6 ~ Sunday, February 24, 1991 - North Shore News EEEEEEEK! f, AOUBE BACK! INSIGHTS NEWS VIEWPOINT Double standard has shown a marked lack of con- sistency in its approach to garbage. On Monday night, council members voted 5-2 to deprivatize the collection of garbage in the city and give the job back to the Canadian Union of Public Employees who work for the municipality. Council chose to make the move without putting the city’s garbage collection con- tract to public tender. The estimated added taxpayer cost of returning the job to city employees will be relatively small: approximately $4 per household per year over the average per household cost for garbage removal elsewhere in the Lower Mainiand. But this is virtually the same city council that delayed the North Shore’s implemen- Nis VANCOUVER City Council tation of a multi-material recycling pro- gram in late 1989 by suddenly insisting that the recycling contract be put to public tender before any final decision was made in awarding the job. At the time, some city aldermen ex- pressed ‘shock’ that the other North Shore councils would approve a contract with In- ternational Paper industries (the eventual winner of the contract) without first put- ting the whole program to public tender. They righteousiy argued that fairness to the city taxpayer, honesty and openess decreed that the contract be tendered publicly. That same high set of morals and con- cerns for the city taxpayer does not, ap- parently, extend to regular garbage collec- tion when public employees are involved. NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK there “In West Vancouver, surely there could be nothing worse than somebody not having paid his liarary fine.”* News columnist Trevor Lautens, after witnessing a fist fight in the West Vancouver Memorial Library. “Sometimes the water is off-put- ting.”’ Ambleside & Dundarave ratepayers representative Sheila Adams, on swimming in the polluted waters of Ambleside beach. Publisher . Managing Editor Associate Editor Advertising Director Comptrolier . Peter Speck Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Linda Stewart Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualiiied “It's like a little hiccup. It would take 30,000 of Tuesday's (earth- quake) to give the equivalent energy of one magnitude seven." Pacific Geoscience Centre spokesman Bob Horner, compar- ing the Feb. 19 earthquake that rocked the Lower Mainland to the massive earthquake in San Fran- cisvo. “ft don't think anything govern- ment operated is more efficient.”” North Vancouver resident L.M. Barr, on North Vancouver City Council’s decision to de-privatize garbage collection in the city. Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 TMG YONGE OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER Distribution Subscriptions Administration “basically believe that should be no logging in the water- shed areas not just for five years, but for all time.”* North Vancouver District Ald. Ernie Crist, on the Greater Van- couver Regional District’s logging practices in the Lower Mainland watershed areas. ‘‘Nothing is ever final until it’s final.’" North Vancouver City Ald. Barbara Sharp, on city opposition to a decision by Canada Pest to eliminate retail services at the ci- ty’s main post office. 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 MEMBER North Shore ee Tanaged under Schedule 111, Paragraph Iti of the Eacise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributec to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Numbcs 2985 SUNDAY = WEDNESCAY » FRIDAY ee a bal con, SRS VAN Subscriptions North and year. lest Vancouver, $25 per Mailing tates available on request. Submissions zie welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which shoutd be accompanied by a Stamped, addressed envelope 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1991 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Abandoning one another is not Canada’s style TRACKING OUR taxes — and where they go — is a favorite hobby of Michael Walker's Fraser institute. its latesi effort also has some direct bearing on our renewed navel-gazing about Canada’s future. The 240-page study released last week by Vancouver’s right-wing economic think tank deals with equalization payments — the Robin Hood system by which the federal government takes money from ‘‘have”’ provinces and gives it to ‘‘have-not’’ provinces in order to ensure equal BASIC liv- ing standards coast to coast. The ‘‘have’s’’ are Ontario, Alberta and B.C. — all seven other provinces, including Quebec, being have-not’s.’’ The significant figures in the FI study are the dif- ferences between what Ottawa costs the individual citizen in total taxes and the total value of the federal benefits he enjoys in return. Thus, in 1988 British Colum- bians each received $645 less than they paid out, Ontarians about $900 less and Albertans almost $1,700 less. On the other hand, Prince Ed- ward Islanders — poorest of Con- federation’s poor cousins — each got back $4,315 MORE than they sent Ottawa. At the tail end of the gravy train each Manitoban wound up some $1,500 into pocket, while each Quebecer recovered around $250. One question that regulacly pops up these days during the post-Meech debate on Canada’s future is whether — if Quebec quits — the rest of the nation would hang together at all? Or would it, too, disintegrate into three separate countries — west, central and east? If we're talking just money, the idea could obviously be tempting to the three ‘‘have’s’’ who would no longer need to subsidize seven Ww MICHAEL WALKER... us what Canada is. reminds ED!i GRESAT... new Masonic head takes office. Noel “have-not’s.’’ Industrial Ontario, with a population equal to Belgium’s and $9 billion a year ‘better off, would certainly be able to go it alone. So would a merger of resource-rich Alberta and B.C., with the latter’s Pacific Rim trade links. They’d start out $6 billion a year (o the good, with as big a population as Denmark's and half as big again as New Zealand's. The Prairie Provinces, needing only moderate subsidies, might be adopted by ‘‘British Alberta’? — unless Ontario wanted Manitoba for its Winnipeg Ballet. It’s a sad fantasy, however, for the Atlantic Provinces, where much of Canada started. Out alone on a geographical limb, they’d be left short of nearly $8 billion a year in handouts needed for a minimal North American living standard. The U.S., even if invited, might well hesitate to em- brace such a burden. All of which may jolt us back into remembering the kind of country Canada has been for 124 years. Warts, yes. But still a caring, fair-minded country, instinctively accepting the moral duty of being one’s brother’s keeper. Despite family spats, abandoning one another is not Canada’s style. A country after all — you may think — that’s worth fighting to preserve. With or without a Quebec that doesn’t know when it’s well off. POSTSCRIPTS: Still time — but not too much -— for boys and . girls 14-17 to enter the Top Teen B.C. 1991 contest, the first in Canada to emphasize scholastic achievement, the performing arts, sports, community service and public speaking. Teens who do well in one or more can get entry forms from The Perfect Setting, 124 West 16th, North Van (985- 0555) and the final deadline is March 15 ... Art exhibit of the week at West Van Ferry Building gallery is Nathalie Drache’s ‘‘Uni- versevisions,’’ open 11-5 daily through Senday, March 3 ... And North Van’s Edi Gresat will be formally installed Friday, March 1, as Worshipful Master of Bur- rard Masonic Lodge in an evening Lodge ceremony at the Masonic Hall, 1140 Lonsdale. eee WRIGHT OR WRONG: ‘I don’t care what you do for a living,”’ says George Burns. ‘‘If you love it, you’re a success.””