4 ~ Wednesday, April 21, 1993 — North Shore News

Barbarian klutzes

at the gates of the

Clayoquot temple

1 GUESS the battle lines are drawn, and Mike Harcourt,
an old friend of the environmental movement, has
displayed his true colors, which show up in the profit
margins of MacMillan Bloedel and Fletcher Challenge, in
the dues paid to the International Woodworkers of -
Anrrica, and in the membership fees of the | NDP itself.

To be sure, they also show up
in the mortgage payments of that
shrinking band of people known
as logging industry workers, even
though the number of jobs avail-
able to them have been reduced so
dramatically by the tendency of
big logging outfits to reptace men
with machines.

The unions, fighting a rear-
guard action just to cut losses in
the face of their failure to stop
automation by the corporate
heavies, have shown their true
colors too: screw the centuries-old
firs, we need bucks this year.

What do we give a crap about
the opinion of airy-fairy people
around the rest of the world who
mistakenly think the remaining
old-growth forests of Clayoquot
are part of their global heritage
too?

The buzz-word today is linkage,
- folks.

You can’t sit smug and pretty in

+ the industrialized world, guaran-
teed unemployment insurance,
welfare and a pension if all goes
wrong, and pontificate to Third
World countries about saving
rainforests, or anything, for that
matter, if you are trashing your
own back yard.

And this, of course, is what
Harcourt and the Natural
Destruction Party are doing.

It is a bitter disappointment for
all those who thought the B.C.
NDP might actually do the right’.
. thing ecologically when it came to
” preserving the last stands of old
growth, ; ;

Nope. They’ ve followed the
standard pattern of governments

“in power everywhere —- worry
about today, forget about tomor-
“TOW.

Many years ago, Dave Barrett '

warned me the NDP was not the ;
party of the green movement,
even though subsequent New

‘Democrat leaders such as Bob Rae

and Mike Harcourt have made
‘ loud noises about how they were :
closet eco-freaks. :

But.when the crunch came for. f
the NDP in B.C. — the Clayo-
quot decision — they chickened
out; and climbed back into the
sack with their old buddies, the
unionists. .

J, for one, would never say a
bad thing in public about unions,
being an old leftie at heart, but
even a wimp like me has to note
that unions do not extend their _
_memberships to ecosystems or wa-
“tersheds; let alone the wildlife that
dwell therein.

Who was it that said there are
“no such things as political friend-

’ ships or ideological alliances, there

are only strategic interests?"
Certainly, in picking up the
".. mantle of the logging industry
apologists, Harcourt has acted ex-
actly as you would have expected:
his Socred predecessors to behave:
We're here to make bucks. The
smell of pulp mills is the smell of
~ money. :

Clearcuts -R- Us!

Yes, Il realize Harcourt is babbl-
ing about sanitizing the rape of
.Clayoquot as much as possible,
given the prime consideration of
preserving jobs, never mind the
bloody old-growth trees. Hell,
they don’t vote!

But if you are going to sanction
logging in 14 areas in the last un-
cut temperate rain forest in

: Canada — that’s 600,000 cudic
metres of wood annually in
Clayoquot Sound! — you are still

STRICTLY PERSONAL

going to go down in the history
books as a pillager, plunderer and
eco-rapist,

You're sure as hell not going to
be remembered as a heroic con-
servationist. And remember, while
cons2rvationists may seem fike a
pain in the butt at the time, they
make great ancestors — unlike
environmental despoilers, the
ranks of which have now been
joined by Harcourt: & Ca.

I hate to be so harsh, but this
really does mark the end of the
feel-good phase between the con-
servationists and the socialists in
this province.

For what it’s worth, the
honeymoon has likewise ended be-
tween the greens and the pinkos in
Ontario, where Bob Rae has
shown a marked disinclination to
experiment with non-polluting,
renewable industrial strategies,
despite the rusting of southern
Ontario’s industrial base.

Like Harcourt, when it came to
choosing between ecological cor-
rectness, and realpolitik, Rae jet-
tisoned his green intellectual sym-

pathies. .
Now the time has come — and

““Mikey”’ is in a position to do it
— to save the largest plants on the
planet, the Sitka spruce and

~ Dougias fir.

It should be a simple decision.
While even a mighty blue whale
only grows to 100 feet, a Douglas
fir can reach a height of 295 feet.
Surely, the significance of this
cannot be lost on: someone who
once seemed to appreciate the in-
trinsic value of saving an en-
dangered species of giants.

People like Colin Gablemann,
when he first ran for office as a
hip, idealistic young crusader also

’ used to understand this, or seemed

to.

What’s happened to these guys
in the intervening years? Is it a
question of too many backroom
Strategy meetings, too much
caucusing, too many power lun-
ches, too much compromising in
the name of pragmatism?

