f i I 6 - Friday, March AIT HARRIE RESAAG HE RECENT late-night attack on staff, teens and premises at'a youth h drop-in centre in West Vancouver . once again draws attention to the fact that. parents could do much more in taking an active interest and role in the lives of their teenage children. As’ matters. stand, those who choose te do nothing are letting down community at large. ‘West - Vancouver ° groups, YMCA, niunicipal committees and stu- . dents with the West Vancouver Youth Ad- ‘visory Committee, have created and back- ed -the two. teen drop-in centres at In- / ‘glewood Avenue and at Ambleside. WS Fy SNE RNG Aare AH TANNING EWS VIEWPOINT — ‘Teen support | By all accounts the program is a success and something we should all be proud of. The teens, who are empovvered because they gre responsible, run the show. The support there makes it all possible. It is a positive venture. ” But it seems more support is needed on teens and the including the the home front. The anger and questionable values of those who came to destroy and disrupt are seif-evident. Do their parents care? Do their parents communicate honestly with these children? There is definitely a responsibility. Effective parents of ieennge children do much more than simply hand over the cash ‘and the car keys on weekends. LETTER OF THE DAY ‘Many subscribers can’t afford increases Dear Editor: eee Mr. Reid's claim that B.C. Tel ‘js not trying to ‘“‘rip off?’ the public through its proposal: to make the Lower Mainland one local calling area may or may not be true. ae What is true and I ‘hope not be- ing ignored is the fact that hun- dreds ‘of B.C. Tel © subscribers simply cannot afford the increase in their monthly bills. There are. many’ subscribers besides Mr. call outside of their local area. If they do so, they phone when the rates are the lowest because they are. on fixed incomes and long- distance calls are a luxury. Should B.C. Tel be allowed to implement this proposal, many may have. to do without phone ©. in their lives ; service at a time Kantor who seldom‘ when a phone could be a basic safety necessity. Worse still, many people are still unaware of the implications of this proposal to their lives. B.C. Tel talks of polls in- dicating a.65% approval of this proposal; it would be interesting to know if they have polled any pensioner or single parent groups. Joan Buss North Vancouver ow to assess | ual jual pay for ual ton: ONE OF THE THINGS that the Ontario government of Bob Rae has promised to do is make pay and employment equity legislation much stricter. Pay equity is legislation _ that allegedly provides men and women with equal pay for work of equal value. Employment equity legislation deals with hiring and job ad- vancement for women, racial minorities, aboriginals and people with disabilities. Employment equity, what Fraser Institute researchers have referred to as ‘‘reverse discrimina- tion,’’ is the subject of two Fraser Institute book-length studies: Discrimination, Affirmative Ac- tion and Equal Opportunity, and Employment Equity. These studies ° reveal that there are intrinsic dif- ficulties in applying such policies, Two newspaper stories — one an Associated Press story from Lafayette, California, and. another from The Los Angeles Daily News, reprinted in The Globe and Mail —~ illustrate the difficulties that may arise in the attempt to contrive ait equal pay for work of equal value schedule and to apply : it even in the most mundane cir- cumstances, The Los Angeles Daily News story reveals the findings of the Amicrican Institute of Stress and the work of Prof. Paul Lee, a professor of economies at San Jose University, California. Lee collected blood pressure readings from people in 243 occupations, in order to measure the stress they experienced in their jobs, According to Lee’s measure- ments, bartenders experienced more Stress than any of the 243 occupations that he considered, including laundry and dry cleaning operators, public administrators, food service workers, private childcare workers, bus drivers, freight handlers, structural metal - craftsmen and telephone opera- tors, . oo Meanwhile, the American In- | stitute of Stress has come up with an interesting taxonomy of the | - most stressful jobs. oe By their ranking, inner-city high school teachers had the most stressful jobs, followed by police officers, miners, air traffic con- trollers, medical interns, stack brokers, journalists, customer ser- vice complaint workers, waiters and secretaries. : Least stressful jobs, according to the institute, were those of for- ester, book binder, telephone line worker, toolmaker, millwrigit, By Michael! Walker Contributing Writer repair person, civil engineer, ther- apist, natural scientist (and that . includes economist) and sales rep- resentative. : Because stress is a very impor- tant component of the cost {o an, individual of holding down a job, — the stress content and an individ- ual’s ability to handle it must in- fluence people's proclivity to ac- cept those jobs. me The question is, given the dispersion of stress and the ability to handle it, how can it be taken” + ’ into account in pay equity caleula-"/ tions? : ae : I'll leave that one with you, Buty I can hardly wait to sce how the pay equity bureaucrats will rate | ¢ the job of John‘ifarrison of Lafayette, California —'a job that’ every kid in America would relish. 4” Harrison is an-ice-cream taster at Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Inc., a position he has held for 10 years, je eS How do you rate the value of John Harrison’s tastebuds rela- tive, say, to the salt sensitivity of. a short-order cook?) « » ; Well, whether the pay equity bureaucrat would be able to figure out the value of his efforts or not, Dreyer’s has, and they have just taken out a policywith the Amer-.: ican International ‘Life Incurance Co. for a million'dollars on... guess what? Joh #arrison's tongue. | Bee The funny thing about it is, if given the challenge, I'm sure” that « pay cquity officer would | come up with « schedule’sorting out the appropriate pay gradients associated with stress and ability to taste ice cream. But what)’ thing? 7 a mt Dr. Michael Walker is director meaning would it have — for any- | of the Fraser Institute, a rightwing economic think-tank based in Vancouver, : “ ; RS net Noel Wright | honeymooning ay or) Printed on 10% recycled newsprint Display Advertising 980-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom , 985-2131 Distribution 986-1337 Ga Subscriptions 986-1337 3a Fax 985-3227 Kea Administration 985-2131 & MEMBER , Peter Speck 's. Managing Editor... Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor . .... .Noel Wright Sales & Marketing Director Linda Stewart Comptrolier Goug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969, as an independent suburban newspaper and qualitied ‘under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ill of the Excise ene : a e ‘Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and SUF ew & Sunday by: North Shore Free Press Lid. and ’ y , ‘distributed to every doot on the North Shore. i mest Sherr peeled oer . . Canada Post Canadian Publigations Mail Sates WEDNENGAY © ritloay : 9 -Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing rates “ ‘available cn tequest. Submissions are welcome bul - Neen Lonsdale Avenue, SDA DIVISION we cannol accepl responsibility for unsolicited VIM ota uver, 6,0, material including manuscripts and pictures which Entire contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights. reserved. ' OC E DF NOHTH AND WEST vaMCOUVEN, NEWS photo Nell Lucente EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Christine Bachmann (with box of juice) and 20 of her classmates at Gleneagles elementary school chose to fergo funch on ‘‘Growler's Day.'’ The students. raised close to $2,000 for World Vision through a sponsorship drive 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) for their day of fasting. . ; should be accompanied by a stamped, addsessed envelope: ‘ H ‘