A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 28, 1998

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 EMAIL:.standard@kermode.net

Heave ho

IF RUDY Schwartz had been an actor in the Titanic movie, he would have been one of those perched on the stern of the vessel as it slid into, the sea. Alive, but just for now. You knew what was going to happen.

It was with no great surprise last week to learn’ that Mr. Schwartz, the vice president of Skeena Cellulose, was tossed out the door as the strange corporate bedfellow partnership of the NDP and Toronto-Dominion bank began changing things.

Somebody had to be seen to take the big fall for what happened to the company and the biggest candidate around was Mr. Schwartz, the man in charge of the company’s finances. George Petty, who created Skeena Cellulose and who set up the system whereby cash flowed eastward and debt flowed westward which crippled the company in the first place, had already gone. Vice chairman’ Harry Papushka is still around because he’s the only person who knows the ins and outs of Skeena Cellulose’s customers. He’ll be gone as soon as the new people figure out where he keeps his persona] phone directory.

Mr. Schwartz’s forced departure, and those of others, has been hinted at for some time by employment and investment minister Dan Miller. He’s made no secret of saying there were going to be upper management changes in the compa- ny.

It’s fairly standard for new owners of com- panies to take a scythe to the ranks of senior management. Replacing those people with your people is just one of the laws of the corporate jungle.

The key thing here is whether Skeena Cel- lulose’s new owners are acting in the search for sacrificial lambs or for the good of the company.

We'll know, that when.new, executives are hired. And we'll know even more whertithe new board'}" “df diyectots is announced.

Deadly cost

ONE OF the more significant events of the past couple months is also the one in which there has been no excitement about — the decision to pull firefighters out of the majority of British Colum- bia’s airports.

Somewhere in Ottawa somebody has figured out that the cost of dealing with a plane load of dead people is less than what it takes to run air-, port fire departments.

We’ve heard absolutely nothing out of the Reform party, the official opposition in Ottawa or the New Democratic Party, the people that supposedly care about the average Canadian.

It?s as if the mathematical equation of dead people versus fire department costs meets with the approval of these two parties as just another way of driving down the federal deficit.

Of course, there’s another mathematical equa- tion at work. The federal government is getting out of the smaller airport business. Cutting fire departments makes for fewer expenses for the new airport authorities which, for the most part, consist of local municipal governments. Sounds like a pre-arranged deal, eh? a

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Serving tha Terrace and Thamhill area. Published on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, VBG SR2, .

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QAODY....

AM | YOUR LITTLE Boy : OR AM | YOOR LITTLE CLONE

2

5

North sucks gas once

VICTORIA — Imagine a stranger bunking in your home. He eats at your table. He runs up your hydro bill. He contrib- ules to the wear and tear of your property. Yet, he doesn’t pay a cent for the privileges he enjoys. That’s the situation Peace River communities find themselves in.

Peace River towns such as

- Dawson Creek, Fort St. Joln ‘and Pouce Coupe are going

broke in the midst of an oil and gas boom in their region. All of the resource-extracting

companies in the area are lo-

cated outside of municipal boundaries and, therefore, pay

_f0 municipal taxes. Yet, their

employees live in the com- munities and enjoy the benefiis

__ the.towns no longer can afford. , ,. vo The... strangers .. banking _,

without paying their fair share are, of course, not the émploy-’ ees themselves, bui the com- panies,

In other resource-based com- munities, industry pays its fair share. Some would claim they

‘pay too much. Port Alberni

gets 49 per cent of ils property taxes from industry; Quesnel

‘— 7) per cent; Castlegar — 61

per cent, Kitinat — 83 per cent; Powell River — 60 per cent.

Fort St. John, on the other

Please s

‘Men aft some time are

masters of their fates:

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are unierlings.’? -—- Wir. Stakespeare

Once again, Terrace city council is hunting for a better microphone, one that will let Channel 10 viewers not only see but hear council meetings.

Council may search in vain. To put their speech problem in Shakespearian terms:

the fault, dear Council, is not in your mikes

But in yourselves, that you are mumbling.

No sound system works well when speakers slouch in their chairs, way back, tuck their chins into their collars, and practise ventriloquism.

If hockey players, ballet dan- cers, even salespersons make it a habit to view videotapes of their performances to identify flaws, why doesn’t council watch — and listen — to a Channel 10 broadcast of any

7 I MUST LEAVE

oe boos

FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER

hand, gets a paltry three per cent of its property tax from industrial operations; Dawson Creek sits al four per cent and Pouce Coupe at 10 per cent.

