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_TWO THINGS ¥ were wrong -
‘with last ‘Tuesday’s budget.
‘First, it sank B.C. a billion
dollars deeper into debt.
Second, the packaging:
designed to conceal that fact

» was 30 years out of date.
‘Those were the days when

' Premier “Wacky” Bennett shot a

flaming arrow into a pile of.”

. wastepaper on an Okanagan Lake; «

' barge, proudly proclaiming that»
B.C.-was burning its mortgage. In
-.the boom-happy, low-tax 1960s"
= mobody lost much sleep over
tomorrow. Today's British 7.
Columbians are far more edgy and
. questioning about public debt.
Even so, Finance Minister Liz
~Cull's package was superfi icially
: “admirable. The first balanced bud-
get since. 1989, witha tidy $114-
“ million‘surplus and more of the ;
: Same promised in’future budgets.
_No.new taxes before 1997 (though
“'ticence fees were hiked for every
thing from marrying to fishing). A
‘, modest-scunding 2.9% spending -
‘increase. And a 20-year “debt man-
agement” program.” °.*
-So what about that additional
.,_ billion of red ink, bringing B.C. to
“a grand total of nearly: $28 billion
in the glue? ...:
»; Not to worry, says | Premier :
Harcourt, because there's s “good
. debt” and “bad debt.” +
'“Bad debt”; he explains, is when
you don’t pay for your groceries
-- and housekeeping expenses from
". income (read taxes) as you go. .

: Doug Foot

Publisher «.

; Comptrotier
985-21 3t (101 )

985-2131 (199)

| AND THEY TAK oF
A FISH WAR ON
THE EAST CAST. .

along. So this coming year we get
rid of “bad debt” and have nice bit
over.

But “good debt", he assures us,
isn’t really debt at all. It’s like the
mortgage on your home. You pay
over a long period of time to enjoy
tight away a valuable capital asset.
Where some see debt; the premier
boasts of seeing schools, hospitals
and roads. _ -

That’s why “good debt" doesn’t

‘appear at all in the annual budget.

Instead, it’s buried in Crown
Corporations and agencies such as

“BC. 24,

The so-called logic of this dou-
ble bookkeeping adds up to plain «:
_ Nonsense, of course, for present
and future taxpayers, who remain
‘ultimately liable for ALL govern-

' ment debt, whatever it’s labelled.

- Capital-spending on infrastruc- .
ture is NOT like a home mortgage.
If I get in over my head, I can

Chris Johnzon
' Operations Manager

. 985-2131 (144)!

ad too!

7ore crusa

ORTH VANCOUVER City is hollow at

the core. Its Lower Lonsdale area des-

perately needs a shot of renewed inspi-
ration.

It is a place of much potentiai, but. that
potential currently lies dormant — the victim
of conservative municipal visions.

Lower Lonsdale is the North Shore’s
regional town centre, home to much potential
office and commercial space and almost all of
the North Shore’s remaining sites for devel-
oping apartments. The city owns 7.39 acres of
prime developable property in the heart of
Lower Lonsdale, a key component in the
area’s revitalization.

But the Lonsdale Quay public market
remains the only bright commercial beacon in

the fog of an area in transition.
The  now-vacant Versatile Pacific
Shipyards site could spread that success east-

“I€ a producer can save a

ward, but not without some bold civic guid-
ance,

The prime waterfront location cries out for
a dynamic commercial-industrial develop-
ment that would complement the waterfront
public market and draw businesses and desti-
nation shoppers from ail over the Lower
Mainland.

Further up Lonsdale itself, the city needs |
to initiate a proactive approach to attracting ©
more dynamic retailers, and it'needs to give
visitors a reason to venture. above Third
Street. Resurrecting a Lonsdale: street car
would, for example, help draw visitors up the
core artery to retail and restaurant locations :
to the north. The area also needs more vigor-
ous public facilities‘such as live theatres to
stimulate some cultural sparks. .

