A4- The Tarrace Standard, Wednesday, June 15, 1994 TERRACE STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C. * V8G 188 TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432 MODEM: 638-7247 BC21 circus THERE MUST be a better way for the provincial government to give us back the tax money we . pay it. The situation as it stands now is stupid, demeaning, expensive and self serving. A perfect case in point is BC21, the general name given by the province for practically every dollar it now spends. What it is a package prettied up by wrapping, ribbons and bows — all designed for maximum public relations effec- tiveness keyed to the notion that the provincial government is doing a jim dandy job of running the show. EXAMPLE 1. The library board and the city now have $200,000 from the BC21 community grants program for the expansion to the library. But getting this amount (it’s one-third of what was first requested) required some arm twisting from Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht and a per- sonal on-bended-knee and no doubt costly lobby- ing visit to Victoria from mayor Jack Talstra and library board member George Clark. And when the grant was announced, it came with a fancy sign painted and shipped up from Victoria that you now see in front of the con- struction project. On the day of the announceme- nt, key players were presented with plush sweat- shirts and nifty lapel pins bearing the BC21 logo. How many more dollars could have been allo- cated to the library had it not been for the money spent on such gimmickery? EXAMPLE 2. On the day education minister Art Charbonneau visited Caledonia Secondary School to announce $507,000 for a daycare cenire, he came laden with BC21 symbols. The children who will be going to the centre were given little BC21 hardhats, shovels and buckets. All were duly collected after the announcement. End of show, end of the hoopla. Again, what did these. things cost? Where are they now? . EXAMPLE 3. The official sod turning for the Skeena-Kalum Housing Society’s subsidized housing project on Haugland came with its own props. These were gleaming, fancy plated shovels. All were collected at the end. At what cost? For what purpose? Even in the best of economic times, this kind of stuff would be hard to explain. But when the pro- vince is running at a deficit, when money is being borrowed that must be repaid, spending on — such frivolity and waste is horrifying. The Roman empire kept the masses satisfied with bread and circuses. Nowadays we can bare- . ly afford the bread, let alone the circuses. Have we not learned anything from the Roman times up until now? Wood word ALL THAT good news contained in the forest industry’s 1993 overall financial round up is tinged with more than a few warning signs. While overall net earnings totalled $520 million on record sales of $14.4 billion, huge profits on the lumber end were countered by equally huge losses on the pulp and paper end. That $14.4 billion in sales was a 23 per cent in- crease over the 1992 level. Yet the number of direct jobs remained the same — 92,200 — in 1993 is it did in 1992, It’s a sign that continued efficiencies and labour saving methods will take hold as companies seek to contain costs, And costs oulside of the companies’ control will con- tinue to rise because of new government taxation and environmental protections measures. KS PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm . PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS COMMUNITY: Jeff Nagel * NEWS SPORTS: Malcolm Baxter OFFICE MANAGER: Rose Fisher _DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Howie Oram CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Charlene Matthews Serving the Tertaca area. Published on Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Press (1869) Lid, et 464) Lazelle Ava., Terrace, Griish Columbia, Staries, photographs, INustrations, designs and lypestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of tha copyright holders, Including Caribeo Press (1969) Ltd, W's Mlustrallon repro services and advertising agencies, Reproduction In whole o7 in part, wilhout writlon permission, is specifically prohibited. Authorized as second-class mail pending tha Posl Office Depariment, far payman! of postage in. cash, Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for thelr time and talents Cope tesn Le i Highway system suffering VICTORIA — It’s gratifying to sce a government hoisted on its own petard. Take Mike Harcourt’s NDP. Having brought in some pretty effective Freedom of in- formation legislation, they have, on several occasions, been exposed for their blunders by that very same legislation. A while ago, Reform House leader Jack Weisgerber used the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act to get his hands on a draft report by Peat Marwick, a management con- sulting firm, which revealed some interesting antics by the NDP. According fo that report, the NDP government is dangerously under-funding highways rehabilitation, despite warnings from high- ways ministry staff that this practice will eventually in- crease reconstruction costs by at leas! $1.4 billion over five years, The report was prepared and submitted to the government in early 1992, but despite its wamnings, the NDP stayed the course, continuing to slash the highways rehabilitation budgets, . This year, that budget was FROM THE-CAPITAL: HUBERT BEYER Teduced to $139 million. Peat Marwick and ministry staff say a proper and effeclive highways rehabilitation pro-_ gram requires at least $250 .: million a year. The report says that many of the province’s highways are reaching