A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 8, 2000 TERRACE STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C, * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermade. net It’s politics YOU HAVE to wonder just how much influence . politics has on the possibility of lifting the oil and gas drilling moratorium off of the north coast. It’s been more than two years now since a Prince Rupert group formed to push the idea of reviving the idea of exploratory drilling to deter- mine if the forecasts of massive oil and gas depo- sits are, in fact, true. The moratorium dates back more than a decade to a time when fears of spills and the such resul- ted in a federal ban of exploratory drilling. But the Prince Rupert group now says advances in envir- onmental protection make it possible to drill with- out the overall danger of environmental pro- blems. Couple that with the desire to find another source of revenue for the northwest, and the si- tuation looks fairly attractive. One bonus would appear to be Dan Miller, the MLA for the north coast and one of the stronger cabinet members of the provincial government. A nod from his direction and it would seem that lif- ting the moratorium becomes possible. But the provincial government has instead taken a slow approach to the ban. It has punted the matter over to its northern commissioner, John Backhouse, in Prince George. He commis- sioned a study which, well, recommended yet an- other study take place. That’s a classic approach governments take to stall on an issue while trying to figure out how other issues elsewhere might influence the one one at hand. We are facing a provincial election soon. While this provincial government doesn’t have a lot going for it it will trot out grand announcements — in-an‘attempt-td secure votes: : aoe One of those announcements ‘could very well be official support to lift the drilling ban. Politics is an interesting game at the best of times. 1a waa Ha ta qa Debt ignored ASK ANY financial planner about how to gain control of your budget and the first piece of ad- vice is this — pay down your debt. The less debt you have, the fewer interest pay- ments you'll have to make. It’ll ultimately free up cash for other uses. And should the dark day come when you might have to borrow money, that bite will be easier to absorb. It is unfortunate federal finance minister Paul Martin did not heed that piece of advice with his budget of last week. The federal debt now stands at $570 billion. And while Mr. Martin is no longer adding to that, the setting aside of just $3 billion each year for debt retirement isn’t a whole heck of a lot. To be sure, the various tax relief measures are welcome news. After all, it is our money and if the feds don’t need it, we sure do. Still, a more concerted effort to reduce the debt will have un- told benefits in years to come. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens NEWS/COMMUNITY: Alex Hamilton FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Carole Kirkaldy ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Mark Beaupre & Stacy Swetlikoff TELEMARKETER: Stacy Swetlikolf DARKROOM/COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Donna Sullivan, Kulwant Kandola SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.30 per year; Seniors $50.75; Out of Province $64.39 Outside of Canada (6 months) $158,25 (ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF B.C, AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION @ CNA. sxe AND s 8.0, PAESS COUNCIL “Friluy eomotia ted Weis 1998 WINNER Serving the Terace and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of each waek at 3210 Clinton Street, Tarrace, Sriish Columbia, V8G 572, Stores, photegraphs, itustrations, designs and lypestyles in the Terrace Standard ara the property of the copyright holders,’ Including Cariboo Prass (1969) Lid., its illustratlon repro services. and advertising agencies, - Foprodurtion in whole oF in part, without written pamission, ig specifically prohibited, : Authorized ag second-cags mall pending the Post Office Department, for payrnent of postage In cash. + Special thanks to alt our contributors and correapondents for their time and talents. oe ' delay, Bho AN, MR. MARTIN CONSIDERING T0 SEND YoU A'GET WELL CARD... say, got any spare deck chairs? VICTORIA - If vengeance is sweet, Ujjal Dosanjh, the new premier, had more than his fair intake of sugar last week. With a fiercely-fought lea- dership race behind him, the premiership secured, albeit with the aid of some rather questionable methods, Do- sanjh went into payback mode, rewarding his supporters and punishing those who backed the wrong horse. Moe Sihota, Dosanjh's chief adversary was uncere- moniously dismissed from ca- binet. The loyal Joy MacPhail, who in a clear demonstration of disloyalty was the first to abandon Glen Clark, the for- mer premier, got a couple of plum jobs — labour minister and Deputy Premier. Sihata had made the mis- take of backing Gordon Wil- N° “Son,” ‘the’ Liberal convert: So” had Helmut: Giesbrecht,’ who’: also found himself minus a ca- binet job. Wilson, on the other hand, was graciously appointed Minister of Employment and Investment. This is not to be misunder- stood as an act of friendship but of necessity, The winner invites the lo- sers to join him in the hope of ‘into the Dosanjh camp..