Saturday, February 29, 1992 @

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Dave McCullough

Warren Chernoff

Budget a_

The 1992 federal budget is a
triumph of reason over emotion, of
discretion over whim, of the investor
over the spendthrift. ae
It offers us reason for optimism
about Canada's future, and tells us
the federal government has learned
the lesson of fiscal responsibility well.
It achieves these goals in spite of
the fact that Finance Minister Don
Mazankowski was being begged by
many special interest groups to
plunge the country ever deeper into a
frightening black hole of debt. :
Mazankowski, the government's
most competent minister, knew
better than to comply. He struck a
fine balance between deficit reduction
and stimulation, and the result will
be economic recovery with a sub-
stantially reduced inflationary jolt.
This strategy doesn't make the:
finance minister hard-hearted, as
some have suggested. Rather, it
establishes an economic environment
in which rising competitiveness and
productivity will ensure the welfare
of Canada's workforce.
More must be done, of course.
«Development of a national retraining
strategy is urgent. Regressive taxes
in all their various forms — GST and
other sales levies — must be replaced
with progressive taxation. Business
must be given incentives to direct its
resources toward job creation.
The new federal budget enables all
this to happen. By reining in the
deficit, it promises greater flexibility
for a creative, effective response to
the challenges of the future.

fsays the government is

| means.

We

NDP sets double standard |

Highways Minister Art
Charbonneau is a graduate
of the George Bush “Read
My Lips” School of Politics.

Oh sure, Charbonneau

committed to a bridge across
the Columbia River, though
not necessarily in 1993 as
was promised.

We know what he really

“Read my lips: no bridge.”
What amazes me is how
the provincial government

Ron NORMAN

Comments
from the
Crossroads

is finished the mill will be
down to near one kilogram
— well under the
provincial guidelines.

That doesn’t worry the
mill. What does worry it is
that by the year 2002 —
10 years from now — the
mill must totally eliminate
all chlorinated organics.
Zip. Zero.

There’s just one hitch —
the technology is not yet
developed to. produce
bleached kraft pulp and

can have one set of rules for
industry and another for
itself.

Earlier this year the province announced
new environmental regulations for pulp
mills. By 1995 mills will have to limit the
discharge of chlorinated organics — the
stuff that creates deadly dioxins and furans
— to 1/5 kilograms per air-dried tonne of
pulp produced. Right now, Celgar is at the
2.5 kg. mark. ans

However, by the time the modernization

reach the zero chlorinated
organics level. :

Celgar anticipated tougher environ-
mental standards in the future and
designed its new mill with the flexibility to
incorporate technological advancements
when they are made. So if a system is
developed to produce quality bleached pulp
and eliminate chlorinated organics, Celgar
could adopt it — provided it is economically
feasible as well.

please see NORMAN page 7 ~

Heather Hadiey
Circulation Manager

Street WALK

Burt Campbell
Publisher Emeritus

L.V. Campbell
Aug. 7, 1947-
Feb. 15, 1973

Larry Price

Danny Walker
Castlegar

Castlegar

“It’s affected the
sale of my last house
in Golden.”

“Jt really hasn’t.”

Question: How has the recession affected you?

Aaron Postnikoff
Castlegar

“It hasn’t hit me at

all.”

Brian Newall
Kelowna

“It’s been great to

buy a house.”

Susan Campbell
Castlegar

“It hasn’t affected
é me.”

@ Saturday, February 29, 1992

7s

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 300 words.
Letters MUST be
signed and
include the
writer’s first and
last names,
address anda
telephone
number at which
the writer can be
reached between
9a.m. and5
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.

If Premier Harcourt wants to
make good on his promise to bal-
ance the provincial budget over
the term of his government’s cur-
rent mandate, ht’s got his work
cut out for him.

A couple of weeks ago, cabinet _
F4 at the Treasury
Board’s spending plan for the next
fiscal year. According to. Finance
Minister Glen Clark, it wasn’t a
pretty sight.

Nobody will say just how big
the deficit of the current budget is
going to be, but $2 billion might
turn out tobe a close guess.

Keeping the deficit for the com-
ing fiscal year under the $2 billion
mark will be a difficult task al-
ready. But there’s also the ques-
tion of the current budget deficit,
which will probably also be
around the $2 billion mark.

Remember that the current
budget was never passed by the
legislature. Most of the day-to-day
government spending has been
done by way of supply bills and
special warrants.

The supply bills were passed by
the legislature. They authorized
the previous government.to spend
a certain amount of money, until
the budget was actually passed.
But that never happened.

Enter special warrants. Ever
since the last legislative session
collapsed, the previous govern-
ment, as well as the new one, have
kept the province financially

Report
from

Victoria

Deficit means tough choices in hard limes

deficit will add at least $200 mil-
lion a year to future budgets.
Small wonder the new finance
minister isn’t amused and doesn’t
miss an opportunity to elaborate
the financial mess the Socreds left

-| behind; The horror stories they're

finding out, he says, go beyond
partisan politics. The word night-
mare, he says, comes to mind.
Well, if the current budget
deficit actually comes in at a $2
billion deficit, and the new budget

projects another $2 billion short-

afloat with special warrants, au-
thorized by cabinet.

