6 - Wednesday, December 9, 1998 — North Shore News S dam annoying. And it’s going to get more annoying even though the work has yet to begin on the Cleveland Dam upgrade project. What we have here is a basic failure to communicate. That reality was underscored recently in the second meeting held by the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) for Grouse Woods residents. If you are on the GVRD side of the fence, Grouse would be an apt adjective to describe the response of the area’s residents to the $350 million project to build a Cleveland Dam ozonation plant and install a seepage control blanket on the dam’s east abutment. It’s a public water facility upgrade project that GVRD construction man- ager John Morse says the GVRD has an obligation to complete. But ou the Grouse Woods side of the north shore news VIEWPOINT Jam nuisance fence that project carries with it much more than a hefty price tag. Te will require an almost constant stream of heavy trucks, with their attendant noise and safety hazards, to pass through the neighborhood over the course of the multi-year project. But the area’s residents are con- vinced that there is another less disrup- live way to do the project. However they see the GVRD as hav- ing no interest in listening to alterna- tives. Worse still, the GVRD has been reluctant to provide North Vancouver District with detaiied information about the project, its options, costs and environmental impact. Little wonder that there is resent- ment over what wil! be a major engi- neering undertaking. Pam annoying and dam disturbing. | RATIONALE FoR A FORTUNE S00 COMPANY NOT To PARTICIPATE } IN TAE BOYCOTT OF OLD GROWTH FOREST PRoDUcTS: WE TooK \ A LOOK AT OUR BOTTOM UNE AND GOT To THINKING.-- mailbox Reader stands by Pacificat criticism Dear Editor: Mr. (Tom) ‘Vard, the BC Ferry bass, certainly took me to task in his (Nov. 20) letter. My name prefaced nearly every paragraph. If P vas misinformed, it’s because Premier (Glen) Clark himself forecast the Pacificat service in operation by 1996. Assuming he forecast in good faith, (and why would I every doubt his word?), a two-year and $16 million overrun (and still not in service) is hardly “outstanding progress.” Indeed my term “fumbling” seems more appropriate. And what's insulting about “fledgling?” Everyone starts out ficdgling. Regarding “established worldwide technology”: I crossed the English Channel in 1994 in a large high-speed catamaran that had been in service for several years, before 1990 I would suggest. + But even supposing the 1990 Tasmanian sea trials that Mr. Ward mentions were the first, the Pacificat’s 1998 sea trials are still years behind — cight years and counting, to be _ exact. Mr. Ward’s comparison with Vanceuver’s teeming har- bour of globe-circling vessels is all very well if the Pacificats Meet open ocean-going specifications, and can also accom- modate the huge fucl tankage needed for long ocean voy- ages. At present their capacity will require refueling at least once daily, during their little trots between Horseshoe Eay and Nanaimo. In addition to the wave problems reported along the West Vancouver and Bowen Island shores there is now 3 report of foam and muck the cat churned up in Horseshoe ay. * magine the horrific archival content of that well-used harbour, and the affect of its daily upheaval if the Cat’s jet ; pro ulsion system cannot be suitably controlled — phew! . On West Vancouver I ee ne meee ner Pat he AnTES Hanah eases ‘morth shore : Oo < Worth Shore News. founded a 1969as an i suburban newspaper and quakiied under Schedue 111, Paragraph 117 of the Excise Tax Act is publched each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by Nosth Shore Free Press, te. and disinbuted to every door on the Horen ‘Shore. Canada Post Canadian Pubcatons Mail Sales Product Agreement No, 0087238. Mailing rates avadable on request wy Barbara Distribution Manager 986-1397 (124) Jonathan Bell Creative Services Manager 965-2131 (127) “ALL IK ALL, THOSE TREES REALIN HAVE HABA GOOD, LONG LIFE... ——— _oreaess | One simple way to save medicare LAST week brought chilling health care news from Sweden — the West’s model welfare state. Budget cuts have put its vaunted universal medicare on the “seriously ill” list. Some emergency department patients are reported to be waiting up to 16 hours for treat- ment. Harried doctors