ee ei Few —" fs ae c 6- Wednesday, December 18, ‘1985 North ‘Shore News Eiditorial Page Tax nonsense inance Minister Wilson’s minimum tax F plan, unveiled two weeks ago, is yet another example of the Mulroney government’s rushed and ill-thought-out efforts to bolster its public image. The minimum tax — aimed at a small number of high-income Canadians able to use _existing tax shelters and other legal loopholes to escape with paying little or no tax — was a Tory campaign promise, and a fair one. The actual loss of revenue to the Treasury is relatively minimal. What is basically involy- ed is purely a PRINCIPLE, designed to reassure the great majority of taxpayers that " justice is being done. There are perfectly sim- _ple ways in which that principle could have been enshrined — for example, a sloping percentage ceiling on TOTAL deductions above a given level. Instead, Mr. Wilson has chosen an horren- dously complex method at the very time when the whole tax structure is crying aloud for simplification. He has hit especially hard at Canadian divi- _ dend income exemptions, effectively imposing double taxation of dividends for higher-income investors. This is hardly likely to encourage _ investment in jub-creating enterprises. He has also complicated and limited the use of the capital gains tax exemption instead of “ directing that incentive into areas where it could < be most effective for the economy. : Grappling early in 1977 with alternative 1986 tax calculations will Se a new, time-consuming : headache for taxpayers earning more than ’ $40,000 unless they can afford high-priced help. , For those who can’t, it will be a nightmare. On- ‘Jy the accountants and tax lawyers can look for- ‘ward to a bonanza. Meanwhile, the whole nonsense will likely > have little, if any,. discernible effect on Canada’s $34 billion deficit. NOT funny . 1 irst it was fuany, the two-foot long card- F board certified cheque with Scott Taylor, protesting treatment by police, “> presented to pay a $25 West Van ticket. A judge * thought it OK, as did the head of North Shore court services — but her West Van deputy refuses to touch it. So now Scott has a court - date which is NOT funny. The cost to the tax- . payer should be paid by the official who doesn’t _ know good money when she sees it. THE VOICE OF NOSTTH AND WEST VANCOUVER Display Advertising 980-0511 Newsroom 985-2131 - = ered Circulation 986-1337 Ff . SUNDAY. WEDNESDAY emroay Subscriptions 986-1337 71139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 publisher: Peter Speck operations mgr. advertising director Berni Hilliard Linda Stewart editor-in-chief managing editor Noel Wright Nancy Weatherley North Shore News, founded in 1959 as an independent subuiban newspaper and quablied under Scheduta lit, Part Uf, Pacagraph tl of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Share Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the Narth Shore. Second Class Mait Registration Number 3885. Entire contents © 1985 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Alt rights reserved. Member of the B.C. Press Council 56,245 (average, Wednesday SD4 DIVSION Friday & Sunday) SN" THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE Classified Advertising 966-6222 THE SNE OF DE - HAMLLAND TO BOEING WAS AGNEAWAY! WE | COULD HAVE DONE BETTER! tart DD education young MAYBE THE PARTY SEASON, peaking this week, explains the unusually high reader response to last Wednesday’s FOCUS on drunk drivers. And one response, at least, rates another look at the topic. Almost without exception, comments endorsed the argument that education — not threats of jail terms - longer than a_ knife-killer may get — is the only real solution to the drunk driver problem. Businessman Greg Young of West Van, however, has a specific plan of how to start the education process. It makes such sound sense that its rejection by Charter of Rights lunatics is almost guaranteed. The problem has _ been misstated, he says — mainly because of the highly emo- tional lobby by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) who have laid a guilt trip on every mature, self-controlled citizen who risks a couple of glasses of wine before driving harmlessly home. The true problem, declares Mr. Young (who’s in his mature thirties) is the young driver, full of guts and emp- ty of experience in both driv-” ing and drinking. Before all you sober, responsible drivers in your teens and early twenties choke with rage, you have to allow that the man has statistics on his side. Drivers under 25 are in- volved in 30 per cent of all accidents, according to of- ficial figures. Of these, male drivers under 25 are involved in 26 per cent of all accidents and in 30 per cent of the fatal ones — yet they number only 11 per cent of LETTER OF THE DAY District staff ‘defrauded’ ar Editor: A recent letter to the Editor from Eugene Kiss cannot go undisputed. Mr. Kiss indicates his displeasure with some members of District Council and staff, seemingly based upon the decision by a majority of Council to sell a portion of road allowance to a North Lonsdale resident thereby enabling him to subdivide his property. This is not the first time Council have undertaken the practice. It is in response to an existing Council policy that such requests come forward for consideration. Several similar applications have been approved by a majority of Council in the immediate area of Mr. Kiss’s concern. Mr. Kiss, along with his neighbors and the North Lonsdale Ratepayers Association, have made their views on this matter very clear through discussions with Council -- and have gone to the extent of legally challenging Council action. That challenge has since Noel Wright | ° © focus ° * licensed drivers. © Alcohol-related accidents for drivers. between 16. and 44 show that 42 per cent in- volve drivers over 25. as against 58 per cent for- drivers under 25,-The fi igures may vary marginally. from time to time and place to place, but in general they support Mr. Young’s point, Drivers who get away in their youth with only a mild slap on the wrist for bad habits (including mixing gas and alcohol) tend to carry those habits on into middle age. Hence, Mr. Young’s in- sistence on a driving educa- tion during the high school years, with tough penalties for ‘‘F" grades. At age 16 a youngster been withdrawn. 1 can understand your correspondent's frustration. In fact, | am one of several members of council who opposed the sale. That frustration, however, does not give Mr. Kiss the right to make untrue and defamatory statements. His comments about idiocy and lack of in- telligence on the part of municipal staff along with maligning reference to par- ticular professional staff members goes beyond the limits of fair comment. They a would be able to obtain a “driving permit’, but would not qualify for a permanent driving licence before the age of 19, , Any traffic infraction other than a parking. ticket would result in a three- month suspension of .the permit plus three months added .to’ the waiting period for an eventual licence. Running red_ lights, : illegal left turns: or speeding often’ enough could mean ‘no regu-" lar licence until welt ‘into the twenties. Behe Drinking . and’: “driving : would bring a. 12-month suspension. .and .. add . one whole year to the . licence waiting period. The Young plan - (which he’s sending to Attorney General Brian . Smith) wouldn’t penalize responsi- ble kids, who could drive from age 16 just as today. But it would certainly smarten up the reckless ones by hitting them where it hurts most: in their wheels and their pride. There’s a likely bonus, too, 20-30 years down the road — many fewer mid- dle-aged drunks behind the wheel. Lessons well learned in youth last a lifetime. are aimed at individuals who are not in a position to de- fend themselves from such attacks and who are not the ones making the final deci- sion. That responsibility rests with the District Coun- cil, Furthermore, Mr. Kiss has stated that there is in my hands ‘‘...a full and com- prehensive report...’’ regar- ding ‘‘...deficiencies existing in the Hall...”. That is total- ly erroneous. Marilyw Baker Mayor, North Van District