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?

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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

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