wa 6 - Friday, April 3, 1987 - North Shore News : News Viewpoint Nuclear watch HILE Canadians look on with white- knuckled fascination as the international arms race continues unabated, a nuclear-_ driven behemoth in sheep's clothing is quietly clawing at our back door. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), a gov- ernment-owned Crown corporation, would like us to irradiate our food with the nuclear industry’s leftover radicactive goodies (cobalt 60). Safe, peaceful atoms. A convenient use for the glow-in-the-dark stuff and a longer shelf-life for fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and spices. The issue was initially slated for legislative change in Parliament this spring with an order-in-council deci- sion to designate food irradiation a process rather than continuing its current status as a food ad-litive. The change would have fast-tracked the start of tie ir- radiation industry in Canada with the AECL as a ma- jor supplier of irradiators and cobalt 60. The hue and cry from a concerned citizenry resulted, in the establishment of a Consumer and Corporate Affairs Committee headed by North Van- couver-Capilano MP Mary Collins which conducted nation-wide hearings on the issue. ' The hearings are over and inevitable doubts have been raised. The irradiation opposition points to vitamin loss, genetic mutations, cancer-causing aflatoxins and the potential for increased environmen- tal hazards. The standing committee report will be ‘tabled in Parliament the first week of May. Consumer awareness and due process of debate of the issue are eritical. Let’s keep the back door closed to food irradiation in Canada. Noel Wright ® friday folktales @ Frank Baker's Attic, can now sympathize with Mark Twain when ithe latter complained that reports “‘greatly exag- REASSURING NEWS for those who fear legalized casinos may lay out the welcome mat for the Mafia is the appointment of Derrick ‘of his death were , Humphreys to the B.C. Gaming | J gerated”’. Last week the lines link- Commission, announced Wednes- day. A stickier for discipline and, playing by the rules in all things, West Van’s former mayor can be trusted to keep an eagle eye onen for nasty immigrants from Vegas and Reno, as well as for home- grown mobsters. He has one other sound credential for the job—in his family ‘circle Derrick enjoys nothing more than the occasional decorous evening of nickel-ante poker or black jack. ing CKNW'’s Rafe Mair with his “SORRY, I'M DEAD, so I can’t talk to you,’’ quipped Lance Har- rison. ‘‘Otherwise, [I’m _ feeling fine!” The former music man of DERRICK HUMPHREYS...no mobsters welcome. LETTER OF THE DAY Couvelier’s budget is no ‘Robin Hood’ “Human ; Resources ‘ Services) to health. When accoun- ting changes are eliminated the ac- . THE VOICE OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER Display Advertising | 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Olstribut'on 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 Publisher: Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor .. Advertising Director. Peter Speck Noel Wright . Barrett Fisher Linda Stewary Korth Shore News, founded 19 1669 a5 aan intependent tuourban Newspaper and quatihed under Sctusdule fH, Paragrapes tll of the Eacise ie Act 15 publsterd auch Aeminenday Friday and Sunday Dy North Shore Free Press Lid and distebutd to reery oot oF the North Shore Second Class Mai! Reqtraton Mumber 3605 Subichphens Norn and West Vancuunar, $26 per year Marling dales, avanlable ov request Submissions ate welcome bul we Cannot accent tesponnibilty lor uNsobCited matetal nctud.en nanuscrpts and brctures which thould ber accompamend by a Started, aoderssed erreaonms 58,287 (average, V/ednesday . Friday & Sunday) sources somehow got crossed, leading Rafe to report on the air that the veteran band leader had died, But nothing sounded less like “a corpse than Lance when we phoned his home number to check. ed “BETTER AND BRIGHTER” was the mid-week report from LGH on City Alderman Stella Jo Dean, who smashed her elbow to smithereens in early March when she slipped on an oil slick in Woodward’s downtown parking. garage. But it will stil! be a hospitai Easter for the lady, with further surgery to remove the steel pins presently holding the elbow together scheduled for April 15 and the promise of returning home about a week later. *et HONORED at last weekend’s safety awards banquet at Gleneagles were West Van bus drivers Lorne Booth (25 accident- free years) and Robert Pearson (the new Special Award for all- round model operator—no acci- dents, no passenger complaints, no absenteeism and popular with col- leagues). It’s the likes of Lorne and Robert behind the wheel who explain West Vancouver's longstanding love affair with its Blue Buses. as WRAP-UP: West Van kicked off a national forum on heraldry in Ot- Dear Editor: The News editorial ‘‘Robin Hood Jr.7’? (March 22) questions whether ‘‘an NDP budget would not have followed broadly similar lines’? as Couvelier’s first budget. The answer is a clear no. Couvelier’s budget is hardiy “Robin Hood’’. For those making over $100,000 the average tax take is down by $18 while for middle income earners the tax take is up by over $100. Many of the in- creases. in spending are simply distortions. In health Couvelier claims an increase of 8 per cent, but most of that is made‘up of transferring Pharmacare from (now Social SUA DIVISION ° ‘tawa late last month, attended by Municipal Clerk Doug Alan who orchestrated the March 15 coat- of-arms presentation ceremony ‘ marking Tiddlycove’s 75th birth-° day.... Rick Hansen will have some 60 monuments lasting up to a century apiece created this year in North Van City, where Mayor DUE TO BUDGET GUIBACKS, THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM 15 A REPEAT. Entire contents © 1987 North Shore s. tights reserved. Free Press Lid. All Jack Loucks and his council have decreed that Rick’s name must be stamped in the concrete of ali wheelchair ramps to be built in the City during 1987, And congrats to North Van's Ernie Earnshaw and Merilyn this Sunday (April 5) when they celebrate the second anniversary of their hitching. £80 f “NEWS photo Stuart Davis MONUMENT to a hero...City designer, Steve Harborne stamps “Rick Hansen 1987°° into the wet concrete of the new wheelchair ramp. at Lonsdale and Keith, watched by City Engineer Alan Phillips () and Mayor Jeck Loucks. tual increase in health is 3. 1 per cent which is less than the negoti- ated wage increases. Conflict and cutbacks will] be the story for health care in 1987/88. Similarly, the so called increase.in legal aid is nothing more than an accounting trick. Supplementary grants to legal aid were rolled into the basic grant and it was then claimed that legal aid had been increased by 30 per cent, The fact is that there is no real increase | in- funding for legal aid. An NDP puidget would have focused on job creation by reallocating the major part of the “counter veil’? to reforestation. An NDP budget would have based taxation on ability to ‘pay, it cer- tainly would not have reduced benefits for pensioners who have the misfortune to be il. An NDP budget would. have reduced the deficit over the term of office by developing an economic pian to get B.C. back,to work. The Vander Zalm- Couvelier budget has not ‘only failed to resemble anything’ that would be put forward by the NDP but it also ,attacked the natural constituency - of the Socreds. An NDP budget would inot have attacked home ownership through a real estate tax nor would it have attacked small business with a 40 per cent increase in the tax take. We now have a. projected $850 billion deficit with - no hope, or even promise, that the deficit will pay off v with a greater - tomorrow. |: a David D. Schreck North Vancouver