| . Apromising start If the ballot box is the heart of local democracy, then committee meetings must be its guts, Smaller and less formal than public meetings, the committee get- togethers are where elected officials roll up their sleeves and really go at the issues. This is where the real work gets done. | Compared to our municipal council, School District 88 is in a difficult position regarding the committee system. It’s fundamental to open government that matters coming before a local council or board should be referred to a committee for study and recommen- . ates dation orily after. coming before a public meeting. This gives the public notice that the matter is under con- sideration, allowing time for concerns to be expressed a to committee members and taken into account in their deliberations. The committee findings are then put before a subsequent public meeting of the body for statutory action. _ In the case of School District 88 that concept presents a number of problems, not the least of which has been a bunker mentality that kept committee Peers SAAR SARA Ayaeeneeee eee SANA SSCS We WS SSA S: XS Leds Lopes oreo feral LE meetings closed to the public up to this point. For a board that meets once a month, the normal referral | system would be unreasonably slow. Now Terrace ; trustee Edna Cooper, elected to the Chair position last : week, intends to take advantage of some ground- breaking work done by her. predecessor Val Napoleon over the past two years and restructure the system. Napoleon initially attempted to have all business . flow through the entire board by dumping the com- mittee structure she inherited and having a Committee 1. of the Whole deal with everything. That proved to be unwieldy simply due to the district’s geographical size, ; Cooper’s solution is a’ combination of standing com- o mittee and Committee of the Whole meetings with, most importantly, the latter being open to public and press. . If she succeeds, it would make the board’s affairs f run more smoothly and also help alleviate a long- 4 standing public suspicion that there are things going : on in the district behind closed doors that never see the light of day. That suspicion is no reflection on the board of trustees or administration, but it is a natural . outcome of the closed committee system. Good luck, q Madame Chair. — vlemace ,GGNA 7, at Hi 2) vara: Ten Second-class mall registration No. 6896. 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Human Rights Act, wt Staff Reporters: ‘od Strachan, Betty Barton oo Advertising Manager: Marj Twyford no advertisement wil be published which + acrimina' bo yi i Typesetting: relon coo, abt, naonly, ana or pece Mas a - 1 rT 0 : ce Production Manager: 4535 Greig Avenue, ce CO Production: Terrace, B.C. ae: -» 1 Charles Costello, Gurbax Gill, VeG 1M? - "Ranjit Nizar, Surinder Deo! Beh at oa o" Office: . 635-7260 | . Carrie Olson ee oe na + One lone: ‘ Accounting: iY tenede $2400 Out of Canada $50.00 Seniors In Terrace and Dletrict $12.00 Seniors out of Terrace and District $15.00 - Mar} Twyford, Harminder, K. Dosanjh The view from _ Victoria — by John Pifer VICTORIA — Amid the in- terest and excitement (?) of to- day’s Oak Bay/Gordon Head by-election, there are those of us who believe Thursday could be an even more interesting and exciting day, politically. Tomorrow evening, the four MLA’s who walked away from the Social Credit caucus on Oct. 3 are all expected to at- tend a fund-raising dinner in Duncan on Vancouver Island, along with what was being billed as a ‘‘mystery keynote speaker’. Graham Bruce of Cowichan Malahat and his workers had initially arranged the $100-a-plate event for Monday, two days before today’s vote, but moved it to the day after, under pressure apparently from Socred candidate Susan Brice herself, with an assist from Socred HQ and the premier’s office. _ The thinking was that Brice and Co. were having enough problems trying to win the seat, without having the voters in- undated on election day with news coverage of the anti-. Vander Zalm forces getting © - together for a schmooze, ~ Add to that Brice’s state- ments on Friday which further distanced her from the premier, and which gave her ‘‘vision of a better Social Credit Party and a better British Columbia’, and the divided party looks like staying that way for some time. The gloves came off in the * Brice campaign, and she bat- tered NDP leader Mike Har- then stressed that the best ai - wessage to serid to Vander court with a series of jibes, and. . Zalm was... Susan Brice. . ‘‘We want greater tolerance in the party, in government, and in the premier,” she said, skating carefully around bashing her own leader in the same manner she did Harcourt. Anyway, back to the defec- tors: when I spoke with Graham Bruce late last week, he said the four — himself, Dave Mercier, Doug Mowat, Duane Crandall — would all speak at the dinner, but there actually was no mystery guest speaker, per se. Now, I don’t know if they lost a keynote speaker when they had to change the date, but I do know most former members of the Bill Bennett cabinet were asked to attend, and some will be. No, Grace McCarthy will not be attending: nor will any other sitting Socred MLA’s, nor will Bennett himself, as has been suggested elsewhere. But I could name a few MLA’s who hope this latest message to the premier will be heard, unlike the previous dozen. Stay tuned. Who says NDPers don’t have a sense of humor? Well, actual- ly, just about everyone who knows a fervent New Democrat says that!! But that perception could change if they keep coming up with stunts like the Campaign Kit which NDP leader Har- court took to Premier Vander Zalm on Thursday. First, Harcourt, tongue planted firmly in-cheek, issued an invitation to the preem to visit Oak Bay/CGordon Head before Wednesday's by- election, given that Brice has said she neitfier had proffered one, nor made a request for -- The Zalm to stay away. Then, Harcourt enclosed a map of the riding with “‘points of interest’? marked, such as the toxic waste depot which is full, and the two raw sewage outfalls into the Strait of Georgia. Telling Vander Zalm that the constituency is just ‘‘a 10-minute limousine ride away” from his office, Har- court added insult to injury with copies of the Yellow Pages listings for dentists, marking the 44 teeth doctors in the riding. That stems from the premier’s comment that he was. too busy to visit, because he “barely had time for a dentist’s appointment, let alone the by- election.” _ there! Speaking of the NDP, some — thoughts on the Dave Barrett- Simone DeJong fiasco at the Winnipeg leadership convention last week. You will recall that CBC’s The Journal ran tape recordings of DeJong appear- ing to make a deal with Bar- rett, that he (DeJong) would _ become party whip if he threw his support to the former B.C... premier on the third ballot. First of all, it is disgraceful, disturbing and damn near in- dictable for: Barrett to peddle the whip’s post as a favor for services rendered. That is sup- posed to be a democratically- elected decision of caucus. continued on page 5 Ouch, It’s getting ugly out: nee tn pee nee ne cm a CS cmcmee awe nag et aie on eT