Page A4 — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 19, 1992

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Cassiar crunch

Winston Churchill once said that if a person isn’t a socialist when he’s young, there’s something wrong with his heart. But if he’s a socialist when he’s older, there’s something wrong with his head.

That’s an apt saying to apply against the major financial problem the provin- cial government faced over the Cassiar

mine.

Cassiar is a sign of of the 1990s. Governments don’t have the money to continue merrily along with the financ- ing of large development projects as they’ve done for. the past decades. Governments don’t even have the money anymore for the most basic of health and education services. In fact, we'll be coughing up much higher taxes as the decade progresses to pay for what governments have spent in the past,

The problem is we’ve become far too dependent upon governments to give us money whenever we want it. And despite the trumpeting of free enterprise, businesses have been no exception. They’ve been at least equal to and sometimes ahead of other special interest groups in the lineup at the government

cash register.

The previous provincial government gladly forked over $20 million to Cassiar in 1988 and guaranteed another $5 million loan last year. When the mine began to sink in a sea of debt, it returned again for yet more money. Things weren’t heiped much when it became ap-

parent that the company wasn't com- pletely open and forthright about its true

several

financial picture. This was compounded by doubt that what the company said it needed to keep open, wasn’t going to be enough for continued operation.

There’s a tendency to regard such things by using a short, two-word ex- pression: ‘‘Doo-doo happens.’? But the overall tendency to assume that the public purse is available for loans to businesses and industry is extremely costly and dangerous. Loans are made on the basis of risk. The public’s money is too precious and too limited to be ex- posed to such risks.

The provincial government acted pro- perly in deciding to put the Cassiar mine into receivership. Its decision affected the lives of a lot of people, but there comes a time when that is unavoidable.

Be nice, eh?

There’s this thing out there called political correctness, Put simply it’s the concept that we’re all bad and must pay for the accumulated sins of hundreds of

ment is s the Canadian Broadcasting Cor- poration. It pays inordinate attention to every special interest group that says it has a problem — real or otherwise.

So why then, every four years, does this same corporation pound away at Canadian athletes during the Olympics? Watching the mother corporation’s coverage of the games gives the impres-

another.

ing.

sion of one national disaster after

Only one month ago it was considered a miracle if skater Kurt Browning could — behold. walk upright, yet alone participate in the _ games. So when Mr. Browning falls dur-

ing competition, the hounds start bay-

7

The idea of the games is that athletes give it their best. If that best is sixth or seventh place, so be it. Better the CBC — romanow, Ontario’s Bob Rae concentrate on the intent of the games instead of exposing our athletes to im- mense public scrutiny. To do otherwise simply isn’t Canadian.

The name game

‘Yn battle or business,

whatever the game,

in law or in love, it is never

the same;

fn the struggle for power, or

the scramble for welath,

Let this be your motto —

Rely on yourself!

For, whether the prize be

a ribbon or throne,

The victor ishe who can “ga it alone!”

— John Godfrey Saxe

Self-reliance is wonderful it it’s not taken too far, We pump our own gas, We teach our own kids. We're talking of taking our own lives, What's next? Delivering our own babies?

St. Paul’s Hospital in Van- couver has Canada’s first maternity ward offering com- bined mother-baby care, Babies aren’t taken away to a nursery at night. Fathers are encouraged to stay as long as they want to help out. To that end, the hospital is buying cots for sleep- over fathers.

Ducky.

New fathers, in their euphoria, offer themselves as

live-in nannies. At nanny wages"

and accommodations. They volunteer to diaper their offspr- ing, rub their wife’s back, and fetch her ice water, Meanwhile, administration rubs its hands over the salary saving of volunteer staff.

Until recently, B.C, hospitals hired registrars whose duty it was to promptiy and properly fill out a Notice of Record for

each birth. It, together with the -

doctor’s Record of a Live Birth; went directly to Vital Statistics in Victoria.

Through Bifocais by Claudette Sandecki

Mills Memorial Hospital off- loads the registrar’s duties on the mother and government agent, thereby trimming its operating costs two dollars per birth.

New mothers leave hospital with a form to fill in, notarize, and return to the government agent, Victoria gets the doctor's record from the hospital, then Keeps and eye out for the mother’s form. The two forms are matched iike torn halves of a dollar bill, Then a birth cer- tificate can be issued.

Time is money except in government, Vicloria admits the process was quicker before, (They plead No Comment when asked ‘‘Wasn’t is cheaper?’’) If the second form isn’t received within 30 days, the family is contacted by mail. Yet 10 per- cent of births aren't registered for eight weeks, or longer, Some, not until the child is ready to begin school or to app- ly for a passport. A birth cer- tificate is needed then,

Organized crime values birth certificates as a prized common- dity, the open sesame to precious benefits — passports, drivers’ licenses, social in- surance numbers, old age pen- sions, university educations. By. eliminating. hospital registrars, British Columbia offers the

“nurses,

underworld this inviting loophole — a blank legal docu- ment.

