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Saturday, April 25, 1992 @

OurWiEWS

Adria

Sihota
must act

he more things change, the
| more they stay the same —
just ask Moe Sihota.

Outspoken and undaunting in his
criticism of government as a member
of the opposition, Sihota has been
surprisingly quiet since he relaxed
into his cabinet position. Too quiet, in
fact.

Once considered the . New
Democrats brightest light, Sihota’s
glow has started to fade. Strapped
with the contentious labor portfolio,
one has to wonder whether Sihota
has the stomach to make the tough
decisions needed to bring peace to our
restless province. To date, Sihota has
lacked leadership. His appointment
of Stephen Kelleher to oversee the
present hospital dispute was a major
step backwards.

Kelleher was supposed to provide
recommendations that would see the
month-long dispute between the
Hospital Employees’ Union and the
Health Labor Relations Association
end. Instead, Kelleher made a pile of
weak-kneed suggestions that have
done nothing but add fuel to an

already-stoked fire.

Out of disgust, the HEU has
brought the dispute to an inexcusable
level. As if the cancellation of some

Dave McCullough
Publisher

Scott David

Composing Room
Foreman

Warren Chernoff
Accountant

Heather Hadley
Circulation Manager

Burt Campbell
Publisher Ementus

3,306-surgeries and ure 0
per cent of all B.C. hospital beds
through job action isn’t enough, the

HEU has started setting up pickets.

Enough is enough. Sihota can’t
stand idly by while British
Columbians are held hostage to
refusals, retorts and rhetoric.

Ys

| res FEDS
Health systems

The way we run health

PROVINCES} PROVINCES | MUNICIPALITIES) UNF LTi9

HYMEQWHERS
needs overhaul

mind.

care in this province doesn’t
work anymore.

And if we don’t do
somethng about it — and
quickly — __ universal
medicare as we know it will
be a thing of the past.

Like in New Zealand.

New Zealand used to
have universal medicare...
until it got too expensive.
Now doctors carry a cashbox
along with their medical bag
on house calls.

When the treatment has

Ron NORMAN

oy ~

ae
Comments

from the
Crossroads

But there’s a trade-off:
it also discourages people
with legitimate illnesses
— people who can’t afford
the physician’s fee or the
battery of necessary tests.

Our system, on the
other hand, provides for
unlimited access. And for
that very reason there is
also oversue and abuse.

Add to all that an
increasingly crushing cost.
| If you don’t think health
—__— care costs are becoming a

eos

been completed, the patient
pay p on the spot —-to the doctor, who is
not only the treating physican but cashier
as well.

Before you-dismiss that system out of
hand, it has some built-in advantages.

For instance, it limits patient use of
doctors. New Zealanders aren’t as liable to
trot down to the local MD’s office every time

their tummy is upset or demand to have an
expensive test just to give them peace of

burden, then look at the
following numbers. The 10 provinces spénd
almost $44 billion on health care annually
— nearly two and a half times as much as
in 1982.

At this rate we’ll be spending $100
billion on health care by the turn of the
century. Scary, isn’t it?

Even scarier is the thought of who will
have to pay the bill.

please see NORMAN page 6

Street( TALK

Question: Should the provincial government p

an

ut toll booths on B.C. highways?

LV. Campbet
Aug. 7, 1947-
Feb. 15, 1973

a

Dee Fritz
Castlegar

“] don’t think so.”

Daniel Bosse
Husky, Aus.

“Not on all roads,
maybe selected new
roads.”

Bruce Parker
Castlegar

“On major highways
it’s a good idea, not
minor ones.”

Randi Pratt

“I think we pay
enough already.”

GER.
Dave Closkey
Nelson Castlegar

“It would be a good

idea if it went for
road maintenance.”

__ Even in those

@ Saturday, April 25, 1992

“4The News

Other VIEWS

_ Please address

all letters to:
Letters to the
Editor
Castlegar News
P.O. Box 3007
Castlegar, B.C.
V1N 3H4

or deliver em 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. 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.

Letters :coWHE

EDITOR

Abortion must not be funded

Recently our B.C. NDP government
announced publicly its decision to fund
abortion clinics to the tune of $1 million.

This is nothing short of scandalous.

First, because public tax money is being
used to carry out the death sentence
against the unborn child (for her/him there
is no choice).

A very sizable number of taxpayers are
strongly opposed, on moral grounds, to the
taking of human life, yet they are being
forced, not only to see their government
perpetrate it, but also to pay for it
themselves. This is “choice?”

In the second place, it is no secret that
our B.C. health care system, which has
been one of the best in the world, is now no
longer able to supply surgical care beds
(extensive bed closures here are leading to
an exodus of patients across to the U:S.).
Needed heart surgeries, kidney dialysis and
life-giving health care are threatened.

These are not “chosen” procedures but,
unarguably, necessary to life. -

Each abortion, by contrast, is elective,
costly, and results in certain death for one
of the two patients involved, and lasting
damage to the other.

To spend public monies on killing babies
when their fellow humans truly need and
do not: get medical help is a disgrace.

June Lepsoe
Castlegar Right to Life

Great article, great writer

On: behalf of the Castlegar and District
Heritage Society, I would like to thank Glen
Freeman and the Castlegar News for the
excellent article on Zuckerberg Island
(Saturday, April 18).

It was interesting, accurate and certainly
timely as, until our Thursday night meeting
the Chapel House for the Easter weekend,
and had not advertised (apart from a quick

call to CKQR on Friday morning), but 370°

people managed to find the island and
stroll, picnic, tour the Chapel House or just
enjoy the serene surroundings from one of
the 10 viewing benches.

