north shore.

The North Shore News is peblished ky Sort’
Shore Free Press Ltd., Publisher Peter Speck,
from 1139 Loasdale Arence

North Vancouver,

Publisher
885-2131 (101)

Br EE SREY

hews viewpoint ___

2G

HE news from Lions Gate Hospital that

we -acute-care beds are being designated

.for ase by long-term care, patients

‘brings into sharp focus just how wrong we've

‘|| -gome with our medical system.

Michael Becksr-Hews
- 985-2131 (114)
menity Editer
985-2131 (147): .

LETTERS TG THE EDITOR ©
Letters must Include your name, full address
& telephone number.
_ MIA Internet: trenshaw @ direct.ca
COMPUTER BBS - 980-8027

sakes ay peg ria NI.

hme Nt mt an

fork: Shove Hows, founded in 1969 os a independ

‘61,592 (average citculation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday}
Entire contents

© 1996 North Shore
Free Press Ltd.

_ We.live with a system that by default sup-
ports institutional placement for people who

- could be living at home with sufficient com-
- munity-based support.

- But assistance at a neighborhood level just
isn’t there the way it could be, despite all of
the hype about bringing health care closer to
home.

Ideally we take personal responsibility to

look after our ailing family members. Given

that we do, a family shouid be able to have
available to it the kind of support required to

. allow our elderly citizens the option to contin-

WE CALL THESE
CHRETIENS... THEY Do
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
FOR YOU, BUT FOR SOME
UNKNOWN REASON. You

FEEL GOOD ANYWAY.

Unhealthy situation

turn to our hospitals. Meanwhile the mount-
ing stress for medical service is felt most
acutely on the emergency ward, where ambu-
lances must wait with patients while hospitals
scramble for the rescurces to receive them.
What is needed is a real community com-
mitment to home-based health-care support.
Free up our hospital to allow it to function as
a place where people can go when the;
require immediate medical attention. .

At the same time energy should be invested -

in solving the crunch in the emergency ward.

!

A contingency plan is needed so that ambu-. .

fances can drop off patients and respond
promptly to other emergency calls from the
street. : a
It’s an unhealthy situation when ap eimer-
gency ward becomes a holding unit for
patients who should be admitted and. cared

i

for W. Van
hotel idea

Dear Editor:

T read with interest the col-
umn by Trevor Lautens in the
Jan. 10 North Shore News.

His dream of a hotel on,
the Upper Levels Highway
overlooking that wonderful
vista of the inlet was a dream
that was shared by my father.
His name was Victor Zizka
and he had a delicatessen in -
the original Park | Royal,
known as Victor’s, before it
became a mall. :

He was well-known on the
North Shore as he also did ].
catering. His love of wine and
food transferred itself to his
son, who was sent to Cornell
University for Hotei :,
Management — with the idea
of becoming’a hotelier. -°°:

My. father had purchased: a

over an acre of land off the.
old Upper
(the only picce of conmmer-
cially zoned property between -
Park Royal and Horseshoe ®:[°
Bay), with the intention. of ”
building a European-style
hotel and restaurant. ;
With the expansion of the ©
Upper Levels, the highway
ministry expropriated a large
portion of his'property. -*:
He suffered a severe finan-'
cial loss; however, he believed
he had enough land left. to
build a restaurant, if not the
hotel. Then‘: B.C. Hydro
expropriated another _large:
chunk. What was left was ‘aot.
enough for his dream, and he’
sold it. gee eS
Lautens is absolutely right
_in saying that our councils are
too timid, too parochial, ‘etc.’
They do not have the visio
and dreams of an immi, ;
and they dash the dreams of
those who do..7 = 2'5"
_i Lisa Cooper *"
North Vancouver

Levels highway J: a

ue living at home.

Without a viable home-based option we

Second time around for Cypress?

BEN-GAY, the soothing arthritis oint-
ment to help seniors sleep, happens
also to be the pronunciation of a very
different name that’s much more likely
to induce .

nightmares in

many longtime

West Van resi-

dents.

Benguet (ben’-
gay) was a US.
conglomerate
granted a lease of
Cypress Bowl
mountain by the provincial government back in
the 1970s. The lease allowed them to build con-
dos and other developments high up on the
mountain — with a Benguet casino rumored to
be part of the package. ; .

When the news leaked out there were roars'of
disapproval from local residents, as well as from
much farther aficld. The West Van council of the
day cailed a series of public meetings in protest.
Opposition to the project was so fierce and wide-
spread that Victoria was forced to climb dowa
and withdraw the lease it had already signed.

Is today’s massive, Victoria-backed expansion
plan for Cypress Bowl another “Benguet?”
That's what the watchdog Friends of Cypress
Park group and their prominent ally, former

for.

mayor Derrick Humphreys, fear — not without
some justification.

As noted in Sunday’s column (Jan. 26), the
$40-million project to benefit the current 50-
year-leaschotder, Cypress Bowl Recreations
(CBR), would double the present ski capacity
and build a “year-round resort” in the park —
including a gondola-accessed 100-seat restau-
rant, retail stores, lodges and nearly 8,000 sq.
metres of extra parking.

As with Benguet, the scheme comes at some
considerable environmental cost. The Friends of
Cypress Park estimate that 50 acres of ancient
forest (including 1,000-year-old trees) will actu-
ally have to be logged — while more than 500
acres of old-growth will be affected by forest
fragmentation. But that’s not all.

With an estimated daily average of at least
15,000 visitors up on Cypress Bowl numerous
other problems will obviously spill over into

~ West Van itself — among them, added traffic and

air pollution, parking, policing and fire protec-
tion, ambulance facilities and water supply.

Right now the plan remains on hold, awaiting
West Van’s OK for the sewage generated by the
expanded resort’s 15,000-plus daily visitors to be
flushed through the municipality’s drains —
despite a 1995 engincer’s report showing the
West Van sewage system to be already over-
loaded.

To its credit, West Van’s new council under
Mayor Pat Boname appears so far to be heeding

warnings of the Friends of Cypress and ex-ma
Humphreys against hasty action. They’ve —.°
ordered an updated engineer’s report and also: ”
promise to seck public input on the whole pro-
ject. . 5 :
Meanwhile, an impatient Victoria is exerting
pressure on West Van to come to heel fast. The _
reason: a messy lawsuit brought by CBR against
the province, alleging breach of trust and con-'
tract. Victoria figures the expansion plan -—'once
firm — will persuade CBR to drop, court action: -

As noted above, however, sewagais far from --
the only problem for West Vancouvegites. A quar-
ter-century ago, after assessing the impact of the .
Benguet scheme on the environment and their
overall lifestyle, they put the boot to it with a
force that defeated even Victoria.

Are they now suddenly watching history.
repeat itself?

O09
NEXT, THE BIG QNz! Belated happy births -
day wishes yesterday, Jan. 28, to longtime‘ North
Van resident Rose Edwards — still enjoying her
99 years.

O00
WRIGHT OR WRONG: Only the mediocre
are at their best at all times.
— The North Shore News believes strongly in free-
dom of speech and the right of all sides in a debate
to be heard. The colummnusts published in the News
present differing points of view, but those views arc
not necessarily those of the newspaper itself.