Timely care ideas The number of people aged 65 and over is _ Growing at twice the rate of the population as a whole, By 1986. they will account for over 12% of all the Lower Mainland’s residents. And because seniors use:hospital and health services out of-proportion to their numbers, _they are an increasingly. significant factor in -B.C.’s already huge health care costs of more than $2 billiona year. In particular, they are a major reason for - the regular’ shortage of acute care beds in: many hospitals, because. the provision of | extended care facilities are not keeping pace with the rising demand. Lengthy ‘waiting _ periods. for-younger people needing elective ; surger are often a direct result of acute care = jeing semi-permanently_ by ~ seniors for whom there is presently no other - solution. A recent study by 1 the Greater Vancouver Regional : District suggests, however, that _ providing: more beds for seniors is not necessarily: the-sole answer. Instead, it looks -at. possible alternatives to full-time hospitalization, including more in-home services; more accessible outpatient medical care, day or overnight care centres and facilities where patients might spend “six _ weeks in, six weeks out” to relieve families — ' looking after elderly members. _ Alternatives like these are considerably less costly than hospital beds and, in many cases, might be welcomed by seniors ‘ themselves as less debilitating than life in a “hospital ward. As health costs soar, the GVRD’s ideas :seem timely, responsible and humane. They deserve careful — and positive — study. ~ Weekend thought | There’s still too much hardship around. around and ‘Recovery Road remains rough, but nevertheless ... Interest rates keep dropping. Stocks are bullish. House sales are booming. Nearly 9 out of 10 workers have a pay packet. Personal savings were never higher. Curbs on inflation show signs of gripping. And most of us are as healthy as ever. Just a few random thoughts for this Thanksgiving weekend! sunday news north shore: news 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Diaplay Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Circulation 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Robert Graham Editor-in-Chiet Advertising Director Noel Wright Tim Francis General Manager, Administration & Personnel Mrs Berni Hilhard Circutation Director Brian A Ells North Shore Newa, founded tn 1969 as an independent community newspaper and qualified under Schedule tl Part til Paragraph Il! of the Excise Tax Act is published each Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd and distributed tq every door on the North Shore Second Class Mail Registration Numbe: 3885 Entire contents 1962 North Shore Free Press Lid. All rights reserved Subscriptions. North and Weat Vancouver $26 per year Mailing rates available on request No responsibiity accepted for unsohcited material inchiding manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped Addressed envelope VERIFIED CIRCULATION 64,643 Wednesday; 54,003 Sunday sm & THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE oer, . decade. - who By MICHAEL A, WALKER | I was in Toronto the other week and one of the things that's making the political rounds there these days is the fact that the City of Toronto is experiencing a housing shortage. There is nothing unique about that given the attention which has been focused on the*housing problem” during the course of the last But. there is, however, an interesting twist the current housing situation in Toronto which - bears a second look. My _ attention was at- tracted to the subject by the activities of a city alderman “to: convince the denizens of Toronto that they ought to go for a new kind of housing scheme. The details of the scheme are unimportant. ~ What is important is the rationale which the person is using to justify its adoption. Quite plaintively he points out that while the population of Toronto has shrunk during the course of —totat steck of housing has in- creased by about seven per cent, there is nevertheless perceived to be a housing shortage. He was quite surprised by this seemingly paradoxical state of affairs but, of course, it is not Surprising at all. The reason is because Ontario, Toronto in par- ticular, like many other provinces and cities across Canada, adopted a _thorough-going program of ‘rent control in 1975. It is a ELECTION SPOTLIGHT in West Van is now swinging to the three hot seats up for grabs on the school board, though why anyone would want to risk scorched pants or skirt on that body these days is something of a mystery. Be that as it may, incumbents Norm Alban and John Gregory will almost certainly be bidding for a further term against (at present count) up to five outsiders. The latter, according to our indefatigable spices, include Darrell Frith (who nearly made it last time sound), former trustee Fran McDowell and lawyer Barry Promisiow -——together with dark horses Michael Smith (a pal of current trustee Margot Fark) and possibly Bill Macliatosh. Meanwhile, over in North Van District, the latest entrant in the aldermanic stakes for the three vacant scats is Rec Commission chairman Marray Dykeman, one of the three jolly pharmacists whose story we had for Brunch the other weekend. But stay tuned — the final day for nominations is still a couple of weeks away... Latest compliment to your community paper (1 think!) is the Black Sheep Restaurant's luncheon characteristic of rent control programs, as they have been tried not only in Canada but for over 100 years in many of