A4- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 9, 1997

“TERRACE.

~ STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL. 27, 1988

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All for one

SKEENA NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht has had an awful start to 1997. He’s been assailed by the ; those afflicted by the Repap failure, by college - students, by social workers and by the recrea- tional fishing industry. All want his head on a pike for his government’s real or imagined sins.

The problem for Mr. Giesbrecht — and by ex- tension for the rest of us — is that he is simply one government member among many. Deci- sions are made by senior cabinet members or worse, or by senior policy advisors working directly for the inner circle surrounding Premier Glen Clark. It’s obvious that the big boys aren’t talking to or asking backbenchers such as Mr. Giesbrecht about the consequences of decisions that affect each and every one of us. The fishing licence fee fiasco is but the latest example.

Mr. Giesbrecht appears just a step ahead or even a bit behind the official and murky press releases announcing government policy. He’s then left pretty much on his own in trying to ex- plain things after the you-know-what has hit the. fan. And that’s not an enviable position, one that even those opposed to Mr. Giesbrecht and his. government have to acknowledge.

These circumstances are magnified for north- westerners who have long felt, no matter who is" in power, that the southern-based power struc- tures care little about what goes on up here. And when the bad news comes in tidal waves, the ac- cumulated effect is catastrophic.

All of this is not to let Mr. Giesbrecht off the hook. As the direct elected representative of the government in this riding, he carries the can for the government’s decisions. Yet he should also carry our message and do in such a fashion that: has our support. If Mr. Giesbrecht chooses not to, then he suffers the consequences.

Consider Repap. Amid the pain, anger and suf- fering over the millions in debt left by that com- pany, Mr. Giesbrecht did say something that makes sense — five years ago, when Repap first began making late payments, was the time when contractors should have taken a firm stance. Given the circumstances of today, that sounds harsh. But Mr. Giesbrecht’s point seems to be that those who stand together have a better chance of accomplishing something.

He now suggests there be more stringent pay- ment obligations tied to forest licences, the ob- ject of which is to prevent another Repap. What kind of support would Mr. Giesbrecht have for such a quest as it would involve greater pene- tration by the state in the business world? Will the mayors’ panel now looking at the northwest forest industry future consider the need for this? Would the various forest industry sectors accept the premise that northwesterners have the right to a fair share of the resource in their backyard?

Suppose northwest forestry contractors and political leaders tell Mr. Giesbrecht they'll help him draw up a private members’ bil] addressing forestry issues and then cheer him from the pub- lic galleries when he introduces it in the legisla- ture. This may sound like pie-in-the-sky but our goal should be for the northwest to stick togeth- er, regardless of political stripes.

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Serving the Teraca and Thomhill area. Published on Wodnesday of each weak by Cariboo Press (1969) Ud. al 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G 5A2,

Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typastyles In the Terrace Standard are the property of tha oe holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., its illustration repro services and advertising

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Speclal thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents

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Our priorities are all wrong

VICTORIA —- The order in which stories are displayed on the front page of a newspaper signifies ils importance, at least in theory.

What stared me in the face of my daily last Wednesday was the headline ‘‘Play ball,” in huge, bold letters on top of the front page, above a picture of Chicago White Sox player Norberto Martin, sliding past Toronto Blue Jays catcher Benito Santiago to home plate on opening day.

Just below was a headline in slightly smaller type: ‘“Health- fee hikes blasted.’”’ The story was all about chiropraciozs, physiotherapists, massage therapists and other alternative health care providers com- plaining about fee increases in the new budget from $7.50 lo $10 a visit.

At the bottom of the page was a story about a Vancouver mother who lay dead on her bathroom floor for six days while her 22-month-old son banged on her chest trying to wake her.

Little has changed since the ancient Roman got their kicks from watching Christians torn apart by lions, Sport still kes

FROM THE CAPITAL

HUBERT BEYER priority over the ills that afflict society. And anything setting the scene for confrontation with government is second on the list.

True, the baseball photo was a great shot, but it belonged on the sports page. And the chorus of irate health-care pro- viders bitching about fee in- creases has becn heard so often that the same story with dif- ferent names could be nin every time fees are hiked.

At least the story of Mavis Flanders was given front-page play, albeit at the bottom, It was the story that deserved a screaming headline, zipped across the top, a story that

reminds us that not all is well in Beautiful British Columbia.

