A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 30, 1994 ADDRESS: 4647 Lazclle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 188 ESTABLISHED APRIL. 27, 1988 TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 » FAX: (604) 638-8432 MODEM: 638-7247 It’s madness WHILE MOST of us spend a lot of time trying not to spend a lot of money, a different attitude prevails in the public sector. It’s the ‘‘use it or lose it’’ syndrome and happens each time March 31 rolls around. In some circles it’s called March Madness. Here’s how it works. Public sector fiscal years run from April 1 to March 31. Because of the way governments and their agencies work, spending can only be ap- proved one year at a time. There are no provi- sions for carrying over any monies not spent. The size of a budget is the one determining fac- tor within the public sector. The more money a department has the more people it employs and the more power and authority it carries. If a public sector manager doesn’t spend his or her allotment, it simply disappears back to some . secret location. And since not all of the money was spent, there’s every reason to believe that the new budget will not be as large as the pre- vious one. . So quite naturally public sector managers want to get rid of every penny they have. It’s why sharp eyed citizens will note a surge of public sector activity. It’s why there may be slightly frenetic phone calls to various equipment sup- pliers asking about what’s in stock. There have been attempts to stop this activity. Former Progressive Conservative finance minis- ter Michael Wilson froze spending in February one year. It merely encouraged managers to start spending the following January in anticipation of another freeze. When public servants did try something inven- tive for future needs, they received a smack on the wrists instead. The case involved provincial, ...Wildlife, biologists, who,, faced. with ‘surpluses, purchased and then banked helicopter time for use in the next budget year. For this, they had of- ficial “‘naughty-naughty”’ letters attached to their personnel files. What’s missing in all of this is the recognition that should flow to those who do achieve savings within their budgets. In the private sector a dollar not spent is an extra dollar earned. It can take the form of profits or of additional monies for in- vestment. : Admittedly the public sector runs on a different thythm than does the private sector. But if governments truly wish to wring out the best value for every penny entrusted to them by the taxpayer, they can surely take steps to eliminate March Madness once and for all. Tighten up : MOST PEOPLE don’t begrudge the amount of money paid to mayors and council members. The salaries they receive don’t come close to equall- ing the kind of hours put in and abuse faced. Yet taxpayers should question one aspect of the expenses paid to councillors when away on government business. It’s a long standing policy, now put into by-law form, allowing a councillor to take a spouse to one convention a year and have the cost covered by the taxpayer. To be sure, this is not a flagrant example of public spending. But it is something that deserves a second look given the tight economic times in which we all live. coNaA GS : u PUBLISHER/ EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L, Hamm PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS COMMUNITY: Jeff Nagel * NEWS.SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter “wanirain ACULATSN GUNA LID a = eS SET . Se SN -... Let's play cowpersons and native peopie..... VICTORIA — Horns honking and yellow ribbons flying, a cavalcade of up to 1,000 log- ping trucks, campers and pick- ups invaded Victoria Monday for the biggest mass protest the capital cliy has ever seen, A huge log barge was tied up in the Inner Harbor, The crowd of 30,000 or more gathered on the lawns of the legislalive buildings to give Premier Harcourt and his NDP goverment a clear and un- equivocal message: ‘“Take the CORE report and shove it.”’ The report by Slephen Owen, chief of the Commission on Resources and Environment, has become a lightening rod for everything ‘hat has British Columbia’s resource industries and their employees worried. The report recommends that » 13 iper- cent of Vancouver Is- »* ’ fand. be set aside as parkland ” and a further eight per cent be designated as Regionally Sig- nificant Lands, in which log- ging, mining and other com- mercial and industrial activities would be subject to greater scrutiny than elsewhere, _ Opponents of the report are drawing the line al 12 per cent parkland. Anything more, they say, will destroy their com- munities, Owen estimates that the im- plementation of his report would cost 900 jobs in the FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER short haul, but he adds that a carcfully designed economic transition strategy will not only © keep the short-term job loss below the 900-mark, but ac- tually create new jobs in the long run. . . ~ The. crowd that packed the lawn of the legislature’ and flowed over into adjoining streets, however, wasn’t inter- ested in entering into a debate about how many jobs might actually be lost. I. remember two previous mass protests — the march of Solidarity on Victoria in 1983 to protest Hill Bennett's restraint program, and the farmers’ rally in opposition to the creation of the Agricultural Land Reserve by Dave Bar- rett’s NDP in 1973. The forestry rally differed from those in three ways — it was bigger, the premicr had the guts to speak to the crowd, which neither Barrett nor Ben- nett did at the afore-mentioned mass protests, and it made any rally the environmentalists Staged to date look puny by comparison. The reception Harcourt got from the crowd was a bit Strange. He was alternately cheered and booed. When he said he told Enro- peans to get their awn house in order before criticizing British Columbia for ils forestry prac- tices, he got roaring applause. When he said. that in the past, British Columbia's forest in- dustry had engaged in some pretty bad forestry practices, and that change was necessary, he got shouted down. A source in the premier’s of- fice told me Harcourt actually welcomed the mass protest be- cause it gave him ‘‘some brea- thing room with regard to the implementation of the Owen report, either in whole or in part.” Surely, the emphasis must lie with the words ‘‘in part’? In the face of the biggest mass protest in living memory, it is doubtful that the government will implement Owen’s pro- posed land use plan for Van- couver Island in its entirety. Harcourt’s own remarks to Compromise in the woods the crowd backs up that speculation. “We will not make any land use changes that will hurt you and your families. That is my commit- ment to you,’” he said. My guess is that the govern- ment will scale back the area to be protected as parkland to 12 per cent from Owen’s pro- posed 13 per cent, which is still double that of only a few years ago and acceptable to op- ponents of the Owen plan. And the proposal for Regionally Significant Lands may well go down the tube, with the justification that the new Forest Practices Act, to be introduced during this session, will demand greater scrutiny in all active forest land, and can effectively protect sensitive areas... : In the end, the great Cana-‘ dian compromise will, once: again, prevail. The government will have lightened its grip on shoddy forest practices, and British Columbia’s parkland will cover 12 per cent of the province’s total land mass. And finally, there will proba- bly be some economic transi- tion strategy, because even though the Owen report won’t be implemented in its entirety, there will be some worker dis- placement as a result of in- creasing the protected parkland area. ~ Cussing not needed here BEFORE DAD married Mom, he ate many boarding house meals. His favourite story was - about the boarder who tired of finding the landlady’s hair in his food. He said, ‘‘Just put the bulter in one dish and the hair in an- other, We'll mix it”? That’s how I fecl abul movies, TV programs, or theater produclions containing coarse or offensive language. Give me clean entertainment. IE I want to hear offensive ian- guage, Pll linger where males, teenagers or drunks congregate - around a disabled cnginc, near a BMX ramp, or in front of a pub at closing time. “Who am I to talk??? you ask. Truth be known, I lard my .own- chatler with a liberal sprinkling of profanity. Bul my yocabulary doesn’t go much beyond hell, damn, or Gawd. Since all profanity is meaning- less, why offend my cars with curses more foul? Wasr’t.it Dear Abby who THROUGH BIFOCALS ff CLAUDETTE SANDECKI said, ‘‘Small children would be salisfied using ‘mashed potatocs’ as an expletive so long as parents feigned shock upon hearing it.” Foul language should. be reserved for truly exasperating moments when nothing can be done to improve the situation. Blackening a thumbnail with a misdirected claw hammer. Driving all ihe way into town without ithe bank deposit. Forgelling to close the cow pasture gate, For any storyteller to sit down at a word processor and deliberately litter a script with maledictions points to a crea- tively challenged writer. Yet theatre patrons are ex- pected lo fork over ten dollars to witness a staged per- formance shamelessly billed as having Frequent Offensive Language in print half an inch high. Not me. When a movie or TV pro- gram deteriorates inlo coarse language, I turn off the set, if I’m watching alone, or leave the room for a book or maga- zinc. To snare my attention, a show featuring foul language has to have a lot of redeeming — features. Few do. A show must have a sound plot, fascinaling characters, and excellent acting. And when it has those, it necdn’t stoop to foul language, Count the memorable movics with nary a vulgarity. On Golden Pond. Driving Miss. Daisy. Dances with Wolves. Think of all the fixst rate movics mace by top actors such as Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, John Wayne, even Clint Eastwood, For ail Eastwood's macho Dirty Harry image, he rarely utters gutter language, Why should he? Pauses and glowers convey his message. His movies also offer intriguing plots, suspense, and flashes of humour. ; Coarse language, if integral lo ihe plot, docsn’t deter me, In the movie The Great Outdoors, John Candy riding water skis is being threaded through docked boats, swimmers, and other va- cationers at a resort lake like a shuttle through a loom. Frightened and furious, Candy yells at the driver, “You bastard,’’ The driver, thinking Candy called ‘faster’, accelerated, That’s cussing that works, Most coarse language Is ex: cess baggage. Tic WORK THE GRAPHICS ON WINDOWS FOR OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher I CAN DOUNLOAD COMPOSING: Pam Odell _DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: ~. Sam Collier, Janct Viveiros, Howie Oram CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Charlene Matthews SEARCH ay) Serving the Terrace area, Published on Wadnasday of each week by Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd. al 4647 ECO “N ET Lazelle Ava,, Terrace, Briish Columbla. 7 ae - Stories, phofogtaphs, illustrations, designs and typastyles in the Tetracs Slandard are (he properly of the : 5 : * copyright boiders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ud, 4’. illustration rapro sarvices and adyaslising ‘ a agencies. : Reproduction In whole or in pari, without writen permission, is specifically prohibited. Authorized a8 second-class mall panding the Post Office Department, for payment of postage In cash, Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for thelr time and talents ms: We SHOULD RABBITS ARE. THe STATS BY BP REALLY UP THIS CHECK THAT A Mapem to YOUR SPRING! —_ AQ WITH OUR BY MAI ERAM E. ll } Beet OlEL | 2H by TL DO A LITERATUR ZL NOTICED THE ¥ YOU'RE LUCKY TO f OBSERVE. REAL A Wicpeenéss Mm SCIENCE Hi