or have reached their design life span and are deteriorating rapidly. Increased traffic and axle loads are ac- celerating the wear on the roads, Many bridges, the report Says, are wooden or at least 40 years old and will require re- placement. Other bridges have load limits that restrict the effi- cient movement of goods, ac- cording to he report. Says Peat Marwick: ‘*The lack of proper rehabilitation of the current road and bridge network will result in- considerable future expendi- ture for reconstruction, unless appropriate action is taken within a short period of time,’ Well, what’s a short period of time, The warning came two years ago, but the NDP is still ignoring it. And if it keeps ' doing so, Peat Marwick estimates that about one-third of the province’s 21,000 kilo- metres of highways can no longer be rehabilitated, but re- quire complete reconstruction at a cost of $200,000 a kilo- metre. As interesting as the Peat Marwick Teport itself. is. a, ~ questionnaire, answered by Vince Collins, deputy minister of transportation and highways for use by Peat Marwick, a copy of which was attached to the report Weisgerber released. © Asked what could be done to improve the deputy minister’s confidence in the future of his ministry, Collins responded: “*Formula-driven Tevenue policy.”’ Asked to identify any feasi- ble means to increase revenue significantly, Collins ans- wered: ‘‘Additional user fees such as tolls, gasoline tax and vehicle registration fees.’ Don’t you just love this guy? The reason the NDP is under- funding the highways maintenance and rehabilitation budget is as transparent as itis... dangerous. In the interest of :... producing a balanced’ budget - or a reasonable facsimile there- of, before facing voters at. the next election, the NDP. is slashing expenditures. : And while cutting expendi- tures is generally good news for over-taxed British Colum- bians, it should be done with great regard to the con- sequences. Cutting corners in. highways rehabilitation is may be penny-wise, but is definitely pound-foolish. I's time the NDP took-a® 3°” page out of W.A.C. Bennett's: book. Like no premier after him, W.AC. Bennett knew that the backbone of a strong economy is a modern and effi- cient transportation sysiem. All those bridges and roads - that are nearing the end of their life span were built by Bennett in the 1950s, And it was the newly-created transportation system that turned - British Columbia from a have-not pro- vince into one of the richest provinces in Canada, How the troops kept dry SATURATION coverage about the D-Day in in- vasion told me more than I wanted to know abut all but one (hing. How did they water- proof vehicles and equipment so everything functioned after it reached dry land? My Dad had a 1936 Chev pickup that stalled driving over dew-laden moss. He’d have to get out, fold back the hood, and dry the distributor using his red cotton handkerchief / with the dedication of a Wind- sor butler polishing the Queen's heirloom silver, Yet on D-Day thousands of Amy vehicles struggled ashore through giant waves without a splutter. Waterproofing was no s¢cret. On Morningside, Gordon Pinsent read the entire D-Day manual which outlined for mil- itary personnel whal to expect, what to do, and how to mini- mize physical discomforts. It instructed, ‘‘As soon as pos- sible after landing on the THEY COLLECT ENERGY FROM THE STARS,»: ' le DA vaquiagi THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI beach, remove waterproofing form your vehicle.” And in a newspaper article telling about his experience as a 24-year-old was correspon- dent landing at Graye-sur-Mer June 6, 1944, Charles Lynch told how, after exploring the immediate countryside, he “peeled the waterproofing off his typewriter’? and set about typing his first dispatch. To find out how waterproct- CHANNEL IT INTO THEIR. HOMES...) \ YG ing was done, I phoned Doug Fisher, now a retired Ottawa newsman. During World War I] he was a member of a regi- ment that waterproofed D-Day equipment, including armored car vehicles. Sealing one armored car took a crew a whole day. Cracks were scaled with sticky plastic fape and Bostick, a forerunner of silicone. Canvas walls were fastened around four sides of each vehicle and a small outboard motor chumed the water un- uerncath, keeping the vehicle afloat like a hovercraft. A pipe used as a smokestack vented exhaust up inlo the ain Once ashore, little explosive charges blasted the canvas loose. Because tanks were welded togelher, they were leakproof. They contained enough air to float for a short time. At Sicily eleven months earlier, tanks had sunk because they were released into the water too far nr 50 THEY CAN GET RECHARGED DONT BELIEVE from shore. This time, canvas was added as insurance, None- theless, some tanks sank on’ Omaha beach, Coes German 88 shells punched: : through the front of tanks. To. prevent this, army engineers improvised by welding steel - tank irack over the fronts of the tanks. This added consider- able weight. ae War correspondents used Olivetti portable typewriters in. - metal cases. The cases were. easily sealed with a strip of sticky plastic tape. Invasion personnel had two pet peeves: the messy, sticky process of waterproofing equipment in preparation for floating in, and their uniforms ~~ which were made stiff and stinky with chloride of lime impregnated into ihe fabric for its drying and dehumidifying - properties. Within two weeks of landing many soldiers had ditched their uniforms, ANP You STILL EVERY NIGHT! THEY ARE VS ALIENS !! “/4 : Z iY - pmnnlen antec beetmetftele- meet omen mama nen nec nek emu ns ms me ame