BC Politics with Hubert Beyer

I HAVE SEEN THE ENEMY AND IT IS IGNORANCE

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VICTORIA -- Almost daily, we are be bombarded with statistics, and depending on who is using them, the same numbers can mean very different things.

The trouble with statistics and the averages derived from them is that they never tell the whole story. Take Finance Minister Mel Couvelier's latest financial and economic review, released last week. It covers the fiscal year 1987-88.

A table on page 96 of the document shows that in 1987, 40.6 per cent of British Columbia's labor force had attended a post- secondary education institution. That figure was up from 34.8 per cent in 1977. Couvelier's conclusion: British Columbians are better educated today than they were 10 years ago.

While the finance minister's conclusion is not incorrect, I saw something else in those statistics. The figures showed that 59.4 per cent of the province's labor force didn't complete high school. True, that's somewhat better than 10 years ago when 65.2 per cent had not completed their high school education, but it's still a pretty depressing figure.

Here's the breakdown, provided by Statistics Canada. Of the combined labor force, totalling 1,484,000, only 13.8 per cent had a university degree, and another 14 per cent had graduated from high school.

A further 12.8 per cent had "some post-secondary education," while 53 per cent were listed as having had "some high school," and 6.4 per cent had between zero and eight years schooling.

Those figures should scare the living daylights out of us. If we can't motivate more than 14 per cent of all students to get a university degree, there isn't much hope for staying in the global race for economic excellence.

The problem isn't confined to British Columbia. In a recent U.S. poll, 23 per cent of those surveyed believed that the sun rotates around the earth. Sorry, Galileo.

I have seen the enemy, and it is not free trade; it is not lack of environmental concern; it is not unemployment; it is not poverty, and it is not the fiscal deficit.

The enemy is ignorance. Ignorance alone is keeping societies everywhere from achieving their potential. Ignorance keeps people in economic subservience. Ignorance breeds economic decline accompanied by all its ills.

If we are to play any role at all in the global economy of the next century and beyond, we must learn to regard as intolerable the fact that nearly 60 per cent of our labor force does not graduate from high school. Whatever the cost, those statistics will have to change.

The first step towards improving the odds against becoming little more than a cheap labor pool is to determine who's to blame for the sad state of affairs. The second step is to put pressure on the culprits and force them to bring about the necessary changes. Some blame must go to governments. They provide the educational infrastructure. They have the last word on funding the education system. They can provide incentives for education or erect barriers against it.

The federal government could start by infusing more money, a lot more money, into research and development. The economies of Japan West Germany and East Germany didn't make it into the top five by slashing research and development funding, as the Mulroney        government did four years ago.

The provincial government, too, is not without fault. Although there have been improvements in the education budget, it is still suffering from the shortfalls created by cutbacks a few years ago. To be truly effective, a university education must be free. Instead of devising complicated formulae for student aid in the form of loans and grants, the government should abolish the tuition fee. Until that happens, a university education will always be restricted to students from more affluent families.

These are not socialist ideas; they are common-sense ideas. If we could provide 50 per cent of our young with a university education, just watch Canada move to the head of the pack.

In fairness, though, governments cannot be blamed for everything that's wrong with the nation's education system in general and that of British Columbia in particular. The problem starts at the individual level.

Too many students are lured out of the education system by the Short-term gains of often marginal employment, and parents don't seem to be able to provide them with enough guidance to see the folly of that decision.

But regardless of who is to blame, if we can decide that ignorance is the problem, then education is the answer. The sooner we come to that realization, the better.

ARE OUR RAINFORESTS DOOMED?

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VICTORIA -- Canada's only temperate rainforest exists on a narrow fringe along the west coast of British Columbia. If you have never had the exquisite pleasure of seeing a rainforest and experiencing its quiet and mystical beauty, you had better hurry, or it may well be gone forever.

Few trees in British Columbia are safe from the chain saw. The harvesting of trees is so much part of the province's economy that any attempts to point out flaws in the management of the timber resource are, in the eyes of the industry and, more often than not the government, tantamount to economic sabotage. "Trees Forever," says the industry slogan, and there is some validity to that forecast. Of course, there will be trees next year, in a decade, in a century and beyond. The question is what kind of trees.

Public pressure on government and industry has resulted in better reforestation policies. The clearcuts of today will sprout new forests tomorrow. But no forest planted today will be allowed to reach the maturity that makes the last remnants of our first-growth forests so unique, so beautiful. The new forests will be harvested 75 years down the road.

That means we must make up our minds whether there is anything in our forest inventory that warrants preservation, rather than replacement with saplings. The public obviously doesn't believe that all forests are the same. That's why South Moresby Island was declared off limits to logging. That's why the battle over Meares Island and its large first-growth trees continues.

Now the Sierra Club has opened a new front in the war between the forest industry and environmentalists. The spoils in that new engagement are the temperate rainforests of the west coast. The rainforests are doomed, unless the government moves to protect them, says the Sierra Club whose declared mandate is "to explore, enjoy and preserve Canada's forests, waters, wildlife and wilderness."

Vicky Husband is in charge of conservation efforts of the Sierra Club's western Canadian operation, based in Victoria. She says the country's only temperate rainforests are in danger of being exterminated by the forest industry.

"There are a number of unique ecological systems in Canada that are rapidly disappearing to environmentally unsound development, but in terms of the sheer magnitude of environmental destruction, nothing can compare with the calculated extermination of Canada's rare and remarkable rainforests," she says. Rainforests, Husband says, are more than a museum of antiquity or a warehouse of wood. They represent an irreplaceable heritage.

