RES SSS Pando! NEWS VIEWPOINT | Ban burning HERE THERE is smoke, there is fire. The smoke is coming from slash-fires burning on the West Vancouver hills. The fire is coming from area residents confused and upset by an environmentally questionable practice better relegated to 2 bygone era. North Vancouver City and District pro- hibit open burning by individuals or com- panies. That probibition extends to land- clearing. Residential backyard burning was exncelied in West Vancouver as of April 39, 1952. Two municipal bylaws permit open burning in the municipality: land- clearing fires and beach fires at Ambleside Park. Although a GVRD policy statement notes the region is committed to disallow- ing slash burning by the end of this year, West Vancouver annualiy allows land- clearing fires from mid-October to Apri. Given the push for cleaner exhaust emissions from moter vehicles driven throughout the region, Vancouverites are particularly sensitive regarding matters concerning air poltution. Individually we sre legislated to clean up our act, whether it be a ban on the burn- ing of leaves or notices compelling us to invest in catalytic converters. To see West Vancouver hidden for weeks behind a haze caused by land-clear- ing fire is an abomination. The practice should no longer be allow- ed. " OF THE DAY Pity people aren’t given more choices Dear Editor: choices. So, most people we've talked to Pity we aren't lt would be nice year-old killers don’t walk free in less than three years. These issues affect us all, direct- given more if we were are glad this referendum on Ca- nadian unity is over. Too costly, too drawn out, they said. Maybe so, but each. and every one of us in Canada should be thankful that we were given a chance to state our opinion through such a vote, on this par- ticular issue. given a chance to cast our ballot on such guestions as whether or not to bring back capital punish- ment in Canada, whether or not gay ‘“‘couples’’ have the right to adopt young, innocent, parent- less children, and maybe, just maybe, a vote to passibly modify the Young Offenders Act, so 17- ly or indirectly, and should be no less important than the one we cast our ballots in on Oct. 26. Let’s all say Yes to further decision-making by the people. Rob Rannard Kelowna Sohn Schieimer North Vancouver . Peter Speck Managing Editor... Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor... .Noel Wright Sales & Marketing Director Linda Stewart Comptroller -Ooug Faat Publisher . Newsreom North Shore News, founded in 1969 25 an Bt mts os waren anourys encoun independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph i! of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and Gistributed to every door an the North Shore. Second Class Mad Registration Number 3835, Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rétes available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accep! responsibilty fcr unsolicited matenat including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompani2d by a Stamped, addressed envelope. V7M 2H4 Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising 965-6982 Classified Advertising BUNDAY + WEDNESDAY + FRIDAY z 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. 980-0511 Distribution 986-1337 & Subscriptions 986-1337 fH Printe3 or 986-6222 Fax 985-3227 10% recycled 985-2137 Administration 985-2131 newsprint North Shore managed vEMtER oo ta x oe x SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved. conomy-fixing calls for guts and a mirror! WHAT WE most have to fear is already happening. The same great minds whe tried to cajole or bully us into ; voting ‘‘Yes’’ without bothering about the fine print are now concentrating on fixing the economy. B.C.’s own Mike and Moe were fastest off the mark with Bill 84, their new labor relations law in- troduced just 14 hours after R- Day. It does nothing for the jobless and, by enshrining union wage demands, it can only worsen our other deadly problem, the deficit. Meanwhile, it threatens more and more small businesses — which create 90% of all new jobs — with eventual bankruptcy. All it DOES, of course, is soothe B.C. Federation of Labor boss Ken Georgetti, who com- mands an awful lot of NDP votes. In Ontario, traditionally the powerhouse of Canadian prosperi- ty, it’s the same story, but even worse. The Ontario NDP’s similar new labor law is scaring investors away from the manufacturing in- dustry — already hard hit by companies moving operations south of the border under free trade to benefit from lower wages and taxes, Meanwhile, the country sinks ever deeper in the giue. Ottawa’s 1992-93 deficit is headed for over $30 billion again, instead of the $27.5 billion promised in Febru- ary. But the provinces are nearly as bad. Their combined deficit — projected at more than $21 billion -— is almost three times higher than two years ago. Economists calculate that every 1% boost to the economy requires $7 billion additional spending — and that a 3% improvement is the minimum needed to put unemployment on a firm downward path. . So our all-wise leaders, now bravely pretending to restore us to economic health, are whistling in the graveyard. They've spent for years like drunken sailors, bor- rowing abroad when unable to tax us any higher. And today, as edgy foreign creditors downgrade Canada’s credit rating, they’re helpless — with nowhere left ta turn for cash. But the real culprit, of course, is as close to our own mirror — since governments squander money primarily to win, or hold, votes. - Thus, every squeaking wheel with any clout at the ballot box must be kept oiled — with univer- sal social services, regardless of need, plus endless handouts to po- litical panhandlers ranging from native lobbies, affirmative-action Noel : Wright ays: EN HITHER AND YON crusaders and striking civil ser- vants to failed businesses, multicult boosters and Third World basket cases. ot Fine to be a caring nation, if we can pay the bills. But clearly we can’t. And good times wiii never return until we get leaders with: the guts to risk their own hides by: ACTING on that bluni truth. Sorry — no applications izom the current political establishment. can be accepted. ey SIGN-OFF: Exhibit of new. oils B.C., England and California scenes — by noted West Van ar-_ tist George Bates opens Thursday, Nov. 5, over town at the Haryiso Gallery, 2932 Granville. ... Dea and basement entrepreneurs can register with Roper Crayford. (665-2755, 921-6103) for West Van Chamber of Commerce's two-evening Home-Based: , Business Workshop Mond: d= Tuesday, Nov. 9-10. ... In similar: vein, Micheel Salnes conducts a., free 1:30 p.m. seminar Friday, Nov. 6, at West Yar Seniose Ca tre on ‘Retirement Inccme Op-".”’ tions.’’ ... And happy birthday. greetings today, Nov. 4, to West: Van Legionnaire Joha Meare with more of the same to Mt Seymour Lion Ron Dirk... - WRIGHT OR WRONG: The big- ger a man’s head gets, the easier. . to fill his shoes. ‘ ae NEWS photo Terry Peters BALLOT - OR bankruptcy box? Vote-catching is the primary reason why governments squander money that isn’t there.