north shore

The Herth there Mews is published by Herth

Shore Free Press Lis, Publisher Peter Speck,

from 1139 Lonsdale Avence
Wert) Vancoever, B.C., V7M 214

PETER SPECK
Publisher
985-2131 (101)

Human Resources Marager
985-2137 (177)

Letters mist include your r name;
~~ address & telephone number.”

61.582 (eveap craton, Wechestay, Fay ras

or)

Entire contents
© 1997 North Shore

; Free Press Lid. Prone
H All rights reserved. Payee

HERE is no end to our fish foofish-

fiess. Plunder, greed :and short-sight-
edness continue to rule the waves. *
- And on shore the federal Department of
Fisheries and Oceans continues to misman-

age the once-rich resource from afar.

Take the most recent revelations regarding
~ the herring roe fishery — a commercial pur-

suit that is questionable at best.

“~ Herring are a major food source for the
. ailing: West Coast salmon population. In
Georgia Strait alone the chinook salmon
fishery has dropped to 20% of what it was in
1980. And evidence continues to roll in doc-

tion is having on the viability of salmon
stocks themselves.
- Readers don’t need a PhD in marine biol-
ogy: to figure that out. It only makes com-
=mon:. sense., But common sense is not an

IN town the weekend before last as a

~ Guest speaker (rumored fee $5,000) at
: tthe NDP convention, Jeremy Rifkin:

- reportedly got along with Premier Glen

‘soul ‘brother.

reasons why.

__ Rifkin is the
Washington L}.C.
economic guru
whose book, The

End Of Work, shook

the free-enterprise
world a few years aga. His thesis is that the tech-
nological revolution now replacing the industrial
economy with the knowledge econonty will mean
— possibly within as little as 25 years — that
there'll be work for only about 20% of today’s
work force.

Of the remaining 80% a few may scrape by in
low-paid, dead-end, temporary work. But most,
under our present system, will be permanently
jobless. The blue-collar factory worker will be vir-
tually climinated. An elite one worker in five will
supply all society’s material needs. Every job that
can be done by some technical gizmo will be.

Nor is Rifkin alone. Iain Williamson, a
Toronto author, has come to the same conclusion
about looming mass unemployment in his book

37%.

exceeded during the opening.

said.
Great.

ill afford.

The ‘Net Effect. His solution, like Rifkin’s, is that

only government will be capable of solving the

problems by redistributing the wealth generated

by the knowledge economy ina dramatically new
“social contract.”

In short, Williamson ‘ suggests the brave new
world will tead toa “highly socialistic System .. if
anything is going to kill off capitalism, it’s going
to be this.”

So far the content of the needed new “social
contract” in a brave new world of 80% virtual
unemployment remains somewhat vague.
Practical suggestions to date include job creation
through cutting the work week by half for the
same pay; slashing the frequently bloated pay of
top company exccutives; and relieving companics
of payroll levies — with governinent compensated
by higher tax revenue from more people working.

Not that the Rifkin-Williamson scenario is
exclusively a government headache. With 89% of
the work force jobless, who could afford to buy
all the goodies being spewed out by robots and
computers?

So no wonder Jeremy and Glen hit it off. The
only answer the former sees to a largely jobless
future is heavily interventionist government.
That’s music in any socialist’s cars. The worry is,
he could be right!

000
ELECTION ALERT: Our trusty agent reports
Elections Canada has renied office space in North
Van for a 40-day period starting in May. As well, he

abundant resource in the halls of: federal
bureaucracy. Instead of reducing B.C.’s her-
ring harvest, DFO folk raised it — by almost

Fish foolishness of the first order.

Now word just in that the roe herring
fishery in Barkley Sound resulted in the °
quota being exceeded by almost 60%. A fish-
erics manager was quoted as saying that the
department didn’t think there was:a signifi-
cant risk of the quota’s being substantially -

“Obviously we were wrong,” the manager
y

Another hole blasted in the West Coast
fish food chain. Another miscalculation by
fisheries personnel. Another case of fish fool-
ishness the West Coast fishing industry can

Concerns
questioned |

Dear Editor:

Re: the lerter from Dennis
Prouse (No-Fault leccer in .
News loaded with ICBC bias).

We can confirm that R.”
Brian Caton is a retired ICBC -
employee.

We can also confirm thar’,
many letters appearing in’ the.
press across B.C. have ‘been
written by trial lawyers who
have not identified themselv eS.
So what?

TF Mr. Prouse i is suggesting”
that someone. who ‘has* the’.
temerity to offer an: opinion
counter to his ‘and ‘his trial”
lawyer clients is doing nothing
more than creating “an ICBC
advertorial,” what can we!
make of his letrer?

Mr. Prouise states that he is:

victims, from ‘the crucltics
5 no-fault insurance.”

Based on some of the rd *
posals currently;  being' ex
ined, here is what Mr. Prouse
is saving ‘you from:. better
immediate and’ guaranté
benefits for al! seriously::

_ injured people; Ddeiiefits that
~ are determined by the injure
person before a crash — o7
that he Gr she does not have to |
} sue anyone to. ger;’ being:
‘Spared a premium increase“
at could easily. be 40% by th
year 2000 to sustain the’ cur
“rent liability-based ’ system.

yur

single-vehicle mishap; a co!

sion with an animal or becatise
of poor weather and road con
: ‘ditions. Those people numbe!

in the thousands: ‘each year.
"Mr. Prouse. and ‘the: tr

lawyers are apparently: con-

‘cerned only about those who

have someone to- sue.

must wonder why. *--:

Ken Hardie

ICBC

tells us, . Liberals have rented office space in Ottawa
for the same period. Our equally trusty pocket ¢
culator adds up those two items to a June:9.fed
al election: Prepare for a long hor sprin
Meanwhile, John Reyno lds will be challe
for the Reform*Party nomination in Capilan
Howe Sound by Danish-born Axe! Duch (Pro:
nounced Duke) who settled here in 1955. -
Longtimé West; Van ‘resident and airline pilot
(Canadian Pacific and PWA), with time-out pei
ods on humanitarian air transport assignments

Vietnam and Biafra, he has operated his own avia-
tion consulting y firm here since 1984. Says he was.

moved to enter politics by disgust with the old-
line parties after reading On The Take, Stevie
Cameron’s classic hatchet job on the Mulroney
era.

009
ON DAY ONE of his prime of life — tomorrow,

March 13 — wish happy 60th birthday to North -

Van’s own Mozart, composer Michael Conway
ker.

900
WRIGHT OR WRONG: Instead of pointing a

finger :*v lerding a hand.

— 68 Nuri Shove News believes strongly in fee
dom. speech and the right of all sides in a debate
to he heard. The columnists published in the News
present differing points of view, but those views are
not necessarily those of ahe newspaper isl .

SEDATE SP TE OY SHON OF