HE UN, Oren 193 i a NEWS VIEWPOINT Parking panic HE GOOD folk of Lower Lonsdale have long been squeezed by a local parking pinch that shows no sign of abating. At Monday night's North Vancouver City Council meeting the parking issue an- chored a host of other complaints that revealed ongoing parking concerns and in- creasing social problems in the West Ist Street area: Parents afraid for the safety of their children; drunks frequenting local parks. The above is obviously in need of serious investigation by local social sign- ning and law enforcement officials. But solving the issue of limited parking in the West Ist Street and Esplanade area is less complicated. At this point, patrons of area restau- rants, cinemas and other nightspois seek out residential street and lane parking to avoid paying the nominal parking fees charged on city-owned lots in the 100- block cf West ist Street. The situation results in frustration from both residents and patrons who compete for those limited free parking spots. A practical solution to. the problem would be to remove the $1 parking charges from some or all of the area’s city pay parking lots that traditionally sit largely empty in the evening. The revenue generated from the lots is minimal anyway; the goodwill they would generate as free area parking would more pir compensate for any financial short- all. LETTER OF THE DAY Water quality focus of proposal ' Dear Editor: _ Paul Hundal should worry less about my.cosmic.travels (Mailbox, Oct. 18), and spend more time * contemplating the accuracy of his statements about the watershed logging issue. ~ If Hundal were as familiar with the management review report as he claims, he would realize that watershed logging is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. As forests age, they become in- firm. Trees become more suscep- ’ tible to disease, insect attacks and fire. They eventually die. Leaving Publisher Peter Speck these forests to their own devices, given the history in the watershed area of large fires and insect at- tacks, is to invite a catastrophic event in the future. When that happens, there would be virtually no way of controlling the massive increase in erosion and sedimenta- tien resulting from a loss of vegetative cover. . Adequately managing the risks associated with deriving our water from:a natural ecosystem involves some logging to change high risk stands of mature and over mature trecs to low risk, young forests. The management regime pro- Display Advertising 980-0511 Distribution posed for our watershed is much different from that currently in place. There will no longer be a requirement to harvest a certain amount every year, as is now re- quired. Harvesting and regenera- tion considerations will focus ex- clusively on maintaining water quality. Given the solid evidence in the Watershed Management Review, it is unfortunate that Mr. Hundal and his supporters, in their zeal to stop logging, would risk the water supply for over a million people. Rob Kyle ; Port Moody North Shore Managing Editor .. . Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor . Noel Wright Advertising Director . . .Linda Stewart Comptroller Doug Foot North Shere News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Secend Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per ear. Mailing sates available on request. omissions are welcome but we cannot accept tesponsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by 4 stamped, addressed envelope. Newsream V7M 2H4 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax ‘TE VONCE OF teONTTYO AND ELST WANCOUVER SUNGAY + WEDNESDAY - FMDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, 5.C. Subscriptions . 985-3: Administration 985-2131 MEMBER 985-2131 SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednasday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1991 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. | Time for Canada gto wake up and smell the coffee TWICE IN the past 10 days two high-profile economic cerystal-gazers have, in effect, told Canadians they’re lazy slobs — headed for a Third World living standard unless they smarten up fast. First came Harvard economics professor Michael Porter’s $1.2 million report on Canadian com- petitiveness, commissioned by the Business Council on National Af- fairs. Hot on his heels, Industry Minister Michael Wilson unveiled a “national prosperity plan'’ for discussion over the next nine months. While neither said anything rad- ically new, the polite but firm message from both was: Get off our butts, or else ... A common theme was the revo- iution taking place in global trading and Canada’s failure to meet the new competitive de- mands. Porter blames this on 30 years of growing rich the easy way ~~ by exporting natural resources. As a result, we’ve become lazy and unenterprising by 1991 world industrial standards, In particular, Canada presently lags woefully behind all the six other ‘‘G-7°’ leading industrialized nations in productivity, which has hardly increased at all since 1984, We don’t do nearly enough job training, research and develop- ment. With a 30% school drop- out rate almost 40% of Canadian adults are functionally illiterate. Canadian business is often too cautious and complacent. Unions — with proportionately over twice the clout of organized U.S. labor — are too confroniational. And {in Porter’s book) Canadians will be unabie to retain their costly social programs without earning a MICHAEL WILSON... produc- tivity lagging. MICHAEL PORTER... no more * easy riches. i HITHER AND YON much bigger slice of today's highly competitive global market. Porter, of course, is a gung-ho right-wing Yankee economist. He views Canada in terms of the ruthlessiy individualistic U.S. free enterprise system — where win- ning is the sole goal and tough luck on the losers, especially those without medical coverage or a roof over their heads. As fond as Canadians are of so many things American, they’ve never fully em- ‘braced that naked winner-loser philosophy. We want the fot and we want it NOW — tog Jiving standards, high wages and a super-strong social safety net for everyone as well. All of it paid for so far without much mental exertion by flogging our forest and mineral riches to a resource-hungry world. But no more. The fact that even restrained Michael Wilson is now echoing Porter’s dire warnings suggests it’s high time we wake up and smell the coffee. It seems cur trading rivals from Singapore to Stockholm are no lenger about to bring us breakfast in bed. TAILPIECES: Smelling the ccffee locally is Ambleside Village Business Association. Speaker at its 7:30 a.m. breakfast meeting Tuesday, Nov. 5, in the Ambleside Inn is Dr. Brace Fauman of the UBC Commerce and Business Faculty — his sub- ject: ‘Competitive Marketing Strategy’’ ... Christmas bargain- hunting continues apace tomorrow with the North Shore Neighbour-- hood House Community Garage Saie from I a.m. to 2 p.m. and Kiwanis Lynn Manor’s Fall Bazaar from {1 a.m. to.3 p.m. at 2555 Whiteley Court ... And Sun- day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the famous annual Christmes Craft Fair, featuring the works of 86 professional craftspeople, returns at St. Thomas Aquinas High, 541 West Keith ... Meanwhile, with - many happy returns of this Satur- day, Nov. 2, to gracious ‘‘Vintage Years’’ columnist Elcanor Godley. WRIGHT OR WRONG: How come everybody notices when you're late for work — and no-- body notices when you work late?