A2- Sunday, July 11, 1982 - North Shore News RECENTLY, ‘T took a boat trip from Saint John, New Brunswick, to Boston. Along the way, the captain hoved to over a seamount. We waited. Within less than half an hour, three Humpback whales emerged from the grey, tossing sea. No matter how often I - come into contact with whales in the wild, a shiver of awe runs through me. One moment you are balanced on the deck, surrounded by the empty stage of the ocean. And then ... Giants appear from below with-a tremendous hiss of air, sending a geyser of water into the wind. It is a visual trumpet call, as stirring a Wants locally made tax option FROM PAGE A1 same alarming rates as in previous years. And they qualify that by pointing out that not only have the market values of their homes been steadily declining in the past year but that taxation leaps in previous years have already taken them to the brink of their ability to pay. The load change of this year occurred by the District changing its tax option from Option D, under which residential property owners were taxed on full market value while claiming in- dustries and other business were enjoying an easy ride. The switch to option C, intended as a short term interim arrangement, sififted the burden more towards industry. At the time change was made last November, some aldermen complained it still did not bit industry hard cnough. Since then though, economic factors have changed so drastically that iat has become cicar that this was the worst year anyone could have chosen to hit businesses for such increases. Now the stage has been reached where all levels of the community are being so the option heavily Grained by the taxman that Bell acknowledges that the question is far more com plicated than merely re- shuffling the tax burden. ‘sight as you. can, find on this planet, I’m suré. ” The lonely sea is no longer lonely. ° These particular Hump- backs stayed with us for over an hour, disappearing on one side of the boat, re- appearing on the other. They waved their tails in the air. They rolled over, their huge, white wing-like fins splashing the water like a crashing plane. A beautiful, pulsating electrical feeling went through me. Indeed, J was In the longer term, council may have to decide just what services can be provided for what the community can afford - a level which already appears to have been reached. “The first thing is trying to keep levels of expenditure at what the community wants,” says Bell. “If we keep the budget increase at a reasonable level (19 per cent this year) then comes the decision of how to apportion it.” That decision, which will be his recommendation to council by mid-October - will receive input from an advisory committee. The committee which will make up the task force, will be appointed by Bell, since District aldermen were unable even to agree names of people suggested to serve on it. He says he will be choosing representatives of business and industry, single family residential, strata title and a tenant. Bell hopes their input will provide him with a basis to determine “a tax shanng/ assessment for different classes of property. should the provincial government give us the opportunity for a variable mill rate.” He favors the idca of a jocally made taxation op- tion “The suggestion 1s that each community should be able to determine the ratio the different categones (of taxpayers) pay * by Bob Hunter | rhales high. Whales do’ that to you. And [Im not kidding. Every time [ve come within close physical proximity to a whale, there .-has been a measurable psychological reaction.’ I get blissed. It’ s as though I'd entered a kind of “field” around the whale. Still somewhat aglow from this experience, I returned to the West Coast a short time later to find the air thick with controversy over the fate of Haida, the lone surviving Orca whale in captivity in Victoria’s Sealand aquarium. Angus Matthews, the manager of Sealand, has offered to release Haida. Bell will be having to come up with a backup suggestion chosen from among the existing tax options in case variable mill rates do not get authorized in Victoria. He is setting himself the task of selecting criteria which can be applied to all eventualities - whether District is allowed to im- plement a variable mill rate or has to stick with the existing choices of options - in the hope of creating an equitable split of the tax burden. The very least the task force will be doing, ac- cording to Bell, is recom- mending going back to Option D, staying with C on a short term basis, or changing to Option A - which taxes industry hardest of all. “We don't have a good $12,000 for foot bridges IMPROVEMENTS to Capilano Regional Park this summer will see the rebuilding of three foot- bridges on the main trail along the west bank of the Capilano River The Greater Vancouver Regional District’ has ap proved the sum of $12,000 for the projcct. Sebae rasric centres JULY CLE WITH UP TO 0% OFF (LECTED ITEMS As Matthews explained it to me, a loophole exists in the 1975 moratorium on the capture of live Orcas which permits Sealand to replace any that die while in cap- tivity With Miracle, Sealand's other Qrca, having died, under bizarre and still- unexplained circumstances, Matthews is entitled to capture another Orca as a replacement. But he proposes to break the vicious cycle of whales dying in their. pools, being replaced by other whales which will die, and so on, ad nauseum. He promises to open the gates, giving Haida the choice of staying or leaving. And he promises that the new captive whales that will replace’ Haida will be released in turn six years from now. Why six years? Why not, say, three? Matthews was frank with me. Allowing for a gap in his cash flow during the periods basis for selecting any one of the three at this time,” he says. Bell also wants to be able to provide council with a report which compares taxation within other municipalities. _ that the new whales are being trained to do stunts, he says he can only afford to dc it. once every six years. Okay. This is a tricky one. How tan J, a devoted whale- lover, oppose the release of Haida? The idea is very appealing on the surface. Ecologist Patrick Moore, however, is adamantly opposed to the Matthews proposal. He says it’s a manoeuver that allows Sealand to jettison a whale that has been in captivity for 14 years and is nearing death. Moore argues that the loophole which permits another capture shouldn't exist in the first place. “The whales are an in- i! ternational heritage which sliouldn’t be unilateral decisions Romeo LeBlanc,” says, referring to Sealand’s application to our redoubtable federal fisheries minister for permission to go ahead. He ‘also argues that the attempt to release Haida subject to § by Moore ~ should occur before any. more whales are captured, not afterwards, since the outcome of the experiment is so dubious.” Finally, he reminds us that confinement for whales, .even for a “mere” six years, is an acoustical nightmare, to say the least. The memory of those three Humpback whales, playing around my. boat in the Atlantic, comes vividly to mind. And that's the answer.: Whales. shouldn’t be in captivity at ail. . 100 copies. - 101-1685 Fomberton -985-51 ~ ye Specialist in inter-tocking paver Sidewaiks, driveways Patios and pools etc. Elan Paving Stone Company Ltd. 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