PROVINCE NAMES NEW OMBUDSMAN
     VICTORIA (CP) — The B.C. legislature unanimously endorsed Thursday the choice of Victoria lawyer Dulcie McCallum as the province’s new ombudsman.
     McCallum, 42, replaces Stephen Owen as watchdog on the government and its agencies.
     The West Vancouver native has also worked as a nurse, public health official and a human rights activist on behalf of
aboriginal and handicapped people.
   “I hope to continue with the quality and standards that have been set,” McCallum said in praising Owen and interim ombudsman Brent Parfitt.
   “The reputation of the ombudsman office is running very high these days — which means there are a great number of complaints.”
   McCallum was chosen by an all-party committee which assessed more than 400 applicants for the job, chairman «Jan Pullinger told the legislature.
   The ombudsman investigates public complaints against the government and its agencies. Investigations range from minor problems concerning provincial regulations to major reviews.
Forest fire contained
                                                                                                       by KEN BERNSOHN Citizen Staff
   The 1,500-hectare forest fire at Stone Creek which threatened the community of Stoner Wednesday has been fully contained.
   Seven families forced to leave due to the threat to their homes have been allowed to return to the small community 30 kilometres south of Prince George.
   “We had a good day yesterday,” fire information officer Greg Bach said today. “We didn’t have the wind problems Thursday that we had earlier in the week.
   “There’s still a lot of unbumed fuel,” because the fire has skipped some areas, leaving standing green forest surrounded by burned or burning areas, he said.
   However, the air temperature is down and there’s an 80-per-cent
 chance of rain today. That may be good news, but the weather office at the airport expects thundershowers. These could ignite new fires or restart old ones.
   The Eagle Fire near Giscome about 35 kilometres east of Prince George now covers almost 2,000 hectares. A fire guard has now been cut with bulldozers 90 per cent of the way around the Eagle fire, and fire crews hoped to complete the guard today.
   However, there are still 51 fires burning in the Prince George forest region, keeping thousands of people busy trying to contain them. Fire bombers which drop a mix of urea and water and water bombers, which scoop their cargo from lakes, began taking off from the Prince George airport before 7 a.m. today.
   Campfires have been banned through most of northeast B.C., except for the Vanderhoof Forest district, where it was raining this morning, and Fort Neljon.
   Although some districts have had more fires than Prince George, this area has the biggest fires, and the largest firefighting crews in the North.
   About 240 people were fighting the Eagle fire on foot today, in addition to heavy equipment opera* tors. About 200 others armed with shovels and matlocks are forking the fire at Stone Creek.
   In comparison, the largest of five fires in the Fort St. James forest district covers about 3 Vi hectares, said fire information officer Cynthia Ruchworth.
Report: Taxpayers are cheated
   VICTORIA (CP) — B.C. taxpayers are being cheated by school boards, municipalities and Crown corporations who appear to have little regard for ethical and proper financial practices, says a government report.
   There are many instances of conflicts of interest, questionable “perks” for administrators, and out-and-out flouting of guidelines designed to protect the taxpayers, says the final report of the former Social Credit government’s compensation fairness program.
   The program was phased out by the new NDP government.
   Outgoing commissioner Neil Haggquist, in a report tabled in the legislature Thursday, likens collec-
 tive bargaining practices in the education and municipal sectors as “analogous to Dracula guarding the blood bank.”
   Among the many “disconcerting situations” concerning tax money paid to senior administrators in the public sector are:
 ■ School boards allowing their senior administrators to negotiate contracts with teachers and support staff, even though those administrators’ salaries are predicated upon how much money the teachers and staff are paid. Haggquist said this is also common among municipalities and represents a conflict of interest.
 â–  Some senior public sector administrators skirted the freeze on
salaries of more than $79,000 by being paid overtime hourly rates, even though they are salaried without an overtime option.
■ Public sector administrators use taxpayer-funded “pool cars” for personal use in the evening and on weekends, thus “gaining a significant non-taxable benefit.”
■ The chairman and eight vice-presidents of B.C. Hydro each receive $400 cash a month for expenses, although they don’t have to justify those expenses with vouchers.
   Haggquist said there is little justification for such expenses.