"The temperate rainforest is a rain-drenched, moss-filled ecological wonder. There is a stability of forest structure here that has endured for thousands of years, sustaining rich and abundant populations of wildlife and fish," she says. "The self-contained ecological resilience of this ancient forest has enabled it to cope with every disaster nature has thrown its way. What it can't cope with is the disastrous policy of the forest industry," she says.

Husband says that unlike in the United States, where governments are very much aware of the need to preserve rainforests, the B.C. government is aiding and abetting the industry in its quest for profits at the expense of our heritage.

The United States, she says, are concerned with researching the ecology of the temperate rainforest and developing long-term management strategies for their heritage old-growth, while we log this non-renewable ecological showpiece right out of existence. Husband says that unless protective measure are taken now, the west coast's temperate rainforests will be in ruin within 20 years. Only the least valuable timber will be left standing, "isolated in a disjointed landscape and robbed of its bountiful wildlife and pristine watersheds."

There is no doubt that Husband is quite emotional about the topic. But then, why not? What's wrong with getting emotional about beauty. Emotions and beauty are certainly more closely related than beauty and logging.

I can already hear my friends in the forest industry saying, Hubert, there you go again, giving a platform to these starry-eyed and downright irresponsible preservationists who want to save every damn tree. Chris O'Connor in Lytton will probably welsh out on that beer he said he was going to buy me next time I'm up there. Well, I'd hate to pass up a free beer, but it seems to me that the Sierra Club's views on our rainforests bear listening to. At least, let's discuss them.

Perhaps, instead of fighting endless environmental battles over individual watersheds, islands and specific forest stands, the future management of our forest ought to be the subject of an exhaustive Royal Commission study.

OTTAWA, ARE YOU LISTENING?

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By HUBERT BEYER

VICTORIA -- The people have spoken and their wisdom should not be doubted. Nobody knows that better than the three main players in the drama that unfolded before the eyes of Canadians on November 21, 1988.

Prime Minister Mulroney, in what was probably his most gracious speech ever, said that now comes "the time for healing in the land." New Democratic Party Leader Ed Broadbent began his speech by confessing his unwavering belief that "the people are always right." Liberal Leader John Turner showed himself equally gracious in conceding victory to his adversary. If democratic elections serve countries as surrogates for civil war, this was one of the bloodiest wars ever fought in Canada. Some wounds need healing, indeed, particularly in the west.

The message western Canada sent to Ottawa cannot be lost on the prime minister. His party got massacred in British Columbia. In Alberta, the NDP elected its first member ever, and throughout the west, the Reform Party showed surprising strength. Opinions are split over why the Tories fared so badly in British Columbia. A Socred backlash was one reason. A lot of British Columbians were simply dissatisfied with Premier Vander Zalm's conservative policies, and in the absence of a provincial election, lashed out at the only target available.

Anyone ruling out the Socred backlash theory should remember 1975. Spooked by the three-year NDP reign, the voters turfed out Barrett and a short time later dealt the NDP a crushing blow in the federal election.

Former Liberal cabinet minister and ex-president of the Liberal Party, Iona Campagnola, hit the nail on the head when she said that British Columbians treat every election as a provincial election.

But the backlash against our own government cannot alone account for the slaughter in B.C. of Tory candidates at the polls. Unease about free trade also played a big role. Allaying people's fears over the effects of free trade on our lumber industry, our agriculture, our grape growers must be part of the prime minister's promise to heal the wounds.

There is also the long-standing conviction in the west that we are always the loser in the game of confederation. That's why the Reform Party showed such remarkable strength and in doing so, helped defeat numerous Tory candidates.

The most remarkable thing about the election was that it left nobody a real loser. The Tories got their second majority mandate; the NDP sent more members to Ottawa than ever before; and the Liberals emerged as a strong and healthy opposition. All three party leaders have reason to be proud of the results.

There can now be little reason for the Liberals to dump Turner. He has acquitted himself well. The same goes for Broadbent, although he may well tender his resignation as party leader. And Brian Mulroney did what no other Conservative leader has been able to do in this century. He formed two majority governments back to back.

Free trade is now a fait accompli. The prime minister says he wants to get the deal ratified by Parliament before Christmas. Then comes the real test. With all the election rhetoric out of the way, Canadians can begin to assess the effects free trade will have on their country, their culture, their social programs, their lives.

I don't believe for a moment that the horrible scenarios painted during the campaign by the Liberals and the NDP will come true. Surely, the fabric of our society is strong enough to withstand the inevitable pressures that come with closer economic ties to the U.S.

A U.S. magazine in a recent piece on free trade tried to reassure Canadians that their culture is in no danger of being eroded by the U.S. For more than 200 years, the writer said © tongue firmly stuck in his cheek © America has tried to erode the culture of southern Alabama without the slightest sign of success.

Free trade will have its casualties. Jobs will be displaced, but that's nothing new. Any progress displaces jobs. Industrialization displaced hundreds of thousands of jobs; so did high technology more recently. The important thing in the long run is whether the displaced jobs will be replaced. And that question is no longer academic for Canadians.

For better or worse, we are launched on the road to free trade with the United States. That decision was made by Canadians at the polls. With all the exposure the free trade issue got during the campaign, the prime minister has a solid mandate for its implementation.

And if the effects of free trade include a challenge to our cultural and social institutions, so be it. Without challenge no institution can claim strength. A country that cherishes its social and cultural heritage will have enough strength to ward off any challenge. I happen to believe that

Canadians have that strength.