when to quit.

That's why, to date, only 100
foothardy British Columbians
have made their commitment to
stop doing nothing. They support
the B.C. Reform Party.

The huge Conservative machine,
fat with corporate money and
scared out of its wits, is ready to
pour funds into the next B.C.
election. The Liberals are looking
longingly westward, while Preston
Manning is looking ever more
eastward. The Socreds are about
to shrink and coalesce to a mean,
hard core like a neutron star,

. while the NDP is poised with big
wicker baskets to harvest the po-
litical fallout.

In the face of all this, why
would anyone spend 10 bucks to
join a B.C. Reform Pariy, let
alone have the folly to start one?

And the man doing it is starting
right here on the North Shore.

Surely it’s madness.

Any party of this stripe serious-
ly risks being fingered as the
scapegoat in our next provincial
election. It’s the dreaded splitting

By Syd Stone
Contributing Writer

of the vote.

If the bi:ter, bickering Socreds
wander in front of Bill Vander
Zalm’s blunderbuss, when it goes
off in his hands on election day
there'll be a lot of finger-pointing.
What better target than a B.C.
Reform Party?

Then there’s the national
Reform Party leader, Preston
Manning, who’s altering his stance
by moving into Ontario and
toward power, while simulta-
neously having vision problems in
recognizing a B.C. version of his
own party.

Against such odds, why would
anyone even consider starting, let
alone supporting, a homegrown
B.C. Reform Party? I can think
of three very good reasons indeed:

The first is that it will set you
free from the helpless feeling of
-doing nothing. Ask yourself why
it is that you and I, along with the

Real issue is accountability

Dear Editor:

Congratulations for pointing
out the hypocrisy of North Van-
couver City Council in changing
course on private vs. public gar-
bage collection (Feb. 24).

But the issue is important
beyond garbage and beyond North
Vancouver City. What is involved
here is the need for election ex-
pense reporting and tendering of
public contracts.

If there were a requirement for
election expense reporting, the
public might know who paid for
whose election.

If public tendering were re-
quired for all municipal expen-
ditures, taxpayers might know
their tax money is being spent
wisely. Otherwise, expenditures
may be larger than necessary, or
abusive, through going to friends
of those making the decision.

The Municipal Act does not re-
quire competitive bidding. But the
Act does not prevent a municipal
government from enacting its own
tendering requirements.

An open, competitive bidding
system might improve public con-
fidence. Elected representatives in
all municipalities should recognize
that it is in their best interests to
be protected by a public tendering
process. To reduce public cynicism
and doubt, elected officials need
only do things openly.

As more and more responsibili-
ty is decentralized into municipal
hands by senior levels of govern-
ment, the amounts involved will
increase. Concerned citizens might
ask or write elected officials about
their position on public tendering.

Roff Johannson
West Vancouver

rest of Canada, are still watching
standard, hack, garden varie.y
B.C. politicians in an endless
private squabble? It’s like witness-
ing an embarrassing family fight
on the front lawn while the coun-
try is going down the tubes.

Common sense tells us there
must be a way to correct this, and
that’s the second reason to lend
support. As a pre-emptive strike,
B.C. Reform Party president, Ron
Gamble, has sent the Social Credit
Party a letter asking that they
adopt five easy pieces into their
platform.

These include a fixed election
date, free votes in the legislature,
the citizens’ right to veto an un-
popular bill, binding referendums
on major economic and constitu-
tional] matters, and the recall of
MLAs who don’t represent their
electorate.

This is the first refreshing whiff
of reali democracy I’ve had ina
good long time.

Give us that, says Mr. Gamble,
and he and his foundling party
will vanish into the woodwork.

Gamble believes that first you

Something stinks!

Dear Editor:

What an amazing group our
North Vancouver City Council
are! A few short weeks ago
they were prepared to jeopar-
dize the entire North Shore
recycling program because it
had not been called for tender.

Now, with virtually no
discussion, and based on some

rather creative cost accounting
figures, they turn the entire city
garbage collection over to an
untested group. They do not

call for tenders, nor ask the

present contractor to re-quote.
A wise man once said,

‘“‘House guests and fish both

stink after three days.’’ Do I

detect an aroma to the city

garbage?

Donald M. Currie

North Vancouver

repair the system, and then you
find the leader. The job at hand
for the B.C. Reform Party, he
says, is to change the system, not
take over an existing one.

