6 - Friday, November 17, 1989 - North Shore News INSIGHTS Legalized extortion no way to get out of glue! War and settled in the logging business at Rivers Inlet. His neph- ew, a younger Malcolm Mackin- non who lives in Scotland, is INTO THE TAME LIONS’ DEN came Mary at sunrise Tuesday to tell its occupants — half of them her constitu- ents — that they must eat the 9 per cent Goods & Services tax because it’s good for them. The occasion was a packed breakfast meeting of North and West Van Chambers of Commerce in Cheers Restaurant to hear the Hon. Mary Collins, Associate Defence Minister and Capilano- Howe Sound MP, explain why buddy Michael Wilson’s GST is the greatest thing for Canada since slicec bread and free trade. A skilled circus performer, the lady was in no danger of being ac- tually mauled. But seated up front, directly under her nose, were members of the Save Canada campaign in their ‘“Tax Buster’’ T-shirts. The applause at the end of her speech was cool and brief. For the next half-hour questions from the audience of some 150 ranged from politely critical to openly hostile. (‘‘Why are you pushing Ottawa’s views on us in- stead of representing OUR views to Ottawa?") Predictably, most of the ques- tions concerned the administrative cost and complexitics of the pro- posed tax. The accounting burden for small businesses. The effect on tourism. Problems with purchases by community-use schools. Price competition from untaxed U.S. manufacturers. And so on. But the gut question now causing 80 per cent of Canadians to flatly reject the GST and demand its withdrawal was never pressed. That question being: when and how is Ottawa going to attack its monstrous debt in earnest by slashing its own profligate spend- ing and waste? . initial stumble True, it was touched upon, but only ever so politely. Mary boasted that the cost of running the gov- ernment was being reduced by two per cent a year —- down now to $16.2 billion from $17.4 billion. Total spending was UP ‘‘only 3.5 per cent’’ annually in the past five years. And there’d be no more burrowing, she said, after 1994. This is NOT what the peasants out there on the barricades are talking about. Before agreeing to a cent extra in taxation, they want a plan for, say, haiving the $30.5 billion deficit within 12 months on CURRENT REVENUE ALONE. When individual taxpayers get into the glue, that’s the only way they know of getting out of it. You can’t spend money you don’t have — unless you’re the government, which can go on spending forever by the simple process of legalized extortion from its citizens. Cutting Ottawa’s present budget by $15-16 billion within a year is by no means impossible. On Sun- day we’li offer Mary, Michael and their fellow big-time spenders some ideas on how to do it. weet LOST FAMILY DEPT. The name is Mackinaon with a small ‘‘k’’ and hopefully there are still three of them around: Angus, a sea cap- tain, lan, an engineer, and their sister Catherine, all now in their sixties. They’re the children of one Malcolm Mackinuon who came to Canada before the First World in developing a North T=: Mayors’ Task Force on Recycling has made an Shore-wide recycling system. The group has negotiated a five-year contract with International Paper Industries to run the multi- material system and is recommending the contract be approved even though the public and other private firms have been largely left out of the process. And while IPI is well-known to the North Shore visiting North Van next year — hence the search. If you’re out thers, Angus, Ian or Catherine, please call Christine Hunter (cous- in of Malcolm's wife) at 988-8828. ae WRAP-UP: UEC researcher Betty Gilgoff (732-8941) is studying home schooling and would greatly appreciate hearing from parents providing such education to their children ... Canadian poet Anne Marriott conducts a 1:30 to 3 p.m. workshop tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 18, at North Van City Library, 121 West 14th, to help Grade 3 to 7 youngsters ‘‘discover the poet within’’ ... And you can always try your luck at 7:30 p.m. this Friday evening at the door of St. Monica’s Church, Horseshoe Bay, for any remaining tickets to the Natural Elements concert there half an hour later. wnt WRIGHT OR WRONG: Good executives never put off until tomorrow what they can get someone else to do today. NEWS photo Mike Waketiold HAVE A CUPPA!...North Van Salvation Army ladies (left to right) Lydia Roebuck, Melba Crabb and Marion McNaughton, together with Lieut. Donna Bond (foreground), prepare for their Holly Tea and Sale at 12th and Lonsdale from 1 to 3 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday Nov. 18. ay Vice Foes Guag, be 5 QONGINTL GREGG SLUDGE PRIGHT Al THE ABANDDNED HERONS NEST...... municipalities as the contractor that currently picks up area newspaper for recycling, the contract to initiate the multi-material recycling program was never put to public tender and no proposal from the union that currentiy picks up garbage in North Vancouver District was considered. That decision might be expedient, but it is far from prudent. It is difficult to determine if the IPI contract would be the best without going through a public tendering process. And the task force’s own figures show the cost per household for the recycling system would be higher under the IPI contract than under a public municipally-controlled system. Recycling will provide immediate environmental benefits but not necessarily immediate financial benefits, which are vital to the survival of a private company such as IPI. The hills and valieys of the in- ternational recycled materials markeiplace will therefore be >evelled out for any private firm at local taxpayers’ expense. IPI could be the best service for the North Shore’s recycling program, but if no other competitive options are given proper consideration there is no way to make that determination. Publisher _. Peter Speck Managing Editor... . Barrett Fisher Associate Editor _... Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualilied under Schedule 111, Parag-aph Ul of the Eactse Tax Act, is published eacn Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. 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