Wednesday, March 18, 1992 & OurWiEWS AdrianRAESIDE Words to govern by new era in British Columbia. Aptiie was. unveiled Tuesday. Premier Mike Harcourt started his first session with a bang, reading what has to be one of the most impressive throne speeches in our province’s history. Promising to put people ahead of political back-slapping, Harcourt promised to lead a government based on integrity, honesty and openness. He backed up those easy-to-say, hard- to-follow words with a fist-full of initiatives designed to restore the public’s confidence in public officials. Harcourt promised to introduce a freedom of information and privacy act, strengthen the conflict of interest guidelines, establish an independent review of MLAs’ salaries, benefits, pensions and severance packages. If that isn’t enough to bring a smile to the late-Tommy Douglas’ face, Harcourt will expand the B.C. ombudsman’s powers to include municipalities, regional districts, school boards, universities and hospitals. Furthermore, Harcourt has promised to build a British Columbia for British Columbians. “This government believes a sound economy and social equality must go hand in hand,” Harcourt told his attentive audience.“We’re taking action to protect our most important investment — our people.” There is plenty of optimism laced in Harcourt’s words. One can only hope he has the courage to deliver on half of them. Street TALK e, Ren RN, \\ i m Wy De ae: VERYTHNG 1S READY FOR HG NEN SESSION OFT BCASaiSKATUR. retest a iN {altlegar Newt Nothing wrong with different My weekend was ruined and I’ve got two things to blame for it. Let’s start with the CBC. I was hotter than that biblical place when Hockey Night in Canada opted to show the Montreal-Los Angeles game over the Vancouver-Calgary tussle. , guys. If that wasn’t enough to make me want to pretend it was Monday and head off to the office, I happened to s.D. HARRISON Harrison Comparison fascination with Quebec, I’m getting a little sick of bending over backwards for certain groups only to get kicked in the butt. Between Quebec, Natives and other special interest groups, the Canada I know and want to know is being torn apart. Don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for Quebec (I lived there for six years) and Natives (my step-Grandmother come across Canada’s latest constitutional debate on CBC Newsworld. This latest venture into Canadian unity saw Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Ovide Mercredi demanding the Natives be recognized as a “distinct society.” Well, I’ll be gosh-darned — another group that wants more for less. and very expensive constitutional forums. Started because of Brian Mulroney’s Doris), I just don’t think they can be recognized as distinct. = By definition distinct means “not identical or alike.” Hmmm, let me think about that one for a second... kind of sounds like different, doesn’t it? So we're different, it shouldn’t take an army of constitutional law to figure out that we are all different. please see HARRISON page 6 oo _——s—_________...gg eee Edna Roberts Castlegar “I wonder how he will save in the new budget.” Margurite Genero Castlegar “I expect the government to stop spending our money on useless stuff.” Question: What are you expecting from the March 26 provincial budget? * Dh Peter Dyck Thrums “Restraint, trying to walk a tightrope and they'll make nobody happy.” Gail Geddes “Not too much.” Paul Oglow Castlegar Castlegar “More of the same.” @ Wednesday, March 18, 1992 dTheNews OtherVIEWS Please address all letters to: Letters to the Editor Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C. V1N 3H4 or deliver them to 197 Columbia Ave. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not longer —than : Letters MUST be signed and include the writer's first and’ last names, address and a telephone number at which the writer can be reached between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The writer's name and city or town of residence only will be published. Only in exceptional cases will letters be published anonymously. Even in those cases, the name, address and phone number of the writer MUST be disclosed to the editor. The News reserves the right to edit letters for brevity, clarity, legality, grammar and taste. Poiters tohHE EDITOR Canada Post has a plan Canada Post official Ilona Beiks recently justified the Penticton postal closure ( and postal privatization in general) with the comment: “Now we are paying our own way, and it’s working.” (The Province, Feb. 23, 1992) Translation: Canada Post is realizing profits at the expense of service to ordinary Canadians. Since, as Canada Post claims, 80 per cent of their business is with satisfying commercial needs, apparently this resulting loss of service to the public taxpayers is a small price to pay in their eyes. However, even just a few examples of such loss of service (e.g. poor training and non-accountability of clerks in franchise postal outlets, lack of security of parcels, and total loss of wicket service altogether when franchises are justifiably dumped by the small businesses saddled with them) taken together, make for a_ bizarre definition of a system that in Ms. Beiks’ eyes is “working.” I submit that the only definition of “worki to which Canada Post subscribes is one which provides, at any cost, a bottom line good enough to attract a buyer in 1996 — the targeted date for total privatization of Canada Post. Sandra Groepler 3 Robson B.C. Director Rural Dignity of : Canada Taxes can pay for bridge Celgar’s $700 million expansion will bring in over 51 per cent in all types of taxes. That’s over $350 million in taxes paid to governments. With $350 million a bridge could be built from Nelson to Trail in the middle of the river, and the governments say they have no money for the Robson Bridge. Gerry Dooder Pass Creek TFL support tremendous I want to acknowledge, through The News, the letters and petitions I've received from hundreds of residents of Castlegar in the past four weeks. The