6 - Sunday, Apr: 5, 1992 - North Shore News

iE WO Teses- Caner 1

INSIGHTS

Arrogant board
playing secret

Hillside

game?

BULLDOZING HILLSIDE and flogging the land to de-.
velopers as a means of financing anew West Van school in
Caulfeild may be the best idea since they invented the 6/49

- though I strongly doubt it.

But arrogant attempts by three

West Van school trustees and their

self-styled Chief Executive Of-
ficer, Supt. Doug Player, to
bulldoze down all criticism of the
plan by taxpayers is quite another
thing - especially as tax money
will be used in the bid to silence
them.

“<Outrageous,’’ is how Trustee
Margot Furk - the sole Board
member opposing the plan -

; describes the propaganda cam-

VIEWPOINT

Straight

HILE everybody is busy taking

shets at the NDP’s new budget

and grumbling about govern-
ments, some positive reform is happening
in the federai srena.

Justice Minister Kim Campbell’s recently
announced gun contro! proposals take aim
at regulating firearms in Canada.

The new regulations, which propose
stvicter storage of firearms, a limited mag-
azine capacity for some weapons and
would require references to obtain a
firearm, are certainly a positive siep in the
battle to control firearms in Canada.

Although we may joke about joining our
neighbors down south, nobody wants to
inherit the American penchant for guns
and its accompanying violence.

shooting

But Campbell’s proposed regulations
take us one step further away from that
gun-slinging tradition, and we should be
grateful.

The proposed regulations will not only
make it more difficult to obtain a firearm,
but also enforce their safe use, in an effort
to prevent accidental injuries from
firearms.

Of course, there are detractors, most of
them gun advocates, but overall the pro-
nosais appeal to most Canadians who
favor stricter control.

Rather than holding up positive reform,
NDP MP Ian Waddell should stop

shooting from the lip and iet a good thing

pass.

“The state doesn’t make a very
good parent, after ail."’

Child protection committee
panclist and acting B.C. Om-
. budsman Brent Parfitt, on che
apprehension of children by the

Canada’s constitutional crisis.
“My cat = Lucky is going
through enormous pain and
anguish due to my long absences,
bul it is s commitment Lucky is
willing to make on behalf of
debate in this house.”

North Vancouver-Lonsdale

West Vancouver finance direc-
tor George Horwood, on the im-
pact the NDP budget will have on
West Vancouver residents.

“We speak with forked tongues
sometimes. You applaud for tax

social services ministry.

MLA David Schreck, on the sac-
his cat
Schreck’s political career,

“We can’t allow our country to rifices

fail apart because of indifference.
Democracy is like love. It can
survive aimast any abuse except
indifference or neglect.”

West Vancouver-Garibaldi

MLA David Mitchell, on itis.’

Publisher

Managing Editor .
Associate Editor. .Noel Wright
Advertising Director .. Linda Stewart
Comptroller .. . Doug Foot

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Toe VOICE OF noe ANE teLST VANCOUVER

cuts but also ask for sour pet
neighborhood project. */or can
have anything you want, but you
cannot have everything you
want.” .

has made to

“We're going to end up with a fot
of taxpayers revolting, and we’ve
got enough taxpayers revolting as

North Vancouver District Ald.
Paul Turner, on the realities of
municipal budgets.

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Lntire contents © 1992 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

paign cooked up by Player,
Chairperson Barbara Howard and
Trustee Jean Ferguson.

As usual, there are two sides.
Quite naturally, Caulfeild parents
are pulling for the new, smaller
schoo! which would adjoin
Caulfeild Village shopping plaza.
That's perfectly fair and under-

‘ standable.

The ‘‘Save Hillsiders’’, on the
other hand, see in their 30-year-
old school a valuable long-term
community asset which can never
be replaced in central West Van -
where future school! needs loom as
more young families move into
the older homes vacated by emp-
ty- nesters. And, they add, the
School Board’s $1.9-million deficit
- threatening teacher layoffs -
makes this no time, anyhow, for
costly building.

This cost factor is at the root of
the confroniation with the Board.
The price tag bandied around for
the new Caulfeild school is $13
million. But so far the trustees
still don’t know how, or even
whether, that sum could be real-
ized from selling the Hillside site -
let alone how accurate the $13
million estimate would prove to
be. They're still awaiting a consul-
tant’s financial feasibility report.

“Hilsiders’? want the report by
J. Moodie & Associates made
public - quite resonably, since
taxpayers are paying for it. But
ihe Board has rejected a motion
to that effect by dissident Trustee
Furk and will not release the
study. The majority trustees alone
will decide whether to proceed,
with no informed public input,
and have given a strong impres-
sion that they are already commit-
ted to the plan.

Meanwhile, the Board's cam-
paign to brainwash the public is
going ahead without awaiting the
study. It reportedly includes ads
and a bulletin to all householders
for which taxpayers will also pay.

If the plan is genuinely sound,
it could survive public scrutiny

MARGOT FURK... lone voice
for taxpayers.

_ Bruickel.

HITHER AND YON

and a referendum on its merits.

As it is, the Board’s heavy-hand-.
ed secrecy is starting to smell as ©”
badly as West Van Council’s.
bungled attempt to hoodwink the.
public in the 1989 Twin Towers
fiasco.

The battle of Hiliside resumes
at the 7 p.m. open School Board.
meeting Monday, April 6. One’
pitchfork per ‘peasant allowed.

TAILPIECHS: The Canada- _
wide search is ©.) for some 5,000°
one-time air cadets who served oer
from 1942 onward with Sudbury’s
200 Squadron Royal Canadian Air
Cadets, which is planning a giant °
$Cth anniversary reunion Sept. ’.”.
4-6. If you fit, or know any. who”.
do, the Squardon’ 's address is: 333 -
Riverside Drive, Sudbury P3C
1H5 - or call (705) 673-6877 .«.;
Meals On Wheels needs noon-
hour volunteer drivers on Mon-
days, Wednesdays and Fridays to.
deliver nutritious lunches to shut-
in North Shore seniors’- if you. :
can help, please phone 922-3414 ~

... Anniversary greetings today, ~"
April 5, to North Van’s Ernie and
Marilyn Earnshaw on notching up’:
Year 7 ... Happy birthday tomor.
row April 6, to North Van’s Rev.
Ray Murrin .. «.. And Tuesday,

April 7, wish many happy returns -
to West Van birthday girl Martha :.

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Forget:
about fluoride - - help fi ight truth [
decay. .

D PLAYER... “Chief Exec-
utive Officer’.