V firm
to seek
shipbuilding
solutions

Integrated Ferry Contractors Ltd. to
carry on after superferries built

THE NORTH Vancouver-based company that was formed
to oversee the construction of a $120-million superferry
being built for the B.C. Ferry Corp. (BCFC) is working to
ensure that the company is not disbanded after the vessel is

built.

Lucille Johnstone, chairman of
Integrated Ferry Constructors Ltd.
(IFC), said Tuesday that the co. -
pany’s main priorities right now
are the construction of the
superferry, scheduled for delivery
in 1993, and the construction of a
second identical 470-vehicle vessel.

She added that IFC is putting
together a task force whose aim
will be to scout for any fi:ture
projects once the two superfe cries
are built.

‘‘A lot of people see this com-
pany as a one-project company.
We don’t see it that way,’’ ssid
Johnstone. ‘‘Part of our task
force planning will include disc is-
sions with the provincial goveri-
ment.”’

In a May 5 News  stor:,
Johnstone announced that Nori’
Vancouver-based Versatile Pacific
Shipyards Inc. (VPSI), which was
originally awarded the contract to
build the first superferry last
September, will now do no work
at allon the multi-million dollar
project.

Financially-troubled VPSI faces
bankruptcy umless it can restruc-
ture its finances by Juiy 15.

IFC has leased Versatile’s Es-
quimalt shipyard to build the
superferry and has hired some
former VPSI employees.

Johnstone also expressed con-
cerns about VPSI's $60-million
Panamax floating dry dock and
said the Port of Vancouver needs
such a facility if area shipyards
are to continue to work on larger
vessels.

Her comments follow a May 15
News story in which representat-
ives for the Marine Workers and
Boilermakers Industrial Union
said the union would launch a

A PROMINENT local
Reform Party of Canada
organizer has left the
federal party over a
philosphical disagreement
with its direction and will

now pursue political
reform at a_ provincial
level.

By Michael Becker

News Reporter

Ron Gamble, a North Van-
couver resident and president
of the Reform Party of B.C.,
withdrew his membership in
the federal party last week
after the party reversed ‘‘its
democratic position’? at an
assembly held April in Saska-
toon.

“On polls and referenda,
they have deleted that section
where it is binding upon the
leader of the executive council.

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

full-scale campaign aimed at keep-
ing the floating dry dock in the
port.

But Versatile boss Peter Quinn
has denied that the dry dock is up
for sale.

Meanwhile, a group aimed at
shoring up the West Coast's
depressed shipbuilding industry
has now been formed by the fed-
eral and provincial governments,
along with B.C. shipbuilders and
unions representing the industry's
workforce.

The Shipbuilding Workforce
Industrial Adjustment Committee
will pursue ‘the timely implemen-
tation’? of a number of recom-
mendations contained in the
report of the B.C. Shipbuilding
Action group entitled A Straregy
for Change.

The group, which included rep-
resentatives of VPSI, Vancouver
Shipyards Co. Ltd. and Allied
Shipbuilders Ltd., was formed by
the provincial government.

The new committee is chaired
by Vancouver labor mediator
John Thorne and has a mandate
to help union and non-union
shipyard workers affected by the
dswn-sizing and closing of ship-
yards in B.C.

The committee’s first job will
be to develop an accurate inven-
tory of ali shipyard workers in
B.C. The committee will also ap-
proach the provincial and federal
governments for funding to make
sure the plight of shipyard
workers thrown out of work by
the down-sizing of the industry is
addressed.

There was a clause in our con-
stitution more or less signalling
that this was going to be a
grass-roots party. Any formal
teferendum initiated by the
people would be binding,”’
Gamble said.

The Reform Party of B.C.
president says he was also
“disappointed’’ that a resolu-
tion affirming the principle of
the need to establish the citi-
zen’s right of initiative, refer-
endum and recall was not in-
cluded in the federal party’s
constitution, although it was
passed at the assembly.

Said Gamble, ‘‘It got
overlooked. But now the word
may be that they may be com-
ing back and putting it in any-
ways. It wasn't in the copy of
the constitution that | got."”

