AA - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 1, 1998

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432

EMAIL: standard@kermade.net

Not again |
LAST YEAR we suggested this was it — there’s
no way more spending can be cut from Mills
Memorial Hospital. After years of budget freezes
— which are essentially a cut in spending once
inflation is taken into account — of bed closures,
layoffs and the like, perhaps the hospital as hit
the wall. Perhaps the $12 million and change the
hospital gets from the province just isn’t enough
for the place to function.

Well, another year has come and gone and once
again the hospital] is running in the red. And once
more there are suggestions from the province
that Mills can do better in managing its money.

Yet this year is different. There still are those
suggestions the hospital is somehow spending
money unwisely but there are hints that perhaps «
the province will look upon Mills more kindly
when budgets are announced.

Certainly this is long overdue. The hospital has ,
had more than its fair share of bad news this
year, Specialists are leaving, the paediatrics ward
has disappeared, operating rooms have been
closed, the CT scan machine was shut down, etc. .
etc. Add it all up and it sounds like Mills should
be on life support.

But the problem with ail this has been a clear
lack of understanding on just exactly what the
heck is going on. The hospital’s new governing
body, the Terrace and Area Community Health
Council, has bought ads to say it doesn’t yet
want to say anything. The doctors are buying ads
with the provincial] government as their target.
Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht bought ads to
say the province’s health care spending is OK.
And now city council is making noises like it
wants to get into the health council game.

That’s why we favour the request Mr. Gies-
brecht made to health minister Penny Priddy to

gend-in a team of experts:-What the northwest:

needs. is an outside and impartial group to go
through Mills to tell us what’s wrong and to tell:
‘us what’s needed to make it right.

The time is over for reports written in
medicalese. Once the government team has fin-
ished its report, make sure the thing is readable
in English, rent the R.E.M. Lee Theatre, put the
team on stage and let fly. Anything else is in-
adequate.

IS IT going to come down to peelers on the
stage? A bar in the lobby?

Things are looking grim for the R.E.M. Lee
theatre because of the budget crunch affecting its
owner, the Coast Mountains School District.

The theatre scraped by last year only by using
up a surplus. A head tax on admissions to help
pay the bills realistically can’t supply enough
cash to maintain operations.

One way is a separate society to run the theatre
and to raise money anyway it can, But the touchy
part appears to be the amount of control the
school district is willing to give the society in
return for taking over its operation. The forma-
tion of a society is the topic of a meeting April 7
and those interested are encouraged to attend.
_—— |

PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link '
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur
NEWS Jeff Nagel = NEWS SPORTS: Dave Taylor
NEWS COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf
OFFICE MANAGER: Sheila Sandover-Sly
ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS:

Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros
TELEMARKETER: Patricia Schubrink

/\
\

NAW ZT

~~

—

NDP out to stifle volunteers

VICTORIA — A long time
ago, like 20 years, a colleague
of mine would, year after year,
refuse to make a donation to
the Community Chest, which
you could do by payroll deduc-
lion.

Not that he was unaware of
the need. He saw the relative
poverty around him just as
well as the rest af us. He knew
that a lot of single mothers
couldn’t possibly make ends
meet. He knew that street kids,
which were around even then,
would probably be lost to
seciety, unless someone or
some charitable organization
extended a helping hand te
them.

He knew all that, but refused
Steadfastly to donate any
money to ease the lot of all
those people in need. His rea-
son was: he didn’t have any

use for charitable organiza-”

tions. He was convinced that
charitable groups gave govern-
ment a convenient excuse not
to live up to its obligations.

My colleague was a strong
NDP supporter, but later aban-
doned the party because he felt
it was too right-wing, Imagine
that.

Well, wherever he is today,
he will be pleased to know that
our esteemed NDP government
is busy shulting down any
charilable group it can get its
hands on. By its own admis-

FROM THE CAPITAL
HUBERT BEYER

sion, the NDP wanls to get rid
of about 80 per cent of all
volunteer groups in British
Columbia. It will do so by
withholding funding.

In place of ail the volunteer
groups, the government plans
to set up a handful of mega-
organizations that are supposed
to do the work formerly done
by volunteers. A sort of
goverimentrun anti-poverty
brigade, operated, no doubt, by
union members.

Frankly, I find that plan rath-
er distasteful, It's not much
different from replacing a per-
son Wilh a machine, a practice
the NDP inslinclively abhors.

But while machines taking
the place of warm bodics has
been an inevitable byproduct
of past and present revolutions,
from industrial to information,

replacing volunteers with a
quasi-Crown corporation is
not. Nor is it desirable.

There’s a place for govern-
ment in the delivery of social
programs. There’s also a place
in that endeavor for the private
sector. And there certainly is a
place for volunteer organiza-
tions.

To start with, government-
run enterprises, be they mini-
stries or Crown corporations,
are perceived as cold and un-
caring, and the best spin doc-
tors can’t change that image.
The Children and Family Min-
istry may be doing a great job,
but ] have never heard anyone
say they were made feel good
by the warm and caring atti-
tude of bureaucrats or
politicians.

More important, however, is

, ILL FIGHT FOR MY FLAG

TILL MY LAST BREATH

OR MY NAME ISN'T
EKER ERA.

~ HANG ON MRMANNING ...
IT'S ON Latte oF MY

starving them of operating

funds will also deprive thou--
sands of British Columbians of :
the rewarding experience of.
doing something for their

friends and neighbors without.
remuneration or ulterior mo-
tives.
I believe that the volunteer -
spirit is absolutely essential to

the health of society. By.
harnessing that spirit, society -
evolves and grows richer, 7

Needless to say, it is also a
lot more cost-effective to tap .
into the volunteer bank to ad- °
dress some of society’s ills *
than charge a legion of public:
servants with that task.

