6 -— Sunday, February 15, 1998 — North Shore News us' [E business of government shouldn’t be business. So it’s encouraging to see BC Rail, a Crown corporation, at least look at selling off North Vancouver’s Westel Telecommunications. Victoria should now get on with selling off the rest of BCR Group, a holding company that includes Vancouver Wharves and its berthing facilities and BC Rail itself. All together, it’s a $1.6-billion asset that could add a great deal to B.C.’s bottom line by being applied to the mounting provincial debt. There’s no reason the government should be competing with private com- panies in the rail, berthing and com- munications industries. None of them is essential to British Columbia: it’s not as if they are pro- north shore news VIEWPOINT Cut them loose. Catamaran Ferries International, a North Vancouver company in charge of building fast ferries, is also on the block. Good move — though it’s doubtful it will return to taxpayers anything near what they’ve unwitting- ly invested in the company. Unfortunately, the NDP govern- ment still needs to be convinced it must get out of business. The bail-out of the outdated Skeena Cellulose mill in northern B.C. will cost taxpayers plenty. After all, everyone else passed on the business “opportunity” presented by the money-losing mill. Political opportunity alone is responsible for that mill’s continued operation. And that’s a poor substitute for * oy, ey US ON THE [RAQ THING BuT WE'LL HAVE To BOMG THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS CANADA SAYS THEY'LL SUPPORT a lan og: viding health or education services. common sense. maivox —————- The MAI not just Jean’s business irked about radar trap on Keith Hill Dear Editor: Just writing the following letter to vent my frustration and to.question the fairness of our street policing. I wish I could take the day off to dispute this fine, but unfortunately ir would cost me more to lose a day’s work. On a recent Sunday at about 3:30 p.m., I was accelerating t ascend the Keith Road and Main Street North Vancouver » hill. _ Idrive a truck with a strong engine. It is used mainly for carrying heavy loads. >It accelerates very quickly and I always ler off the gas once making the ascent on a hill. That the officers can give a ticket to a driver. who is accelerating for about three sec- onds at the beginning of a hill and charge him $173 for ’ doing so is preposterous. " _. Lwas not a danger to anyone in those three seconds. The hill on Keith Road, I have since been informed, is notorious for radar patrols. I guess it is extremely easy money to get. I'm wondering whether these fines are just a money-grabbing attempt or if they really are meant to dis- courage dangerous drivers. If the latter is the purpose, then patrolling a hill on the upside is ludicrous. Had I been driving fast on the downside, with no obvious intention of slowing, I would be deserving of this fine. I have not been fined for speeding in at least 15 years, I have an excellent driving record. I wear my seat belt. 1 drive with care and attention, It angers me that we have a government so desperate for money that it resorts to devious means of collecting pay- ments. * Patrol our residential streets. Patrol our highways where people are a danger when travelling at high speeds. © But radar on the upside of Keith Road hill aid others like it —~ give me a break! . J. Nieken North Vancouver ‘Nonth Shore Naws, tounded in 1969 a5 an independent suburban newspaper and qualihed under Schedule 111, Paragraph #11 of the Excige Tax Act, is publeshed each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press. Ui. and distributed to every door oa the North ‘Shore. Canada Post Canadian Pubhcatons Mat Sales Product Agreement No 0087238 Maleng rates avaiable on tequest. Emo Distribution Manager ‘906-1337 (124) Creative Servi Sea 61,582 (average circulation, Wednestiay, Friday & Sunday) SHAME on your scribe for bad- mouthing the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (Send a MAI-Day Call for Canada, Feb.4). So says North Van Reform MP Ted White. By way of punish- ment he devours halfa rol] of my personal fax paper with a flood of feel-good handouts on the MAT from the Foreign Affairs Department and upbeat pieces on the prapased pact by on-side Financial Post columnists. All that’s missing is Jean Chretien’s cheery exhortation, “Not to worry, be ‘appy!” The gist of this weighty wad of paper is that most of the fears noted in my car- lier column will be the subject of “exemptions” demanded by Canada as a condition of signing the eventual treaty. Ottawa's intent, we’re assured, is that Canada’s cultural industries, telecommu- Nications, minority affairs, social services (including health), aviation and fisheries — among other sectors — will be exempted from the basic MAI require- ment that all investors, domestic and forcign, are treated equally. So also, goes the official line, will be the privatization of Crown corporations. Ted’s pile of pro-MAI documents makes much of the fact that nothing is yet graven in stone and that ongoing negotiations in Paris may miss the May & Peters ric Stephensen Photagraghy Manager Classified Manager 985-2137 (160) $88-6222 (202) 9 Foot Comotrotier 985-2131 (133) Entire contents © 1997 North Shove Free Press Lid. Alt rights reserved. 1998 deadiine precisely because of exemptions sought by Canada and other countries (notably France). At the same time, the MAI-boosters constantly stress the benefits, especially for Canadian investors abroad, of the “level playing field” — though exactly how level the playing fields will actually be if Canada and all other exemption-seckers ger their way is not quite so clear. Neither are four other important points. First, can a country ever again enact, at some fucure date, laws that favor or pro- vide incentives for domestic businesses over forcign businesses (i.¢., laws for which it would have claimed exemp- tions, had they been in force during the negotiating period)? Second, in disputes between a for- cign investor and the democratically elected government of a sovereign state, what is the precise nature of the “fair, transparent” international arbitration process? Third, why will MAI signatories be locked in for 20 years when Canada can quit the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), if it wishes, at six months notice? Finally, will the MATL be put to the Canadian people for final ratification — either via a binding referendum or (as with free trade in 1988) a general elec- tion? In addition to these four unanswered questions everything obviously depends on the “exemptions” Canada is alleged- ly seeking. In that regard the Chretien ~ government’s broken promises about renegoriating the NAFTA and killing the GST don’t inspire too much confi dence. eer Nor does its reluctance until now.to share with Canadians what it has been up to in Paris for-the past three years. Until the vigorous campaign against. the agreement was launched only two | or three months ago by the Council for... Canadians, the NDP and the Canadian Labor Congress, at least 95% of ordi- nary Canadians had never heard of the ; - MAI. ; Loos On one point Ted White — a self- - . described “tentative” supporter of the treaty — and your scribe fully agree: the | urgent need for an informed public debate on the whole issue. Followed, in my book, by a national referendum or general election. The MALT is not just Jean Chretien’s business. Ten years ago Brian Mulroney talked Canadians into endorsing his free trade deal at the ballot box. a Unless you’re an exporter, the chief-.. » NAFTA legacy for many of them today *: is a 69-cent loonie and 9.5% unemplo ment — period, oo Bur at least those 1988 voters can’t: blame it on Brian alone! oe aga sy WISH MANY happy returns of today, Feb. 15, to longtime West Van resident. ; Frank Cragg. — aoa WRIGHT OR WRONG: Onc test of good manners is to put up pleasantiy with bad ones. 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