BC Politics with Hubert Beyer

WHERE ARE SOCIETY’S PRIORITIES?

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VICTORIA – The order in which stories are displayed on the front page of a newspaper signifies its importance, at least in theory.

What stared me in the face of my daily last Wednesday was the headline "Play ball," in huge, bold letters on top of the front page, above a picture of Chicago White Sox pinch hitter Norberto Martin, sliding past Toronto Blue Jays catcher Benito Santiago to home plate at opening day of the baseball season.

Just below was a headline in slightly smaller type: "Health-fee hikes blasted." The story was all about chiropractors, physiotherapists, massage therapists and other alternative health care providers complaining about fee increases in the new budget from $7.50 to $10 a visit.

At the bottom of the page was a story about a Vancouver mother who lay dead on her bathroom floor for six days while her 22-month-old son banged on her chest trying to wake her.

Little has changed since the ancient Roman got their kicks from watching Christians torn apart by lions. Sport still takes priority over the ills that afflict society. And anything setting the scene for confrontation with government is second on the list.

True, the baseball photo was a great shot, but it belonged on the sports page. And the chorus of irate health-care providers bitching about fee increases has been heard so often that the same story with different names could be run every time fees are hiked.

At least the story of Mavis Flanders was given front-page play, albeit at the bottom. It was the story that deserved a screaming headline, zipped across the top, a story that reminds us that not all is well in Beautiful British Columbia.

Flanders, 39, died of an apparent drug overdose. She and her son, Chabasco, were regular visitors at the Kiwassa Neighborhood House in East Vancouver and, according to Children and Families Ministry staff, the mother had successfully completed drug and alcohol counselling programs.

Now the ministry is frantically trying to determine how a woman who received that much attention, could end up dead on the floor, her little boy trying desperately to wake up his mom.

At least the opposition got its priorities straight. For several days, Liberal MLAs bombarded Penny Priddy, Minister for Children and Families, with questions about the horrid circumstances surrounding Flanders’ death.

They wanted to know why the ministry wasn’t wise to the danger that Flanders’ lifestyle posed to little Chabasco, who had apparently been apprehended twice before by the ministry.

They wanted to know why nobody checked on the woman’s home which, when she was found, resembled anything but a caring environment for a child. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell had this to say:

"The apartment I saw on television was not something you get to that state in a couple of days or ten days. We’ve got syringes there, we’ve got bottles of pills there, we’ve got rotten food there. It’s an absolute shambles in that apartment."

I’m sure Priddy feels as sick at heart as anyone, and no personal blame should be attached to her. There are no perfect people, just perfect intentions.

On the other hand, just what can we expect when society has unquestioningly bought into the bottom-line philosophy, once reserved for a minority on the right of the political spectrum?

As long as society deems the opening of the baseball season and balanced budgets worthy of greater attention than its ills, the solution to our most pressing problems will continue to elude us.

STUPIDITY IS NOT RACISM

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VICTORIA – One of the remarkable aspects of our parliamentary system seems to be that while the world may be going to hell in a hand basket, our politicians busy themselves with debating largely irrelevant matters.

Take the latest uproar over Liberal MLA Ted Nebbeling’s attempt to practice his Cantonese 101 in the legislature.

"Gong dye wah," Nebbeling called out while NDP MLA Jenny Kwan spoke briefly in Cantonese.

Loosely translated, Nebbeling had just accused Kwan of stretching the truth or telling a big lie.

Now, you don’t do that in the legislature. Accusing someone of lying is unparliamentary, aside from being just plain rotten manners.

If I had done that as a kid, my mother would have washed out my mouth with soap, which is what Liberal leader Gordon Campbell should have done with Nebbeling. Next, Nebbeling should have been ordered to apologize, and that should have settled the matter.

Instead, all hell broke loose. Smelling an opportunity to detract from its own troubles, the NDP shamelessly exploited the incident, blowing it up into a racial slur.

Kwan, meanwhile, hadn’t even heard Nebbeling’s remark, but didn’t waste any time making her own political hey. She called on Campbell to impose "sanctions," whatever that means, on Nebbeling for his "offensive conduct."

"I cannot believe in 1997 that an elected official, someone who supposedly has political leadership, would engage in such activities," she said. "That is a mockery of me. It is a mockery of the Chinese community. It is a mockery of the entire ethnic community. It is a mockery of British Columbians."

Come on, Jenny, give me a break. Why didn’t you roll in the global community and accuse Nebbeling of making a mockery of the human race?

Whatever Nebbeling’s remarks indicated – rudeness and bad manners for starters – racist they weren’t. In fact, I see little difference between Nebbeling’s ill-advised remarks and Campbell saying in the legislature last week that Premier Glen Clark should tell the truth.