OF all the cockamamie ideas :
this government has had, this,
one takes the cake, And J think,
we should do something about
it. .

‘the difference in" impact ‘tn’! + A brief phone call or fax -

society’s collective Gdueithnbeiiessagé ' ta Premier Glen:

between govemment-run_ in-
itiatives and those pursued by
voluntecrs.

The moment government op-
erates anything, it is removed
from the public’s awareness.
Poverty then truly becomes the
responsibility of the govern-
nent and the government only.
The public at Jarge will no
longer be intimately involved
in any effort to help fellow hu-
mans.

And killing 80 per cent of the
province’s volunteer groups by

Clark’s-‘office might be just:
what the doctor ordered. And
to facilitate such calls, I hereby *
volunteer the relevant num-:
bers. Tel: (250) 387-1715; Fax: >
(250) 387-0087,

Just a reminder: don’t be>
nasty or impatient to the per-*
son answering the phone. She:
just works there and needs her:
job just like the next guy. ’

Beyer can be reached at:
Tel: (250) 920-9300; Fax:
(250) 385-6783; E-mail:
huberi@coolcom.com

Sick children deserve better.

“SINCE THE paediatric ward
was cut,’’ reads Terrace and
District Medical Association's
ad, ‘nurses can no longer con-
fidently care for your child at
arm’s length. Nurses are forced
to rely on a Fisher Price baby
monitor to listen to your
child,’’

Now, 1 don’t mean to criti-
cize the quality of Fisher Price
monitors. Fisher Price makes
top quality toddler toys: plastic
tables, chairs, fire engines,
baliery-powered = keyboards
and guitars.

Their baby monitors, too,
may be totally reliable.
Certainly, they’re affordable
for even our cash-strapped
hospital, But I wouldn’t want
the life of my ill grandchild
enirusted to the broadcast ca-
pabilities of a Fisher Price —
‘or any other baby monitor.

Parents of sick babies have
enough worries, especially

_ When their child’s life is in the

hands of strangers. They don’t

‘THROUGH BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

critical moment.

Wards and nursing stations
can be hectic, noisy places, For
a critically il handful of
humanity to be beyond a
nurse’s field of vision strikes
me as foolhardy.

What parent hasn’t peeked in
every few minutes on, their
healthy newborn? Now we ask
parents to trust the moment by
moment monitoring of their

the baby’s distress sounds
from the bums, beeps, and
ringings of other clectrical
equipment, phones, and creak-
ing chairs?

Maybe if our elected repre-
sentatives — both provincial
and federal — spent our taxes
smarter we wouldn’t be buying
our hospital equipment from
Buck or Two.

For instance, last week, due
to our hospital’s services cut-
backs, we were wamied emer-
gency patients might have to
be flown to Prince Rupert.

What a saving! Think of the
efficiency, and the expense of
flying each patient 90 miles.
Forget about the prolonged
pain,

We need more comedians,
For three months ‘‘Air Farce’’
and ‘This Hour Has 22
Minutes” joked about a
senator living in Mexico, a
senator who showed up in the
senate approximately once a
year for 12 years to collect an

resigned,

Eight comedians accomplish-
ed in three months what years
of parliament and the senate :
couldn’t.. or wouldn’t. They
called Senator Thompson to
account and embarrassed him
into resigning. Of course he'll
still collect an annual $48,000
pension, We owe him that for
poking fun at his malingering,

Senator Thompson is an ex-
ample of why we have insuffi-
cient funds for health and edu-
cation. But no elected
politician had the guts to do
what the comedians did —
draw attention ta the senator’s
waste of tax dollars,

Back scratching is alive and
well.

Witness the NDP’s failure to
draw up clear guidelines for
naming regional health board
representalives. The result has
been appointments based on
patronage rather than qualifica-
tion.

Fisher Price monitors fil

ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Kelly Jean need ihe emery anxiety of precious child to a remote ae salary of almost Nar our Mickey Motse
TYPESETTING: Sylvana Broman DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur caring [heir © 5 distress broadcast? Ta be noticed by a yuu, ; Call care,
- CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Brunette signals may be overlooked at a busy nurse? Who should sort This week- the senator
SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: /
$56.18 per year; Seniors $49.76; Out of Province $63.13 a AM 1 SEEING HANKS So Muay! We WERE JUST | WHAT Took HEY! (TS THE
Outside of Canada (6 months) $155.15 Meee THINGS ORARE || CHUALRY CERTAINLY GOING TO HAVE. You SO NORTH ' Songoue
(ALL PRICES INCLUDE GST) mm THOSETWO BABES Y len’ DEAD IN A CMC! CARE ip By)
MEMBER OF FLAGGING THE NORTH Jf TO JOIN WS 2! REAKS Dou
B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION. a } OF QUR CODE vee

‘You KNOW!

CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION
AND

B.C. PRESS COUNCIL 7 =
Serving the Terrace and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of each woek at 3210 Clinton Straet,
Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5R2,

Storles, photographs, iilustatiens, designs and typestyfes in the Tarace Standard ara tha property of the
comnyight holders, including Cariboo Press (868) Lid, Hs Illustration repro services and advertising
agencies,

Reproduction In who's or in part, wilhout witten permission, is spacifically prohibited.

Authorized as sacond-class mall pending the Post Office Department, for paymont of postaga in cash.

Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents
for their time and talents