- FROM THE CAPITAL: HUBERT BEYER closing tne deep rifts caused by the leadership battle. The chumps who supported the io- sers are fed to the wolves to make room for the real friends such as the Honourable Sue Hammell. The stalwart Hammell deli- vered big for Dosanjh, bringing Surrey, delegates, en: masse Her reward is commensur- ate with her services provided. Dosanjh appointed her Mini- ster of Multi-culturalism and Immigration, and Minister responsible for the Public Ser- vice. Did [ say immigration? Wow, we're nation now. Corky Evans kept the agri- culture and food portfolio, got fisheries back, and is to head something called rural deve- lopment. Evans, of course, is the guy who'd have won the leadership trace if he'd have signed up a few dead people and been able to tap into some definable eth- nic or other community. Alas, there aren't that many former Americans around or if there are, they don't much care who leads the NDP. Dennis Streiffel, who was the fisheries ministry's first and last minister is out of a cabinet job. Fisheries was taken out of the agricultural portfolio during the height of the salmon war with the U.S. a few years ago and set up as a separate mini- stry which was then largely run from the premier's office, In the new scheme of things, Streiffel was simply redundant. Joan Smallwood will be ;Minister for Women's Equality, ~ es "No, ‘there's stilt no’ “ministry’ for ‘ men's equality. Andrew Petter did accept the attorney general's position, as I predicted, postponing his return to the University of Vic- toria's faculty of law, probably until January next year. He had been scheduled to start in June. As for the rest, ] won't bore you. If you're interested, you can find the complete cabinet lineup on the provincial gov- ernment web site at Www. gov.bc.ca. What does all this mean? ° Squat, actually. The Greens had it dead to rights. When the convention was ; over and delegates spilled out of the Vancouver Coliseum, they were greeted by people ; selling Green Party member- ships. I didn't see any takers, but it was an effective lark. A sign - next to the stand featured a - sinking ship and the words, “Got any Deck Chairs?” No cabinet shuffle results in ~ momentous change, especially not one so close to the end of a government's mandate. It is what the word implies - a shuf- fle of mostly old faces, the ejection of some and addition of a few others. “hats not the" ‘Stuff ‘that spawns innovative ‘policies. It will take the voters to sort things out. The next election will determine just how content - British Columbians are with their government. I suspect the outcome will not be a happy one for the NDP, Beyer can be reached at E- mail: hubert@coolcom.com; Tel & Fax: (250) 381-6900; or * htip:{/www.hubertbeyer.com Don't pass Up these careers IN A few weeks high schools will host their annual Career Day, a day to acquaint about- to-be-grads with local people earning their livings in various fields. Successful Terrace folk will be invited to speak about their choice of trade or profession, answering eager questions from their teenage audience as to what is ahead. And though over 2000 job categories crowd Human Re- sources computer banks, it is likely only the better known jobs will be represented — tea- cher, nurse, plumber, electri- cian, computer operator. If I were a principal, i'd in- vite spokespeople for two of the newest, most in-demand jobs involved. The first is the grief counsellor, Twenty years ago if you ex- perienced a traumatic situa- tion, you got through it with So! weRE ALL GOING To THE TOMORROW) © mated -" THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI TiB INTERVIEW RR UP oR NuTHHN” Mang the help of family, tissues, and time. Now whole schools, job sites, even towns receive prief counselling as a group. Between airplane disasters _ such as the plane that plunked into the sea off Peegy’s Cove, or the more recent fatal dive of an Alaska Airlines plane near Los Angeles, grief coun- sellors are being called on mw YEAH! BUTT | All T DRESSIN & everywhere. Add school shoot- ings, job site massacres, and dramatic violence wiping out entire families and you've got overwrought counsellors with no risk of unemployment ever. The other line of income gaining in popularity — and no- toriety — is that of executive paid to quit. Called the golden hand- shake — business favours fancy titles ~ this often comes about when a multi-year contract ter- minates early for any number of reasons — to get rid of an unworthy candidate, to make way for change, to avoid a costlier court ordered settle- ment or sometimes when sim- ply a person moves on. At the moment, various ci- tizens are paying roughly a quarter million dollars payouts to executives over as long as 18 months after their separa- tion from the company. To name merely a few, Vancou- ver’s former police chief will collect salary and benefits for roughly two years following his dismissal. Ditto Edmonton’s former police chief. And right here in Terrace we’re paying Northwest Community Col- lege’s president to be an ex. In Victoria, while premier, Dan Miller awarded salary in- ; creases up to 20 per cent toa . few government bigwigs. If the next election turfs out the NDP - government these raise reci- pients will exit their posts with exorbitant severance packages calculated on Miller’s raises. We ail want our kids to take up work that pays well, gains them respect, brings them sa- tisfaction, serves their com- munity, and offers them advan- cement. Grief counselling offers all that. Point that out to future grads on Career Day. tos ew Ff