the industrialized countries, that they create a housing shortage. How do they do it? Well, | essentially rent controls are | a tax upon landlords and-a’ subsidy for tenants. In a normal market setting landlords tend to charge whatever the market will bear. That is to’ say, whatever tenants are willing to pay for the existing housing stock. Rent control imposes an artificial ceiling on what landlords , could have achieved-in a_ free market setting and is, in The tenants on the other hand are the recipients of the difference between the free market rent and the rent-controlled rent. controlled apartment, tenants receive a ‘subsidy. equal to the différence between the market rent and the controlled rent. Now in Toronto, as in other areas, old apartment units are treated differently. than new apartment units. Old apartment units are subject - control as typically’ new units are not. The consequence is that from a tenant’s point of | rent- || view, occupying a. controlled apartment becomes the way to get access to the rental subsidy. The subsidy will not be given to those who occupy new x on the tandiords. ~~—duitdings since they “are not COR controlled. However, since the old buildings are, con- trolled, tenants are en- couraged to occupy them. In™ effect, by occupying a rent- | whether or not they require all the space they.occupy. So, for example, when family units are dissolved in one way or another, the family apartment is usually retained because the con- trolled rent_is so much lower than the: cost’of new. apart- ments - built -under . today’s higher cost market con- ditions. -Although* ‘they may not ‘need . all: the space, in- dividuals remain in :the rent- controlled: Units. - And, number: course, this cauSses'the. price of the: new a artments: to. be would... be ;-and. further . discourages people | ‘ moving ‘out of the controlled ‘from housing stock. - So, ‘it cis not at. all sur- prising. that, in spite of. the fact that Toronto has had a | “What did--you do. with the $50,000 1 gave you yestérday?” by Noel Wright special on Mondays, described on the..menu as “North Shore News Special”. I'm: not: quite: sure whether grilled bacon and cheese on French bread with pea soup is the image we've been working to create all these years —- but it tastes ‘00d, anyhow! eve Adman Paul Davey is the | local promoter of special lapel buttons to celebrate Prime Minister Plerre Trudeau's 63rd birthday, Oct. 18. They bear the in- scription “Happy Birthday, Useless!” and the date itself has been designated “Useless Day”. Purchasers of the buttons — Davey says 50,000 havo been sold to date — become members of the S.P.U.D. (Sponsors of Useless Day) which claims chapters in every major city from Halifax to Vancouver. If you'd like to honor our fearless leader in this happy manner before it's too late, a call to Paul (689-7322) will get you the name of your nearest button supplier. FOLK TALES: No place is a good place to: have a heart attack but West Van Seniors Centre is better than mast. Its program coordinator Lynda Lyons has just received the St. John Ambulance Award of Merit for helping save’ Lealle No happy returns? Smith's life with mouth-to- mouth resuscitation after he collapsed with cardiac arrest. They're proud, too, of Senior Centre member Bill Claff who assisted Lynda with external heart massage on Mr. Smith ... Star billing at the Oct. 28 = annual mecting of the British Properties & Arca Homeowners Assocation goes to guest speaker (and Properties resident) Angelo Branca, retired B.C. Appcal Court judge and one of Canada's most honored jurists ... The meeting, at which Howard Sanderson is slated to step into” the presidential shoes being discarded by West Van aldermanic hopeful Don Griffiths, is being held this year in Sentinel School and promises to be one of the fall's best parties on Martini Hill, according to BP&AHA ‘Seven per cent_increase in the number of housing units and a reduction in population, nevertheless the housing shortage grows worse. “It is nO more sur- prising in. ‘Toronto than it was. in Vienna i in the 1920s, in Paris .in: the post-war period, in. New York. in. the 1950s ‘or ‘in Vancouver during the late 1970s. The fact is that rent controls produce housing shortages. (Dr. Walker is Director of the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute.) publicist Herb McDonald Frank .. King Leo ~— Hamilton of Smithers, Lions Clubs International Governor for western B.C. — tours his seven North Shore dens this month, starting with a visit to the Mount Seymour Lions Oct. 18 ... Canada Savings Bond time again and this year's payroll plan organizer for North Van is investment exec. Cliff Bird ... congrats to Hillside grad Anne Morrison, daughter of B.C. Tel v-p Don Morsion, on winning one of four B.C. Tel “employee dependant” scholarships out of a field of 40 entrants If you've missed secing North Van's Terry Duacommun around recently, he’s studying for his Bachelor of Religious Education at Briercrest Bible College near Moose Jaw, Sask ... Jack Barnwell of North Van has been made a life member of the Cer- tified General Accountants Association of B.C., the highest honor bestowed by the association which also named his North Van neighbor Larry Haines for the J.M. MacBeth Award of Merit ... Meanwhile, 1.W. Adams of West Van is $5,000 richer for having bought a ticket in the Sept. 26 Super Loto... one WRIGHT OR WRONG: It never occurs to teenagers that someday they'll know as little as their parents. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. nevertheless!