oe

. — lands at the airport for development.

. A4- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 2, 2005

TERRACE

~ 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
WEB: www.terracestandard.com
EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com

7 Long ago dream

. years, to find the start of what two weekends ago

resulted.in the City of Terrace getting its hands on
‘Back then- it was’ Howard T:’ Mitchell,

Sentinel. He keyed on the potential for industrial
development building upon the Alcan aluminum
smelter and..hydro electric facilities then under
construction.

Mr. Mitchell wrote often about an. industrial

corridor between then-tiny ” Terrace and the brand-

new Kitimat settlement, aided by a rail link be-

a tween the two places and a port at Kitimat.”

Mr. Mitchell’s dreams were never fully realized
and. it was not until the late 1980s that the idea
of an industrial corridor surfaced again thanks to

- Dave Parker, the Social Credit MLA for Skeena.

Mr. Parker’s vision included the airport and the

‘lands surrounding it. He foresaw those lands play-
“ing a key role in attracting industry which would

be served by the airport and the rail connection to
Kitimat port facilities. That vision also failed in

-part to the still-nagging problem of getting north-

west communities to.cooperate.

Which brings.us to the Jan. 22 signing of the
documents which see Terrace obtaining 475 hect-
ares of airport land now and potentially 900. more

” hectares in the years ahead.

At the signing, Terrace mayor Jack Talstra

; mayor lamented on one aspect of the 1980s. fail-
‘ure. And that-was the rejection of.a common.air-
‘port lands/Kitimat port authority, an agency that

could not only offer land for development but
transportation for those businesses who set: up on
those lands: Had that occurred, things-mi ight very

well be different now:

Today the emphasis has shifted away from a
connection between the airport lands and a port
at Kitimat to the potential of a container port at

‘Prince Rupert.
The idea now is to attract industry that could -
-manufacture items to be loaded onto convenient

and efficient container railcars. Once loaded and

taken by rail to.Prince Rupert, the containers.

would be lifted to waiting freighters for transport,
particularly to the burgeoning Asian market.
_ The airport lands could also provide service

centres to mining up north and to potential oil and-

gas pipelines. Such development would further

cement the airport as a major transportation hub_

of the northwest.

Tt all sounds rather fanciful. But here’s what
Howard T. Mitchell had to say: “In the human
desire of people to keep families together, live
comfortably, get their money affairs. comfortably
in hand and enjoy recreation and friendship, there

is.a satisfaction that is hard to measure in statis-
_ tics — but it is a powerful force for growth.”

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Special thanks to all our contributors and
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Serving the Terrace and Thornhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week a! 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace,

DN

/ UH OW. BAD
News: WE RE 10
YEARS AWAY FROM A
> 7 "PoNT OF No RETURN”
WHEN A CLIMATE
CHANGE WILL MAKE
EVERYTHING HOTTER |

| DON'T THINK
WE CAN WAIT
THAT LONG

iy

OIRICE 05

Bed boost plan has faded away

VICTORIA - The Liberals’ prom-
ise of “an additional 5,000 new
intermediate and long-term care
beds by 2006” has faded away.
Almost four years after. the

' election only 100 additional beds

— at best —. have been added to

~ .the system. The New Era prom-

ise won’t.be kept, health minister
Shirley Bond concedes, with the
goal now 2008:

_ It was an. important pledge.

‘The’ new government even cre-

ated a junior minister-responsible
for residential care for seniors,
and unveiled a big — if hopelessly
muddled — strategy in 2002.

The reality is that the province
has gone back wards. The 100 new

. beds falls short of the increased

demand ‘created by an aging : and
growing population.

It’s.a significant broken prom-
ise. The most obvious impact. is
on seniors who need the care, and
their families. They need the kind
of care that was promised, and
they can’t get it.

But it also affects everyone
in the province. When long-term
care isn’t available, seniors-end
up in the hospital. That is often
miserable for them and the people
who care about them.

It’s also a major reason why
people can’t get needed sur-
gery and emergency rooms are
jammed, with sick and injured
people waiting hours, only to end
up on stretchers in halls because
there’s nowhere else for them.

SFROM THE CAPITAL

PAUL WILLCOCKS

Communities across. the prov-
ince have complained about lost
long-term care’ beds. But most

have been unable to get good in-

formation about the number of

beds lost versus any beds added,

or the effects.

Here in Victoria the Capital
Regional District, reacting to.
public concern, studied the issuc
last year. {t found that the Van-
couver Island Health Authority
had closed almost 600 existing
residential care beds.

It had opened 105 new resi-
dential care beds, and 207 assist-
ed living units, which provide a
lower level of support.

Do the math, and you find
that means there are 205 fewer

beds available — about a seven-
per-cent decrease in the time the
Liberals were promising a major
incredse. The region is short 325
beds, based on the government’s
own model.

“The shortfall is a result of
closing too many residential care

beds too quickly and not having ~

the . alternatives, including _as-
sisted living, in place,” the report
found. “This was predicted in
2002 and is in large part a func-
tion of the provincial govern-

‘ment’s fiscal restraint.”

One in three of the people
admitted to résidential care -+had

* been waiting more. than 90 days,

VIHA reports,. and waits have
been increasing.

The government and the health.
authorities have maintained that
the need for long-term care was

. being reduced thanks to increased

support to allow people to stay in

‘ their homes, or seniors’ housing.

