G PENINSULA NEWS REVIEW

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Laas PN AEA

THE PENINSULA’S COMI COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

~~ Publisher: Jean Jean ‘Butterfield
Editor: itor: Suedy | Reimche_

aie Aik Sd Bae

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: Phone: 656-1151 / Fax: 656-5526 I
i A division of island Publishers Ltd. {
i. 9726 First St., Sidney, B.C. :
: VBL 309 ;
| Vol. 87 / No. 09 / Circulation: 13,796 :
i Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #41815 it
q
EDITORIAL :
Philosophical differences
4

making life tough in the |
Saanich School Board

_ For more than a month now the budget situation at.

~ the Saanich ‘school board has been a dominant i issue

here on'the Peninsula. -

And after amonth there aly se seems sto be one .e thing 3
that the school board trustees can agree on: there is-
n ’t enough money to run the school district .

Beyond that, there are more ‘differences than simi-

- Jarities among the opinions of the seven-member _

~ school board. The disagreements appear to be based

on some deeply rooted philosophical. differences.
~ One side sees upper management at the school dis- -
trict office ~ and their contractual benefits packages- =
as an obvious target. The other side is saying, ° “hold

‘on, not so fast. These people are doing a lot more than -

they have ever been asked to. do before. Cutting them

; doesn’ tmake any sense.” .

“SWhat is-clear is that both sides Believe strongly i in” F

we their positions and are working countless hours to find

: - solutions that fit with their philosophies. =”

sesasqeienvebe seit tip te RARAN NONORESILULERLEN: ITEC ee tt ennoaneene

seammmmentineno ante
RRR rece

Rt eb CaM se aan NSCOR aA LAOON

csmearetsns teat anid of A Rai eOM POs NALEDM MPRISOTES

- time in Saanich school dienig history are losing that |

-'They’ve done an n amazing job reducing the deficit — '
figure to $255,000 and they may yet get that number |
~ down further. But they are fighting to keep some . }
- things that will always cost them deeply i in terms of:
public perception. ;
Leased vehicles have never looked good on public .
employees. The fact they are a part ofa long term con-
tract only makes people wonder who negotiated such |
' acontract. At the same time, breaking a contract that .
|| will end up costing the district more money in the long
run makes even less sense. ;
There has been a commitment to reducing the
deficit, but until the people being paid to live up to this
commitment start driving to work in their own cars,
the public will have a tough time swallowing deficits.
. -KW.

eansgesavnsondiny thai aad teccay mcinnenr oaeane Sok eps wa wae af BSR i Hehe ae Ma a

sapere -

peme o

Ligkchecw: wanes

ian tN SOE OT

The bottom line is public perception and the four 4 .
members who voted to accept a deficit for the first.

oe te.
| battle, ee od

_ OPINION

gang will oust the NDP. But that |
doesn’t mean that they’re aren't .
~ going to make some big trouble for.
_ the government.

af t’s not likely that the Total Recall...

Total Recall is a new plan, flowing

out of those ‘Have You Had Enough: -

Yet’ rallies. Organizer. Kevin Falcon:

says his group is doing polling in’ ~

~ about a dozen ridings to decide if To- --

‘tal Recall would work. That’s.a for-_

~ mality; the group is too far down the
-road to turn back now...

The. plan i is to run simultaneois.

recall campaigns against all 40 NDP.
MLAs, with the aim of knocking off .
|. enough of them to force an election.» .
be , The mass attack serves ‘several
“ purposes. It shifts. the focus to the:
#--government. from. the individual

MLA.. The. group: believes _recail

campaigns have been hurt because. -
_ people think it’s not fair to blamea |
harmless MLA for the sins of Glen

Clark. And a province-wide cam-
paign would help organizers beat a
real recall hurdle. Recall. backers
have to get 50 per cent of the people
eligible to vote in the last election to
sign petitions,

But the last election was three

7 years ago, and people have died or. .
moved away. With a province-side -
campaign someone who moved . |
“non-NDP voters to sign won't be
“enough, because you need 50 per

from Prince George to Vancouver
could go into a recall office there
and sign a petition aimed at Prince

George. If organizers are. really

working, they'll have offices in Lib-
eral ridings to capture those kind of
“signatures.

