gon Business of global cleanup OME CALLED it jumping on the environment bandwagon, but last week's Globe ’90 conference proved that the wheels are turning and industry is rising to the challenge of sustainable development. The 550 presentations and over 2,500 participants were living proof that in- dustry does not need to be, and indeed can no longer be, exploitive to be suc- cessful. And at last the worn-out argu- ment that protecting the environment and ifs resources must cost jobs and is therefore a threat to industry has gone the way of disposable diapers. Sustainable development, or develop- meat that assures preservation of the en- vironment, is a challenge that will call! on businesses to be increasingly innovative, and in turn, create new jobs and new in- dustries. In base terms, it is economically feasible. In ecological terms, it is abso- lutely mandatory. Industry can no longer blame the en- vironmentalists for endangering their livelihood — they have done it to themselves. And likewise, in a situation that calls for cooperation, the en- vironmentalists cannot afford to accuse industry of insincerity in their new-found eco-evangelism. After all, it was the per- sistent voice of angry and informed en- vironmental groups that created the climate for Globe '90 in the first piace. By welcoming industry into the fold, we can get on with the business of stabilizing global degradation. But no one ever said that welcome means aver- ting vigilant eyes from industrial activi- Dear Editor: . Has nobody noticed the dearih of public sports facilities on the North Shore compared with many other municipalities? What, if any- thing, are our municipalities doing in this regard? I speak in particular of the cry- ing need for a public indoor tennis facility (a bubble) on the North Shore. Have you not noticed how full the public courts are in the sum- mer? Where do these players go in inclement weather, of which we Publisher Associate Editor Peter Speck eee eee rete ee Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw } : Noel Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart certainly have our share, and in the winter months? Do they have to belong to one of the few expensive tennis clubs? This is hard for many young peo- ple who have mortgages and other pressing financial starting-out problems, and impractical for many older ones who come and go in their retirement years, but reside here nevertheless. I belong to a group of about 40 people who, in the winter, drive to Burnaby to play tennis at the Bur- naby Tennis Club bubble at a cost SUNDAY + WEDNESDAY + FeHDAy North Shore News, founded mn 1959 as an mdenendent suburban newspaper and quathed under Scheoute 111 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, Patagranh ill of Ine Escise Tax Act. is publistied each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Snore Pree North Vancouver, BC. Press Lid and gistesbuted tp every dGar on the Noth V7M 2H4 Shore Second Chass Mail Registration Number 3885 os Subscriptions Nowth and West Vancouver, $25 pervear 99,170 (average. Wednesday Mating tates avarable on request Subrussions are rh GS , welcome but we cannot accept responsibiity tor F day & Sunday) unsohciied matenat mciychng smanuscnols ang pctures . which should be accompanied by 4 stainped Addtesserd envelope SDA DIVISION Tennis ‘bubble long | overdue of $12 per court hour. The court time made available to our group was cut in half when the winter season began due to the demand for public courts. Next year we will be fortunate if the public courts at this facility are not jestricted to Burnaby residents on- ly. An indoor public tennis facility is long overdue on the North Shore. Heather Cowan North Vancouver Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986.6222 Newsroom 985.2131 Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 985-3227 MEMBER North Shore owned and managed Entire contents «> 1990 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved NOEL WRIGHT Flat tax would pay off better than GST FLAT IS beautiful when it comes to taxes — as this column has long preached. So I was delighted last weekend to find a convert had spent thousands on a full-page newspaper ad to say exactly that. Signed by B.C. Liberal Party leader Gordon Wilson, it invited British Columbians to donate $10 a head for an all-out campaign to kill the infamous Gouge & Screw Tax by replacing it with a single flat tax. Wilson believes the latter could not only provide as much net rev- enue as Current income tax and the GST combined, but that it would soon INCREASE tax revenue by boosting productivity. The flat tax system he uses as an illustration was devised by Broad- view-Greenwood MP Dennis Mills {t would tax every individual and business a straight 25 per cent of gross income after deductions. In- dividuals would be limited to six personal deductions, businesses to five cost items against revenue, and that’s it. No more ‘‘ifs,”” “ands’’ or ‘‘buts.’’ Aside from treating everyone equally and eliminating all loop- holes, the tax is simplicity itself to administer. The ad included pic- © tures of the two proposed tax return forms for individuals and businesses. They contain, respec- tively, 17 and 13 lines, and each would fit cor :srtably on a postcard, which nretty well says it all. Bye-bye tax consultants — go take a course in sales and market- ing! But not quite everybody would be happy. My faithful computer confirms that individuals would indeed pay quite a lot less tax — those in the £35,000-$55,000 range could be detter off this April by as much as $3,000. But that, of course, means big corporations which have had a free ride for years by contributing only about $3 per cent of total tax revenue would pay appreciably MORE tax to produce the same bottom line. Just how much of a free ride some of these so-called *‘corporate welfare bums’ now enjoy is revealed in a recent study by NDP finance critic Lorne Nystrom, bas- ed on Statistics Canada data. It showed that $1 in every $4 of corporate profit presently goes un- taxed. Moreover, in 1987 — believe it or not — loopholes and handouts from Ottawa enabled over 93,000 corporations with a total profit of more than $27 THE Yaghoobians ...all aboard for the next 25! GORDON Wilson ...into battle. billion to pay no federal! tax at all. The GST would tilt the scales of justice still further against individ- ual taxpayers. If you want to join Gordon Wilson's battle to stop it, the mailing address for your 10- buck cheque is: B.C. Liberal Par- ty, 210 West Broadway, Van- couver VSY 3W2 — and ask them to send you their “Single Tax Info Package.”’ As well, you can always write a vote-threatening note to your MP, if a Tory. And splurge 50¢ to have your protest officially recorded on that national anti-GST hotline: 1- 900-727-6052. There’s still time to flatten Michael Wilson’s tax monster! thet WRAP-UP: Remember that ardent Romeo last year who serenaded his beloved with musicians on the SeaWalk at Dundarave’? Saturday, March 31 brings him his reward at West Van United Church — when Geraldine, daughter of former West Vancouverites Bob and Betty Durrant, will tie the knot with Cameron, son of North Van Capilano MLA Angus Ree ... For a nourishing ‘‘positive approach to singleness”’ try the $10 **Single Alternative’’ dinner with enter- tainment by Jim Woodyard, 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 30, at North Shore Alliance Church, 201 East 23rd, North Van — call 984-6422 ... Snapped celebrating their *Sth in the sun recently were West Van’s Ed and Ella Yaghoobian on a cruise through the Caribbean ... And organizer Isabel Colpitts re- minds you about West Van Legion's special blood donor clinic tomorrow, March 29, from 2 to 8 p.m, on the upper level of Park Royal South. WRIGHT OR WRONG: It seldom occurs to teenagers that someday they will know as little as their parents.