6 - Wednesday, July 12, 1989 - North Shore News

INSIGHTS

Mania for closed doors
hurts advisory bodies

“OPEN GOVERNMENT” IN WEST VAN is a matter of
who's talking about it. Nigel Grant, for example, thinks it
shouldn't apply to the deliberations of council’s numerous

advisory bodies.

Mr. Grant chairs the Advisory
Planning Commission which ad-
vises council on development mat-
ters — a subject of very live inter-
est (o most taxpayer-voters. He
dislikes having more than one des-
ignated liaison alderman present at
APC meetings — and he actually
cancelled a spring meeting because
Ald. Carol Ann Reynolds had in-
timated she might drop by to listen
to the proceedings.

In a letter to the editor criti-
cizing my earlier column on ‘‘open
government’’ (Wednesday World,

SUPER DOLL’S HOUSE, raffled recently by the Canadian Daughters League (North Van) to raise funds for
Lions Gate Hospital’s maternity ward and a Cap College music bursary, was won by the Rick Hunda! family of
Lynn Valicy. Admiring their prize are (left to right) Evelyn, Chenier and Mikie Hundal.

| Supply

use of water.

The pipeline could solve this chronic problem. It
would also serve as a back-up system if the GYRD
water supply should become poliated or contaminated.

District engineer Berry Lambevi said initial savings
in GVRP water and pumping charges could be $50,000
a year — a figure that he said could eventually double

or even triple.

The 6,500-foct line will be difficult and expensive (o
construct because of the topography it crosses, but the
route is the safest and least expensive of five alter-

native sites considered.

Council should proceed cautiously, but favorably,

with the proposal.

soiution
PROPOSED watermain line connecting Eagle
Lake reservoir with the Gveater Vancouver
Regional District at the Westmount pumping
station will ensure West Wancouver residents get
enough water year round and save the district thou-
sands of dollars in water purchases.

The $1.5 million pipeline, if approved by West Van-
couver council, will greatly improve the efficiency and
flexibility of the area’s water supply system.

Surplus supplies will feed water to the district much
of the year, and residents living in the west —- Horse-
shoe Bay, Gicneagles, Whyiecliff, Eagle Harbour,
Caulfeild Plateaa and Cypress Park — who rely solely
on Eagle Lake for their water, will no longer have to
endure water restrictions wien lake water levels drop,

during the late summer and fall.

Residents will remember only too weli the water
shortage in 1987 that resulted in a ban on al! outdoor

June 21) Mr. Grant argues that
advisory bodies — being only to
advise — are not part of govern-
ment, open or otherwise. He also
rejects my description of them as
“servants of council,’’ saying that
such bodies **must be seen to be at
arm’s length from the political
process.’’

To this I say a loud ‘‘Amen."
But to claim that advisory bodies
are ‘“‘not part of government" is
pure doublespeak. They are ap-
pointed for the sole purpose of
helping council in its various tasks.

Their recommendations are weigh-
ed very carefully and in # majority
of cases accepted. In general, their
advice plays a major role in shap-
ing the policies and actions of
council. To this extent they are as
much an organ of civic govern-
ment as the municipal staff.

Also oftea overlooked is the fact
that council is NOT a ‘‘cabinet."'
it’s supposed to consist of six in-
dependent individuals, cach elected
for his or her personal ability and
integrity as a watchdog for the
public. So unless they turn out to
be sheep, there’s no way they can
be *‘represented”’ on advisory
bodies by a single fellow alderman.
To perform properly and eventual-
ly cast an informed vote, cach

es
BS

Photo submitied

—

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LO GTURN WITH US NOW,
LG TO THOSE THRILLING
DaYS OF YESTERYESR.......

alderman must know A'T FIRST
HAND how such bodies work and
reach recornmendations. That re-
quires free ““observer" access at
any time.

As to Mr. Grant's demand to be
SEEN to be at arm's length from
the potitical process, wha? better
way than to open the meetings of
ALL advisory bodies to the public
-—- provided, as in Parliament, that
the public merely listens without
interrupting?

Every indication is that West
Van's volunteer advisory bodies do
a very good job with sothing to
hide. But their public image is not
helped by those at City Hall (or
close to it) who suffer from a
mania for closed doors.

ent

POSTCRIPTS: Solicitor General
Angus Ree, MLA for North
Van-Capilano, now knows what
they mean when they say: ‘‘It’s
summer, and the living’s exsy.”’
He iad this brainwave that some
community group would love to
earn a nice fittle chunk of money
by cleaning up the Upper Levels —
recently clearec in preparation for
the new overpass. But surprise!
After tryins, the Boy Scouts and
numerous other charity-funded
groups, he found nobody interest-
ed — so now the vontracters have
donz the job and pocketed the
cash... Ald. Exnie Crist invited
just-retired News columnist Doug
Collins to be a guest on his (Er-
nie’s) cable TV show, but Shaw
Cable promptly nixed the invita-
tion. Seems Shaw brass have not
yet recovered from the fiasco of
the immigration meeting addressed
by Doug in the Centennial Theatre
a year or so ago — which Shaw
taped, editing out ‘‘racist’’ state-

1439 Lonsdale Avenue,
North Vancouver, B.C.
V7M 2H4

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Friday & Sunday)

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re
\t
den

DOUG COLLINS ...baaued from
cable.

ments by those present and win-
ding up with threatening phone
calls for its pains. Who needs free
speech when it becomes a has-
sle?... Class of "64 from Lester
Pearson High in New Westmirster
celebrates its 25-year reunion,
Sept. 1 and 2, vith a ‘‘wine-’n’-
cheese fzllowship”’ plus a reception
and dinner dance — if you belong,
cell Irene (Graham) Wallace, 520-
3635, or Teri (Zohnson) Mc-
Callam, 939-4331, for info and
tickets... And salute West Van’s
Bob Hogan, CLU, elected 1989-90
chairman of the Instrance Council
of B.C. which (as if you didn’t
know} issues agent and adjuster
licences, investigates complaints
and holds hearings on behalf of
the Superintendent of Insurance.
Reet
WRIGHT OR WRONG: A minor
operation is one performed on —
somebody else.

acuens