“And Total Recall turns the effort
into a big media hit in a way that a
campaign in Comox never will, Prac-
tically, that helps in recruiting vol-
unteers and getting names, But it

work:

Take. New Deiiocrat™: ‘Bill
Goodacre’ s Bulkley-Stikine riding: 7
He won the election with 4,779
votes, about 37 per cent of the total.
Liberals, Reform, PDA and Socred
votes ‘were. 7,978,:or 62 per cent.
That’s the kind of riding Total Recall

~ hopes to win,

‘But. getting every one of those

cent of all the people eligible to vote

in the last election, even if they did- ye

n't bother.

‘The magic number in Bulkley
Stikine is 9,122 names —-.or 70 per
cent of the number who actually
voted. That's not. easy. In‘ fact, it’s
near impossible, unless the sitting
MLA is caught torching the local
hospital.

GOT A FUNN®? FEELING
KE M BEING WATCHED

_ fit MLA, he says. -

broadly drafted.”
The recall law means what it says,
- and it says people can use recall this —
way. If there isn’t popular support, |
“not enough voters will sign. What

could be ‘simpler? . >>

“mocrats would only- have to'win}
‘three of the resulting by- elections to veo Te
“hold on to power. . ee
The NDP has. siready ‘attacked ad
‘the Total Recall people as right-wing... §.
extremists and charged the Liberals.

____ Wednesday, March 3, 1999

That makes it odd that Moe Si-
hota i is already talking about chang:
ing the recall law. Recall was in-
tended to allow voters to turf an un-

““Obviously this legislation i is too |

~ But even if Total Recall defeats six

: ‘New: Democrats, Glen Clark still has *
- options: He doesn’t have to call the.
~ legislature back to allow a non-con- =
EE ee “fidence motion. And’ the New De.
also has the significant political ben- ".
efit of keeping attention ‘focused on:
_. the government's problems at a time es
when it has lost its way...) :
- Why won't Total Recall Sica? a
-- Because the recall law is written-al-
most. to guarantee the tool won tee

are involved. There are probably ex-

- tremists there. There are likely lots

~tive,.

“of Liberals, because the effort. at-

tracts people me are politically ac-

‘But there are also a lot of seople:

who felt cheated-when they found

out the NDP lied about the budget
during the election campaign. and:

‘have grown more disgruntled since.

They're the. people. the NDP will.

‘need to win back | in the next elec:

tion,: ~

“Attacking them to beat back re-
call would. be desperate, and des-

perately wrong.

That leaves Clark facing months
of fighting recall campaigns, being
battered daily in the media and hav- |
ing his cabinet pinned down return-
ing fire on the home front. That
means along, hot, hard summery on
the fireline for the NDP

It looks as though common
sense is out of fashion —

oes hatever. oo Ni
‘pened to. the
eon Closer To Home

~ program. introduced by
othe:

hap-

provincial © govern-
ment in the early 19908?
Bringing services to -
~ clients, and helping peo-.
» ple live at home longer,
made a lot of sense, It’s.
been proven many times
_ that people who are able
to look ad themselves"

-notwell, in-home service |

~ than putting someone in
‘an institutional setting,

Closer To Home intro:

at home live more pro:
ductively, and are less af
a drain on the medical. -
systeni, For one thing,»
even for those who are

is-more cost efficient |

But no sooner was

duced than funding was
cut to services,such as.

oi

an:
:

“Home Support, I makes!
no sense.
Now our regional cone”

~ munity services are be- -

ing reduced from 16-

oh funded agencies to nine,

‘And this ata time

when there are more se-
~~ nlors <= and a huge bulge

of the population just

~ about to enter those so-
{. called golden years,

We're too late to ree:

Cl; tify the situation, We

need more in-home ser-
vice caregivers, and:

Jey) many more residential

facilities, offering sup.’
port services to a whole

range of abilijies, allow:
ing people to remain as
‘independent and healthy

managed | to cut out the

as possible:

Instead, we have ieee.

‘not more, And if you get

sick ona doctors’ re-
duced activity day, you'll
join the line-up at the
hospital; unless you're

bleeding profusely, you'll
“walt two, four. or more
hours (o see a'doctor...

who won't have your.

“medical records, won't:

know your background

and possibly won't be |
~ able to give meaningful
helps :

There’s no mone Y,
Why? Because we've

middle class, all the peo-

ple who carned substan-

tial salaries — like the:
forest industry — who -
pald the bulk of the

~ taxes, which funded
health care, education,

transportation eee ea ‘
Now the tax burden ts”
falling on people who |

can’t afford to pay more

om seniors and young

people starting out.
We' ve lowered everyone
to the lowest common de-
nominator — our kids are

well educated and under:

{?

~ employed, So where do
“we Ro from here? .

Cee ee ee