6 ~ Friday, April 30, 1993 ~ North Shore News YOU WAVE NOW HEARD THE POLICY POSITIONS OF ALL THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP GANDIDATES ... --NOW BAGK TO THE DEBATE. ... Y iy Serres “SOd) NEWS VIEWPOINT Show time IVE LOCAL theatre would make a good permanent fenant for Park Royal Shopping Centre’s empty three-screen cinema. West Vancouver, the richest per-capita community in Canada, missed its first op- portunity to establish its own permanent theatre when a lobby group failed to win municipal support for its pian to turn the vacant .Cineplex Odeon on Marine Drive into a centre for live theatre. The second opportunity should not be missed. Famous Players pulled ovt of the Park Royal theatre location in mid-January, leaving already theatreless West Vancouver without a cinema. Park Royal management is now seeking LETTER OF Dear Bditor: gas tax, etc. an iadependent operator for what it envi- sions as a cinema that would feature a mix of classic and foreign films. Bul it could just as easily be a multi-use facility with live theatre as one of its key compenents, The facility has 1,150 seats and 230 parking stalls. Seating capacity in its three separate theatre rooms ranges from 350 up to 450. : Sentinel secondary school’s recent suc- cess at staging its original production, The Blues Brothers, in the building suggests that one of the vacant cinema’s rooms would prosper as a theatrical venue. Live theatre deserves a home in West Vancouver, and that home is available now. THE DAY Need to know where tax money goes ' more unfair tax increases until this Is Catherine Atyeo a relative. of Doug Collins? This is not a tax revolt of the rich, for the rich. ‘ - The people at these rallies are ‘frustrated and outraged that peo- ple like Catheriné-and Glen Clark don’t seem to realize that we are paying our fair share of taxes al- teady on homes with inflated tax assessments and that these same citizens are also paying personal income tax, PST, GST, sin tax, Publisher . .. Associate Editor . Sales & Marketing Director Comptroller . North Shore News, founded in cola .Peter Speck Managing Editor... . Timothy Renshaw . Noel Wright Linda Stewart . .Doug Foot 1969 as an . So Catherine, please try and understand the issues here instead of drifting off into the varied and unassociated areas that you did in your column. We don’t mind paying up, but we do expect some accountability from the government. We need to know that our taxes are going to the people and areas that need it instead of being used to cover political perks, pensions, and union paybacks. We don’t want to receive any Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Newsroom 985-2131 Distribution $ Subscriptions $86-1337 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax government learns to spend less money, and if they can't do that then they should give the people what they voted for — quite sim- ply, a recall. One day, Catherine, when you wake up and smell the coffee, you might use your column to thank all of us who are standing up now and saying with a united voice, “Hell no, we won't take it anymore.”’ Erica O'Dwyer North Vancouver 986-1337 & This newspaper contains my recycled fibre North Shore managed MEMBER THERE’S WEEPING and wailing and gnashing of teeth at BC Hydro over us naughty British Columbians — charg- ed with being among the world’s biggest energy gluttons. But why, on reflection, all the fuss? The alarm bells are sounded in a sweeping new report on power us¢ in the province by a body called Hydro’s conservation col- laborative, chaired by onc Nancy Cooley. Unless we mend our wicked ways, it warns, several big new dams costing zillions will be needed by 2010. Since the province is clearly in no shape to contemplate capital megaprojccts on that scale, the study concludes that changes in our behavior — such as faunder- ing in cold water and turning off unneeded lights — are the only solution. In short, the much- touted Power Sinart program must be beefed up and everyone must start paying alicntion, ““What we have here,"’ says Ms. Cooley, ‘‘is a situation where energy is so abundant that most people take electricity for granted.” Come to think, however, that’s a curious comment in what we still regard as being predominantly a free market cconomy — the kind we’re trying to teach Boris Yeltsin's Russia to embrace. A basic rule of the free market is that scarcity of a widely wanted product causes its price to rise. That leads the consumer to con- serve on his use of the product — | not for any.“‘moral”’ reason but ~ merely to save money. If enough pecple do the same, the product will eventually cease to be scarce and the price will drop back down. ; What Ms. Cooley reaily means, of course, is that energy — still for the moment abundant — is so CHEAP that customers are en- couraged to squander it. This be- ing the case, it’s smal! wonder the quite costly Power Smart pro- gram, offering (of all things!) fi- nancial incentives to use less power, is failing to solve the prob- lem. Obviously, the only financial incentive capable of cutting back consumption of under-priced elec- tricity is to RAISE its price. Not that residential customers need necessarily suffer. In order to protect their pocketbooks they can simply exercise the reasonable conservation measures which Power Smart has been unable to seli them on voluntarily. Mean- while, hard-core squanderers who refuse to cut back can contribute to eventually building more dams. What about industry and jobs? No problem. Plants can be granted lower differential rates based on the actual power needs of their manufacturing process, maybe with extra discounts for exporters. ; Otherwise — having established the price levels needed to stem waste -— leave the market to sort things out. . oO The market is considerably smarter at dealing with that kind ‘- of problem than Power Smart! SCRATCHPAD: Wrapping up its 1992-93 subscription season on Sunday, May 2, at 8 p.m. in the Centennial Theatre, North Shore Community Concerts presents the internationally celebrated flute and guitar duo Bettine Clemen ' Ware and Richard Patterson. ... Delight Mom next weekend with a gift from the giant West Yan Kiwanis Plant Sale next Friday- Saturday, May 7-8, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days onthe Rec _- Centre parking lot, Gordon and 22nd. ... Kitsilano High class of °63 members still awaiting details of the 30-year reunion planned | for Sept. 17-18 are asked to con- tact Anne at 431-6090. ... And many happy returns of this April 30 to Mount Seymour Lion Bill Harbourne on his 6{th birthday.” . WRIGHT OR WRONG: Live well, laugh often, love much and you can count yourself a success. ree METS RTE Ek ort independent suburban newspaper and qualied under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, 1s published each Wednesday, Friday ana Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distbuted to every door on the North Shore Pei trots went etac ick Canada Post Canadian Publications Matt Sales SUNOAY > wEENESORY toduct Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing tates available on request. Submissions afe welcome but Ny 3 to nsdale Avenue, we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited orth Vancouver, B.C. material cluding manuscripts and pictures which V7M 2H4 should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. . 3. é Photo submitted ACCLAIMED DUO perform in North Van... guitarist Richard Pat- terson, flutist Bettine Clemen Ware. 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire ‘contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.