelton
replied to these criticisms in
almost exactly the same terms as
a senior Ministry of Forests of-
ficial replied to the reports on
the Nass Valley situation: both
claimed to be following
industry-wide policies of the

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ministry.

If that’s indeed the case, it
seems as though the ministry is
long overdue for some policy
changes. ;

The latest hearing of the En-
vironmental Appeal board in Mi
Terrace saw a toxicologist from
the U.S.° presenting evidence
against some of the so-called
‘tinert’? ingredients in the
pesticide Round Up. The
board's decision is expected in
six weeks, but if they continue to
use the approach of rubber- NS.
stamping. every chemical ap-
proved by Agriculture Canada

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continued on page 24

We can’t forget

To be accused of misleading the
legislature is a serious matter for any
‘MLA: when that MLA happens to be the
premier, you’d expect the proverbial
manure to hit the fan.

Yet, when Premier Vander Zalm and a
handful of past and present politicians
were accused of having misled the House,
the story was buried on page two of Vic-
toria’s daily newspaper and rated little
more than 15 seconds on the CBC’s provin-

Bon ae
cial news.
Hubert Beyer Politicians have been forced to resign
in Victoria over charges of misleading the House,

which is the same as saying they lied to the

House, but nobody seems to think it’s a big deal when someone ac-
cuses the premier of it. . -

Perhaps everybody is getting sick and tired of the issue that gave
rise to the charges. Would you really feel hard done by if you never
again heard another word about the Coquihalla Highway scandal?
Probably not, But before you turn to the sports pages, read the rest
of this column; it just might rekindle your interest in the subject. ©

The first day the MLAs returned to Victoria, the NDP’s Moe
Sihota rose in the legislature to accuse four current and two past
politicians of having misled the legislature with regard to the true
cost of the Coquihalla Highway. They were former premier Bill
Bennett and current premier Bill Vander Zalm, former finance
minister Hugh Curtis and current finance minister Mel Couvelier,
plus former highways ministers Cliff Michael and Alex Fraser.

It took a solid 75 minutes for Sihota to present his case to a silent
and attentive legislature. The aim of his exercise was to have a
special committee of the legislature investigate not only the cost

- overruns of the Coquihalla Highway project, but also the subse-

quent coverup of that financial scandal.

Sihota built his case on the premise that the coverup — an at-
tempt to deliberately mislead the legislature with regard to the true
cost of the project — constitutes contempt of the legislature and a
breach of privilege of all MLAs.

if that sounds a bit convoluted and innocuous, Sihota’s presenta-
tion was anything but that. It was a scathing indictment of former
and currently-serving politicans who first failed miserably at
managing the public purse, and then did their best to sweep the
scandal under the rug.

What’s especially galling is that for the better part of 36 years, the
people responsible for this disaster had us believe they were fiscal
supermen. We know all about business, they said, We know how to

- look after your money. Like hell they did. A project that was to cost

taxpayers $375 million came in at about $1 billion.

So much for financial mismanagement. What about the coverup?
A few examples will suffice to make what lawyers would call a
‘‘prima facie case’’.

On July 15, 1985, Alex Fraser, then minister of highways, asked .

then finance minister Hugh Curtis for approval of a “‘supplemen-
tary highway capital construction program’”’. His request included
an additional $37 million for the Coquihalla Highway. In other
words, Fraser knew the project was in trouble.

Two months later, on September 23, Curtis sent a ‘personal and
confidential” letter to Fraser, saying the treasury board had ap-
proved the request. Since Curtis was on the treasury board, it can be
assumed that he now knew the project was in financial difficulties.

On November 20, 1985, Fraser told the legislature that the
highway would cost no more than the originally estimated $375
million, That was four months after he knew there was no way to
bring the project in at the original cost estimate.

For some strange reason, no special warrant for the additional

the Coquihalla

funds was ever issued. Instead, the government went through a
number of contortions to hide the cost overruns. Specific cost-
related budget items, called votes, were switched, and the govern-

‘ment now tried to finance the mounting overruns out of votes that

hadn’t been approved by the legislature.

Sihota cites many more examples, too numerous to mention here,
of what looks for all the world like a deliberate deception of the
public with regard to the true cost of the Coquihalla- Highway.

The 46th edition of the Financial and Economic Review,
authored by Premier Vander Zalm, then also finance minister, fails
to mention anything about the Coquihalla. Sihota says Vander
Zalm should have and probably did know about it by then.
Couvelier, he says, also had a chance to set the record straight when
the public accounts were tabled in the legislature in March 1987, but
didn't. °

Sihota’s case is a detailed and chronological account of the
greatest financial boondoggle in the history of B.C., and a convin-
cing argument that the legislature and the public were deliberately
misled. It should not be allowed to rest.

One for the Medical Journals

It seems that Health Minister Peter Dueck was determined last
week to claim a place in medical history. Badgered in the legislature
about the government’s stand on abortions, the minister came back
with some pretty powerful arguments in favor of bearing children.

“Surely you're not suggesting that a woman is at risk when she’s
pregnant. It’s got to be about the healthiest thing that ever happens.
[I’ve gone through it four times and it has been a very enjoyable ex-
perience,”’ Dueck told a startled assembly.

Alas, when the laughter died down, the minister backed up. Ac-
tually, he said, it was his wife who had this joyful experience four
times, Well, thank heaven for that.

Missing the Point

Harold Long, the Socred MLA for Mackenzie, works as hard for
his constituents as any MLA, but some of the finer aspects of
praliamentary democracy continue to elude him. For one thing, he
doesn’t know how to deal with opposition, the official one as well
as that coming from the grass roots.

To Long, and some other government members, opposition is
tantamount to negativism. Anyone who disagrees with the govern-
ment is just bitching and should really shut up. That goes for op-
position speeches in the legislature as well as for people writing let-
ters to his hometown newspapers. Long has made it clear on several
occasions that he can’t wait until a legislative session is over, so he
can ‘get some real work done’’.

Wrong, Harold. The work in the legislature is real. The people at-
tacking the government have not only a right but a duty to do so.
It’s called democracy, Harold, and it works a whole lot better than
a system that doesn’t allow dissent. ,

- Sihota to hold open
house here Friday

Moe Sihota, New Democrat MLA for Esquimalt-Port Renfrew
and opposition justice critic, will be the guest speaker at an open
house in the Terrace Hotel beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, March 11.

Sihota has concentrated recent efforts in the B.C. legislature on
uncovering facts related to an alleged cover-up of cost overruns
during the construction of the Coquihalla Highway, and he has
also been examining the legal validity of the government’s policy
on abortion.

Skeena MP Jim Fulton will also be attending the open house. ;

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