A6 - Wednesday, February 24, 1982 - North Shore News WEEE editorial page Booming banks The proposed Commons committee inquiry into the profits of the chartered banks is a healthy move. Last year Canada's chartered banks made a combined profit of $1.7 billion, an increase of 37.6% over 1980. There may be sound explanations for such a giant upward leap, but the ordinary citizen finds difficulty in divorcing it from the ravaging of his own pocketbook by the exorbitant interest and mortgage rates of the past 12 months. The nub of the matter appears to lie in the traditional spread of three to four percentage points between interest charged to borrowers and interest paid to depositors. Such a spread is normally needed to cover the bank's operating expenses plus a satisfactory return to shareholders. And mathematically, of course, the bank gets exactly the same number of dollars from a 12% to 8% spread as from a 20% to 16% spread. A 4% differential on $100,000 remains $4,000, regardless of whether the $100,000 is being loaned at 12% or 20%. The suspicion lingers therefore, that the traditional gap between interest charged to borrowers and interest paid to depositors has, in fact, widened in many cases during the past year. As rates rise, banks invariably hike the former faster than the latter. When rates fall, the interest on deposits usually falls first. Spreads 1-2 % wider than normal, even for short periods, may account for much of the massive profit increase. Whatever the truth, the banking public — which is obviously suffering a great deal more than the booming banks — has a right to know the answer. Making sense Ford Motor'’s 170,000 U.S. workers are giving massive endorsement to an historic agreement with the financially troubled automaker. It trades wage and benefit concessions by the union for increased job security. The employees forego a little money to keep working and thereby pive Ford a solid hope of pulling out of the glue. It makes a lot more sense than B.C.'s labor- management battlefield. sunday news narth share 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver, 8.C V7M 2H4 news (604) 985-2131 ADVERTISING NEWS 080-0511 CLASSIFIED 131 086-6222 852 CIRCULATION 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Editor-in-Chief Advertising Director Robert Graham Noel Wright Enc Cardwell Managing Editor News Editor Andy Fraser Chrts Lloyd General Manager Creetive Administration Olrector Bern Hilbard Tom Francis Production Director Photography Rick Stonehouse t faworth Och son Accounting Supervisor Circulation Director Barbara Keen Brian At ibs Purchasor Faye Me Crane North Shore News toundedas TO an an independant onmmancuty Hew Sprageas acd quate) cre Soc Prechader WE Rea UE bee engge eagats INE thie tiwcame Tae Act os prutotinhed aach Wednencday and Samay toy Nott Sshroee bere Pramn Cth ard ofemtriteederd fer ervery hor on tte Nase tt Sabore Oecd (lass Mad He gmttation Nuentren 364". Subacciptiona $20 per year Entire contents All rights reaerved 1001 North Shore Free Proas tid Ne Pertgrecerspat att ae egete dl oy cart ee Me bard ‘ y + yaaa ecetes COPE raved gone Vvcers what sad en ergremene TE eb gee d Nene On cere 4 VE Paet bo dbae nn Aor, SD ae Wodnendiay eM, Sc SN. THIS PAPEH IS HEC YC L ABLE Nuke ‘special'— $1.3 m. One of the most impressive scientific successes for Canada in the past decade has been the development of the Slowpoke nuclear reactor for use as a research tool. There are six Slowpoke reactors operating in Canada Canadian Comment BY PETER WARD — four of them in univer- - sities, one at Atomic Energy of Canada’s Ottawa labs, and one owned by the Saskat- POSSIBLY AS MANY as 10,000 tenants on the North Shore live with the constant fear that they could be turned out on to the street at any time with no redress, even though their rents are paid pucntually and their behaviour is) beyond reproach. And it wouldn't be their landlords who evicted them. They include — singie parents, students, young couples struggling to save for a home of their own, han- dicapped people and senior citizens — all of them with one thing im common: in- sufficacnt income to afford the $400-$000 rent of a regular small apartment, even if they could find one vacant They are the tenants of the “\hegal” suites — usually onc or two rooms with basic bathroom and = cooking facihties in the basement of a single-family home occupied ppstairs by the owner In some cases the ac commodation, originally designated as an “in law” of “family” sutte, may once have been Iegal but once tt is rented to a non member of the family oat becomes illegal owner's In many other cases the suite has been illegal from the start having been secrecy oinstalliecd by the owner without a butlding poral ln ociuher case oa municipal bbeence raspec tor can oofder the (ec tants feo leave and the sartte tan Eve dismanticod POLTTM AL PRIGI ber prea Tree tteat var ly Pearpopre ays ite prolitac ab prome clo oan albcoat crack chowa con Whe gal suttes would be thousands oof