Lt won CELE oy) ltr ge pitt Sees (°) ie) Acad RIN A INSEE WRENS > KS Sr pe Rou STEEN bargaining relief {HE NDP government deserves high marks for its decision to impose a province-wide bargaining system for B.C. teachers. But it has missed the chance to secure a full passing grade by failing to ensure that the province’s education system will be free of future labor disruptions and dedicated to increasir.g the quality and quantity of class- room instruction. / Victoria had little choice in instituting province-wide bargaining for teachers. The system it replaced was costing B.C. taxpayers millions in duplicated contract negotiations as each of the province’s school districts bargained ostensibly with each school district’s teachers’ union in a never- ending and financially wasteful negotiating eycle. : . In reality each district’s school board was bargaining against the united might of the powerful B.C. Teachers’ Federation, because a contract settlement in one district was the basis for a contract settlement in another. ‘The repetitive negotiating process cost an estimated $9 million for B.C.’s 75 schoo! dis- tricts and the province’s 32,000 teachers. By comparison, the cost for centralized bargaining for 19,000 nurses in B.C.’s health- care sector has been estimated at less than $1 million. : . But holes left in the NDP’s new system include abandoning back-to-work legislation for teachers if they do strike and allowing other school district staff to continue district- by-district bargaining. A major roadblock to delivering uninter- rupted exucation to B.C. children has been removed, but the road ahead is far from clear. Canada is over-governed, over-taxed Dear Editor: Reducing taxes ‘is easy. Here’s how. Eliminate some government by consolidating the three North Shore municipalities into one. Artificially created during the Depression, they long ago outlived their usefulness as separate entities. ; Each year, millions are waste on duplicate administrative and capital costs, self aggrandizement, incompetence, isolated planning and petty politics. Additional cost is paid by businesses and individuals: _ Publisher . smothered by a multiplicity of rules, regulations and paperwork, These governments are so entrenched they now dictate how people should think. North Van District Uelittles its citizens by ‘equating additional taxes to “just the cost of a pair of shoe laces.” North Van City says “the rights of the community should outweigh the rights of the individual.” West Van is a cartoonist’s gold mine. Their common thread is desire for power and potential lucrative rewards at the provincial Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax 980-0511 Distribution 985-6982 Subscriptions and federal levels if they get lucky. Canada is over-governed and over-taxed, To change it, write, phone, or fax any MLA and demand the provincial government force North Shore amalgamation. Ignore municipal politicians. It is against their personal inter- est to get kicked out. Concentrate on the front end of the horse. MLAs are listed in the phone book’s blue pages. J. Edwards West Vancouver $86-1337 986-1337 985-3227 a sovernn in-waitins WILL MIKE Harcourt and his NDP colleagues still be running British Columbia in the year 2001? Maybe even in the year 2006 or beyond? That's the question now posed by the lingering death of Sociat Credit, which is more than just a problem for the party faithful. tt brings a major problem for three or more out of five B.C. voters. In 1991, remember, some 60% of the electorate voted against the NDP. Current polls suggest thatit’ an election were held today, the free enterprise antizNDP vote would be significantly higher, But to no avail unless that vote went entirely to a singie party or group. This was the lesson Free enterpriscrs are supposed to have learned in 1991. Three years later it has clearly not yet sunk in. Today, things go from bad to worse in the free enterprise camp. The [6 unknown Liberals whom Gordon Wilson triumphantly fed into the Legislature have been reduced toa fractious squad of 14 — under a politically untested ex- mayor of Vancouver with a “city slicker” image —- having lost three of their star performers along the way. Wilson and his lady love, MLA Judi Tyabji, are busy trying to launch a new centre party. In West Van, David Mitchell has not only turned Independent but has carried his riding association with him, Social Credit — still with some four times more paid-up members than the Liberals — has been rejected, along with its leader, Grace McCarthy, in the once most rock-solid of Socred strongholds. Worse still, that defeat was brought about by the sudden emer- gence of yet a third right-wing competitor — the B.C, Reform Party. In short — two years or less from the next election — the politi- cal banner-bearers of free enter- prise in B.C. are in total disarray. Rumors have it that Mrs. McCarthy might even bite the bul- let and join forces with Gordon Campbell's Liberals. Bat even so, she would take with her, at very best, only half her party. Right- wing Socreds —- adamantly opposed to any contact with the despised Grits — would mostly flock to Reform. Democracy only works properly under a two-party system. That’s why the lethal rifts in the anti-NDP: forces pose a crisis for both the feuding factions and the electorate at large — which always needs a .- government in power held account- able by a government in waiting. Instead, all we now have is a collection of vote-splitting groups individually incapable of ousting the government in power. Until a-free enterprise leader emerges who can bang their heads © together to give B.C. once again a . genuine government-in-waiting, ~ Mike Harcourt can sleep soundly . from one election to the next! SCRATCHPAD: Hats off to North | Van's [7 schools (and students, including those from Lynnmour . elementary, shown below) which: packaged writing materials to send to children in Africa and the Caribbean, Known as “Project: Love,” the scheme is coordinated by the Canadian Organization fer © Development through Education and involves 4,260 local students....: Proceeds from the Lions Clubs’ goods and .services auction Saturday, March 19, 10 am. to 2 p.m., at the Lucas Centre, 2132 ’ Hamilton, go to support the “Lions-Quest” Life . Skills Education Program in. local schools ... Meanwhile, many happy :.' returns of today, March-16, to North Van's Jeanne Wintemute and Alan Hassell —- and also today 60th birthday greetings to Governor General Ray Hnatyshya. WRIGHT OR WRONG: If at first you DO succeed, try something harder. Sales & Marketing Director Newsroom 985-2131 Administration 985-2131 * CORMPLTOM EL sessesssseecssetsenee +A UG Foot North Shore News, foundad in 1969 as an independent ‘suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedute $11, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Saies Product Agreemant No, 0037238. Mailing sates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibilty for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which »should ha accompanied by a stamped, addrassed , envelope. MEMBER 1139 Lansdale ‘Avenue. North Vancouver 8.C. V7M 2H4 North Shore Managed il NEWS photo Mike Wakelield TO AFRICA WITH LOVE... Lynnmour elementary students (left- right) Michelle Villarosa, Lauren Elliott, Daniel MacLeod and 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) * Entire contents © 1994 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights teserved.