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a
Page 4 The Herald, Friday, May 30, 1980

TERRACE/KITIMAT

daily herald —

Published by

General Office . 635-6957
Citculation - 695-6357 Sterling Publishers

PUBLISHER - Calvin McCarthy

EDITOR .- Greg Middletan

- CIRCULATION

TERRACE & KITIMAT

. 635-6357 ;
Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street,
Terrace, B.C. A member of Varlfled Circulation,
Authorized as second class mail. Registration number
1201. Postage pald In cash, return postage guaranteed.

_ NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT.
The Herald retalns full, complete and sole copyright In
"any advertisement produced and-or any editerlal or
photographic content published in the Herald.
Reproduction Is not permitted without the written
permission of the Publisher. ; .
_

_ The byelection for the seat on School
District 88’s board of trustees is this
Saturday.

The election is Important for more
than the usual reasons. Certainly it is
important for you to get out and vote for
the candidate of your choice. Even
though the person who is elected will
only sit until November, the person
voted in will have a say in how your
children are educated. Regardless of

-what the candidates say about how they |
are only one voice on the board, they will -
. have a volce and even one person can be

heard and make changes if necessary.
_ Mere important though is that the
board will be looking at this election as
they make their decision on whether or
not to cut the number of trustees from
nine to seven. ,

A poor turnout at the polls Saturday
will mean the board can demonstrate a
lack of interest and difficulty filling
seats here. Cutting the number of seats

on the board means that even the one.

voice you are electing Saturday won't be
there to be heard after November.

a

| EDITOR'S
} JOURNAL

by
GREG MIDDLETON

NX

Sometimes you wonder.

In a letter to the organizers of a film festival and
series of seminars here on the topic of human rights,
Frank Hamilton, the superintendent of schools for
School District 88 questions the benefits of such an
exercise. - .

In Hamilton’s somewhat obtuse letter, Hamilton
says, the board’s decision was made because the
board has not seen the films and ‘the educational
benefits of teaching values and human rights to a
group of 700 students Is a questionable learning
situation.”’

. Well, the organizers of the event are furious. They
are angry partly because they offered the board input
and a chance to see the films before they were shown,
and because the plan was not to show the films to all
700 junior and senior high school students but a
selected few top students who could afford to miss a
couple of hours of class time.

- ‘The board seems to have missed this point.

The organizers of the film and talk festival, who are
representatives of the local women's centre, the
United Nations club and some local teachers, just
about split a gut at Hamilton’s inference that an at-
tempt, even if it is to 700 students at once, might not
have any benefits.

One of the teachers cite racist attitudes among both
local teachers as well as students. Martin Stead, who
is leaving here to go and spend a couple of years
teaching for Canadian University Students Overseas,
says he has been deluged by a barrage of out and out
racist jokes since it became common knowledge he is
going overseas.

He finds the board's position that they would have to
vet the films somewhat unusual. The board does not
demand to see every film a teacher uses. ’

Stead, who says he is “used to being treated as a
professional” figures the board is stepping out of line
and denying the professionalism he and the other
teachers are bringing to this event.

Stead comments that you can't educate the parents

and that this film festival wouldn’t end racist and .

sexist attitudes among students here but it is a start.
The program was to be handled gently and was to help
get a few people thinking.
~ Frances Birdsell, who made the presentation to the
board, says she made the offer of allowing board
members tosee the films, some from the International
‘ Development and Educational Research Association,
others from the provincial government's Educational
Media Centre and possibly some from the B.C.
feachers Federation and: the National Film Board.
She says this was ignored.

And what does the board say?

he chairman of the board, Jack Cook, feels the
reasons for not endorsing the program were valid. He
added that the proposal was ‘‘sprung on us” and says
the board has parents to consider.

“It's pretty‘controversial stuff,” Cook told me in a
telephone interview. .

And there you have it. The board appears more
concerned about a bit of possible flack from some
facist parents than In teaching some human: values
and a little about human rights to the students here.

Speaking of values, Laverne Hislop should take note
it her campaign pledge to further Christian values in
the school that this is forcing her religion down the
tiroats of the children of Buddhists, Mosleins, Jews,

~ Siichs, Mormons, and athiests, as well as the agnostics

and Bahais. Pretty offensive stuff.

By JIM FULTON
For years federal governments have treated

‘housing notas a basic social need but rather as a tool

to pump up or slow down the economy.
We are trained to see housing starts as one of the

indicators of our economy and by the same token one -

of the means by which government can influence
economic stability. an .
Currently, with the
government bent on
restraint to cool down
inflation, we have ex-
cessively high interest
tates — about 15.5 per
cent which depress
housing starts, force
construction workers
onto unemployment rolls,
keep potential
homebuyers out of the'
housing market. They
also force existing
homeowners, faced with
renewing mortgages at
four to nine’ per cent
higher than they are
currently paying, into
foreclosure. ‘
Instead of cooling down inflation in the housing
market. that is reducing prices, the effect is that the

Comments from Parliament _

diminished supply of housing keeps prices . up.

i

home ownership goes down.

