From. front Victoria urged to halt rural) job cuts | Such a fund might be able to lend money for projects like the Kemess road construction, port & containerization and other needed northwest infrastructure, he said. “This is a vehicle we can use that can hopefully achieve something,” he said, adding a THE FOREST industry remains a basket case — a major factor in the malaise afflicting rural B.C. Trouble number of such regional invest- ment funds may be in place in time for the 2004 RRSP season. He's also optimistic the budget will deliver a commitment on the Kemess road, “It creates another east-west ‘connector across this province,” Harris noted. And he hopes there will be more aid for containerization —~ Victoria has already announced ‘$50,000 for a study. Harris also continues to pursue his idea of making Alcan pay property tax on its generating fa- cilities, but admits that’s a slower process, Mayor’-Jack Talstra has also pushed hard for the Kemess road, for forestry reforms in this region, and Harris’ ideas like the Alcan tax plan. — But he says the government should'start by shielding the rural régions from further government job cuts. “Stop: downloading, stop trans- ferting jobs out of smaller com- Tunities and stop regionalizing or centralizing in what they consider to be the dominant community in a region,” 'Talstra said. Government jobs here have been transferred to Prince George, he said, and significant cuts have been made to forestry ‘and high- ways offices in this region. “It’s no longer realis- tic to. balance the bud- ‘get in the time frame the y proposed.” ‘ eh Pe stop that’ trend ‘Yau’ Would " aintaii” what" ‘ departniénts” are left here ‘and maybe get’ them back to what they were,” he said. Talstra said there also has to be enough money for health and education in each region, in order to ward off further cuts to the school ‘system or new ones to the hospital here, ' It all means an acceptance that the province won’t eliminate’ the deficit by the time the Liberals go to the polls in 2005, “It’s no longer realistic to bal- ance the budget in the time frame they proposed,” Talstra said: “They should extend that time frame otherwise the cuts to. com- munities like ours, which’ are too deep already, will be even deeper.” Harris, who sits on the provin- cial treasury board that controls the purse, says balancing the bud- get is necessary and rejects sug- gestions the province is moving too fast. “We have a bigger deficit than anyone’s ever had before,” he said. “So when people say you're not spending money, I don’t know how you can spend much more.” . “We've actually done a lot of. good things for the north,” Harris adds. Whatever strategy the Liberals seize on, time‘ ‘is of the essence, Two years into their mandate, pressure on them i is intensifying to - we deliver more - me tangible re- - sults ~ which voters invari- ably measure by jobs and a prosperity just a fancy names, 7 . ag Many of the Jack Talstra government's initiatives to date: - such _as the gradual move toward off- * shore oil drilling — will not pay: di- .. vidends for years, if at all. ‘ . The same applies to spinoffs . from the 2010 Winter Olympic bid "=. if it's: a success and if signif- ‘ jeant: benefits somehow flow be- yom Whistler- Vancouver. ‘Inj other areas, like the soft- oy ‘ond lumber dispute, there's been virtually io progress. Forestry reforms, however, are - expected | to. take centre stage. & - when ‘the budget comes down, | Tuesday. and in. this. ‘week's throne i - speech ca Bs ate se in 250 A stack of reports say a prosperous urban south leaving rural B. C. behind. What should be done? A special report by Jeff Nagel NO FEWER than four reports have come out in recent months warning that rural B.C, is in deep trouble. One, from demographer David Baxter’s Urban Futures Institute, highlights what he calls the 250- 604 split. Prosperity and job creation in Vancouver and the lower ‘main-. land where the telephone area~ code is 604 is a stark contrast to the resource industry recession and depopulation trend hammer- ing the rural ‘250’ region. The institute’s paper on re- Byte bf lato ce ye eps status “as a ate oa that eed . on the rural hinterland but takes little interest in the health of its host. Bleeding the Hinterland, a re- port by the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), compares the effects of the Liberal tax cuts and spending reductions on the rural areas ver- sus the lower mainiand. Tt concludes the richest parts of greater Vancouver benefit most from the tax cuts — because they deliver proportionately more sav- ings for the wealthy — while less prosperous rural areas get the short end of the stick. In Terrace, the provincial in- come tax cut works out to $695 per person each year, based on the average income here of $39,404. And in Hazelton the average tax cut is $558, Both are below the provincial average tax cut of $714 and far less than West Van- \) 1 Lower Mainland than outside it,” says CCPA economist Mare Lee. “But spending cuts have dis- proportionately hurt smaller com- rounities as services have been cut, lost altogether or centralized in regional hubs.” Medical premium increases —— which cost.a single person $216 more each year ~ coupled with a half-point provincial sales tax in- crease and other fee increases eat up much of the tax cut for modest income earners, the report says. Just last week the. Liberals an- | nounced a new. round of fee hikes. A driver’s licence ‘will set you back $75 instead of $40. ° . Bleeding the’ Hinterland goes” on to attack the Olympic bid and warn that the worst government service cuts are yet to come if Victoria sticks to its timetable to balance the budget by 2005. But if the government gets the message of rural pain, it will likely come from one,of the reports prepared by its own MLAs and appointees. The finance commit- tee, dominated by urban Liberal MLAs, urged fi- nance minister Gary Collins to lock for ways to extend special assistance to rural areas. “The committee thinks the growing gap between rural British Columbia and the large urban. tural centres has to be addressed now,” their pre-budget advice re- port said. They didn't go so far as to sug- gest altering course couver -— where mansions feature heated driveways to ‘melt the snow a couple days a year. There the average taxpayer earning $76,644 is $2,085 richer each year thanks to the tax cuts. “To the limited extent that tax cuts have stimula- ted the economy, they’ve done so more in the Lower Mainland outside it.” in balancing the bud- get or shielding the region from further government cuts. But the MLAs did acknowledge the pain of those cuts, “The situation is be- coming critical for resource dependent communities hit hard than Kitimat is an anomaly, how- ever. With an average income of just under $50,000, the average tax break in the aluminum city is $1,012 - the highest of any com- munity outside Vancouver or Vic- toria. The result: tax and spending cuts have worked to exacerbate the inequities of B.C.’s two eca- nomies. “To the limited extent that tax cuts have stimulated the econ- omy, they’ ve done su more in. the Working Opportunity Fund fuels jobs — - A GLANCE at the Working Op- . portunity Fund portfolia quickly proves MLA Roger Harris’ point that the fund overwhelmingly in- vests in the south. » Out of 60 B.C, companies WOF has a stake in, 56 are based in Vancouver or its suburbs. Three are in Victoria and one recipient of WOF money is in Nanaimo, ‘Resource industries are no- ‘where on the fund’s $300 million list of investments, Instead it’s dominated by life sciences firms like Vancouver's: by the combined impact of the government's restraint program and the current economic uncer- tainty in forestry and the mining centre,” the report said. The MLAs repeated but did not endorse calls for Victoria to.de- centralize some ministries to the regions and return a share of re- source revenues to where they were generated, They did say the budget should provide more money to rural school districts because financial Xenon Genetics Inc, and Angio- tech Pharmaceuticals, information lechnology ventures like Burna- by’s Chancery Software Ltd., ad- vanced manufacturers like Cellex Power Products Inc., plus a couple of film studios. The top five investments of $7 to $9 million rest in NxtPhase Corp., Peace Arch Entertainment Group, CellFor Inc. and Kinetek Pharmaceuticals Inc. — all of Van- couver ~ plus Avcorp Industries Inc; of Delta. The Working. ‘Opportunity Emerson pressures are reaching a “critical stage.” Then there's Restoring B.C.’s Economic Heartland. It’s a. report prepared by the B.C. Progress Board ~ a group of business. and academic leaders named-by the premier to chart the rebound of the provincial econ- omy expected from the tax cuts and other business- -friendly re- forms. To the board's credit, rather than simply afix rose-coloured glasses, it recognizes the rural- urban split is a boat anchor drag- ging down the rest of the provin- _, ‘eial economy, _ “Generating economic activity in these communities is of para- mount importance,”: the report of the board’s Project 250 panel says. Many of its solutions — more cutting of red tape, #F) tenure reform to quasi- 4 privatize forests — are a near and dear to Progress Board boss and Canfor § CEO David Emerson. But it also makes a strong call for a “resource dividend” to be handed back to rural areas, The report suggests 10 per cent of the forestry, mining and energy revenue now deposited into gen- eral revenue. That. would have been a re- source dividend of $285 million last year, it says, had the province used that formula to share the more than $2.8 billion it skimmed .from the wealth generated in the heartland. The money would go into a fund for infrastructure and re- search and development to revive the rural economy. The Progress Board also em- phasizes land-use certainty and the need for aboriginal treaties, and the need to maintain and im- prove transportation, communiica- tion and education. “A betler educated workforce is better armed to turn around its own. fortunes, it notes, keying on regional disparilies in student achievement. Will the government-listen and act? Or will it- wait and bank on an. eventual rebound in commod- ity prices to ease the. rural crisis and replenish the provincial trea- sury? Budget day is Tuesday, Feb. 18, in south Fund, an NDP creation steered by prominent New Democrats, has recently Jost its monopoly on la- bour-sponsored tax credits. The Liberal government brought in legislation Jast year that reduces the amount of tax credits - lowering the cap on new investment in WOF each year - and opening the door for compet- ing venture capital funds to use the tax credits. WOF last: year invested nearly $50 .million: in’ small and mid-— sized BC fi firms. The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - A5 CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag Dark side