ZK INSIGHTS GST alternatives? Yes, Michael, there are lots DEAR MICHAEL WILSON: You're quite right for once to ask those rotten provincial premiers who dumped all over your nine per cent Goods and Services Tax this week in Quebec what THEY would do about the deficit. Our own BH) Vander Zalm, bless him, was the only one with an answer: slash the federal civil service by 25 per cent and hand- outs lo “have-not"” provinces by 15 per cent, Simple as it sounds, Bill's idea alone would cut your deficit by $10 billion. Meanwhile, there are numerous alternatives to your GST. One is the Business Revenue Tax { told you about on Wednesday. It would bring you the same revenue as the GST, or more, but with minimal pain to everyone concerned. GOODWILL ENVOYS...West Van Rotary Club president Gary Muchala with Rotary. Exchange students Anette Back (left), here for a year from Penmark, and Sentinel’s Erica Behrisch (right), now representing Tid- Thea, there’s Mat’ income tax which | explained on this page last April. It works excellently in Hong Kong, which Im stire you often envy. 1 benefits the poor, is fair to all other taxpayers and, by eliminating loopholes for high rollers with creative accountants, it could raise more tax money at far less cost than your present absurd- ly complex system. You'd be able to cut Revenue Canada’s taxation staff of 17,920 by about 75 per cent and, cf course, there'd also be some temporary unemployment in dlycove — and Canada — for a year in Western Australia. the tax consultant industry —- but tax experts are far too smuirt to starve for long. Finally, Michael, whac about a litle plain old-fashioned THRIFT, which every Canadian family has to rediscover when it gets into the glue, Do a mere 26 million Canadians, with 10 provincial governments looking after most of their wants, really NEED, in addition, 39 fed- cral ministers, 72 spendthrift fed- cral departments and a federal bu- reaucracy of 212,000 costing every single nian, woman and child in the country over $650 a year? So why did you INCREASE a bunch of federal budgets by half a billion this year? Why should you Photo submitted comfort Malticult aad Sports Canada with $600 million? Why, in a free enterprise economy, must you hand out $9 billion to business? Why squander $3.5 billion on Third World basket cases (including all-paid jaunkets there by professors)? Why -— since “‘pennies” count when you're flat broke — do you pay six-figure bills to spare ministers (and Mila) the rigors of Air Canada by flying them in Forces jets? Or blow a quarter of a million on fixing up Brian’s official mansion? I won't spoil your day, Michael, with endless further examples. But yes, there ARE lots of better ways to cut the deficit than the GST, which grabs a blank cheque from us for the rest of our lives. And you need not even pass a law to start one of them right away — it’s called Wright’s First Rule of Holes. When you're in one, step digg- ing. Have a nice weekend! — NOEL. tae AMBASSADORS: The Western Australian community of Albany, 300 miles south of Perth, will learn all about West Van fast, now that Sentinel’s Erica Behrisch has ar- rived with her two slide prepara- tions — one on home life here and the other on the history of Tid- dlycove. She was chosen for the 1989 Rotary Student Exchange Program which gives selected ap- plicants a year-long goodwill visit to another country. Replacing her at Sentinel under the program is Anette Bache of Denmark, and the hea ee | GOLDEN Saturday for Rupert and Grace Harrison. day before Erica flew Down Under last week both girls were guests of West Van Rotary Club, Anette’s hosts for her year here. kane DATE BOOK: Anniversary greet- ings today, Aug. 25, to North Van's Sydney and Barbara Mercer, and to former North Van residents Robert (Art) and Kay Taylor, now in Burnaby — both couples celebrating their 52nd... Also to- day, happy 70th birthday to lawyer Harry Hunter of West Van... And welcome tomorrow to new Golden Club members Rupert Harrison, West Van’s former longtime municipal clerk, and wife Grace — both lifelong West Van residents — who tied the knot on Aug. 26, 1939. ake WRIGHT OR WRONG: If all you do after opening a store is stand outside and watch the world go by, it will. Industrial expansion ORTH VANCOUVER City Council should Never the recent rezoning application from Neptune Bulk Terminals Ltd. to allow con- struction of a second potash storage facility on the company’s Nerth Vancouver waterfront site and help keep vital the area’s harbor industries. Residents have thus far raised concerns over loss of view from the proposed 120-foot high structure and registered complaints over noise and dust pollution from the Neptune operation. But, with the proposed new shed to be only 20 feet higher than Neptune’s existing potash storage facility, the additional view loss wil! be minimal. Polation complaints submitted tc council from res- idents have focused largely on current problems resulting from airborne coal dust and noise from train traffic and existent waterfront industry. A report from city staff concludes that the new fa- cility’s pollution controis will reduce air emissions to “‘acceptabie standards’’, and that the operation wiii not appreciably increase current noise levels. And, too, this is not an application to install new industry in pristine recreational or sensitive residential areas; it is an application to expand a well-established company along a section of industrial waterfront. Neptune Terminals kad a record year in 1988. Its application is aimed at meeting increased world de- mand for potash to continue that record. North Vancouver’s harbor facilities, which make up a major portion of Canada’s largest port, are vital to the North Shore’s good economic health. If we are to ensure continued vitality, we must recognize the need for industry to grow. DEAR Publisher Peter Speck Managing Editor... . Barrett Fisher Associate Editor Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualiled under Schedule 113, Patagraph It of the Excise Tax Act, 1s published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the Norih Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancauver, $25 per year. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited matenal including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope THE VOICE OF WORTH AND WEST ARTOUVER SUNDAY - WEDNESDAY + FOAL 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) e SOA DIVISION Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Subscriptions MEMBER Rarer nemenpere of Amree ‘i 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 wcvens North Shore owned and managed Entire contents © 1989 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.