NEWS BRIEFS Youth arrested BREAK AND enter-related charges are pending against four youths apprehended Miarch 11 by West Vancouver Police following a break and enter attempt at a West Vancouver convenience store. According to a poiice spokesman, the police received 2 report of a break-in in progress just after 3 a.m. at the Quickstop store located at 2228 Marine Dr. Police responded with a tracking dog. Police dog Trooper tracked south (o an area in the 2000-block of Bellevue Avenue, where police located a 15-year-old North Vancouver male. The dog picked up a second track, foll!2wed the trai? for severe! blocks and located three suspects in the 2500-block of Haywood Avenue. The police apprehended a 15-year-old West Vancouver suspect and a 16-year-old Vancouver male. A 17-year-old male of no fixed address was found to be wearing only one shoe. Trooper recovered the second shoe nearby as well as _ Socks, a crowbar and some marijuana. Car flips ’ A VANCOUVER driver escaped major injury after the car he was driving went out of control and crashed March 19 on the Upper levels Highway. According to 2 West Vancouver Police spokesman the ’. vehicle was travelling east or the highway when it flipped near the 13th Street exit. The car came to rest on its roof, The. lone occupant of the vehicle, 30-year-old. Parmjit .. Singh Soor, faces a charge of driving without due care and attention. NV shipyard workers take message to Victoria Demand government assistance in fight for severance packages FIFTEEN; ANGRY former ‘employees of North Van- couver-baséd Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc. (VPSI) car- ried their fight for fair severance pay to the steps of the B.C. legislature on Friday. Carrying placards labelled “Lies, lies and more lies’ and - “Bair deal for Versatile workers,’’ they. demanded assistance from the provincial government in settl- ing their !3-month-old campaign. Both North Van- couver-Lonsdale NDP MLA David Schreck and North Van- couver-Seymour Liberal MLA Daniel Jarvis met with the delega- sion, which is said to represent raore: than 300 former VPSI workers. But the workers were unsuc- cesstul in their efforts to meet with {members of Premier Mike Harco.1rt’s cabinet. Joe ‘Brown, spokesman for the protestes, told Jarvis on the steps of the iegislature_ that Schreck “won't tal’: 10 us, and his gov- ernment keeps making promises and doing nothing.” Brown saia the displaced workers are convinced tha’ both the current NDP governzent and the former Social Credit govern- ment were involved in downsizing VPSI and the subsequent closure of its North Vancouver yard. “Our bitch is that in September last year Mike Harcourt made a pre-election statement saying the Socreds should bail (us) out. Now he denies it,’’ said Brown. “That’s a lie, and it’s no way to play with these people’s lives.’’ Since the shipyard closed in March 1991 many of the workers have been forced to go on welfare awaiting some settlement, and the provincial government has still not acted, added Brown. Jarvis said Victoria has met with the company and the Marine Workers and Boilermakers Indus- trial Union ‘‘and they keep saying that they kave a formula or some type of plan to assist them, but it By John Pifer From Victoria has never been given to the workers themselves.’” “Premier Harcourt keeps saying he will not let this issue die, but it is dying on the vine, unless they do something. That’s why the workers are here and why I am here in sympathy for their cause,” added Jarvis. But Schreck said he met with the protesters on the steps of the legislature as well. He added that he understands their frustrations, but said they have to work with their union executive in achieving a settlement. “They have their legitimate concerns because they don’t know what will happen with the negotiations, and we don’t know when the negotiations will end,” said Schreck. “" do sympathize with them, but part of the problem i; the in- ternal union politics.”’ Brown said an_ investigation must be conducted into how VPSI placed some of its property into a numbered company. “If there’s not a scam there I don’t know where it is,’ said Brown. One unidentified protester said if the VPSI land is rezoned ‘‘it becomes worth an absolute for- tune on the North Shore. Versatile Pacific didn’t care about the ship- yards or the workers, just about the property.’” Bill! Ahern, another former worker, said there was ‘‘a bad smell about the whole thing. Don’t we deserve the same treat- ment as those workers at Quebec shipyards who got about $2,000- plus a month? We’ve had zip.”* Home business bylaw changes examined WEST VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL MOST PEOPLE don’t mind if the guy next door is painting masterpieces in his attic or if there’s a woman in the neighborhood who takes in some bookkeeping work — working at home is a dream that many share. By Maureen Curtis Contributing Writer But West Vancouver resident lain Forsyth did mind when a neighbor began operating a land- scaping business from his home that substantially increased area traffic. “On the weekends, when we were trying to relax, we could hear the sounds of ladders being moved and the equipment being loaded,"’ said Forsyth. Although those problems were resolved by municipal staff after four years of complaints from Forsyth, he is now concerned that proposed changes to West Van- couver’s Home Occupation Bylaw will weaken the law, A public hearing on the amendments will be held on Monday at 7:45 p.m. at West Vancouver municipal! hall. Until now, there have been rela- tively few problems connected with home-based tvsinesses. In West Vancouver and throughout the North Shore, home-based business is tolerated as long as it is unobtrusive and does not disrupt the residential character of a neighborhood. “es part of a lifestyle that suits people on the North Shore,”’ Bonnie Peldach of the North Shore Economic Development Commission said recently. Peldach says home-based businesses will become increasing- ly common as more people centre more of their activities around the home. The development of computers, fax machines and other techno- logy also makes working at home possible for more people. But North Vancouver City planner Francis Caouette connects the increase in home businesses with the falling economy and lost jobs, when many professionals become ‘‘consultants.”’ The business community has complained that home businesses compete unfairly because of their tow overhead. But Peldach says that most home businesses are not serious competition because they generally handle far less work than businesses operating in commer- cial districts. Home businesses are often little more than hobbies, something done on the side by a parent at home with small children or a person with another full-time job. But, said Peldach, ‘“‘Once you start creating traffic and noise, you should move into a commer- cial district.” North Shore home businesses are regulated through the business licences and bylaws, which are formulated to protect the residen- tial character of neighborhoods. In North Vancouver City it’s called an ‘‘accessory home oc- cupation use.”’ See Residents page 10 Sunday, March 22, 1992 - North Shore News — Economic Twinning Prospect & Benefit for North Vancouver Business. TUE., MAR. 24 6 P.M. SHAW CABLE Host Andy Danyliu WY. Alderman UP TO 60% OFF reg. dept. store prices no Blinds as Fast as 3 Days & Yaletown Blinds & Drapery Inc. 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