B.S. Fund and inventor gone VICTORIA — Looks like the recession, which has been wreaking havoc with a lot of ordinary folks, finally caught up with Finance Minister Mel Couvelier or rather the former finance minister, and his whimsical accounting methods. More about Couvelier’s resignation elsewhere. The gist of this column is as valid as it was before his resignation, Read on. British Columbia’s rainy-day account, alias the Budget Stabilization Fund, also referred to as the B.S. Fund, will be exhausted in one more year, according to the Third Quarterly Financial Report, released by Couvelier last week. Now, before I go on, I'll have to ask those of you who have been laughing at the B.S. Fund to do a little mental acrobatics. Suspend your disbelief. Like me and like a lot of very knowledgeable and respectable financial experts, you have main- tained that there never was any money in the fund to start with. So, how could Couyelier say the fund will be empty next year? Well, the point isn’t whether or not there ever "was any money in the fund, which there wasn’t; the point is that Couvelier himself admitted it will be drained next year. And coming from a fiscal smoke-and-mirror man like Couvelier, that was tantamount to declaring British Columbia an economic disaster area. What's more, the God-help-us-all-the-B.S.- Fund-is-empty lament wasn’t the only bad news Couvelier dished out in the quarterly report. Economic activity in British Columbia, it said, continued to Slow in the last months of 1990 and early 1991. “Declines in exports, retail sales and housing starts late in 1990 resulted from a weak US. economy, depressed consumer confidence and high interest rates. The outbreak of war in the Persian Gulf in January added to economic uncertainty,” it said. Here’s what the people we sent to Victoria did with our money. Expenditures in the first nine months of the current fiscal year totalled $11.03 billion, up 10.5 per cent from the previous year. During the same period, the government went $176 million into the hole, compared with a $332 million surplus for the same period last year. But hey, Social Credit wasn’t called the funny- money party for nothing. Couvelier still expected to balance the budget with the help of — you guessed it — the B.S. Fund. After taking the remainder of the money out of the B.S. Fund, where, as we know, il never was to Start with, the current budget will be declared balanced. After that, even Couvelier said it’s anybody’s guess. What a note on which to recall the legislature, unless, of course, the government is trying hard to make things look worse than they really are, in the hope of convincing voters that it would be very foolish to let the NDP manage an already bad provincial economy. I would have thought that the old ruse of the socialist hordes at the gates doesn’t work too well any more, not with today’s well-informed public, but what the hell, it’s worth a shot. Things couldn’t get much worse for Premier Vander Zalm and his embattled government. Perhaps then, the former finance minister deliberately dampened any optimism he might have felt as far as the economic outlook for British Columbia is concerned, and gave us this gloomy prediction instead: “Deteriorating conditions in the rest of Canada and other industnalized countries remain a source of weakness for the province’s external trade sector, while declines in Canadian short-term interest rates have yet to revive domestic spend- ing.” As a result, the report went on to say, the majority of forecasters are expecting British Columbia to experience slower growth in 1991. The finance ministry, the report said, expects economic growth in 1991 to be “significantly lower”’ that the 1.5 per cent forecast in the current budget. No mention of the recovering housing market. No mention that house prices in Vancouver and Victoria are quickly approaching pre-recession price levels. True, the report was probably com- pleted before the real estate market started to rally, but the press release wasn’t. If Couvelier had wanted to restore some public confidence in the economy, he could easily have done so by adding something to that effect in the press release accompanying the quarterly finan- cial report, but I suspect that wouldn’t have fit into the pre-election strategy. And on the altar of that strategy, questionable as it is, Couvelier, it seems, was willing to sacrifice his best friend — the Budget Stabilization Fund. And a few days after he gave up on the fund, he gave up his cabinet post. Reasons for the latter will have to wait until he’s willing to reveal them. TheReview Wednesday; March 18,1991 — A7 FREE ADVICE ON NUTRITION is being offered by the Capital Regional District through a new service. Dial-a-dietitian was just started with funding from the Ministry of Health, the Vancouver Health Department and the B.C. Dietitians’ and Nutritionists’ Association. A reg- istered dietitian-nutritionist can answer your questions on normal nutrition, special diets, nutrient values, food safety and storage, fad diets and books, food additives and myths, community nutritionist Patricia McCuaig said. Open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, the number to call is 1-800-667-DIET. * * * YOU SEE ONE IN EVERY COMMUNITY, a dog tied day after day to a back porch or fence, lying lonely on a pad of bare, packed dirt. The waterbowl, if there is one, is often empty or just out of reach. That’s what the Victoria SPCA is telling Peninsula residents in its spring 1991 newsletter and North Saanich resident Anne Richens agrees. Dogs in her neighborhood are often left unattended with no resources, tied in the back yard with nothing to do but bark. Often, Richens will offer much-needed companionship but asks that the dog’s owner be more attentive. Dogs can offer people the gifts of steadfast devotion, abiding love and joyful companionship. Unless people accept these offerings and take the time to return them in kind, it would be best not to own a dog, the SPCA said. * * OK OR TOP FLIGHT WORK will earn a trip to the Canadian Transportation Research Forum in Quebec City May 28 to 31 for a student author Students at B.C. post-secondary institutions are invited to enter the competition by writing a paper on air transport globalization. Entries must be received by April 1 and should be sent to Prof. Michael W. Tretheway, Centre for Transportation Studies, University of British Columbia, Van- couver, B.C, V6T 1Y8. ok OK THIS IS THE MONTH for Vision Awareness, according to the Canadian and B.C. Associations of Optometrists. March 3 to 9 has been declared Vision Awareness Week. March is also Nutrition Month, sponsored by the Canadian Dietetic Association. HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE BOWEL PROBLEMS DEPRESSION Continuing until April 5, Mon. to Sat. 10-5 p.m 1028 Fort St. (the old Ego Interiors building) WHIMBREL GALLERY_ (formerly Maples Gallery) presents an exhibition of new paintings by SUSAN LAPHAM PAT LEWIS KAY RATCLIFFE Show Opens Sat. March 16, 1-4 p.m. Artists Present FATIGUE TRAMPOLINES MARCH 16, 10 am - 3 pm SATURDAY PARKING LOT SALE * 3 Different models of 14’ round from York, Sundance, Vivan. * 8 x 10 Models New * 1 only 9’ x 14’ Rental Return * 1 only 14’ Octagon Demo * 1 used 4’ x 6’ Sundance * Rebounders IRRITABILITY OVERWORK MERIDIAN INTRODUCTORY OFFER NEW & USED, DEMOS & RENTAL RETURNS Kids with parents welcome to bounce~ Coffee, Donuts SAWYER TRAMPOLINES :es-6228 DIV. OF SAWYER SEWING CENTRES 840 Fort St., Victoria 11M EVENINGS 477-5777 STRESS ASSESSMENT Is the pressure of making a living keeping you from living? Stress not only decreases energy and enthusiasm’ on the © job and at home, it’s a known factorin 70% of all diseases. 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Chicken CHLORESTEROL he Light Way REDUCED! : THE HEALTHY SIDNEY DQ 2323 Bevan Ave. 656-3339 The Sidney Dairy Queen is a participating sponsor of the British Columbia Children's Hospital thru the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon.