The Prince George
Citizen
THURSDAY, JULY 9,1992
51 CENTS
(Plus GST)
Low tonight: 10 High tomorrow: 24
Horses on death row
8
Amnesty releases report 9
Summer Games start today 13 Trio hard to pigeonhole 22
Phone: 562-2441 Classified: 562-6666 Circulation: 562-3301
WALKOUTS CONTINUE IN PROVINCE
Doctor dispute: Gov’t stands firm
by GREG JOYCE Canadian Press VANCOUVER — The B.C. government’s resolve to contain health-care costs won’t be swayed by escalating doctors’ walkouts, Health Minister Elizabeth Cull said Wednesday.
"We’re going to proceed with implementing Bill 71,” Cull said as she entered a cabinet meeting in Victoria.
The legislation, the new Medical and Health Care Services Act, limits doctors’ billings to a total $1.27 billion this year. Doctors say
that’s $60 million less than needed.
The B.C. Medical Association, which has endorsed the rotating walkouts, estimated that as many as 740 doctors were off the job Wednesday for part or all of the day.
Physicians who work out of hospitals in Burnaby and Vernon, along with St. Paul’s and Mt. Saint Joseph in Vancouver, closed their offices.
As many as 300 doctors in several Vancouver Island com-
UNITY DEAL PUSHED
by Southam News
OTTAWA — Canada’s new constitutional deal will survive Quebec’s rigorous scrutiny, Constitutional Affairs Minister Joe Clark predicted Wednesday despite warnings from two leading Quebec ministers that a Triple-E Senate will be a lough sell in that province.
"I think we have a package here that will stand up and that marks not only historic progress so far, but allows us to go very effectively into a Quebec referendum,” Clark said less than 12 hours after his government and nine provinces forged massive changes to Canada’s constitution.
But all Canadians are waiting today to hear from Quebec, where Premier Robert Bourassa spent Wednesday studying the package.
See also page 8
Mackenzie mill closures affect 300 workers
Fletcher Challenge Canada will shut down its three sawmills in Mackenzie for a minimum of three weeks, starting Monday.
The company made the announcement Wednesday, citing increasing inventories of both lumber and wood chips normally sold to pulp mills as the cause of the shutdown.
The closure of the three sawmills will affect about 300 people Monday, then an additional 80 people later on. One planer shift at each of the three mills, plus workers in the log yard, shipping and dewatcring (where logs are hauled out of Williston Lake), will be kept on for about a week, said Wayne Kitke, president of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, local 18.
“This way people can utilize the time for vacations, and when we go back to work hopefully keep up and running,” General Manager
Hugh Jones said today from the town of 5,000, about 190 kilometres north of Prince George.
The PPWC had planned a strike vote for Friday. Due to the shutdown announcement, the vote will be delayed, Kitke said.
"Lumber prices have been soft for the past three weeks,” said Bob Stewart of Sinclar Enterprises.
Since June 3, prices for two-by-fours have dropped from about $230 US to $219 US per thousand board feet, but the real problem is soft demand, said Stewart.
"Order files are very short Buyers in the U.S. and Canada don’t have confidence, so they’re not building up inventories.”
Mackenzie has also been affected by the pulp workers’ strike which started June 15. No talks are going on, as both sides await the recommendations of mediator Vince Ready, expected Friday.
Bulletins
OTTAWA (CP) — The Bank of Canada bank rate fell today to 5.66 per cent, down from 5.73 per cent last week.
★ ★ ★
SAANICH, B.C. (CP) — A sit-in protest against overcrowding Wednesday ended in a destructive rampage by more than 100 prisoners at a provincial jail early this morning.
The prisoners at Wilkinson Road Jail, in this Victoria suburb, went
back to their cells only after negotiating with authorities under the guns of guards and a police emer-gency-response team.
★ ★ ★
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Bill Clinton tapped Tennessee Senator Albert Gore for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination Thursday, calling his fellow southern moderate, “a leader of great strength, integrity and stature.”
INDEX
HERMAN c*.
Ann Landers . . . . 10
Bridge..... . . . 27
Business .... . 20,21
City, B.C. . . . . . . 2,3
Classified . . . . 26-32
Comics..... . . . 22
Commentary . . . . .5
Crossword . . . . . . 28
Editorial .... . . . .4
Entertainment . 22,23
Family.....
Horoscope . . . . . . 27
International . . . . .9
Movies..... . . 22
NaUonal .... . . .8
Sports..... 13-15
Television . . . . . . 29
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"I'm sorry, Harold, but I'm not losing you on the subway during rush hour.”
munities were scheduled to join the rotating walkouts today.
Cull expressed doubts at the doctors’ goal.
"I’m not sure how effective what they’re doing is,” said the minister. “I’m surprised they’re closing their doors to patients in this dispute over money.”
She said the government would continue its plans to reduce use of the system by educating the public and providing clinical guidelines to reduce "medically unnecessary” procedures.
Cull criticized the plan by doc-
tors in Kamloops, who said they would close their offices indefinitely.
"I hope that when they see we’re serious about dealing with utilization in the medical system, they’ll realize there are more effective ways of dealing with the government than closing their offices,” said Cull.
Dr. Stephen Hardwicke, president of the medical association, took an equally strong stand.
