6 - Friday, April 13, 1990 - North Shore News x Ss IWMWWwawW od ( 1 0000.0K OK. | “HONE NOf/ SSS EDA NRT SS ( CONSIN EARL. HOWRE THINGS IN WaiNieE«2 COLD?.T00 BAD, VERE IN VICTORIA WEVE. TST "cv OWNTED OUR L000 a» * CL tee bs Political pollution sudden crackdown this week on Howe Sound’s two pulp mills could indicate either that it has decided to enforce 8.C.’s environmental laws or that a provincial election is imminent. Te PROVINCIAL government’s Environmentalists can oniy hope it is the former; cynics will put their money on the latter. John Reynolds, West Vancouver- Howe Sound MLA and provincial en- vironment minister, announced Tuesday that the Port Mellon pulp mii! had been charged with 19 poilution-related charges. The announcement came 2 day after Reynolds ordered Howe Sound’s Woodfibre pulp mill to clean up or close up by April 18. Ever since his appointment as en- vironment minister last November, Reynolds has vowed that he will get tough with B.C. pulp mills. This week’s action could finally represent delivery on that promise. — But it has taken years of almost releni- less lobbying from local environmen- talists to convince the government to consider taking action against the Howe Sound mills, It has taken three chemical spills at Woodfibre in the past month for the government to initiate any tough ac- tion against the mill. It has taken a year since the government investigated Port Mellon for charges to be laid against the mill. , And it is surely not just coincidence that Woodfibre is in Reynolds’ riding and the Port Mellon mill is on its western border. While both mills have begun to grap- ple with Howe Sound pollution, that battie would surely have started earlier under provincial government pressure applied out of conviction rather than out of the need to win another election. West Van Council must have vision OPEN LETTER TO WEST VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL Regarding the continued expan- sion of the lands above the British Properties, Westhill, Panorama, the lower portions of Cypress Bowl and the new areas of Westport: why are the developers allowed to completely clear cut the properties and leave the Jands bare? It’s understandable from the de- velopers’ point of view that clear cutting makes it easier to build and Publisher Lee eee e ees Peter Speck maximize space, as the land value is high. But when one looks at the older portions of the areas men- tioned, one sees many trees and houses planned carefully with zegard to the maintenance of greenery and overall area appear- ance. : Gn a recent drive home from Horseshoe Bay on the Upper Levels Highway, I was sickened at the sight of the newly-developed lands of Westport; it was total destruction. There were almost no trees and the place looked an ab- solute mess. I'm not an engineer, but I hope the so-called professionais in West Vancouver Municipality have a THE VOICE OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER Display Advertising plan; they will need to deal with the possible mudslides and flash floods that could occur as a result of the loss of natural water reten- tion provided by the trees that have been razed from the land- scape, Just because developers lack the vision of efficient land manage- ment in their quest for profit is no excuse for West Vancouver plan- ners to have the same lack of vi- sion for our community. A simple 10 per cent requirement of reten- tion of trees in this area would do much to enhance the beauty, while adding to the future value of these properties. Ryan Levis, West Vancouver 980-0511 Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor ..... Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111. Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by Narth Shore Frue Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mai! Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver. $25 per year Mailing tates available on request. Submissions are welcome bul we Cannot accept responsibility tor unsolicited materias nciuding manuscupts and pictures. a V7M 2H4 SUNDAY + WEQNESDAY + FUDAy 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday) Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 Oistribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 988-1337 Fax 985-3227 MEMBER envelope. Entire contents © WC which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed SDA OIVISION North Shore owned and managed 1990 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Male job preserves crumble — but women still earning less AND WHAT do you want to be when you grow up, little girl? When this question was asked 25 years ago, most of the replies would probably have been encompassed by the following: housewife, nurse, teacher, sales clerk or secre- tary. Ask the same question today and the responses could include lawyer or lumberjack, doctor or deteciive, physicist or pilot. And probably housewife and mother, along with the career. More than half of Canadian women 15 years and over are in the labor force. As they have expand- ed their participation in the work force, women have also been breaking down the barriers that surrounded the traditionally **male’’ occupations. A special Statistics Canada study looked at ‘‘professional occupa- tions’’ — requiring a bachelor degree or above, considered as well paid and with a high level of social status — and the changes in male- female employment in them. Males dominated overwhelmingly (89 per cent male to 11 per cent female) in 34 of the 46 specific occupations in 1971 at the start of the study period. By !981, the proportion of females in the 34 categories had grown to almost 19 per cent and it was 23 per cent by 1986. Some specific examples: lawyers, from about five per cent female in 1971 to 22 per cent by 1986; physi- cians, from less than I! per cent in 1971 to more than 21 per cent in 1986; pharmacists, from 25 per cent in 1971 to just over 50 per cent in 1986, The study gave a strong indica- tion that the old barriers have been knocked down for good. Women in the 15-24 age group, who could act as trailblazers for today’s youngsters, led the assault on the ‘“male’’ occupations. They ac- counted for a full 60 per cent of the increase in female repre- sentation in the 34 male-dominated professions from 1971 to 198]. The professions studied are de- manding, requiring achievement of certain education levels, a strong commitment to the work force and a work environment that draws heavily on the energy and time of those who choose them. For women with a life career path that may include marriage and A 100-CANDLE salute on Good Friday, April 13, to Cedarview Lodge resident Ron Davis (right) who today celebrates his arrival at the Big One-Zero-Zero. At the time of Ron’s birth in London, England, Queen Victoria would still have If more years on the throne. ALSO ON this day, happy an- niversary greetings to North Van's Dave and Nancy Welsford. Guest Columnist childbearing, these burdens are multiplied. Among women over 25 in husband-wife families and in the male-dominated professions, just over 40 per cent had no children at home in 1981. This compared to only 3i per cent of similar women in the non-professional work force. A full 22 per cent of females 45 and over in the male-dominated professions had never married. This compared to less than eight per cent of never-married females of similar age in non-professional occupations. And all married fe- males in the male-dominated pro- fessions tended to have a higher age at first marriage than women outside these occupations. While the trend in the studied professions was clearly toward more equal male-female repre- sentation, one factor continued to show a major difference. Males in these professions “‘consistently made more than females in the same occupational group and the same age range,” the study reported. The average annual in- come for females in these profes- sions was just over 70 per cent of the average for males in the same category in both 198] and 1986. But there was some evidence that this, too, was changing. By 1981, women in the 25 to 34 age bracket, which would include those who had recently moved into the male-dominated fields and whose salaries would set standards for the years to follow, earned 77 per cent of the income of males in the same occupation. And by 1985, they had bumped this average up to 81 per cent. Tom Mitchell is a writer for the Communications Division of Statistics Canada in Ottawa.