Credit where credit is due

Agnes Street BC21 sign accused of being “misleading”

 

by Jim Chliboyko

What is blue and green and takes
credit for something it doesn’t
quite do? The BC21 sign outside
the new Student Resource Build-
ing, according to members of the
Douglas College Student Society
(DCSS).

“It's the students’ building,”
says DCSS president Katrina
Lennax. “The students took out the
mortgage, and the students will
eventually pay it back.” Lennax
also mentioned that it is the
students and the DCSS which is
employing the 100 workers.

The sign, which proudly greets
students entering Douglas College
by the Agnes St. entrance, claims
that the building is being provided
by the taxpayers of British Colum-
bia: “Your Tax Dollars at Work.” As
well, the sign alludes that the
Government of BC is footing the

News

The Martlet, University

Dead trees

 

Sharon Bennett

VICTORIA (CUP)—For years, BC’s
forestry industry has challenged
environmentalists to prove their
claims that forests are being cut at
unsustainable levels.

Now, after six years of research,
the Sierra Club of BC has met their
challenge. On March 19, the club
released maps that show over half
of BC’s old growth rainforest has
been destroyed.

The map, based on interpreted
satellite imagery, shows only a few
areas where large sections of
temperate rainforest remain,
mostly on the central coast and in
Clayoquot Sound.

The Sierra Club was joined at the
press conference by professional
forester Herb Hammond, who said
now that the evidence has been
compiled, forestry in BC has to
change.

“As a professional forester, I’m
here to say the cat’s out of the
bag,” Hammond said. “These
maps are an embarrassment to the

entire $2.5-million bill, and that it
is the government that is providing
the 100 jobs.created by the build-
ing.

It isn’t taxpayers that have made
the Student Resource Building
possible; Douglas College students
have funded the building of the
building by paying $9 per student,
per semester, since 1990.

There are a couple of reasons for
the sign’s presence, explains Peter
Greenwood. Greenwood, Douglas
College VP of Finance and Admin-
istration, says that the Student
Resource Building, through its
obvious connection to the College
enabled the DCSS to save money
by tying into the college infrastruc-
ture. “The College provided
expertise that the DCSS didn’t
have,” said Greenwood. “Instead
of banks providing funding, it’s
government providing the fund-
ing.”

The second reason was that the
DCSS was able to take advantage
of government financing, “getting
a 20-year fixed rate mortgage at a
rate considerably lower than most
commercial rates,” said Green-
wood.

Although Greenwood admits
that “students are paying for 100%
of the building,” and that the sign
is “misleading,” several considera-
tions complicate the issue. “The
building was designed to DCSS
specifications, is built on college
land, and is legally part of the
building. As well, the College is
entering into a lease with the
DCSS.”

“It’s really a win-win situation.”
Lennax, however, seeks a little
more for the credit the government

takes. “We're going to ask the
government to help contribute to
the building, like they have at
other institutions,” she says.

The Muse, Memorial University

Student parents hit hard by Newfoundland budget

 

Denise Rideout

ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CUP)—The
Newfoundland government's
decision to cut social assistance to
student parents will double the
amount of debt they have upon
graduation, say outraged student
parents.

In last week’s provincial budget,
Brian Tobin’s government cut
funding for social services recipi-
ents attending post secondary
institutions forcing recipients to
take the maximum student loan
available. Previously student
parents on social services were
provided with living arrangements
but were required to get student
loans to cover their schooling costs.

The old system generally kept
total student debt lower for
student parents, as it recognized
the added strain of raising children
while getting an education. But
now the government has said
student parents must get the
maximum student loan and social
services will provide funding only
if it is needed.

Joyce Aylward, a student at
Memorial University and a mother
of three, said she was shocked by
the announcements made in the
recent budget.

“Overnight the government
turned around and effectively
doubled the future debt load of the
majority of student parents on the
whole island,” she said.

Aylward said the new ruling was
unreasonable and she was dis-
gusted at how the government
tried to present it as a positive
benefit for student parents.

“The government made it seem
like they were helping us out by
giving us a bigger student loan,”
Aylward said. “But what they are
really giving us is a bigger student
debt.”

Under the old system student
parents only had to get a student
loan of about $5000 for a full
academic year. Now that will
almost double to $9000 for two
semesters.

Julie Fleet, another single parent
attending Memorial, said the

government cuts to social services
recipients has gone against the
many promises it has made to the

ment of this province still made a
promise to us,” Fleet said. “But
now the government has broken

getting out of poverty,” Aylward
said. “And statistics show that the
only way out of poverty is through

women of this province. these promises by increasing the education.”
In September 1995, Brian Tobin _ debt load of single mothers.” Dale Kirby, provincial chair of
and ministers of his cabinet signed Fleet also said she believes the the Canadian Federation of

a non-legal contract with the
women of Newfoundland and
Labrador promising to help them
overcome many of the struggles
they have to face.

“We pledge to work for eco-
nomic justice and to end the
increasing burden of poverty on
women and their children, who are
a majority of the poor,” the con-
tract read.

But Fleet said that the announce-
ments in the recent budget go to
show that the government does not
always uphold their promises.

“Even though the contract was
not legally binding, the govern-

provincial government has contra-
dicted everything it has ever said
about its policies towards social
assistance.

“The government talks about
getting people off social assistance
and back into the workforce, but
now it is making it harder for
people on assistance to get an
education,” Fleet said.

Many members of the student
parent society said they think the
government has in effect hindered
the future of many people in the
province.

“Right now the government has
built such an enormous barrier to

Students, said the provincial
government should be prepared
for a fight from single student
parents in the province.

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of Victoria

profession of forestry.”

Corporate-based economies are a
big part of the problem, according
to Hammond. He points out that as
long as the forest is exploited for
the benefit of shareholders, the
communities who depend on
forestry, and the ecosystem, will
suffer.

Hammond says we humans
need to shift to a community-based
economy.

“Economies are subsets of
human cultures and human
cultures are subsets of ecosys-
tems,” Hammond said.

“If you have a light hand on the
ecosystem you have a far more
diverse economy.”

The Sierra Club’s announcement
comes hot on the heels of the
follow-up conference to the 1992
Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit.

At the March 18 conference, it
was announced that Canada was
one of the countries who had not
lived up to commitments it made
at Rio. @

“I don’t think the people affected
by these cuts are going to sit back
on this issue,” Kirby said.

“If single parents are faced with
a high debt after they graduate,
there are going to be a lot of
hungry and cold children out
there.” @&

 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

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The Other Press April 71997 3