A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 5, 1997 STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 A Division of Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd. ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 EMAIL: standard@kermode.net Held hostage FOR SKEENA MLA Helmut Giesbrecht, it’s a logical extension of government policy and it goes something like this. The provincia] government owns the vast ma- jority of B.C. forest holdings. It portions out those holdings to corporations who have the op- portunity to make a profit and to provide society with an overall financial benefit by making sub- stantial investments and employing large amounts of people. Along.the way, the province gains directly by taking a piece of the forest. company action in the form of stumpage, fees — and taxes. So far, all of this is a good thing — a govern- ment using a public resource for the overall good. But where the wheels fall off the cart is how a specific group of people fare — the con- tractors hired by companies to cut and ship the wood to the mills. Up here, having large corporations stretch out payments to their contractors has become as much as a certainty as the four-year salmon cycle. It wasn’t all that long ago that contractors briefly occupied the offices of then-forests min- ister Dave Parker with the same kind of problem. Repap is just the latest such big player over the years to put its contractors in a dreadful financial lurch. So Mr. Giesbrecht suggests it now be mandatory for companies to pay their contractors as part of the same payment stream going toward their mill employees, bankers and various governments. If, continues Mr. Giesbrecht, the government assigns a public resource that’ll benefit all, then that’s the way it should be. Of course, Mr. Giesbrecht has a large task ahead of himself. What he wants calls for a legis- lative initiative, probably a requirement that could be included in forest licences. Any kind of legislative change is a tough thing no matter how just the cause. Just Jast summer his government listened to complaints from Repap contractors that they weren’t getting paid during hearings to determine if the company should be able to take over Orenda Forest Products. The government responded by saying it didn’t _ have the authority to get in the way of a compa- ny and its contractors in the normal course of: how business operates. But it did mildly slap Repap on the wrists, saying it expected the com- pany to follow standard business practices. That mild wrist slap didn’t work. And con- tractors have every right to expect the same kind of treatment as anybody else. There’s no reason why they should be the only ones held hostage or left holding the bag. It looks like now’s the time for the government to consider the old adage of spare the rod and spoil the child and consider such a change such as the one Mr. Giesbrecht proposes. BO . PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link , ADVERTISING MANAGER: Rick Passmore PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur | NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Dave Taylor COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf OFFICE MANAGER: Kathleen Quigley ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros TELEMARKETER: Tracey Tomas ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Emma Law, Kelly Jean TYPESETTING: Sylvana Broman DARKROOM: Susan Credgeurt CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Brunette SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $53.50 per year; Seniors $48.15; Out of Province $60.99 Outside of Canada (6 months) $149.80 (ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION ie | esrrenerset AND B.C. PRESS COUNCIL Serving the Terrace and Thombill area, Published on Wednesday of each week by Carboo Press " S69) Ltd, at 9210 Clinton Street, Terrace, Gritish Columbia, VEG 572. Slories, photographs, Ilusirations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copyright holders, including Cariboo Prass (1965) Lid, Its illustration repro services and advertising agoncies. Reproduction in whale or In part, withoul written permisstan, is specifically prohibited. Aulhorized as sécond-tlass mail ponding tha Post Office Department, lor payment of postage In cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents He's our coach... not very good.. buthe never lays a finger “On US... Broken eggs littering B.C. VICTORIA = ‘British Columbia's current political scene is something like an omelet: you know there are eggs in il, but as for the remaining ingredients, you’ve got to trust the cooks and what the menu says. According to one of the cooks, there are some old- fashioned social democratic principles in the omelet, but you've got your doubts, what with the budget cutling, staff reductions aud program slash- ing the NDP has embarked on. Another of the cooks assures you that he’s mixed in a goad deal of Liberal stuff, but then, Gordon Campbell’s policies aid their close resemblance to the Fraser Institute agenda make you wonder just what the hell kind of an omelet he’s trying to serve you. The only one sticking to his recipe is Reformer Jack Weis- gerber. His creation has got everything an omelet created in an old-fashioned _ free- enterprise kitchen should have. And now, he’s trying to sell his recipe to Campbell in return for working in the Liberal Ieader’s kitchen Enough already of the meta- phors. The fact is thal B.C. politics may be on the verge of changing dramatically. Al the Liberal convention in Pentic- FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER ton last week, Campbell in- vited the provincial Reform party to join him in a united front against the NDP. It took him long enough. During the years leading up to the last election, Campbell's