of Harry: Dear Sir: In response to the removal of the Harry Potter books from Centennial Christian School, I want ta commend the principal for this action. A book series that has sold in excess of 12 million copies and achieved the bestseller list. for over twa years should arouse our curiosity, especially when its readership is mostly children, What draws: children to read these books, and in many cases to re-read them? Is it because the story centers around school and the child can relate? But the schocl in the Harry Potter books is for witches, a magical boarding school where Harry finally finds acceptance, excitement and adventure. He even leams to cast spells and becomes an expert broom rider. No longer does he feel like a miserable, unaccepted nerd. So why am J] uneasy? Because as a Christian grandparent, I feel that the average child. does not know how to discern good fantasy from bad” fantasy, unless taught. Is there a blurring of the lines into reality.? Am 1] seeing behaviours in. my child that are..more. than fairy-tale imaginations? ’ Are they harmful or helpful? Da these imaginations ‘carry on into reality after the book is closed? Is the child Jeft with a clear moral implication of the story? Real witchcraft is becoming more popular. Wicca chapters are springing up all over, even.on university campuses, making it look so acceptable. ’ But when the layers ate peeled off, we will find the practice of the occult at its source; the dark side, with all of its associations — sorcery, divination, levitation, Tarot. cards, astrology altered states of consciousness, Quija boards, etc, The trappings of the occult world are made to look harmless, but on the contrary, they can be subtly harmful because of the hidden force, which controls them. ‘Good and evil must be clearly defined, and if the child is not getting this teaching at-home, then the school has a wonderful: opportunity to provide a balance Icok at the outcomes of these influences. Because of its mission statement, Centennial Christian School has a responsibility to provide its children an opportunity to have a solid base in the Word of God. [t can then provide its children with a smorgasbord of exciting, adventurous, well written literature, including good fantasy. In the terms of C.S. Lewis, “a child who knows about dragons ~ and witches ~ from-the ‘right books’, will know to stay away from them and will know that he or she doesn’t want to become one.” Elizabeth Browne, Terrace, B.C. School defended Dear Sir: ; Once again I am back to the defence of Centennial Christian School and ‘parents. I’ went to! Centetidial ‘+ when. I was: younger. I understand that it-is .al private school. And I understand that if these parents ¥ want to give input on what their child is learning, when they are paying for their children to go to this school, they are allowed that right, And that is exactly what it is. It is their right to stand up for what they believe in. Who are we to judge them and say that taking one simple series of books out of their school is wrong, I must say that I was quite shocked at what Mr. David Heinimann said in his Feb. 5, 2003 letter to the editor, “When it comes to the magic that -concerns Kennedy and others, they might compare the Bible itself for incredible stories: A yabbering snake? A burning bush that pontificates? Noah and all those animals? And Jesus and those miracles!” How can you compare the miracles that came straight from God himself to fairy tales. of a young boy going to Hogwart’s School of. Witchcraft and Wizardry? It is completely ludicrous and ignorant. . | hope you, David, will think twice next time before you publicly judge a group of people who are doing what they believe is right. Denise Halfyard, Terrace, B.C. Premier’ Ss peccadillo Dear Sir: Contributors to your newspaper are to be commended for their many letters of indignation against the recent peccadillo of Premier Gordon Campbell in Hawaii. But they all miss one essential point: nothing in the Premier’s behaviour that night in Hawaii was in any way inconsistent with the conduct he has exhibited ever since his election as Premier of B.C. For Mr. Campbell evidently drove his car that night with the same megalomaniac ‘self-absorbed and the same cynical indifference to the welfare and safety of other people as he has governed the people -of B.C. with throughout his tenure as premier.’ . The people of this province should not forget that Mr. Campbell was able to discover logic in his award of a substantial wage increase to himself and his colleagues, while he inflicted massive cuts on programs involving other people. In the same spirit, he has been able to demand the resignation of other politicians for alleged irregularities, while tearfully justifying his own crime as a “personal” indiscretion, What a remarkable piece of casuistry.. In assessing Mr. Campbell's role as premier, one is reminded of Aristotle’s observation that if a character in a play is to be presented as inconsistent, it should be consistently inconsistent, Mr. Campbell plays the part with consummate consistency, Tan Jordan, Terrace, B.C. About the Mail Bag The Terrace Standard welcomes letters. Our address Is 3210 Clinton St., Terrace, B.C, V8G 5R2. You can fax us at 250-698-8432 or. e-mail us at newsroom @terracestandard.com. No attachments, please. We need your name, address and phone number for verification. Our ‘deadline is noon Friday 0 or. noon 1 Thursday if It's-a “long weekend,