AG | Terrace Review — Wednesday, May 9, 1990

The solutions to nagging problems oftcn start small and
come from unexpected sources. In Terrace we have an
awkward situation with regard to an ethical approach for
the disposal of garbage. The public is clamoring for a .
recycling program and has given unequivocal indications
that a trash-separation "blue box" project on a municipal
scale would be. well received.

Recent discoveries about the behavior — or, more
accurately, lack of it — of trash in landfills has added
some urgency to the problem. In a recent issue of the .
Atlantic magazine scientists reported a research project in
which they delved far below the surface of established _
urban landfills, discovering 'to their puzzlement articles in
perfect states of preservation which should have bio-
degraded decades before.

The problem up here is what to do with the separated
trash once it’s collected. There are no paper or glass
recycling plants within a day’s road travel of the North-
west, leaving the municipality with the option of paying
to haul it to Vancouver, starting its own recycling plants,
or hauling the separated trash to the dump.

Last ‘month, however, Skeena school started collecting
used white paper, having arranged with the local Safeway
store to ship it to Vancouver on their transport trucks,
which return to the urban blight carrying far less than on
the trip north. Safeway manager Eric Johanson says its a

goodwill gesture and fits in with the company’s Environ- _.

mental Options program. This is a small start but it could
point the way to a large-scale, mutually satisfactory
arrangement between local governments and the network
of road transportation that brings a considerable volume
of consumer goods northward and takes very little back
in the other direction.

It certainly wouldn’t be free, but the sale of recyclable

material could pay for a portion of the transportation,:and~=

the balance should be at reduced backhaul rates.

In view of the fact that a large part of what is hauled
up here as disposable manufactured and processed goods
or packaging for them eventually finds its way to the
local landfill, there is a certain justice in shipping it out
the same way it came in.

The students at Skeena school, with the help of
Johanson and teacher Danny Houpt, have shown some
initiative here. Now it’s up to the adults who supposedly
run the community to demonstrate that they’re able to
learn from a good and imaginative example.

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The view from
Victoria —

by John Pifer

aoa

VICTORIA — When la am

asked if Finance Minister Mel

- Couvelier is really as bom-

bastic, pompous and arrogant
as he has appeared over the
past week, the answer is... yes
and no.

The former Saanich mayor
was catapulted into one of the
top four Cabinet posts in 1986
as a rookie MLA, and has
gained a good reputation
within the business community
for his handling of the port-
folio.

But inside the tweed jacket
of the droopy-eyed politician
beats the heart of a would-be
stand-up comic. And it’s when
THAT Mel tries to be amusing
and sparky, that all hell usually
breaks loose, as it did over his
uncouth attack on auditor- .
general George Morfitt.

Couvelier often tries to be
witty, but it usually comes off
as taking a serious matter too
lightly, or as talking down to
the ‘‘little people’” who don’t
understand his vision of politics
and high finance.

When he rises in the House
during Question Period or to...
speak in debate, the eyes of
reporters (and his caucus col-
leagues) glaze over, because he
too often launches into a ram-
bling, obnoxious effort to be
‘“eute’’... and it never quite
works.

Don’t get me wrong. Iam
not defending the finance

~ minister for calling Morfitt a
“bean counter” with “his

a7it

snout in (he public trough’.

- He was not being cute, just ar-
_rogantly unwise. :

But chances are this tempest

aot

"such a timely announcement from well-
identified Socred supporters stretches right to
the outer edge of coincidence."

and his Cabinet post is not in
jeopardy, because Premier Bill
Vander Zalm and other senior
Socreds truly do believe that
Couvelier is very good at what
he does.

If he would only stick to
that, and not play accounting
games such as the B.S. Fund,
or word games as a frustrated
comedian, he might stand a
chance of being re-elected.

The announcement on Friday
from Women’s Programs
Minister Carol Gran that the
provincial and federal govern-
ments would be jointly funding
women’s centers in B.C, for
another year was another
feather in Gran’s cap.

And in the past two weeks,
she has garnered a bundle of
such feathers from her Cabinet
colleagues, the public and from
media commentators.

Gran was the only member
of the government to come out
of the REAL Women fiasco
with any kind of credibility,
and was deserving of the praise
she received for telling those
bizarre 1950's kind of gals to
gel real (pun intended), and
join the 1990's.

Now, by using her con-
siderable persuasive powers
behind the scenes and at the
Cabinel table, she has managed
to wrestle a quarter-of-a-
million dollars out of a group
of men who think women's

~-genters are-breeding grounds
- for socialistic feminists, period,

and little else.
There is no question that
Gran fumbled the ball on a

- couple of occasions in the early

days of her ascension to the
Cabinet throne. In fact, things
such as the ‘‘Let’s give them a
medal!” naivete on Interna-
tional Women’s Day will likely -
follow her for the rest of her
political life.

But, she would have ap-
peared to have learned from
her mistakes, and that’s all
anyone can ask, isn’t it, even
of politicians?

It is encouraging to see her
regain some points so quickly.
1 can think of some other So-
creds — i.e. the premier and
Surrey’s Bill Reld — who have ©
taken or are taking an awful
long time to learn from their
mistakes!

Parting Thought: Those of
you who are election watchers
may have found Friday’s an-
nouncement in Terrace about a
study for a copper smelter and
refinery of more than passing
interest. A cynic might even
suggest that stirring up a
possibility for such a mammoth
project could be an attempt to

‘ buy votes for resident MLA

Dave Parker, the minister of
Crown lands,

Being a skeptic, rather than a
cynic, Mil only muse that such
alimely announcement from”

 well-identified Socred: sup-

porters stretches right to the

outer edge of coinvidence.