And while the Socreds were
spending money like mad hatters,
trying to salvage their disintegrat-
ing administration, they kept in-
sisting that the deficit was under
control.

As late as last October, during
the election campaign, then fi-
nance minister John Jansen stub-
bornly maintained that the deficit
was around $580 million.

That bubble burst when former
premier Rita Johnston admitted
that, yes, the scrapping of the
Budget Stabilization Fund with
its non-existing money put the ac-
tual deficit closer to $1.2 billion.

But the current finance minis-
ter says that wasn’t the half of it,
hinting that the real shortfall was
closer to $2 billion. Based on an
interest rate of 10 per cent, the
service charges of that $2 billion

fall, then nightmare is probably
the right word.

For the past four months, the
Treasury Board, consisting of nine
cabinet ministers, has been pour-
ing over the figures. The nine in-
clude the three ministers who are
spending most of the taxpayers’
money — Health Minister Eliza-
beth Cull, Education Minister
Anita Hagen and Social Services
Minister Joan Smallwood.

In light of the province’s tight
financial position, they have had
to make some tough choices. All
ministries were instructed some
months back to submit budget es-
timates that are at least five per
cent below last year’s spending.

Some ministries will have their
spending severely curtailed. No-
body should be surprised, for in-
stance, if the highways budget
will be trimmed to the bone. High-
ways Minister Art Charbonneau
has already stated that the gov-

ernment will not engage in any
wholesale blacktopping of the
province.

Instead, the government is con-
centrating the current level of so-
cial services. The new school

program, one of the NDP’s major

election promises, is just one ex-
ample. :

The problem is that highways
construction and maintenance
creates jobs, school lunch pro-
grams don’t. Clark is quite aware
of that.

“If you want to fund a school
lunch program and you don’t want
to increase the deficit, then you
have to find the money within the
budget. You have to cut some-
where else,” he says.

And cut they will. This NDP
government is determined to get a
second mandate from the voters,
and if they have to be fiscally con-
servative to succeed, they will be _
conservative.

The business community has
already sensed that Harcourt is
anything but a socialist when it
comes to spending money. I have
yet to hear any criticism to speak
about from the business commu-
nity on the NDP’s spending poli-
cies. :

The question is how the tradi-
tional NDP supporters will react
to a budget that will probably bear
close resemblance to Bill Bennett’s
restraining budget. It is they Har-
court will have to worry about.

Norman

continued from page 6

have come up with a solution that

environment comes first.

safety? What then?
Ah, that’s different, as we can

Let me explain.
Before Celgar could proceed

Who knows? In 10 years researchers may

is both

technically and economically feasible.

But that’s not my point. My point is this
— the costs to meet these new regulations
could soar into the hundreds of millions.
What if the mills can’t meet those new
guidelines or don’t have the money? ‘Too
bad for them,’ the government says. The

But what if the shoe were on the other
foot? If government was required to come
up with millions of dollars to ensure public

see with

the government’s position on the bridge.

with its

modernization the project was put through
an extensive public hearing process. The
result of that process was a report by the
Celgar Expansion Review Panel.

In that report, the panel made 50
recommendations, most concerning Celgar’s
responsibilities — such as establishing a
routine effluent monitoring program and
sponsoring research into how to reduce
chlorine usage. It added up to millions of
dollars in expenses for the pulp mill.

The company agreed to comply with the
recommendations — though it didn’t
necessarily agree with them.

The report also had a handful of
recommendations for the provincial
government, most to do with trans-
portation. Things such as paving parts of
Highways 3A, 6 and 23 at a cost of about
$21 million.

There were also $22 million in capital

projects on everything from rerouting the

News file photo

The mill modernization was only acceptable if the government agreed to a bridge and highway im-
provements. So now that the NDP says the bridge is on hold, does that mean the pulp mill’s permit

is invalid? :

awful Silverton Hill ($10- million) to fixing
up Government Hill in Nakusp ($1.5
million).

But foremost among the panel’s trans-
portation recommendations was the bridge
across the Columbia River. In fact the panel
received assurances from the province
about the bridge. This is what.it said in the
report: ‘

“The provincial government has
committed to construction of a bridge across
the Columbia River, upstream of Castlegar.”

Not only that, but the panel made the
bridge and highways improvements a

~precondition of approving the project.

In other words, the mill modernization
was only acceptable to the panel if the
government agreed to a bridge and
highways improvements. All of which raises
a couple of important questions.

If, as Charbonneau implies, the province
is going to delay construction of a bridge
and possibly other highway improvements,
does that mean the pulp mill’s permit is
invalid?

And if the province isn’t required to
comply with the panel’s recommendations,
does that mean Celgar can ignore the
recommendations as well?

Your guess is as good as mine.