4 ~ Wednesday, April 21, 1993 — North Shore News

Barbarian klutzes

at the gates of the

Clayoquot temple

1 GUESS the battle lines are drawn, and Mike Harcourt, an old friend of the environmental movement, has displayed his true colors, which show up in the profit margins of MacMillan Bloedel and Fletcher Challenge, in the dues paid to the International Woodworkers of - Anrrica, and in the membership fees of the | NDP itself.

To be sure, they also show up in the mortgage payments of that shrinking band of people known as logging industry workers, even though the number of jobs avail- able to them have been reduced so dramatically by the tendency of big logging outfits to reptace men with machines.

The unions, fighting a rear- guard action just to cut losses in the face of their failure to stop automation by the corporate heavies, have shown their true colors too: screw the centuries-old firs, we need bucks this year.

What do we give a crap about the opinion of airy-fairy people around the rest of the world who mistakenly think the remaining old-growth forests of Clayoquot are part of their global heritage too?

The buzz-word today is linkage, - folks.

You can’t sit smug and pretty in

+ the industrialized world, guaran- teed unemployment insurance, welfare and a pension if all goes wrong, and pontificate to Third World countries about saving rainforests, or anything, for that matter, if you are trashing your own back yard.

And this, of course, is what Harcourt and the Natural Destruction Party are doing.

It is a bitter disappointment for all those who thought the B.C. NDP might actually do the right’. . thing ecologically when it came to ” preserving the last stands of old growth, ; ;

Nope. They’ ve followed the standard pattern of governments

“in power everywhere —- worry about today, forget about tomor- “TOW.

Many years ago, Dave Barrett '

warned me the NDP was not the ; party of the green movement, even though subsequent New

‘Democrat leaders such as Bob Rae

and Mike Harcourt have made ‘ loud noises about how they were : closet eco-freaks. :

But.when the crunch came for. f the NDP in B.C. — the Clayo- quot decision — they chickened out; and climbed back into the sack with their old buddies, the unionists. .

J, for one, would never say a bad thing in public about unions, being an old leftie at heart, but even a wimp like me has to note that unions do not extend their _ _memberships to ecosystems or wa- “tersheds; let alone the wildlife that dwell therein.

Who was it that said there are “no such things as political friend-

’ ships or ideological alliances, there

are only strategic interests?" Certainly, in picking up the ".. mantle of the logging industry apologists, Harcourt has acted ex- actly as you would have expected: his Socred predecessors to behave: We're here to make bucks. The smell of pulp mills is the smell of ~ money. :

Clearcuts -R- Us!

Yes, Il realize Harcourt is babbl- ing about sanitizing the rape of .Clayoquot as much as possible, given the prime consideration of preserving jobs, never mind the bloody old-growth trees. Hell, they don’t vote!

But if you are going to sanction logging in 14 areas in the last un- cut temperate rain forest in

: Canada — that’s 600,000 cudic metres of wood annually in Clayoquot Sound! — you are still

STRICTLY PERSONAL

going to go down in the history books as a pillager, plunderer and eco-rapist,

You're sure as hell not going to be remembered as a heroic con- servationist. And remember, while cons2rvationists may seem fike a pain in the butt at the time, they make great ancestors — unlike environmental despoilers, the ranks of which have now been joined by Harcourt: & Ca.

I hate to be so harsh, but this really does mark the end of the feel-good phase between the con- servationists and the socialists in this province.

For what it’s worth, the honeymoon has likewise ended be- tween the greens and the pinkos in Ontario, where Bob Rae has shown a marked disinclination to experiment with non-polluting, renewable industrial strategies, despite the rusting of southern Ontario’s industrial base.

Like Harcourt, when it came to choosing between ecological cor- rectness, and realpolitik, Rae jet- tisoned his green intellectual sym-

pathies. . Now the time has come — and

““Mikey”’ is in a position to do it — to save the largest plants on the planet, the Sitka spruce and

~ Dougias fir.

It should be a simple decision. While even a mighty blue whale only grows to 100 feet, a Douglas fir can reach a height of 295 feet. Surely, the significance of this cannot be lost on: someone who once seemed to appreciate the in- trinsic value of saving an en- dangered species of giants.

People like Colin Gablemann, when he first ran for office as a hip, idealistic young crusader also

’ used to understand this, or seemed

to.

What’s happened to these guys in the intervening years? Is it a question of too many backroom Strategy meetings, too much caucusing, too many power lun- ches, too much compromising in the name of pragmatism?

