Xan OTS

CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS

between North Van-

couver-based BC Rail and the Council of Trade Unions are
back on track after being ‘‘adjourned”’ for over a month.

BC Rail spokesman Barrie Wall
said the two sides went back to
the bargaining table Tuesday
morning.

“They're mecting again to-
day...they’ve resumed discus-
sions,’ said Wall.

He added that while negotia-
tions ‘‘never really broke off,"
they were ‘tadjourned”’ on July 5.

And while the unions have al-
ready voted 87 per cent to strike,

Incorporation
raises concerns

From page 4

highways ministry is too low
compared with the magnitude of
road maintenance required for a
population strung along the outer
rim of the istand.

If the restructure committee and
highways negotiate an agreement,
Carter said the information has to
be sent to the public for scrutiny
and public hearings before the
referendum is held.

In the meantime, a letters pat-
ent for the proposed District of
Bowen Island has already been
drafted in Victoria at the ministry
of municipal affairs.

Snug Cove marina owner Ron-
dy Dike, who spent years weaving
his way through administrative red
tape and negotiating with the
various official bodies that govern
Bowen island to get approval to
expand his marina, said municipal
status for Bowen Island is the on-
ly viable option.

“There is a tremendous confu-
sion and waste. The system right
now isn’t working,” he said. *‘We
need to contro! our own govern-
ment affairs instead of going off-
island so s.uch.”’

But Bowen Island resident
Thomas F::guson said he is con-
cerned about the cost of incor-
poration. I'¢ added that contrary
to the imag> many people have of
well-to-do island residents, many
Bowen resid-nts are retired and
would find increased taxation to
be a great hardship.

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

they have yet to serve the man-
datory 72-hour strike notice.

BC Rait vice-president and chief
negotiator Brian Foley said the
two sides still have nearly 200
issues to resolve.

He added that the company and

the union have vet to get to such
major issues as wages and con-
tracting out.

BC Rail and the Council of
Trade Unions, which represents
seven unions and about 2,000 BC
Rail employees, have been
negotiating for several months in
a bid to settle a new contract.

The previous three-year collee-
tive agreemel.. expired June 30.

Under the terms of that agree-
ment the company has the right to
contract work out.

The unions want to see the con-
tracting-out clause, which was in-

THE HEAT is on at North Vancouver's Seymour Demonstration
Forest: Dan Jepsen, the forest's project coordinator, pulls out
the closure sign two kilometres in from the park’s gates. The
forest was partially closed last week when the area fire hazard

reached the high rating. If the area fire hazard is up

raded to

extreme or if the wind picks up, the park will be entirely clused,

Wednesday, August 8, 1990 ~ North Shore News - 3

BC Rail contract talks back on track

cluded ino the 1984 collective
agreement, remoy ed.

The contracting-aut provision is
a contentious issue for the
workers wha repair locomotives
for BC Rail, which cecently took
delivery of 22 new GE
locomotives.

Members of the United
Association of Plumbers and
Pipefitters maintain those engines,
and the union claims that the
maintenance package accompany-
ing the new locomotives call for
parts to be repaired in the United
States

Besides wages and contracting
out, a third outsianding issue be
tween the two sides is BC Raids
desire to phase out cabooses

The company wants to follow
the caboose policy implementes
by CN and CP. ands rertace
cabooses with monitors that
measure pressure. But trainmen
fear rail safety will be com-
promised with the removal of
manned cabooses.

Approximately 335 unionized

BC Rail employees work in the
Lower Mainland.

NEWS photo Neil Lucente

possibly as soon as Saturday. Meanwhile, Lighthouse Park in
West Vancouver continues to be off limits to the public. Resi-
dents are being warned to observe sprinkling regulations in the

face of a
32 days without rain.

tential water shortage in West Vancouver following

WV Council tapers called to task

WEST VANCOLVER Mayor

Don Lanskail has announc-

ed that anyone intending to tape-record West Vancouver
District Council public meetings must now first inform
council of their intention to do so.

Lanskail made the statement in
reaction to an incident in May
when municipal clerk Doug Allan
discovered that a tape recorder
belonging to George Pajari, hus-
band of West Vancouver Ald.
Carol Ann Reynolds, had been
left operating in council chambers
during the start of an in-camera
meeting.

