A6-Wednesday, October 8, 1980 - North Shore News editorial page e e @ No-win situation We don't envy West Vancouver council in the decision it must shortly face on the proposed townhouse development for Fisherman’s Cove -- which brought an overflow crowd and more than 55 sub- missions to the recent public hearing. Every conceivable viewpoint was ex- pressed. The boaters, understandably, are dead against the project. ‘They stand to lose around 75 moorages that are virtually im- possible to replace on the North Shore. They also stand to lose a unique big-boat lift and repair facility patronized even by members of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club from across the bay. The only equivalent facility is at Mosquito Creek, some two hours sailing time away and (unlike Fisherman’s Wharf) apparently not equipped to handle emergencies on a 24-hour basis. Meanwhile, the general public stands to lose yet another strip of waterfront access. Against this, council must balance the claim of certain neighboring residents that the planned 24 luxury townhouses would look tidier than a busy boatyard. More importantly, of course, the development would increase the municipality's tax base. Both the Advisory Planning Commission and the Advisory Design Panel have recommended against the project. The marina, it’s pointed out, has nowhere to relocate, whereas townhouses don’t necessarily have to be on the shoreline. In human terms the boaters seem to represent the greater good of the greater number. Nevertheless, even if rezoning were denied, the developers could still buy the property, shut down the boatyard anyhow and await a more sympathetic council. For the present council it could be a no-win situation. Bring your tent Government by advertisement is becoming increasingly popular these days. So if Capilano MLA Angus Ree is right in ascribing the Lower Mainland’s desperate housing shortage to the 50,000 new residents flooding into B.C. each year, there’s one obvious step Victoria should take. Run big ads in eastern papers warning immigrants not to arrive here without a tent. sunday = news north shore. news 1139 Lonsdale Ave North Vancouver BC V7M 2H4 (604) 985-2131 NEWS ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED CIRCULATION 985-2131 960-0511 986-6222 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Editor-in-Chief Aobert Graham Nool Wright Advertising Director bre Cardwell Classified Manager & Office Administrator Bern: Hithard Creative Olrector Tim Fran is Production Rick Stonehouse Faye Mc Cae Managing Editor Andy Fraser Nowe Editor Chas Woy" Photography b Weswweoe tty (tc be tse ves Accounting Supervisor Barbara Koor North Shore News founded in TWO an an widopori dort eovgres Ty newnpaper and Qualttied Godan Sc hadube MH bat Wt bare: agoh iat the bactee Tas Act is putthabed each Wednesday and Snmiday ty North Shore free Presa Cl and chatted te esery boc of Me Noe tt. Store Second tingn Matt He gianteatiee Naertoes yearae bubos rigtions Bach per year btice oc tee te Sarde Nee tt ate tree Prees Ltd Allagthts see ved Nee cemponoibitty accapted ton ee rrvaariesese C tpt ated gone borers whet aba alamsped addrensaod rela ovate VE RIF IE O CIRCULATION 60,870 Wodsonctay AB BPI taeda, Pm Sk. 4 . Gon Pipes. “ ’ “a nepet THIS PAPER IS RECYCLAGLE OTTAWA (SF) - There’s a new and very expensive vogue in the capital these days — don't offer policies, offer a public relations campaign. It was really the con- stitutional issue which started things. The federal government saw that agreement to the con- stitution desired by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau wasn't going to breeze through without con- siderable opposition from those terrible, parochial CANADIAN COMMENT BY PETER WARD Governing by public relations When in doubt, don't change policies, hire a good PR man. What really hurts is that the massive PR campaigns being mounted are paid for with tax dollars. Now either the government is paying too much attention to ap- pearances, not enough to substance, or the brain- power of the cabinet has come up with a totally new way of successfully running a country. If indeed this is a break- provincial governments. The answer was to mount a $6 million TV and newspaper advertising campaign to sell the federal point of « iew. For some silly reason Canadians were reading the energy issue, and the need for some rational policies, as being more important than the manufactured crisis of a constitution. Answer? Again, mount a_ public relations campaign. This one, originally suggested at $11 million, was cut down to $4 million by the time ads began hitting newspapers. One of the problems about getting well and truly into the financial glue is that it tends to cloud your mind. Suddenly desperate to start reducing your burden of debt a‘ any cost, you may begin (as the psychiatrists say) to lose touch with reality. That seems to be the case with Ottawa's recent drastic cutback in its shipbuilding subsidy, which is going to hit hard right here on the North Shore. First, the facts. The federal government ts currently running a budget deficit of over $14 billion and appears, al long last, to be realizing that something has got to be done about it before Canada goes bankrupt. So it decided to save the equivalent of maybe one per cent of its deficit by cutting the shipbuilding subsidy from 20 per cent to nine per cent As far as west coast shipbuilding