Bie OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVEN ad Pee Tey Eee ree re Ce - 6- Wednesday, December 4, 1985 ~ North Shore News Editorial Page Down-zone tab F or many West Vancouverites the best news at the 1986 council’s inaugural meeting Monday was Mayor Hum- phreys’ promise of a renewed bid to ban all further highrise development. Humphreys himself has consistently cam- paigned for such a ban. But kis 1980 attempt to down-zone remaining highrise-zoned pro- perties was defeated by a majority on that : year’s council. In justice to everyone, the issue isn’t quite aS simple as many pretend. Under the very different economic and -. social conditions of the 1960s West Van coun- cils blithely zoned most of the waterfront and semi-waterfront property between 18th and 23rd for highrise, with resultant financial gains for private owners who sold to developers — though it may be only fair to note in passing that the former had originally paid premium prices, plus continuing higher- -than-average taxes, for the prime location of ‘their homes. . In the strict legal sense, however, today’s re- .maining private owners who’ve noi yet -devcloped have no automatic entitlement to ‘compensation for being down-zoned. At best, ‘they could try civil lawsuits against council for lost property values after 20-30 years. But far preferable to expensive and acrimonious court actioas for all concerned _ would be what the mayor, in his inaugurai ad- dress, described as a ‘‘fair and equitable” -compromise between the interests of such “owners and those of other residents (especially ‘on the upland slopes) who stand to benefit rom a4 final highrise ban. “How much such a compromise might cost, and for whom, wiil tax council’s wisdom in “the weeks ahead. The main need is for : highrise-haters and affected owners alike to --Femember that there’s a tab to be picked up : ‘for every benefit. . i Energy-builder! ; ny spectator ‘who's fought to stay awake during a “‘quiet’’ session of the B.C. Legislature will sympathize with ‘North Van MLA Angus Ree — reportedly -caught dozing during a boring routine speech. Angus is also in excellent political company. ‘-President Reagan. is said to slumber occa- -}. - sionally at cabinet meetings. And Sir Winston - Churehill’s famous 20-minute’ catnaps -- throughout the day gave him the energy to . become this century’s greatest national leader. Display Advertising ‘north shore” Classitied Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 ) . : Circulation 986-1337 SUINDAY « WEDNESDAY + FRIDAY Subscriptions 986-1337 "4139 Lonsdale ‘Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 publisher: Peter Speck operations mgr. advertising diractor Berni Hilliard Linda Stewart editor-in-chief managing editor Noet Wright Nancy Weatherley North Shore News, founded it! 1969 as an independent suburban Newspaper and qualified unde: Schedule Hl, Part lil, Paragraph Mil ot tho Excise Tax Act, is pubisned each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and uistibuted 10 every door on the North Shore Second Class Mai! Registralion Number 3885. Entire contents =: 1985 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All nghts reserved Member of the B.C. Press Council 56,245 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) SsbA Soo THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE 980-0511 Ff N as THESE RECESSES ARE GETTING LONGER ENERY YEAR Right on, CanPost bashers! ARE WE UNFAIR TO CANADA POST? In the. unlikely event that you’ve been losing sleep over that question, you can now enjoy a sound night’s resi. The answer is in the report, just released, by the government-appointed Mar- chment Committee. It’s a loud ‘'NO”’... Charged with finding out ; what’s wrong with‘our sick joke of a postal system, the’ Committee has confirmed the public’s . worst fears. about the Crown corpera- tion — and calls on the gov- ernment to issue a final ultimatum. If CanPost doesn’t smarten up by satisfying its customers and breaking even within five years, Ottawa should quit the mail business for good and hand the job . over to the private sector. The report indicates that “the main task of the Post Office, prompt and depen- dable movement. of mail from A-to B, continually suffers from CanPost’s ef- forts to extricate: itself . from its financial glue — partly by stealing non-postal business from private firms. Last year, on revenues of $2.4 billion, the glue con- sisted of a loss of $347 mil- lion — in effect, a subsidy paid out of the taxpayer’s pocket. Among. other. .things, it was used by CanPost to fur- ther invade. the telecom-, _ munications industry - and also to compete at artificially low rates with newspapers in the distribution of advertis- ing flyers, vital for the sur- vival of many smaller papers. The’ Committee, chaired by Toronto’s Alan March- ment, president of Traders Group and Guaranty Trust, raps the pursuit of these ex- tra-curricular ventures while LETTER OF THE DAY Dear Editor: Congratulations to the District of North Van- couver! It is not often that you can find an engineer who can look both ways at once — the district has one! Under the North Lonsale Improvement Program, the district is endeavoring to make access to the proposed 450 houses more available by means of new boulevards and wider roads. At the same time our ‘'engineer’’ can afford to persuade - council that a narrower road (on what will be one of the main access roads) is desirable and, in spite of vigorous objection by ratepayers, he and council have in fact narrowed this road by preferential treat- ment to an individual. Judging from various ar- ticles in the North Shore Noel Wright mail service proper languishes. It shoots down in flames CanPost’s claim’ that 90 per cent of first-class is” delivered ‘‘on time’’ after finding that what’s being timed is mail delivery from one post office to another, not from mailbox to ad- dressee!- © focus ® “There is no. defensible case for Canada Post, beset= as it is by.a poor track re- cord in fulfilling its principal ‘function of providing timely and efficient delivery of the mail, to enter the field of telecommunications, a field which is already being effi- ciently serviced by others," says the report — which also condemns Post Office com- petition with the private sec- tor in ANY subsidized areas. News, this idiocy and lack of intelligence on the part of municipal staff is not un- commion. Indeed, there does not appear to be any area of the district which is not af- flicted by a similar disregard of the electorate. We understand that some council members are fully aware of the deficiencies ex- isting in the Hall and that there is in existence a full and comprehensive report In short, CanPost is told : to get back to its primary task and do it better. Today, - that can only happen with greater employee productivi- ty (now five per cent lower than in- 1973).:With postal rates doubled in the past six . years and up by 600 per cent since 1967, there’s no early ’ prospect of any extra money from the customer to speed . things up. Meanwhile, just in case ° you wonder. how the Post . ’ Office employees themselves are faring, their houriy' rate ° last year was over 11 per cent higher than the’ equivalent average in the private sector and .i6 per - cent higher than-in the rest . of the public service. What all this points to, if . ‘cabinet accepts the Commit- tee's proposals, is a renewed head-on clash . eventually with. . the highly_ militant postal unions over: produc- tivity. That’s the bad news. It won't do. much in thé short term towards getting your letter from Ambleside to Lonsdale in fess than a week. The good news is that we now have an ally with real clout. In Mr. Marchment’s ‘book Canada Post bashers have no cause whatsoever to repent. We're right on! (Water doesn’t run uphill! regarding this matter in Mayor Baker’s hands. However, we are of the opi- nion that, regardless of any actions of the mayor, she is handicapped by an inept manager, and engineer who is convinced that water runs uphill, and several complacent . and self-centred aldermen. Eugene Kiss North Vancouver .