6 - Friday, September 3, 1999 — North Shore News north shore news VIEWPOINT EW Immigration Minister | Elinor Caplan is sitting on a powderkeg that needs inme- diate defusing. If she follows the lead of her pre- decessors and does nothing, its igni- tion will have faliout well beyond the immigration ministry. The boatloads of illegal migrants from China are not going to stop. They are not going to be tarned back by political rhetoric and hand-wring- ing. As long as Canada remains a country whose policy is to accept any- one who arrives at its borders as a de facto citizen, eligible for a free swing in its social safety net, as long as it is easier to enter the country illegally than it is legally, they will continue to | come. Who can blame them? Caplan’s response thus far has been mailbox ~ Ganadian families need real tax breaks Dear Editor: . I couldn’t agree more with (Timothy Renshaw’s) Aug. 29 (Ripping Yarns) column (“Keep gov't cut of babysitting business”). Who does the government consult with when it comes up with these ideas? . Speaking as an at-home mom, $12 billion in day care will do nothing for my family. Most people I know who are working would prefer to be able to stay at home with their kids, so instead of day care ey would rather have tax breaks so they could - .. subsidies afford to live on one income. ._,,Chances are, if you want to pursue a career you can prob- ably afford to pay for your day care. ae My mother has:come up with an idea that is basically a ‘: dependent spouse tax bracket. If you are a one-income fam- : ily, the Spouse that is working gets taxed Sess. _ She says-that they don’t need to make more moncy, they just need more of the money that my stepfather is already making. Ifshe didn’t he's « work, someone else could have her job. it doesn’t really sake all that much money to make i a big difference in a lot Sf f2milies, know people who make $30 a shift after paying for day = .care — but they need ‘even that small amount. How many jobs would open up if more women were able of a difference would that make to stay home, and what kin .-; t9 our children? ao “+: Not tO mention that if you can pay a stranger to look -., after your children, why can’t you pay your own wife? My husband and J made the decision for me to stay at “re”: home for the good of our family and we don’t expect the lent to. pay us for this, but we certainly don’t appre- 2” goverament ._ Gaze being punished: feeble at best. Following the arrival on B.C. shores of the third boatload of Chinese migrants this summiez, she is quoted as saying that “anyone who arrives at a Canadian border, whether it is by boat, plane, train, car or on foot, has the right to claim refugee status and have their case heard.” We can’t do much with that is the governmental shrug, Well that’s not good enough. Canada’s refugee laws and proce- dures have this country playing the lead buffoon in a bad international joke. Canadians are sick of hearing that those laws asd procedures are under review. Change them now. Rid us of the phoney refugees and the laws that encourage them to tar- get Canada as the world’s softest touch or rid us of this timid and inef- fective government. a age Detailing an nee a CONSUMER alert! megasized Imperial Parking mi Imperial’s grubby little practices. My youngest son, who is 10, went sailing up the coast recently with Wilf and Lynn Burnett and son Stewart. The arrangement was that he would fly home after cight or nine days and the Burnetts would continue northwards for a couple of weeks. All well and good. My wife and I were duly phoned and were told. FING NDP'S TRADITIONAL This nasty experience of mine with North Shore people from the clutches of Pvasesrscesennenersosesennessceeres, POSTON imperial operation is delightful, especially com- pared with major airports’ abhorrent assembly lines that process people and pack them into flying tin cans like sar- dines.) . Well, no need to grind out details. You - guessed it. The plane - didn’t materialize between 3:30 and 3:45 as expected, We watched one plane after another come down: with a satisfying splash and peered at the name on the side and nonce was Rainbow. We made 2 couple of trips to the desk and “THe NDP that the float plane would deliver him safe in our arms the fcllowing Saturday afternoon. The carrier was Rainbow Air. Scheduled arrival time: 3:30 to 3:45. But, we were to learn, schedules are = pretty loose on the coastal float plane ser- - vice. In fact there is a charming casual- ness that reminds you that the fun days of small-plane flights over B.C.’s lonelier real estate aren’t over. Anyway, we parked the car in the float plane parking lot, west of Burrard Street, and bought an hour’s worth of space, thinking that was quite sufficient. The time was stamped 3:03. No sign, though, for Rainbow Air. It . turned out that Rainbow docks at Harbor Air’s facilities and uses its waiting room, where the tiny reservation desk also pro- ‘vides flight information for Rainbow. ‘(No criticism of either Harbor Air or Rainbow here, in case you’re waiting, for it. In fact the small, hurnan scale of the were assured it was on its way, that it would arrive within 10 or 15 minutes, etc. : : My good wife, the Stress Queen, got more and more uptight. The “10 or 15 minutes” lengthened. We forgot all abour parking matters: ‘ : - At last Rainbow’s plane came down — - as all airplanes eventually do, except . ‘maybe Amelia Earhart’s, which could stil Ls be up there. "We got back to the car at about 4:40. : And there, yes, was Imperial’s officious parking “ticket,” tattooed with acres of - tiny intimidating print in stern icgalese, the boitom line being that the “fine” was $55 — which, graciously, wouid be reduced to $30 if paid “within 72 hours.” : Think of it. . _ How many innocents, unaware that ” these relatively short coastal flights are pretty relaxed about time, are caught in- 'REPOSITIONEDE TOWARDS “THE CENTRE | Rota parking pain Imperial’s mieney-spinning machine? . it's lave on a Saturday afternoon, few cars on the lor — and I suspect Imperial routinely sends out its sweethearts know- ing it can wring extra cash from people - who run out of time exactly as we did. ~ North Vancouver writer Niccle Farton checked Imperial’s imperious ways in 1991, when a reader was “fined” becatise one of his two reccipts atop. the dash--- .board obscured the time stamped.on the. other. Niccle also had her own cun-in. © - Imperial quickly scotched the “fine.” ; fae hear this: Rorpithsranding its: uffing and puffing, it’s doubsful if. Imperial’: Sf are enforcealle in lam Nicole quoted lawyer- Rocke | 7 Roberisan, 2 contract law specialist, v said that Imperial’s “collection of their’. self-determined fines is an unsavory erploitive business practice which impacts pamarily on the weak and eideriy.” . So I'd advise everyone to, avoid Imperial, But that’s not easy. The.2 an International behemoth. - F _ Yes, I paid my “fine” rather. than valuable time arguing. But Ialso thre my special, highly secret curse on: Imperial, That curse is powerful ; bog .. Better late than never; Praise for Harmony Arts Festival performance 6 the Prometheus Trio (Emily.Greeat violin, Colin Giles, cello; Curtis-Hi piano) at West Vancouver’s intimate Silk Purse. * This idyllic afternoon bore . remark of, I think, E. M. Forster, th “music is “the only unpunished ‘rapture on: this earth.”’ . : LETTERS TO THE EOITSR ~ - Letters must include your name, full address & telephone number, VIA e-mall trenshaw @ direct.ca ‘Nerth Shore Hews, founded in 1969 as an - . fodepandent suburban mesepaner and quatified - * ander Schedule 111, Paragraph 14% cf the . Excise Tax Act, is published sech Wodnesday, Friday and Sunday by HCN Pubications Company and distributed! to every door on the Noxth Shore, Canada Post Canadien Publications ~ Mail Sales Product Agresment No, 0087230. - Mailing rates avaliable on request, 85-2181 (177) 95-2131 (85) Pete. Photography Manager Distribution Manager Creative Services Dizector 06-1357 (124) : 985-2131 (127) 835-2131 (162) 65,582 (average ciruiaion, Wednesday, Frigay & Sunday) Entire contents © 1999 HCN Publications Company. 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