et cient a Manatees i

The TERRA CE REVIEW A ASKED:

2

is

at “ . 4 vi ie

Premier Vander Zalm will hold a
- townhall meeting in Terrace  —=s_—«s
‘Sept. 29. Do you intend to go? st

Mary McGowan

Yes. | think everyone’
should be there that has a
complaint.

“hers 3 “Badr

Roy Greening

No, | don’t like his
policies, particularly regard-
ing education. ; .

| Seott Shilke
No — because | want to

‘gee more action and. less”

argument.

Jirina Oskoryp

1 will. | agree with Vander
Zalm very much. We came to
Canada five years ago from
Czechoslovakia, a commun-
ist regime, and things are
much better here. | hear peo-
ple say Vander Zalm is com-
-munist. That is not true. He
is the opposite. The econ-
omy is very, very good here.
Our family had not trouble

‘getting jobs. | don’t under-

stand Canadians that can't
get work,

Ron Gowe
1 probably would be in-
terested In going If | could. |
support many of his ideas in
principle but not in the way
that he has applied them. He
Is prone to go. into action
without thinking sufficiently
about the consequences.

Sandy Ockenden
| will not be able to attend
on that date but if | could |
would go to hear what was
being-discussed to try and
keep informed about local
issues.

Local groups react
to CMA position on
access to abortion

The Canadian Medical
Association came up with a
decidely pro-choice position at
its annual meeting in Vancouver
late last month. They removed
from their policy the statement
that they were against abortion
on demand, and stated that
abortion is a medical decision
between a woman and her doc-

tor. The CMA also said that

abortion services should be
uniformly available across the
country, and could be perform-
ed in either clinics or hospitals.

_ Maureen’ Bostock of the Nor-—

thern Pro-choice Coalition said
the CMA’s action will ultimately
put more pressure on the politi-
cians to listen to women, and to
listen to doctors. for their exper-
tise.. ‘It’s also significant that
they said abortion should be

. uniformly available, following
“what was said in Morgentaler’s

case with the Supreme Court of
Canada. They found lack of ac-
cess discriminatory in that
women from rural areas
couldn’t exercise their choice.”
Bostock added that if federal
politicians remain too “‘befuddl-
ed’’ to come up with legislation

that ‘satisfies the women of:
‘Canada, then there should be no

law at all. ‘‘Then availability
will be a matter of organizations

like pro-choice groups to en-
courage doctors to set up
clinics.’’

Isabel Brophy, president of
Terrace Pro-life, said the
clinic/hospital issue was a red
herring, because it’s the same
procedure happening in both
places. As to abortion being a
medical matter, she said,“‘An
unwanted pregnancy is a human
dilemma. It's a civil matter, a
social, legal and political matter,
and only somewhere down the
line a medical matter.”

She also commented on the
policy of limiting abortions bas-
ed on the number of weeks of
gestation, ‘‘As technology im-
proves to keep these tiny infants
alive, the number of weeks

decreases. Except for a small.

difference in size, you have the
same baby at 19 weeks as at 20
weeks, only one will experience
capital punishment for being un-
wanted, the other one’s life will
be spared,”’

Brophy said the ideal solution
is one that spares the child and
serves the mother. “‘The govern-
ment has a role to play in serving
the mother. The circumstances
under which some women go
through an unwanted pregnan-
cy, the poverty, is terrible.”

Terrace Review — Wednesday, September 14, 1988 5

Letter

Locals could lose
‘in privatization

To the Editor;
_ On Privatization of Highways

- Maintenance; or Who’s Clean-

ing the Ditches This Year,

_ Anyhow?

Recently an ‘employee interest
group’, Lakes District Main-
tenance Ltd., obtained agree-
ment in principle from the
Government of B.C. to take.
‘over highway maintenance for

. District No. 24, Burns Lake,

Southbank and Houston.

' Similar takeovers are contem-

plated in the Smithers, Terrace,
Prince Rupert and Dease Lake
districts of the Northwest.

George Bernard Shaw once
said that if the lamb ever does lie
down with the lion, the lamb will
most likely be in the belly of the
lion. This may be what we are
seeing happen to Ministry of
Highways employees.

The process followed to ob-
tain this contract has not been
the usual one followed when
contracts are let. Normally, I
believe, when a contract is
tendered it
cepted or rejected by the gov-
ernment on its merits, and

there’s an end to it. Not so in.

this.case. Here we have the spec-
tacle of ‘guided tendering’

which the employee interest
group was required to work and
rework its proposal with the
‘assistance’ of government
negotiators. Was this really well-
intentioned help, or have the

‘local employees been set up to

fall. victim of some longer term
plan of the proponents of
privatization?

From the employees’ perspec:
tive, there is no assurance that
their employment has any long-

term security. Under the present.

system a person can plan for a
stable career. With a privatized
company there is no assurance
of employment beyond the
three-year term of the present
contract,

Past experience is instructive.
Some years ago ditch cleaning
was done by the local employees
of the Ministry of Highways us-
ing ministry-owned diggers and
trucks, Under the Bennett gov-
ernment’s ‘Restraint Program’,
Highways stopped using its own

Frank Donahue

is ‘submitted, ac--

' Mon. to Sat. 9:30 to 6:00

ditch cleaner and contracted that
part of the work to an owner-
operator from Vanderhoof, but
we still used our own trucks on
the job: Last year there was a_
slight improvement, in that the ©
ditch digging was at least con-
tracted to. a local owner.
operator; and we still used our
own trucks. and Highways
employees to drive them. This
year as ‘Restraint’ is followed by
‘Privatization’, an ‘out-of-town

ditch cleaner loads material into:

two out-of-town trucks and
economic and employment
benefits are lost to our com-
munity.

The Bennett restraint program
systematically starved the local
highway crew of local summer
relief workers for five years, so
that there are presently no
employees left on local layoff
lists. This makes it possible for
the Vander Zalm government to
circumvent the anti-contracting

-out language of the collective

agreement, —

The Social Credit government
has been willing to take five
years to obtain this level of con-.
tracting out/privatization. Can
there by any security in accept- -—
ing a three-year launching into
‘the private sector by this same
government?

Our community has now lost
the work afforded by local ditch
cleaning... We may be within
three years of losing the rest of
the work involved in highway
maintenance. With it would go
the employment of the people
who presently do the work.

B.C.’s provincial government
employees have the right to opt
to retain their jobs with the
government; a provision of their
collective agreement, upheld by
the Superior Court of B.C. In
the interest of their own job
security, as well as in the com-
munity’s interest in preserving

‘the best highway maintenance.

system in North America, these
workers’ union is encouraging
them to choose to stay with their
present employer. _ .
Ian Carnie,
BCGEU local 1012,
- Burns Lake.

Mutual Group | since i868
Skeena Mall, Terrace
635-2387 or drop by:

Fri til 9:00

* Net Worth
* Estate

* Retirement
* Cash Flow

* Life Insurance’

x Disability -

* Deposits --

* Tax Plans -

* Group Benefits

* Investment Funds

We Provide an overview of Financial Needs:
* Financial Goals

* Disability Needs

* Tax Planning

* Objectives

Fee: $35. Estate Plans and Financial Blueprints from $85.

We Offer competitive financial instruments
Term & Cash Accumulation
General & Designed Plans

30 day through 5 years

Pension & Education

Dental, Health & RRSP
Diversifund & Stock