A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 17, 2003

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK

ADDRESS: 32110 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
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EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com

Jack’s way

ROGER HARRIS should send Terrace mayor
Jack Talstra an extra special Christmas card.
That’s because Mr. Talstra’s suggestion the
city might join in on the pending lawsuit between
Kitimat and Alcan offers an ingenious solution
for all concerned, especially for Mr. Harris.
First, arecap. Alcan now produces more power
than it is using to smelt aluminum at its Kitimat
smelter. It already sells a portion of its surplus
and has been quite clear it wishes to sell more.
Kitimat council fears substantial job loss
should Alcan expand its power sales and even
goes as far to suggest Alcan might forgo its
smelting business altogether and become a pure
hydro-electric power marketer.
So Kitimat council is forcing the issue via a
lawsuit asking for a definition of the phrase “in

WE FINALLY CAME UP WITHA
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AccesS To THE Us. MARKS anp CONVINCED Us ITS IN
A QUOTA THAT CoUuLD a cer

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aN THe US. B To LET THEIR
g S\ FEELS

SIDE KEEP HALF

LIKE tT. OF THE ILLEGAL

Duties SUAPPED
ON OUR

OH, AND THE US. NEGOTIATORS

small classes don’t mean much

VICTORIA -I never did believe

success in life was more California's experience. In the

the vicinity of the Works” that’s contained in
the 1950 provincial legislation which permitted
Alcan to construct its Kemano hydro-electric
generating capacity. “The Works” is Alcan’s
smelter and the phrase, Kitimat council suggests,
pretty much means the company must use its
power locally and not have it exported to the

outside.

This isn’t the kind of thing Mr. Harris — or his
government — needs right now. There is precious
little good economic news in the northwest
and the thought of a municipality targeting the
region’s largest private sector employer sends a

bad message to the business community.

But Mr. Talstra says Terrace might join the
lawsuit, asking that the phrase “in the vicinity of

the Works” be expanded to include Terrace.

In doing so, Mr. Talstra would argue that
uTerrace is.as-much a part of.Alean’s natural area
“of operations’as is Kitimat. Siibstantial numbers
of Alcan employees live in Terrace and its
businesses sell millions in goods and services to

the aluminum giant.

Politically, this would move the dispute from a
purely Kitimat vs. Alcan confrontation, offering
the start of a practical solution for a negotiated

‘encouraging ~parents :to“tead “to

that small class sizes wanslate
into better education, and now it
seems that researchers agree with
that assessment,

New studies by the
Organization for Economic
Co-operation’ and Development
(OECD) have shown that class
size is a less important factor than
others in the learning process,

Doug Willms, director of the
University of New Brunswick’s
Canadian Research Institute for
Social Policy, led the OECD
project,

He says class size makes a
small difference but doesn’t have
a substantial effect. “There are
other kinds of interventions that
can have much more powerful
effects,” he says.

These other " interventions
include improving relations
between teachers and. students,
hiring literacy ~ specialists,
teaching educators better

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

40 to 45. There were a number of
reasons for this.

For one thing, there was a
shortage of teachers, many of
whom had been killed during
the war,

The other. reason was that
school buildings were in short
supply. Most of therm, in the
cities at least, had been reduced

classroont:; managementsy;sand...,to rubble. during:aifraidse.:,..

their children starting at an early
age.

To that I would add naked fear
of teachers on the students’ part.
I'm kidding, Well, actually, [’'m
only half-kidding.

When I went through the
education syslem in post-war
Germany, class sizes, even in
the upper grades, were around

teachers, But that fear was not one
of punishment, which teachers
also doled out occasionally
and which we accepted quite
willingly, even proudly, but one
of not being able to gain the
respect of our teachers,

One raised eyebrow, one

- Sarcastic remark by a teacher,

musing about your unlikely

devastating than a slap in the
face which you richly deserved
for some insolent and childish
prank.

So, in spite of class sizes that
would have today’s teachers’
unions manning the barricades,
we did get an excellent
education.

When the system was through
with me afier 12 years, 1 spoke
English and French fluently,
was able to read Roman authors
(Sallust, Ovid, Caesar) in Latin,
and had a good grasp of what the
world was all about.

Compare that to the constant
lament of university educators
who say that students entering
university are virtually illiterate.

Class size is the modern
teacher’s or rather the teachers’
union’s best friend. The smaller
the classes, the more teachers
are needed. The campaign for

smaller class sizes is, mostly a.
~ job-creation programiit:i.. it ar:
weer And? Ves, WE feared’* out ~

Take Ontario, . where--: the
Liberals are promising to cap
elementary classroom sizes. They
peg the cost at $375 million, but
the Tories put it at $1.6 billion:
The initiative would mean that
5,400 new teachers have to
be hired, not to mention the
additional buildings the would
have to be constructed.