hhorturce leas lowerincome people out on the street without a roof over their head. It’s not a price that any council is prepared to pay. especially during the present acute housing crisis So councils have hitherto taken refuge in a blind-cyc policy, acting to uphold the law only when a_ formal complamt, usually from a neighbor, is lodgcd ICs a ndaculous and highly undignified situation for local government Next month, North Vancouver City ts at long last moving to do something about wt The results will be watched with heen interest by the two nceighbonng North Shore munictpahitics, and = doub ess by numerous othes with the same problem From March | to 26 the City ots conducting an opimon poll open in the City Clerk's offtee cach business day between 4 MO am and 4 JO pm on the following question Are you in faves of permitting tevenuc sultes tn sang be famaby resadential cones sy Cm UmMmstamees where the Owner INS cesade nt ova the Awelltap sabye ct tore reatyliog Ve peusbatacery toy tthe prev ire cal peeve tame nt! It ottae gnraqecrtty anywer as ye. corse tee al will procsumalsty lake Ate gy te le galire cm iytiang ile gal settes ol whet the Caty os chewan Research Council. Late in 1981, Canada arranged the first in- ternational sale of a Slowpoke reactor. Jamaica bought one for University of Kingston, priced $625,000. It’s the low price, coupled with design, that makes the Slowpoke type of reactor extremely important for Canada’s future. The little reactor has only one moving part; and it is so safe, it has been licensed for operation unattended. The Slowpoke reactors now in operation, in fact, have 25 years of unattended reactor operation behind them without an accident. Dr. John Hilborn of Atomic Energy of Canada’s Chalk River establishment, north of Ottawa, is the designer and father of Slowpoke. He’s got a request before government now which could mean a breakthrough for Canada in widening the use of nuclear power. Dr. Hilborn is confident he can build a= mext generation Slowpoke reactor which would be able to heat — Noel Wright estimated to have up to 1 SOO ts the nature of the problem that no one knows the craact count) LIMITED VOTE Unfortunately the poll isnt likely to give any very accurate coading The onty citizens permitted to vote arc homeowners in single tainily somes Unless they have an illegal suite of their own they are probably the people mast tiheby te oppose (heave neighbors TOE VG vue ae eee eo dation tH the beoavve mire ue Hotes with rpte dd osaites treanny ooh Mhreen ae pe ane lower achhacens Seopbe baaiaily preecpeerty values [oe teaere cd freon Soothe oun the prokll are tenants of any up to 200 homes and supply the power for a small town. He can, he says, build such a reactor which would sell for about $1.3 million dollars. All he needs in federal government approval for $2 million plus to build the prototype of his next generation Stowpoke reactor. Dr. Hilborn is proposing a community furnace, which would provide most of the needs for an isolated community far more cheaply than the way we currently fuel isolated communities. It's expensive to fly diesel fuel into the north and getting more expensive almost by the day. really Like the smaller Slowpoke, this next generation would operate unattended, and it would use the same type of fuel rods as regular sized CANDU reactors use. Dr. Hilbom says it will take two years to build the prototype, assuming he gets govern- ment approval, and then the prototype would have to be tested for two years before an operational community furnace reactor gets installed at some northern town. We could be on the verge of stabilizing energy prices in the far north and of making some major international sales. illegal suites issue boiling up kind, single-family homeowners in duplex zones and condominium owners — many of whom might be expected to support the legalization of basement suites. A strong council porter of legalization ts Alderman Bill Sorenson. “There is a very select group.” he warns, “who have been given the = respon- siblility to make a decision which could well affect the future of “Revenue Suites” not only tn our city but the whole province of Brush Columbia.” It may be only a cot cidence that city hall staff sup- reportedly opposes legalization with its at t(endant administrative headaches. If that ts the case, the mechanics of the March poll and its limited category of cligible voters seems designed to give staff the answer it wants The survey certainly won't reflect the views of the people must directly affected tenants homeowners desperately in need of low income and catra income lo mect usurlous mortgage interest rates Attordable ae Commodation for the ocedy and its clfeet oon neigh toe ve Bae ve veh property valucs twos oof are however only the factors am Che tese nue suite Controversy Chae strc. et health sabety ccpeciatebe baa atporn prosine tal fe gastation and overall son val poole y abses carter utes the pris taste We il caAamine thase further issucs neat week