6 - Friday, February 24, 1984 - Rail proves true, The rumor is the most plausible explanation so far-of the $471 million — allocated in Monday’s budget for the retirement of: the Crown-owned rail- way company’s historic debt. With- out that debt-burden, the company would have been operating pro- fitably in recent years. Therefore, it will now presumably become an eco- nomically viable proposition to offer to the private sector. In principle there’s everything to be said for paying off debts and, in ‘‘privatizing’’ government-owned industries — pro- vided the priorities and the timing are right. But in this instance both are many cases, for wrong. Tad VINCE OF OST AND WEST VANCOUVER sunday + Display Advertising 980-0511 new =| Classified Advertising 986-6222 north shore Newsroom 985-2131 mr ew S$ Circulation 986-1337 Subscriptions 980-7081 Associate Publisher Robert Graham Personnel Director Berni Huthard Production Director Chris Johnson reserved. available on request addressed envelope een Gu f the rumor that the Bennett gov-. ernment is preparing to sell B.C. it will be another triumph of Socred ‘‘ideo- logy”’ over common sense. 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Publisher Peter Speck Editor-in-Chief Noel Wright Classified Manager Circulation Director Val Stephenson .Photography Manager North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule Ili. Paragraph Iti of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed on Wednesdays and Sundays to every door on the North Shore and selectively on Fridays to businesses. real estate offices, vanous public focations. vendor newsstands Second Class Mail Regtstration Number 3885 Entire contents © 1984 North Shore Free Presa Ltd. All rights Subscriptions, North and Wes1 Vancouver $25 per year Mailing rates No responsibility accepted for manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped Member of the B.C. Press Council 54,700 (average. Wednesday & Sunday) THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE North Shore News nothing. shortage. track. Advertising Director Tim Francis Bill McGown Terry Peters boxes and unsolicited material inctuding §,400 (Friday) Outside the boardroom of B.C. Rail the budget takes much from British Columbians and gives them In the sacred name of restraint it slashes still more services to people. It hits them with unpre- cedented extra taxation. It doesn’t even mention the 13% who remain unemployed, let alone hold out any hope to them. . At the moment there are many investments urgently needed than retiring B.C. Rail’s debt — among them, job crea- tion stimulus; education; research and development for the high tech age; and a massive reforestation pro- gram to meet our looming tree in the future more Much could have been achieved in these crucial areas with $471 million. Blowing it all on B.C. Rail THIS year puts the real priorities right off GIVE GRADUATION REAL MEANING s in the educa- tion of our students, who will benefit from the pre- paration for and writing of final examinations — in other words, from meeting greater challenges.’’ Those are the words of a British Columbia teacher and I'm sure there are many others in our province who agree. The challenge of education is not to merely obtain ade- quacy but to achieve ex- cellence. A_ high = § school diploma should be what it should be - a certificate of measurable achievement. It should be more than merely a **release form’’ from school. lt should be something a stu- dent can be proud to obtain. When our education Minister announced last August that students enrolled in grade 12 academic subjects would be required to. write provincial examinations, he gave a number of reasons for the decision. Any student graduating from a secondary school in B.C. should be assured of achieving a stan- dard of education that is comparable to any other graduating from one of our secondary schools. A graduate applying for admis- sion to a college or university should be assured of being treated equitably in the ad- missions process and be assured that high = school marks will be taken at face value. . Your provincial govern- ment is introducing the testing to reassure the public that we are serious about quality in our schools. Our minister of education says that while a provincial ex- > amination program is not the panacea to the many pro- blems facing our schools, “we believe it is a necesssary ingredient in re-establishing a sense of focus and direction and a necessary element to improved public confidence in the public school system.”’ British Columbia is not alone in re-instituting com- pulsory provincial exams. | Alberta recently brought them back. A CTV National Mews reporter said on January 17, that a return to provincial exams in Alberta (and B.C.) may be the start of a trend and other Cana- dian provinces will be wat- education as possible, Exams enhance education ‘‘| BELIEVE that the provincial examination pro- gram should bring about some gai ching closely. The reporter concluded from interviews with Alberta students, that the majority of them favor provincial e exams. For the last 10 years” gant np that standards’ were e slipping, We have reached a point in our history’ where both the parents and the public want students to receive as much but they want meaningful stan- dards to, be achieved. They are denianding that a gradua- tion diploma must have greater meaning and value. We have heard much in re- cent days from teachers about the quality of educa. tion. L.agree with their con- cern and I believe that re- instituting this measure of performance can contribute to enhancing the quality. ES mailbox ><| Fishing industry ‘welfare bum’ Dear Bditor: Oulawa must make up its mind. Either invest $100 million in our West Coast fishery or waste it on welfare. One thing or the other; not both! Buying boats from needy fishermen will help them to pay off their debts to the banks and the fishing com- panies. But it won't resolve qur basic problem, that of declining stocks on the onc hand and a growing ability to catch fish on the other. Coyote kill was disaster I believe that most of Ot- tawa’s $100 million should be spent on the enhancement of the resource, producing more fish by building hatcheries and spawning channels, clearing streams, reducing pollution from industry and the like. The rest, a few mitlon dollars, should be spent on administration - on sctling up a quota or catch allotment system to keep our fish harvesting effort under control. Vessel quotas would relate Dear Editor: Where have you heard this before? In the carly fifties in Central) Alberta the focal grain farmers had a thing about coyotes Phey though: they were preying on the chickens so they demanded that the pest control branch of the Agneulture Depart to catches reported in recent years. No one could fish more than a given amount. Quotas, meanwhile, could be traded. Those who wished (to leave the fishery could sell out They would have moncy with which to start another carces Our better fishermen would go on fishing. Theu costs would be less because they would not, forever, be buying more equipment, big- ger boats, the latest gear. Please, Mr Minister of Fisheries in Ottawa, don’t spend our $100 million on surplus boats and cquipment. Don't rescue those who arc (or should be) Icaving the fishery anyway. The ‘‘dole”’ is for Health,and Welfare federally and Human Resources provincially. Your yob is to nurse our West Coast fishery back to health, not to reward those who wasted their money on boats to do so again! Hon. Jack Davis, M.L.A North Vancouver-Seymour ment put out 10-80, which ts an odorless potson Not only coyotes but dogs, birds and othe: small animals were done away with, dying slowly with internal bleeding About March of 19593) snow tell theavily and the swathes underneath were caten away by mailbons of mice of vole which had increased dramatically Tens of millions of dollars were lost Nothing more was heard of the farmers’ campaign against the coyotes which have a tole to play ino the ecology Nethe McC lung Vancouver Dear Editor: Last week while driving on a dark rainy night, | almost struck a large construction refuse bin on the street in the 2600 block Lonsdale. It was not protected in any way; no lights, no barricades, no reflectors, and as it happen- ed, there were no parked cars in the block. Fox to guard Dcar Edhior: Mr. John Reynolds, our M.1 A., has suggested that the Ombudsman’'s office be tetrenched to the Om budsman himsclf and two secretanies, which will have the effect of climinating that office altogether He further suggests that M Lo Ajs are in a better posimon to protect the interests of thets Conse tucats than the Ombudsman Light up road bins Might t suggest that our municipal authorities con- sider, before permitting these bins to be placed on streets, requiring them to at least have red reflectors, the same as is required of all parked vehicles. Allan B. Evers North Vancouver chickens? i venture to suggest that to rely on a member of the Socred caucus to protect the interests of a citizen against the abuses by the Govern meat and its burcaucracy ts cquivalent to advising the chicken to rely on the fox for protection against the mis fortune of being caten 1) Moore West Vancouver