1139 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 PETER SPECK Publisher 995-2131 1 (101) et as . ab Doug Foot Comptroller Operations Manager 985-2131 (166) Unde Stewart Sales & Masheting Dniector 980-0511 (319) -Pator Kearnstom Veleste Stophensoa 980-0511 W163) “986-6222 (202). * Tony Pators. : "Photography Manager 905-2131 ( Barbara Emo . Distribution Manager eal (128 Production Marager weet tl 27) "Classified Advertising Distribution Mitephay & Beal Estate Fax : - Rewsroom Fax Classified, Accountitig v: & Main Office Fax Hurth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an «independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the " Excise Tax Act, is published exch Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press 4, Utd and distributed to every door on the North Shore, Canada Past Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product “Agreement No, 0087238. ° “]s Maiting rates available on request. | Entire contents © 1995 North Shore... | * Free Press Lid. Alt rights seserved. Chris Johnson . Jonathan Bell co. fe ¢ | Se Sor : aes Hal es EAE ERLE SEI MOG ARIT SN C5 MAMET MOLLUS DEPLORED ARMATURE, SATAN ARR WIN THE DOCTOR 15 BUSY IN THE COMMONS WITH A COUPLE OF CHRONIC HYPOCHONDRIACS. DO Vion re, Gong, A UT fe YOU MIND WAITING A BIT? | .. SAY, UNTIL OCTOBEA CLINIC AULES | NO COUSHING NO SNEEZING NO SNIFFUING news viewpoint reaty equity ne BRIGHT light of common sense is beginning to illuminate the. formless grey of native land claims in this province. And B.C. Reform party leader Jack “Weisgerber and his’ federal: counterpart Preston Manning are doing most of the illu- —~- minating, Weisgerber, for example, told delegates at the recent annual conyention of the Union of B.C. Municipalities that his party. would oppose any specia! status for native Indians. The federal Reform party, meanwhile, has -unveiled a policy that advocates a public * negotiation process and private individual ownership of treaty settlement lands in B.C. ‘Under the federal Reform policy, natives would also be subject to the same tax laws as everyone else in Canada. ~ in short: one law for all Canadians. | The Reformers’. common sense. approach mailbox has, predictably, been met with mutters of racism ‘from natives and_.répresentatives of political parties whose policies are far more ‘fuzzy, feel-gosd and phony. ; “Earth to Preston” was one native leader’s reported response. But consider Squamish Band Chief Joe Mathias’ response to. Mr. :Weisgerber’s appreach, to treaty negotiations: ~ “The aboriginal pevple of British Columbia’ own British Columbia 100%,” self who should be receiving the interplane-’ ’ tary communique. Negotiating treaty claims on the basis that both sides in the negotiations are equal makes good common sense: Delivering a deal that considers both sides of equat value aiso makes good common sense. * and ask -your- And applying more good common sense to the process will be the only way out: of the current B.C. treaty stalemate. “Some people have the idea that buses are dirty, ugly and dangerous mon- sters that ‘mow’ down chil- dren and cyclists.” Blue Bus general manager ‘Tony Lorage, during debate over the addition of a new bus.” _ Toute in the Cedardale area of West Vancotiver. (From an Oct. 11 North Shore News story.) “Show me o municipality - anywhere in B.C. where you add more people and the taxes go down. It doesn’t exist. It exists only in the hag of tricks of developers- and speculators to convince what they see as a gullible public.” Nikolas Cuff, arguing against the development of North Vancouver's Cove and _ Mountain forests. (From an Oct. 13 North Shore News Story.) ore “Our goal and our objec- tive of the Tsleil-Waututh #5’ to become Independent .. ° enough so that we don’t have to rely on the goverz- fwent for our education, for our medical, for our social services, for our houses, for our culture, for our recre-" ’ ation and for all the things that make a community.” ~ Burrard Indian Band (Tstedt-Waututh) Chief Leonard George, on his | “band’s drive to achieve self- sf ’ sufficiency through band lard development. (From an Oct. 6 . Narth Shore News sory) . * of “This should. not go “iti ely into the night.” / "| North Vancouver Distiiet Coun. Pat Munroe; on distri Coun. Janice Harris’ decision to quit the Greater: Vancouver Regional District ‘water com- mittee because of what Harris claims are ill-ran committee meetings. (From an Oct. 6, North Shore News story.) senerenietanhsstoesneaineneneteinen tenth itntuinmstinsasiiner teint mpm ert nae NNER one AAA RE TR ALLE REY TEL IE NE OCC EOC, Trustee vents funding frustration Dear Editor: The North Shore News did not get my comments ‘quite right in the Oct. 8 cover story School District wages, benefits biasted. Please understand that J] do not wish to reduce teachers’ salaries. Chuck Dixon is right when he says ) that our teachers are paid the same as the provincial average. ‘ In fact, it is my view that we ~ should pay more to starting teachers in order to attract the best people. Instead | would like to get relief from other clauses in the contracts. Our collective agreement not only determines how much we pay teach- ers, il stipulates how many teachers and classroom aides we must hire. - The current provincial govern- ment effectively imposed this agree- ment on the previous school board and then it has not provided us with engugh money to pay for the cost of ‘Furthermore, even though this contract expired June 30, 1995, we are stuck with it indefinitely as”a “bridge” until there is.a_province- wide contract negotiated. The (North Vancouver District 44) chairman, government arbitra- Barb MacLelian, has a valid point when she says it is futile to consider breaching a collective agreement. “Last year we tried to invoke a “financial distress” . provision that. “would — have’ slightly increased" class sizes in order to ‘balance our budget. “We lost the arbitra- tion, which ensued in front of a provincial if we breach our collective agreement, we will be grieved and lose. A futile gesture maybe, but the provincial govem- ment has put us in the position where we can either breach our contract or break the law by running a deficit. This situation is compounded by the fact that North Vancouver has, for over six years, been unfairly treated by Victoria in terms of funding for maintenance of facilities, which was the finding of an impartial committee DISTRICT 44 trustee Guy Heywood ... more In. the tor, frustrated, less cautious. of the Ministry of Education's own advisors. "We have been given $1.5. million less than our share in each of the six years that the, fund-" ing formula has been used. Anybody who lives in this community knows that our schools are showing, the strain. I's getting worse. past weeks we have learned that” the Ministry of Education’ is going ‘to send funds we'receive for teaching over 500 aboriginal and francophone children directly to their representa- tive agencies. This could be as much as $3, mil- tion, a portion of which we may or may not get back if those groups decide to contract with us to provide education to their children, This is further fragmentation of the public neighborhood schoo! sys- tem by giving it, and the public. money that goes with it, away f0 spe- . cial-interest groups: L North Vancouver is a community a that places a. high value on public education. : That value used to be expressed in. the best funded and best performing district in the province. The perfor-. mance, as measured by our students performance: on ‘province-wide exams, is still great. But the funding» is: both inadequate. and tied up in labor contracts that do not match our « - finances: Something has to change so that North Vancouver families can be: assured of getting the quality of pub- lic education: that they want and deserve. You ‘might say. that [am getting more frustrated and less cautious all . the time. Guy Heywood North . Vancouver School Board Trustee NOEL ‘WRIGH ON, VACATION District 44 °