4 - Wednesday, November 28, 1990 - North Shore News

Keeping Toronto poo! open in winter
is like playing Russian roulette

BAVING TEMPORARILY set up camp in the Toronto
suburb of Scarborough, this one particular roving sub-
branch of the Hunter clan decided last spring that the only
way to survive in the thoroughly tainted eco-system of the
Big Smoke, was to get a place with a swimming pool.

The kids thought this was an
excellent idea. Dad was a believer.
So Mum, the treasurer, sanctioned
it.

This wasn’t just aging Yuppie
fantasy stuff. Absolutely not. This
was Serious.

Lake Ontario may look lovely
along the beaches, ripples sparkl-
ing in the sunlight, but no one
dares venture into the water, only
the occasional stupid dog. The
smart ones avoid it as much as the
humans. Mothers sprint after their
toddlers, I saw one actually smack
a kid for trying to get his toes
wet.

But you couldn’t blame her.
She was trying to save the little
wretch’s life. Everybody knows
that to splash into the lake is to
risk horrible rashes, coughing fits,
infections, and sooner or later
probably cancer.

It is truly a bizarre sight: thou-
sands of sun-tanned bodies in
bikinis and shorts, strolling along
the boardwalk, picnic blankets
and fold-up chairs everywhere,
radios blaring, all the basic ingre-
dients for a classic summer beach
scene, the kind the tourist
brochures like to include — except
that absolutely no one is in the
water.

It is empty and lifeless, except
for blooms of algae and, in the
distance, as yet unseen, an advan-
cing horde of Zebra mussels which
will soon cover the rocks with mil-
lions of tiny little razors. Literally
step by step, it seems, people are

JACK DAVIS Reports
By the Hon. Jack Davis, MLA
North Vancouver-Seymour

the year 2050 and beyorici.

an environmental point of view.

this process along.

blem effectively.

Today we are 75% self-sufficient in energy. Reducing our
dependence on oil will give us the best of al) worlds, security of
supply and stable prices. There will be less pollution even if our over-
all use of energy increases. A good news item for BC.

being driven back from the lake.

We tried swimming off one of
the Toronto Istands, my boy and
me, during a lull in the coliform
couni. That is, it had dipped
below 100. Never mind 100 what.

We both got eye infections and
itched agonizingly for a week
afterwards. The doctor lectured
me on being an utterly irresponsi-
ble parent, letting my kid go swim
in the lake like that.

Being from B.C. wasn’! a good
enough excuse.

“You can still actually swim in
the ocean in lots of places on the
coast,’’ ! insisted bravely.

He sneered at me for being a
liar as well as a child-abuser. It
was only the fact that I had gone
swimming at the kid’s side that
spared me a visit from a social
worker. The doctor considered a
psychiatrist instead.

So we moved into this place
with a swimming pool, see? It was
something we had to do. We were
dehydrated from suddenly living
in a dry climate. We had to keep
ourselves wet just to survive.

I might have been born on the
Prairies, but my wife and kids are
fifth- and sixth-generation authen-
tic saimon berry-fed West Coast
gumbooters. They’d been wet so
long there was a certain minimum
sogginess level their metabolisms
had to achieve.

The pool worked great through
the summer. It really did. The
oldest youngster, Will, turned into
a dolphin. I swear he spent more

Water power and natural gas are our best bets where price is
concerned. They are low cost resources. Their price is “regulated”
by the BC. Utilities Commission. Profits are limited. So the price
of electricity and gas will lag behind that of other commodities. They
will decline in real terms. They wil! have a moderating effect on our
cost of living for decades te 3 :1e.

Our coal reserves are immense. They can be roasted to produce
gas and burned to generate electricity. On-site costs are also low.
So British Columbia will not have to “go nuclear’, ever.

Wood wastes are plentiful. Co-generation, in our pulp mills and
at saw mill sites saves money and reduces pollution. It's a trend
in our forest industry which is helpful both from an economic and

Oil is our wild card. Used mainly in the transportation sector, ris-
ing rif prices invite competition from natural gas and gas-based li-
quids like methanol and ethanol. Successive oil crises will speed

One liquid fuel substitute is the Ballard fuel cell. Developed on
the North Shore, it burns hydrogen to produce water. It is non-
polluting. Hydrogen is made from natural gas. So we have both the
resources and the technology here in B.C. to tackle our smog pro-

Honourable Jack Davis

Bob
Hunter |

than half the time underwater
with his reef-diver’s mask.

