The Prince George
TUESDAY, JULY 13,1993
esNy 51 CENTS
(Plus GST)
Low tonight: 8 High tomorrow: 20
Phone:562-2441 Classified: 562-6666 Circulation: 562-3301
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Ben Meisner’s 1,100-horsepower jet boat seems to take flight as its owner shoots Nechako River rapids at high water near the confluence of the Mud River. Meisner took advantage of the high water levels to give his friends a tour of the Nechako.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
History up in flames	8
Killer quake hits Japan	9
Timbermen tough again	13
VCR clocks keep flashing	24
Senators scrap expense hike
by Canadian Press OTTAWA — The Senate ate crow Monday night, exactly what the public ordered.
They ate it almost unanimously. Only Liberal Norbert Theriault of New Brunswick declined.
The vote to get rid of the $6,000 expense allowance for senators living outside the Ottawa area went 80 to 1, with two abstentions. Twenty-one senators were absent.
The decision last month by the Senate to vote itself the allowance of up to $6,000 scraped a public nerve, unleashing a torrent of criticism and abuse against the un-
elected chamber often seen as patronage heaven.
“Everybody has been asked to take cutbacks and they do this kind of thing,” said Fredericton businessman David Wells, who took an evening from a two-day business trip to watch the vote from the stifling public gallery.
“Let’s watch them eat crow,” he said.
Senators did what the public demanded, but with little apparent enthusiasm.
They applauded Theriault when he cast his sole negative vote.
“It has shown that it is sensitive to public opinion,” said Senator
Lowell Murray, the government leader in the red chamber, after the vote.
Theriault argued if senators arc not compensated for their expenses, only the rich will be able to hold office.
“I felt in my conscience June 23 that the way I voted was the proper way to vote,” he said, and nothing he had heard since prompted him to change that opinion.
But Murray said whatever the arguments in favor of the allowance, Canadians were in no mood to listen.
“The mood was entirely a re-
sponse to the mood of the public,” conceded Liberal Senator Allan MacEachen. “Contrition is hard to come by.”
Theriault stood for his convictions and should not be condemned, MacEachen said.
Liberal Senator Ray Perrault said senators owe no apologies for the June 23 decision to create the allowance. “Did you expect the senators to come in ashes and sackcloth?”
The controversy renewed calls for abolition of the appointed upper chamber but Murray said Canadians are not interested in
another round of constitutional talks.
Prime Minister Kim Campbell said the decision was “great.”
Liberal Leader Jean Chretien also welcomed the change of heart and said he was disappointed so many Liberals voted for the original motion.
Monday’s vote was based on a report prepared earlier in the day by the same committee that recommended the allowance less than a month ago.
Perrault and others said MPs who criticized the Senate are hypocrites because they collect a similar allowance.
But NDP MP Lome Nystrom defended the Commons allowance, saying MPs work harder.
Senators earn $64,800 a year and get a separate tax-free expense allowance of $10,100. MPs earn the same salary but have a tax-free allowance of $21,400, plus the $6,000 living allowance.
The Senate costs $44.6 million a year. It sits about 100 days a year.
The vote saw 48 Tories, 29 Liberals, and three independents in favor. The two who abstained were Conservative Jean-Maurice Simard of New Brusnwick and Liberal Willie Adams of the Northwest Territories.
JOBS AT STAKE IF LAKE LEVEL DROPS
Aid pledged for Mackenzie
by KEN BERNSOHN Citizen Staff
The B.C. government will pay part of the cost needed to save jobs in Mackenzie in case the water level in Williston Lake drops enough to cause problems.
Economic Development Minister Dave Zimhelt said today the government is “prepared to pay part of the cost of an alternate water supply, effluent discharge and log handling facilities so that we can keep the operations running in case of low water levels,” Zimhelt said in a telephone interview.
In May, when the water level was 2,153 feet, B.C. Hydro forecast water levels in Williston Lake could drop to about 2,132 feet next April. That’s because snowpacks are low throughout the province, affecting all reservoirs until this winter’s snow melts next spring.
And Williston is the “swing” reservoir in the province with additional power generated from water in the lake when other reservoirs are low.
The forecast drop of 21 feet would move the edge of the lake about 16 kilometres from the town of Mackenzie. Since then new forecasts have been for higher water levels, but still below the 2,145 feet needed for the water intake pipe for Fletcher Challenge’s pulp mill. The low water level could also cause problems for Finlay Forest Industries, although its pulp and paper mills get their water from wells, by lowering the water table.
As well, lower water would cause problems for the municipality, which discharges treated effluent into the lake.