asconcerned the effect of tms chop will fall almost catircly on the North Shore. Aside from Y arrows in Victoria, all major B.C Shipyards — Burrard Yarrows, Vancouver Shipyards, Bei Aire, Alhed, Matsumoto and McKenzie Barge are located on the North Vancouver front water WRONG INFORMATION Hetween them. in) good times, they employ several thousand workers. most of these = shalled well patd artisans Phe contnbution of them and thew famihes to the overall cconomy of the North Shore ts undoubtedly greater that of other single local industry The subsidy cutback as than any so often happens in distant Otlawa scems to have been based upon tng om ple be information about the stluation in the west The have federal mandasina apparcauly the mscivean convinced that the Canadian shipbuilding in- dustry as a whole presently has a full order book and therefore does not require continued assistance at this time. Whatever the situation elsewhere, such ts simply not the case on the west coast. In a strongly worded letter to federal Industry Minister Herb Gray the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce has painted a very different local picture. The west coast = ship- building industry docs not have an order backlog. says the Chamber, and local shipyards are already beginning to lay off workers as current contracts are completed. One in three shipyard employces here are at risk The sobsidy cutback has already cost local shipyards $100 milhon in export orders because thetr bids suddenly became non competitive The estimated loss of employment 300 oF more new jobs two FUTURE PROMISE Overall according to the North Van Chamber the west Coast industry (read 80 per ceoat North Vancouver) stands to lose up to oa thousand yobs duc to this tightening of the federal purse strings And the Chamber makes two other IM portanl pomts Hive of more years down the road he a aumber of promising developments that could greatly capand the through discovery. then we've merely seen the tp of the iceberg — an iceberg, which will mean 4 bonanza to the newspapers, radio stations, TV station, admen and PR experts of the nation. Look at a few examples, and you'll begin to ap preciate the potential. Hostile critics have charged that the govenrment hasn't got an economic policy: hasn't even presented a budget. Under the new Noel Wright domestic shipbuilding market) Among them, Arctic energy, naval fleet replacements and the revival of a Canadian = merchant marine Meanwhile, the industry needs to retain its capabilities, expand its faciliics and train new workers to take advantage of these opportunities as they arse Secondly, there's the promising growth of the ship repair market, as distinct from building new vessels For the moment this sts helped by the cheaper Canadian dollar — but that advantage may also be cancelled out by the subsidy cutback With government: rescue operations at the taxpayers capense for such corporate mendicants as Chrysicr and Masscy Ferguson very much in the public cye at) the Moment, the qucstion naturally anses as to why Ottawa should bail out continuc to a shipbuilding in dustry that apparently can't make iton tts own system, there's no need to go through the trauma of producing rational economic policies. Suggestions for new tax laws and economic policies can be collected from Liberal lawyers across the country, then merely placed in a hat for random selection by the cabinet. The results of the draw can then be sold to Canadians with PR campaigns, which will probably cost less than the civil service man-hours normally consumed to produce a budget. Take the Defence Department. Here we are spending billions to buy new fighter aircraft, postponing the purchase of new war- ships because we can't afford them. What a waste of the taxpayers’ money. Don't buy the weapons. Spend the money instead on a PR campaign at home and abroad to convince Canadian, allies, and the Soviet Union that Canada is strong and tough, ready for an - You see? The hand really is faster than the eye. Shipyards and national pride | The North Van Chamber | suggests part of the answer, though it misses, perhaps, the most important point of all. INDEPENDENCE While confirming that it is “philosophically opposed” to government handouts for non-competitive industries, the Chamber stresses, in the case of shipbuilding. that “the relauvely modest an- nual ‘investment’ which the government makes is repaid in the form of job creation and export sales ... we feel that a reduction in the shipbuilding industry at this time is a false economy ” They can say that again — at any time. Shipbuilding is very different from most other industrics. It is @ manifestation of national virility, If a country cannot afford to build its own ships — if it is reduced to depending on others to provide the vessels that carry its trade to the outside world, or cven the vessels that protect its territorial waters — it ts hardly worthy to be called independent. The logical absurdity of such thinking would be to recruit the Canadian Forces exclusively from Mexicans or Brazilians on the grounds that they would defend Canada at a lower cost than its own citizens Meanwhile, most other mantiame nations today are maintaining of ac tually increasing government assistance to preserve jobs and technical skills in their shipbuilding industrics They do U instinctively Over to you, Mr Gray. It's national pride. a Al North Shore = jobs re talking about