On that occasion, Speaker Dale Lovick pompously and unctuously equated Campbell’s statement with an accusation of lying, and threw the Liberal leader out of the House. The only difference is that Nebbeling said it in Cantonese.

Even Liberal MLA Ida Chong didn’t think Nebbeling’s comments were racist. And aside from Kwan, she’s the only other MLA in a position to understand what her insensitive and loutish colleague had said.

I’ve heard racist remarks in the B.C. Legislature. They were a whole lot different from Nebbeling’s stupid words. Back in the early 70s, when Dave Barrett was premier, a Socred MLA made some pretty nasty comments about the premier’s Jewish background.

Barrett was overseas at the time, but was informed of the incident on his return. Fortunately, the MLA in question grovelled an apology the moment Barrett got back, and the matter was done with.

What about former premier Bill Vander Zalm’s brief singing career, when he broke into a boisterous ditty about "Frogs" during a Socred convention? Insensitive and intolerant? Yes. Stupid and unbecoming of a premier? Yes. Racist? Hardly.

The term racism is applied altogether too loosely these days. Every time, some Reformer says something stupid, the Liberals yell racism.

Nebbeling richly deserved a dressing-down. His Cantonese caper was a display of ignorance, but it wasn’t racist by any stretch of the imagination. And the only reason the NDP turned this minor incident into a three-ring-circus act, was he opportunity to draw attention away from its problems.

And here, for anyone wanting to try a Nebbeling trick on me, just say: "Du luegst." That’s German for "You are lying." I promise I won’t accuse you of being racist.

SINGING THE BUDGET BLUES

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VICTORIA -- When Finance Minister Andrew Petter let last year’s deficit cat out of the bag at last, it weighed in at $395 million.

The1997-98 deficit, meanwhile, is projected at $185 million, which means that, next year at this time, British Columbians will be a further $580 million in the hole, bringing the province’s total debt to $30.8 billion.

Listening to Petter’s budget speech, you’d think that was quite an achievement. The minister virtually gloated over the NDP’s fiscal prowess.

"This government remains committed to the goals of eliminating the deficit and reducing taxpayer-supported debt …," he told the legislature.

Where have we heard that before? Oh yes, during last year’s election campaign. Actually, the way the NDP put it then, the war against the deficit was already won. We could look forward to a "modest surplus." That was the surplus that eventually became the $395 million deficit.

Stung by last year’s budget fiasco, Petter stressed in his speech that the 1997-98 budget was based on "prudent economic assumptions." A good thing, too. Last year, the government ignored all prudent advice and warnings from its own staff and projected the famous modest surplus.

This time around, the finance minister consulted the private sector and came away with forecasts, ranging from economic growth of half a per cent to $3.75 percent this year. His ministry told him that a 2.2-per-cent growth was in the offing. Petter, wanting to err on the side of caution eventually arrived at his own "prudent" expectation of 1.6 per cent growth.

When all is said and Done, the government expects to have spent $20.5 billion at the end of the new fiscal year, while collecting only $$20.3 billion.

In spite of the shortfall and the government’s bad track record in predicting budgets and economic trends, Petter forged ahead with unbounded faith in the future and promised to bring down a balanced budget next year and a surplus the year after.

On the plus side of the budget, tax cuts introduced in 1996 are maintained. Those reductions included a four-per-cent drop in personal income tax phased in over two years. The B.C. Family Bonus – a monthly payment of up to $103 per child – will also continue.

On most other fronts, the government will extract more money from British Columbians. User fees will be hiked for numerous businesses and consumers.

Tobacco smokers will have to pay another 2.6 cents per gram. For a 50-gram pouch of tobacco, that hike amounts to $1.30.

Under "other revenue," the budget lists $55 million for various fees and licences, up from $49 million last year, an increase of roughly 11 per cent

Among the fees that will go up are probate fees, motor dealer and travel agent registration fees, angling licence fees, safety inspection fees for elevators, electrical and gas installations, and boiler and pressure vessels.

There will be a $15-per-cent surcharge on all provincial fines to help fund spinal cord injury programs and services for victims of crime. Some of these fee hikes were already announced earlier.

If you wonder just where all the money comes from that the government will collect and spend this coming final year, and where you might come in, here’s a partial breakdown:

Personal income tax -- $5.3 billion; Corporations -- $1 billion; Social service tax -- $3.1 billion; Fuel -- $623 million; Liquor -- $592 million; Tobacco -- $479 million; Lotteries -- $323 million; B.C. Hydro -- $373 million; Residential property tax for school purposes -- $507 million; Business property tax for school purposes -- $724 million; Timber sales -- $1 billion; Small business forest enterprise program $300 million.

Looking over the aforementioned partial list, I find that I’m a generous contributor to eight out of the 13 tax extraction rackets. Small wonder average British Columbians are flat broke after the government is through with them.