A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 14, 1998 ° ‘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 A closed shop SHOULD COMPLAINTS about a noisy piece of machinery be sufficient cause for city council to deliberate behind closed doors? | When it comes to a log chipper and its effects on a nearby motel, city council thinks so and that’s wrong. It’s unfortunately one of a growing list of items being discussed in secret by this council. Even mayor Jack Talstra admitted as much when he complained of the overriding secrecy of the community health council. The health council, noted Mr. Talstra, goes into pri- vate sessions quicker than does his flock. City councils are to use in-camera sessions to discuss matters of property negotiations, legal is- sues or personnel items. These are very broad areas, subject to on-the-spot interpretations. Citizens are often left wondering just what the heck was so important or crucial that a duly elected body entrusted with the public’s business decides to make its workings decidedly un- public. To be sure, council] members may not want their musings done in open session. They are, for instance, still smarting from attacks by farmers market supporters who fear the city wants to - unilaterally move it to a new home. But that was, as council members now acknowledge, a failure to communicate. A reasonable person would assume that com- munication begins with as much open govern- . ment as possible. Keeping things behind closed doors does little to build public trust or con- fidence, What’s particularly disappointing here is that every council member seems comfortable with what’s happening. Whatever happened to individual thought? ee Care crisis LOOKING BACK, it was probably: too op- timistic to think a conference call this past spring with mayor Jack Talstra, Terrace and Area Com- munity Health Council chair Larisa Tarwick and health minister Penny Priddy would help. The issue was Mills Memorial Hospital’s in- tensive care unit, a three-bed ward that often ex- ceeds its patient limit and which adds to the hos- pital’s constant budget deficit. . The problem is that the ward acts as a regional service but that isn’t recognized when the pro- vince sets the hospital’s budget. So when people from outside the region are booked in as patients, the hospital doesn’t receive money to treat them. Costs must be absorbed into a budget designed for the hospital’s coverage area. Although the health minister seemed to be sympathetic during that spring phone call, noth- ing has changed. The community health council remains unable to press its case for more money for this regional service. The hospital’s deficit problems continue and no amount of local cost cutting and spending contro] seems to work. If the province feels local health care authorities are doing a bad job, then fet it do it itself. | y PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel * NEWS/SPORTS: Christiana Wiens 1998 WINNER , : CCNA BETTER NEWS/COMMUNITY: Alex Hamilton NEWSPAPERS OFFICE MANAGER: Sheila Sandover-Sly COMPETITION CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Brunette | ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Bedford, Bunnie Cote TELEMARKETER: Patricia Schubrink AD ASSISTANT: Kelly Jean COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur - AD ASSISTANT/TYPESETTING: Julic Davidson SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $56.18 per year; Seniors $49.76; Out of Province $63.13 Outside of Canada (6 months) $155.15 (ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) MEMBER OF : B.C, AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION a * AND G@ CN AL cman B.C. PRESS COUNCIL SoMbG Folin hle vit ote Serving the Terrace and Thombill area. Published on Wednesday of each weak at 3210 Clinton Street, Tarrace, Brilish Goluntie, Ves Aco and typetys in te suandard ¢ ayolt Stories, photographs, illustrations, na 88 Terrace are the property of tho capri hl. Including Cariboo Press (i969) Ltd., its illustration repro services and advertising agencies, Reproduction in whole of in pat, without written pennission, Ia epectically prohibited. Authorized as seood st ma panding the Past fies Department, for payment of postage In cash. Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents a - for their time and talents — aes SERRE aos a pie « WHY, Peace, brother... | Wedrove formany many moons to come | : and ask you once you've popped off | yeur quota of whales, | ceremonial anti-Lank aun and Some 50.mm.anrno, We're thinking of blowing the brains out ofa few buffalo, . . C 4% ceremoriaiy. mind yo... ‘ ify. to loan Us Your VICTORIA - When Premier Clark asked Brian Peckford to hold an inquiry into last summer's man- agement of the Fraser River sockeye tun, he got the right man and the wrong man, at least from his point of view. Peckford was the right man because he was bound to tell Clark what he wanted to hear, He was the wrong man because his appointment was tantamount to asking the fox for his input on securing the chickea coop. it was Peckford’s government in Newfoundland that demanded ever higher cod quotas and a com- pliant federal government obliged until there were no fish left. Those are hardly the qualifica- lions an expert should bring to an _ assessment of how Ottawa manages the West Coast fishery. Then. again, te Clark, took the bad with the goad. At T's téast'hé could rély on Peckford to come up with a report that would endorse the premicr’s position, which is the opposite of the policy pursued by federal Fisheries Minister David Anderson. - And that’s exactly what Peckford did. Hell, [ could have written his interim