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www.pgcitizen.ca | Friday, July 3, 2009

opinion
EDITORIAL

PUBLISHER: Hugh Nicholson  EDITOR: Dave Paulson www.pgcitizen.ca
Member of the B.C. Press Council A division of Glacier Ventures International Corp.

E-mail: letters@pgcitizen.ca

Ridley's game
As a way to spend an idle summer evening, there is a delightful spectacle offered by the seamy goings-on down Highway 16 at Prince Rupert's coal-handling Ridley Terminal. Last Friday, no doubt hoping the news would be lost in a haze of barbecue smoke, federal Transport Minister Rob Merrifield fired Dan Veniez, the chair of the board of government-owned Ridley. Unfortunately for the Tories, the announcement has only stoked interest, in forums ranging from the National Post to the Globe and Mail and the Vancouver Sun, in a deliciously sordid stew featuring figures ranging from the prime minister to B.C.'s coal industry to Prince George-Peace River MP Jay Hill. And perhaps the Conservatives' only saving grace is they can blame Trudeau. In 1982, during the era of megaprojects, the Liberals built Ridley as a grand and expensive way of turning B.C. into a global coal superpower; by 2006, after hundreds of millions spent and tens of millions in operating losses, then-PM Paul Martin was prepared to sell it for $3 million down and $17 million over 40 years. The Conservatives called it a fire sale and, indeed, Hill's website features a November 2005 snippet where he demands the Liberals cancel the sale in the Commons. Two months later, Harper won his first minority, nixed the sale and appointed Veniez to head Ridley. Veniez's past as a Mulroney wheelhorse must have served him well because he was already a notorious figure in Rupert; he'd been the public face of the disastrous efforts to revive the pulp operation Skeena Cellulose. Nevertheless, he may have done something astonishing - in the next three years, he took the perennially money-losing Ridley and restored it to a semblance of fiscal health. On paper, it's a right-wing fantasy - savvy businessman donates time as volunteer chair to whip Grit white elephant into a lean, hungry moneymaking operation. But, according to a letter Veniez sent to Merrifield dated June 23, he applied the bottom line to the wrong people, namely the coal and commodity firms who use Ridley, by raising the rates they pay. That allegedly drew the ire of forces like Peace River Coal, which operates in northeastern B.C., and U.S.-based ICEC, which Veniez claims hired a lobbyist to pressure Merrifield, whose riding contains many a coal interest and Hill, the government house leader, to fire the Ridley chair and his board (in another P.G. connection, pressure was also allegedly applied to UNBC alum and Tory cabinet minister James Moore, who rebuffed the advances.) Veniez also alleges, in the same letter, Peace River Coal withheld $2.5 million in payments to Ridley. Regardless, it would have all been dirty laundry left unaired had Veniez and the Ridley board not publicly mulled selling Ridley to a private investor, as the Liberals considered in 2006. It is a smiting irony for the righteously free-market, free-enterprise Tories - they appoint a can-do entrepreneur type to operate Ridley with business acumen, but balk when their champion wants to sell the firm for a solid buck. Now, admittedly, one can't judge Veniez for his actions over the Skeena debacle, but it's doubtful that Veniez is a virtuous volunteer who wants Ridley to succeed out of the goodness of his heart. Regardless, according to a Globe and Mail article dated May 20, Veniez claimed that private firms were now offering up to $131 million for Ridley - but the deal was being stymied by none other than Hill, who was leading the opposition to privatizing the facility after Peace River Coal met with the Tories' B.C. caucus in April. Hill, for his part, admitted to meeting with Peace River Coal, said he'd like to see Ridley remain in public hands, maybe as part of the Port of Prince Rupert and said he'd seen "nothing in writing" when it came to a private-sector offer. That's when Veniez probably sealed his fate. During the Skeena Cellulose affair, he loved courting the media and he let the Tories have it with both barrels in the press. Ridley's annual report warned the feds would have to spend $200-250 million to modernize the aging facility; he rallied the Sun, the Globe and Mail and the National Post to the cause, writing op-ed pieces and giving quotes about the need to privatize Ridley and how Hill and Merrifield were supporting subsidizing, through keeping shipping rates at the Rupert facility artificially low, their big coal constituents. He even accused the feds, in the Merrifield letter, on leaning on him to keep taxes away from the City of Prince Rupert. Safe to say, Veniez won't be getting an Order of Canada. But the firing means one thing: northern B.C. has a bona fide political potboiler to enjoy over the summer.