At our Thursday night meeting, it was
voted to temporarily remove the entry fee
($1 for adults, 50 cents for children and
seniors) from. both the Chapel House and
the C.P. Rail Station Museum.

The final decision on admission charges
will be made at our Annual General
Meeting on May 14, 1992 at the C.P. Rail

_ Station Museum at 7 p.m.

The interim executive will complete their
mandate undertaken in- January of this
year, at this time and give a progress
report.

Those interested are urged to drop by the
Rail Station Museum, located at the foot of
38rd Street downtown, and buy a
membership ($5 single, $10 family) so that
they may participate in these important
decisions and elections.

Also, because we had applied for the
Community Pride Workshop before the
program was cut by the provincial
government, our Workshop on May 7 and 8
will definitely go ahead. Only twenty seats
are available, many of which are spoken for
by people who attended the initial meeting.

We hope to have both the Chapel House
and Rail Station Museum open in full
operation by April 27, 1992. Call the
Society office 365-6440 for hours.

John H. Coyle

; President
Castlegar and District
Heritage Society

Budget breaks airlines backs

Open letter to Finance Minister Glen

lark:

It was extremely disappointing to see
that your provincial budget has further
singled out the airline industry for more
insidious taxes, guaranteeing less airline
travel within B.C., and from B.C. to other
provinces and states.

Please don’t take comfort from your

today; they, yourself, and the federal
government, are responsible for extracting
$29 out of every $100 revenue regional
airlines in Canada generate.

Your actions will now increase this figure
to over $30.

In recent months, Time Air has made
hundreds of presentations to federal,

provincial and municipal governments
asking for reduced charges, fees and
taxation levels.

All levels of government need to be part
of the solution to the huge losses the
Canadian airlines industry is now
experiencing.

If you were.a part of the solution, you
would be helping to keep some of the jobs in
Canada, that.may soon be lost. Instead, you
choose to play a major role in continuing
with the incessant and excessive taxation
which is largely responsible for air carrier
unprofitability today. 3

Due to the excessive taxation from both
levels of Government, we are now paying 31
cents per litre for jet fuel, while our
counterparts in the U.S.A. pay, 17 cents.
This may or may not be news to you.

Your actions will cause us to consider a
far increase in the middle of a recession —
the federal and provincial governments
alone are responsible for us having to do
this.

I see a corollary between your Corporate
Capital Tax Program and the exit of capital
from this country.

Reasonable taxation should be tied
exclusively to those corporations providing
a profit, not making a purchase or
deploying an asset. : :

Any responsible management and board
of directors will now do their level best to
avoid a capital purchase in the province of
British Columbia, in the same way air
carriers will try to avoid upliftin, el in
B.C.

Any traveller, seeing fares so
in the U.S. will drive over the ‘border to
begin his/her travel itinerary, even more
than they do today.

Because you ultimately are taking more
money from each individual tax payer
(using the air carrier as your agent to
reduce your own visibility), the consumer
will continue to refuse to fly, culminating in

essation of service to some communities.in

B.C., and a loss of employment.
Please rethink your position and
withdraw these taxes immediately.

Glenn Picard,
Time Air
General Manger
Calgary

Norman

continued from page 6

But somewhere along the way the

ated with the previous Socred gov-

bill the education ministry for

But it’s a bill we’ll likely never
see because the system will come
crashing down around our heads
long before it reaches those dizzy-
ing heights.

That’s why in last month’s bud-
get the provincial government
took the first steps to shift health-
care spending away from the tra-
ditional hospital-based care and

NDP government took control and
the good beginning went out the
window.

The government decided to es-
tablish a special committee to look
at ways to implement the commis-
sion’s recommendations.

Sounds great, right?

It wasn’t until the New Democ-
rats told doctors that the B.C.

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.

into community-based care.

The idea for a greater role for
community-based health care
came out of the Seaton Commis-
sion on Health Care, which trav-
elled the province gathering input
from health professionals, hospi-
tal administrators and just plain
folks.

It was a good beginning to re-

_shaping our health-care system. _

ernment and slapped a cap on
both individual incomes and glob-
al billing by doctors.

To say the docs weren’t happy
would be an understatement.

I have no trouble with either of
the government’s decisions. The
pension plan was a farce and
should never have been initiated.

And for most working stiffs a

Medical Association couldn’t have
a representative on the committee
because there wouldn't be repre-
sentatives from any of the other
health-care groups. :

Then it proceeded to invite rep-
resentatives from the nurses’
groups and others.

To make matters worse, the
NDP unilaterally junked the doc-

_tors’ pension plan that was negoti- _

$300,000 cap on income seems
generous. For doctors to complain
is like having NHL players go on
strike for more money.

And a global cap on billing is a
necessity. Can you imagine if our
education system was run the
same way. as our health-care sys-
tem and we paid teachers as we do
doctors?

__Teachers would be allowed to

whatever amount they wanted. At
the same time they would deter-
mine education standards such as

_ Class sizes.

We might see class sizes drop to
10° per teacher, and while that
would make for an ideal learning
situation, could we afford it?

We have to ask the same thing
of doctors.
~— Having said that, it must also”
be said that the government was
out of line by changing its agree-
ment with the BCMA without
first discussing it with the doctors.

The NDP government will need
the support and help of doctors to
shift to a community-based
health-care system.

It’s not going to get that the