Flanders, 39, died of an ap- parent drug overdose. She and her son, Chabasco, were regu- lar visitors at the Kiwassa Neighborhood House in East Vancouver and, according to children and families ministry staff, the mother had success- fully completed drug and al- cohol counselling programs.

Now the ministry is frantical- ly trying to determine how a woman wha received thal much attention, could end up dead on the floor, her little boy trying desperately to wake up his mom.

Atleast the opposition got its priorities straight. For several days, Liberal MLAs bom- barded Penny Priddy, Minister for Children and Families, with questions about the horrid cir- cumstances surrounding Flandess’ death,

They wanted to know why the ministry wasn’t wise to the danger that Flanders’ lifestyle posed to little Chabasco, who had apparently been ap- prebended twice before by the ministry.

They wanted te know why nobody checked on the

woman’s home which, when she was found, resembled any- thing but a caring environment for a child, Liberal leader Gor- don Campbell had this to say:

“The apartment I saw on television was not something you get to that state in a couple of days or ten days, We've got syringes there, we've got bottles of pills there, we've got rotten food there. It’s an ab- solute shambles in that apart- ment.”

I'm sure Priddy feels as sick at heart as anyone, and no per- sonal blame should be attached to her. There are no perfect people, just perfect intentions.

On the other hand, just what can we expect when society has. unqueslioningly bought into’ the bottom-line philaso- phy, once reserved for a mi- nority on the right of the politi- cal spectrum?

As long as society deems the opening of the baseball season and balanced budgets worthy of greater atiention than its ills, the solution to our most press- ing problems will continue to elude us.

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

Political manners needed

THREE DAYS into the new legislative session, pazly shenanigans have shoved aside provincial business. Victoria is preoccupied by the accusations and denials of two MLA’s who should have known better.

This all began when NDP MLA Jenny Kwan - before debating the budget - spoke for four minutes... in Cantonese.

English is the language of the house, except for brief, brief ceremonial speeches, Dutch, German, French and Punjabi have all been used in the Iegis- lature. Briefly. With the in- dulgence of ihe speaker and the other members.

Kwan is fluent in English. Yet she chose to digress for four minutes in Cantonese, ¢x- ceeding custom by several minutes. A few eyebrows might have been raised. a few eyes might have rolled, But nothing more would have come of it had not a Liberal

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

MLA heckled her, in Cantonese.

Dutch-born Fred Nebbeling couldn’t push back his cuticles or write notes for four minutes. Oh, no. He bad to butt in using a Cantonese expression, He said it means ‘‘Make a big speech”. He denied knowing those words can also mean

NICE BONE COLLECT Ion!

permitted in the legislature.

Kwan demanded Nebbeling apologize to every Chinese person in B.C. Nebbeling denied having said anything in Canlonese. And on it goes,

Few are elected straight to the Jegislature. Most ap- prentice as municipal coun- cilor, school trustee, or regional district director, Kwan was a councilor, Nebbeling was mayor of Whistler.

Local governments know electors turf out smart-alecks, Yet once councilors reach far- off Victoria, they feel free to heckle, harass, even lie.

For this we pay cach MLA $69,000 2 year? ~ British Columbia is in deep trouble on many fronts -— huge debts, fallering forest com- panics, foster children at risk, old schools crumbling. We need sound solutions not noisy

‘Tell a big lie’, un- antics, parliamentary words not | Was Kwan’s linguistic Gp URQUHART Wom & BiT oF 7°56

A COLLEC Tor MYSELE!

REALLYC WHAT Do YoU SPECIALIZE in?

RAD KILLS!

departure a showing-off of her second language skill? My up- bringing says it's impolite to speak a language the assem- blage doesn’t understand, un- less it’s the single language that speaker can converse in.

Or was Kwan's four-minute Cantonese talk — caucus- designed as a red herring to lure attention away from Pet- ter's budget? Without Nebbel- ing’s mide abetting, her lure would have remained a pesky minnow.

At the risk of being labeled racist, I wish all. immigrants would learn to speak English in public, adopt Canadian customs, and remember the manners their grandmothers taught them.

It worked for my Swedish grandparents,

Civility and up-front honesty in Victoria would leave MLAs more time to solve our major - probleis,