Business
Airport chaplain finds his workload is taking flight. Page 17
World
Rwandan rebels consider deployment of UN forces a joke. Page 7
Sports
Canucks power past Leafs to even conference final. Page 11
Nation
Chief expects Canada to send in army if Quebec leaves. Page 6
CABINET MINISTER CLEARED
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Protesters get Canada Council grant
by Canadian Press
VICTORIA (CP) — Logging supporters are upset the Canada Council has given a $16,000 grant to two people arrested during last summer’s Clayoquot protests so they can document the logging road blockades.
But the two protesters, awarded the grant through the Explorations Program for emerging artists, say their application was judged on artistic merit.
“There is a strong division in this country between arts and politics and this was chosen on its arts merits,’’ Shelley Wine, a Vancouver lawyer and social worker, said Wednesday.
Wine and Hilary Mackey, also of Vancouver, were arrested July 21 at
Clayoquot on the west coast of Vancouver Island. They appear in court May 30 on charges of criminal contempt of court for violating an injunction prohibiting the blockades.
Mike Morton, executive director of the pro-industry Share B.C., said he is appalled that taxpayers’ dollars are being used to reward civil disobedience. “These protesters disrupted the whole community and now (the government) is throwing salt in our wounds by rewarding these people,” he said.
The documentary, Fury for the Sound: The Women at Clayoquot, will explore how the Clayoquot movement arose and the history of some of the women taking part.
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PRINCE GEORGE
Regional
hospital’s
grant cut
by BILL SEYMOUR Citizen Staff
A $300,000 cut in hospital funding from last year’s budget is “unacceptable,” the chairwoman of the Prince George Regional Hospital board said Wednesday.
The drop in PGRH’s global grant from the province will deny people in the region equal access to health care, said hospital chairwoman Diane Rogers. Rogers was reacting to a copy of PGRH’s funding letter for the current Fiscal year.
“We have been victimized by the population demographics funding formula, and our community and region are being denied equity of access to health care,” Rogers said. “The fact is we can’t accept iL”
The Health Ministry recently mailed funding letters to all of B.C.’s hospitals. Health Minister Paul Ramsey (Prince George-North) said allocations range from minus onfe per cent to approximately four per cent. *
This year’s allocation will set PGRH’s operating deficit soaring to a record $3 million through an operating budget of $60 million. Earlier projections had forecast a deficit of $2.7 million based on provincial funding of about $49.6 million.
Prince George was being set apart from its peer group of hospitals with this reduction, she said. Hospitals similar in size to PGRH were not hit as hard.
Rogers blamed the drop in funding on the province’s reliance of population models for hospital funding. Those formulas aren’t appropriate for large regional hospitals like PGRH, she said.
“It does not address equity of access or core services,” added Rogers. “We are a sole regional referral hospital in a large geographic area and we will not be .able to provide equity of access for our community and region if we continue to receive clawbacks like this.”
A Health Ministry news release said money to hospitals is based on population increases, efficient use of resources and how appropriately beds were used. Ramsey held out some hope for hospitals not able to meet his funding guidelines.
“We recognize that for some hospitals, the current budget allocation may present some difficulties,” Ramsey said. “However, through the hospital funding initiative we are prepared to provide some additional bridge funding to set these hospitals on a firm financial footing.”
Rogers said most of the deficit was a result of the health accord signed last year by the province, hospitals and B.C.’s three major hospital unions. About $2 million of the deficit was caused by the
funding demands of the accord, she said.
Lack of money will not force any immediate changes in the hospital’s operations. The board is not planning a reduction in PGRH’s 209 remaining acute-care beds.
“This board has made a commitment that it will not reduce services to our community,” she said. “We do not want to jeopardize quality of care.”
★
Fund levels compared
Funding increases to hospitals in Central B.C. have been marginal, a survey of the region indicates today.
While Prince George Regional Hospital was hit with a decrease of about $300,000 in its provincial operating grant, at least two other hospitals in the region earned small increases.
Both G.R. Baker Memorial Hospital in Quesnel and the McBride and District Hospital repent allocation increases of less than one per cent.
