4CRUSS NTH BNC, CTZENS 4R6 PRORCING THER (i iT win Si “NEWS VIEWPOINT Tee time OLFERS WHO can’t swing their ay into private clubs have been short-yarded on the North Shore long enough. It is time to go for the green. North. Vancouver District Council has been putting about the Northlands public golf course issue for years. A missed op- portunity to parlay a proposed golf course at the site into a civic centennial project cost the municipality major potential grant money last year. . “The Northlands development, a comple urban plan attempting to be all things to all peopte, should be settled this year. Since the Squamish Band shut down the Lions Gate Golf Centre fast year, the estimated 21,000 golfers living on the North Shore have been without 2 local driving range. In September, the Squamish Band and Japanese investors announced plans to open new golf driving ranges at the Capilano and Seymour reserves in the fall. But the plans fell through. A bright spot for local golfers yearning for tee-time is to be found, thanks to the Burrard Band. The natives and their investment part- ners are moving ahead on the construction of a driving range capable of accommo- dating 80 golfers at a time. The project, slated for an August open- ing, will create jobs for band members and take some of the pressure off the pent-up demand for ‘ocal golfing facilities. Bravo Burrard! LETTER OF THE DAY How about. condos for Caulfeild? Dear Editor: Adding strength to the April 5 letter “‘Nothing wrong with Hillside,"” by Rosemary Hazen of West Vancouver, of course a school building of 30 years of age has not already been outdated. I received my early schooling from 193!-on, first at primary and later middle school in the Netherlands. We celebrated our 50-year reunion fast year. Still in the same building where I attend- .ed early high school years £939- Publisher. __. Managing Editor . . Associate Editor... Advertising Director Comptroller . . Peter Speck Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright . Linda Stewart . Doug Foot 1942, My primary schooi is still in use for that purpose. Why not develop the Caulfeild Plateau Property for townhouses? It should give the municipality sufficient revenue to update Hillside, and it would certainly be more appealing to the merchants of Caulfeild village and the area residents. Hillside has an A-1 location with excellent schoolbus accessibility, and the municipality already owns it. Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualfhed under Schedule 111, Paragraph tIl of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every doot on the Norih Shore Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885 est Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing tates available on request Submissions are welcome bul we cannot accept Tesponsibility for unsolicited material including Subscnptions North and 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 manuscnpis and pictures which should be accompanied by a slamped, addressed envelope. Distribution Subscriptions Fax Adniinistration Caulfeild school property of approximately 13.6 acres less 25% for roads and parks leaves 10.20 acres or 445,230 sq.ft. At 7,000 sq.ft. per unit this yields 63 con- dos. Land value per condo at $175,000. Total value approxi- mately $11 million. Wouldn’t Sti million cover a fot of improvements carried out at Hillside? No burden on the tax- payer either. Hans Pathuis West Vancouver 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131 MEMBER SN SDA DIVISION North Shore managed 61,582 (average circulation, Weanesday Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. _J* Docs wont cure fee problems by strike threats AFTER THE blood of your scribe — and definitely not for testing purposes — is North Van’s Dr. David Brooks. In 3 couple of jumbo-size letters totalling over 3,000 words Dr. Brooks is hopping mad over iwo recent columns on doctors who threaten to strike for more pay. Wright got it wrong, he charges. The NDP ‘‘cap”’ of 1 $300,000 on 2 GP’s annual bill- ings is not the real issue for the medics who are now rumbling mutiny — since only 5% of them overshot that sum last year. He himself worked 60 hours a week and billed $168,000, half of it be- ing office overhead. So he netted 4 around £85,000 (taxable). Last year GPs billed an average of $137,000. The average for ALL physicians, including specialists, was around $165,000. So the real issue in the festering dispute, Dr. Brooks says, is the ‘‘global cap”’ of $1.3 billion — up 4.7% from 1991 — set by Health Minister Elizabeth Cull on TOTAL Dill- ings. And here the figures turn a muddy grey. $1.3 billion divided among B.C.’s 6,500 doctors works out at an average of $200,000 per head — or $35,000 (21%) more than fast year’s average billing. So all but a tiny handful would seem still to have plenty of roam to ex- pand billings, given the opportu- nity. Wrong, replies Dr. Brooks. Taking into account an average 50% overhead cost, he argues that the notional NET increase for doctors is 2.4% instead of Cull’s 4.7% — and that overhead rising by 6% a year (not 2.3%) will fur- ther reduce doc’s own 2.4% share. His big worry, however, is that if enough doctors crank up their billings by major amounts this year — thus exceeding the $1.3 billion ‘‘cap”’ every fourth doctor, | for example, would have to DOUBLE last year's $165,000 billing average — or every second doctor would have to up it by 38%. Where would all the extra patients come from? No, the simple fact is that doc- tors want a bigger hike than 2.4%. And while $80,000 (taxable) is not penury, it’s also not ex- cessive for eight years'training, 60-hour weeks and 3 a.m. birth deliveries. Nonetheless, this tough, stubborn recession punishing mil- lions of Canadians means the health care cupboard is also bare. The crucified taxpayer is not to blame. Gross inefficiencies in the present form of universal medicare are the main culprit, and ELIZABETH CULL... doctors share her $1.3B ‘‘cap.”’ Noel Wright HITHER AND YON over the long haul doctors are as much its victims as taxpayers. COST-EFFICIENT care, not strike threats, is what the docs should be working on — in their own financial interests and everyone else’s, eee SCRATCHPAD: For a special outing Saturday, May 16, how about irying Discovery Day at the Britannia Beach Museum of Min- ing, where they’il entertain you with a miner's breakfast, tours, rock decorating and much more? Call 688-8735 or 896-2233 for . details ... Happy recipient of a $2,000 cheque from the Evergreen Kiwanis Club, represented by Alex MacQuarrie, is North Van's Joan Billsberger of the Canadian Guide Dog Association — the money will go towards the costly training of another pair of ‘‘seeing eyes" for a blind person ... And wish a very happy 88th birthday tomor- row, May 14, to North Van pio- neer Vera Cliffe — still an active volunteer at Kiwanis Lynn Manor as well as with the Legion and Eastern Star. WRIGHT OR WRONG — Mur- phy’s 9th Law: If you're feeling: good, don’t worry. You'll get over it. ERT IE JOAN BILLSBERGER... nians fund ‘‘seeing eyes.”’