Municipal Services; B. Tomlinson

However, I began to look back on the course of events since we moved to North Vancouver 22 years ago, and it became clear that a pattern had developed.Whenwe arrivedwe foundtherewere two exercise clubs serving the community. Each had an ice rink, curling rink, swimming pool, saunas, and exercise room. Each was in competi tion with the other for members, but they had a far more serious adversary. Mr. Tomlinson owns and operates a small plumbing company in North Vancouver,British Columbia. Two or three years earlier the city had embarked on a major construction project-a recreation center with an ice rink, curling rink, swimming pool, saunas, and exercise room. As things turned out this was to be just the start of a burgeoning empire, as over the years three more facilities featuring ice rinks and swimming pools have been built in the district to accommodate the growingpopulation. At present another pool with a specialwave action feature is out to tender. In the meantime the two private clubs struggled on until one succumbed in the early '70s. The other went into receivership in the early '80s, but has remained in operation on a limited basis.

In the late '60s and early '70s there was a surge in the popularity of tennis. An entrepreneurial group put up a building to provide covered courts, and the parks department paved over sections of several parks and put up nets and fences. Since we live in a temperate climate where you can play tennis outside all the year round, many people chose to use the "free" courts, and the indoor club failed. Exercise clubs come and go with regularity. A few haveevensurvivedandseemto be prospering. In spite of this, it is reasonable to assume that among those that didn't survive are some that could have done so if they hadn't been beaten down by the double hammer blow of competition from municipal recreational programs and the tax es they were paying to subsidize those programs. The same scenario has been repeated in other 306 THE FREEMAN • AUGUST 1990 municipal services. Public libraries supplanted the private lending libraries. Similarly, in many com munities, schooling, garbage collection, water sup ply,and fire-fighting services were provided by pri vate firms until they were put out of business by unfair competition from local governments. Apol ogists for interventionism twist the argument around by claiming that government action is needed because the market fails to supply afford able services~ We must be on our guard against the notion that because there is little or no direct cost, some services suddenly become worthwhile.