Wednesday, November 25, 1998 — North Shore News - 9 north shore news ___MAIL Box _ ted white, m.p. advertonal, November 25/1998 UNANIMOUS CONSENT Kayazkers not thrill-seekers Dear Editor: The Whitewater Kavaking Association of BC (WRABC) is saddened by the Nov 15 death of Uwe Mever on the Capilano River. Uwe was a long-standing member of our association and was well-known in’ the local kavaking community. We offer our sympathy and condolences to his family and friends. We would also like ro offer our perspective On Our sport. One that counters some of the comments from various news sources implying that whitewa- ter kayaking is a sport for extreme risk-takers and that kayaking should be banned on the North Shore rivers during high water. The characterization of whitewater paddlers as thrill- scekers and adrenaline junkies is not only unfortunate, it is incorrect. Whitewater kavaking is a dynamic, complex sport that occurs ina very dynamic medi- um. Jt takes many years to develop the skill. to become competent, and even more time to develop the sound judgment so often required in outdoor pursuits. Most people who kayak are not crazy risk-takers. For the most part, they are regular people who have put in the time and effort necessary to master a complex skill. The statistics support this. There are an estimated 8,000 kayakers in the Lower Mainland paddiing dozens of rivers and miles of coastline every day without incident. Among trained paddlers there are remarkably few acci- dents. Given the number of peo- ple participating in our sport, and the growth over the past decade, the safety record of whitewater kayaking is excel- lent. This is due in large part to the efforts of volunteers in many paddling organizations throughout the province who promote sate paddling. One cannot deny there will be accidents. Accidents happen in other outdoor activities such as cveling or skiing. Without going into the details of Uwe Mever’s death, it should be noted that this incident occurred during a period of very high water leveis due to heavy rainfall. These “high water” condi- tions involve — significantly greater risk than kayaking at normal water levels. The increased speed of the water flow and inereased turbulence can mean much less margin for error. Only expert boaters should consider paddling in these conditions, with the right gear and the right team. And even then, experts require good fuck to complete such a run without incident. The WKABC has consistently advised against paddling in “flood” conditions. Uwe Mever was an avid kayaker who had paddled for more than 15 years, and he was a colourful character. His death is a loss to the local pad- dling community in so many ways. Uwe’s death should serve as a touchstone, not for new paddlers to vent their naive, adrenaline-fuelcd philosophy, but for everyone to see yer again the value of safety educa- tion, training, and experience. Morna Fraser President Whitewater Kayaking Association of BC Don’t squeeze seniors Dear Editor: Your Nov. 15 News Viewpoint “Senior service” echoed with me. What is humanity coming to when we feel rhe need to increase seniors” health and fitness fees to augment the municipal coffers? Over the years councillors, department heads and per- haps the mayor have had automatic salary increases “to keep up with inflation.” Their basic salaries were deemed to have to be equal to those paid in industry, but industries produce profits. When Canadian Pacific Airlines faced financial ditf- culties, all employees took a voluntary 10% pay cut to keep their company afloat. A 2% rollback of salaries at the senior level would help the West Vancouver municipal budget without hurting any- one, The people in West Mailbox policy LETTERS to the editor must be legible (preferably type- written), under 400 words, and include your name, full address and telephone num- ber. Submissions can be faxed to 985-2104. Vancouver municipal hall have the luxury of working close to home, not having to cross the bridge and face. traffic conges- tion. Should that not count as a bonus? Is there not a sense of satisfaction to serve one’s community? Most salaries above the clerical level allow the person a decent liv- ing. How much gravy does there have to be added for reasons of prestige? Most senior employces or department heads do nat hes- irate to give to charities, but they feel fully justified to take more from seniors on limited pensions and limited incomes. Does their conscience fet them sleep at night? Irene Laroche North Vancouver UNIQUE FOR CHRISTMAS One of a kind 1950's . Danish | Holmegaard a Vases from $170 moedique antiques & things Heh rie Dre, 925.6200 AT CAP Christmas concert Back by popular demand, Capilano College's Music department is presenting its choirs, brass and onzan Christmas concerts again this year, Performances include the Cecilia Ensemble, Capitano College Singers, Capilano Catlege Community Choir and the Brass Ensemble conducted by Lars Kaario. Works hy Gabrieli, Bruckner. Brahms, Monteverdh, sing-a-long carols and many other Christmas treasures will be part of the program. The concert will be held Friday, December 4 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, December 6a 3 pan. in the Capilano College Performing Arts Theatre. Don't miss this holiday favourite. For more information call 984-4951. Reserve early by calling 990-7810. 