a ce ee Pan se ag le Bp OSS : bee Neighbors. of ..the..Queens Cross pub deserve some sympathy in their opposition to the puh's‘closing ‘hours being extended from llp.m.tolam.) - .¢ . fhey maintain that the‘noise and parking problems generated by the pub already have them wishing it had never opened in the first place. - oe re . But the very problems of crowding and parking show clearly that the demand of today. -is for ‘somewhere to drink. and socialize, on the lines of British pubs (which, incidentally, close at 11 p.m.) rather than just to get drunk in bars which adequately fulfil that function, but few others. — Pub lovers, who have to drive several miles to their nearest “local”, might under- standably welcome longer opening heurs to make their trip more worthwhile. ' However it is unlikely that either side would he satisfied either by extending the hours — thus changing the very nature of the neighborhood pub — or by. closing it down, when there is clearly a call for these places. _ The problems of both appear to arise from the fact that‘ there aren’t enough neighbor- . hood pubs yet for all communities.to have a “local” of their own. | Until that day arrives, North Van District council had better come up with an answer that satisfies the pub’s neighbors -who are feeling less than neighborly. There are times when some of that heavy- handed, Uncle Sam clout from the south can be just what's needed. Take the energy crisis.and the U.S. energy department's consideration of legislation declaring. that all_new cars will have to average 85 miles per gallon U.S. (that’s 103 miles per Imperial gallon) by 1995. '__ Is anyone in the energy and auto industry likely to be sufficiently motivated to come to “terms with the problems without a legislative nudge? : sunday | ’ rew>e, north shore V7M 2H4 n ews (604) 985-2131 NEWS ADVERTISING CLASSIFIED CIRCULATION 985-2131 ‘880-0511 986-6222 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck 44 39 Lonsdale Ave... North Vancouver, B.C. Associate Publisher Editor-in-Chief Adyertising Director Robert Graham Noel Wright . Eric Cardwell Classified Manager Production & Office Administrator Tim Francis Bemi Hilliard Faye McCrae Managing Editor News Editor Andy Fraser Photography Chris Lloyd Ellsworth Dickson Accounting Supervisor bara Keen North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent commun: ty newspaper and qualified under Schedule It, Part ill, Paragraph tI of the ExcisesTax Act, is published each Wednesday and Sunday, by North Shore Free Press Utd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mai) Registration Number 3885 Subscriptions $20 per year Entire contents © 1980 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Ail rights reserved No , responsibility accepted for unsolicited matenal tnctuding manuscripts and pictures, which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed return envelope VERIFIED CIRCULATION: 50,870 Wednesday THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE wars Qa SN (h) By W. ROGER WORTH The ‘executives at Bell Canada have more nerve than Evel Knievel, the prominent showman who wanted to leap across the vaunted Grand Canyon. For years, Bell has been grossly overcharging (to the rip-off point) small and medium-sized businesses in Quebec and Ontario that are forced to have a telephone service to survive. This is. particularly true | when one considers that the lowest rate for the smallest business in the two provinces is an unheard of 300% more than similar residential rates. Now Ma Bell has com- pletely disowned customers operating independent businesses, got even con- sidering the fact that these smaller enterprises create a majority of the country’s new jobs. ; In its latest proposal to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, Bell wants to shove through a 23% rate increase for householders. But for Canada’s small and medium-sized businesses, the company believes rates should go up a whopping 35%. British Columbia's new wind energy unit — a windmill resembling a large inverted egg beater — is now on line for testing at Christopher Point on the southern tip of Vancouver Island and is expected to be Operating by May 1. This modern version of a windmill, a 50-kilowatt vertical axis wind turbine, was put in place March 27 by a seven-member work crew. It took three hours, with the use of a crane, to hoist the huge rotor on top of a 9- metre tower. The new energy system is being tested jointly by B.C. Hydro, the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, and the National Research Council (NRC). The ex- periment will take one year. The power generated by ‘spective, the Even now, small en- trepreneurs in Montreal and Toronto are being charged $27.35 per month for a service that is many times used less than the residential telephone. ‘ The present rate for residential service: $8.55 per month. ‘To put things in per- differential between the business and residential rates in the U.S. is much, much less, depending on the