The Prince George
Citizen
SATURDAY, JULY 10,1993
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Phone: 562-2441 Classified: 562-6666 Circulation: 562-3301
TOO LITTLE, TOO	LASAY CRITICS
Victoria moves on wages, costs
TEDDY BEAR PICNIC
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Citizen photos by Chuck Nisbett
Four-year-olds Nicole Gillette (left) and Sterling Jetha both work on their paper Teddy bears during the Teddy Bear Picnic that took place at Rainbow Park Friday with the city's leisure serv ices mini-campers group. The mini-campers program teaches kids aged three to five such things as games, crafts, songs, stories and survival skills.
KEMANO COMPLETION HEARING
Onus on Ottawa to take part
by BILL SEYMOUR Citizen Staff Word of Alcan Aluminum joining the public hearing process into the Kemano Completion Project prompts the federal government to become a full partner into the hearing, observers said Friday.
The onus is now on more involvement from Ottawa into the B.C. Utilities Commission’s KCP review, said Arlene Galisky of the Rivers Defence Coalition. Alcan’s announcement Friday morning was a surprise, she added.
! “I think it is absolutely essential now the federal government participate fully,” she said Friday. ‘‘If we are going to get the best solution to this dispute we really need full participation by everyone who is involved.”
Bill Rich, vice-president of Alcan B.C., said Friday his company would join the hearing process. The announcement was a reversal of Alcan’s early refusal to get involved with the commission since it was announced in January.
Work on the $ 1-billion water diversion project near Kitimat was suspended over two years ago
Public hearing dates
Sept. 15 Fort Fraser Sept. 16 Prince George Sept. 21 Kitimat
Here are the dates and locations of the B.C. Utilities Commission community hearings into the Kemano Completion Project Sept. 8 Fort St. James Sept. 9 Vanderhoof Sept. 10 Stoney Creek Sept. 13 Bums Lake Sept. 14 Grassy Plains
Hearings have been scheduled during the day. However, those wishing an evening session are asked to call Rob Pellatt at 1-800-663-1385.
amid public protest and court challenges to the 1987 Settlement Agreement between Alcan, Ottawa and Victoria.
Federal government involvement into the hearings is essential now in order to get as complete a picture as possible on what impacts KCP will have on the Nechako River, added Galisky.
“To find the best solutions to deal with them we need the participation of the proponents as well as the federal government,” she said. “There is now no reason not to hold a full environmental review.”
MP Brian Gardiner (NDP,
INDEX
Farcus
Ann Landers 7
Bridge..................26
Business 18,19
City, B.C..............2,3
Classified .... 20-27
Comics...................8
Commentary 5
Crossword ...... 26
Editorial................4
Entertainment ... 8,9
Family...................7
Horoscope...............19
Movies.............8,	P17
Religion................12
Sports...............15-17
P = Plus!
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“Give 110% of yourself — but never give them the number of your country club.”
Prince George-Bulkley Valley) said Alcan’s announcement puts the spotlight on Ottawa. Gardiner said he wrote to Prime Minister Kim Campbell Friday urging her government to join the process.
“All the attention turns today to Ottawa where it is high time for the federal conservative government to reverse their decision not to participate,” Gardiner said Friday from Bums Lake. “They should join right away and become a full partner in the inquiry.”
Calls to MP Frank Oberle (Progressive Conservative, Prince Gcorge-Pcacc River) were not returned Friday.
FURNITURE FIASCO
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Deciding to join the commission process means Alcan can defend the project, added Gardiner.
“It is good news that the company has responded to the public and government pressure to get involved in the review,” he said.
Both agree Alcan’s change of focus brings needed respectability to the B.C. Utilities Commission panel, which lost commissioner Alfred Scow in May. He resigned, citing other commitments.
Scow was the only native representative on the panel. Panel head Anne Edwards, minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources, has not indicated if Scow’s vacancy will be filled.
Technical hearings
Oct. 12-15 Prince George Ocl 18-21 Prince George Oct. 25-29 Prince George
Any group or individual interested in participating in the technical hearings is asked to contact the BCUC before July 23.
He’s got to give it back’
Southam News OTTAWA — The Mulroneys’ $150,000 furniture deal united opposition MPs and a former Tory cabinet minister Friday as they demanded the former prime minister return the money.
“He’s got to give it back. Mul-roney knows better than that,” said an incensed Heward Grafftey, a long-time Tory MP defeated in the 1980 election.
The National Capital Commission paid Mila Mulroney $150,000 for old couches, curtains and vases, an amount some appraisers say is far above the second-hand market value.
The deal is also controversial because some of the furniture may have been purchased with tax-deductible donations to the party.
“I’m not a boy scout, but it’s an unseemly gesture,” Grafftey, minister of science in Joe Clark’s 1979-80 government, said of the $150,000 sale.
