\ ‘uldn't we we. Bie oa water to | “NEWS VIEWPOINT Cash cow milked HE . MILK gore sour. ‘Ostensibly the: funds from District 45's International Student Program are meaat ‘to maintain high educational. service stand- ards by augmenting provincial government funding. Foreign students from Mexico, Germany, Scotland, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Hong ~ Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and China pay _ $12,000 each for the right to attend school dn West Vancouver. This year the district will take in $1.3 million through the program. The controversial Sentinel Development squeezed from ‘foreign student cash: cow in West Vancouver School District the Fund was established to raise private-sector cash to maintain high educational service standards at Sentinel secondary school, The fund used $88,668 worth of interna- tional student fees. The fund incurred ex- 45 has the fund office. Without the foreign stu- dent money the fund weuld be $47, 000 in - the hole. Following the demise of the funding ini- tiative, it has been lcarned that foreign stu- dent fee money was spent en items such as commemorative alumnl reunion frisbees, foyer plants and hockey tickets. The miik bucket must be overflowing in West Vancouver for this kind of sloppy spiliage. | “LETTER OF THE DAY | Emperor ‘cornered by environmentalists’ Dear Editor: It has been. said that the empcror Caligula made his horse governor of one of the states of the Koman Empire. Not to be outdone, Mike Har- court buys $50 million worth of MacMillan Bloedel shares and Peter Speick Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Publisher . Managing Editor Associate Editor Sales & Marketing Director Linda Stewart ' Comptroller Doug Foot _ North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an Indepandent suburban newspaper and qualified “under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ill of the Excise ‘Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press tid. and idistntuted to every door on the North Shore Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 0087233. Mailing rates - Available on request. Submissions are weicome but «we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited ; Material including manuscripts and pictures which : should be accompanied dy a Stemped, seif- ‘addressed envelope. then claims he is being cornered by the environmentalists. But you have to hand it to the guy — licences he has to hand out, and all the people he’s sending to jail, he still finds the time to turn up for an environmental achievement award, Pechaps he has something in common with another Roman emperor — one who played the fiddle while Rome burned. with all the tree farm {tone Winters Port Moody 5 iA ue s B Thus newsoaper contains tecycted tore Norih Shore managed Display Advertising 980-0511 Distribution 986-1337 Go Real Estate Advertsing 985-6982 Subscriptions 986-1337 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax 985-3227 } Newsroom 985-2131 Adminisiration 985-2131 MEMBER ey SN DAY + eOnDAY e 1139 t Lonsdale Avenue, SDA DIWISION North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 24 wantusite sone, babi 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Fuday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. . how to plug the hole. _penses that included $79,617 in salaries for THE WORST news about the blood-curdling $44-$46 billion deficit forecast this week by Finance Minister Paui Martin was not its size. No, the worst news was that he plans to seek ‘‘a consensus’’ on how to tackle the crisis. In short, to do NOTHING until he has listened to the individual advice of everyone and his dog — that ad- vice being in each case: ‘Cut government spending except what it spends on ME!”’ With the almost half-trillion dollar debt now growing at . $85,600 per minute, or $123.3 million daily, this is like the cap- tain of the Titanic — its bow al- ready submerged — calling all passengers and crew to the ship’s theatre to seek a consensus on Martin wants the cash-strapped provinces to cooperate in making “hard choices.’’ He’s bringing in a team of out- side specialists to review govern- ment accounting methods and report to the public. He will publicly debate fiscal and monetary policies with leading - Canadian economists, He’s asking four independent public policy institutes to “engage Canadians” in discussions leading to a deficit reduction plan. Where have we heard all this kind of stuff before? Sorry, Paul, but you're already out of time for such leisurely tux- uries ~- especially as we know al- ready (see the second para above) what the ‘‘consensus"’ of Canada’s zillion special-interest groups is. Every month that passes while you fruitlessly wait for everybody to agree sinks us another $4 billion deeper into the glue. The crisis — which direly threatens every Canadian’s stand- ard of living —- has become so acute that IMMEDIATE cost- cutting action is now vital. Nor is there any shortage of cbvious places to start. Among them, ‘subsidies to basket-case businesses in which the public refuses to invest. The. topping up of unemployment in- surance, which should once more be made fully self-supporting from premiums. Drastic cutbacks in official multiculturalism and: foreign aid. An end to all funding for special-interest groups (let them be supported by those they repre- sent). No social service cheques of any kind for houschoids whose income excecds $53,000. A 10% reduction — including civil service downsiz- ing — in the $20.6 billion cost of government operations. These cuts alone wouldn't kill the deficit, but they’d be a sound start. Even more important would be the impetus they created to ex- plore the multitude of other money-saving possibilities. Scandals like the foreign aid handouts of $163,260 to study the garlic industry in the Philippines and the $321,000 for a thesis on Peruvian guinea pigs. Or the $500 million spent on language training for civil service positions that don't require bilingualism. Or the $18 million given to unions from 1989 to 1992 for ‘labor educa- tion.” . True, these examples are indi- vidually minuscule compared with a $46 billion deficit. But the HITHER AND YON ; . documented total to date of simi- lar folly, extravagance and waste _-in virtually every government , department adds up already to almost $7 billion, and there’s reason to suspect much more has still to be uncovered. . This doesn’t need a consensus. All it needs is the political will to say ‘‘No more!”’ to the tens of . ° thousands — from bib business to welfare frauds — feeding at the public trough in return for votes. 44 Martin wants the cash-strapped’ . provinces to cooperate in making ‘hard choices’. 99 — If Mr, Martin can't exercise that political will before Canada finally hits the debt wall, the Interna- tional Monetary Fund will all too soon MAKE him exercise it — with severe pain for all of us! SCRATCHPAD: Now moving into high gear, the festive season brings us North Van Youth Band’s Christmas Concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, in Mt. Seymour United Church (980-1934 for info). ... On Sunday, Dec. 5, St. Paul’s Church, 424 Esplanade, North Van, holds its Christmas Bazaar from noon to 3 p.m. with gifts, toys, books, crafts, home- bake, raffles and refreshments. ... And from there nip over to the - Cap College Sportsplex for the 3 p.m. start of ‘Carols For Kids,” 12 choirs presented by the North Shore Chorus to raise funds for the Canuck Place Hospice and North Shore Harvest Food Bank — call 929-2146 or 280-4444 for tickets. e o WRIGHT OR WRONG — Johnny Carson when asked what he’d like his epitaph to read: “I'l be right back!”