6 - Friday, March 15, 1991 - North Shore News INSIGHTS Brian’s act "BECAUSE NOBODYS GIVEN ME yx A GOOD ENOUGH | mo a gees emer snee Aye Cin, CLIENT EAT EE ES: “ih, NEWS VIEWPOINT Positive potash T HE VANCOUVER Port Corp.’s (VPC) approval of the proposed $24-million potash shed at Neptune Bulk Terminals’ North Vancouver site makes good economic sense both for the port and for North Vancouver City. VPC’s decision was based on the report of an independent review panel that recommended giving the go-ahead to the potash shed project. The panel, which held two public hear- ings on the North Shore, received written and verbal submissions from 97 different parties. It determined from the evidence gathered that the project could proceed without inflicting undue environmental or social damage on the surrounding areas, and that the ecoramic benefits of the pro- ject were ‘‘sufficient to override the - jurisdictional concerns’? raised by North Vancouver City. The panel recommended approving the project based on rine provisions that in- clude having Neptune submit an en- vironmental plan to VPC within 90 days. Local residents have raised many impor- tant environmental concerns over the pot- ash shed, and the panel’s report has ad- dressed many of those concerns. But perhaps more important, the panel has addressed the issue of keeping the North Shore component of Vancouver’s port vital and competitive. An expanded Neptune potash facility will help ensure that Canadian business stays in Canada and port business stays on the North Shore. OF THE Coliins answers letter on judge Dear Editor: Opinions are one thing and facts another. i must therefore respond to the Letter of the Day that appeared on March 8, headed “Collins was unfair to judge.”” The letter was from a brave gent called Name Withheld, and had to do with the column in which I showed that Citzenship Judge Khatoon Parpia had ref- used citizenship to an Englishwoman who had been here for 25 years. Her reasons? That the applicant didn’t know enough about Canada and might profit from a few English lessons. Name Wicthheld’s letter was full of bilge. I did not even hint, for instance, that the ‘‘recruitment Publisher . Managing Editor Associate Editor Advertising Director Comptroller Peter Speck Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright Linda Stewari Doug Foot officer’? had been bribed to recommend that Mrs. Parpia become a citizenship judge. What I wrote was that our rotten politi- cians would go to any length to court the ethnic vote, and that was why she was in a position to deny citizenship to an English person. “Recruitment officers’? do not even exist. Nor did I say that the judge came from India. She came from Kenya, and I said so. What’s more, I made no reference to Mrs. Parpia’s having been ‘‘a potato peeler,”? whatever that is, al- though one might conclude from his letter that I did. Name Withheld can’t get any- thing straight. He said 1 was on Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classihied Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution Subscriptions Fax Administration the phone for 15 minutes when talking to Mrs. Parpia and it would be a ‘‘logical impossibility’’ to talk for so tong and only un- derstand one word — “Sinclair Centre.”’ Well, apart from ‘‘Sinclair Cen- tre’? being two words, I was on the phone to the judge for about three minutes (but interviewed her Jater) and I didn’t say that “Sinclair Centre’? was all I could understand. Name Withheld says Mrs. Par- pia is his spiritual sister. Perhaps. But that doesn’t give him the right to spread gibble-gobble. Does he have his citizenship, by the way? I expect so. Doug Coitins West Vancouver 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent Suburban newspaper and qualified under Scnedule 111. Paragraph tif of the F«cise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Frday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and gistnbuted ic every door on the North Shore Secona Class Mail Registration Number 36835. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates available on request Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsokcited matertal including manuscripts and pictures which shauid be accompames by 4 stamped, addressed envelope V7M 2H4 MEMBER SN EE, SUNDAY + WEDNESDAY + FRIDAY . 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. SOA OIVISION 61,582 (average circulation. Wednesday, Friday & Sunday} Entire contents ©) 1951 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. wouldn’t play in Canberra AUSSIES AND Canadians have more than a few things in common. But alas for us, political horse sense isn’t among them. Unlike present-day Canadians, Aussies don’t stand for being pushed around by an arrogant, uncontrollable government. Brian Mulroney’s ‘“‘one-way-my-way"’ act would never play in Canberra. Aussie horse sense adopted from the start the only effective shield against abuse of power — a MODERN Senate. It’s a far cry from Canada’s pathetic ‘‘upper house’’ which some power-drunk pols now want abolished altogether. Instead, we'd be much smarter to look Down Under. The Australian Senate’s job is ‘‘to provide a check and balance to the power of government ... to safeguard the interests of the States ... and to protect personal tights and liberties.’ It possesses the clout the job calls for. It has 76 Senators — !2 each from the six States: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia; plus two each from the two less populated Ter- ritories. They are elected for six-year terms by pure proportional repre- se:tation in each State or Ter- ritoiy. Half of them retire every three years but can run for re- elect.on. Thus the political mix alwa:'s differs from that of the House 7f Representatives (read Commot.s). With a single exception both chambers have exactly the same powers. BOTH must pass sll bills. The only thing the Senate cannot do is initiate or amend tax and money bills, although it can RE- QUEST amendments to these. But the most important point is that the Senate can REJECT any bill -- even tax and money bills (with an Australian-type Senace we'd have no GST today). One of its finest hours came in 1975, when wild spending by Gough Whitlam’s Labour Party government had all but bankrupted the country. A Whitlam plot to carry on by secretly borrowing a huge sum from clandestine Arab sources was uncovered. The idea of being in hock to Arabs horrified the Aussies. By a majority of one the Senate threw out the supply bill. Gov- ernor-General Sir Johan Kerr dissolved Parliament and called an election — at which the Labour Party was soundly thrashed by the Liberals and their right-wing allies. Our current constitutional tur- Noel Wright HITHER AND YON moil makes the moral glaringly obvious. Only a Senate with real teeth can protect provinces, citi- zens and the country alike from the blunders and excesses of the single-chamber dictatorship we now suffer for four years at a time. S:aate reform on the Australian model is far more than a bee in the bonnet of the up-and-coming Reform Party. It’s the single best guarantee for salvaging Canada’s furure as a nation. We should GO for it. Had we had it, we might well have avoid- ed today’s dua! crisis: a constitu- tion in tatters plus a soaring debt of now $390 billion. And on other thing’s for sure, of course. Today’s income would still be buying you seven per cent more of almost everything! WRAP-UP: Welcome to the B.C. marketplace four North Shore marketers offering a combined experience of over a century with top Canadian corporations. Pop the bubbly for West Vancouverites Jerrold Beckerman, Stuart Henderson, Anders Kullgren and Lloyd Warnes, principals of Sage Resource Group which has just hung out its shingles on Thurlow ... North Van’s Emily Murphy Transition House is seeking vol- unteers to work with women and children in crisis. Training provid- ed, starting March 19 — if you’d like to help, call Vicki, 987-5386 ... And two bagfuls of birthday wishes tomorrow, March 16 — one to Alan Hassell and the other to Jeanne Wintemate, both of North Van. Photo submitted OFF TO THE MARKET... (front left to right) Anders Kuligren and Jerrold Beckerman, (behind ieft to right) Lloyd Warnes and Stuart Henderson. See column item.