6 - Friday, June 24 1994 - North Shore News Quir DRINKING, 1 QUIT SMOKING, 1 GUT ALL FAT OUT oF MY DIET. VA DOING WHAT ICANT) TRY TD PREVENT CANCER. | ALSO OUT SUGAR OUT OF MY DiET AND | STOPPED WATCHING T.V. TUNG Got EVERYTHING PRET (WELL COVERED. 1 STAY AWAY FROM THE SUNS YLIRA VIOLET RAYS. 160 TO BED AT 8 PM. EXERCISE FOR TWO HOURS EVERY DAV... Referendumb HE NDP’S recall and referendum leg; islation appears to have pleased no one. Opposition parties and special- interest groups, those who stand to benefit mest by such legislation, were quick off the mark with critical broadsides. The requirements to make referendum stick are next to impossible. Initiative provi- sions stipulate that government must consid- er ally proposed law that receives the sup- port of 10% of British Columbians in each provincial riding. Should an initiative progress beyond this stage, and most likely none will because it takes only one of 75 provincial ridings to come up short on the 10% petition rule, it is then considered by an ali-party standing committee. That body can choose to table a report recoramending introduction of a draft ’ bill, or the committee may refer the initiative draft bili for a referendum vote. The Liberal party has suggested the 10% petition requirement needed from all elec- toral ridings be reduced to a limit of 5%. in 50 provincial ridings — a reasonable modifi- cation. Once at the referendum stage, the initia- tive must be supported by more than 50% of eligible voters in at least two-thirds of elec- toral districts. Government must then intro- duce the bill. Incredibly, though, government is not required te pass such a bill despite the grass- roots support shown for it by its having passed through the hoops imposed by gov- ernment on the way to the legislature. Without any provision that would bind government to the results of a popular initia- tive vote, the process becomes the very antithesis of a democratic exercise. Cleaner water needed sooner not later Dear Editor:. Further to your article on June - 15 “It's chlorine,” I wish to expand on the decision of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) water committee on which I set as a member. As little as I like spending money on rechlorination stations, they are, unfortunately, necessary in the short term to meet national health standards. The option the water committee Publisher Managing Editor... Associate Editor... Sales & Marketi Pater Speck . timothy Renshaw ..Noal Wright Linda Stewart chose includes completing the Seymour filtration plant by 2603, moving up the filtration of the Capilano reservoir by five years, and pilot testing ozone and biofil- tration for inclusion with each filter stage. The water committee, by rejeci- ing chloramine, attempted to retiect the passionate wish of the public to reduce environmentally toxic chemicals in our drinking water. However, we are also aware that Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax Newsroom 65-2131 -Doug Foot Oistribution Subscriptions Administration it could take six to eight years to pilot test, design and build the fil- tration/ozone facilities, and that there will be more, not less, chlo- rine in the interim. It is my job to make sure that the GVRD board and staff adhere to the public's wishes in making their preference for healthy, environmen- tally safe drinking water a reality sooner rather than fater. Janice Harris, Coun. North Vancouver District 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independont suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Parsgra ph 111 cf the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and, distributed to avery door on tha North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238. Malling rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited materiai Including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. V7M 2H4 1139 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver 8.C. North Shore Managed MEMBER RAN ! P| SDA DIVISION 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1994 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. C Rail deal a real coup for West Van TAKE YOUR excitement when and where you can. All Greater Tiddlycove residents should be on the streets banging their pots and pans to hail the coup by West Vancouver council -— and the short-odds likelihood that the much-discussed western recreational centre is now on the horizon. The deal negotiated between council and BC Rail for the provin- cial Crown corporation's 26-acre plot across from Gleneagles Golf Course is an outstanding job of municipal diplomacy. Take a bow, Steve Nicholls, West Vancouver director of plan- ning and development. [*m told that Nicholls did a top job leading the negotiation for the municipality. An equal salute to Jim Cox and Peter Martin, general manager and development manager respectively of BCR Properties, the real estate arm of BC Rail. Armed with instructions from the two parties to try to strike a deal rather than expensively drag the issue through the courts, and with some tight time constraints, Nicholls, Cox and Martin negotiat- 66 BC Rail deserves credit for making a generous settlement that wipes out the sense of hard-headed- ness that began this episode, 99 . ed intensely and, I'd say, pulled off a remarkable feat in coming to an agreement in just a couple of months. BC Rail deserves credit for making a generous settlement that wipes out the sense of hard-headed- ness that began this episode. Evea its critics acknowledged that it was a tad unfair to expect BC Rail to play Santa Claus with provincial taxpayers’ assets. Commendably, it tries to run in the black like a private sector business. But perhaps a somewhat trou- bled conscience also figured in BC Rail’s change of attitude. In the 1970s, as an old West Vancouver resident pointed out, the municipality sold a number of small parcels of land that BC Rail needed for a token $1. Fair's fair. In those days, as former mayor Derrick Humphreys remarked to me over coffee some months ago, there was a good top-level personal relationship between BC Rail and the municipality. The deal presented Monday to council sharply pares back BC Rail’s original proposal to develop from 45 to 56 single-family lots to just 18 lots north and south of Eagteridge Drive. That will preserve all but a part — north of Eagleridge Drive — of the beloved Seaview Walk. And the resulting houses shouldn’t visually Trevor Lautens GARDEN OF BIASES intrude on this charming walk any more than existing houses do, which is hardly at all. Ownership of the Seaview Walk itself, about 15 acres, will be trars- ferred by BC Rail to the municipal- ity. Gratis. Such a deal. For a very reasonable, if not bar- gain-basement, $1.98 millioa, the municipality will buy 3.7 acres of land extending from about Orchill Drive to the north end of the small but valued playing field. This is where you can feel the excitement, Sure, it isn't quite com- parable to stezaping out poverty, say, or fizding a cure for teenage zits. But the deal radically changes the status of the western recreation centre. It’s been a pie-in-the-sky dream of Greater Tiddlycove people for some years, consistently backed by Councillors Diana Hutchinson and Pat Boname and Mayor Mark Sager, among others. The dollars were an obvious problem. But the site hardly less so. Our community is largely rock. In West Vancouver, finding a level playing field is not just a metaphor. Until now, the best hope for a new western recreation centre — to replace the pleasant but very limit- ed one at Eagle Harbor — was as a tagalong for the new middle school at Caulfeild Plateau. But that site is as tight as Jack Benny’s old corset. And more than a little lumpy. Mayor Sager pointed out that it’s going to take about eight weeks of blasting to level it out. The recreation centre would have needed about the same. And also it would require a parkade, Ugly, ugly. Now along comes the settlement with BC Rail. It’s not only a great site — it’s a great bargain. As the deadpan words of the report to municipal nianager J.D. Allan put it: “In terms of costs, the acquisi-. tion price only marginally exceeds the site development costs of the Caulfeild site, while providing 2 significantly larger area for recre- ational use.” So not only would Jack Benny be able to spread out more, but he'd. love the savings, too. (If you are too young to remember Jack Benny, ! doubt if you have lived long enough to accumulate the dough to live in West Vancouver.) Mayor Sager had the strain of keeping this happy news under wraps until Monday night's council meeting. Didn't even tell his wife. He is, deservedly, ecstatic. It's a jewel for his administration.