THE FISHERMAN, MAY 20. 1996
Give NDP a new mandate May 28
e'll all be heading to the polls for the provincial election on May 28 and for those of us in the fishing industry, the line has been drawn clearly.
The Mike Harris government has drawn it in Ontario. The Klein government has drawn it in Alberta. The Chretien government in Ottawa, which is furiously tearing out pages from its Red Book promises to create jobs and maintain social programs, is drawing it in Ottawa.
For all of them, the line is the same: the government debt is too high and government spending has to be cut. For all of them, it's meant laying off public sector workers by the hundreds and cutting the social programs available to people. At the same time, in Ontario, they're handing a tax cut to the wealthy.
That's what the Gordon Campbell's Liberals and Jack Weisgerber's Reform Part)' want to do in this province. They're both touring the province with their charts showing the growing government debt and offering to slash public spending by as much as $3 billion, depending on who's talking on what day. But whatever size they are, those cuts will have only one result: more layoffs and more cuts to programs.
Both Campbell and Weisgerber have tried to present themselves as advocates of the fishing industry. But both want cuts to
the environment ministry and environmental programs—the very programs that support habitat restoration and salmon renewal.
If we ane to have a salmon industry in this province, rebuilding the runs and protecting salmon hiabitat is critical. You can't do that by cutting budgets. But in the end that's all the Liberals and Reform are offering—cut the debt, cut the budget, cut spending. It does nothing for people except reduce their opportunities for earning a living.
That's why this election is so vitally important. Premier Glen Clark's NDP government has set a different direction for this province. It's based on maintaining sociaJ programs like health care and using government revenue to develop such programs as Forest Renewal and Fisheries Renewal that will enhance the
Make your voice heard on May 28
VOTE
resource base and provide some jobs now and in the future.
In the fishing industry, the NDP record stands up well. Since it's election in 1991, the government has put labour's side of the equation back in the Labour Code and met the UFAWU's longstanding demand for fishermen's bargaining rights under that code. The government established the Fish Processing Strategic Task Force and if the rec-ommendations haven't all been enacted, the work is continuing. The Kemano Completion Project was cancelled and Clark reiterated last week that Alcan will not be getting compensation.
Yes, there is concern in this province over the fisheries provisions of the Nisga'a treaty. But we're mindful that the federal government is the prime architect of that agreement. And we intend to press
the province hard for a coastwide cap on the percentage of fish that will be transferred to aboriginal groups under land claims and to press for compensation for displaced workers. Those issues will have to be addressed whatever government is in office.
More important, we believe, is the NDP government's firm support on such as issues as the Mifflin plan.The province has maintained its opposition to the plan and has developed Fisheries Renewal B.C. as part of a program of working with the industry and communities to develop an alternative way of managing the fishery.
Clark himself has also struck a dramatically different personal note as the premier of this province. Unlike his predecessors, including Harcourt, he hasn't been afraid to stand up and say that he supports, and has the support of working people and the trade union movement. He's accorded the people in this industry a respect no other government has.
That's why this election is historic—an historic opportunity for British Columbians to stand up against the cut-and-slash policies so prevalent in the rest of the country. This is our opportunity to work to build something in this province, instead of spending our time fighting those who would tear it down through budget-cutting.
Vote to renew the NDP government's mandate on May 28.^
CONSERVATION, EH?
We've heard that spending many years in naval command can leave you disoriented when the time comes to return to civil life. Still, Fisheries Minister Fred Mifflin's comments about the effects of his fleet reduction plan on fish stocks suggest that there may be more than disorientation at work here. He seems downright confused.
When he showed up in Vancouver March 29 to announce his plan, he hardly even mentioned what effect that plan would have on salmon
fis
stocks. In more than an hour of news conference, the word "capacity"came up only once— and that was when Mifflin asked Mike Ernes how much his fishing capacity would be reduced by area licensing.
But when reporters, MPs and others began pointing to
MIFFLIN ... just what did he mean?
one of the obvious shortcomings of the plan—that it would reduce the number of boats without really effecting catching capacity— Mifflin attempted to address the question. Asked in the House of Commons May 1 whether the plan would actually conserve salmon or whether it would simply reallocate fish to the large commercial boats ana force many smaller fishermen out of the industry, he responded: "Mr. Speaker, the plan does address the difficulty of overcapacity in the fishing industry, and he's right, it may not catch
tps
any less salmon but at least it will reduce the pressure on the salmon that exist."
Understandably a little puzzled by that response, reporters asked for clarification when the fisheries minister made another flying visit to Vancouver May 2. Said Mfflin: "I said in the House yesterday that necessarily depending, I didn't specify but yes, I said it may result in fewer fish not being caught." (Yes, that is a direct quote.)
It could be that his final comment to reporters on leaving that day provides the best insight: "I have to announce," he said, "that I'm not an expert in the fishery...I'm not an expert in anything but I'm well-intentioned and I do have a lot of people who advise me...." Right.
NEW DISCOVERY: Along those same lines, Lorrie Burnell on the Island Gale
sends along this item, which she said "immediately made me think of DFO":
"A news letter for the medical staff in Ottawa reports the discovery of the heaviest known element, tentatively called Administratium.
"Administratium has no protons or electrons but it is one neutron, 125 assistant
neutrons, 75 vice-neutrons, and 111 assistant vice-neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
" This particular element is held together by subatomic particles called morons, and can be detected chemically because its slows down every reaction that it is involved with.
"Administratium does not decay like other heavy elements such as plutonium or uranium," the newsletter reports. "Instead, it undergoes a re-organization in which the assistant neutrons, vice-neutrons and assistant vice-neutrons exchange places."
Some studies show that the atomic weight actually increases
with each re-organization. The newsletter also reports that Administratium is toxic at any level of concentration...."
WRONG BOAT: In case you wondered if you'd missed something in our last issue when we quoted John Katnich from a boat that wasn't even in the West Coast pool fishery, let the record be corrected. The UFAWU's acting big boat organizer wasn't fishing on the Pacific Viking (his usual boat); he was on the Pacific Skye.^
The Hibernian
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