Meanwhile, the number of Canadians who can afford -

Now we are being told, by the bankers, that the fact ”

that interest rates were at 17.5 per cent has. been

beneficial, that the “inflation psychology,” our ex-.

pectation that incomes and prices will continue to go
up, has, been broken. ‘

Does this mean we have adjusted out expectations .

downwards? For the average person in fact, isn't it

just the reverse? Having seen mortgage rates at 17.5

per cent, the 1434 per cent rate looks good.

It is not spoken aloud too often, but at 1454-per cent
on a loan of $50,000 over 25 years, the borrower will
pay back more than three times the principal of his
loan — $184,200, If he renews at a higher rate after five

. years, of course he will pay even more than that,

For every percentage point increase in the interest
rate, he can expect to pay back another $10,000 over
the life of the loan. re

Even without the continuing problems of interest

rates and mortgages, our governmerits should be

ready to take some initiatives. At a time of high
unemployment in both construction and the lumber

-. industry, what would make more sense than massive

housing starts throughout B,C.? In the Northwest it is
easy to see the need and the potential for action, This
must be a priority for every level of government.

| vi Daly Hevald ;

e

i Q
Sy

MUSTO N
RAISING OIL
PRICES...

WE CAN NO

LONGER KEEP
O/L PRICESAS
LOW ASTHEY

OUTRAGEOUS FEDERAL SPENDING
FEDERALCPENDING ISGOINGUPTO
WILL HALT... 60 f BILLION...

Oo |

BY |.
RICHARD
JACKSON ~
7 Soy
Ottawa, - What’s money to: Ottawa?
Taxes. Collect and spend them. ”

The books may be wildly out of balance ~ as. they: ”

have been now for years -- with. the spending far

_ outrunning the collecting.

When the unbalance runs into the billioris, as it in-.
variably does, the economy goes into a tailspin and the:
dollar takes a tumble. : _

‘Up to that time, when it become personal, and the
long-suffering taxpayer feels the pain of higher and
higher prices in his pocketbook, it has been . the
government's business and responsibility.

Billions are beyond the comprehensibn of the
average work-a-day Canadian, 80 let Pierre Trudeau
and Company worry about it. ; ; be

But when high-flying dollars in their multiple-zero

. totals descend from those head stratospheric heights

of the billions, the taxpayers begin catching on, taking

an interest and even working up a sweat. .

Long experience has shown that the government can
work in peace with its multi-billion sums — it’s when
the arthmetic gets down into-the smaller, easily un-
derstandable levels that it gets into difficulties.

As in the recent fuss made over Ms. Kate Glover,
one of the thousands of public servants in your non:
clerk salary average between $20,000 and $24,000. .

She was a nobody -- in the sense that beyond the
confines of her own office and perhaps a knowing few
in her department who was aware of her?

Ther she made a trip to Ottawa, and Ms. Kate
Glover, while not exactly becoming a household work,
suddenly was a cause of federal government concern,
an issue with the Treasury Board, and a figure of
interest and curiosity among the other thousands of
federal employss who give Ottawa some rationale for
existence. .

-In Vancouver, working for Fisheries Department,
she produced a small newspaper, a house a trade
publication like scores of others put out by the hun-
dreds of federal departments, boards, bureaus,
commissions and assorted tax-supported agencies.

~ Suddenly the departmental headquarters in Ottawa

thought they needed her here in the Capital, so she was .

given what the federal establishment knows as ‘“‘ex- .
tended travel status.”
Still drawing her $20,000 to $24,000 annual salary she
flew east on a one-year “loan” by Vancouver to Ot-
tawa.

Breaking no Fisheries Department rules, Treasury
Board guidelines or any other government spending .
directions, she set up housekeeping in a $600-a-month
apartment hotel with maid service. .

Additionally, she quite legitimately drew a daily $18

“for meals and incidentals.

Ms. Kate Glover was eligible, too, for government:
paid.return flights to Vancouver every three weeks. -

_ In her first seven months, in addition to her mid-

bracket $20,000 to $24,000 salary she spent an expense-
accounted $7,600 on her $600-a-month maid-serviced
hotel apartment, meals, incidentals and return air
flights to Vancouver.

It was somewhere in the eighth month that
somebody - it's not clear whether it was a curious or
jealous office colleague in Ottawa, an officer from the
‘Auditor General's Department, or an inquisitive’
parliamentarian - asked why, if her skills were
needed in Ottawa, was someone not hired, even on a
part-time basis. . ;

- And what was her office in Vancouver doing withou
her during her year’s “extended travel status” in”
Ottawa? ;

In short, could the job be soundly rationalized, even

_ partially justified in either city? -

So bless them, Treasury board, which is supposed to
oversee the sensible spending of your tax-dollars,
investigated. . ;

These points were determined,

1. No Fisheries Department or Treasury Board
rules had been bent, much less broken.

2, No cost analysis had been done between bringing
Ms. Kate Glover to Ottawa on an “extended travel’
status” at an extra $7,600 for seven months, or simply
moving: her out of Vancouver permanently. -

_ 3. The Fisheries Department claimed it didn’t know
it was possible to move Ms. Glover, but Treasury
Board insisted it was.

4. Nobody had bothered to compare. the costs of
permanent transfer or “extended travel status” to
Ottawa, . , .

So, what else? ,

Recommendation: No action be taken.

4

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