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_ Page A4 — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, Apri! 25, 1990

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"ERRACE STANDARY)

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DITORIAL, _ [ig

' __At long last there is a glimmer of sense
: in the mish-mash created three years ago
* when the provincial government set up
its eight regional economic development
: zones,
it comes in the formofa study on nor-

thwest health care which advocates less
bureaucracy, more co-operation between
| the different health care agencies and
more local control and autonomy over
budgets and decisions. ;

‘ This study is the kind of thing the
regional development process was meant
to do. It quite simply states the nor-
thwest is different than any other areas
of the province. There’s a different kind
of population here and geography is a
factor in everyday life..These and other
circumstances combine to make what
People in the south take for granted a
more difficult and complex goal to attain
: in the north.,

ae

It wasn’t even close to a fair fight.
After months of keeping the issue of in-
: Stalling condom machines safely tucked
; away in a closet, the school board has
now decided to hold a public meeting on’
the subject. © 7
: All it took was a question from a high
school student to expose a couple of
> things. No, said school board chairman
Edna Cooper, the board wasn’t ducking
the issue. It simply tabled the idea anda
school board member had yet to ask that
“it be introduced again. No, continued
, Cooper, the issue of condoms wasn’t an
. ¢xample of something the board normal-
‘dy likes to keep behind closed doors.
That said, the board retired yet again

~ Damn straight

Leadership |

of leadership.- This is the samé:

Between the lines, the study indicates
that traditional kinds of bureaucracies
set up for health care don’t work well up
here. Bureaucracies work best when -
decisions and influence begin at the top.
and work their way down. Indeed, those
inside these insidious systems prefer it
that way. It takes little effort to: follow
archaic rules. It takes more effort to do
what makes sense,

In the north, the health care
bureaucracies are managed, planned and
financed from the south. The health care
study suggests this isn’t the best way.
Changing that will require much effort.
One intriguing possibility is establishing
a regional health care budget — consider
it a little bit of northern perestroika.
Those who control the money ultimately
control what is going to happen. This
may not be popular down south but it
will be up here.

behind closed doors to come up with its
decision to hold the May 15 public
meeting. -_

Allin all, it was an interesting example

oard
which had no’ trouble in - valiantly
deciding to blow $75,000 in public
money up the spout to conclude it should
increase the pay of its administrators.
Yet when it comes to condoms, the
board ran for the hills,

The real issue here is not so much that
condom machines should or should or

should not be installed in. secondary

schools. Instead, the issue is that of an _

elected body which has trouble in grasp-
ing what it is supposed to do,

This job not easy -

Did you ever drive past a

; highway construction project
and wonder what it must be like
to- work there ten hours a day?

Through

@

- and Sooke watersheds com-*

Ee ee we eee eee Sted de Se ee ree

Not likely, you say. Don't
’ construction workers have to be B Ifocals 4
fugged, muscular individuals by Claudette Sandecki

capable of lifting heavy objects
and performing strenuous
tasks? Right. But equally im-
‘portant on highway sites, they
must get by on less water than
the average camel, have urinary
bladders with more capacity
than a bulk fuel plant, and be
able to out-sprint Ben Johnson
whenever they “go to the
. toilet.” ;
‘ contracts stipulated employers
: must provide every job site with
drinking water in approved
sanitary containers, along with
Paper cups; lunch rooms with
tables and benches; and toilet
facilities as well as toilet paper —
often on the job the only source
of drink is whatever the worker

room is a-boulder or the cab of
t his. own truck. And the
employer leaves it to nature to
furnish toilet facilities.

Rarely are contract facilities

tion sites, unless the crew is co-
ed or a majority of the workers
complain foudly to receptive
ears, One excuse for dispensing
with facilities is the nature of

ay: you're:
0 regulate traffic

brings in his thermos. His lunch.

provided at highway construc- |

with a miniature stop sign on a
stubby handle. For ten hours a
day through baking sun, dren-
ching rain, or buffeting winds,
you guard workers’ safely by
standing in the center of a swath
of asphalt as impatient traffic
bears down on you from oppos-
ing directions. ,
Perhaps it’s midway between
lunch and afternoon cof-
feebreak, ten minutes of free
time when you're expected to
snack, rest, and run personal
vital errands. Your back aches
and your feet hurt from walking
to and fro since 7 a.m. As you
wave 4 car through, you realize
the moment has come to make
another foray through the

‘brambles to answer a call of

nature,

. You sean the terrain for a. sos .
broad-boled cedar: while you. > |

wait for someone to take over
your. paddle, ee

Urgency. puckers your brow..
On either side of the highweay

runs an expanse of right-of-_

way, barren as a Vancouver In-

_ ternational airstrip. Heyond
that are acres of alder and me
underbrush, which in mid-April -”

offer too little foliage to conceal
& mangy marmot at five hun-

. dred yards, let alone. a full

frown: adult attired.: in.
andelion-yellaw : raingear

adorned with a plastic hard hat
and flagman’s vest of fluores-
cent orange, mo
Before Bill 19, union. con-
tracts. meant what they said,
Workers could jean on an
employer to live up to the con-
tract, without the retaliation of

early lay-off. Since Bill 19,-

negotiating union contracts is a
time-filler. engaged in every. two
years by office types who whine
if their coffeemaker is unplugg-
-ed too early in the day. .
The B.C, government claims

to care about workers’ health. .

