V twin tower task

force memi

ONE OF the most outspoken

members of the Taylor Way

Task Force has quit the group, tendering her resignation
shortly after the initial Aug. 8 mecting.

Dr. Marion Crowhurst, a West
Vancouver resident who has helped
lead the public campaign against
the proposed twin tower develop-
ment at the corner of 320 Taylor
Way, was one of 12 people named
to the West Vancouver District
Council-appainted task force
created to look into the proposal
and the way council has handled it.

Crowhurst has been replaced by
John C. Patterson, a chartered ac-
countant.

Dr. Crowhurst said Monday she
resigned her membership in the
task force because there had been a
change in the terms of reference
from when Mayor Don Lanskail
initially announced the force
would be appointed.

On July 18, Lanskail said the
task force would review ‘‘the ap-
propriateness of the zoning and
permitted land uses for 320 Taylor
Way as provided for in the
development guidelines...”

But on July 25 it was announced
that the purpose of the task force
would be to “determine the rele-
vant facts in regard to the existing
development guidelines for 2320
Taylor Way as determined in the
public process of 1981.’'

Crowhurst said she requested
that the terms of reference be
changed back to the original form.
She said she refused when she was

By MAUREEN CURTIS
Contributing Writer

WEST Vancouver Acting Mayor
Dave Finlay ...accepting letter with
regret.

told to read the two versions as
meaning the same thing.

Crowhurst said that the new
terms of reference were ‘‘too nar-
row to be useful.”

er resigns |

“They (the terms of reference)
are in keeping with what the mayor
said," disagreed acting Mayor
Dave Finlay Monday.

“We accepted her letter with
regret, | suppose it (the task force)
was not what she thought it was
going to be,"’ commented Finlay.

Task force chairman David
Bakewell said the task force has
“all the powers we need to under-
take the terms of reference.

The task force is commissioned
to get the facts, not be a political
open forum,’ Bakewell said.

A fellow task force member,
Capt. George Murrell of the
Ambleside Dundarave Ratepayers,
was also regretful about the resig-
nation.

“I'm very sorry she resigned,
although [ respect her reasons. It's
a distinct loss not to have her
anymore,’ said Murrell, who
agreed that the terms of reference
had been changed, ‘intentionally
or otherwise."

Crowhurst plans to continue her
efforts with the Capilano Public
Lands Committee (formerly the
Save Public Lands Committee) to
get people out to the public
mecting Sept. 19.

The Taylor Way Task Force had
its second meeting Monday and
will be preparing a report for
September.

AUTO INSURANCE PRIVATIZATION

ICBC calis ads misleading

BRITISH COLUMBIA motorists are being misied by an
ad campaign launched by the self-appointed B.C. Auto
Insurance Task Force (BCAITF), charges ICBC vice-

president Michael McCarthy.

Backed by eastern-based
private insurers, the BCAITF is
lobbying the government to
dismantle ICBC and turn over
the auto insurance business to
them.” :

‘This, among other things,
will mean the loss of over 1,000
jobs in B.C.,’’ McCarthy
claims.

The BCAITF plans to make
its proposal to the provincial
government in September.

Spokesperson Corinne
Noonan, a former ICBC
employee, said the task force
has finished the consulting pro-
cess and is coating the material
collected froin the public.

The BCAITF is pursuing an
expensive ad campaign in an at-
tempt to convince people that
they will get a better deal
through private insurance, Mc-
Carthy says.

McCarthy sites as misleading
the group’s reference to Alber-
ta’s private auto insurance
rates, which they infer cost
Albertans 30 per cent less than
British Columbians spend on
insurance.

“Alberta’s accident rate is
nearly half of ours,’ he says.
‘Transport Canada has
measured it, and the private in-
surers know it. That’s the real
reason Albertans pay less,...”’
says McCarthy.

McCarthy points out that the
BCAITF fails to talk about On-
tario, where motorists pay more
under private insurance, even
though their accident rate is
lower than B.C.’s.