In which case, they have ob-
viously lost touch, with the reality
that ours is the last generation to
be able to prevent the desecration
of the surviving masterpieces of
nature. The technological bar-
barians are indeed at the gates of

- the temples.

Nobody remembers the names
of the idiots who destroyed the
cedars of Lebanon so many ages
ago. But they will remember the
names of the klutzes who
destroyed Clayoquot — because
now it wiil all be part of the

. media record.

School board opposes BC Tel fee hike

NORTH VANCOUVER District
44 School Board (NVSB) expects
its annual phone costs to in-
crease by about $103,327 as a
result of a BC Tel proposal to
expand the Lower Mainland
toll-free calling zone,

BC Tel proposes to expand the
area of toll-free calls, but raise
the cost of local phone service.

Trustee Richard Walton said
that most of the NVSB calls are
within the district. The amount
of money saved on long-distance
calls, approximately $6,364, is
outweighed by the raised cost of
regular service -- $109,691.

The BC Tel proposal comes at
a time when the Canadian Radio
and Television Commission

(CRTC) has allowed competition
in the long-distance area of
phone service. The move revokes
the phone company’s previous
monopoly.

The NVSB passed a motion to
inform the CRTC of its opposi-
tion to BC Tel’s proposed ex-
pansion.

tt Public Hearing

A Public Hearing will be held on MONDAY, APRIL 26, 1993 at 7:30 p.m. in the
Council Chamber, City Hall, 141 West 14¢h Street, North Vancouver, B.C. to receive

representations in connection with the following proposed amendments.

Official Community
Plan Amendment

To receive representations in
connection with the “City of '
North Vancouver Official
Community Plan Bylaw 1992,
No, 6288":

Bylaw Na. 6386

To amend the Official
Community Plan Map which
is attached as Schedule A to
Bylaw No. 6288 known as the
“City of [North Vancouver
Official ‘Community Plan
Bylaw 1992, No. 6288" by
reclassifying Lots A, 1, 2, 3,
AM4, AM6, Block 5, D.L. 548, .
Plan 1585 (as indicated in the *
hatched pattern ‘on the map
below) from Residential Level

| Three, Low Density Attached

Form (FSR not to execed 0.6
times the lot area and Special
Study Area), to Residential
Level Five, Medium Density
Apartment (FSR not to exceed
1.6 times the lot area
designation).

“APPLICANT:
BURON /BROOK /CROCKART

WEST 21ST STREET

CHESTERFIELD AVENUE

Zoning Bylaw
Amendments

At the same Public Hearing
representations in connection
with the following proposed
amendments to the “City of
North Vancouver Zoning
Map” (whichisan integral part
of “Zoning Bylaw 1967”) will
also be received:

Bylaw No. 6387

To rezone Lots A, 1, 2, 3,
AM4, AM6, Block 5, D.L. 548,
Plan 1585 located at 217 West
21st Street (as indicated in the
hatched pattern on the map
below to the left) from RT-1
‘Two-Family Residential Zone
to CD-242 Comprehensive
Development 242 Zone, to
permit construction of a 52-
unitseniors’ project on thesite.

The amending bylaw will,

regulate the size, shape and
siting of buildings and
structures, off-street. parking
requirements, location and
screening of refuse containers,
and landscaping and main-
tenance. ,

Bylaw No. 6388

To rezone N 1/2 of Lot 27 Ex.
East 15 feet, Block 228, D.L.
545, Plan 1266 locatedat2516
Western Avenue (as indicated
in the hatched pa‘’-yn on the

. map to the right) from RS One-

Hl

Family Residential Zone to
' CD-243 Comprehensive Dev-
! elopment 243 Zone, to permit

construction of three. 2- J
| bedroom units on thesite. The.

| amending bylaw will regulate
the size, shape and ‘siting of
buildings and structures, off-
street parking requirements,
and landscaping and main-.
tenance.

APPLICANT:
TWIGA/ LUND -

-LONSDALE AVENUE

TRANS CANADA HIGHWAY

t ALL PERSONS who believe that their interest in property is affected by the proposed bylaws shall be |
| afforded a reasonable opportunity to be heard— in person, by attorney, or by petition. The proposed |
| bylaw numbers 6386, 6387, and 6388, and staff reports may be inspected at the office of the City Clerk |

between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday (except Statutory Holidays) from APRIL 12

to 26, 1993. Written submissions will be accepted up to and including APRIL 26, 1993 for all three {:

: bylaws, however, submissions will not be accepted after the conclusion of the Public Hearing. NOTICE
| of this Public Hearing is pursuant to Section 957 of the Municipal Act of British Columbia. .

_ Bruce A. Hawkshaw, City Clerk |

The City of North Vancouver |
She Hewt gy Lf Your Community