fine people? All male and all white and all i An _ jobs where the. provincial: government-has:some ~: influence to promote hiring from groups idénti- — ~ Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 13, 1999 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@kermode.net White guys HELMUT GIESBRECHT may be making people a little bit more than nervous in his role as public service minister by promoting em- ployment equity in the provincial civil service. After nearly 10 years of trying, the NDP is admitting failure in efforts to recruit natives, visible minorities, people with disabilities and . women in management positions to at least equal their representation in the population at large. So Mr, Giesbrecht has formed an equal opportunity secretariat backed up by an advi- sory board to fix that. With thousands of civil servants due to retire in the next decade or so, there’s room, says Mr, Giesbrecht, to promote equity hiring without dangling a toe in the dan- gerous waters of quota systems. In the last year in Terrace there’s an exam- ple of what Mr. Giesbrecht is driving at, Going or gone to retirement or to jobs elsewhere are the city administrator, the airport administra- tor, the college president, the senior Terrace and Area Health Council administrator and not one, not two but five senior school district ad- ministrators. Some of these departures are part of the na- tural change that occurs in organizations. But having nine senior public sector administrators weigh anchor in such a short period of time ina place as small as Terrace is a sign that the power structure is about to change as the first generation of those who took part in the ex- pansion of the public sector move on. And what is the common connection of these fied by the NDP as being under-represented. As it is, one of these jobs has already been taken by a person who is younger, white and male. This leaves eight vacancies. The inter- esting thing to observe from here on in is how those doing the hiring will respond to this pro- vincial initiative. At the very least, the vacan- cies represent an opportunity to look beyond what has been the traditional managerial pool. A new reality ONE MEASURE of the health of an economy is the size of the school population. When Skeena Cellulose two years ago faced an un- certain future and the woods industry stalled, people began moving out. But this fall in Terrace, depending upon how you break out the numbers, the number of stu- dents has stabilized and may even have grown. The surprise is Kitimat where the student po- pulation has dropped. The conventional wis- dom is that Kitimat has always been protected from economic downturns while Terrace was - more vulnerable. Perhaps we’re entering a new. economic reality. 1998 WINNER CCNA BETTER NEWSPAPERS COMPETITION 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, Bunnie Cote, Mark Beaupre TELEMARKETER: DARKROOM/COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Julie Davidson, Kulwant Kandola ANY. PARTICULAR REASON \OU DON'T WANT 10 BE CAPTAIN ON B PERMANENT BASE..DAN 2... 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. an ‘ CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION ' & CNA » seme ert Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbla, ¥8G 5R2. Storles, photographs, Illustrations, designs and typastyles in the Tarrace Standard ara the property of the copyight holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) Lid., its illustration repro services and advertising agencies, Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited, Authorized as second-class mail pending tha Post Oifica Department, for payment of postage in cash, Speciat thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents AND B.C. PRESS COUNCIL say goodnight, VICTORIA — When you write a book, you had better be sure of the facts, especially those con- "cerning yourself. When Gordon Wilson wrote the Civilized Revolution, he ap- pears to have gotten a little con- fused about details of his life, and it was left to Rafe Mair to point out the discrepancies in’ his inimitable way. Taking no prisoners at the best of times, the king of talk shows virtually savaged Wilson on his open-line program, all but destroying any hope the former Liberal leader, turned ' Progressive Democratic Alliance leader, might have had to be- come leader of the New Demo- cratic Party. Mair began his number on Wilson by asking him how he could possibly have been in . Washington, .D.C...in.. 196345 ~ when Martin Luther King: gave his, famous “I have a Dream” speech, pointing out that Wil- son was only‘l4 at the time and lived in Africa with his parents. Trying to recover from that frontal assault, Wilson said something about having been there a few years later, at a dif- ferent speech, adding that the late civil rights leader made a lot of memorable speeches. That explanation got a “boy, oh bey, of boy,” from Mair. “I OCTOBER tst was the submission deadline for Coast Mountain School District’s logo contest. J learned of the contest two days before that, from a news item in The Terrace Standard. The notion of a new logo to represent the combined Kitimat-Terrace School District 82 came from the Victoria cansultant called in last year to show loca! trus- tees how to play nice. The consultant’s suggestion was approved last spring by the district’s educalion com- mittee. Seems they, too, fell for Victoria’s habit of - printing new slationery as a cure for ills instead of insti- tuting better policies. The logo is expected to promote cohesiveness, something that’s been miss- ing since Victoria legislated Kitimat and Terrace