6 - Wednesday, August 24, 1988 - North Shore News INSIGHTS Think §€ G rips US OTT? Try private insurance BEFORE WE DUMP ICBC for private auto insurance again, let’s check the hard facts carefully omitted from the current million-dollar campaign of brainwashing ads by the private insurance boys. To make sense to the B.C. motorist, the Ontario-based B.C. Auto Insurance Task Force, which hopes to get Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s privatization nod, would have to provide lower premiums and better claims service. It admits it can promise neither — resting its entire case on the vague alleged benefits of ‘‘choice’’ and ‘tcom- petition’’. Motorists younger than 31 may not even remember that private insurers had many decades to prove those benefits. Their faiture to do so was the reason they were canned in the 1970s and replaced by ICBC. Today they’re under the gun even On their Ontario home turf, where a groundswell in favor of government auto insurance is gathering force. Small wonder, Ontario's accident injury rate is one-fifth lower than B.C.'s, yet premiums for all classes of driver are higher — in some cases sensa- tionally, An accident-free mate of 45 driving a 1985 Firebird can pay up to $1,200 in Ontario as against $800 in B.C. For an accident-free 7 ICBC’S TOM HOLMES native much worse, gers, C TRANSIT needs to ensure that North Van- couver has consistent and efficient bus service, which moving its operations base across the inlet to Burnaby will not provide. With the proposed move to base North Vancouver buses at the company’s Burnaby facility, traffic snaris — such as those that occurred Monday night and Tuesday morning to back-up routes to and from both the Second Narrows and Lions Gate bridges — could bring locai bus service to a virtual stand-still. BC Transit says that when it moves local service to the Burnaby garage at the beginning of mext year, the North Vancouver buses will be across the Second Nar- rows Bridge by about 6 a.m. But as Tuesday’s pre- rush-hour traffic backup, caused by a burst watermain at the south end of the Second Narrows Bridge, dem- onstrated, having buses bound for the North Shore early is no guarantee of avoiding slow-downs or outright traffic jams. Buses could be rerouted to bypass slow-downs, but the only other bridge to the North Shore will be similarly backed wp as drivers scramble to take an alternative route. Traffic tie-ups along the main commuter routes are commonplace, and buses going to the North Shore at the start of service could easily be delayed, causing considerable hardship and inconvenience for passen- BC Transit should scrap its ill-considered move to transfer its North Vancouver bus operations to Bur- naby; it should combine the North Van depot with the present West Van depot located on Lloyd Avenue in North Vancouver; and it should try to find alternative ways to save money that will not compromise service. male of 19 driving a 1988 Trans - Am the spread is from $850 in B.C. to $4,600 UPWARD in On- tario. And in Alberta, with an ac- cident injury rate almost one half that of B.C., private insurance premiums are also higher for numerous classes of driver. B.C. drivers, alas, are the worst in Canada with the highest per- centage of accident injuries — despite which [CBC insures EVERYONE (private firms don't), is non-discriminatory with uniform class ratings and still charges fess than private insurers operating in much more favorable cir- cumstances, This column has tangled more than once over premium hikes with our North Van neighbor, ICBC boss Tom Holmes, and not ail claimants are happy about their treatment by his corporation, But when you focus on the facts miss- ing in those BCAITE ads, the ver- dict on CBC has to be like Winston Churchill's qualified praise of democracy. The alternative is so much worse! wok HOME fast weekend from a 10th highly successful tour of Holland was Vancouver's answer to the Vienna Choir Buys -- the West Van-based B.C, Boys Choir. Ready, one suspects, for a brief rest! During the previous five weeks, under director and founder Donald Forbes, the 26-member group, aged from 10 to 21, bad performed 22 concerts in as many Dutch cities and communities. In addition, they spent 10 days being filmed for a TV presentation being produced by former CBC producer Robert Chesterman, who did the film of the King’s College Choir. It will have international distribution and should be aired here next year. Now it's back to the discipline of thrice-weekly practices in St. David’s U.C. to prepare for another celebration of the Choir’s 20th anniversary — a planned gala Christmas concert in the Orpheum with the Junior Symphony. But then who ever said you can get to be world-class without hard work? aw SIGN-OFF: Happy waltzing with Matilda to North Shore’s Anna Wyman and her Darce Theatre -- off Down Under next month to perform at Expo °88 in Brisbane ... Congrats to longtime North Van residents CHEF and Ida Carley, now living in Summerland, on their European tour, which included starring in an international film. Publisher . Managing Editor . Associate Editor ... envelope Peter Speck Barrett Fisher Noel Wright Asvertising Director Linda Stewar\ Aorth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quatiftied under Schedule 111, Paragraph (Il ot the Excise Tax Act, «5 published eacn Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distnbuted to evely door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885 Subscriptions North, and West Vancouver, $25 per year Mailing rates avaiiable on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannol accept responsibility for unsolicited matenal including manuscripts and pictures ry vebach should be ACcoMpanied by a stamped, addressed 6OU anniversary ... And happy birthday tomorrow, Aug. 25, to West Van lawyer and top ar- bitrator Harry Hunter, eae WRIGHT OR WRONG: To muke a long story short ~~ interrupt, Phote submitted TWENTY-TWO CONCERTS LATER ... the West Van-based B.C. Boys Choir back home from its 10th ves TaN 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 59,170 (average, Wecnesday Friday & Sunday) SDA DIVISION Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution 986-1337 Seaton ovbscrintions 986-1337 . z Fax 935-3227 North Shore owned and managed MEMBER Motes Entire contents © 1988 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.