complain they have no time “to eat, drink or go to the toilet.” Total hos- pital beds for Sweden’s 8.8 million people have been slashed by 40% since 1985. It sounds depressingly familiar. In Canada, as in Sweden, the dream of free universal medicare — for many, our defining national virtue — is turning into a financial nightmare, duc in no small part to demographics and technology. A rapidly aging population highlights the fact that up to half an average per- son’s lifelong medicare needs tend to arise during the final few years. So the older the population grows, the heavier the load. Meanwhile, new high-tech gizmos costing millions are flooding into tic diagnostic jabs and no GP wants to risk his malpractice insurance by failing to - make maximum use of them. No more trusting to the faithful old bargain-price stethoscope and doc’s sensitive fingertips! Other factors contributing to medicare’s escalating cost crunch include bureaucratic inefficiencies, over-usage by 985-2151 (177) Tery Peters Photography Manager 985-2131 (163) 61,582 javerage cercuation, Wednesday. Fraay & Sunday) 585-2151 (133) the public (“let's go ask doc about Johnny’s running nose”) and some degree of over-billing by certain doctors themselves. But no amount of analysis answers the unresolved question: What to do about it before free universal medicare finally bleeds to death financially? The nvo stock solutions offered so far are first, “home care” with visit- ing professional backup to replace much more expensive hospital care; and second, “two-tier medicine,” where the less well-to-do continue to be guaranteed free basic health care, while the wealthier can jump the line-up by paving private practi- tioners and clinics for their healing. Boch have major practical disadvantages. “Home care” was alive and well 50 years ago, when most housewives were stay-at-homes who not only brought up the kids bur often looked after aging par- ents full-time as well. Today, with a majority of husbands and wives both out working, who tends to grandpa when he’s inconsiderate enough to suffer a stroke just after the visiting nurse has departed? Or hubby, victim of an industrial accident, who falls and can’t drag himself to the phone, so lies there until his spouse returns at six? The “two-tier medicine” problem is that it has to be delivered, at least in part, by doctors in the free universal medicare system. They'd be less than human if they resisted the temptation to concentrate on their lucrative “private practice” work to hither and yon the likely detriment of their medicare obligations. Your faichful scribe suggests a simple pain-free solution: Make the wealthy — instead of wasting money on private doc- tors and clinics — spend the same money on improving tree universal medicare. It can easily be done through the income tax system. Gross incomes above a certain tevel would be levied a health care surtax on a rising scale, and based on the average use of tree medicare by a per- son of that age. This could be offset or reduced by medicare tax eredits issued by the per- son’s doctor. Each year-end Mr. or Mrs./Ms. Well-Off would receive trom their doctor a statement of the cash value of the number of visits and treatments given to them during the tax vear. If the number was below average, their medicare surtax would be reduced accordingly. If it was average or higher, the full rnedicare surtax would have to be paid. Or have you any better idea for saving free universal medicare — and showing the Swedes how? Qo00 ; TRADITIONAL Christmas music from around the planet will be sung by Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir Friday- Saturday, Dee.11-12, at 8 p.m. in St. Andrew's Wesley Church, Burrard and Nelson. For tickets call Ticketmaster 280- 4444 or 280-3311. 000 WRIGHT OR WRONG: Thc trouble with being punctual is that nobody is there to appreciate it. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must include your name, full address & telephone number, VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ direct.ca Managing Editor 985-2131 (116) -* as wt Aron évers Acting Display Manager 929-0511 (307) Gall Sneigrove General dice Manager 995-2131 (105) interiei- http:/Awane.nsnews.com 986-1337 985-1435 965-2104 &Main Office Fax 9227 Michael Becker - News Editor 985-2131 (114) Andrew McCredie - Sports/Community Editor 905-2131 (147)