to share their toys. The winning logo design, which will appear on all dis- trict stationery, reports, MELTDOWN! How ABOUT You 21! WE'RE STOCK PILING GOTTLED WATER AND J FREEZE TRIED Foop nga FoR The MILLENIUM at FROM THE CAPITAL. HUBERT BEYER don't think the truth is in you. You're an exagegerator,” Rafe said. “But I'll fet the listeners decide whether they think you're telling the truth.” Matters didn't improve for Wilson as Mair moved in on Wilson's claim that when the scandal about his romantic in-~ ‘volvement'.with ‘his now? wife:’:" Judi Tyabji, then his ‘House Leader, burst onto the front pag- es, he wasn't actually having an affair with her. His assertion that things were strictly platonic between them at the time didn't get a lot of credence from Mair. Pam certain that Wilson had no inkling of what awaited him when he showed up for the in- terview. After all, the two had been pals during the constitu- tional debate. But trust Mair to THROUGH BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI business cards, and vehicles for instant visual identifica- tion, must be easily repro- ducibie in no more than two colours, Therefore you’d expect entries to be culled ta a short list by several persons qualified in printing, art, or gtaphic design. Instead, trustees and administrators will pick and choose the final entries. A prize of $50 will be awarded to the best in each T CAN USE A FRIEND'S CABIN UP NORTH! PLENTY | OF FRESH WATER , FISH AND GAME THERE! WELL T Gath HAND IT To You HAL!! Mr. feed even those to the lions who thing they're his friends. The real problem for Wilson is thal people weren't shocked by the fact that another politi- cian had been caught stretching the truth; they laughed. And ridicule is any politician's death, Hate is OK, but not ridicule. So where dues that leave the NDP’s knight. in shining ar- mour, the guy who was sup- posed to have a good chance at the leadership crown? Dead in the water, I'm afraid. , Wilson might as well not bother running for the leader- ship, although { think (hat wild horses, let alone a liltle credibil- ity gap will keep him away. Things looked pretty good for Wilson when former NDP leader and premier, Glen Clark, lured him across the floor with the -offer:of-w cabinet post. Wilson! dwash't tainted bythe public per ception of the NDP as having tun the province's economy into the pround. , That was before all the in- fighting started. Even before any of the likely players announced their candidacy, a battle royal was on, between Clark and Si- hota, backing Wilson, and those preferring Ujjal Dosanjh for leader. And before he knows what hit him, Wilson gets punched out by good old Rafe of three categories - ele- mentary school, secondary and adult - plus $100 for the overall winner. I'd have no objection to a special logo for District 82 if the district had no split classes, if music instruction wasn’t muted, if classroom supplies were taxpayer funded. As it is, 1 begrudge every dollar to be squan- dered on something so re- moved from enhancing the quality of my granddaugh- ters’ education. I’ve been assured the dis- trict has no intention of re- placing existing stationery with newly printed forms; that letterhead will only be printed with the new logo when the old supply runs out. Yah, right. Look for the spiffy new logo on every scrap of paper that comes out of that district after Oc- tober 10th. Watch, too, for freshly painted maintenance trucks and administrators’ cars, at least the doors. But | meme} ¥ yes Pima = PAID OFF! faeeancet I Hose No eet = nea buMKINS FINALY = d ey Wilson and is on the floor for the count. ; All of which leaves the Cork- ; ster in the best-possible. position if and when he enters the race. Corky Evans came in second the last time around, when the party picked Clark, the whiz kid. That would make his chances appear pretty. good this time. Sure, he's got to knock off Joy MacPhail, but considering the rather forgettable performance of 1 1 1 4 c Alexa McDonough, the federal NDP leader, B.C. New Demo: : crats may think twice betore -4 choosing a woman as leader. Of . course, they won't put it that . way. ‘That would be politically - incorrect. As for Wilson, he blew it, for the second or third time, depend- ing on whether you count his | short stint as leader of the Pro- gressive Democratic Alliance, - ‘ithe party. he founded: with: prom- day i Gilly ‘to-balt for a cabinet seat in the NDP government first chance he got. Boy, I love B.C. politics, Jusi watching and writing about il keeps me young. ; Beyer can be reached at -- Tel: (250) 381-6900; e-mail: Aubert@coolcam.com; | Fax: (978) 477-5656 web: http. /www.hubertbeyer.com| Better ways to soend money wouldn’t be surprised to see whole vehicles repainted, ° maybe even in a colour oth- er than blue. How will that help the classroom teacher? No doubt combining Kiti- mat and Terrace school dis- tricts was asking a lot of per- sonnel. Ordering the Hat- » fields and the McCoys to put down their weapons would > = - = Nm a ry 1 be just as effective. Bul ex- pecting a logo to promote: brotherhood is too much: like a feuding couple having ” a baby to foster a closer marriage. For a start, the trustees 7 . could read the consultant’s” report thal came from an in- | quiry following the first ever * strike in Terrace “ teachers’ back in 1980. I’m betting many of those < recommendations would — serve now, too. Especially ~ the one advising the board to communicate directly * with the wider public, If it” did, [ would have known “ ~ about the logo contest much | sooner. “ZED a= Dy AND THE VALUE Dey OF NOTHING !! U) A CYNIC KNQus THE' Tea &