NEWS VIEWPOINT

HE’ AIRCARE soap opera has long
since driven the program’s initial
&. purpose out of the public con-
" sciousness.
And that’ s bad news for local air quali-
ty. i
The program was initiated last
September as part of the Greater Van-
couver Regional District’s push to improve

\ local sir quality.

4

But thus far in its short history, the
' AlrCare program hiss done more to ture
the air blue with Jocal drivers’ oaths than
it-has to clear the air of automobile fumes.
Private ‘automobiles currently account for
close to: 65% of all local air pollution. An
efficient AirCare. program could cut that

_ amount by up to 20%. .

But AirCare rolled out of the provincial
government gate with all tires flat cid all

farce

cylinders misfiring.

Motorists fumed in tong lines at new
AirCare stations’ after the initial informa-
tion about which cars should be tested
when was poorly communicated.

These frustrations continued with in-
consistent ~ testing resulis: owners with
newer cars found their vehicles being re-
jected while older models passed; emission
results at one ‘AirCare station were dif-
ferent from those at another.

Now the public is faced with a labor
dispute that has farther disrupted the pro-
cessing of automobiles through AirCare
facilities. ; .

I

The AirCare farce has thus far succeed-
ed only in angering motorists and under-
mining public: confidence in the system’ s
ability to improve air quality.

‘NEWS QUOTES CF THE | WEEK 7

“Politicians cannot be relied upon
to be responsible once they get in-
to government.”’

West Vancouver-Garibaldi
MLA David Mitchell, calling for
legislation that would require the

“provincial government to balance

its budget.

“It would be cheaper to have a

contract to transport every golfer -

by limousine to Richmond.”’

Planner and land developer lan
Birtwell, opposing the allocation
of public lands for the Northlands
golf course in North - Vancouver
District’s Seymour area.

Publisher...
Managing Editor .
Associate Editor . .
Sates & Marketing Director:
Comptroller. ... .

_..,.-Peter Speck
. . Timothy Renshaw
Noel Wright
Linda Stewart
. Doug Foot

wits been five years. We could
have built the Great Wall of
China ix that time.” :

North Shore Public Golf Course

’ Society vice-president Don Davis,

on the time invested in studying
the Northlands golf course project
in North Vancouver District.

“To use a phrase from the movie
westerns, the cavalry isn’t coming
to your rescue. You cannot count
on the normai municipal
emergency services being available
to you immediately, perhaps not
for days.””

Ross Peterson, coordinator of

Display Advertising 980-0511
Real Estate Advertising 985-6982
Classified Advertising 9€6-6222
Newsroom 985-2131

Fax

Distribution
Subscriptions 986-1337

Administration 985-2131 §

‘the North and, West Vancouver

| Emergency Program, on what
local residents could expect in the
‘aftermath of a major natural
‘disaster.

|

“These are the. same wonderful
people who sent us logging in the
watershed.”

' North Vancouver District Coun.
Paul Turner, on the Greater Van-

' couver Regional District and its
consideration of a proposal from_.

Vancouver Helicopters Inc. to
establish a heli-picnic site in Lynn
Headwaters Regional Park.

om

mr

J This newspaper
conlains

recycled fibre

North Shore managed

986-1337 fa
985-3227

ee a

@
il service
: @
THERE'S NOT MUCH argument from any quarter

nowadays about who runs our governments. And it's not
the prime minister or premiers, their. cabinets, or their

elected majority partics.

No, sir! In B.C, the true poli-
cy-shapers are Government
Employees Union chief fohn
Shields and Federation of Labor
boss Ken Georgetil, And
elsewhere, their provincial or fed-
eral counterparts,

Civil servants have always
played a key role in governing, of
course, because they understand
better than their temporary bosses
hew the machine actually works.
Bui two more recent developments
have expanded that role
significantly into the policy-
making area,

Onc is the sheer size of the
public service today — with some
1.3 million direct government
employees at the federal, provin-
cial and municipal levels, not to
mention the 340,000 in Crown
corporations, some 200,000 teach-
ers and countless thousands more
in health care and other public
sector jobs, Add spouses and fam-
ilies for a huge constituency of
four million or more like-thinking
votsrs.

The other factor is the right to
strike which Lester Pearson gave
civil servants back in the 1960s,

With public employecs thus
able, if their own turf is en-
dangered, to sway 25% of all cli-
gible voters and shut down an en-
tire province or even the whole
country, it’s small wonder they get
the kid glove treatment nowadays
by governments of every political
color.

Regardless of who else foots the
bill, as was ampiy demonstrated

. by this spring’s NDP budget.

By comparison, the recent
“‘privatization’’ news from Britain
is like a warm soothing spring
breeze. John Major's government
is busy completing the drive
started by Margaret Thatcher to
sell off all state-run operations to
the private sector. And guess
what!

The Brits have even started
privatizing their civil service — by
turning its departments into cor-
porate agencies functioning exact-
ly like private firms under con-
tract to the government.

These agencies must do the re-
quired work within a contractual
budget, but get to keep part of
any surplus as ‘‘profit’’ — with
which they can then raise the pay
of employees. |

One instant success story was
the passport office, which had
been taking 13 weeks to process

HITHER AND YON

applications. Quite soon after it”
was privatized the waiting time “
was cut to five days, the place
hummed with efficiency and the
staff were making more money,

In contrast to B.C., the only
two things these former bureau-
crats no longer do are hold the
government hostage and bdilk the
taxpayer. ©

eae
WRAP-UP: Congrats to North
Van's Isia Robertson, president of
the Moray, Nairn & Banff
Association of Vancouver and
vice-president of the Scottish Cul- -
tural Centre, on being awarded
the Canada 125 Commemorative
Medal. ... Calling all former :
Blueridge students, teachers and:
administrators to participate in the’
school’s 25th anniversary celebra-
tion Friday, April 30, from.7 to 9

_ p.m, — phone 929-7212 to regis- .

‘ ter. ... Volunteer grocery shoppers | °
and visitors are needed for. :
home-bound North Shore seniors .
— if you can help, please call the
North Shore Health Volunteer
Program at 986-7111. ..:; Tomor-
row Monday, April 24, wish a
happy &9th birthday to North
Van’s Jean Cowell. ... And also |
tomorrow, Monday, remember .
your date with the Lions Gate
Hospital blood denor clinic from
2:30 to 8 p.m. .

WRIGHT GR WRONG: A sure
way to get along with people is to
pretend you never knew whatever
they tell you.

North Shore News, founded in 1969 ag an
independent suburban newspaper and qualified
under Schedule 111, Paragraph fil of the Excise
Tax Act. is published each Wednesday, Friday and
Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and
distributed to every door on the North Shore,
Canada Post Canadian Publicalions Mail Sales
Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing tates
available on request. Suhimussions are welcome but
we cannot accept responsibility tor unsolicited
Maternal including manuscnpts and pictures which
should be accompanied by a Stamped. adgressed
envelope.

» ON

1139 Lonsdale Avenue,
North Vancouver, B.C.
V7M 2H4

‘Entire contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

WILL THE one running B.C. please siand .upl... Premier Bike
Harcourt (left), B.C. Federation of Labor President Kea Georgett
(right).

omnes

61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday)

| : o