A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 3, 1999
“TERRACE.

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK’
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C, » V8G SR2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 « FAX: (250) 638-8432
EMAIL: standard@kermode.net

In charge

THERE °S AN old saying in the’ news business

that if you want to really know what is going on,

follow the money. For the group or person with

the monetary muscle in any situation is ultimate-
_ ly in charge of what happens.

That’s abundantly clear in the case of Mills
Memorial Hospital and its hiring of an ‘‘execu-
tive mentor’’ to, in the health ministry’s opinion,
bring down costs so they are in line with
facilities of equivalent size.

No matter how much the Terrace and Area
Health Council wants to give the impression that
this is some kind of collegial and co-operative ©
exercise, the key factor here is that the health
ministry is covering the cost of the mentor. And,
this means the ministry is calling the shots.

Consider the mentor as a mild form of public
trusteeship, the more drastic measure in which a
government ministry swoops in, dismisses a lo-
cal board and its senior administrators and takes
control.

To the credit of the health council, it has been
asking for a ministry-run review of its financial
and operational situation for some time. This has
always been rejected by the ministry until now.
The reason is simple. Should Mills continue on
its current financial course, it will be hard up
against the rocks of insolvency by spring of next
year. |

In the end the ministry had little choice. As the
financier of Mills Memorial Hospital, it had to
act. As the car mechanic used to say in the com-
mercial, you can pay me now or pay me later.

All of this paints an. interesting picture when
laid against the health council’s optimistic vision.
that Mills will take more of an official regional
health facility role in the northwest. The ministry
is pretty firm that before anything along those
lines is‘contemplated;the' carrent situation has to~
be rectified, And “that, means: a’ venallghee for the
mentor.

5 - r] a

NDP’S Titanic
THE FAST FERRY financial fiasco has sunk
any slim chance of the NDP making a run at re-
election. It might have argued successfully that it
couldn’t do a whole lot.about a depressed Asian
market for resources. It might have successfully
put forward a moral argument that land claims
need to be settled. It might have gained points
among voters with its moves to improve the
overall health and education of low income chil-
dren.

But there is no way it can shake that age-old
suspicion that an NDP government knows noth-
ing about managing the hard-earned, sweat-
soaked tax dollars entrusted to it by the public.

It’s one thing to have a vision about re-
establishing a shipping industry using new tech-:
nology and skills. But it’s another thing entirely .
to do that by giving the impression that the bal-
last of the fast ferries is made up of bundles of
tax dollars. Glub, glub, glub.

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
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Now perhaps this one will fly

VICTORIA — While con-
troversy still swirls around
the WNisga'a Treaty, the
Sechelt Indian Band quietly
and successfully concluded
its treaty negotiations with
the federal and provincial
governments.

The draft of the agree-
ment — the second medern-
day treaty in British Colum-
bia — was released in
Sechelt, on British Colum-
bia’s Sunshine Coast, 100
kilometres northwest of Van-
couver.

The Sechelt deal differs
from the Nisga’a Treaty in
two ways: it covers an urban
area, and it doesn't contain
provision for self-govern-
ment. That should be enough

- for the Gordon Campbell

and his provincial Liberals

not to challenge this agreé-

ment.
Now, there's a good rea-

’ son for the absence of a self-

government clause in the
Sechelt Treaty, The band has
had self-government for 12
years. Got it from the
Socreds, and nobody has
objected since. You hear
what J'm saying, Gordon?
There's been a lot of beer-
parlor talk about giving the
whole province back to the
First Nalions, before they get

FROM THE CAPITAL

HUBERT BEYER

it all anyway by way of
treaty negotiations or court
decisions. The natives will
end up owning every office
buildings and mall in down-
town Vancouver, with all pri-
vate property in a 10-kilo-
mectre radius thrown in, so
the talk went.

The Sechelt Treaty should
put those fears, unfounded as
they were from the begin-
ning, to rest once and for all.
The Sechelt Treaty covers an
urban area, and the band did-
n't end up with any office
buildings or malls or are pri-
vate homes,

What the band got was
$42 million and an addi-
tional 933 hectares of land,
645 of it urban, the rest rural.

The band's existing 1,000-
hectare reserve becomes

_ treaty land,

The band will also share
timber and gravel revenues
with the B.C. government
50-50 on one of the parcels.
In addition, the band will
receive 11 commercial fish-
ing licences and will own
surface and sub-surface
resources on its land.