But that hasn’t really happened

* either, the” capital ; region: : Study -
" care minister Katherine Whittred

found. The ‘number ‘of seniors
needing home support services
for example, had increased by
nine per cent; funding for the ser-
vice rose two per cent.

Seniors wait months for the
care they need, If they are lucky,
they’re families struggle to cope
with their increasingly complex
medical care needs. If they aren’t,
the end up in hospitals, which
must cope with over-crowding
and delayed surgeries because

acute care beds are blocked by
people “who don’t need them,
but have nowhere else to go.
(The best estimate is that 10 per
cent to 20 per cent of acute care
beds are occupied by people who
shouldn’t be there.)

Bond says the government has
created 4,300 new spaces, but
had to close 4,200 because the fa-

cilities were outmoded. But those _

facilities had served’ for years;
communities: pleaded with the
health authorities to keep, them
open until replacement beds were
created; and most could -have

been maintained until the prom-
- ised 5,000 additional” beds were

delivered.

Even acknowledging the chal-

lenges, the issue has been’ ‘badly

mishandled with no clear plan, in-:
adequate funding and.a refusal to
listen to the legitimate complaints

of seniors and communities and
government MLAs. It’s a broken

Promise that has hurt us all.

“Footnote: . Former: long-term
had an undistinguished tenure,
but she did complain in writing
that the ministry was closing beds
without having adequate replace-
ments. She never reported on the
response. The junior minister’s
position for long-term care was
eliminated a year ago in a cabi-
net shuffie. The government still
can’t say how many beds -have
been cut in each health authority.
willcocks @ultranet.ca

for years yet never disclosed to
each other they shared the same
medical problem - restless legs.

That’s typical for people with
the condition. Though one out
of 10 people suffer from restless
legs, at least half never tell their
doctors. Which may be just as
well.

No test or X- -ray exists that will

diagnose restless leg syndrome. -

Those doctors who don’t shrug it
off as “all in your head” or “part

of growing older” base their di- ~

agnosis on a series of questions
about the patient’s lifestyle, and
symptoms.

What are the symptoms of.
_ restless legs?

The main symptom is a creepy
crawly feeling in the legs demand-
ing movement, cxercise, endless
shifting of positions. Sitting still
for long periods becomes i impos-
sible.

For that reason sufferers avoid
plane rides, car trips, movies,

theatre performances and meet-

ings. An Ontario woman stood at

the back of the hall throughout a

concert.
Night time is the worst of ail

_legs.”

BBO SKooKUM! you

| THROUGH. BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

possible times. We can’t sleep;
we.can’t lie suill. We constantly
shift, wearing thin bed sheets and
our, partner's patience. Next day
I’m slow-witted, cranky and nar-
coleptic., Because of the loss of
sleep, patients aré often referred
to asleep disorder clinic.
Current thinking suggests the
syndrome is genetic. A patient
may say, “My brother, my uncle
and my. mother all have restless
” But if they all lived in
Thunder Bay. Montreal or Win-

BuT I AM NOYOUS Re or

nipeg — places known for°deep
snows and deeper temperatures.

That’s because there could very ©

well be a connection between

restless legs and having feet fro- |

zen or numbed by the cold as a
child.

Of the many people [ know
with restless legs, only one says
he never froze or numbed his feet
asachild. ”

As a Saskatchewan farm kid,
I often chilled my feet to the
bone. At 20, 1 froze my ankles
when snow got into my boot tops,

* melted a ring and raised blisters

big as almonds. Since then, F've
battled the twitchiness every day
of my life.

During my high school years,
I amused myself scratching my
bare legs with the stiff bristles
ofa hairbrush until the pain of
scratching drowned the agony of
restlessness. .

Now I ready for bed by strenu-
ously stretching my legs, touching
‘my toes. with one foot propped
on the piano keyboard cover.

My Mom, my older brother,
my sister and one daughter all
froze lower extremities. We all
have restless legs. Is ours genet-

Ve

of YEAH. WELL

Just WoLFED DowN YOU WATCH TV | WHO ELSE KNEW

THAT SPECIAL MEAL Nits RE Jor, THERE WERE NO .

I MADE FoR you!! — wW a
| "ot ( A HOUSE KY. MASS DESTRUCTION. all

~ teach so little about restless legs.

Did you ever freeze your feet?

TWO WOMEN worked together.

ic?

At a November 2004 Los An-
geles conference, medical experts
revealed they're searching for a
responsible chromosome. Yet no
one seems.to ask, “Did you freeze
your feet as a child?”

Treatment ranges from Mira-
pex or Requip, drugs intended for
Parkinson's disease, to- random
remedies including a hot bath (or
cold bath) before bedtime: rid-
ing a stationary bicycle; walk-
ing: rolling a can with the bare
foot. For some, sometimes, these
methods help. “There are times
when,” as one group leader says,
“nothing helps.”

Across Canada and the U.S.
some 90 self-help groups exist
with members mostly 50 years
of age or older. A sprinkling are
younger. Average age is 58 to 62
years.

‘Because medical ~ schools
self-help groups are working
to enlighten sufferers as well as
doctors to this life-altering syn-
drome.

Information and the. nearest
self-help group can be found on
the internet at www.rls.org.

u