4 - The Prince George Citizen - Friday, June 23, 2000 PRINCE GEORGE Citizen Published by Hollinger Canadian Newspapers, L.P. 150 Brunswick Street, P.O. Box 5700, Prince George, B.C. V2L 5K9 Fax: 562-7453 E-mail: pgcnews@prg.southam.ca Web site: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com DEL LAVERDURE, | JOHN HARDING, Publisher Editor Opinion EDITORIALS Big steps Prince George people have done it again. More than 7,000 people packed the Multiplex Thursday afternoon to show their concern for the northern and rural health care crisis. There were no slogans or chants, no outbursts of anger, no political rhetoric. It was a testament to how much this community cares, and a message to all who may underestimate us. The largest crowd ever to occupy the Multiplex heard speeches of passion from their neighbours, people who just happen to have titles like president, or mayor, or chairman. It was an opportunity to cheer for the doctors of this city, to show support for the nurses and other health care workers. But most of all, it was an opportunity to look forward, to seek real solutions for this crisis. A recurring theme of the rally — superbly emceed by the charming Reverend Lance Morgan — centred on education and training. We hope we witnessed the start of a push to get UNBC and CNC expanded to become institutions that train doctors and more nurses. We hope we witnessed the start of a push to get Prince George Regional Hospital the proper resources it needs to become the training hospital and referral centre it needs to be to serve the region’s 250,000 people and recruit and retain doctors. Many of the speakers said people who don’t live here, and perhaps some who do, will think the idea of UNBC becoming a medical school is a pipe dream. As we’ve stated here and speakers alluded to Thursday, those same people said the creation of UNBC — which is celebrating 10 years of reality — was a pipe dream. Imagine the size of the crowd if the doctors hadn’t settled Thursday. Staggering. We’re constantly impressed with the vigour and commitment of this city’s residents — well, we’ve outdone ourselves again. What’s next? Mayor Colin Kinsley announced the city would appoint and support a working group, a committee of health care professionals and other community leaders, to seek solutions to the health care crisis. Kinsley also said Prince George will host, in the next six months, a national summit on northern and rural health concerns. Although Prince George has become Ground Zero for the rural and northern health care crisis, we hope community leaders and health professionals take care of our own first. It’s great to be a national leader on such an important issue, but we must first concentrate on getting more doctors and nurses to PGRH, getting more nurse training positions at UNBC and CNC, getting UNBC declared a medical school and fixing the horrible problems, administrative and practical, at PGRH. We can do it. We have great health care professionals in this city, and if they’ve survived the past few years, they can survive anything. We have to be able to tell doctors and nurses and other health professionals we understand their plight, we thank them for their incredible hard work and patience, and we promise to do something about it, with their help. The momentum of this rally cannot be lost. Let’s get this working group appointed and into action soon. Perhaps some of the community leaders who did such a great job recognizing the need for, and organizing the rally with lightning speed, can get the ball rolling on this all-important working group that will hopefully get UNBC a unique, double-themed status — a forestry studies/medical university. Anyone think they’ll back off? There’s no reason to believe environmental groups like Greenpeace will lessen their pressure on forest companies in B.C. after the companies seek and get eco-certification through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). While companies like Canfor are committed to obtaining, or have already obtained, certification from other organizations (ISO for example), The FSC certification is the only one backed by environmental groups like Greenpeace. If and when the companies get this FSC certification, does anyone really believe that will mollify Greenpeace? Absolutely not. It’s just another piece in the environmental groups’ strategy puzzle. There will be something else to follow. That’s not to say eco-certification is not a good thing to pursue. Aside from the environmental logic, there are huge business concerns when retail giants like Home Depot say they’ll not sell wood supplied by companies that haven’t met certain certification standards. We’re just not confident Greenpeace won’t up the ante down the road. As we’ve stated before, some high-profile environmental groups are now more about sustaining their profile and membership rolls through ‘projects’ that will grab media attention than they are about sustaining the environment. Viewpoints by editor John Harding CANADIAN ALUANCE , growth inquebec artlzans.com Mailbox: Your Letters Health system: The ethical choice Dear sir: I am writing in response to all the attention paid lately to the False Creek Surgical Centre and our suggested solutions for the grim state of health care in the community of Prince George, as reported in the Prince George Citizen, Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers and addressed on BCTV and CBC over the last two weeks. I am a medical doctor licensed to practice medicine in B.C. and am uniquely positioned to provide a service to people seeking surgical attention. If you require surgical care and are on the Canadian Surgical Wait List and can afford to seek out our services, we welcome you to False Creek Surgical Centre. This principle value of the Hippocratic oath (360 BC) is as ethical today as it was centuries ago and in my opinion, stands high above the Canada Health Act. Health care delayed is health care denied. Several weeks ago my colleagues and I sent a proposal to the Prince George Regional Health Unit; a proposal we feel would quickly Ship than back! Dear sir: Re: the June 5 Citizen story regarding the migrants escaping from the Correctional Centre. On the same cover page was an article about the nursing shortage, the medicare crisis, etc. Is it any wonder that there is apparently no funds to provide adequate health care when our money is being