Falcon fumbles health file
VICTORIA -- Kevin Falcon is off to a bumbling and alarming start as health minister. Falcon sat down with the Vancouver Sun's health reporter and said he saw nothing wrong with letting affluent people pay for speedier treatment than the rest of British Columbians. "I do not have any objection to people using their own money just as they do for dental care or sending their kids to private school," he told Pamela Fayerman. "I think choice is a good thing." That's a radical shift away from equal, universal access to health care as promised under medicare. After Fayerman sat down to write, Falcon phoned. He should only have been talking about plastic surgery or treatments that aren't medically necessary, he said. The Canada Health Act bars paying for better or faster care in any other case. I'm new on the job, he explained. Which is troubling on at least three levels. First, any cabinet minister - anyone who has been paying attention - should have known about the two-tier care issue and the basics of the Canada Health Act. But it appears Falcon only caught on when his handlers boxed his ears. Second, Falcon's retreat was less than reassuring for those who think equal access to health care is important. He didn't say he believed in the principles of the Canada Health Act or supported equal access to care. Just that it was the law and the official Liberal position was to support it, so he would. And third, Falcon hardly came across as a medicare supporter. When he called Fayerman to clarify what he meant to say, he had this comment: "If we're talking about medically necessary care, we don't have the right to allow people to do that. Frankly, in my second week in the health portfolio, I haven't yet got my mind wrapped around that." Before you take the health job, you should have "your mind around that." It's the law, federally and provincially. If you haven't decided whether you understand or support the principle, health might not be the right ministry. It matters that Falcon didn't support equal access to care in the first interview. And that even in the correction call, he talked about the law, not principle. A full debate on health policy is important. But some principles are also important. And Falcon's stumbling is telling. What Canadians have said, so far, is that the right to health care shouldn't be restricted by wealth. If two little girls are ill they should get treatment based on their needs. A child with rich parents shouldn't get speedy treatment help, while another child suffers on a waiting list. The sickest child should get the promptest care. That's not what would happen if people could pay for better, faster treatment. Nor would two-tier care reduce health costs. In fact, it would inevitably increase them. More money would be spent on the same treatment as extra charges were piled on. If proponents of two-tier care were proved right, and more procedures were done overall, then costs would rise even faster. Falcon's comments came as three private clinics are suing the government, claiming the right to extra-bill patients for faster or better care. The government has been fighting the case, pointing to the Canada Health Act and B.C.'s Medicare Protection Act, which both bar extra-billing. Falcon's confused and confusing comments won't help the case. Two-tier care has been increasing in the province for about 15 years, as NDP and Liberal governments turned a blind eye to a growing number of private clinics that charge a fee to those who can afford speedier treatment. The increase has at least been slowed by occasional government threats to crack down on the practice, although the clinics now treat some 50,000 patients a year who can pay to beat the public system's waiting lists. Falcon's failure to state a clear, principled position on two-tier care will be a great encouragement to the private providers. Footnote: The debate about extra fees, queue-jumping and two-tier care is separate from a discussion of the best way to deliver services under a universal, public plan. Private providers already play a significant role in the system. The benefits and risks rate a separate column. Willcocks@ultranet.ca

mailbox... your letters
Missed by a hair
Heading home from my best friend's son's graduation with my youngest daughter, a friend and her two-year-old son, I was almost run down by a semi truck just outside Williams Lake heading north. I was below the posted speed limit, had just crested a hill and was descending when before my very eyes, in my lane of traffic, fewer than 500 feet away barrelling toward my very black car was a 80,000-pound truck, driver laying on his horn and slamming on his brakes. Having less than a split second to decide what to do, I slammed on my brakes as hard as I could,gripped my steering wheel for dear life and came to complete halt on the highway. He missed us by a hair. To the man in that truck, I hope you took some time to think about all the mothers, daughters,sisters and brothers driving on our roads as you white-knuckled it all the way to your destination. As a professional driver you should be leading by example. Driving any vehicle is not a right but a privilege. As a mother of two I'm extremely grateful my oldest daughter didn't receive the phone call her mother and baby sister were peeled off the highway. Many families will be travelling our roads this summer and I'm thankful this man didn't have to live with the guilt of killing an innocent family returning home from graduation. Slow down and obey the rules of the road. Erin Maiale Prince George

Grad support first-rate
On behalf of the staff and the 77 recent graduates from the Centre for Learning Alternatives, I would like to thank everyone who attended our valedictory ceremonies at CNC last week. The support of family, friends and the various community agencies was commendable. Guests attended from the Ministry of Children and Families,YAP, Reconnect, Make Children First, Intersect and Elizabeth Fry, just to name a few. We all appreciated their support and it meant the world to our youth. Finally, I would like to thank CNC and their staff for their support - five different departments assisted us. They were all exceptionally helpful and courteous, and the fact we were able to use their facility made the day an extra special one. Sue MacDonald Prince George

Key performance
Thank you so much to the wonderful woman from the fishing derby at West Lake for finding my keys, and then going the extra mile and turning them in to the library. Thanks also to the fabulous librarians for using the key-tab library card to look up my number and contact me. When they called I was at the locksmith learning that it was going to cost $160 to replace my van key. I've now learned that if you have two chip-encoded keys it's only about $35 to have an extra key made from the dealership, but if you only have one key it's about $160. So now thanks to these heroes I've got two keys again, so I'm off to get that backup key made. May their good deeds be returned. Laura-Lee Penson Prince George