care MR 6 - Wednesday, July 27, 1988 - North Shore News Wiiat is wanting your own home? anh, F Lee IF YOU GBJECT TC B.C. HOMES being sold at wildly inflated prices to rich Hong Kong residents, you’re a “racist’’, says Vancouver Mayor Gordon Campbell. “*Yes, racist!’’ repeat his bud- dies in council and the Real Estate Board. And Finance Minister Mel Couvelier — the role model who’s threatened to punch the nose of = ¢ anyone disagreeing with him — concurs, An unnamed West Van businessman recently asked him to look into the situation, but after a brief ‘“‘probe”’ the minister has refused any action. Mayor Campbell, with his huge ethnic constituency, clearly has to play safe, but every Greater Van- couver realtor knows the facts. Hong Kong citizens — facing the 1997 deadline for returning the colony to Communist China — are reserving their B.C. bolt-holes ahead of time by buying up resi- dential property here like crazy, with money no object. Any realtor will confirm that Hong Kong and other newly-rich Asian countries are one key factor driving up home , MARGOT FURK ...to be or not to be? River. Fair fishin g ORTH SHORE natives are unreasonably bear- ing the brunt of public criticism over their salmon fishing at the mouth of the Capilano Yaking salmon under their food fishing rights, the natives gaff the fish as they make the annuaS migration up the river to the Capilano Hatchery. Although but a handful of the thousands of the fishermen who catch B.C.’s salmon each year, this small group has come under unwarranted fire for perceived fishing abuses. Gaffing fish may offend public sensibilities, but it is prices by as much as 20-30 per cent in the past year. ‘‘Strong offshore demand from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan’”’ is how the latest Royal LePage Survey politely puts it. The inflation is now spreading to the bottom of the price range. With an East Vancouver bungalow today averaging $160,000 — and $250,000 upward in West Van — the principal victims are younger Canadian families, many of whom are despairing of ever being able to climb on the home-ownership bandwagon. Even at the best of times affordable housing tends to fall short of demand in Canada, as elsewhere ~— which is why Australia is not the only country to give its own people first crack at what's available by banning the sale of private hozaes to non-resi- dent foreigners. : We should do the same, with no ethnic discrimination. The ban should apply to ALL foreigners of whatever color —- including (free trade or no free trade!) — our cousins below the border. If would-be offshore buyers want to prepare financially for settling here later, let them swell their king-size nesteggs by investing in COM- MERCIAL real estate in B.C. until the day they become landed im- migrants or Canadian citizens. Banning them meanwhile from home-buying would not cure sav- age inflation overnight. But at feast it would slow it, giving a ray of new hope to fess affluent Can- dians who, in their own country, now find themselves onthe outside looking in. If these thoughts are “racist’’, no different in terms of the number of fish caught by using gill nets. The natives’ methods and high visibility — on the rocks at the river month — leave them open to criticism, but they are no more guilty of fishing abuses than sport fishermen. The vast number of sport fishermen can make far more of a dent in salmon stocks than native fishermen. Angling is a far more aesthetically pleasing method of fishing, but there is just as much reason for public concern over excesses. Equipment and bait restrictions can be ignored, and sport fishermen can easily take more than their limits with reasonable certainty o7 escaping punishment. Violations are hard to spot, but they do occur. An unthinking public is unfairly blasting natives for fishing abuses; they are just the last and most visible link in the fishing chain. Your Worship, my name is Adolf Hitler! ete “NO COMMENT at the moment” was the answer of high-profile West Van Socred and school trust- ee Margot Furk when asked about rumors that she may run in Capilano-Howe Sound for the Reform Party at the upcoming federal election. But local RP of- ficials make no bones about their keen interest in wooing Margot to their nomination mecting, set for Jate August. A ‘‘Margot vs. Mary Show" could add a lot of spice to the campaign. eee WRAP-UP: Winner of the prestigious 1988 George Warren Fuller Award from the American Water Works Association is West Van's Hans Krause, exec. ad- ‘ministrator of operations with the GVRD, for “‘his strong leadership, integrity and dedicated service to the water industry’ ... Congrats again to Sutherland’s Todd McPherson, first winner of the Pant Pollhammer Referee Scholar- ship in memory of the noted North Shore soccer referee killed last September in a car accident ... And heart-mending at St. Paul's hospital is fast heading the way of one-hour photo finishing. West Van architect Brian Hanna return- ed home last Wednesday just nine days after a triple by-pass and was chipper enough this Monday to at- tend the weekly West Van Kiwanis dinner meeting. ose WRIGHT OR WRONG — famous last words for July tourists: ‘‘I don't care what the sign said, we don’t get off until the next exit.”’@ OFFIGALS IN THE PREMIERS OFFICE... Publisher .. Peter Speck Managine Editor... . Barrett Fisher Associate Editor ..... Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart Hocth Shore News, | founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule mn Paragraph Ht of the Excise Tax Act, is published e Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore rsa Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mai! Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and Wes! Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing fates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility tor unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed + WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) es SDA DIVISION Entire contents © 1988 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. 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