“It was very disconcerting,”
said Ald. Andy Danyliu.

Pajari, who has been taping
public council meetings for some
time, had left the May meeting
early, before it had ended and the
in-camera session had begun.

In a subsequent letter of apolo-
gy to Mayor Lanskail, Pajari said
it was ‘“‘an oversight’’ that the
machine had been left on and not
removed at the end of the
meeting.

**Nobody knew that we were
going to have an in-camera
meeting — much less in council
chambers,’* Ald. Reynolds said.

While stating that there is no
objection in principle to the taping
of public council meetings, Lan-
skail said that there is a difference
between representatives of the
media taping in full view and
“surreptitious taping by persons
other than members of the
media.”

By Maureen Curtis
Contributing Writer

WEST VANCOUVER
DISTRICT COUNCIL

But Reynolds and Pajari have

bristled at the suggestion that the
taping was vone ‘‘surreptitious-
ly.”
“Even if the tape recorder had
not been noticed (unlikely given
its size, the attached 15-inch boom
microphone, and the fact that it
was left in plain view, near the
front of the gallery), the meeting
that followed would not have been
recorded since the machine had
been purposely left with insuffi-
cient tape (and indeed ran out of
tape less than two minutes after
the end of the public meeting),”’
Pajari wrote to Lanskail.

The tape recorder Pajari used
was in a grey bag, but the
microphone was loose.

But in his public statement on
the matter, Lanskail said, “A
fundamental principle of not only
elementary fairness, but also law,
requires that people whose con-
versations are being taped are en-

titled to know, and know in ad-
vance. The principle is enshrined
in the Criminal Code and the
Privacy Act with substantial crim-
inal sanctions applicable in the
event of a breach.’’

Pajari, who has a press pass
because he occasionally writes
magazine articles, disputes the
mayor’s stand, but has complied
by informing council that he in-
tends to record future public
meetings.

‘I'm doing it to avoid

_ brouhaha. Three lawyers have told

oy

me that it is not necessary,
Pajari.

According to Section 184 of the
Criminal Code, anyone who, ‘‘by
means of any electro-magnetic,
acoustic, mechanical or other
device, wilfully intercepts a private
communication is guilty of an in-
dictable offence and liable to im-
prisonment for a term not ex-
ceeding five years.’”

But a meeting attended by 75
persons is not considered a private
communication.

In any event, the recording of
the proceedings would be lawful if
made with the consent of one of
the persons attending, the code
states,

But the mayor’s actions have
the complete support of the rest
of council.

“Members of council were
shocked and disappointed. Some
have expressed anxiety about
previous meetings and conversa-

says

tions," Ald. Pat Boname aid at
the June 18 meeting of council as
she commented on an item regard-
ing the May taping incident that
had beer included among the cor-
respondence

**Y¥You feel uneasy when you're
sitting and working and someone's
husband is taping everything,"’
Boname said.

Ald. Rod Day, who lectures at
SFU, says that he likes to know
when he is being taped and could
see no reason ‘‘why you shouldn't
know."*

““tt’s not so much for ourselves
as for members of the public
gallery. People could show up at a
council meeting and be talking
amongst themselves, but not know
they were being taped,’’ says Ald.
»Danyliu.

Reynolds has maintained that
her husband is recording meetings
for her to listen and thereby im-
prove her performance as an
alderman.

Last vear, the clerk stopped his
own recording of the meetings
after Reynolds began to ask to
listen to the tapes.

She points out that several other
municipalities continue to tape
their meetings and that Vancouver
City Council meetings are even
videotaped.

“These peaple (West Vancouver
Council) don’t scem to be willing
to be accountable for what they
say, what they do or how they
vote,”’ Reynolds charges.

“T suggest that «bea politicians
and government officials try tc
stop people from keeping a record
of what they say then it is time to
start worrying,'’ says Pajari.

But Ald. Mark Sager said that
council is completely accountable.

“What council decides is rz
corded accuratcly in the minutes,’
said Sager.

He added that no one is trying
to stop peor: from recording the
public meetings.
ES

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