Even more bizarre is

early 1990s, that state capped all
class sizes from Kindergarten to
Grade 3 at 20,

By 1996, the initiative had cost
the taxpayers an estimated USS$5
billion and required the hiring
of more than 30,000 teachers,
True, student performance has
increased, but only slightly, and
not in keeping with the additional
cost,

The abave-quoted Dr. Willms
believes that New Brunswick is
going in the right direction, That
province has not included smaller
class sizes in its overhaul of the
education system.

Instead, this month, school
boards will. get new teachers, ail
of them literacy specialists who
will provide intensive reading
and writing practice.

What has always puzzled me
is the ease with which parents
have been enlisted in the battle
for smaller class sizes. Don’t they
ever. lookat their-tax; bill ?-,-:1) +
«. The. unquestioning _ public
belief that when it comes to
class size, smaller is better is
reminiscent of the the pigs’ “four
‘legs better than two legs,” in
Orwell’s Animal Farm.

As the pigs found out, it ain't
necessarily so.

Beyer can be reached at: E-
mail: hbeyer@coolcom.com.

settlement as compared to a court-ordered one.
It geographically expands Kitimat’s contention
that local power be used locally. It has the
possibility of attracting new business by creating
an area where cheap hydro power is available,
close to existing Kitimat port facilities and close

MPs need to buckle down

PRINCE RUPERT city

of pretending to select him, elected tasks.

to the pending Prince Rupert container port.

Alcan should be happy with Mr. Talstra’s plan
because it would offer a framework for attracting
customers for its power without the kind of nasty

fight that could otherwise result.

Mr. Harris and his government would come

out way ahead by moving on this idea.

It’s classic Jack Talstra politics. Don’t take
sides. Be all things to all people. A perfect
platform for a person thinking of higher political
office. A power broker in every sense of the

word.

Eee

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SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL:
$57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62,00 per year;
Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54.55;

Oul of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73

councillor Kathy Bedard asks
that we all write to aut member
of parliament urging Ottawa to
taise the age of consent from its
current 14 to 16, Anyone who
cares about children will give
Bedard's request enthusiastic
support,

Now, children as young. as
14 can legally engage in sexual
activity with an adult. Yet their
parents have no legal means
lo discourage or restrain’ their
children fram doing so.

This puts kids under the age
of 16 at the mercy of sexual
predators, ,

Ottawa needs more whipping
than a mule to © accomplish
anything worthwhile. Witness
the many long awaited bills
allowed to die when parliament
recently proragued, Bills - to
gavern reproduction, crime, and
countless other areas of concern

to citizens. Bills parliament spent:

months debating, only to let them
die by going: home early for
Christmas. _
Imagine haw long we'd have
our jobs if we never finished an
assignment to the point where it

B Your SockS THE SEAM

THROUGH BIFOCALS.
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

could be sold and charged out?
Bet we'd be job hunting real
soon.

Ottawa, though, debates, holds
committee hearings, then goes
off to a party letting everything
die. Still MPs claim they've
slaved for us.

Parliament closed early: this
year 50 everyone could work
on the re-election. The Liberals
crowned Paul Martin after years

And two opposition parties
joined ranks with one hand while
holding their nose with the other,

. all in the hope uniting will help

them defeat the Liberals in the
next federal election,

Interviewed Dec, 8 on CBC
Radio. veteran Progressive
Conservative Flora McDonald
complained that the merger vote
had been rushed to limit any risk
delegates might re-think their
Support and vale ‘No’ to the
merger.

Flora is an old political hand,
and served in Ottawa through
troubling times. 1 respect her
as a person of principle and
integrity, For her to oppose this
PC/Canadian Alliance merger
warns me of trouble ahead,

Add the fact Joe Clark has
parted company with the merged
party tells me I’m not alone in
avoiding the new party.

How can someone denigrate
a person one day, then honestly
respect them the next? For years
the PCs.and Alliance have spent
more time being nasty to each
other than attending to their

| NONSENSE! You OH No! DONT

I won't vote for a government
that Jost millions and can’t
account for it; cabinet ministers
flying on private jets when
their travel dollars. could
bolster struggling commercial
airlines; and collected millions
of unemployment dollars ‘from
workers who cannot qualify to
collect if they are ever laid off.

The Liberals have scooped
billions from GST and ‘handed it
out without checks or balances to
make sure it is being well spent.
In many cases our tax dollars have
been’ squandered on frivolous
endeavours devoid of — public
usefulness or accountability,

Despite plenty of talk, the
Liberals have done nothing .
about lenient court sentences,
establishing a DNA data bank
of sexual offenders, or curbing
everyday crime with mandatory
minimal sentences.

With one less party to insult,
perhaps raising the age of
consent to 16 will be within the
limited focus of our members of
parliament.

Outside of sama ¢ months) $156.91(+10.98 GST)=167.89 ARE /NSIDE Ass , As E SHIRT AnD: TEA is E NE r TUNE
AUNG MY TOESLY fang ince aol ABDUT [T!.

Communry Mews aries

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atietiatiaw
HU) Colm ve aed Telre

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