"Pierre Trudeau didn’t sell his swimming pool or dig it up when he left,” the former MP said. Trudeau’s pool was built at 24 Sussex Drive with private donations.
Grafftey called on Prime Minister Kim Campbell to reverse the Mulroney deal immediately.
by MICHAEL SMYTH
VICTORIA (CP) — The British Columbia government moved Friday to overhaul the collective-bargaining system in the public sector in a bid to control wages and administrative costs.
But critics said the reforms don’t go far enough to reduce the size of a swelling civil service, cut the province’s mounting debt or reduce public-sector strikes.
“They had a chance to finally address this province’s bloated bureaucracy and they didn’t do a thing,” said Liberal Opposition Leader Fred Gingell.
The reforms would create an umbrella council that represents all public-sector employers — from hospitals to high schools.
The council would be chaired by the finance minister and members would include six other cabinet ministers and employer representatives from the six key public sectors — health care, social services, schools, universities, colleges and Crown corporations.
The council would allow the government to give clearer direction to public-sector employers on how and where taxpayers’ money should be spent, said Finance Minister Glen Clark.
“The status quo of unco-ordinated decentralized bargaining is finished,” Clark said.
Previously, individual employers in each sector bargained separately with various unions. The result was a patchwork of agreements and disparities in wages and benefits from contract to contract, Clark said.
The system also created labor unrest through so-called “leap frog bargaining” where labor negotiators, often from the same union, would try to outdo the previously settled contract in the same sector.
That made it difficult for employers to correct wages disparities without inviting new labor demands in other sets of negotiations.
The council creates a new forum to correct that, Clark said.
“Explicitly, we can say to the parties: ‘If this group gets to have more, then you have to take
less,”’ he said. “It tries to force those kinds of trade-offs.”
But critics said the reforms just create more bureaucracy and won’t solve key problems.
“Everyone’s going to get together and talk about the problems, but there’s really no clout to solve them,” said Liberal labor critic Gary Farrell-Collins.
More than 300,000 people presently work in the province’s public sector — about 20 per cent of B.C.’s workforce — and public-sector wages account for more than half of all government spending.
Friday’s reforms open the door for sector-wide bargaining by creating employer associations in each sector.
Each association will have government representation and may apply to the province’s Labor Relations Board to become the sole bargaining agent for the entire sector.
The education association, for example, could end up bargaining on behalf of the province’s 75 school districts instead of the present system of 75 separate sets of negotiations.
But Jackie Tegart, president of the B.C. School Trustees Association, said there’s no guarantee that management’s hand has been strengthened by the reforms.
“I see nothing in there that would help us in the next round of bargaining,” she said.
John Shields, president of the B.C. Government Employees Union, said he was pleased with the reforms which he said will help correct wage disparities.
“I think the direction makes eminent sense,” he said.
23,000 JOBS AT STAKE
Cities push roads plan
by MARINA JIMENEZ Southam News OTTAWA — The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is planning an “aggressive” campaign to win tight federal dollars to fix decaying bridges, roads, sidewalks and sewers across the country.
“We’re going to put the politicians in this country on the hot seat on these issues,” FCM president Ron Hayter told a news conference Friday. “It is going to be extremely difficult for the federal government to ignore them.”
The federation wants Ottawa to come up with one third of the estimated $20-billion it says is needed to upgrade the country’s crumbling infrastructure over five years.
The proposed program would create 23,000 jobs, encourage investment and help Canada become more competitive globally, Hayter said.
The federation, which represents about 600 towns and cities with about 70 per cent of Canada’s population, has tried to sell cost-sharing programs for the past decade.
Hayter said the .Mulroney government was unwilling to spend the money but the federation hopes the Tory leadership change and upcoming election will create new opportunities.
“If you can get an issue the public clearly identifies with, you can get them on side,” Hayter said. The federal Liberals and New Democrats and four provinces — Saskatchewan, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia — have already endorsed the program, he added.
Hayter said the problem will only get worse unless all levels of government take action now.
Montreal has a bad problem with broken-down bridges, while Ontario-area municipalities can’t afford to maintain their roads and highways.
The federation’s final demand is for the government to start paying municipal taxes again on the buildings it owns. In December 1992, the federal government introduced a tax freeze.
“I’m confident we’ll see a change of attitude,” Hayter said.
REAL ESTATE GUIDE
This week’s real estate section features the Blackburn community, where residents love their rural setting.
Also featured:
■ A look at house prices in Prince George and the Cariboo.
■ Mortgage rates: Is it time to bet on the long term? Also, check out the latest mortgage rate charts.
■ Architect Des Parker tells us why our homes look like they do.
LOVE THOSE RURAL ACRES
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