Meanwhile the federal party,
which is not affiliated with the
Reform Party of B.C., is ex-
pected to challenge the provin-
cial party’s use of the Reform

Wednesday. May 22, 1991 - North Shore News - 3

NEWS photo Mike Wakelieid

THE BANNERS are up for the opening of the B.C. Festival of the Arts to be held in North Van-
couver District from May 22 - May 26. On hand to unveil the banners were (from left to right):
NVD Mayor Murray Dykeman, Marilyn Baker, Carolyn Lair, Hanna Skapski and NVC Mayor Jack

Loucks.

Park tot lot shot down

North Van District nixes play
area in Mosquito Creek Park

THE CONTROVERSIAL
Mosquito Creek Park tot
Jot is dead.

By Martin Millerchip
Contributing Writer

The project expired as the result
of a recent decision by North
Vancouver District Council.

Ald. Rick Buchols, who voted
against the project, described the
question as ‘tone of those issues
that is fairly evenly divided with
no easy answer.”’

The proposal for a 10-metre-
square area of play equipment for
very small children at an approx-
imate cost of $15,006 has sharply
split the neighborhood east of
Highland Boulevard in western
Capilano Highlands.

Petitions for and against the

Gamble leaves federal Reform Party

name. The federal party is al-
ready seeking an injunction in
Manitoba against the

Reform

B.C. REFORM PARTY pres.
Ron Gambie

Party of Manitoba.

On the West Coast, the
Reform Party of B.C. was in-
corporated in 1983. In 1987,

proposed play area just off the
path to Mosquito Creek Bridge
have been received by council and
both sides have presented their
points of view as delegations to
council.

Council received conflicting ad-
vice after asking for staff reports.
The parks advisory committee
recommended against the tot lot
on the grounds that the site was
too secluded; the advisory plan-
ning committee supported the
choice of location based on the
neighborhood need for children’s
amenities.

Arguments presented by resi-
dents against the tot lot had cen-
tred on childhood safety, the
potential for attracting teens to
“‘hang out’’ at the play area, rape,
bears and preservation of
greenbelt.

RCMP crime statistics for the

Gamble says the provincial
party consented to the use of

the name Reform Party of
Canada.
‘“‘The Reform Party of

Canada de not own the name
Reform Party solely by itself,"*
he said.

But Gamble added, ‘‘l'm not
focusing my attention on a
battle with the Reform Party
of Canada. I'm looking for
reforms on the provincial level.”*

The provincial party may
field up to a dozen candidates
in the provincial election this
year,

Candidates will call for
reforms including fixed election
dates, free votes in the
legislature, referenduins, initia-
tive (the right of voters to ini-
tiate a binding referendum on a
proposed law or to repeal ex-
isting laws), and recall (the
right of voters to replace
MLAs who do not represent
views of constituents).

area revealed no rapes or sexual
assaults of any kind within the
last 10 years and ‘‘no problems of
concern,’’ according to Const.
Randy White.

White also noted in his report
to council that on Feb. 15 there
was a complaint of wilful damage
and a request for extra patrols
from Carol Featherstone and that
the Featherstone residence was
also burglarized on March 15.

The report notes, ‘*The
Featherstones are opposed to the
tot lot.”

Ald. Janice Harris voted for the
tot lot and decried the ‘‘negative
and vituperative input’? from
neighborhood opponents.

Ald. Ernie Crist described the
opposition as ‘‘classic NIMBY’”’
and admonished those who would
grow old together, ‘‘These are
children from your own
neighborhood. We need young
families in our community.”’

But area resident Tracey Todd
Jater told council that she took her
children to the area frequently and
they did not need ‘‘another set of
slides’? since they enjoyed the
park in its natural state.

With only Harris and Crist in
favor of the Mosquito Creek site,
council directed staff to in-
vestigate other tot lot sites in the
neighborhood.

Index
G@ Budget Beaters ...... s9
BB Business ............ 50
MW Classified Ads ....... 60
BWComics... ......... 57
WH Lifestyles ........... 53
GB Sports... . 6... .13

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