6 - Friday, July 29, 1988 - North Shore News INSIGHTS Auto-test repair shops can make us pay ransom OPEN LETTER TO ANGUS REE, MLA for North Van- Capilano and B.C.’s new Solicitor-General. Subject: man- datory privatized car testing, which starts next January. Dear Angus: As an old friend, | hope you'll forgive me for being appalled by your rejection of the B.C. Consumers Association’s recommendation to ban private testers from repairing the vehicles they test. As you yourself have teportedly admitted, this could ex- pose B.C. drivers to a lot of hanky-panky. We're talking about temptation. You don’t leave VCRs, poriable computers or diamond rings on the back seat of a parked car. Allow- ing licensed repair shops to fix the cars they declare to have ‘‘failed”’ — maybe with a bill of several hundred dollars to the driver — falls into exactly the same catego- ry. I’ve no idea (nor have you) how many repair shops might suc- cumb to that temptation, especially when business is slow, but the point is that the hapless driver is ‘ shipyards _ Ship rights HE UNSOLICITED proposal forwarded late last year to the federal government from local detailing construction of minesweepers for Canada deserves serious coasidera- tion by the defence ministry. On Monday, Defence Minister Perrin Beatty an- completely in their hands. Even your Motor Vehicles Superintend- ent Keith Jackman concedes that consumer Safeguards are difficult to enforce. You say impartial government testing would cost much more. Have you any figures? Given a $25 fee, my own rough doodling — based on the speed of the opera- tion at the former Alberni Street facility — suggests you'd break even, if not better. And anyway, if I'm wrong, why do you expect private repair shops to be happy doing the job for $25? Talk about conflict of interest! If testing shops are permitted to do the repairs on vehicles they ‘fail’, you’re making them into judge, jury and executioner combined — because the driver can't get ICBC insurance until] he pays what may possibly be nothing short of ran- som. There are about 1.9 million B.C. drivers and for most of them a car is a necessity, not a luxury. If only 10 per cent get ripped off and mad at you, that’s still an awful lot of votes. Please think again, Angus! 2 & THE GARDENS CONTEST, one of the North Shore’s nicest sum- mer events, got a bit screwed up last week when Bigtown’s morning daily ran a picture purporting to show one of the winners (the paper Jater published a retraction but you may have missed it). Contest PR lady Pat Strike says entries are still being accepted until next week, with judging by the end of August. Meanwhile, on August 7, the or- ganizers have arranged a tour of the two PAST years’ winners — the other paper’s picture being of one of them. Tickets ($10) from Eaton’s Park Royal or call 926- 5342 — and if you want to try your own green thumb fuck THIS year, hurry over to North Van District municipal hall for an entry form, HAPPY DIARY: A whole string of greetings today, July 29. Top of the list, happy birthday to West Van’s Marion Lambie who told her family she'd prefer to forget this one — ‘‘this one’’ being her {Olst! The family took no notice, anyhow. They’re coming up again from the U.S. for a party to honor this remarkable lady who still lives spamapnnegess in her own Park Royal Towers apartment, could pass for 85 with a voice even younger, and spends a lot of time tending her colorful balcony garden ... Today, too, happy 62nd anniversary to North Van’s Roland and Jean Astbury who are having their family party Sunday for THREE good reasons instead of just one. Saturday is the aa birthday of their youngest grand- daughter and Sunday is Jean’s own birthday ... And yet another happy anniversary today to North Van's Ken and Beth Robinson ... _ WOEL WRIGHT Followed tomorrow, July 39, by West Van's Charles and Marjorie Brotherton — enjoying every Golden Moment of life on return- ing from a B.C.-Alberta tour to their remodelled Haywood Avenue home of 35 years to celebrate their 63 years together. WRIGHT OR WRONG — the an- cient Chinese proverb: ‘Man who say it cannot be done must not in- terrupt man doing it.”’ @ re as et See NEWS photo Tom Burlay , ‘ “WISH YOU WERE HERE!”’...close-up of a familiar summer sight at Ambleside beach, as passengers wave nounced the government had committed $750 million to buy 12 of the vessels. But no mention was made of the consortium’s detailed proposal and no commitment to ensure a portion of the minesweepers will be con- structed in Western Canada. Acceptance of the consortium’s proposal would have initiated construction on the vessels by the end of this year and provided vital and immediate transfusions of new economic blood to such mid-sized shipyards as North Vancouver's Allied Shipbuilders Ltd. and Van- couver Shipyards Co. Ltd., both of whom are consor- tium members. . But Beatty said initial construction of the vessels will not begin until 1992, which provides ample tin:e for governments and government priorities to change. Obviously the defence ministry must determine the design that would best suit its needs and get the best price possible, but there is also a great need for ex- peditious completion of the contract to fill a large chink in Canada’s defensive armor, and to share tei- eral shipbuilding dollars among the smaller West Coast shipyards who are traditionally short-changed on the benefits of the larger, more politically high-profile, shipbuilding contracts. Publisher .20........ Peter Speck Managing Editor... . Barrett Fisher Associate Editor ..... Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph ii of the Excise Tax Aci, i8 published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on tne North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility tor unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope. : ‘ from the decks of the cruise ship Noordam, outward bound for Alaska. SUNDAY * WEDNESDAY + FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 : 59,170 (average, Wednesday Friday & Sunday} a SDA DIVISION Entire contents © 1988 North Shore Free Press Ltd. 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