Critics of the government say it’s time hospital boards spoke out for more money. The increases don’t take into account increasing costs of health care, said Len Fox (Reform, Prince George-Omineca).
Fox said Premier Mike Harcourt’s government is flawed.
“When you see all the money Harcourt is throwing all over the province and yet we can’t keep a good health-care system going, there’s something wrong,” Fox said today from Vanderhoof. “It’s time boards spoke up that this can’t go on and deliver a viable service.”
The government is simply not delivering on its promise to make health care a priority, said Liberal health critic Linda Reid (Richmond East). The health labor accord signed last year by the province, hospitals and B.C.’s three main health unions is to blame for the shortage of cash, she said.
“The government has not funded the accord and the hospitals are carrying the can,” Reid said today.
Operating funding for 1994-1995 at McBride’s hospital climbed less than one per cent to $1.59 million from about $1.58 million the previous year. In Quesnel funding was up about $87,000 or 0.8 per cent, on an operating budget of approximately $10.2 million.
“It’s trom Joey. He’ll be in law school another 3 '.o 5 years.”
Right, ballerina Kristy Brooks is among Prince George’s
representatives at the B.C. Festival of the Arts.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
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Mill accident
by Canadian Press
VICTORIA (CP) — British Columbia’s top corruption watchdog cleared the provincial agriculture minister of wrongdoing Wednesday after an investigation into a contentious land deal.
David Zirnhelt had been accused by the Opposition Liberals of misusing his office in buying a parcel of land in the central Cariboo region.
Prior to the purchase, Zirnhelt had met a neighboring landownder who wanted his help in obtaining road access and an electricity line through the property for herself and some neighbors.
Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell said that gave the NDP politician inside knowledge about the
land, which may have influenced his decision lo buy it.
But Ted Hughes, the province’s independent conflict-of-interest commissioner, says Zirnhelt did nothing wrong.
Hughes said it was common knowledge in the rural region that Linda Brady and her neighbors had been seeking access through the land Zirnhelt and a partner eventually bought in a bankruptcy sale.
“Zirnhelt did not receive any information that was gained in the execution of his office which was not available to the general public,” Hughes wrote.
Zirnhelt said he was relieved by the finding after three weeks of
often-nasty attacks on his character by the Liberals.
“It thickened my skin a bit, but it really hurt my tamily,” Zirnhelt said. “Being judged guilty and vilified like that. . .it rocks your confidence.”
Zirnhelt stopped short of asking Campbell and the Liberals for an apology, but government house leader Glen Clark wasn’t ready to forgive and forget.
“They slandered him,” Clark said. “They called him cowardly and sleazy and all kinds of names.
“That certainly requires an apology.”
Campbell was unrepentent.
“A citizen of this province felt she hadn’t been treated fairly by a minister of the Crown,” said Campbell, who asked Hughes to investigate. “That required an investigation.”
Premier Mike Harcourt said the ruling showed he was correct to resist Opposition demands to fire Zirnhelt
proves fatal
A Prince George chip truck driver injured Wednesday in an industrial accident at the Netherlands Division sawmill died in hospital.
Around 2 p.m. John Sarrazin, 59, a truck driver with James Malcolm Transportation, was placing netting on togrof his chip truck.
“Shortly after, within a few minutes, he was found lying on the ground,” Roger Young, communications manager of interior operations for Canfor Ltd, owner of the sawmill, said in an interview today.
“No one observed exactly what happened.”
Sarrazin was taken to Prince George Regional Hospital, where he died around 7 p.m.
Sarrazin was a long-time Canfor employee, having joined the company in 1972. He started work with James Malcolm Transportation in 1992 when Canfor began contracting its chip-hauling business at the Netherlands Division.
Prince George’s singers, musicians, dancers, speakers, stage performers and artists will be in Campbell River for the B.C. Festival of the Arts on May 25-28
The 1,200 competitors for the festival, now in its 12th year, are selected at 75 regional festivals and shows throughbut the province.
For a look at who from the Prince George region is going to this year’s festival and the story of two young dancers, see our special full-page spread in today’s entertainment section.
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