: ¢ : ; t i Hee renee ce TIT Nl EL Mae Sey TN Pate Stengel ape a Necmrtenee OP REE ham ga coed dee ae tenes yet COMMUNITY hospital programs at Lions Gate Hospital are on the firing line. So says Dave Brousson, chairman of Pro-Lions Gate Hospital (PLGH), a 30-member organization recently formed to halt the takeover of the LGH hospital board by pro-life forces (those opposed to abortion). The mandate of PLGH, Brousson said, is to represent the wishes of the majority of North Shore residents. “Pro-life is a single issue group, and there is so much more that a hospital has to deal with.’’ Former board member Brousson was defeated in 1985 when four pro-life candidates swept the LGH hoard elections. DANGER BLOCK With four seats on the 17- member LGH board up for re- election on June 25, Brousson said Tuesday that there is a danger of pro-life candidates again sweeping those seats, ‘‘which would give them eight of the 12 elected seats.” “And though that’s technically not a majority,’’ Brousson said, By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter ‘it would create a block of rep- resentatives that could control the board.” DAVE BROUSSON Current LGH board chairman Hilary Clark said Wednesday ° A SCRE CORESISRSDSEAE fSTOPEMBN IDOE TES EAT SE ETEASTRIN, MOLE abortions constitute ‘‘.001 per cent of the hospital board’s con- cerns. In its present state, LGH is an excellent adjunct to North Shore community life, providing a broad range of health services for all sectors of the popula- tion."” LGH currently handles ap- proximately 180,000 patient visits annually and performs approx- imately 600 abortions in that same period. THREATENED If pro-life candidates win all four seats this year, Brousson said, the community aspects of the hospital will be threatened. He said pro-life candidates have vowed t 4ismantle the LGH therapeutic abortion com- mittee, ‘tand we believe the ma- jority of North Shore residents are against any single issue group gaining control of our hospital.” “We want to keep LGH a community hospital,’’ Brousson said. ‘‘To do this, we need to elect people who can bring a wide range of skills to the administra- tion of a large and complex health institution.”’ He emphasized that PLGH RE LAE, was not aligned strictly as a pro- choice versus pro-life group, but rather a broad-issue versus single-issue group. ROSS LABRIE PLGH also claims that the ma- jority of the 3,443 members of the North and West Vancouver Hospital Society, who are eligible to vote in annual board elections, were not represented in last year’s elections. Only 1,881 society members voted in 1985, compared to 2,995 3 - Friday, February 14, 1986 - North Shore News in 1980, Brousson pointed out.- SENSITIVE POLICY But Ross Labrie, president of North Shore Pro-Life (NSPL), said Monday that pro-life has no intention of dismantling ‘the hospital’s therapeutic abortion committee, “I think it’s impertinent for a group to say the majority was not represented in last year’s elec- tions just because they didn’t get elected.”” Labrie said the NSPL was dedicated to eradicating from the hospital a policy that resulted in ‘callous wastage of human life and replace it with a policy that is a little more sensitive.’’ NSPL, he said, interpreted health as something connected with disease or disability, not merely personal happiness. “Right now the hospital is say- ing that if a woman is depressed or unhappy she is unhealthy. We take the view that killing pre- born childrin is the worst solu- tion to that problem.’’ Labrie said PLGH ‘sounds like the same old group and the same tired ideas with a new name.” Cypress jowl manager demands payment for X-country trail use He said cost of providing and serving as cross-country ski runs maintaining everything from ski were built with public money, and patrol crews to washroom and that CBRL was provided with parking facilities ran into “the $80,000 annually by the provincial hundreds of thousands of dollars government to offset the cost’ of each year."* ploughing and maintaining roads and parking. “The dispute is an extremely complicated one,” said B.C. Pro- vincial Parks Department spokesman Wayne Stetski. “This whole thing is very new (licensing private interests to operate facility’s in provincial parks),’’-Stetski said, ‘tand with the recent increases in liability’ in- surance, it’s getting more com- plicated all the time. But we hope we can work it out to everybody’s satisfaction.”’ pay the $3 to $4 daily charge for that use. From Page 1. cross-country skiers used the mountain’s trails annually and that 99 per'cent of them were willing to HIGH COSTS He also cited a dramatic 1,000 per cent rise in liability insurance rates faced by Cypress in the com- ing year as reason for strict en- forcement of user-pay policies. “And even if, as these people say, they are not using the trails, they still make use of our parking and washroom facilities, and if they get lost it's our ski patrol that has to find them,"’ Booth said. But executive director for the Federation of Mountain Clubs of B.C. (FMCBC) Jim Rutter said Wednesday, groups protesting CBRL's policy were wilderness hikers that do not use any of CBRL’s facilities and have never neected such services as ski patrols. He said his federation repre- sented 33 clubs across the pro-: vince, 16 of which were in the Lower Mainland. VALID ARGUMENTS Stetski said both sides have valid arguments, because details of the parks-use permit both guarantee free public access to undeveloped areas of the park and rights of the licensee to charge everyone who uses downhill and cross-country facilities. Rutter said the FMCBC and representatives of the Canadian POPULAR HIKING Ski Association will meet with Wayne Booth Feb. 19 and present a plan to alter interpretation of the present CBRL boundaries. Rutter says the plan would allow hikers access to wilderness areas without having to cross. groomed Cypress Mountain, he added, was an extremely popular area for wilderness hikers and cross-coun- try ski touring groups. Rutter pointed out that most of