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Wednesday, Wednesday, June June 26, 26, 2013 2013 -- PENINSULA PENINSULA
EDITORIAL
NEWS NEWS REVIEW REVIEW
Jim Parker Publisher Steven Heywood Editor Janice Marshall Production Manager Bruce Hogarth Circulation Manager
The Peninsula News Review is published by Black Press Ltd. | #6 - 9843 Second St., Sidney, B.C. V8L 3C7 | Phone: 250-656-1151 • Fax: 250-656-5526 • Web: www.vicnews.com
OUR VIEW
Feds abandon science education
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any parts of Greater Victoria offer a view of the large white dome atop of Observatory Hill in Saanich. At the end of the summer, that’s about the only way people will get to take in the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. The National Research Council reluctantly admitted last week that it plans to close the Centre of the Universe interpretive centre and end all public outreach connected with astronomy and astrophysics at the attached Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics. This will likely be the first time in the facility’s nearly 100 year history the public has been shut out of this local national historic site. Greater Victoria has a lot to be proud of with the observatory – for a brief moment, the Plaskett telescope was the largest in the world, and it is a site that continues to make significant contributions to precision technology and our understanding of the universe. The scientific research arm of the site, the NRC Herzberg Institute, isn’t closing and will continue to employ more than 100 people. But the federal government’s mandate to reorganize the NRC as an “industry-focused” organization certainly doesn’t inspire confidence. Closing the Centre of the Universe is being framed as a cost saving measure under a regime of restricted budgets and not a consequence of the NRC’s new approach. It’s fair to say that the federal government has decided to abandon public education linked to its federal science. Closing the Centre of the Universe will save the NRC about $230,000 of its $900 million budget, implying the decision was driven by an ideology suspicious of and hostile to science, rather than the principle of saving a few public tax dollars. If the government wants “industry-focused” research and advanced technology, closing the door of research centres to young people is shortsighted and counterproductive. Out of the thousands of kids that visit the Centre of the Universe each year, if only a handful are inspired to enter engineering, math and the sciences, the public outreach has proved its worth.
What do you think? Give us your comments by e-mail: editor@peninsulanewsreview.com or fax 250-656-5526. All letters must have a name and a telephone number for verification. The Peninsula News Review is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province’s newspaper industry. The council considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, 201 Selby St., Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2R2. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org.
2010
Cabinet rookies handed hot files union. There are nine new faces in PreJustice Minister Suzanne Anton mier Christy Clark’s cabinet, seven has worked as a Crown prosecuof them elected to the B.C. legislator, so she’ll have some insight into ture for the first time on May 14. the system that still grapples with They have been handed some of Stanley Cup rioters from two sumthe hottest problems, and Clark’s mers ago. marching orders in “mandate letHer orders are to get ters” for each ministry. traffic tickets and other And this is the start of administrative penalties a four-year term, when out of the courts, keep unpopular reforms are working on integrating attempted. police fiefdoms and genTake Amrik Virk, the erally treat the constiformer RCMP inspecpation that afflicts law tor from Surrey who’s enforcement today. suddenly in charge of Oh, and get that new advanced education. Okanagan prison built, to His mandate includes: relieve a system that has “Review the student loan Tom Fletcher inmates living in tents. program to make recomB.C. Views And examine whether mendations for improveto spin off the Liquor ment to ensure the loan Distribution Branch into a Crown program is meeting the needs of corporation, a possible prelude to today’s students.” selling it. Virk must also set targets to Transportation Minister Todd “match the skills we need with Stone’s first test was a grilling by the skills we are graduating” and the Vancouver media. Yup, this require post-secondary schools Kamloops hayseed has been to the to “ensure student seats are being Big Smoke a few times, ridden that filled.” B.C. can’t afford to keep cranking fancy SkyTrain and taken the odd ferry, too. out university grads with $50,000 Now he has to impose the ferry in debt and no job prospects. route reductions that have been Virk will be working closely with worked on by two previous minEducation Minister Peter Fassisters and push Metro Vancouver bender, who must “ensure seamthrough a referendum on ways to less transitions” from high school fund its own transit. If more tolls or to the workforce for post-secondtaxes are going to be implemented, ary trades and apprenticeships. now is the time. In his spare time, Fassbender Coralee Oakes has made a politiis to overhaul the school district cal leap from Quesnel city hall to bargaining agency and achieve a the Ministry of Community, Sport 10-year peace with the teachers’
and Cultural Development. One of her key tasks is to invent a framework for a “rural dividend” from liquefied natural gas development in northwestern B.C. Oakes has to figure out how to “better provide provincial support” to sport and cultural organizations, but do it with no new money. All ministers have strict instructions to balance their lean budgets and take part in the latest “core review” to identify government functions that can be sold, delegated or shut down. New Minister of International Trade Richmond’s Teresa Wat has to find a way to continue the growth of lumber and other exports to China, India and elsewhere on the Pacific Rim. On top of that, the alwaysdelicate softwood lumber agreement with the U.S. expires in three years. The last major eruption on that front was in 2009, when B.C. cut stumpage rates for remote coastal areas to give communities much-needed employment. The Americans were livid, just as they were with our beetle-kill harvesting efforts. And of course, the U.S.-directed environmental movement continues to target Canadian industries. Third-term MLA John Rustad gets aboriginal relations, with specific instructions to deal with gas and perhaps oil pipelines through his Nechako Lakes constituency. Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocalnews.com
‘This is the start of a four-year term, when unpopular reforms are attempted.’