The agreement, when
finalized, will constitute
"full and final settlement" of
the Sechelt claims to aborig-
inal title,

I don't know about you,
but I can certainly live with
this deal, even though it's
probably not fair compensa-

tion for 150 years of injus-__,
' ‘stubborn opposition to -the

tice.

Jane Stewart, the Minister

of Indian Affairs (I hope that
moniker will soon be part of
history), says the agreement-
in-principle “once again
demonstrates that negotia-
tions are the most productive
means of addressing issues
of aboriginal rights."

Boy, that's an understate-
ment. The courts have
warned us time and again to
settle these issues through
negotiations and have
hinted, in no uncertain terms,
that we might not like court-

imposed settlements.

If only we could convince
Campbell to see il the same
way. He would drop his legal
challenge of the Nisga’a
Treaty like a hot potato. But
like I said before, oppor-

tunism knocks only once, He .

senses enough opposition
out there, ill-founded as it
may be, not to miss a chance
for a few. more votes in the
next election.

Maybe, he'll have a
change of heart and politics
after digesting the details of
the Sechelt Treaty and the
fact that this band has had
self-gaverned itself for the
last dozen years.

If, on the other hand,
Campbell persists in his

Nisga'a deal, he well
deserves the name the Nis-
gala have given him. And
this comes straight from the
Nisga'a linguistic experts in
New Aiyansh:
Yeem-Xskwak, they call
him, Walking Eagle. Why
walking and not soaring?
Well, because — i'm trying
very hard to put this politely
~ he's too full of it to fly.
Beyer can be reached at:
Tel: (250) 920-9300; Fax:
(250) 356-9597; E-mail;
hubert@coolcom.com

Beware the Cookie monster

AFTER 18 years of pro-
gressive government cost-
cutting, our battered
province has sunk to a cup-
cake economy,

Last year B.C. parents
fundraised $30 million for

. their schools, almost double

the $14.3 million raised two
years earlier,

Those dollars paid for
essentials such as comput-
ers, textbooks, sports and
music equipment.

Before cupcakes filled the
gaps in schools district bud-
gets, property taxes bought
classroom supplies. Now
parents and students hold
endless raffles, fun fairs, car
washes and bingos to pro-
vide schools with instruction
necessities.

Food has always been the
basic source of extra dollars
for kids' needs. One com-
mon fundraiser is the cook-
book, gathering favourite

THROUGH BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

recipes of all the mothers in
the group.

Aschool in Saskatchewan
earns impressive income
selling cookie mixes of their
own devising. And who
doesn't have a drawer full of
chocolate bars and an
appointment with their den-
tist?

If we formaily adopted
cupcakes as currency, we'd

no more Loomis
amored trucks, or gun-tot-
ing guards. A light delivery
truck would do, so long as
the driver was diabetic.
Wheelbarrows would
replace wallets. No that any-
one would raise an eyebrow,
given our seriously devalued
dollar.

At budget meetings,
trustees with a fundraising
background might feel more
at home relating to salaries
and costs measured in pas-
tries. The leap isn’t so big,
given that Air Miles go
along with many dollar val-.
ues of everyday life.

For Starters, we need but
assign monetary values to

. different flavours: $100 for

banana, a rare flavour; $50
for vanilla, a more usual
taste; and $10 for chocolate,
every kid's favourite. Penny

‘amounts wouldn't exist; no

one wants crumbs.

The Best Before Date
would keep our currency

current. Speaking of frozen .

assets we might well mean

exactly what we said. And

those financially well off
would indeed possess the
sweet smell of success.

The ministry of education
could print a catalogue of
supplies giving prices in
cupcakes, just as in the 60s,
at least in the U.S., stores
gave bonus S & H green.
stamps with each purchase.

The one thing fundraising
parents haven't done is sell
under,a catchy banner read-
ing Food for Thought.

B.C. Teachers Federation
president Kit Krieger warns
unchecked fundraising will
lead to a two-tiered public
education system split
between have and have-not
schools,

I fear public fund-raising
may lead to a fast ferry.

$56.18 per year; Seniors $49.76; Out of Province $63.13 - WHY THANK... On WH CRACKS FROM CoLD.. - REAL WORK) I So RUGGED! =, =
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