6 - Friday, February 13, 1987 - North Shore News News Viewpoint N. Van unite RECENT report commissioned by the City of North Vancouver indicates that slow growth in the municipality may cause a financial shortfall in decades to come. Compiied from 1981 census data, the city report in- dicates that the population growth in the city since 1981 has been just under one per cent. Furthermore, the city’s average household size is 2.1 persons, less than the regional average of 2.66 persons, Mueh of North Vancouver's infrastructure was built during the past two decades when the city's industrial base was at its strongest and there was a steady influx of residents to the municipality. The levelling-off of the population is a critical pro- blem for the North Vancouver City community. Much of the existing tax revenue will have to be spent for maintenance and replacement of the existing municipal infrastructure in years to come. The District of North Vancouver, on the other hand, is still experiencing rapid population growth. In_ its most simplistic form, the growth can be attributed to the District’s limitless supply of undeveloped real estate. The District has a lot of costs. Supplying roads and utilties to new sub-divisions eats up city revenues, yet the district will always have a growing source of tax income. Perhaps it is time for the City of North Vancouver to seriously consider amalgamating with the District of North Vancouver. Both municipalities would profit by sharing costs. The City, moreover, may avoid a poten- tial shortage of municipal funds caused by a lfevell- ing-nff in population growth. . ‘to protest iV hazardous Dear Editor: Hazardous materials and hazardous wastes have again raised their ugly heads within our midst. Erco Chemical Engineering has applied to the District of North Vancouver for a development permit to upgrade its plant capacity from 22,000 tonnes of sodium chlorate to 76,000 tonnes, a hazardous material which in turn produces a hazardous waste containing cadmium and chromium. Present production of this waste is 50 tonnes per year therefore the in- creased capacity should produce about 3% times the amount of waste. Erco is at present storing over 100 tonnes of this waste on site in steel tanks all within a stone’s throw of residential areas. District council is probably biting its nails trying to find a legal way of disallowing this permit, but if past experiences with Canadian Occidental Petroleums (Hooker Chemicals) is anything to go by they are going to lose out here too. - There is an evil triangle here. On the one hand we have these chemical companies growing larger and larger with no place to dispose of their toxic wastes. Then we have the provincial government muddling away year after year trying to come up with a disposal area for the entire pro- vince and not being able to do so. Lastly there is the low man on the totem pole, the district council, bedevilled by public interest groups such as the Chemical Hazards Alert Committee to prevent expansion of these plants and to get the hazards to our health out of our community. Unless the people of this district get up on their feet and yell to high heaven to all levels of government to do something about it, nothing will be done. This should be the concern of the whole district from Grouse Mountain Estates to Deep Cove and not just those living in the Lynn- mour and Seymour areas. This should be a matter of public concern and on Monday, February 16 at 7 p.m. we should endeavor to fill the council chamber and let our voices be heard !oud and clear. We may not be able to stop them producing but we should demand restrictions so tough that there will be no storage of hazardous wastes in tanks or any on site leakage into the water table from old graphite areas, tolerated in this district. Triple production means triple transportation on an already overloaded system. C.F. Vage North Vancouver SUNDAY +» WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Ave. Peter Speck Noel Wright Barret! Fisher tinda Stewart eee a bedi di Macagrapta tote Display Advertising 980-0514 Publisher: Classified Advartising 986-6222 Editor-in-Chiet Newsroom 985-2191 Distribution 986.1337 Managing Editor Subscriptions 986-1337 Advertising Director North Shore satan . wee tea . 7" Tee HOON fifa Rear Beg HeaTAb a OAL TEIE HOM DN ae aBtCont AEE Gis whic he Chau De as er pMar ond feet RCD beg ent Olam gie North Vancouver, 6.C. V7M 2H4 $8,287 (average, Wednusdiy ® Sun a briday & Surayd SDA OnWIGIO*) Sep ire . “TR ME Ment: peepee rer a oh a ‘re Dear Editor: ; . I am writing with respect to an article in the Jan, 7 North Shore News. It concerns a request for dona- tions, to be included with the yearly dog licence ap- plication mailed by the West Van licence department, to finance widening and upgrading the Doggie Walk on the Ambleside Seawall as well as building a drink- ing fountain there for the dogs. The Ambleside Seawall dog walk is a repulsive ma- nure strewn path despite the possible $2,000 fine a West Van bylaw imposed on dog owners who do not clean up after their pets defecate in public places. Is council intending to ignore enforcement of the bylaw along this path? If council undertakes to enlarge and enhance this dog walk, thereby encouraging more dog owners to use it, then residents adjacent to this mess should be aware that houseflies can transport toxacara canis eggs from dog feces to their households. According to a report by Dr. Robert LaRoche of the Nova Scotian Izacc Walton Killam hospital, tox- Bob Hunter congratu on captive whale c Dear Editor: If these statements are true what Entire contents © 1987 North Shore Free Press Lid. All nights reserved tacise Tae Ae ulsive’ path acara canis has blinded six children in 1986. Dr. Juan Embic reports 15 per cent of children in his study are infected with toxacara canis larvae. Parents should take note and protect their children from fecal contamination and possible infection by this common parasitic worm (larvae) which travels in human tissue in larvae form and may lodge in the eyes or lungs of its unsuspecting host. This can happen when a child is licked by. a ‘dog that hasn’t been dewormed or unknowingly picks up something which has been in contact with dog excrement and then later puts his fingers in his mouth. If West Van Council is going to expend any energy on the issue of dogs, it ought to inform dog owners to keep their animals out of parks and school yards, to clean up their dog’s manure from public places, in- cluding other people’s yards, and have their pets dewormed every six months. Elien Thomsen West Vancouver ated lumn their monotonous life is only broken by periodic tourist perfor- May | congratulate Bob Hunter on his article, which focused on the problems of keeping whales in captivity. (Jan. 25) Apparently, during the past de- cade, exhibitors captured over 55 orca from family groups in local waters. At least 36 of those in- dividuals are now dead. Of 61 orca which have died in captivity the average longevity is less than three years. Male orcas in the wild live to an_age of at least 48 years, adult females may live to over 100 years. right do we have to willfully en- danger these intelligent animals’ lives by placing them into captivi- ty? Wild orca are highly social mammals that are constantly on the move sometimes covering over a 100 miles in a day. What right do we have to deny these animals the social stimulation of their family group? What right do we have to place these active animals into “‘boring’’? environ- ments — large bathtubs —- where mances and where they are depriv- ed of oehaving in ways that are natural to them. : Personally, I believe that we all, ‘ humans and whales alike, would be much better off if all the money, effort and expertise, in- stead of being spent on aquariums, would be spent on the most impor-, tant goal — conserving whales where they belong: in the wild. {. Pollak Vancouver