A6 Terrace Review — Wednesday, June 27, 1990 The power drain | We’ve avoided reporting the interminable, slow-motion political Sumo wrestling called the Meech Lake Accord because everyone else is giving it so much play that we thought the local public deserved a break. As Canada Day approaches, however, Meech starts to look like part of a larger whole that’s beginning to affect the political maneuvering in this region. The country seems to be gradually collapsing into a series of regional fiefdoms. The dissatisfaction with the manner in which Ontario- and Quebec-centered federal politics treat the country’s various outlying regions has created an opportunity for provincial politicians to entrench their power. It was somehow not surprising that with the demise of the Meech deal Premier Bill Vander Zalm was immedi- ately heard to speculate on the possibility of some sort of "sovereignty association" for B.C., even though he pro- fessed not to know what sovereignty association actually meant. Some people have an instinct about that kind of thing. It means that if B.C. followed Quebec’s example, there would be an immensely greater concentration of political power in Victoria. The disdain for local government authority that the provincial government has shown in numerous actions over the past two years appears to be part of the same strategy. The Kitimat-Stikine Regional District was left out of Monday’s port committee announcement entirely, as they were left out of the decision-making process on the Iskut resource road. The Ministry of Education has laid a whole series of damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you- _don’t conditions on school boards, with our local board’s 1990-91 budget being a particularly striking example. “The media is often criticized for reacting negatively to anything that comes out of a politician’s mouth, and that would be a valid point if the past record didn’t prove us right with such regularity. The port-corridor development idea sounds like someone’s idea of progress, but then again so do the Prince Rupert steel mill, the Kitimat copper smelter and all the other ideas that remained in. that state. The timing, with a study due to be completed just before an election call, is hard to ignore. How much local control would be given up to get this scheme? Established May 1, 1985 - The Terrace Review is published each Wednesday by Close-Up Business Services Ltd. Publisher: _ Mark Twyford - Editor: Michael Kelly Staff Reporters: Tod Strachan, Betty Barton Advertising Manager: Mar| Twyford Typesetting: Carrie Olson Production Manager: Jim Hall Production: Charles Costello, Gurbax Gill, Karyn Kirk, Linda Mercer, Ranjit Nizar Office: Carrie Olson ‘ Accounting: Marj Twyford, Harminder K. Dosanjh - Second-class malt registration No. 6898. Ail material appearing In tha Terrace Review is protected under Canadian copyright Ragistra- tion No. 262775 and cannot legally be repre. duced for any raason without permlasion of tha publisher. Errore and omisatons. Advertising Is accepted on the condition that in the event of typographical error, that portion of the adverils- ing space accupled by the erroneous Item will not be charged for, but the balance of the adver. tisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. Advertisers muat assume responsibility for er- rora In any classified ad which is supplied to ihe Terrace Review in handwrittan form. In compance with’ ihe B.C. Human Rights Act, no advertisement will be published which discriminates against a pereon due to age, race, religion color, sex, nationallty, ancestry or place of origin. . 4535 Greig Avenue, Terrace, B.C. V8G 1M7 Phone: 635-7840 Fax: 635-7269 One year subscriptions: in Canada $30.00 Out of Canada $100.00 Seniors In Terrace and District $30.00 Seniors out of Terrace and District $33.00 i meer tebe orate EME a ppg ayy, a ber - "tl ne AOE Ut zy tome tong Oh 2 a Me le “Wit wm - LEP F 4 “ah te id ‘i, on a We we tn Ee a a ad 7 Se agg . & comgy M (Pays + 4 NG. OMe 4 “WD ha ey 4 by The view from Victoria — by John Plifer -. VICTORIA — You may not-be— surprised to learn that many of my Press Gallery colleagues disagree with my view that the _ government airplane saga has been blown out of proportion.. The lack of objectivity and - fairness on the issue is being fuelled by the media and Op- position’s smell of blood from a government minister or two on the run. Some of them point to the public’s apparent angry response to the information about the jet-setting ministers, as proof that it is a major news story, regardless of its basis in half-truths and partial informa- tion. Others encourage the New Democrats to keep the story alive, while knowing full well that if the NDP forms the next government, much of what they have been saying about “Dial-a-Jet’”’ services will come back to haunt them. And still others believe that the tact & Knew then-alderman Carol Gran for several years in beautiful downtown Langley before she became an MLA — and liked and admired her — has a bearing on my viewpoint. _ Last ‘but not least, some Press Gallery reporters believe that I am being high and. - mighty, and putting myself above them because I look at this whole issue differently than they. Tain’t so. Hell, I’ve been among the first to pursue a scandal in the past, and hope . to. be so again, but... _ Anyway, with the release of nes. the flight logs and passenger ‘Ag: - manifests, itis intriguing to . ‘note the following facts which ‘you just might net have seen _ reported. elsewhere: @ Gran is one of the least fre- quent flyers on the jets from among the 23 Cabinet ministers, contrary to “‘new”’ reports in The Province, which said she used it almost daily. - @ The logs do not provide any details about any scheduled event the minister was to attend _ upon arrival at his or her destination, be it their own constituency or. elsewhere. @ The information released does not include the number of occasions in which commercial flights were used by ministers. By way of example, Attorney General Bud Smith of Kamloops says 40 percent or ‘more of his travels are on scheduled airlines. e Amid reports that ministers such as Delta’s John Savage lead the frequen flyer purade, Gran maintains there has been no abuse of the policy guidelines; but she agrees that . Lower Mainland use has been inefficient at best. Regardless of all of the above, even I acknowledge that the government is to blame for much of the furore. By being unnecessarily secretive about daily schedules of the premier and his ministers, by having an inflated 23-member Cabinet in a. _ 42-member caucus, and by ig- noring calls for an efficient central coordination of the needs for the jets, the govern- ment has left the public in the dark and relying on interpreta- tions about it all from the NDP and the media. The New Democrats are milking this for all its worth —-- ‘and rightly so. After all, it’s what we have come to believe ‘politics is all about, right? But it is unsettling to see the vigorous zeal with which some in the press spew out even the most petty and irzelevant infor- mation about the flights and its passengers as though it is of earth-shaking importance. I disagree with Mrs. Gran when she says there have not been abuses of the availability and use of the jets. But I can- not agree with the NDP and the media that they are major hanging offences. Mostly, they are ego-stroking abuses by junior ministers who have risen to levels far beyond their incompetence, and who have little if any concern about their use of the perks of the job, provided at taxpayers’ ex- pense. Tighten up the system, Carol, especially on the Lower Mainland; and supply a mon- thly breakdown of the travels and the purposes for them, and maybe we can get back to some serious news. I have nothing but praise for the way in which last week’s first investiture for the Order of B.C. was conducted. Twenty-six British Colum- bians who have made excep- tional contributions to this pro- vince and to Canada were honored in a very stylish, state- ly ceremony in the legislative chamber, that had a lot of heart and emotion and, thankfully, little glitz. Listening to the remarkable Oe. achievements of the recipients — be it in music (Bryan — Continued on page A7 oo gan ata matinee ot fee Ea ci Pe a seas RE LS ee eee Se ie, cans watts PAL Be oe Fa es Bs soy SET Shg