area, and in Britain the variance is only 18%, compared to the 300% plus differential in the Ontario-Quebec region. ” Why is Bell Canada out to clobber small business? The answer, it seems, is that the company is simply continuing a process that started many years ago on .the assumption that smaller businesses need telephones and were badly organized, so reaction against such discriminatory pricing policies would be minimal. Such is not the case anymore. The 55,000- member Canadian Federation of Independent Business is already battling against the 35% price in- crease in Ontario. and Quebec phone companies in other the experimental turbine will feed into the B.C. Hydro — grid. Although it will not be a significant source of power for the grid, similar wind- milis could contribute to diesel electric production in the province. Project engineer Nick Vanderkwaak of B.C. Hydro said there is some potential for putting similar or larger wind machines in some of Hydro’s 16 diesel stations in the province if the current experiment . proves suc- cessful and if wind con- ditions are adequate. He said the purpose of the experiment is to gauge the actual durability, per- formance and efficiency of this turbine. Wind speeds of between 20 to 25 km/h are required for sucb macNines. Christopher Point was chosen because of the and will tackle | provinces if they attempt to duplicate the process. Bell Canada already has the highest rates in the country. Now the company wants more, and much of it from the sweat of people operating small and medium-sized enterprises. What this country needs is> more competitive, in- dependent businesses. Canada does not need telephone monopolies that charge what the market will bear, particularly when one — considers the present business rate in Quebec City — is $23.15 per month, vs only $17.95 in Edmonton. Something’s amiss. Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian _ Federation of Independent . Business. “I remember you. You're from the income tax office.” Hydro ready to test windmill average high wind speed at nearby Race Rocks in the Juan de Fuca Strait. the site is part of the Rocky Point Naval Establishment and permission for its use was granted by the Department of National Defence. Sunday Brunch will return soon The test will reveal any operational difficulties that B.C. Hydro might encounter in using wind systems. Hydro is interested in eventually using wind turbine generators in conjunction with diesel electric generation in some of B.C.’'s remote communities. The test will also support the broader evaluation of wind energy potential in B.C. © currently under way by the Ministry. The vertical axis wind turbine rotor measures 17 m in height and 11 m in = diameter. Its two blades are manufactured from hollow :; extruded aluminum. The rotor drives a 50 kw in- duction generator through a — stepup gearbox. It is one of several units being co-sponsored by the NRC across Canada to obtain operating experience under a wide range of conditions. Although the delivered energy from this particular unit will not be significant, designs of larger vertical axis ‘units of up to 2500 kw are being con- sidered. , Tipsy horse cabbies a problem MONTREAL (UPC) - The city iS screening its 90 carriage drivers before the summer tourist season begins because of com- plaints that some are too drunk to point out land- marks and others don't know how to harness their horses. The drivers are employed by about 20 private com- panies that run horsedrawn “caleches” along Montreal's old cobblestone sector and up a two-mile mountain trail behind McGill University. “We're having courses this three week. and tonight we'll bring in a caleche and a horse and just see whether they are really able to harness and unharness a horse without hurting it,” Montreal Urban Community official Paul Sauvageau said Thursday. “Up until this year, some were licensed drivers, others weren't but this year they'll be checked on the road because we've had everything happening.” Sauvageau said. “We've had complaints from tourists that dnvers are drunk, even stoned, and can't point out some of the sites along the way.” Under a bylaw passed by the city council last November, licenses will be issued to drivers who have been tested on tourist in- formation, the highway code, health and = safety factors and traffic requirements. “We want to improve the service for tourists.” said Sauvageau, “and make sure that drivers wear shirts on duty, for instance. and know more about the monuments. not just their names ” “We see them as some kind of ambassadors to tell tourists about the city, but we are under a lot of pressure from tourists because we had so many- complaints last year and some clients even said they had to get off enroute.” Sauvageau also said horses ¢ have been ill-treated and © made to work up to nine ©’ hours at a stretch without | food. The rides, which run year- ° round, cost $20 an hour and | are considered one of the ctly’s major tourist al- tractions.