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* © 1996 North Shore
Free Press Ltd.
All rights reserved,

ELFARE reform is not just a
political catch-phrase. It’s a
social necessity.

In an issue of Economic Analysis
published fast year, the B.C. ‘Central
Credit Union’s Economics Department
reported that the cost of providing
social services in B.C. would hit $2.9
billion in the current fiscal-year, which
worked out to a 9.6% increase over the
previous year and a whopping 72.5%
over the past five years. ;

Liberal leader Gordon Campbell was
taken to task in the provincial election
campaign for saying that welfare fraud
in B.C. was approximately 15%.

‘YEARS ago an

American national-net-
work radio host named

Arthur Godfrey — who
_ rocketed to popularity

but is now forgotten —
sang a little ditty that
‘would have had him
slacklisted (or

‘whitelisted?) today:
_ “She’s too fat, she’s too
‘fat, she’s too fat for me!”

The song was called The Too-Fat Polka, a
novelty hit of 1940-something, and it measured
the dimensions of a lady who maybe had had a
few too many banana splits at the soda counter,

Godfrey related that it wasn’t any fun danc-
ing with this “jum, jum, jumbo” — as I say, he'd
be tossed out of work today under pressure of
The Size Six-Challenged Action Committee for
Women. And a number of other male voices
chimed in to endorse Godfrey's chuckling view:
“I don’t want her, you can have her, she’s too fat
.. much too fat forme!” \

Ah, but then a little nerdish nasal voice piped
up and offered a contrary view: “I sure want her,
you can’t have her, she’s just right for me!”
Proving, once again, that in America there's
always an historical happy ending for everyone
if they wait long enough. .

I checked this particular cobweb in my attic
of memories this week when the sovereign
municipality of West Vancouver took a Jong step
back from its proposal to put a legal corset on

5 the too-fat house.

Much lower, argued the pundits, who
pegged the figure at around 4%.

In the waning days of the election
campaign, the Liberals claimed a
social-services ministry report put the
figure for welfare fraud closer to 52%.

The fatter figure sounds closer to the
mark. ,

Eloise Anderson, the director of the
California State Department of Social
Services, has estimated that welfare
fraud in that state is as high as 60% on
any given day,

In the April 1996 Fraser Forum,
Anderson outlined some fundamental
changes in the way California is work-

CALL SECURITY...
{ THINK WEVE GOT
ANOTHER

ROGUE TRADER.

The public meeting on the:
“monster house” bylaw
aniendment that opened June
21 was reopened Monday
night only to be ordered recon-
vened by Mayor Mark Sager
in September. The long, short
and fat of it is that the pro-
posed bylaw — which basical-_ ;
ly would have required new
houses to occupy a maxinium
of one-quarter of their lot size
instead of the present one-third
— will be drastically rewritten.

Because the fact is that
when council put out the proposal for public dis-
cussion, a host of architecis, contractors and oth-
ers raised a great bloody hue and cry.

They didn’t quite echo the nerdish guy who
sang “she’s just right for me!" But their message
in effect was: Fat ts in the eye of the beholder.
One size doesn’t fit ail, and it’s a bad mistake to

of biases

“try to legislate it.

Furthermore, Steve DeJaray, one “ordinary
citizen” having his home built for him, pointed
oui that every fussy detail change in design to
conform (o municipal rules costs him time and
money. Persuasive point.

Well-known surveyor Bill Chapman told
council that members of the “design community”
nervously called and asked to meet him when
they got wind of the proposed changes: “Fifteen
phoned me, and 17 showed up.”

Chapman questioned whether house dimen-
sions “dictated by law” was the right course: “In
trying to make West Vancouver unique, we could
‘end up making it the same.”

.” And Fred Russell, who remarked that he had
been on council committees rewriting the height. , .

‘provisions for housing (which “no one under-

“for my July 5 column — beginning with a highly

ing to get people off the dole. ‘
The goverument, she pointed out, {
can’t eliminate poverty for people. |
People personally eliminate poverty in &
their lives, ©
And she said one of the main jobs
facing her organization was. to teach
people how to luok for work. ed
in B.C., an estimated 350,000 people
are on social assistance, a staggering i
figure that costs each of us $2,200 per:
year. ..
Welfare reform is long overdue in’
B.C. It’s financial and social costs are
far toa heavy to bear for British
Columbians on both sides of the issue.

a

PYBERU ESCH

Our bylaws
a
are imbecilic
Dear Editor: 00
What constitutes. harassment
The bylaw the -district' managed to:
. put together cn ‘noise is about; th
most imbecilic lot of. nonsense
thought of by supposedly iinellig
people, ae
The thing I resent. most is. the,:
.way people. make their complaints
.” They don't have the courage t
_ in person to talk like ‘adults
explain, they hide behind the byl:
inspector and harass othe
- Now we: have ‘the di
_ proud that: they’ hav t a’ stop. te
-smoking. | know. the harm smoking
can do; but think. of the harm*th
_- sending everyone “who wants”
Smoke into North Vancouver ‘City.
or West Vancouver is going te.do t
‘our businesses in the district’:
_ This is supposed to-be‘a democ
‘racy. What'a jokes 0s.
_. Evelyn Donevan |
‘North Vancouver = °°,

‘to act-as visual guidelin

‘age, but not penalize.”

_4¢ all made eminent good sense |.

“> gonscientious attempt by municipal staff‘and:

‘council to shrink the bloated monsters that peo-"
ple — especially overseas nouveaux riches’ with
more money than taste, if the iruth be téld :
trying to cram on to hyper-expensir¢ fots,

Once again a great human truth hag been
demonstrated: Everyone is in favor of ice cream..

The argument begins when the choice is choco-

fate, vanilla, pistachio, tutti frutti, rum and raisin,

” Just as some men find the fat lady isn’t too a
fat for them. “os
Q00 .

I see a young North Vancouver whippersnap-,;
per (born 1947) named Kevin Pike derides me’ »,
original view that the word “dominion” (of.
Canada) is “a jingoistic word that no one und
stands.” He puts the Second World War.in the *
context of “discredited policies of misguided — '
politics” and “the short tives of ignorant young. -"-”
men sent to their deaths by ignorant old politi- .-“
cians. : :

Well, certainly, Mr. Pike. Young and eld, :
hoisting peace signs (like the rads of your gener-".. .
ation in the 1960s), could have smilingly waved
Hitler on instead of fighting him. And we
wouldn't be having this discussion.

The North Shore News believes strongly in
freedom of speech and the right of all sides ina’ }
debate to be heard. The,columnists published in .-°:.
the News present differing points of view, but...
those views are not necessarily those of the

newspaper itself. rst
the