S - Sunday, December 27, 1992 - Nortn Shore News

Quick! cer-mue camera!

"SIGHTINGS' wite PAY 470.000.
FOR EMDENCE OF A 4FO f

“NEWS VIEWPOINT
Info access?

HILE THE North Vancouver

District initiative to introduce

access-to-information legisiation
at the municipal level should be supported,
the exceptions to disclosure as currently
Nsted in the policy paper could limit the
flow of information between the public
and public servants.
| [he intent for such iegislation is well-
placed. Politicians and bureaucrats cannot
solve problems unless the electorate is on-
side. A public organization that restricts
the sharing of information with those who
seek it cannot be trusted. Freedom of in-
formation is an essential condition of
public goodwill.

But under the district’s policy, couxcil

confidences would include:
@ the substance of in-camera delibera-
tions;

®@ information that would reveal advice,
recomamendations or draft legislation or
policies developed by or for «a council be-
fore the information has been piaced on
the council agenda;

® information that is subject to solicitor-
client privilege.

The limits potentiaily restrict the flow of
information necessary for full and open
debate prior to the making of important
decisions at council level.

Couple the resirictions on councillors
wii mumerous other exceptions tc
disclusure — everything from ‘‘disclosure
harmful to the financial or economic in-
tesests of a public body’’ to ‘‘disclosure
harmful to business interests of a third
party’””> — and the access-to-information
policy begins to read like anything but.

“It’s mot money that is evil, it’s
" our perception of it and how we
use it,”’

Burrard Indian Band Chief
Leonard George, on money.

“When my feet got wet it was
OK, but when the books started
getting wet we knew we needed to
repizce it.”’

Bookmobile driver Daphne
Grisdale on the need for a new
vehicle for the West Vancouver
Memorial Library service.

“‘A couple of years ago I worked
Christmas Day on skid row, and

“we got a fot of depressing calls.
But the North Shore is usually a
iot better. The people seem to be
a lot friendlier here.”’

Darrell Mussatto, a seven-year
member of the B.C. Ambulance

Service, on working Christmas
Day on the North Shore.

“*You show up at a grad reunion
and you're missing peonle — you
know where they've pone: drugs
and alcohol.*’ .

Dony Sawchuk, co-owner of
North Vancoaver’s True North
Clothing Co. and co-organizer of
the Friday Night Live youth pro-

380-0511

gram, on the human costs of drug
and alcohol abuse.

“t can only advise courcil that
though it might be possible to
place one foot in the quicksand to
examine the problems in (rying to
control these issues that once you
place both feet in the quicksand
you will be lost in a never-ending
dialogue of subjectiveness.”’

North Vancouver District direc-
tor of planning and development
Richard Plunkett, arguing against
trying to legislate view protection
in the district.

Publisher Feter Speck
Managing Editor... Timothy Renshaw

Associate Editor Noel Wright
Sales & Masketing Blrector Linda Stewart
Comptrolier.............Doug Foot

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an
independent suburban newspaper and qualified
under Schedule 111, Peragraph Il of the Excise
Tax Act, is published each Wecnesday, Friday and
Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and
‘4: distributed to every door on the North Shore.
~4-Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885.
Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per
‘ear. Mailing rates avaitabie on request.
issions ara welcome dul we cannol accept
responsibility - for unsolicited material including
Manuscripts and pictures which should be
accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope.

Newsroom

V7M 2H4.

Display Advertising
Real Estate Advertising 985-6982
Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax

FORE VOICE OF MONTH aecD WEST ANTONE

‘north shore:

Distribution 988-1337
Subscriptions 986-1337

985-3227
Administration 985-2131

MEMBER

985-2131 a
North Shore managed

4139 Lonsdale Avenue,
North Vancouver, B.C.

61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday)

Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

Befuddled NVD
Council blind |
to suite facts

A SAD CASE is that of North Van District council, suf-
fering from a termina} disability that atrophies certain
thought processes. One primary symptom is dithering and

shaking over ‘‘illegal’’ suites.

It caught the wasting disease
from former mayor Marilyn Baker
of otherwise happy memories,
who viewed secondary suites not
occupied by kith and kin of the
homeowner as a cancer threaten-
ing the social fabric of the com-
munity. ,

With evangelistic zeal Marilyn
‘set out to eliminate the cancer by
ordering naughty homeowners to
register and pay for the privilege
of continuing to sin for a further
five years — after which their
suites would be finally closed
down. ,

To date less than 300 of today’s
estimated 3,000-4,000 affected:
homeowners (and counting) have

taken advantage of the opportuni- _

ty to self-destruct — at an
estimated cost to the municipality
‘of $200,000.

To uncover the other 92%
would take an army of jackboots
knocking on doors in the night,
with the taxpayers’ bill running
into millions.

Last week, after battling over
the problem ail year, Mayor Mur-
cay Dykeman and his fire-eating
foursome — Couns. Rich
Buchols, Jim Cuthbert, Joan
Gadsby and Janice Harris —
voted against legalizing the more
than nine out of {0 delinquent
suites they are powerless .o find,
thus reverting to Marilyn's Alice-
in-Wonderland ‘‘solution.’’

Plus the problem of what to do,
when the unenforceable five-year
phase-out term ends, with the 297
“thonest’’ owners who did regis-
ter?

Meanwhile, council turns 2
blind eye to the many other fac-
tors. Counting INDIVIDUAL te-
nants and homeowners, a proba-
ble 12,000-14,000 taxpaying citi-
zens of modest income are now
tarred as ‘‘illegal.’?

They include the pensioner
couples and single parents with
child who occupy many of the
suites and ‘‘pay’’ taxes built into
their rent. Plus a good many
homeowner couples themselves —
forced to rent out a suite in order
to pay their mortgages.

Remember, too, that municipal
taxes are levied on property, not
on TYPES of people occupying it.

So why should non-family te-
nants be held to place any greater
burden on municipal services than
family tenants? Would this blatant
personal discrimination have a
hope, if tested today before the
Supreme Court under the Charter
of Rights?

Neighboring North Van City
has chosen the only sensible solu-

Noel

HITHER AND YON

tion — to legalize ALL single-
family suites and meanwhile lobby
Victoria for a modified building
code to cover health and safety
problems.

So is it, one wonders, some-
thing in the district’s water that
oumbs the brain cells of its own .
befuddled councillors?

SCRATCHPAD: There'll be
prizes for the judging public as
well as for the judged entrants
when the awards are handed out
this Wednesday, Dec. 30, at Dun- .
darave Beach for the best displays
in Peppl’s 80-tree Christmas Fes-
fival of Lights. Join the fun and
enjoy the spectacle at 4 o.m. ...
Back in North Van a prize for the
Christmas spirit is due to the kids
at Larson elementary school, who
donated the entire proceeds of
their recent ‘‘Pizza Day’’ -~ a
total of over $450 — to the North
Shore Food Bank ... Meanwhile,
did you notice those burned-out
light bulbs on the Lions Gate
Bridge — which infuriated many
proud North Shore residents —
have at last been replaced?
Thanks, it seems, to some effec-
tive arm.twisting of the
couldn’t-care-less Highways
Department by West Van-
Capilano MLA Jeremy Dalton.

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Nothing
that amounts to anything is ever
said after 20 minutes. :

SUITE-KILLER councillors Jim Cuthbert (left) and Joan Gadsby...

something in the water?

ne re rr rt er ES