In which case, they have ob- viously lost touch, with the reality that ours is the last generation to be able to prevent the desecration of the surviving masterpieces of nature. The technological bar- barians are indeed at the gates of

- the temples.

Nobody remembers the names of the idiots who destroyed the cedars of Lebanon so many ages ago. But they will remember the names of the klutzes who destroyed Clayoquot — because now it wiil all be part of the

. media record.

School board opposes BC Tel fee hike

NORTH VANCOUVER District 44 School Board (NVSB) expects its annual phone costs to in- crease by about $103,327 as a result of a BC Tel proposal to expand the Lower Mainland toll-free calling zone,

BC Tel proposes to expand the area of toll-free calls, but raise the cost of local phone service.

Trustee Richard Walton said that most of the NVSB calls are within the district. The amount of money saved on long-distance calls, approximately $6,364, is outweighed by the raised cost of regular service -- $109,691.

The BC Tel proposal comes at a time when the Canadian Radio and Television Commission

(CRTC) has allowed competition in the long-distance area of phone service. The move revokes the phone company’s previous monopoly.

The NVSB passed a motion to inform the CRTC of its opposi- tion to BC Tel’s proposed ex- pansion.

tt Public Hearing

A Public Hearing will be held on MONDAY, APRIL 26, 1993 at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber, City Hall, 141 West 14¢h Street, North Vancouver, B.C. to receive

representations in connection with the following proposed amendments.

Official Community Plan Amendment

To receive representations in connection with the “City of ' North Vancouver Official Community Plan Bylaw 1992, No, 6288":

Bylaw Na. 6386

To amend the Official Community Plan Map which is attached as Schedule A to Bylaw No. 6288 known as the “City of [North Vancouver Official ‘Community Plan Bylaw 1992, No. 6288" by reclassifying Lots A, 1, 2, 3, AM4, AM6, Block 5, D.L. 548, . Plan 1585 (as indicated in the * hatched pattern ‘on the map below) from Residential Level

| Three, Low Density Attached

Form (FSR not to execed 0.6 times the lot area and Special Study Area), to Residential Level Five, Medium Density Apartment (FSR not to exceed 1.6 times the lot area designation).

“APPLICANT: BURON /BROOK /CROCKART

WEST 21ST STREET

CHESTERFIELD AVENUE

Zoning Bylaw Amendments

At the same Public Hearing representations in connection with the following proposed amendments to the “City of North Vancouver Zoning Map” (whichisan integral part of “Zoning Bylaw 1967”) will also be received:

Bylaw No. 6387

To rezone Lots A, 1, 2, 3, AM4, AM6, Block 5, D.L. 548, Plan 1585 located at 217 West 21st Street (as indicated in the hatched pattern on the map below to the left) from RT-1 ‘Two-Family Residential Zone to CD-242 Comprehensive Development 242 Zone, to permit construction of a 52- unitseniors’ project on thesite.

The amending bylaw will,

regulate the size, shape and siting of buildings and structures, off-street. parking requirements, location and screening of refuse containers, and landscaping and main- tenance. ,

Bylaw No. 6388

To rezone N 1/2 of Lot 27 Ex. East 15 feet, Block 228, D.L. 545, Plan 1266 locatedat2516 Western Avenue (as indicated in the hatched pa‘’-yn on the

. map to the right) from RS One-

Hl

Family Residential Zone to ' CD-243 Comprehensive Dev- ! elopment 243 Zone, to permit

construction of three. 2- J | bedroom units on thesite. The.

| amending bylaw will regulate the size, shape and ‘siting of buildings and structures, off- street parking requirements, and landscaping and main-. tenance.

APPLICANT: TWIGA/ LUND -

-LONSDALE AVENUE

TRANS CANADA HIGHWAY

t ALL PERSONS who believe that their interest in property is affected by the proposed bylaws shall be | | afforded a reasonable opportunity to be heard— in person, by attorney, or by petition. The proposed | | bylaw numbers 6386, 6387, and 6388, and staff reports may be inspected at the office of the City Clerk |

between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday (except Statutory Holidays) from APRIL 12

to 26, 1993. Written submissions will be accepted up to and including APRIL 26, 1993 for all three {:

: bylaws, however, submissions will not be accepted after the conclusion of the Public Hearing. NOTICE | of this Public Hearing is pursuant to Section 957 of the Municipal Act of British Columbia. .

_ Bruce A. Hawkshaw, City Clerk |

The City of North Vancouver | She Hewt gy Lf Your Community