Toe Meth: Shore Netes fs poblishad by tosth Shoca Free Press btd.; Publisher Peter Speck, from 1135 Lonsdale Avesss Worth Vancouver, B.C., V7M 214 PETER SPECK Publisher 995-2131 (101) “Doug Fost Comptrotter 935-2131 (133) Promotions Manager SBS-2151 (216) z memo ion Manager oduction _ SO 1SST (128) went (127) eam Oa LONE St a . 085-2131 Dioplay Advertising 989-2611 Saal Estate Advertiolng Diaploy & Real Estete Fax. Wevarvem Fax Ctaceified, Accounting & Main Office Fea Beckss-Rows 85-2134 (114) MecKredis-Sporte/Commsvity Editar 985-213! (47) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must Include your name, full address & telephone number. VIA Internet’ trenshaw @ direct.ca CGARASTR BES - 980-8027 User (0°: aalibox ¢ Paseviord:letrs Han iy init ne eel mane A ANN ter tere Kees, fondo incependoed shurben newspaper and qualified unde Schedule 111, Pangrigh 111 of te Excise Tax Act, is pibinhod exh Woden, Friday and Sanatay by North Shove Free Prem Lal tebe weer do on te Nath Se. Cava Punt Entire contents © 1996 North Shove Free Press Ltd. . All rights reserved. re mal MACS 19 1 Labored HE tentative contract between the province and its teachers repre. sents another labor-supported victory for the NDP government. It buys further labor peace for the NDP in the run-up to the provincial election and ensures labor peace on the education front for the next two years. But it also ensures the continuation of budget crises for North Vancouver District 44, The tentative agreement between the province and its 42,000 unionized teachers calls for a 2% wage increase for teachers to June 1998, which doesn’t sound like much. But the deal will still cost taxpayers E another $50 million, and it retains pro- visions of coniracts previously signed by teachers, which for North Vancouver District is fiscally daunting. Consider, for instance, that the aver- age teacher salary in District 44 is $52,301 for a 186-day school year. Consider also that the benefits pack- age for teachers includes such perks as paternity leave, maternity leave, adop- tion leave, religious leave, elected office leave, social cultural leave, educational leave, B.C. Teachers Federation leave, marriage in the family leave, full pay for jury duty, and District 44’s fiscal woes, while the result in part of an inequitable HE LOVES To COME DOWN AND WATCH THE SALMON RETURN TO BC... fhich hunting WHICH? . As a Tiddlycove resident iny answer would be: Vote for whichever candidate opposes the dang-blasted blasting between Kew Cliff Road and Kew Road. “They,” the faceless authori- _ties, are dynamiting the beauti- ful rock in order to straighten out one cf the most charming kinks on Marine Drive — a road full of character and wrig- gly bends. This is the nefarious doing of BC Transit, which is imposing longer buses on our innocent community, buses that supposedly can't safely navigate sore twists in the blacktop that momentarily give all motorists White- Knuckle Syndrome. We should really be up in arms against this sacrilege when they start messing up the beauti- ful spaghetti strand just beyond Fisherman's Cove, where the road snakes up to that sudden dazzling view over the water and your heart lifts with it. But unfortunately this is happening without becoming the local election issue it should be. What a travesty! Widening our quaint narrow roads just to accommodate bigger buses! © Well, I forgot to ask Ted Nebbeling how he would have stood on that issue. But I imagine he'd have a stout opinion. He is Dutch by birth, and the Dutch are famous — will the following be prosecuted by the human rights police? — for bull-headed, obstinate, blunt positions on everything. And a good thing too, I say. Nebbeling beats around no bushes, though doubtless he’s skied around a lot of trees in his time, and he doesn’t look like the sort of man who is ever caught between a rock (such as along Marine Drive) and a hard place. : Nebbeling. mayor of the ski-boom town of Whistler and avid skier himself, is Liberal candidate for West Vancouver-Garibaldi in the May 28 provincial general election. And thus probably the front-runner, or front- His chief opponents are Jim Mercier, Reform, and New Democrat Brenda Broughton, who is also a mayor -— of the cliff-dwellers of Lions Bay. There is a kind of take-it-for-granted Liberalism in this riding, whose retiring MLA, David Mitchell, was elected as a Grit but broke with then-leader Gordon Wilson and sat as an independent-Liberal. But although Nebbeling observed that his polls say “E'm in, ['m in.” he's taking nothing for granted. In fact the West Vancouver BMW-and-Gucci residents tend to forget that the riding includes largely checked-shirt Squamish. And probably many youngsters working in the service trades in tight-and-expensive-accommodation Whistler are secret NDP voters. Still, Nebbeling at 52 appears to have an enviable track record and loyal base on his home turf, if you can find much turf-in Whistler. He fell in love with Whistler in 1976 when the population was around 200, ran several small businesses there, and was elected to coun- Fear ii ‘ sate Auras ate o. Hak funding formula and fiscal mismenage- ment, come into sharper focus. Teachers’ contracts account for approximately 80% of the entire $100 million District 44 operating budget. Overall employee wages and benefits account for 90% of that same budget. Trimming programs and making effi- ciencies in the remuining 10% will help offset some of the district’s $5 million debt and its $2.3 million defi icit, but the overall budget problemi remains. Unless the district’ is allowed some flexibility with class sizes and teachers’ contracts it will continue to sink deeper into debt. riailboax Two entities Deay Editor: I am writing in regards to Mr. . Ted White's column in — Wednesday's (May 8) North Shore News. Mr. White refers to applications for challenge grant students and agencies sending in requests under multi-names. I: wish to bring to ’ your readers’ attention that our agency, the North Shore Crisis Services Society, and the North Shore Women's Centre are not the same organization. We are two entirely different entities, with sep- arate mandates, boards and staff. Our addresses are 3093 and 3095 _ Lonsdale. Both agencies are well respect- ed on the North Shore and both of - us work to improve the quality of © life, in different and compiemen- tary ways, fer women. Carol Ward-Hall Executive Director North Shore Crisis Services Society i Tiddl ycove cil in 1986 and to y muyor' s chair in 1990, presiding over world-class growth and sophisti- cation of services that would make any politi- cian green, or, considering the prime activity in Whistler, white with envy. It's a pay-as-you-go marvel, “First, we had to build the economic base,” Nebbeling explained. “Then we had the money to build up the infrastructure.” Thus, just six years ago, the medical “building” was a coupie of trailers. Now it's a real buliding. The Jack Nicklaus golf course, an ureng, Community centre, gymnasi- um and @ proper transit system are among the facilities that have sprouted during the Nebbeling years. And the town welcomes the big international investors that have swarmed in to make Whistler the No. | ski resort in North Anicrica — but without taking any guff from anyone, One blustering development company cooled its corporate heels for a couple of years before agreeing to the town’s stringent rules. Nebbeling, though charming, looks like one stubborn Dutchman not to be crossed. He was also firmly behind the move that really lifted Whistler above the competition: “1 felt private enterprise had to be convinced to make it more than a five-month resort.” As we non-skiing summer visitors know, that’s been ‘a great success i Ah, yes ~~ ~ he's pay. : “Sve never advertised it. I've never hidden it. J couldn't live a lie.” he says — bluntly, of course, and with an implied comment on those that do. If it troubles you, and I've said my piece many times about the gay agenda, he has a ‘kind of worldly, European outlook that dispels any stereotypes and swings your focus toward his public accomplishments.