Why?

In Montana (and probably every other American state) newborns may not leave the hospital until their births are registered.. And any hospital that takes longer than ten days to shoot the forms along to Vital Statistics in Helena is sub-

ject to a fine of from $25 to $500.

With hospitals’ do-it-yourself trend — live-in fathers acting as . Mothers acting as registrars — soon, when a mother in labour checks in, she could be handed rubber gloves, vise-grips, and a rear view mir- ror,

NDP. Tories switch

their philosophy

VICTORIA — Despite some upbeat comments from the participants in the recent first ministers’ meeting on the economy, the event was an ex- ercise in futility.

True, watching British Col- umbia’s NDP premier lecture the country’s Tory prime minister on responsible finan- cial management was a sight to

Jt also must have struck alt ‘but the: most. partisan of:.,

viewers “watching the opening :

statements that the three NDP premiers looked very im- pressive, compared to their Tory and Liberal counterparts, Saskatchewan's Roy

and B.C,’s Mike Harcourt were clearly the most credible of the lot. And without speak- ing ill of the politically dead, one couldn’t hep hut note, with some relief, that British Columbia was represented by a premier whose grasp of economic reality goes beyond wanting to sell the family business.

Aside from that, nothing was accomplished, Harcourt came away from the con- ference with little or nothing. His appeal to Prime Minister Mulroney to lift the cap on, social transfer payments to the provinces went unheeded,

Harcourt's promise that — British Columbia would spend the entire $150 million accru- ing from increased transfer payments on getting British Columbians back to work

' evidently failed to make the

necessary impression on Mulroney.

The other premiers didn’t fare any better. They all had come with tentative proposals to get the economy maving again, but the best they got was the promise of another first ministers’ meeting n Toronto, six or eight weeks from now. And I wouldn't hold my breath for that meeting to produce any better resulis than the first one,

Perhaps the prime minister intends to bring about economic renewal, starting with the travel sector, by mak-

From the Capital by Hubert Beyer

ing the premiers and territorial

leaders and their entourage criss-cross the country every

“> two months or so. Other,: more . concrete proposals fell on deaf ©

cars.

Harcourt’s suggestion, for instance, to lift the ceiling on social transfer payments and use the additional $150 million on job training and creation programs, didn’t even get a reply from Mulroney. Neither did the idea, proposed by all three NDP premiers, to spend money on upgrading Canada’s infrastructure.

The three premiers argued, and J would suggest with some validity, that investing in roads and bridges will bring direct economic benefits, in addition to putting people to work, The idea is definitely worth looking at,

A tight fiscal policy is fine, but is must be tempered with wise spending, particularly in areas that will get people off welfare and unemployment rolls,

And speaking of tight monetary policies, Harcourt told the prime minister that the federal government’s rigid monetary policies had had a very detrimental effect on the B.C, economy.

He pointed to a recent report by Finance Minister Glen Clark, according to which British Columbia’s unemployment roll increased by 1.1 percentage points or the equivalent of 15,000 jobs last year as a direct result of the feds’ tight monetary policy.

“The report also shows B.C.'s deficit for 1991-92 would be $500 million lower were it not for current monetary policy,”' the premier added.

‘We in B.C, agree strongly

with those economic analysts who conclude that, unless the Bank of, Canada allows lower interest;rates. anda, lower. valu; for the Canadian dollar than’. have prevailed in the last year, it will be difficult for the Canadian economy to return

to anything like a healthy state anytime soon.”

Of all the premiers, Har- court definitely came on the strongest, stating British Col- umbia’s position just a little more forceful that his col- leagues did for their provinces. But forceful or not, he came away just as empty-handed as the others.

One must wonder, of: course, what any of the par- ticipants could have possible hoped to accomplish during a one-day meeting, Anyone who expects a room-full of politi- cians to find the definitive answer to the country's economic problems in a day needs a reality check, It takes the average person longer to decide whether to buy anew car.

What’s needed to get Canada out of its econamic doldrums is vision and leader- ship, neither of which the Mulroney government have shown to possess in abun- dance,

Having cajoled Canada into the free-trade agreement with the United States, the federal government has yet to show any backbone in dealing with the ever-increasing protec- tionism in the U.S., as shown in the case of Canadian im- ports of softwood lumber,

More meetings won't reduce our unemployment figures. Political rhetoric won't get Canadians off welfare. Acting on some of the proposals made. by the premiers, on the other hand, just might do the trick.

by on PR

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