spent on housing these illegal immigrants who have no business being here in the first place? Add up the costs of keeping them here, as well as the costs for helicopters to find them, valuable RCMP time and expenses, etc. What a disgrace. The immigrants are obviously not happy with their accommodations, so ship them back where they came from, at our expense of course. I would rather see my tax money going to vital services such as medicare than to a group of illegal freeloaders who do not deserve one nickel of taxpayer dollars. Perhaps someone in government could explain this ridiculous, blatant disregard of valuable tax dollars. Then again, taxpayers rarely get any explanation from the arrogant powers that be. We are really being had, folks. — Z. Oliver Prince George and efficiently decrease the wait times for surgeries in that city. Our proposal is simple: to provide fully-equipped and staffed operating rooms and recovery facilities to the specialists and surgeons of Prince George which would meet all College of Physician and Surgeon of British Columbia approved procedures. The focus and license of False Creek Surgical Centre for day-care procedures provides a predictable and cost effective alternative delivery of surgical services. We all know Prince George is just an example of a problem that plagues the entire province and even this country. Our proposed partnership offers immediate intervention in Prince George and is perhaps a template for future service alternatives across Canada. For-profit health care — what a danger, you may say. But just think for a moment about the current state of our health care system. Research shows the majority of Canadians believe it is outdated and inefficient. Why would you keep feeding money to a system that is bureaucratically top heavy, with an inflexible rigid and expensive work force, which has little competition from other potential healthcare businesses? And just think about the fact that our philosophy to profit has created eight full-time jobs and contributed in taxes to governments on all levels over $100,000 in less than a year. But let me be clear about one thing: I do not advocate two-tiered health care or an Americanization of our current health care system. I believe there is a way to allow private healthcare business to flourish, but control it in a way that is ethical and considerate to all Canadians. We need to introduce a system where all taxes in a private-public partnership healthcare system go straight into reducing waiting lists. It is the right choice. It is the ethical choice. — Mark Godley, Director False Creek Surgical Centre Vancouver Myatovic Women’s soccer club thanks tournament supporters Dear sir: The Myatovic Women’s Soccer Club would like to give a big thank-you to everyone who participated in and supported the recent Michelle Lamarche Memorial Soccer Tourna- ment. We are sure Michelle would be overjoyed by the sportsmanship and fun that was had by all. Although there are numerous people who deserve individual recognition for their time and efforts, we cannot thank everyone adequately in the small amount of space we have here. Thank-you to the referees who volunteered their time, the media for their excellent promotion of the event and everyone else who made the weekend a tremendous success. A special thanks to Michelle’s nieces and nephews for their selfless donation towards the future women’s soccer fields. We hope that we can continue this success of this tournament for years to some. —Julie Schulz On behalf of the Myatovic Women’s Soccer Club Prince George D Nasty trend ear sir: Have you noticed a trend? WCB is looking to pay people around $75,000 to sit on their Review Board. The doctors in Prince George are taking advantage of a bad situation and blackmailing the citizens of this city for more money — so much for their oath. BC Gas gets another big increase for their gas — don’t forget the increase they have already received in the past year. An oil change in Prince George still costs $20. Notice the trend? If you’re in the system — put the screws to the taxpayers. If you’re an independent, hard-working business person — get screwed? —Kelly Gagnon Prince George Here’s how to fight the oil companies Dear sir: Lately it just seems that I’m not very happy about the way things are going at all. Just when I thought that the gas companies were finished hurting us with the outrageous prices for fuel, they had to come in just one more time; 71.9 cents per litre is too much. For some time now I have been trying to get some support for a boycott to reduce costs for fuel. There is only one way to that. And here’s why: 1. You must understand that the oil companies say that they aren’t price fixing. Of course we all believe them, right? 2. There are in this country, only a few companies that control all of our oil. That means that if we are to have any success at all, we have to find a way to squeeze them all hard. 3. One-day boycotts and the like don’t work. If the oil companies don’t get your money today, they will eventually get you because they have the thing you need. Oil and gasoline. The answer — boycott only one oil company. That oil company must be one of the national controlling companies. We the consumer have the one thing that they don’t control — money. The money that you and 1 control is the one commodity that they compete with each other for. Every time you make any aggressive moves that may hurt the profitability of any shareholder corporation, the shares of that corporation drop in value. That could mean the difference between profits and a huge loss. Losses again will force downward pressures on those share values. With that in mind, we must boycott ‘X’ until they succumb to falling sales. That means you have to buy your fuel somewhere else. You gotta have it anyway so just leave station ‘X’ and buy at station ‘Z’ or ‘K’. When the prices come back down at station ‘X’ to where they ought to be, somewhere around 50 cents per litre, everyone then goes hack to station ‘X1 until every one of the companies have followed station ‘X’. Life then returns to normal. When the oil company execs get stupid and do it again we the holders of the money merely repeat the process. This the only effective way to control the oil companies. They can cry taxes all they want but that is only a smoke screen to hide price gouging. — Mike Summers Hooterville Taxi Vanderhoof