Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 29, 1996

TERRACE

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. « V8G SR2
TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432
E-MAIL: terrace.standard@sasquat.com
MODEM: (604) 638-7247

THE GOOD thing about growth is the excite-
ment. New buildings go up, services are ex-
panded and there’s that feeling of progress, of
movement and of travelling down new paths.

That’s the way things have been in Terrace
since the turn of the decade. Unprecedented
housing starts, booming commercial construction
and the creation here of a service-based com-
merce class have added greatly to the area.

We’re taking advantage of our geographic loca-
tion as the central hub of the northwest. We’ re
realizing we can have most of the things once
considered to exist only in the southern urban
centres now crumbling under their own weight.

But there is a downside. Uplands school, on the
bench, is taking kindergarten registrations for in-
fants barely home from the hospital. The way
things are going, mothers will be faxing the
school from hospital delivery rooms mere
minutes after giving birth.

There remains a gap in affordable rental accom-
modation in the area. Demand for Skeena Kalum
Housing Society’s commendable first phase of
32 housing units on Haugland was staggering
and that will continue when its second phase of
18 units is complete. That means 50 families
have affordable accommodation instead of
places too expensive for their budgets or below
their needs.

All this proves that growth can, at least
temporarily, outstrip the ability of governments
and other agencies to act to ensure it happens in
an orderly fashion. Growth can destroy those at-
tributes which encouraged it in the first place.

Yet there are solid steps being taken. City coun-
cil’s move to hire an environmental,.planner to,
map” Out--areas ~whichshould-be *set agide to.
preserve the existing quality of life yet permit
development is but one encouraging move.

I
It's not good
WITH THE election now over and the’
politicians ready to settle into their roles as de-
cided by voters, let’s hope there is going to be a |
full airing of the linen being used to clothe the
regionalization of health care services.

To consumers of health care, the situation
Seems more than a bit chaotic. We’re told that
there is enough money in the system; it’s just not
being used wisely enough.

So the theory is that by spending more money
on community-based health care and on attempts
to keep people out of hospitals, what dollars
available now for health care will be sufficient. -

That’s all fine and dandy as a general statement
but even the most casual observer of the situation
at Mills Memorial Hospital knows something is '
amiss. Here’s an institution that’s operated with
frozen budgets since the early 1990s. It?s now
ripping apart its nursing structure by laying off
licensed practical nurses in favour of keeping its
registered nurses.

We’re told this is being done to balance budgets
and that service won’t be affected. But we
wonder how long Mills can take such a pounding
before samething cracks someplace. |

SS
PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Red Link
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Rick Passmore
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COMMUNITY: Cris Leykaul
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ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:

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MEMBER OF 8.C, PRESS COUNCIL

Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week by Caribao Press (1969)
Ud, at 3210 Clinton Strest, Terrase, British Columbia, V8GSR2,0 0 os * Oe

Storles. photographs, lltustrations, designs arid typestyies in the Terrace Standard are the property of the
copyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd.. Its illustration repro servicas and adverlising
agencies. oy : vet : oo.

Aeproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is spacifically prohibited,

Authorized as second-class mail pending tha Post Office Department, for payment of postage in cash,

Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
for their time and talents

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You can’t please them all

VICTORIA — At no time are
political nerves more raw than
during an election campaign.
That’s when bullet-proof vests
might be the appropriate attire
for the well-dressed columnist

The other day, I got a call
from the local columnist of a
weckly paper thal runs my
provincial affairs column. He
wanted to talk to me about
what he perceived to be an
alarming pro-NDP slant in my
columns,

I have to admit, I was some-
what perplexed. Normally
newspaper people don’t ques-
lion each other’s political lean-
ings, imagined or otherwise. 1

have never called Doug Col-

lins to express my. concemm
about his immigrant-bashing,

league to politely accuse me of
harboring and disseminating

socialist views was a favorable .

reference in one column to
Forest Renewal and a state-
ment in another that consider-
ing the massive federal cut-
backs, the NDP had dome a
reasonable job of keeping
health care costs in fine
without cutting services.

He said the Forest Renewal
program was Iess than perfect,
which is true and which I bad
dealt with in a previous

HOME BASED businessper-
sons (HBEP) are the Roduey
Dangerficlds of commerce,
Their time gets no respect.
Even after years of training
family and friends not to inter-
mipt work time, trying tu have
a customer-free holiday calls
for vigilance. Yet no one
would expect service sixty sec-
onds beyond closing time fram
a bank teller ora civil servant.
Which raises an interesting
question: What happens when

a HBBP trying to take ad-
vantage of a day off asks to

transacl business with another . -

HBBP intent on having a
relaxing statulory holiday?
Who defers to whom?

Let’s say it’s Victoria day, a
sunny Monday when those
who aren’t camping or fishing
wish they were. As a royalist
HBBP averse to conducting
business; on the: Queen’s
birthday, I answer our single
phone with a noncommittal
Hello instead-of identifying my
upholstery shop, Like a striker,
[plan to do-all I can to keep
customers from knocking on

415 SIMPLE! YouR TowN MUST
REDUCE iTS SOCIAL PROBLEMS
INCREASE JOB SKKLS ANP
DIVERSIFY YouR ECoNOMY !

FROM THE CAPITAL

HUBERT BEYER

wrilings might be interpreted :

as favoring the Liberals or the
Reformers or the Progressive
‘democratic Alliance. I could

|... - lthough I’ve written about it. _ ¢ give hima couple of sames.