panel which I chaired asked for your reaction to the proposed transfer of Tree Farm Licence No. 23 from Westar to Pope and Talbot. Your response has been overwhelming. The community of Castlegar has spoken loudly and clearly about its desire to have Pope and Talbot’s proposal approved, and to get the Castlegar mill up and running. I want to assure you that I, your member of the legislature Ed Conroy, and all the members of the panel share your desire that the Castlegar mill become and remain a stable employer and an efficient processor of wood from TFL No. 23. Our recommendations for transfer of this tenure from Westar to Pope and Talbot are now in the hands of the Minister of Forests. As we promised when we visited Castlegar, we have conveyed to the Minister your desire for prompt action. Our panel wanted to provide the residents of the West Kootenay with a chance to say what they thought of the companies’ proposal for the use of our public forests before the government approved or rejected it. We believe that public participation in decision making about our forests should be encouraged and enhanced. Thank you for your participation. Paul Ramsey, MLA Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Forests Hard-handed Harcourt won’t play favorites Those who predicted that the Harcourt government would give away the kitchen sink to reward trade unions for their support in the last election, should start thinking about eating their words. The message the premier has for anyone lining up at the public trough couldn’t be any louder and clearer: Forget it, pal. When an angry crowd of about 500 Hospital Employee Union members descended on Victoria the other day, they got the same message, this time from Health Minister Elizabeth Cull. Drowned out by shouts of “we got you elect- ed” and “make good on your promises”, Cull told the hospital worke’ mt-has | workers that the governme: no intention of becoming involved in the dispute between the union and the Health Labor Relations Association. Harcourt had met with the union’s executive earlier and told them much the same thing. Public sector unions, he said shouldn’t expect much this year or next year in the way of pay equity, a major issue in the hospital dispute. Report from Victoria Hubert BEYER The union’s demands in the current round of negotiations are fairly steep, considering the province's financial-position. The union wants a seven-per-cent in- amount that we can do this year and probably next year,” the pre- mier later told reporters. His most telling comment came when he said that there had been enough favoritism to friends and insiders by the previous govern- ment. It wasn’t the unions who got the NDP elected, it was the people of British Columbia, and his gov- ernment was determined to gov- ern on behalf of all British Columbians. In other words, unions may be a friend of the NDP, but they had better not expect preferential treatment. The premier held out only one carrot. In the coming years, he said, the government planned to crease, as well as more money to implement pay equity. The Hospital Labor Relations Association has countered with an offer of 3.5 per cent in the first year of a new contract and 1.5 per cent in the second year, plus a small amount for pay equity for those two years. “Yes, pay equity is a priority for us but there is a limit to the vices, shifting them from hospitals and their inherently high costs of doctors, equipment and expensive drugs to community-based, pre- ventive-care facilities. This shift, Harcourt said, will free up money which could then be used to achieve things such as pay equity. It’s a theme he has been repeating ever since the elec- tion victory. Do more with less and squeeze more value out of existing tax dollars. There may be some other rea- son why the NDP is taking such a tough stance with the Hospital Employees Union. There have, for instance, been bad feelings be- tween the HEU’s president, Carmela Allevato and Ken Geor- getti, chief of the B.C. Federation of Labor for some time. But that alone doesn’t account for Harcourt’s unbending posture. He knows very well that govern- ment intervention in the hospital dispute and giving the hospital workers more money would only fuel the expectations of other pub- lic sector unions Among these who-will also ex-— pect more his year are the B.C. Government Employees Union, the B.C. Nurses Union, teachers, as well as a number of municipal, school board and college employ- ees. For the Hospital Employees Union that means one thing only: strike if you want, but it won't get you any more in the end. Harrison continued from page 6 Besides what in the world is wrong with being different anyway? This country would be a very boring place if was full of White Anglo Roman Catholics like yours truly. I’m not speaking as a red- necked British Columbian +decause I’m not. I’m Canadian and damn proud of it. If that makes me a redneck, so be it. Maybe I’m lucky. After being isolated on Vancouver Island for the first 18 of my 27 years, I took off — against the better wishes of my friends and family — to explore this country. Because of a little known youth program called Katimavik, I got to live among Acadians in Dieppe, New Brunswick and Ukrainians in Dauphin, Manitoba. During Katimavik, I also got to travel to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan. After that nine-month program ended, I decided to head to Quebec for the cheap schooling and the opportunity to learn a second language. Between college, university and my first newspaper job, I spent six wonderful years in la belle province — separating the friendly people from the hostile politics . My chosen professional has also landed me jobs in Ontario, Alberta and, now, British Columbia. I’m far from an expert on Canadian relations, but I’m not an idiot. Canada is different from coast to coast and the moment politicians decide to grant special status clauses to those who whine the loudest will be the day we can kiss our country goodbye.