‘COLLEGE PICKS UP THE BALL’
Economic development plan

gears up for North Shore

THE FIRST step has been taken towards establishing a
Strategic plan for economic development encoripassing the

whole of the North Shore.

Capilano College received com-
munity approval Thursday to lead
the three municipalities in further
discussions on developing local
economic strategies for business
and industry.

CAPILANO College director of
planuing Alan Smith...plan pur-
pose is to stimulate job creation.

In a meeting called by the Ad
Hoc North Vancouver Economic
Development Planning Group,
sponsored by and held at the col-
lege, local mayors, aldermen,
business leaders, representatives
from the college, Chamber of
Commerce, Canada Employment
and social service agencies listened
to and addressed the comments
made by a six-member panel on
the benefits of a community
economic plan and the problems in
establishing one.

TAKE INITIATIVE

“The college will pick up the
ball and take the initiative,’’ col-
lege president Douglas Jardine,
chairman of the meeting, told an
audience of about 90. ‘‘The coilege

By BARRETT FISHER
News Eiditor

feels it has — without a show of
hands — received a vete of con-
fidence."

Alan Smith, Capilano College
director of planning and chairman
of the ad hoc economic develop-
ment group, said the purpose of
promoting an economic plan was
to create new jobs, especially those
of a more permanent nature.

He said this could be achieved
by attracting new business and in-
dustry to the North Shore, and by
stimulating existing industry to
make it healthier.

Hugh Kellas, GVRD develop-
ment services officer, said the
motivation to form a plan has been
stimulated by the ‘‘incredible
shock in the economy."”

Kellas gave Vancouver Metro-
politan statistics, which stated that
40,000 people were unemployed in
December, 1981, whereas 80,000
people were unemployed in
December, 1985.

UNEMPLOYED WORKERS

‘There’s a growing pool of
potential workers out  there,”’
Kellas said, ‘‘of people who can’t
find work, so they’re staying in
schoo], staying at home or doing
volunteer work. There’s a potential
pool out there simply not being
tapped.’”

With increased unemployment
forecast for the 1990s, Kellas said,
“We have to run faster to get
unemployment down to a reason-
able rate.""

Kellas estimated between 25,000
and 30,000 jobs would have to be
created per year over the next de-
cade to get a lid on unemployment.

NEWS phoio Terry Peters.

THE TWIN spires of St. Pauls church in North Vancouver stand
alongside another set of twins — the twin peaks of the Lions. A recent
snowfall on the peaks shows that winter is not over yct.

“And it's not going to happen
uniess we make a concerted, cre-
ative effort to make it happen,”’
Kellas said.

Barry Goodwin, chairman of the
strategy committee of the Royal
City Community Development
Association, talked about the
two-year planning his group has
done to establish an economic plan
for New Westminster,

He said economic planning calls
for a wide-range of community
participation, and a college can

GVRD development services of-
ficer Hugh Kellas...‘‘incredible
shock in economy’’ stimulates
need for development plans.

play a significant role, by offering
leadership, expertise, ad-
ministrative services, interim fi-
nancial support and a neutral and
credible base of operations.

IDENTIFY NEEDS

Richard Bell, chairman of the
economic development committee
for Coquitlam and Port Moody,
stressed the need to prepare an
economic development question-
naire to send out to all the
businesses in the area to identify
community attitudes and needs.

3 - Wednesday, March 19, 1986 - North Shore News

NEWS photos Mike Wakelleld

CAPILANO COLLEGE president Douglas Jardine chaired a meeting
recently of the Ad Hoc North Vancouver Economic Development Plann-
ing Group at the college. The group, sporsored by Capilano College,
brought together local government officials, businessmen and social
agencies to discuss the benefits of a community plan and the problems in

establishing one.

“Unless you know what you've
got — what you're working with
— you won't know the direction to
take."

One of the problems, Bell said,
in orchestrating several
municipalities in establishing one
economic development plan, is
that ‘teach municipality wants to
see new business come into its
municipality.”

But he added it is important ‘‘to
bring the municipalities together.
Let's market the region. There’s a
tremendous advantage — a cost
saving. Each municipality can then
go ahead and try to convince peo-
ple to open up in their municipali-
ty.”

BE INDEPENDENT

Surrey economic development
director Franklin Wiles said the
best advice he can give for
developing an economic strategy is
to ‘‘do your own thing.

‘*You should look at your own
circumstances and structure your

NV CITY ESCORT CASE
Council accepts court award

NORTH VANCOUVER City Council has been requested to
not accept the money awarded it following a Supreme Court
ruling that found the city was justified in calling escort op-

erator Carol McNeill before it.

In response to the request from
McNeill’s lawyer Tim Maledy,
council voted 5-1 Monday not to
forego the $1,057.35 worth of
costs awarded Oct. 22, when
Supreme Court Judge M. R.
Taylor dismissed a petition to
quash the city’s request to have the
Operator appear before it.

McNeill, owner of Interlude
Escorts and Comfort Zone
Escorts, was originally slated to
appear before council Dec. 10,
1985 to show cause for why her

‘ business licences should not be

revoked, but council cancelled the
hearing at the last minute.

On Dec. 16, 1985, after spending
$10,000 on legal fees, council
voted 5-2 against having McNeill

appear.

INCONVENIENCED

In discussing the request, Ald.
Stella Jo Dean moved that council
not concede to the request.

“TI really was appalled at the
nerve of Maledy to ask us to
forgo the costs awarded by the
courts,’’ she told council.

“We were the ones inconve-
nienced by Maledy by having him
take us to court,’’ Dean continued.

But Ald. Dana Taylor disagreed
with Dean and said he thought
council should grant the request.

By STEPREN BARRINGTON
Contributing Writer

‘*We won the battle and lost the
war,’’ Taylor said of council’s
dealings with McNeill. ‘‘It was a
dead-end street.

“We paraded people through

NORTH Vancouver Chamber of
Commerce chairman Merrill
Shepard...‘‘too many retailers
chasing too few customers in
area.”

approach to deal with those cir-
cumstances. Don’t expect to find a
model to suit your own needs.”’
But he added: “I’m not saying
See Development
Page 10

here, and they took the only track
they could and that is to protect
themselves,’’ he said.

ACCEPT DEFEAT

“They lost and they’ve got to
accept the bitter fruit of their
defeat,”’ said Ald. Ralph Hall.

“This (court action) cost us a lot
of money, far more than $1,000,”
he said in support of collecting the

See Cash
Page 8

INDEX

Weather:

Sunny Wednesday with
highs near 14°C. Thursday,
showers and cocler.

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