North Vancouver needs to reclaim its core:
before the dry rot of inertia sets i in for good.

quotes of the wack

general ‘chairman, on-his union’s

' Timothy Renshaw ~~

always sell my home, pay off the
mortgage balance and start again. A
government desperate for cash has
no way of selling off schools, hos-
pitals or highways.

Meanwhile, Ms. Cull’s vaunted
“debt management” plan provides
for only a $10.2 billion debt pay-
down up to the year 2015.

That's far short of even the $28
billion currently owed. Given the
NDP record, one shudders to think
how many more billions of “good
debt” will have been added 20
years from now.

The Cull plan also ignores fur-
ther billions that may yet have to
be paid in compensation for can- -
celling Aican’s Kemano Project
and expropriating for parkland the
wealthy Windy Cragg ore body in
the Tatshenshini area — let alone
for settling Indian land claims.

So don’t be fooled by fairy tales
about “good” and “bad” debt — or
by the magic cry “a balanced bud-
get at last!”

. The liabilities piled up for us,
our kids and grand-kids down the

road make this budget as balanced

asa drunk on a tightrope.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
Tuesday, April 4, to West Van's.
Bob and AnneMarie Graham ....
‘And the same again that day to
Horseshoe Bay’s Brian and
Wendy Hanna.

_WRIGHT OR WRONG: ‘One

sure. way to have the! last word is to.

apologize.

Managing Editor .. —‘!
, 985-21 31 (11 6).

Linda Stewart
“Sales & Marketing Director ~. -

_, , 980-051 4 (319)

quarter filming on the dark side
of the moon, he’ll be booking the
space shuttie.” ‘ :

North Shore Studios general
manager Ralph Alderman, on high- -
level financial considerations in the
film business. (From a March 26 :.'
News story.)

“We're going to save ourselves
from something nobody’s heard
of.” ‘

West Vancouver Coun. Pat ©
Boname, on the ever-elusive Video
Lottery Terminals and the district’s .,
move to prohibit their operation in ©
West Vancouver. (From Trevor

‘Lautens’ March 31 column.)

“We are choked, but what can
we do?”

Jaspar Brar, CN Brotherhood of
Maintenance of Way Employees

Dear Editor:

I was very disturbed by the Feb. ©
22 front page article in the North
Shore News “GVWD Landslide

; Report Disputed.” i

I respect the fact that logging i is
necessary to our economy. But these
old-growth trees are. probably, the
last ones of their kind on this planet,
because with human development
steadily increasing as it is, there is
not much chence of any. more of

Peter Kvarnstrem”_
Display Manager
980-051 1 a 03)

reaction to the federal back-to-

work order that ended the national.’

rail strike. (From a March 29 News

story.) pa
“He is the white knight.” e
Phil Nuytten, chairman of North

Vancouver's Can-Dive Services:

.'Ltd., on the president of the com:

. pany who helped finance the co

- pletion of the Vancouver Island nat-
“ural gas pipeline, after the project’

main contractor refused to cover.
unforeseen costs encountered by
Can-Dive in the project. (From a

March 29 News story.)

“Like a festering sore, ‘it starts

‘North Vancouver City Coun.
Barbara Perrault, on the’ growing .,
plague of graffiti in the city. (From
a March Bt News s $tOry.).

these types of trees s having the
chance to grow, to be 400. to 700:

” Logging. the wvatershed areas is:
not necessary, in’ fact it is detrimen
tal to the quality of our, water ‘Sup
ply, and finally, and possibly more
importantly,’ it destroys the last of”
these forests giants —‘our ‘planet’ ‘
legacy to future generations. os
David S. Evenson »: ..:

North Vancouver. ...;

Vaierle Stephenson |”
Classified Manager, ;
286-6222 (202).

- orth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an “MEMBER

independent suburban newspaper and qualifiad
_ , under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111° of the
*, Excise ‘Tax Act, Is published each Wednesday,
: Friday and Sundzy by North Shore Free Press
Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North
' Shore, Canada Post Canadian Publications Mait
Sales Product Agreernent No. 0087238. Malling .
rates availabla on request. Submissions are
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