Yet every day construction
employees risk their well-being

working overtime under unac-

ceptable conditions to satisfy an
- employers’ bottom lines.

~ Stream at the valley bottom.

Aiea rrp):

fp}. if Ae
aN SOCRED ABORTION)
me = RECORD bole

Watershed logging |

can be done well

VICTORIA ~_ Pay attention, :

° _ forest.industry officials, politi-

cians and environmentalists:

‘There's a model for an ar- .
. mistice, perhaps even a peace

treaty over the usé of forest

land,, and you'll find it just.a

few miles north of Victoria.
Implementing the model on

- a large scale would require
» some willingness to com-

promise

are

but the-results would be wort!

The model I'm talking about

by all affected parties

_¢an be found in the valleys, . - -

mountains, creeks and lakes of |
the watersheds from which-80
per cent of Greater Victoria's
residents get their water,
Located about 15 miles: north
of Victoria, the Goidstream '

Prise about 13,800 hectares. “
At.a cursory glance, the area -
looks like a pristine wilderness,
but don’t let that fool you.
For 40 years now the water-
sheds have yielded not only:
some of the best drinking

' water in the worlk, but an
- estimated 200-million cubic-

feet of excellent,timber as well.-.
Since its inception 40 years

ago, the Greater Victoria

Water District has éarned a=’ :

total of $22 million from the” -.

sale of timber harvested in the |

‘watersheds. And it has done so
without harming the area’s
ecology.,, -

. The 25 [WA members who

- work for the water district are
very aware.of the importance,

- Of environmental controls in
’ the harvesting -practides, So is

their boss, Doug Homer-
Dixon, the water district’s
forester. .

During preparations for a
recent logging operation, a
consultant had recommended
the construction of a perma-
nent road. Homer-Dixon opted _
fora temporary road instead...”
‘It cost more’but the road site
will be returned to forest use.

When the crews logged a
rather steep stope last year,
they made sure not ‘one log
was dragged over the ground,
‘because Homer-Dixon feared
that disturbing the soil might
cause erosion and damage to a

. There are clear-cuts in the

Y THERE'S INDOOR

A T. PEOPLE OHO IGNORE
IT's EASIEST Are THE: NORTH wan

1D THINK OF
THEM LIKE.

 estion'of infested ‘areast\ dlear-
»,€uts are no larger than 20 to

« desolation:

From the

Capital
by Hubert Beyer

.25 hectares, Nature herself
sometimes causes bigger clear-
cuts through blow-downs:

- Homer-Dixon liked‘to show
4 couple of old photographs,
depicting the scene of a 19205
clear-cut which turned 3,000
acres into a scene of utter

You wouldn't get away
with that sort of thing any

. More’' he says, but even that

disaster area has been ;
transformed into a vibrant,
second-growth forest. Part of
a large Jog, left behind by the
“workers.some 70 years ago, is

_’ Still there, rotting quietly

away, providing nutrients for
the soil that is now feeding
Some. of the finest trees in the.

watershed.-

’

4. ;, [zene

watersheds, but with the ‘excep- «watershed. Homer-Dixon: . ....
-estimates:the number. of large
_. game — deer,ibear, wolf,and.

cougar — at about 10,000, a;
healthy population for 13,000 .
hectares of forest,
'. In fact, several mild winters
have resulted in an over-
population of wolves which, in

turn, have. been killing an.ex-

. traordinarily large number of
_ deer.

Several members of the o

Forest Resources Commission,

-, including its chairman, Sandy

Peel, toured the watersheds -;

y Tecently, They wouldn't reveal

their impressions, but I’m sure
they'll be reflected in the final
report. er

My impressions were that
Homer-Dixon may haye the '
blueprint to the future use of .
our forest. There should and *
will be more parks in which all

~ commercial activity is off

The water district has its
them, that can produce up to 180,000 seedlings a .

year,

own nuseries, three of -

_ There is still a lot of old-
srowth forest left. Keep in
mind that everything older

_ than'120 years is considered —

‘old growth, although some
_ Stands are as old as 350 years.
“Homer-Dixon says the
volume of timber in the water-

. Sheds is now greater than it |
“was 40 years ago, despite an

annal cut of 69,000 cubic-
metres.a year.-Good
silviculture practices, it seems,
make all'the difference. ~
The water. district has its
own nurseries, three of them,
that can produce up to 180,000
seedlings a year, Current pro-

duction is about 100,000 seedl- *

‘ingsayears
~ Wildlife, it appears, is quite ©
happy with the dual-use of the
4 ; ines oi os i“ . :
(AND INDOOR -OUTDOOR TYPES
WHO TREAT THE NORTH AS A:
‘FASHION SHOW AND GYM..;

TPP li.

’ limits, but as for the rest, We
should be looking -for forestry
practices that don't éndangér’
the future of the resource: }.-

I believe that the Greater ~

' Victoria Water District comes

closer to the ideal forest..."

fellow declined. Too bad:

,
ae.
ot

A member‘of the Wester

Homer-Dixon asked'him-if
would put that in writing;

AND THEN. THERGiS
ASTROTURF 1!

vedi

Ag,