Keeping the water levels up, by buying power from the U.S. or Al-
berta, wasn’t a reasonable alternative, Zimhelt said.
“The cost to taxpayers to keep water levels high would be between $18 million and $48 million for this year alone, with no guarantee of success, and all we have is a range of figures.
“Issues like water flow operation are all part of the operations review and they can’t be considered in isolation. In addition to the cost, keeping the flows high would have a negative impact downstream on fish and wildlife and recreation values in both B.C. and Alberta, and those aren’t quantified in the $18 million to $48 million.”
Asked about the effect on other firms like Finlay Navigation, which uses the lake to transport a variety of goods, Zimhelt said, “The whole idea would be to look at all the mitigation that was nec-
essary. I mean, if they have alternate log hauling plans or facilities, then that’s part of it.
“We’re entering negotiations. Today we’ll be contacting them (firms in Mackenzie) and asking them what proposals they’ve got and beginning discussions.
“It’s the jobs in town that come first to us. We are concerned with that.”
At this time it’s too early to set a dollar figure on the provincial government’s aid, Zimhelt said.
“All of those things are subject to negotiation and our ‘due diligence.’ We’ve got to have people look at it before we finalize any cost arrangements.
“But I think the important thing is that we’re going to begin immediately with the prep for construction.”
INQUIRY COSTS RAPPED
VICTORIA (CP) — The B.C. inquiry commission on the public service was at least $400,000 over estimate and Opposition critics say commissioner Judith Korbin was paid an unjustified amount of money for her work on the project.
Korbin, an independent mediator, was appointed by cabinet order on March 6, 1992 to conduct the wide-ranging inquiry on ways to “enhance the effective delivery of public services.” The cost of the project was first estimated at $1 million.
Sources close to the commission said the final cost will come in at about $1.8 million, but a government spokesman put the total at about $1.4 million.
The costs are on top of the $1,200 a day Korbin was paid for her services through a contract offered by the Finance Ministry. The number of days she billed the government is not yet known, but the source estimated she worked three days a week.
The Finance Ministry said Monday Korbin’s firm was paid $299,000. Some of that money was reimbursement for expenses.
Some of the financial arrangements were laid out in five of the six points covered in the original cabinet order. They stated that she would be paid on the basis of a letter written by the deputy finance minister.
She and her staff would be paid living and travelling expenses at the executive level, she could hire lawyers at rates set by the attorney general, she could hire any support staff or consultants with the finance minister’s approval and, subject to appropriation, the government agreed to pay all commission expenses.
Social Credit Leader Jack Weisgerber said the money spent on the project was outrageous and obscene.
“It’s an amount there just doesn’t seem to be any justification for,” he said.
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INDEX
Farcus
Ann Landers .... 18
Bridge.................22
Business 16,17
City, B.C..............24
Classified .... 19-23
Comics.................10
Commentary 5
Crossword..............20
Editorial...............4
Entertainment ... 10
Family.................18
Horoscope..............22
InternaUonal 9
Movies.................10
National................8
Sports..............13-15
Television.............22
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Our privacy threatened, report says
by Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Canadians are in a technological trance, with dire consequences looming in the field of personal privacy, says a government report released today.
The explosion of computer and biomedical technology, the rising market for the sale of personal information and the uncritical acceptance of new technology means privacy is under siege, says the annual report of Privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips.
Images that once were limited to George Orwell novels may soon be realities in Canada if steps aren’t taken, the report suggests:
■ Calls for better crime prevention could lead to cameras on urban stress, cameras which monitor both lawful and unlawful movements.
■ The increasing demand for personal information about consumers means every scrap of data, from taste in movies to shopping habits, is of value to someone.
■ Cellular phones and the like mean it will be possible to track a person’s movements by tracing where they were when they made or received calls.
■ Fiscal pressures on governments may force the merger of programs, departments and their databanks,
raising the spectre of a single government file on each individual.
The “commodification” of information — the business of selling information on people’s lives for profit — means Canadians leave a trail of personal details and transactions over which they have no control, the report says.
Solutions can be found, if there is a will, it says.
But it insists case-by-case responses don’t work because “we cannot envisage where technology will lead.”
The government must establish a
set of principles, or privacy framework, against which new products and services can be measured to see if they threaten privacy rights, the report says. And it must be done soon.
“We no longer have the. luxury of time — the next 10 years will tell the tale,” Phillips says in the report, the 10th from commission.
The report also recommends all levels of government recognize all Canadians are entitled to protection of their personal data and that that protection should apply to both government and private sector operations.
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