. Those, aren’t exactly, the, kind 98 bag inapes Vibrant AOS aps,

made of.

‘While ture is crumbling, outside their boundaries, industrial activity continues unabated. And to add insult to injury, the provin- cial government is continuing to off-load services onto municipalities.

Faced with such insurmount- able odds, the Peace River Regional District has come up with a plan, called Fair Share, that would put the com- niunilies on the road to eco-

THROUGH BIFOCALS: CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

council meeling?

Let council watch even ane of their typical meetings on tape and they’d see why viewers complain about the sound: talking while chewing on a ballpoint, murmured asides because the person’s seated next to them; raising new business and at the same lime checking the shine on their shocs.

The only time Channel 10 viewers are guaranteed ex-

Moth Pariah tee the towns’ infrasiruc-

top th

nomic recovery,

The Fair Share proposal would give the Peace River Regional District the authority to collect property taxes in the region, taxes that are now siphoned off by Victoria. Al that’s needed to pul (he plan into action is a cabinet order.

The proposed levy would be against Industrial Classes 2,4 and 5, which covers utilities, light and heavy industries, al a tate that would ensure all com- munities in the district receive uo less than 50 per cent of their property taxes from industry. That’s the average of industrial property tax paid to resource communities elsewhere in the province.

To hammer home their mes-

sent a letter to Premier Glen Clark, stressing the urgency of the problem.

“It is a sad fact that our com- munities are going bust in a petroleum sector boom. We can’t afford the luxury of eco- nomic development. There isn’t even enough of a property tax base to fill the thousands of potholes or upgrade and ex- pand sewer systems,’’ the let- ler says.

again »

“Our communities are home to the majority of the region’s work force and provide social, recreational, business and ser- vice suppor for resource de- | velopment. They are decay- ing.”’

In the hope of forcing Vic- toria’s hand, the Peace River communilies will resort to some extraordinary action: they will become interveners in a series of petroleum project hearings before the National | Energy Board and the B.C. Utilities Commission.

“We ate not trying to halt or delay vital economic develop- ment in the region, we are simply making sure that our communities have the industri- al property taxation resources

SBS, Peace River, municipal,....pecessary,to support it,”’ says

yileaders met, with cabinet tasTy ¥ bens a Victoria. Prior to thelr

“arrival, “the regional district

adgacs. River Regional District

chair Karen Goodings. - 4...

All of which leaves me as- king the question I have often asked before: why is it always the people in our vast central and northern region, the ones who produce most of British Columbia’s wealth, who are being short-shrifted by govern- ments in Victoria?

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

at mumbling

cellent sound is when a coun- cilor delivers a cutting remark about another level of govern- ment or one of its elected rep- resentatives. Then he looks straight into the camera, cranks up his volume, and enunciates as meticulously as a veterinarian tiptoeing through a winter feedlot.

Former councillor Ruth Hal- lock was a treat to listen to. The Ethel Merman of elected representatives, Hallock al- ways pitched her voice to be understocd by the most distant spectalars. She gave full weight to everything she said, never clipping her words like a nervous six-year-old. And even when she spoke to the person beside her, we shared thal, too.

Now council’s only role model is Bob Hallsor. Like any proper administrator, Hallsor always speaks up, talks clearly, aud whatever he says is meant to be heard not only by the councillor, asking, but by the other six council members as

well as the audience, both in chambers and at home watch- ing TV.

Instead of badgering CFTK to find an even better sound system, council should exam- ine their own skills. Terrace’s chief Toastmaster - or any teacher who’s coached kids through a Christmas concert - could help council analyze a few of their videotaped meet- ings and advise them on ways to minimize their audibility handicap,

I could tell them to sit up straight, lift their ribs out of their belts, and look viewers in the eye. Some could even give up their Edgar Bergen routine.

If any councillor complains he can’t speak louder, ask him to say a few words about the regional district, Thornhill, or Les Watmough. Then watch him become as animated — and audible —- as the Chip. munks.

Forget the expense of a betier microphone, Quit mumbling.

me YOU NOW AND Go mm IOTHE PLACE oF

Pa T0b MUCH TIME Mm SMOKING Hoops!

WITH YOU rl THE COMMUNITIES!!

T THINK OLD RALPH HAS BEEN SPENDING-

A CIGARETTE BREAK AT A GOVERNMENT OFFICE WHEN IT'S 35 BELoWw!

Pon'T WORRY ! T's Just Somé. BUSH CODE HE

PICKED UP FOR...

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CaAatewer

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