report before he held the inquiry. Peckford found FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER exactly the sort of mismanagement that Clark predicted he would find when he announced the inquiry. Peckford said Ottawa overre- acled when it closed the Fraser _ Sockeye fishery last summer. He said there was an abundant run. His finding flies in he face of all the scientific data which made the closure absolutely essential. Peckford said in his report that the Fraser seine fishery was cur- tailed in mid-August to ostensibly ~ protect the coho. In reality, ihese fish weren't even in-migrating yel when that decision was made. The reason for the shutdown - tive director, . - was that other, weaker sockeye sacks were migrating with them and that the hot temperature triggered high mortality rates before they could even reach their spawning grounds. Nowhere in Peckford’s report is there an adequate recognition of the fact thal there is a variety of salmon stocks in the Fraser, and the each of them must be managed separately, , Fishing the various stocks non- selectively will lead to continued decline, says the Vancouver-based Fish for Life Foundation. “In fact, at least 10 million sockeye should be allowed to spawn every year, and all the runs should be managed so that the optimum number of fish return to provide for the rebuilding of stocks,” says David Ellis, the foundation's execu- " “Tn addition; we need to ‘illow" for nutrient enrichment of the streams. To accontplish this, we must radically cut back on fishing for at least the next five years.” ‘There is enough evidence that Ottawa has had a pretly spotted record in the management of the ‘country’s fishery. There is also evi- dence that, at long last, Ottawa is f Hoan Peckford says what Clark wants to hear taking ils role as the manager of this resource seriously. ; The collapse of the East Coast cod fishery was as much Ottawa’s fault as it was the Newfoundland government’s. But Anderson’s tough stand leaves little doubt thal a similar catastrophe will only happen over his dead body. That leaves the fishing conimu- nities. whose very existence is threatened by the measures that. are _ mow necessary to assure the survival of the fish stocks, And that’s where 1 am in agreement with Peckford’s Tecommendation to provide imme- diate financial aid to B.C. fishermen. A few years ago, J advocated that Ctlawa telinguish its jurisdic- tion over fishery in favor of British Columbia. I no longer believe: that’s such a good idea, hide wiesauh ~“T Believe Ottawa is onthe fight "track and, given’ half a’chance ‘to continue on the present course, will achieve the rebuilding of salmon stocks. And the less the B.C. gov- ernment has to do with the manage- ment of the fishery, the better, ~ Beyer can be reached ‘at: Tel: (250) 920-9300; Fax: (250) 356- 9597; _ E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com _ Next time, try THE MAFIA lives by a sim- ple ruJe — you should know only what you need to carry out your action in the project. After you’re done, zip your lip. Our politicians ought to fol- low this advice. Then we would- n’t be watching another cabinet minister dodge a scrum scrape. In the Commons Oct. 5, NDP backbencher Dick Proctor alleged that on a recent Dash § Air Canada flight from Ottawa to New Brunswick, he sat near enough to Solicitor-General Andy Scott to overhear — and take notes of - Scott’s conversa- tion with a. fellow passenger about the APEC hearings taking place in Vancouver. Proctor alleges Scott said the APEC hearings would conclude - that four or five Mounties over- teacted in the pepper spray inci- dent, and that RCMP cfficer ULP! THERE'S AXEL. THE KILLER DOG! I HAVE To RUSH HIMORHE'LL _ KNOW I'm ScARED?.! THROUGH BIFOCALS: CLAUDETTE SANDECKI “Hughie’ might take the fall. Hugh Stewart, explained Proctor, is the older staff sergeant who wielded a fire extinguisher- ‘sized can of pepper spray with the gusto of a frantic set decora- tor using shaving cream to create a last-minute snowscape. Naturally, Scott denied hav- - ing said. anything to anyone on _ the flight. Further, he claimed he Té ONLY MARTEN PLEASE Gopb!! PLEASE Gop!! WOULD CALL Me!! PLEASE Gob! couldn't remember who he sat beside on that flight three days earlier. Did Scott. think reporters . wouldn’t beaver from Ottawa to New Brunswick — questioning flight attendants, bageage han- dlers, even ticket sellers — to fer- ret out who sat beside Scott? Air Canada erases its computer records of flight passenger seat- ing plans with 24 hours of the flight landing. And what about the ego boost to the passenger Scoit claims not to recall? Especially when it turns cut that man has been friends with Scott for 15 years. _ ne We know that because the fellow passenger, lawyer and Liberal Fred Toole, immediately wrote a_letter confirming he’d been Scott's seatmate. Toole’s letter _ refreshed alip zipper — Scolt’s memory overnight. ° I'd have given Scott fess than 48 hours before reporters tracked down his seatmate. Toole made himself known in half that lime. Asa result of Scott’s alleged remark that an RCMP officer named ‘Hughie’ would take the fall for the APEC fiasco, Staff Sergeant Hugh Stewart has spo- ken to the news media about the incident, and he is not amused by Scott’s alleged conclusion. Watching Scott sprint up the back stairs to avoid reporters, I could remember Sinclair Stevens and other cabinet ministers _ escaping the same Way.) You wonder why some poli- licians never lear to ‘fess up when caught, why they waste weeks denying instead of making government work for us. And — why can’t they zip their lips? —SKOOKUY NGET THE ‘ OARH AC ere NO