iy. Y ‘Untnsiy, Yy ay 1 | Ys | WAS ). YOu GUESSED IT. PLAB.1 69 D. 175 AGONSPRAWY | TELL Yi... G .. NEWS VIEWPOINT Health cares RECENT visit to Lions Gate Hos- pital by two of the commissioners ho participated in the B.C. Royal Commission on Health Care and Costs provided a glimpse of the major changes in store for our health care system if key recommendations made in the document are implemented. And if the poorly handled deinstitu- tionalization under way in the mental health care field is a harbinger of things to come, the transition to bring health care “closer to home’’ could further erode our medicare concepts — comprehensiveness, universality, portability, accessibility — as defined in the Canada Health Act. Already in real terms universality and accessibility are little more than motherhood statements. A shift to the regional management of health care services may do fittle more than create new layers of bureaucracy. Recommended strategies to move what are now hospital services to expanded out- patient and free-standing clinics and multi-level care nursing homes must be backed by funding. On the North Shore, Lions Gate Hospi- tal and North Shere Health are already working together to mesh health services more efficiently. The thrust of any health care system overhaul should be to keep hospital beds open for those who truly are in acute need. The money saved by streamlining hospitals should then be invested in increasing community and home support services and paying those who make it all happen a de- cent wage. LETTER OF THE DAY Spraying an overreaction. to problem community health services, Dear Editor: I recently attended a meeting regarding the proposed aerial spraying of a bacteria over Greater Vancouver this spring. The panel from Agriculture Canada (AC) presented their case against the Asian gypsy moth, a few of which they discovered last summer. As in 1978 when the European * commenced; Vancouver, AC fears the worst ease scenario of an environment devastated by the explosion of these moths if left unchecked. However, concerned citizens in 1978, worried about health Gangers from massive spraying, halted the program before it no devastation of forests occurred. Agriculture Canada had over- a few moths. In 1992 this $5 million spray program should be stopped because of both potential health tisks and financial waste in this time of recession. The five million tax dollars should be applied to the national debt — a far bigger threat to Canada than a few moths. Grant Smith gypsy moth was discovered in Publisher .... Peter Speck Managing Editor .. . Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor........Noel Wright Advertising Director .. Linda Stewart Comptroiler Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 7111, Paragraph III of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates available on request}. ibmissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should te accompanied by a stamped. addressed envelope. Newsroom V7M 2H4 reacted .to the perceived threat of Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 ‘Ti VONCE OF MORTTE AND WEST VANCOUVER north-.shore. North Vancouver 980-0511 Distribution 986-1337 ka Norn Shore Subscriptions 986-1337 Fax 985-3227 Administration 985-2131 MEMBER 985-2131 SUNDAY + WEDNESDAY + FMOAY e 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Time for toug talk to Yankee | trade bullies THE ELEPHANT rolled over last week on top of the mouse in the bed they share. A savage new 14.48% U.S. duty on our softwood lumber exports, right on top of a new 2.5% duty on Canadian-built Hondas. Don’t just stand there, Michael Wilson — DO something. Thou- sands more Canadian jobs are now threatened. Over and above the 400,000 already lost since the Free Trade Agreement was signed. But so far the trade minister and his boss — while loudly wail- ing — have undertaken only to contest these new Yankee extor- tionists before the FTA dispute- settlement bodies. And granted, there are plenty of statistics per- suading Mike and Brian to play a Chicken Little role. As every grade school kid knows, Canada depends on the U.S. for 75% of its trade. When you're a merchant earning three out of every four dollars from a single customer, you shouldn’t be surprised if you have to put up with an awful fot from him — ar- rogance, complaints and ruthless dealing. Especially if he’s big and you are small. Compared with our 75%, U.S. exports to Canada amount to only 22% of its own much greater world total. No question about who needs whom the more. As well, almost three-fifths of everything Canada sells the U.S. comes from two particularly vul- nerable sectors. Cars, trucks and vehicle parts (subject to the Canada-U.S. Auto Pact, on which the Yanks regular- ly cast a fretful eye) make up a whopping 33% of our cross- border sales. Another 24% is produced by the wood, paper and mining resource industries — perennial hostages to world com- modity prices. No other categories of Canadian exports to the U.S. come anywhere close, the nearest being chemicals (4.8%) and crude petroleum (4.5%). This is what scares our Nervous Nellies in Ottawa. We can't win a trade war, moans Michael. But his thinking is wrong — that’s not the issue. The issue is giving in to bullying, which only leads to more. Three years into the FTA, average Canadians have seen no tangible benefits of any kind — only job losses, many of them permanent. Even the pact’s chief negotiators accuse the Americans of playing dirty. These latest ex- amples demand a much tougher response from Canada. Tell George Bush Canada will walk out of the Canada-U.S.- Mexico free trade talks unless the MICHAEL WILSON... the Chicken Little role. Noe Wright | £3 _». HITHER AND YON bullying ceases forthwith. And stop thinking the U.S. buys 75% of our exports out of charity. Americans don’t do business that way. They buy because they NEED our goods. Meanwhile, Bush vitally needs a new three-country deal to boost . his presidential bid. So now's the time to try one tested way to get the mule-like elephant's attention at last. With a two-by-four. DATELINES: Local green thumbs can smell success a mile off as they head this weekend to Edge- mont Village Esso, where the 15th Capilano Highlanders Scouts are . holding their famed annual ma- nure sale, now in its 22nd year, on _ Saturday from 9 a.m. to § p.m. and Sunday from I1( a.m. to3 - - p.m. — with potting soil also available. Their product gets rave reviews from happy North Shore gardeners . . . Also Saturday St. Martin’s Church, 195 East Wind- . sor, beckons bargain-hunters with its annual rummage sale from 10: | a.m.tonoon... Audrey a Franklin shares feelings through .- poetry with the Widew’s Network at 7:30 pan. Monday, March 16, at North Lonsdale United Church. . . . And happy birthday greetings - today, March 13, to North Van’s Helen Preston. WRIGHT OR WRONG: Pile up © enough tomorrows and all you're. left with is a lot of empty yester-" days. : GEORGE BUSH... a three- country deal vital.