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a | All rights reserved.

KASPAROV WA
Gei/— | in century 21?

PRR NTRE DRAUSS MEET VNCIS CAS PE ASOD BE EN ROR RON ITs MOE HOSOI SV NS MEY SEES

Pension woes a
minor problem.

Ax WB;

DESPONDENT OVER HIS LOSS,
DEEP BME CONTEMPLATES PULLING THE PLUG

quotes of the

“1 support adult crossing
guards but not at the expense of .
city taxpayers. Money doesn’t
flow from heaven and it doesn’t
grow on trees — it comes from

taxpayers. ”

North Vancouver City Coun.

‘Stelia Jo Dean, speaking out

against the city’s funding of

’ unionized crossing guards in

North Vancouver School District

a4, (From a Feb. 21 News story.)

“It is humanly impossible to
know everything that is-going
on”.
North Vancouver-Lonsdale
MLA David Schreck, responding

. toa call from North Vancouver

Seymour Liberal MLA Dan Jarvis
that Schreck should resign his seat
on the B.C. Hydro board in the
wake of the scandal surrounding

« the Crown corporation. (From a
- Feb, 23 News story.)

tax tales .

MORE FROM the “Art Trough.”
Here are some of the theatre compa-
nies being subsidized by the federal
government. (A taxpayer year is the
amount of total personal income tax

, an average taxpayer pays in one year

— about $4,800):
@ The Axis Mime Theatre: $65,845
(14 taxpayer years).
& Buddies in Bad Times Theatre:
$65,000 (13 taxpayer years).
@ Pink Ink Theatre — Vancouver:
$20,000 (four taxpayer years).

week

“The whole thing should be
stopped and a review made.
They’re going deeper into a
white elephant.”

Marine engineer Robert Ward,
criticizing the continued pursuit of
B.C. Ferries’ fast-ferry program.
(From a Feb, 23 News story.)

“Dancing is like a getaway.
It’s a mental escape but it aiso
brings people closer together.”

Dance instructor Sylvie
Quenneville, on dancing. (From a
Feb, 22 News Inside Story.)

“The GST is being collected
and the deficit isn’t going down
one iota”

North Vancouver City Coun.
Stella Jo Dean, pointing out that
the GST has not been used for
what it was originally intended.
(From a Feb, 21 News story.)

@ One Yellow Rabbit Performance
— Calgary: $84,200 (17 taxpayer
years).
PB Native Earth Performing Arts ~-
Toronto: $47,000 (10 taxpayer
years).
i Jest in Time Theatre — Halifax:
$67,841 (14 taxpayer years),
@ Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia:
$130,000 (27 taxpayer years.)

— From Tales from the Tax
Trough Il, a National Citizens’
Coalition publication.

news viewpoint

Future comunitme

CANADA PENSION Pian
fears — much in the news of
late — spark questions a lot

more fundamental than that ‘

of retirement income alone.

We all know the story to date.
The CPP has no funding of the
kind normal with other pension
plans.

Today’s benefits come out of
today’s government premiums.
Which means today's seniors are,
in effect, paid directly by today’s
younger generations still working.

That might not be quite so bad,
were it not for the baby boomers
who, after 2010, will be hitting age
65 in unprecedented numbers. *

Since the boomers indulged in
procreation more modestly than
their parents, there soon won't be
enough younger, “Generation X”
workers, goes the story, to supply
such retirement benefits for the
increasing masses of their long-liv-
ing elders. Not, that is, without"

; doubling premiums, raising the
entitlement age, or both — a threat. -

that brings dire warnings-about
killing both jobs and personal’
incentive. — <

- This naive line of thought hast to
; begun to catch up with reality.

For quite separate reasons jobs

. are already being being killed by

the thousands through “corporate

restructuring” aided by. technology ;

and globalization. Lean-’n-mean
firms and their shareholders are .
now enjoying bonanzas, while
redundant workers subsist on ‘Ul or
welfare.

Nor — according: to leading”
North American futurists like
Stanley Aronowitz, William
DiFazio and Jeremy Rifkin'— is:
any end ¢o this process in sight.

Within the next three decades,
and quite possibly earlier, they

foresee only 20% of the work force =

(mainly scientists, computer
experts and entertainers) still in

_ paid full-time jobs. he

If they’re right, it sheds a whole
new light on the so-called CPP
“crisis,” because senicrs will no
longer be on their own. They'll be -

part and parcel of a far larger army —

of younger, jobless. workers for
whom, also, no paid employment
in the traditional sense is available.
Compared with thar problem,
today’s concerns about funding che
CPP fade into insignificance. If we

ultimately £ face a ‘society. where the
80% with no paid jobs — plus i

seniors — are too poor to buy the.
products of the 20%. still employe:

_ then the latter’s super-efficient

economy must eventually self.

* destruct. Uniess, that-is,.we radic
, ly rethink our éntire philosophy.

work and its r2wards..
That would require S01 eone.to
start paying for the vast. amoun ?

to them tomorrow, ‘say.

_prophets, some four out of every
“five work-seekers.:

“of-life workers.” Like all

’ " workers they need an

livelihood. PP hee for this -——

wy

” the workforce that-will

ing, at vast profit; 100
material needs

’ the topic by. WVPD Cet.
_ James at West Van Senio:

Centre’s annual general meeting,
1:30 pm Thursday, Feb. 29, with:
afternoon tea and door prizes — be

’ there all 6Sers-plus

WRIGHT OR WRON : Prol
with Monday, it comes too carly in

_ the week.

EST VANCOUVER District

WWW canna deserves support in its

Y duel with the Capilano
Sportsmens Club,

By choosing to allucate the club’s
Ambleside park facility to West
Vancouver youth, it has committed itself
to giving the future a chance. And the
future needs all the help it can get.

Council’s commitment .is proving to
be a far from popular one now. But pop-
ularity is not the resson anyone should
be in public life.

The club’s members are justifiably
miffed at being given three months’
notice to vacate their idyllic premises to

make way for a youth facility.

They have, after all, been model ten-.
ants for the past +35 years. No fuss, no
bother, Rent puid on time; fees invested
in improving the club house.

The club also claims to provide some
recreation and skills-training for young
people already by sharing its facility
with West Vancouver Air Cadets.

But West Vancouver wants to make
the facility available to a wider range of
young people. Reviewing the use of
municipal facilities is one of the jobs of a
responsible council.

West Vancouver. Council has
reviewed the use of the Ambleside Park

facility and decided the Capitan
Sportsmens Club space would. sei
‘greater municipal good ‘as a. centre
youth. And that’s a good call... vrtigls

nothing to do, the commur

‘suffers. ; |.

Kids get inte trouble; elder folk get:
upset. The generation gap grows. wider;
community discord results.

Youth need a youth, centre; youth

need to know that they are a part of the

community, net apart from it. |