NORTH Vancouver RCMP Const. Marc Boland poses in his neighbourhood con- stable uniform for a photo promoting a fundraising baseball game. MPs hedge bets on party leadership Bab Mackin News Reporter bmackin@nsnews.com AND they’re off. The race for the leadership of the proposed Canadian Alliance party is on. But John Reynolds and Ted White aren't cheering on any of the contestants. At least not in public. Reform: party leader Preston Manning and Alberta government treasurer Stockwell Day are the front-runners. Ontario cabinet minis- ter Frank Kices, Toronto Reform activist Joe Peschisclido and B.C. Reform MP Dr. Keith Martin are among the others who are consid- ering a run for the top job of the proposed successor to the Reform party. “I'm really excited about the possibility of a good leadership race,” said Ted White. White, Reform’s North Vancouver MP, said he approaches his job as a representative for the people and isn’t in politics to impose his own will upon voters. “Pm not taking a public position of sup- port for any particular candidate. I have told Stockwell Day I will help gather signatures for his candidacy, I’ve also done the same thing for Dr. Keith Martin and J:e¢ Peschisolido, and I don’t think Preston needs any help. My goal is to facilitate as many people in the race as possible.” White said he thinks the leadership race will encourage the sharing of new ideas to revitalize aad rally the right-of-centre as it gears up to take on the Liberal party in the next federal election. See Alliance page § re 3 eye Friday, March 24, 2000 - North Shore Naws - 3 cer reprimanded for affair North Van RCMP constable involved with office worker Anna Marie D'Angelo News Reporter adangelo@nsnews.comt A veteran North Vancouver RCMP officer was penalized on Wednesday for having an affair with a worker at the community policing office in Edgemont Village. Const. Mare Boland was docked 10 days pay and received a reprimand letter that goes in his personnel file temporarily. Roland has more than 2] years of service with the RCMP and at least 10 vears in North Vancouver. The discipline hearing was held in Vancouver before a tri- bunal of senior out-of-province RCMP officers. Such hearings used to be regarded as private “internal” matters until a court ruling deemed them public. But the RCMP do not give notice that the public hearings are taking face. Boland was found guilty of disgraceful conduct concerning his consensual affair on and off work with Christina Wallace in 1998. Boland was the neighbourhood constable for the Edgemont Village area when he had the six-month affair with Wallace that ended in December 1998. Wallace was not employed directly as a civilian staffer of the North Vancouver RCMP. She worked at the Edgemont com- munity policing office through a summer employment pro- gram. She was employed by Youth Services Canada. Wallace did crime prevention tasks at the Edgemont com- munity policing office. Boland oversaw community policing initiatives at that office. The married Boland was removed for his position as neigh- bourhood constable and taken out of the community policing section when his supervisors became aware of the affair. Boland forfeited 150 hours of accumulated overtime after being confronted by his Mountic supervisors. Boland admitted to having the affair. Boland’s job was on the line during the review of his con- duct. He was placed on shift-work patrol duties where he cur- rently works. The discipline hearing falls under the RCMP Act’s regula- tions which ourines a code of conduct for Mounties on and off duty. Boland is a bodybuilder. He has been active in promoting community policing and fostering police morale in| North Vancouver. ax ote . NEWS photo Mike Wakefield According, ta his supervisors, Boland was a popular, com- munity-minded North Vancouver Mountie. He was assigned to administrative duties while awaiting the outcome of the adjudication hearing. Sports card treasure ve found in trash TrashBusters duo hit vintage card jackpot in NV home Bob Mackin News Reporter bmackin@nsnews.com THE name is TrashBusters. Not TreasureBusters. A crew from the Vancouver garbage removal com- pany came across some treasure that just couldn’t be trashed while working at a house in the 5500-block of Huckleberry Lane in North Vancouver on March 6. Sandra Routledge, a longtime TrashBusters’ cus- tomer, was moving to Seattle and needed TrashBusters to remove junk from her house. “It was near the end (of the job),” said TrashBusters’ worker Derek Bendig. “I was actually writing up the receipt when Mike (Cule, his co-work- er) found a couple of cards.” Cule said he was rummaging through the boxes, which were destined for the dumo, “I found a