CAPILANO RIVER TOO LOW Saimon run threatened by recent dry weather CONTINUED dry weather could threaten the Capilano River’s chinook salmon run according to Fisheries and Oceans officials. By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter Fisheries officer Scotty Roxburgh said Tuesday, with current low water levels, expectations for the chinook run up the river are poor. He said that concern was primarily for the river’s small chinook population. “There is no conservation concern over coho. User groups can take what they want and it won’t make much of an inroad in coho returns, but the chinook is a problem.”’ Capilano hatchery manager Eldon Stone said it was “‘the usual problem at this time of the year.” He reiterated that there was little cause for concern over coho returns, ‘‘there is no reason to panic. We will have more than enough.”’ Stone estimated that 2,500 coho had returned to spawn at the hatchery thus far. He expected 10 times that amount would make their way up the river by the end of the 1986 run. The hatchery needs about 1,000 coho for its spawn- ing requirements. But, as yet, no chinook have made their way back to the hatchery this year, Stone said. Roxburgh said the hatchery is hoping for a chinook return of at least 2,000. GROUP RETURNS FROM OTTAWA Shipbuilding | coalition optimistic MEMBERS of the local Greater Vancouver Coalition on Shipbuilding (GVCS) returned from their second trip to Ot- tawa Wednesday, weary but hopeful that their call for a decision on the Polar Class 8 icebreaker wil! be made soon. ‘‘We are cautiously optimistic,” North Vancouver District Mayor Until 1971 and the introduction of chinosk into the river by the hatchery, the Capilano River had no chinook salmon population. Since that time, ‘‘we have never had any great numbers of chinook,’’ Stone added. ‘*We had a cou- ple of really good years, but, with the combination of exploitation and low water levels, we have had barely enough to get a reasonable number of eggs.”' He said the major part of the chinook run up the river would be in two weeks. With the Capilano reservoir 30 fect below spill-over levels, Stone estimated the river needs at least four days of heavy rain before excess water would flow in- to the river. “I’m concerned, but there’s no point in running around screaming about it because there’s nothing we can do.” The Capilano Lake is three metres below the same level it was last year. Though the Fisheries department could close the chinook sports fishery at the river’s mouth, Roxburgh said control of fishing by native Indians in river waters running through Squamish Band reserve areas, “is out of our hands. With recent court rulings, we just do not have any jurisdiction there at all.’’ Court decisions have ruled band bylaws that allow natives to catch as many salmon as they want by any means they want, excluding explosives, over-ride the Fisheries Act. Stone said the hatchery would consider attempting to seine net chinook at the mouth and transport the fish up river if the situation did not improve. That method was tried last year with no success. Marilyn Baker said Thursday. GYCS representatives making the trip included Baker, North Vancouver City Mayor Jack Loucks, Vancouver City Mayor Mike Harcourt, Versatile Pacific Shipyards president Dave Alsop and Versatile shop steward Ron Dingwall. The group left for Ottawa on Sunday and returned Wednesday. It presented its case for awarding the $450 million Polar 8 contract to West Coast shipyards to Minister of Public Works Steward McInnes, Minister of Transport John Crosbie, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Tom Siddon and Minister of International Trade Pat Carney. All the meetings were arranged by Capilano MP Mary Collins. “*I think we all came back fairly encouraged,’’ Alsop said. ‘‘Every opportunity we have to present our case is good because we have a very good case.”’ The GVCS, he said, was consid- ered in all meetings to be the best presented and most organized lob- by to come out of B.C. in a long time. Since its June 6 formation, the GVCS has also presented its case to Minister of Finance Michael Wilson, Secretary of State Joe Clark and Labor Minister Pierre Cadieux. During the second week of June, the GVCS made its first pilgr? age to Ottawa, where it met witl. the B.C. caucus members of all three By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter political parties. In each case, the coalition has urged a Polar 8 decision be made now ind the icebreaker contract be awarded to West Coast shipyards befs-re focal technical expertise erodes irrevocably. “T felt we got more support this trip than last,’’ Loucks said. ‘‘And | think we all felt that if it (the Polar 8) is going to be built, it will be built out here,"’ Baker said the message delivered earlier this week was more than a plea for jobs in a dying industry. ‘*What we are saying is that over the long term, the industry on the West Coast has a lot of potential.’’ In addition to building on local icebreater expertise, which is con- sidered the best in Canada, Baker said Lower Mainland shipbuilding would be going after such markets as cruise ship repair. As to financing the Polar 8 pro- gram, which is currently a major concern with the federal gov- ernment, Alsop said arrangements could be made to finance the icebreaker’s construction so that the government would have to pay nothing until the vessel was delivered. Versatile was one of three Ca- nadian shipyards asked to bid on the original Polar 8 design. Alsop has said that he believes his com- pany’s bid was the best of the three. The original design has since been re-evaluated by the federal 3 - Sunday, September 14, 1986 - North Shore News n squatter's ordered demolished ~. shack THE LAST squatter’s shack on the Maplewood mud flats will be demolished next week despite protests from its most recent occupant and a group of concerned citizens. North Vancouver District municipal manager Mel Palmer said Friday the shack, constructed during the ‘30s, ‘tis not suitabie for habitation, it is not hygienic and there is no good reason to keep it up.” But lawyer Ray Chouinard said knocking down the shack will pave the way for destruction of the fragile estuary environment of the area. “Once it is filled in we won't be able to get it back, it will be gone forever. And that’s the last one in the area."’ Representing squatter Peter Choquette, the shack's current res- ident, and the Pan Pacific Cultural Centre (PPCC), a group protesting the shack’s removal, lawyer Chouinard said the shack will make way for an access road. The road, he said, will be foilowed by a shopping centre development. He added that there is no legal way to stop the shack’s removal. “It’s up to the folks. Only if the people make it worth the political life of ihe politician who allows it to be bulldozed down.”’ In addition to the shack, Chouinard said an Indian burial fy TIMOTHY RE News Reporte ground will also be threatened if the area is developed. Choquette, 44, has said he will fight to save the shack. The PPCC wants to see the area developed in- toa park. But Palmer said no shopping centre was going to be built in the area and that nothing would be developed on the mud flats. An access road, he added, would be built for the adjoining private development. Kalico Developments Lid. is currently developing 24 lots adja- cent to the shack property. Palmer said other squatters’ shacks in the area were ordered demolished in 1973, The one shack was left standing, Palmer said, because its occupant, Mike Bozzer, had lived in it for about 40 years. The 88-year-old Bozzer has since moved into a seniors’ home. Said Palmer: **The shack is not suitable for habitation and it is on district land. We have no desire to have another group of squatters move in."” te NEWS phote submitted HON. JOHN Crosbie, Minister of Transport, receives petitions of workers and residents of the North Shore urg- ing the government to construct the Polar 8 icebreaker in North Vancouver. Presenting the petition are Mary Col- lins, M.P. (Capilano) and Ron Dingwall, shop steward at Versatile Pacific Shipyards. Also attending the meeting in Ottawa were (I to r) Hon. Tom Siddon, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, North Vancouver District Mayor Marilyn Baker, North Vancouver City Mayor Jack Loucks, David Alsop, president, Versatile Pacific Shipyards and Vancouver Mayor Mike Harcourt. government. It has been estimated that the Polar Class 8 contract would pro- vide 900 jobs over four years and generate $180 million in wages alone. One in four jobs on the North Shore is directly connected to shipbuilding. According to GVCS figures, the number of | ship- building jobs on the North Shore has dropped from 3,000 in 1982 to the current 1,009, Without a commitment on the Polar 8, Alsop has estimated that Versatile’s current workforce of 550 will be down to 200 by mid- 1987. Baker said that since 1983, B.C. has been allotted only four per cent of the federal government's $4.3 billion worth of shipbuilding procurement. Traditionally, B.C. has ac- counted for 30 per cent of Canada’s shipbuilding industry. She also pointed out that when a ship is built in the West, 50 per cent of its construction materials come from the East, but when a ship is built in the East only four per cent of the material comes from the West. Dingwall’s trip was paid for with donations from fellow workers. Alsop said Mary Collins has done an excellent job in supporting the GVCS. He said he expected the gov- ernment would give some indica- tion as to the future of the Polar 8 program in October. Auto.......... 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