- disagreeable

A6 - Wednesday, January 16, 1985 - North Shore News

ee editorial

News Viewpoint

Luxury tax

n increased bill for disposing of North
Shore garbage, with its resultant effect
on municipal taxes, is looming closer.

North Van District council wants to close
down its Premier St. landfill within the next
six to 12 months, partly because of the
impact on neighboring

households (about: 2% of the North Shore

“+ Advertising Director

total). If-the District gets its way, garbage
fromthe three North Shore municipalities
would henceforth be taken to a North Shore

“transfer station’’ (either Premier St. itself

or some new location) and trucked from
there to Burns Bog in Delta---obviously a
costlier process than simply dumping it at
Premier St.

- The extra cost would likely be felt most by

North Van City and West Van. District —

spokesmen point out that NVD already has a
hidden extra cost in‘ its legal liability for. the

environmental hazards of the -Premier St. .

site, which’ would. be eliminated by closing it.

They argue. that ‘the City and West Van, un- ©

burdened by that hidden cost, have been get-
ting ‘‘a pretty good deal’’.
Meanwhile, the situation | could ‘well

change again this spring---though again for ~
the worse cost-wise---when provincial - ‘and: .
_ regional government levels receive the final
_ report. of the: ‘Lower Mainland -Refuse pro- ”
_ ject. One of ‘its ‘nine’ draft options includes
relying on Premiér’St. for. a-further 10-12 —
- years, “but the: -other options: involving vary-

ing degrees of incineration wouid all cost
more than at present, by anywhere from
16% to over 70%.

There’s no escape from the rising luxury

|> tax on unlimited personal, garbage.

Lost leaders -

here’ 's little left to be said at the moment
“about the. sad Story of former B.C.

: Hydro. chairman Bob Bonner except, :

high-profile’ public ser-

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ane 7 Subscriptions ae
(1199: Lonsdale ve, North Vancouver, B.C: vm 2H4- .
es, Publisher Peter Speck
M oting Director ‘Operations Manager
Robert Graham . Berni Hilliard . 8
Civculation Director
Bill McGown
Editor-in-Chief
Noel Wright .
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ike Goodse! Chris Johnson
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Dave Jenneson

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as 27: dere dent suburban

Newspaper and quatilied under Schedule #I!, Hart (it “aragraph Ul of the
Excise Tax Act, is published each Wediririy, “riday and Sunday by
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© 1984 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

powers.

“however honorsble personally, can.
never, divorce their private affairs from their’.
public. duties... That’s:a big sacrifice and may”
: explain: ‘why so many able, talented: leader
“types are so’ hard to lure into “public office.

-year’s NDP leadership race

-bians, fed up to the teeth

« ailing body politic.

THESE AGREED
TD REVEW SOUR

6 6 uman reason,” said Martin Luther
some ‘450 years ago; ‘‘is like a
drunken man on horseback; set it up

on one side and it tumbles over on the other.’’

Luther was busy
establishing . Protestantism,
which he saw.as a more sen-

sible religion, when he. c) ;
‘. vented his _disillustonment .

with man’s’ reasoning

Graham Lea, now the In-
dependent MLA for Prince
Rupert after fosing last

to Bob Skelly, might well
ponder Luther’s thought as’
he works to give B.C. a new
and hopefully more sensible
political party.

He’s convinced that large
numbers of British Colum-

with decades of caveman
confrontation between: :
Socreds and socialists, are by
yearning for.a party that can
inject sweet reason and a
spirit of constructive com-
promise into. the province's

After flirting mildly with:
the remnants of the B.C.
Liberal Party, whose name
alone could presently be a
turn- off with disenchanted

Noel Wright
ERR

voters, Mr. Lea has now
taken a big step closer to of-
fering the electorate a fresh,
clean alternative with a ban-
ner and title of its-own (the
latter not as yet revealed).

At. : “retreat”? ‘last
weekend i in Parksville he and

a couple of dozen like-think-
.ing- moderates. from.

business, professional “and
community activist circles
hammered. out ‘‘a__philo-
sophical set of guiding prin-
ciples so people can see if

we're the kind- of: group :

they'd like to join:”
According to one. partici-

pant, they also have a firm |
April-May . deadline . for. :
deciding whether to official-"-
ly launch the new party right-
away. Having talked at some.
length with Mr.Lea, | Pil be.:

rather surprised they don’t.
He’s dead serious: about

the need for-such a move.
Readers of our Friday edi-.

tion, which currently. carries

a series of his articles, can.

judge for themselves what
sense he makes. Meanwhile,
the man has that vital tool of
all successful politicians in
this TV age---personal
charisma.

The ‘radical change” he

demands is an end to all po-'

litical ideologies and a
massive decentralization of
power to the local level. Vic-
toria, he says, should act on-
ly as a legislative centre, set-
ting broad policy which
would be administered by

LETTER OF THE DAY
Public can halt the nuclear threat

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THIS FAPER IS RECYCLABLE

Dear Editor:

Have you ever thought
about the things you love in
life and how they are
threatened by nuclear war?

Military expenditure is
beneficial *‘o a country
because of the billions of
dollars in jobs 11 produces for
its people. As compared with
the mass destruction and loss
of life that military build-up
inevitably produces, disarma-
ment is the only investment
for the people. Arms build-

up will not create peace, only
postpone war.

The public must make an
important decision. They can
let the arms race continue,
keep their jobs. in military-
oriented institutions, and
have a stronger economy. At
the same time, they will in-
crease fear, greed, distrust,
and tension and eventually
destroy the world.

The public could also take
humanity into their own
hands, meet or write their

politicians, and force them to
make peace with our
neighbours. We will then put
our tax dollars into the
careful, supervised disarming
of weapons. At the same
time, we will preserve the
things we love and use the
money saved for more
beneficial purposes, such as
world hunger.

If the bombs were to blow
up tomorrow, it would be the
people's, not the politician's,
fault. We own our Iegders,

: "mnunicipalities, school. ‘

and regional districts.
He: preaches, ‘£00

“‘new-style’? economics . bas-
“ed-on’ smaller, decentralized:

private businesses ‘that, react

. quickly to change and an in-
“dustrial strategy worked out

with. the groups concerned «
rather than imposed b :
ernment. |
: The © Lea formula would
certainly give his new.party a:
distinctive . “identity: “unlike
that of any other. There.may
even be a parallel. here with
the 1952 emergence of Social
C'r-e di-t.un-decr
W.A.C.Bennett: But © his
main problem at the moment
may lie in the sheer reason-
ableness of his platform.
-In-a political climate as.

~ violently polarized as B.C.’s,

fear of splitting the vote and
letting ‘‘the other side’’ in by
default is a dominating fac-
tor. How fast can you per--
suade enough voters to climb
on your more rational, sen-
sible. bandwagon to convince
the rest that it will not only

- survive but WIN? -

Like Luther, Mr.Lea will
first have to get that

‘drunken horseman sitting

straight up in the saddle for
long enough to coax the
steed into a gallop.

and if enough people urged
them to make peace, then the
next generation would have a
chance. The average. person
doesn’t have to know the
names of the Soviet and U.S.
missiles and how powerful
they are. All he has to know
are the names and addresses
of his politicians, and that he
can be more powerful than
all the missiles, because he
can stop them.

Jeff Gibbs (age £7)
Vancouver