A6 - Wednesday, December 28, 1983 - North Shore News

EE editorial pag ¢

Crazy cuts

The trouble with government agencies is their habit of acting like the left hand that doesn’t know what the right hand — govern- ment itself — is doing.

The threatened $897,000 cutback in North Van bus services next year is a prime example.

Buses from 15th Street on Chesterfield and St. George’s Avenues will be eliminated. Some additional ones will ran from. the Lonsdale area to Lonsdale Quay to feed the SeaBus, regardless of whether the extra Lonsdale passengers actually WANT to use the SeaBus.

The most ominous revelation, however, is B.C. Transit’s own estimate that the cutback will cause the loss of 100,000 riders annually. City Alderman Ralph Hall calculates this will mean a drop of 25% to 30% in the number of buses crossing the Lions Gate Bridge alone from the Lonsdale area.

Abandoning 100,000 riders — many of them, if not a majority, daily commuters to Vancouver — obviously is going to increase significantly the number of private cars using both bridges, especially during rush-hour periods, when the Second Narrows is now fill- ed to capacity and the aging Lions Gate span already badly overloaded.

The inevitable result: even worse traffic snaris on the crossings; greater wear-and-tear on them, calling for additional maintenance; more air pollution; more accidents; more vehicles clogging downtown Vancouver — all these things running counter to government policy that urges MORE use of transit, not less.

When you think of it, it's crazy!

Well done, Mary!

One of the happiest omens for 1984 is Mary QOuo, the Tsawwassen housewife who took on the federal justice department over her refusal to complete the 1981 census long form which, she believed, invaded her privacy. She risked a jail term, defended herself because she couldn’t( afford a lawyer and won her case last week in court.

Get lost, Big Brother!

Feat VENUE GF COEET ET) Age WERT VereKmUTER

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THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE

MAINSTREAM CANADA

A message of hope

By W. ROGER WORTH

GOVERNMENT and public attitudes toward smaller businesses are slowly getting better, and a recent study of job creation by the 64,000-member Canadian Federation of Independent business shoul d speed up that Process.

The starthng report that

sent most of economic decision-makers back to their sophisticated charts and graphs stated in no uncertain terms that small and medium-sized enterprises are more important to the na- lion’s economy than anyone had ever suspected.

Indeed, government deci- sions that may or may not be made on the basis of this and other studies may dramatical-

the nation’s

AND |'D UKE YOU TO MEET ONE. OF THE * PIPSQUEAKS FROM THE PENTAGON!

ConaroniigiaaeL nat

by affect whether hundreds of thousands of Canadians are gainfully employed, or are

forced to survive without jobs. Among the Federation’s

findings, which are derived from a study using com- puterized data from 7,749 firms that have been members of the organization for more than eight years:

* Firms with less than 49 employees created a signifi- cant 71 per cent of Canada’s net new jobs between 1975 and 1980, and an astonishing 100 per cent of the net new employment when the Statistics are averaged over the 1975 to 1982 period. While the nation’s big high- profile employers created 200,000 new jobs between 1975 and 1980, they had laid off a similar number of peo-

ple by 1982. Overall, the smaller firms maintained employment during the period.

The country’s really small firms are even better at creating jobs.

e Firms with fewer than five employees increased

staff by a whopping 76 per cent between 1975 and 1982; those with between five and nine employees hired an addi- tional 28 per cent more peo- -ple during the period; and employment by firms with from 10 to 19 workers was up to 19 per cent.

© The new jobs created by the smaller businesses during the 1975-1982 period covered a wide range of industries. Employment among small,

independent manufacturers, for example, was up about 35 per cent; retailers increased employment by 22 per cent; wholesale and service com- panies increased the number of workers they employed by an average 10 per cent to 11 per cent.

Don’t forget, all this was happening during a recession when large employers were forced to lay off about 200,000 workers.

While statistics generally make dull reading, these are particularly significant because the Federation uses them to provide a glimpse of what the future holds. That forecast: the nation’s smaller firms will be the only sector to create the jobs that are so badly needed between now and 1990. Employment by big companies and govern- ments will remain about the same, with small companies,

“hopefully, providing more than 800,000 new jobs.