small package of football cards. ?’'m more ofa hockey enthusiast. I said ‘Hey Derek do you want some football cards, they look pretty old?’ 1 guess the owner saw our enthusiasm and said ‘Hey I’ve got more boxes, do you guys want them?” A cou- ple turned to several.” Bendig spoke with Routledge to warn her that the boxes of cards were likely worth a small fortune. She said they were collected by her son who lives in New York. She said she didn’t want to store them anymore and, that he didn’t seem interested in keeping the cards. Bendig and Cule returned to the office and told their bosses, who phoned Routledge and her son to ensure they really didn’t want the cards anymore. The son said he’d part with them in exchange for a dona- tion from the company in his name to the Canuck Place children’s hospice. So Bendig and Cule got to keep the hockey, bas- ketball, football and baseball cards. While not work- ing, they're splitting the cache of cards and catalogu- ing the collection. They have no idea yet how much it’s all worth. The NFL football cards, for instance, include Tony Dorsett, Walter Payton, Terry Bradshaw, O.J. Simpson and Steve Largent. There’s even a set of CFL cards with legends like Angelo Mosca and Normie Kwong. The NBA cards bear the likenesses of coach- es Pat Riley, Phil Jackson and George Karl in their playing days. Neither Bendig ner Cule are thinking of making a fast buck. “lt be keeping them and when I have kids proba- bly give them to them when they're old enough,” Bendig said. “I’m a card collector. This augments my own collection, I have no interest in selling them.” Cule may trade some to upgrade his own collec- tion; he has always wanted to acquire a Mike Bossy rookie card. “Just going through the old players brings back a lot of memories,” Cule said. Bendig said many customers don’t know the value of what they want to throw out. It’s often a TrashBusters’ employee’s good judgment that saves treasures of a monetary or sentimental value for its owner. Just last week a woman in West Vancouver asked them to remove the contents of a room. Among the boxes was a photo album from the late 19th century. Upon second thought, the woman kept it. Trashbusters started six years ago in North Vancouver and Vancouver and now operates in Denver, Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles. The com- pany is expanding to Toronto later this spring. Local doctors to stay on duty Anna Marie D'Angelo News Reporter adangelo@nsnews.com DOCTORS won’t be shutting their offices in protest over fees this year. So called “*RADs" or Reduced Activity Days are over. They have been elimi- nated after doctors voted 95% to accept 4 provincial govern: ment fee offer. The deal involves a $40 million increase to $1,585 billion for doctors services in the budget year ending March 31, 2001. The agreement alse includes an $8 million increase for doctors’ maiprac- tice insurance. Sixty per cent of the 7,500 doctors in the province took parc in the vote that was made public earlier this month. North Shore Health Region (NSHR) welcomes the agreement and the end of RADs. NSHR spokesman = Clay Adams said RADs_ con- tributed to the long surgical wait list at Lions Gate Hospital (LGH). He estimated several hun- dred fewer surgeries were per- tormed last year because of RADs. The surgical wait list at LGH 2s of March 2 was 2,860 people. A year ago, the list was about 3,500. The wait list hit a high point last October with 4,300 people, according to Adams. The health region is cur- rently getting rid of so-called “corporate days” at LGH. Corporate days occurred once a month, usually on the last Friday, for 10 months of the year. During corporate days, the hospital shut down administration, some depart- ments and operated with a skeleton staff in a cost-saving measure to stay in budget. “We are phasing those out (corporate days) to be at max- imum efficiency,” —_— said Adams. Corporate days started to be phased out fast October. The first area phased out was surgery. Adams said the NSHR is ending the fiscal year at the end of this month with a deficit of approximately $2 million. Next year’s budget for the health region is not expected to be confirmed until June or July. Meanwhile tiie doctors’ new agreement specifies that no office or facility closure will take place unless the. move is agreed to by the gov- ernment, the Medical Services Commission and the - B.C. Medical Association (BCMA). Pro-rationing of doctors’ fees by the government will stop, according to the health ministry. Measures to prevent overspending the budget will be implemented jointly by the government and the BCMA. Total health care funding in the province has a budget of more than $8 billion.