“They don’t want to talk
about Ontario because there,
consumers, journalists,
legislators and the public have
been advocating the set up of

” By MAUREEN CURTIS
Contributing Writer

government auto insurance,’
says McCarthy.

ICBC has been held up as a
model of fairness, stability and
efficiency in Ontario, says Mc-
Carthy.

“We have been a profound
embarrassment to the private
auto insurer and they want very
desperately to have us done
away with,’’ he adds.

The Ontario government
wants private insurance com-
panies to establish a rating
system similar to ICBC’s Fair

SURVEY SHOWS

program, which bases its rates
on claims rather than age, sex
or marital status. Fair took
ICBC six years to develop.

Noonan has been quoted as
saying the task force’s plan is a
totally new concept, not a
return to private insurance or a
dismantling of government in-
surance.

Through its Autoplan Plus
program, the BCAITF would
“combine central features of a
government insurance program
with free market competition.”

The new plan would retain
the most pepular innovations of
ICBC’s Autoplan — uniform
class ratings, community claim
centres, mandatory insurance
and a claim-rated scale — but
add the benefits of choice and
competition.

“What it would provide,”

3 - Wednesday, August 17 — North Shore News

o10 Mike Wekelleld

pl
THE WEST Vancouver British Properties home of the Indian Con-
{sulate General was the site of a celevraticn Monday marking the
country’s 41 years of independence from Great Britain. Cutside,
ebout 20 Sikh protestors demonstrated over alleged Indian gov-
ernment injustices, but the group dissolved without incident.

Noonan said, ‘‘would be the
potential for lower rates.’’

But McCarthy argues that
these claims mean little.

“They infer many benefits,
but if you look behind their
high-budget ad campaign, they
are promising nothing.”’

According to Noonan, the
BCAITF was launched by the
Insurance Bureau of Canada,
which represents 95 per cent of
private insurers in B.C. and is
headed by former ICBC presi-
dent Robbie Sherrell.

Along with the ad campaign,
the BCAITF has been holding
public information meetings,
receiving telephone calls and
letters regarding their proposal.

‘“‘We’ve had more public
response than we had an-
ticipated,’’ Noonan said Mon-
day.

Public wants privatization

RESULTS OF a survey conducted by United Com-
munications Research Inc. indicate that the public wants
the private sector involved in the automobile insurance
business, with strong support for the elimination of the
Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.

Issued July 29, United
Communications’ B.C. Today:
Issue Report gives the results of
an independent survey con-
ducted between July 6 and 12,
involving 603 people in 104
communities and areas in B.C.

The survey report was sold to
-— but not commissioned by —
the B.C.Auto Insurance Task
Force (BCAITF).

The BCAITF, which repre-
sents the Association of Private
Insurers in Canada, is pro-
moting the elimination of the

emi

government monopoly in the
automobile insurance business.
The task force would like to see
a mew arrangement which
would provide choice of com-
panies and competition.

Neither the BCAITF nor
ICBC were aware that United
Communications undertook a
survey on this controversial
issue,

United Communications

concluded that 45 per cent of
the total sample taken favor a
privately-run automobile in-
surance plan for British Col-
umbia that eliminates ICBC.
(This group was willing to ac-
cept a mixed public and private
arrangement, however.)

An ICBC monopoly of ail
auto insurance was preferred by
22 per cent of those polled while
33 per cent favored a com-
petitive situation with both
ICBC and the private sector
competing.

Dissatisfaction with ICBC is
predicated on a belief that ‘‘the
private sector can do most of
the things the government now
does more cheaply and more
efficiently,’’ United Com-
munications reported.

NDEX

!
Business .............. 24

Classified Ads..........32
Comics................30
Dr. Ruth..............28
Editorial! Page.......... 6
Food..................16
Bob Hunter............ 4
Lifestyles..............27
Maithox............... 7
Sports... 0. cece eee WD
TV Listings............91
What's Geing On........13

WEATHER

Wednesday, cloudy with
a few morning showers.
High near 17°C.

Thursday, mainly sunny.

Second Class Registration Number 3885