Sweet six-year-old Emily
mastered the art of tadpole life in
mere weeks, and proceeded in-

" stinctively to try to dominate all

other life forms in the pool, in-
cluding Mom and Dad.

Thus, the little band of roving
Hunter clanspersons splashed
through the merry months of
June, July, August and
September.

Then came October.

The first forerunning winds of
winter could be felt stirring the
hair at the back of the sub-clan
chief’s neck. And more, the heater
had to be used, until the point
came where steam began to “rm.

As the temperature dropped,
the stubborn sub-clan chief, egged
on by his still-dehydrated, gum-
boot-bred wife, kept on cranking
the heater up higher and higher —
until Scarborough had its first
man-made outdoor hot springs,

It's

hostess for details.

STRICTLY PERSONAL

never mind the hideous toll in-
flicted on our Hydro bill. A kind
of madness had set in. Maybe
we'd gotten addicted to chlorine.

The dream was to keep the pool
gotng until Boxing Day, then
throw a gigantic party, explaining
to all the pale Easterners staring
at us in horror as we lounged in
the bubbling waters, that this was
how folks live on the coast. You
can take the boy from English
Bay, but you can’t take English
Bay, etc.

The engineering theory behind
the continuous-operation option
for the pool looked good on
paper. So long as the heater kept
working (natural gas, in case you
were wondering), the pump kept
pumping, the drains didn’t plug
up with leaves, the automated
pool-cleaning machine kept
chunking around the bottom, and
the solar blanket didn’t buckle
under the weight of snow, there
should be no problem.

One failure of the power supp-
ly, however, and the drains could
freeze and crack within hours, Let
us not even think about the cost
of repairs to the Jacuzzi, pump,
and heater, as well as having to
dig through the cement to get to
the pipes to put in new ones. It
makes me weak, frankly.

Weak, indeed. I learned a
valuable lesson. Having a swimm-
ing pool is quite a bit like having
a boat. One is a hole in the water
into which you throw money, the
other is a hole in the ground inio
which you throw money. Yep.

Stop around next edition. Pll
try to amuse you with the wrap-up
to the swimming pool yarn we got
Started on today. It was kind of
funny, almost fable-like.

AS ETS
NORTH VANCOUVER
CITY COUNCIL

NV City shoots down
proposed development

NORTH VANCOUVER City
Council rescinded Monday night
the first and second readings of a
bylaw to rezone property at 17th
Street and Lonsdale Avenue for a
major residential/commercial de-
velopment.

The application to rezone the
southeast corner of 17th Street
and Lonsdale Avenue was initially
brought by developer M&M _ In-
vestments Ltd., which planned to
develop the site for both residen-
tial and commercial use.

Although a Nov. 15 letter from
company president Paul Murphy
indicated his hope to proceed with
the development, council has
received no indication of progress
from M&M since an August letter
explaining that the project was to
be put on hold and scaled down.

In his November letter, Murphy
stated that although his company
had earlier indicated its intention
to cancel the proposed develop-
ment, ‘‘we believe rescinding of
the bylaw #6100 at this time (if at
all) may be counterproductive.”’

Murphy also said he hoped the
market and financing problems
that have held up the development
would ‘‘soon resolve themselves.”’

But council’s actions Monday
night will require M&M _ Invest-
ments Ltd. to reapply for a com-
prehensive development permit if
they intend to develop the site.

The bylaw to amend the zoning
of the 17th Street and Lonsdale
Avenue site was passed at first
reading on March 29, and at se-
cond reading on April 25.

The development and the bylaw
amendment have been in limbo
since then.

Attention Seniors

British Columbia is in good st.ape insofar as energy is concern-
ed. We have all the hydro power, natural gas and solid fudis we need.
Oil comes mainly from Afberta. There, tar sand and other reserves
cari meet the tiquid fuel requirement of all of Western Canada to

Your Day |

Thursday November 29th

On the LAST THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH, Capilano Mall
honours our most valued customers with a special day just for
them. Discounts are offered throughout the mall. Just ask our

Also:

Visit our Seniors Day Hostess, Janet, for
Complimentary Coffee & Cookies

10am - 4pm

=» CAPILANOMALL

SHOPPING HOURS Monday to Wednesday 9:30am-5:30pm, Thursday & Friday 9:30am-9:00pm
935 Marine Drive

Saturday 9:30am-5:30pm, Sunday Noon-5:00pm

980-8561