6 - Wednesday, March 13, 1985 - North Shore News Editorial Page News Vie wpoint Garbage bluff? I s North Van District playing poker with the entire North Skore’s garbage pro- blem? If so, let’s hope nobody calls its bluff. District is determined to close the Premier St. landfill by. next Dec.31 for reasons given by Mayor Baker on page 7. Thereafter, all: North Shore refuse will have to ‘be truck- ed (at extra cost) to Burns Bog in Delta-- which has agreed to accept it only until Oc- tober 1986, with no guarantee beyond that. Meanwhile, the Lower Mainland Refuse Project has recommended cither that Premier St. continue to operate for three to four more years until replaced towards 1990 by a North Van incinerator, or alternatively that North Shore waste after October 1986 should go to a new Iandfill still to be established at the eastern end of the Lower Mainland. District has chosen the fatter option, but it presently remains an unconfirmed option. The LMRP proposals ‘are still only a draft plan.. Even ‘if. all parties’ involved finally reach accord, the new eastern landfill will - take time to set up. And it’s even been hinted that Delta. and Vancouver City (which owns - Burns’ Bog) might renege on the existing agreement before October 1986. The only thing firm so far is District’s resolve to foist North Shore refuse on some ‘other community from next Jan.1. Once Premier St. closes, District poker players are gambling that someone, somewhere, will be decent enough to play along. _What, however, if all the someones even- tually say: ‘‘Tough luck, North Van, build yourself -an incinerator--you’re not dumping * the’stuff'in OUR backyard’? o everybody’s happy at. Canada Post following last weekend's tentative set- ; tlement that’s avoided a mail strike. Management calls it a ‘‘win-win’’ deal. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says the pact has ‘met its test. All that postal customers have to do now is wait for the other shoe to — ‘drop. Wait, that is, to see what a stamp costs in a year’s time! Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom (985-2131 Circulation 986-1337 . Subscriptions 985-2131 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Publisher. Peter Speck Marketing Director Operations Manager Robert Graham Berni Hilliard Advertising Director Circulation Director Dave Jenneson Bill McGown Editor-in-Chief Noel Wright Display Advertising Manager Production Director Mike Goodsell Chris Johnson Ctassitied Manager “Photography Manager Val Stephenson Terry Peters north sHpre’ SUNDAY + WEDNEAEAY « FRIDAY __ | North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent subutban - newspaper and.quatified under Schedule iI, Part lll. Paragraph tl of the Excise Tax Act. is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd, and distributed 10 every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mait Registration Number 3885. Entire contents © 1985 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. Subscriptions, North and Wes! Vancouver, $25. per yeat. Matting rates . available on request: No responsibility accepted for sinsolicited malerial including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped. addressed envelope. ‘Member of the B.C. Press Council SH 55.770 (average, Wednesday SDA DIVISION Friday & Sunday) SN’ THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE (ELLIE TRL ee | NG AN a 7 eeandNROOOPORONEDO Pebet. am tery dr hE LIICITCASERTIDGG MegSOPUOCNGHIA @ LIEU HALL LAL EME meet ye Zag, Ws 5 ———— << LE 5 Lie CE Perhaps tomorrow is for information only? buzz word you hear on ail sides these days. | Te “INFORMATION SOCIETY” is the wish some one would explain it in a bit more detail. Not that there’s any lack of promoters talking up the Info Society. It starts off as a fascinating story. But the plot quickly peters out--leav- ing a tale with a great Chapter One, not much middle and no ending at all. The script, you'll recall, opens by defining the bright, shining new Info Society as the successor to the bad, worn-out old Industrial Society. The ‘latter was based on people making things to seil to other people. The other people made things, too, and sold them to the first tot of . people. That way, everybody .- also made a living and manufacturing industries ruled the roost. In the {nfo Society, based on computers and robots, hardly anyone will be needed » to actually make things any longer. Automated factories run by a single human being with a keyboard will produce everything we need--from ‘toothpaste to TV sets, from cornflakes to cars. Faster and cheaper, too. So wha! does everyone else do in the Info Society? LETTER OF THE DAY in strength? That's easy, say the Info Society whiz kids. Almost all jobs will be in the service in- dustries: salesfolk, ap- pliance-menders, travel agents, hairdressers, short- order cooks, janitors, mes- senger types, you ‘name it. Plus, of course, the profes- sions. We'll at last be able to concentrate. exclusively on’ jobs. that make everyone’s life more convenient, com- fortable and enjoyable. These jobs, the smart boys stress, are all based on in- formation, which the com- puters will spew forth in ever greater volume. Including information about, the latest hair styles, air fares, new hamburger recipes or where to drop off the parcels. Everybody will be kept busy and happy generating, receiving and swapping in- formation at millions of bytes per second. Sounds great so far. But now thé plot begins to get decidedly fuzzy. Take all those guys, for example, who used to make things in factories. Will there be enough extra openings as salespersons, travel agents, Walking out Dear Editor: May I reply to the letter from Daryl Barnett, Chair- man, Retail Stores & Warehouse Component, BCGEU in the January 30th issue. 1 do frequent, on occasion, the local liquor stores in North Vancouver and have not noticed any difference in the level of service, nor in the inventory. I was not aware that any employees had been terminated. Is the BCGEU really con- cerned that cutbacks in staff may affect service, and be a first step towards privatiza- tion? Or are they more con- cerned in the decrease in their Bs by Noel Wright ie] short-order cooks and mes- senger boys/girls to keep their wage cheques coming? Another thought, If | have instant access to all existing information, how many “service’’ folk do 1 need anyway? If | can inspect a store’s wares on my living- room TV--ask about them, order them, pay for them and have them delivered numbers of members? They are now busy trying to raid the Food and Services Workers of Canada, namely the White Spot workers. Let’s set ‘the scene for a scenario in Spring ‘86. The. BCGEU is now trying to get all the hospitality workers (restaurants, hotels, bars, etc, ete, etc.) under their um- simply by: pressing -half (a dozen keys--why do I want a salesperson? ‘What about arranging a trouble-free vacation or hav- ing .a gourmet dinner delivered from a robot kitchen in exactly the same way?,-Why bother with a travel agent or a short-order cook? - Te, ‘Finally, why should | even ‘have to. decide .what'to do? Why. strain’ my. mind wondering whether. to take wifey out to dinner or join the boys at the: club? Whether to splurge on a new car or a Caribbean cruise? Whether to get up in the “morning at all? Won't those. fifth-genera- tion ‘“‘artificial. intelligence’ computers they’re perfecting in Japan soon be:able to make such’ worrisome per- sonal choizes for meat. the touch of a button, sparing me the pain of thinking ‘at all? Once I don’t have to think and decide any more, tomorrow itself, of course, will be strictly ‘‘for informa- tion only’’. Maybe that’s the ending to the story that the authors of the Info Society are working on, Whether Ill like the last chapter as much as the first is another matter! brella, Demands they could make in Spring of '86 may not be acceptable to the employers. The scene could then be set for a total. walk out by the BCGEU employees just as Expe opens its doors! Only in B.C.! B.M. Waters, North Vancouver,