   There also is far too much reliance on and use of consultants by public sector employers, he said.'
TWO-DAY WALKOUT
The Prince George
Citizen
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Real estate record set  3 
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Doctors’ anger builds in fee fight
                                                                    by GORD HOEKSTRA
                                                                                                                               Citizen Staff
   Some doctors hinted about opting out of medicare at a Thursday afternoon study session in Prince George.
   The study session was part of a two-day Central B.C. walkout protesting the NDP’s new health care legislation — Bill 71.
   More than 80 doctors came to the session to hear B.C. Medical Association president Dr. Stephen Hardwicke explain issues and answer questions surrounding Bill 71.
   With the bill on the verge of being passed — it is in its third reading in the legislature and expected to be passed today — doctors are angry and worried about the future.
  “It’s not a matter of income, but a matter of being able to provide quality health care,” said Dr. Hardwicke.
  Doctors are angry with the provincial government and say they have been denied the right to negotiate. The doctors say the $ 1.27-billion dollar global cap on medical health services amounts, to rationing.
  “Two million tests, procedures and services that arc recommended this year will not get performed,” said Dr. Hardwicke.
  “A full range of services does not exist in Prince George,” said Dr. Jan Burg, local BCMA representative, who also spoke to the doctors.
  He said the city has two psychiatrists but needs 10 to 15, and that
it doesn’t have a cancer clinic or any chest surgeons.
  An in-camera session, not open to the media, featured “discussion of the options available,” said Dr. Burg.
  These included two-day-per-monlh work stoppages, a continuous three-week work stoppage, direct billing, extra billing, opting out and withdrawal of services.
  “We certainly seem to be at a major impasse,” said Dr. Doug Blackman, a Prince George physician and surgeon. He said the BCMA and the government “need some from of binding arbitration for this kind of impasse.
  “The option is opting out — instead of dealing with government start dealing with the patient, and
the patient can get reimbursed from government.”
   He admitted this would not be an ideal situation, though.
   Meanwhile, medical staff at Jubilee Hospital in Vernon went even further and voted 90 per cent Thursday to opt out of the provincial health insurance plan if an impasse over proposed health care legislation isn’t resolved.
   Vemon doctors also voted to walk off the job Wednesday morning, joining hundreds of other B.C. doctors in rotating strikes that are temporarily closing medical offices provincewide.
   “We’d still prefer to negotiate, but if they want to play hardball, we’re prepared to play that game,”
said Dr. Tom McMurty, district chairman of the BCMA.
  He described the threat to opt out of medicare as a serious one.
  “I’ve never seen people more determined,” he said. “Doctors here have had enough, and they’re starting to feel that the only hope is to have nothing at all to do with government.”
  The 200 or so doctors who closed their offices in Prince George were joined by 20 from the Sunshine Coast northwest of Vancouver.
  On Wednesday, 150 doctors in the Kamloops area closed their offices for five days.
  Emergency services are still being performed but the walkouts
mean appointments, lab tests and elective surgery are cancelled.
   Minister of Hedlth Elizabeth Cull said in a telephone interview, Thursday that she didn’t believer doctors were going to “shut the* door on patients in a fight with the government over money.”
   In an effort to keep the budget under control the government will start a public education campaign to encourage responsible use of the medical system, she said.
   Dr. Marie Hay, a local pediatrician who attended the Prince George study session and was a missionary in Nigeria, Africa, said11 the natives there had a saying. â–  When two elephants fight (in> this case the government and the, BCMA) the only loser is the grass, (in this case the patients).
Cleaning up
Citizen photo by Chuck Nisbett
Highways employee Duane Thompson cleans and services the traffic lights at Victoria Street and Seventh Avenue as part of the annual maintenance program. The ministry looks after the major arteries, highways 16 and 97, and spends the summer servicing the lights while the city services look after the rest of the city.
                                                                                            Low tonight: 10 High tomorrow: 23
INDEX
 HERMAN"
Ann Landers .    . . 19       
Bridge.....      . . 30       
Business ....    20,21        
City, B.C. . . . . 2*3,7      
Classified . . . 25-31        
Comics.....                   
Commentary .                  
Crossword . . .  . . . 29 --- 
Editorial____    ---