"The frustration is very high,” said Hardwicke. "The Kamloops
situation is just a sign of how angry and frustrated everyone is.” In Burnaby, the doctors dubbed their walkout as "budget stabilization day.”
The president of the Bumaby Medial Association, Dr. John Rideout, says the government’s methods are offensive.
"The profession has been totally offended by this government’s tactless, political process,” said Rideout. "I’ve never seen such an emotional response from my colleagues in my 18 years as a practising physician.”
Hardwicke said he had no problem reconciling doctors’ actions with the Hippocratic oath, the ethical guide of the medical profession.
"There is no problem as long as care is there for people who need it,” said Hardwicke.
Dr. John Chacko, president of the Kamloops Medical Society, also denied walkouts would be unethical, saying doctors would still cover emergencies as they now do on weekends. Patients won’t be endangered, he said.
Patch crew
Citizen photo by Bob Ingraham
Crews have been out in full force lately sealing cracks in city streets, like this one on First Avenue. The process is simple and ensures water won’t seep into the pavement and cause heaves and other damage down the road. Colin Groeneveld, right, pumps rubberized asphalt into a crack in the pavement on First Avenue while Gary Moyou follows close behind with a squeegee to make sure it seals properly. A coating of talcum powder, spread by Dennis Toninato, keeps the hot asphalt from sticking to car tires. Rubberized asphalt is used because it will expand as the crack gets wider.
Pay conflict claims challenged
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen Staff
Compensation Fairness Commissioner Neil Haggquist deserves an F on his 1991 annual report for poor research and faulty conclusions, charges Prince George school trustee Bob Holtby.
In the report, which he tabled in the B.C. Legislature last week, Haggquist could cite only a few isolated violations of a freeze on salaries of public servants earning $79,000 or more. But he went on lo cast aspersions on all school districts in the province and suggested moving them into a system of centralized bargaining, Holtby said Wednesday.
In the report Haggquist noted School District 57 has 19 employees earning $79,000 or more annually. The highest annual salary as of Dec. 31, 1991 was $99,970.
Haggquist implied senior school administrators are in conflict of interest during contract negotiations because, in bargaining with teachers, "their own salaries are predicated upon what is ultimately concluded at the bargaining table.”
"This unique style of collective bargaining is analagous to ‘Dracula guarding the blood bank’,” Haggquist quipped.
He pointed out abuses in the Central Okanagan School District (No. 23) where senior staff had 10-year contracts and got pay
raises based on a percentage of what teachers settled for.
After listing a few other such violations of the pay freeze for higher administrators, Haggquist concluded, "There are no substantive arguments left to convince me that the current structure of collective bargaining should be retained.
"One alternative would be the creation of a centralized bargaining agency that would represent all 75 school districts in the province.”
"What he’s done is take evidence from one district and extrapolated it to the whole province,” commented Holtby, a management consultant. “In my opinion he’s mucked up the reputation of the senior administrators in this school district.”
In 1987 Bills 19 and 20 gave teachers full collective bargaining rights, but took principals and vice-principals out of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and made them part of management. "What we did in this district was lo peg the salaries of principals, viceprincipals and all other exempt, non-union staff into a separate pay grid,” Holtby said.
The salaries of administrators are not tied to what teachers get in union negotiations here, either as a percentage of what teachers get in a contract settlement or in any other way, he said.
"He (Haggquist) is implying that senior administrators in the
school district are in conflict of interest, and that’s just not true.”
Haggquist actually cites only 10 school districts where there were cases of evading the pay freeze. “That’s 10 out of 75,” Holtby said. “All the rest of the boards did their business appropriately.
"This report is essentially a political document based on false premises, incomplete research and faulty conclusions.”
The 19 who received more than $79,000 last year were senior administrators and some senior secondary principals — "people who have significant management responsibilities,” Holtby said.
School District 57 was not among the 43 who applied to increase salaries for those earning $79,000 or more after the freeze was imposed early last year, said Rick Olding, ministerial assistant to Government Services Minister Lois Boone.
“They seem to have taken a responsible attitude,” Olding said this week from Victoria.
Len Fox, Prince George-Om-ineca Socred MLA, said the report might not be entirely fair to a northern school district like District 57.
"There may have been some rationale for those higher salaries, based on competitiveness with other school districts, in order to try to acquire individuals at those levels,” he said Wednesday from Vanderhoof.
"I don’t think it’s fair just to look at a respective school district, particularly a remote one or one in the northern part of the province, and suggest that any number of salaries are either too high or not fair or whatever.
Tables in Haggquist’s report showed eight school districts in B.C. had a greater number of senior employees earning $79,000 or more than did School District 57.
Vancouver had 134, and the top salary was $126,000. Surrey had 68, Bumaby 43, Coquitlam 39, North Vancouver 38 and Victoria 22; top salaries in these school districts ranged from $101,262 in Victoria to $119,703 in North Vancouver.
Richmond had 26 senior school district officials earning more than $79,000; the top salary was $96,547. Delta had 20; the highest salary was $94,692.
Like Prince George, Langley’s school district had 19 earning more than S79,000 a year, but the lop salary there was S 108,425. Maple Ridge had 18 earning over $79,000, and the top salary was $102,225.
Quesnel’s school system had six senior administrators earning more than $79,000, but top pay there was $84,278. Nechako School District 56, which includes Vanderhoof, had eight people earning more than $79,000, with the lop salary at $90,740.
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