Yo Gamble, that means focus-
ing on accountability instead of
power. ‘hat means we elect peo-
ple and pay them to represent us
and our interests, and if they
don’t we raise hell — or we fire
them.

Gamble says he’s creating a new
place for Socreds, and anyone else
fed up with the present, badly
flawed system that allows politi-
cians to get away with murder.
It’s a new, der. ;cratic home, and
he’s made it marvellously easy to
come to. Once 200 people from a
riding have joined, the B.C.
Reform Party will send back
$1,000, or half the membership
fees, just to help get recruits and
contributions coming in.

If only a few towns do that,
and run Reform candidates in the
next provincial election, proposals
for returning our system to
democracy will stop ending up in
the government’s round file.

NV City

process flawed

Dear Editor:
North Vancouver City Council’s
recent decision to deprivatize gar-

bage collection raises questions
about the conduct of city
business.

The process by which the deci-
sion was reached allowed for no
public input and gave an inside
track to our Canadian Union of
Public Employees (CUPE) union
to establish a cost for the service
and to present, behind closed
doors, its arguments for them tak-
ing over this service. What is
council afraid of that this could
not be a public process?

Garbage collection is now con-
tracted to Laidlaw Waste
Management Systems Ltd. who
use unionized employees. Given
that we have had few complaints
about pick-up and that the CUPE
costs are higher, is it not good

‘business to tender the service and

Tendering is

Dear Editor:

Your Feb. 24 Viewpoint ‘‘Dou-
ble standard’’ missed the mark.
Your comparison of putting out
to tender the recycling contract
last year, and the recent decision
of running our own garbage col-
lection, without putting it out to
bid, is comparing apples and
oranges.

{f North Vancouver City had
decided at the time to use its own
employees in collecting recyclable
materials, I would have not
fought so hard to have it
tendered. However, the decision
was made to go to a privatized
service, thus necessitating a tender
process.

On the other hand, had council
decided to continue with its use to
the private sector to collect gar-
bage, | certainly would have
wanted it to go out to bid. That

Friday, March 8, 1991 — North Shore News - 7

teform in five easy pieces

THE HARDEST thing about doing nothing is knowing

Now the third reason for doing
something now.

Because not if, but when
Quebec separates, the other nine
provinces are going to have a long
hard look around and see mighty
little use for Mr. Mulroney or his
successors.

The provinces will hold the
levers of power. If Mr. Gamble
wants to get in there, roll up his
sleeves and correct them now, so
that if we do end up with a buf-
foon at the helm, as has been
known to happen before, we can
take care of it ourselves, more
power to him.

If the coming years turn into a
national demolition derby, with
the ever more powerful provinces
colliding headlong over major
issues that affect us all, the
strongest will win. On the eve of
such a contest, B.C. needs a ma-
jor tune-up.

Anyone wishing more informa-
tion contact: The Reform Party of
B.C., 1250 Homer St., Vancouver
V6B 2Y5 or call 1-689-7722.

Syd Stone is a freelance writer
living in North Vancouver.

sarbage:

establish cost comparisons —
allowing an informed choice with
equal advantage to the private
contractor to present their argu-
ments?

Aldermen Bill Bell and Barbara
Sharp were endorsed by CUPE in
the recent election. They may have
received financial contributions
from our public employees union.
Does this compromise their ability
to make an impartial decision in
this case?

Why is there to be no open
tender for garbage collection in
our city?

Why has one union (CUPE)
been awarded the collection ser-
vice without competitive bids from
other union and non-union con-
tractors?

City council’s process here is
flawed.

Ald. Rod Clark
North Vancouver City Council

ridiculous

was not the situation. Council
decided, due to issues such as
flexibility in collection method,
control over quality of service,
and cost, to use its own employees
to collect refuse. To go to the
tender process with ourselves bid-
ding on the collection service is
ridiculous and would have been a
waste of time and money. It
would have led to complaints of
unfairness by the private sector.
The voters of North Vancouver
will now receive better service at a
reasonable cost, while North Van-
couver City will be better able to
offer a flexible garbage collection
service. This flexible service, both
in recycling and garbage collec-
tion, will be needed to improve
the city’s ongoing commitment to
protect the environment.
Ald. Bill Belt
North Vancouver City Council