All this can’t happen, though, unless governments start to understand the in- creasing, even crucial, significance of independent business, and act accordingly.

But if attitudes change and new government policies openly support new and ex.- panding small businesses, thereby removing the road- blocks that create so many difficulties for the entre- preneurs who are already creating al! our new jobs, Canadians could be looking ata full-employment tuture

(CFIB Feature Service)

Big Brother vs. big yawn

WILL. 1984 be like the book?

That’s the question al! the other columnists and

editorial writers have been asking for the past month. I could have saved them the trouble.

The answer is yes and no

in ascending order

To begin with, a poll con ducted by this column last week established that the question itself as a loaded one The poll interrogated six North Shore residents, using sampling techniques that guarantee accurate figures to within 49 per cent eather way, five times out of 10

The results 99 per cent of the population have ocver read Gscorpe Orwell’s 1/984, BS oper cent thought at was space sarcnce film: 60) per cent had never heard of tt

So. farst for the 99 per come a JO sce oad summias y of the gloomy tome publish cd SS years ago by an aaling and pessimistic thovelists

boglish

1Y84 doscribes a boratyiag rotalitarian society governed with anion fist by Phe Party

aed Bag Brother bveryone lives in oa tiny apartinens tonttorcad by a two way ENV set that oar t bee swoate tread off

It cart be awit hed off bec atise bt rent conly SPhecrws

thangs but alses sees and theass

exsceything that happens ono

the apactiment Vhs ta tn tantly, teansaniticd to Bap Brother a 24 hour a day EN addict who ovmimediatcts sends che Ttaougbt Poles tornned ta steatghten out Cae Sear Gong on Uti b sage ary ttirig Bee cdisaageper ess cof T tae Pdvcovepetoe Bheoke. aero gree woh vokagel boobs he

your brain for a major tune up

“Behavior modification,” as it's called, ts carried out by the Ministry of Love which has persuasive slate of the art cquipment in its servicing bays for non conforming minds There's a Ministry of Peace, busy amassing a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons for eventual use against another superpower, and a Ministry of Truth that trewrttes old books and hewspaper stones according to The Party hie

Finally, there's Newspeak. a language devoid of words with any meaning This saves everyo. « a tot of trouble by destroying Chere ability ote think

Not caacthy a cosy world and in one sense Orwell has Gead accurate In the coal P9R4 chit

proved to be

about ut

Starts this Sumday all ttre essential hardware and techniques used by Phe Par ty Hig Brother and thas Phought Pole anc altcady avatlable

We have PN rrecomiteors an banks and stores Cand. any Moment now two way o ate TN an the besiiog roomy taser beams that oan tures yee window orate am caves Weoprperig rn coogityense Canty pubens with cast atveounts af sevbecor ream tl peons bos cael yore cet vr theese teas) trtede bytes

Pode trv vevne Naruse tae CY ert ee SY tk i

focus

Noel Wright ES

yards away

Mind altering drugs Chat can make you con

fess all Nudear warheads by

the thousands Phink tanks fall of boffins Ciputiag oe how to nuke without beta moked themscives Ns bao Newspeak yust disten bor two Minutes to any waite: tnimister labor bass or PR man

Thats the bad news The good news inf Canada ts

especially that Peodsty ama Maven toyet bee crne

the

earthy as Serpehastic ated as thre haapdwate oat others Ulalthe Ctre peeebora tty wet ed bates

sont a ttae { Jw Peet

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and Libya -- they are suill hooked on ancient, outdated rituals

Chef among these are the occasions, every three or tour years, when the citizens troop to them nearest school gym nasium of Legion hal! and mark a cross on a ship of paper with a blunt lead pence

Wherever the crosses are marked on the ships of paper. the end result never varies

The fellows named to run the show unmediately begin to cntertamn the public by per forming prattalls, some thrilling, some hilarious After the audience has watch ed oall othe acts repeated several times over. it grows borcd turns to morte worthwhile pastimes until the neat trip to the school gym

With onetther performers nor audience taking the other seriously any bonger, Chere s htthe to be gained by nastiness on cuher side as Mr Ben nett and Mr Kube both cis coTcncd tn cect avonttsn ALL they wotrn the cod feos test of the bip

and

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Well need co keep uni iy.

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