2+ Theatre anyone? Swiss playwright Friedrich Durrenmatt's production of The Visit continues this week from Thursday until Saturday in the Capilano College Performing Arts Theatre. This zany black comedy begs the question: What is one man’s life worth? Tickets are $12 for adults and 38 for students and seniors. For tickets and information, call 990-7810. => Career information meetings Thinking of changing careers or upgrading your skills? Several programs are offering information meetings next month. A meeting for the Accounting Support, Legal Secretasial and Business Fundamentals programs starting in January will be held Thursday, December 1( at 6:30 p.m. in the Fir building, room 502. Call 984-4959 to reserve your seat. There will also be an information session for the Commercial Animation program on Wednesday, December 16 at 7 p.m. in the Library building, room 316. Call 983-7516 for more information. > Need a speaker? Call our bureau The Capilano College Speakers’ Bureau offers speakers on a wide variety of topics at no charge. To book a speaker for your club or event, call 984-1729. CAPILANO COLLEGE 2055 Purcell Way North Vancouver 986-1911 From time to time, in The House of Commons, a motion or a Bill gets passed by “unanimous consent”. However, the issues most often dealt with in this manner tend to be “mother- hood and appie pie” issues ~ they rarely have an immediate or direct impact upon our daily life in Canada. In addition, there are almost always some “behind the scenes” discussions prior to the vote to make sure that everyone present can be counted to vote “Yes”. November 4th of this year though, pre- sented us with one of those extremely rare occasions when unanimous con- sent occurred in an unexpected man- ner, at an unexpected time, with unex- pecied consequences. JUST FOUR MPS PRESENT Late that day, towards the end of a debate on a Private Member's Motion put forward by NDP MP? Nelson Riis, just four MPs were in the House — two froin the NOP, and two from Reform. Having just four MPs in the House is not an unusual situation in itself, as you will know from my past reports about the way Parliament operates. What was unusual though, was that all of the MPs were from the opposition parties — there was not one Liberal MP to be seen, even though the Government had promised Reform, just a few weeks earlier, that it would keep at least one Minister, and a reasonable number of Liberal MPs in the House at all times. Noting that no Liberals were present to listen to the speeches, Reform MP Jason Kenney rose on a Point of Order with the following request: “Mr. Speaker, | would ask for unan- imous consent of the House that the 13th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs presented on Wednesday, November 26, 1997 be concurred in.” The Speaker. then asked whether Jason had unanimous consent, and received it from the two Reform and two NEP MPs who were in their seats. In a matter of just a few seconds, four MPs brought Into force some significant changes to the wav that the private members’ Sills of individual MPs are handled by the House ~ chenges which had been stalied for eimost a year by the Government, apparently because of Cabinet disapproval of the increased power which will flow to backbench MPs. The Government side paid a price for thinking that it did not need to have a presence in the House during debates. THE EFFECTS Quite a number of beneficial improve- ments to the House procedures flow from passage of Jason's motion, some of which are as follows: 1.Voting on private members’ bills will no longer start with the minis- terial benches, so the possibility that votes will be influenced by the voting patterns of the Prime Minister, or other ministers, has been decreased. Voting will now begin with the sponsor of the bill, and will then proceed from the BACK rows. 2.Private members’ bills passed by the House will have to be returned from committee hearings for the final vote within 60 sitting days. This change prevents Ministers from keeping bills in committee indefi- nitely, as was done with John Nunziatia’s bill on eliminating the “faint hope clause”. 3. More bills will have the chance to be made votable. Under the new rules my bill on Citizens’ Initiated Referenda, which took two and a half years to research and rrepare, would have had a better shot at becoming votable. 4. Any bili fer which an MP can garner support from 100 MPs will autc- matically be placed on the list for debate in the House. Ali of the above changes bring our method of handling private members’ busi- ness a little more into line with the com- mon practice in other parliamentary democracies. Since most private mem- bers’ business tends to refiect the will of constituents and the voting public at large, as opposed to the Govermment'’s agenda, | the changes also represent a tiny bit more power for YOU. The improvement is incre- mental, but is an improvement neverthe- less. WHERE TO FROM HERE? Tne Government Whip, Don Boudria, has made it abundantly clear that the Government is not very happy with this very small amount of increase in power tor individual MPs, and seems to be in no hurry to initiate some necessary ailter- ations to the written rules of Parliament. This delay has already prompted one out- spoken Liberal MP, Roger Gallaway, to lodge a complaint with the Speaker that the Government is dragging its feet and may try to prevent implementation of some critical aspects of the report. In addition, there are rumours circulating that the Govemment will prorogue Parliament in the near future, partly to avoid having to implement the new rules. Prorogation means the ending of a ses- sion and causos all of the business before the House to be cancelled — but it does NOT mean the calling of an election. A new session is usually initiated a few months later, along with a new Speech from the Throne. On average, Canadian Governments seem to prorogue about every two years, either to eliminate embar- rassing legislation from the Order Paper, or to cover over a thin legislative agenda with the appearance of a lot of parliamen- tary activity, pomp and ceremony. Whether we prorogue in the near future or not, | suspect