», What had, prompted my cok; , “et’s review Joumalism 101:

News reporters must not ex-
press any personal bias or
opinions in their writing.
Columnists get paid to do just
thal.

T happen to like the changes

, the NDP has brought to

* column, and that the health

‘ care system was also less than
satisfactory. His wile was a
nurse, he said.

Well, I’m very happy for her.
But I'd be more interested in
finding out whether or not he
also called columaists whose

‘THROUGH BIFOCALS

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

my door that day.

But let’s say another HBBP
phones. ia distress. Her hus-
band’s favorite recliner has
‘Snapped a frame board, making
the chair out-of-order. Repair
is urgent,

It's up to her to transport his
ailing chair to my repair shop
and Victoria day, her onc day
off, is her best chance. She

forestry, including the land use
plans and Forest Renewal,
even though they are far from
perfect. That doesn’t make me
an NDP hack.

I am impressed with Gordon
Wilson’s proposal to revamp
the entire tax system which, if
B,C, could fight Ottawa suc-
cessfully, would have British
Columbia collect all taxes,
keep its fair share and send the
rest to Ottawa. That doesn’t
make me a Progressive Demo-
cratic Alliance stooge.

I like the Liberals’ plan to
downsize the army of commu-
nications folks and spin doc-
tors in government, That
doesn’t put me in the Liberals’
pocket.

Aad I really like Jack Weis.

_ gerber without being a Reform |

Party mouthpiece. -
- 1 offer opinions on subjects
that I believe to be of impor-
tance to British Columbians.
AndI call it as I see it.

1 mercilessly hammered the

“NDP over the bingo scandal

and said numerous times that
nothing short of a full public
inquiry will satisfy British

Columbians, Glen Clark final- -

ly saw the light and ordered an
inquiry.

At the same time, I gave the
NDP kudos on numerous occa-
sions for having created more

ccess can be stressful

enough to make the trip. Can ]

please accept delivery of the
chair today, summer’s first
major holiday?

Anyone aware of the connec-
tion between a man’s favorite
chair and the Stanley Cup
recognizes a crisis. ‘‘Bring it
over,” I say.

But I wonder, why aren’t
there rules to this? With so
many women running their
owti home based businesses,
we need protocol standards to
guide our after-hours dealings.
Otherwise stress from feeling
wimpish and put upon will im-
pair our on-the-job _ per-
formance.

We must establish a pecking
order, but how?

Should the upstart HBBP
with the budding enterprise
defer to the mature proprictor
with the established venture?
Should the pursuit with the
bigger/annual gross income
lord it over the smaller? Or
should the hourly sate decide

can't’ afford to desert her = whorelgns supreme?
customers next day — long Those. criteria being equal,
so?irs AN T]WHICH tS

ARMCHAIR

i

OBVIOUSLY.
YouR anly

“the
“Duane was a Socred MLA, he

OF EXPERTISE!

than 100 new parks during the
last four years.

British Columbians are
politically split down the mid-
dic. That means about half the
people may to disagree with
everything I write. That in-
cludes readers, fellow colum-
nists, editors and publishers.

But the wonderful thing
about Canada is that we value
freedom of speech. To para-
phrase Winston Churchill, I
may utterly disagree with what
my critical colleague says, but
I'll defend with my life his
right to say it. And I expect the
same in retum.

This young colleague who
didn’t like what I wrote could
learn a lot from my old friend
Duane Crandall, publisher of
Golden News. When

also owned the Golden Star,
which ran my column.

It must have been difficult
for him to see his party under
Bill Vander Zalm attacked by
me without mercy in his own
paper, but he kept running my
column, He never complained.
He knows what journalism is
all about. And ] regret that he
didn’t get the Liberal nomina-
tion in his riding.

Beyer can be reached at Tel:
920-9300; Fax: 385-6783; E-
Mail: hbeyer@direct.ca

oe

the HBBP with the more im-
pressive professional qualifica-
tions could be superior, unless
toppled off the throne by a
HBBP possessing overwhelm-
ing practical experience.

A neat demarcation would be
possession of a separate phone
number for the business to
sercen calls not meant for fam-
ily. Many resort to an answer-
ing machine, forerunner of the
detestable voice mail.

Or the decision would be ar-
rived at by comparing the use -
of fax machines, photocopiers, -
or computers. Let the high tech
company loom over the hands-
on operation like a vigorous 4-
year-old Lab intimidating an
arthrilic 13-year-old spaniel.

Otherwise, each factor could
be assigned a value — a year
in business 10 points, fax ma-
chine 5 points — and the tal-
lies compared.

Gender doesn’t come into the
equation, Most HBBP’s are
women.

My hunt for work elbows out
protocol. And pride,