arropance precluded any chance of a inerger with the Reform party. Humbled by bis party’s defeat, he’s now doing what he should have done three years ago To sweeten the pot for. Reform, Campbell bas dropped two major planks from his last election platform -— the privatization of B.C. Rail and the reduction of seats in the legislature, Both — initiatives were utpalatable fo northern Brilish Columbians, and that’s where the Reform party has its base, Even though the Reform party has only two seals in the legislature, the latest polls show that support for the parly Stands at about 22 per cent, and that’s the prize Campbeil is after. Weisgerber says Campbell is on the right (rack, but he doesn’t believe the Liberal label will appeal to Reform supporters. He7d like the Lib- crals lo agree loa name change that would appeal ta all NDP opponents. Richard Neufeld, the only other Reformer in the legisla- ture, also doesn’t rule out a merger with the Liberals, He says Campbell is talking to him aud he’s listening. But Neufeld’s suppart comes a price, He wants lo sce some fundamental changes in Liber- al policy. He wants the powers of the B.C. Council of Human Rights curtailed. He fears that the govemment’s decision to give the council more clout against hate-mongers might in- fringe on free speech. Neufeld also would like Camphell to strengthen his Stand against adoption of chil- dren by same-sex couples. Never mentioned in situa- tions such as this is that the suitor give some sort of as- surance that the blushing bride will get a cabinet job, but it’s part of the dialogue, Count on - it. Weisgerber’s condition that the Liberals agree to a change in party name makes sense. W.A.C. Bennett would proba- bly never have smashed the Liberal-Tory coalition of his day had be not adopted the So- cial Credit name for his fled- gling party. Regardless, however, of how much sense it makes, the Lib- erals aren’l going to agree ta rename their party, so Weis- gerber — who is resigning anyway as Reform leader —.. might as well drop that demand, — Meanwhile, the NDP will try everything to prevent a so- called free-enterprise coalition, from forming ,. > “ridiculing both Liberals and Reformers and accusing them of abandon- ing whatever principles they have. . But whatever the outcome of the present negotiations, I[ strongly believe that at the next election, the NDP will be facing a united adversary un- — der whatever banner, simply because the supporters of the various right-of-centre Parties will demand it. Beyer can be reached at Tel: 920-9300; Fax: 385-6783; E- Mail: huber(@coolcom.com This meal is too expensive THAT ROTTWEILER you sce sharing the back of a pickup with a ssowmobile isn’t guard- ing the machine from thieves. He's chaperoning his lunch. Few animals can resist the vinegary smell of vinyl or the elastic rebound of foam. Dogs. Cats. Porcupines. Ravens. Even cows and horses nibble snowmobile .seats until all thal’s left is a three-foot length of plywood. Kids used to tell a riddle about a fanner trying to move a wolf, a goat, and a bale of hay to the opposite side of a fiver, But the farmer’s skiff could carry only two at a lime. He couldn't trust the wolf alone with the goat, or the goal with the hay. How was he ta safely move all three across the waler? Today that riddle could be updated toa wolf, a goat, and a skidoo seat. Dogs look upon foam with ils spring-back resistance as a worthy apponent. In 20 MOOSE ARE PERFECTLY | ADAPTED Ta THE NORTH! IVE GOT INSULATEP HAIR FOR COLD, LONG LEGS FOR SNOW, BIG FEET FOR. SWIMMING — EVEN SPECIAL NosTRics FOR PIVING!! ‘THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI inlnutes of mock fighting any dog can gouge a cavity the size of a bread foaf. In the time it taok to drive across the old Skeena bridge, a German Shepherd destroyed one side of a skidoo seat, and then raunched the nose off a ski, Cats, too, relish the tugability of foam and, left to exercise their claws, can reduce a solid foam cushion to chips as effi- ciently as a mechanical foam shredder, ANP WHAT THE HELL HAVE YoU Gor ?! In news videos of Yellow- knife or Nain, Labrador, site of the fulure Voisey bay mine, In- uil ride their skidoos along main street, or haul caribou carcasses over the level tundra. They da both at reasonable speeds, sitting astride like cow- boys the way snowmobile manufacturers intended, Around here, skidoos are ex- pected to mountain climb and swim. One — snowmobiler, whose machine failed its buoyancy test, tried to squish the seat dry by pulling a sheet of plywood on top of it and driving his pickup back and forth over it. Riders don’t sit; they kneel. For that they don’t need a cushiony seat, just a carpet _layer’s kneepad, extra thick, It would prove less expensive. Foam absorbs moisture and during: rigid weather freezes into a lump brittle as glass, Lacking flex, the foam splits when the rider lands with his weight on one knee, To avoid costly rebuilding of the seat, it should be taken in- doors to dry out between. Hil- lary expeditions, Even sitting next ta a wood stove, some foams require days to dry enough to be glued back to- gether, When a snowmobile is hauled on a truck, Fido should ride in the cab or stay home. No dog should be left huddled beside a skidoo while the driver shops or grabs a coffee in stormy weather. The rear compartment of a skidoo seat is for spare ma- chine parts, not tuna figh sand- wiches or chocolate bars. Over the summer, the seat should be out of the sun, away from heat sources, and out. of reach of dogs, cats, cows, horses, goats... } Thanks to domestic aniinals, every winter upholsterers are kept busy repairing ‘and recovering, snowmobile seats. With our cold weather, ihis wiuler has been bountiful. ASK AN IMPERTINENT Quesrion AND you MAY GET A PERTINENT ANSWER?