NORTH Vancouver District Ald.
Bill Rodgers ...aldermen should be
contributing time.

3
NORTH Vancouver District Ald.
Joan Gatsby ...aldermen working
25-30 hours per week.

NV District
aldermen’s

wages

jump

30 per cent

BUDGET BRAKES are off in North Vancouver District, at
least as far as pay raises for the mayor and aldermen are

concerned.

In a 43 vote Monday night
council approved salary increases
of approximately 30 per cent for
the district’s aldermen and approx-
imately 20 per cent for the
district’s mayor,

Council had asked staff to com-
pile a comparison of mayoral and
aldermanic indemnities within the
Greater Vancouver Regional
District municipalities for 1989 and
1990.

After receiving the information,
Ald. Craig Clark proposed averag-

‘Tf you (NVD
aldermen)
increase your
stipends you had
better increase
your workload.’’

—North Vancouver
District Mayor
Marilyn Baker

ing the 1990 mayoral salary of
Delta and Coquitlam, after argu-
ing that the population of those
municipalities most closely
resembled that of the district.

Clark also proposed that the
aldermanic stipend be set at a third
of the mayor's.

Under the new council pay
structure, the mayor’s salary will
increase from $45,591 to $54,000,
while an alderman’s salary will rise
from $13,677 to $18,000.

Clark argued that a realistic sal-
ary will attract a better quality
candidate to serve the district.

But Mayor Marilyn Baker
disagreed.

“T believe the increases are far
too large,’’ shé said. “And I don’t
agree you'll get a better quality of
candidate.’’

Baker also asked council to con-
sider the after-tax value of their
salaries, since the first third is in-
come-tax exempt.

Continued Baker, ‘‘If you in-
crease your stipends to this you
had better increase your
workload.’’

Ald. Rick Buchols justified the
increase on the basis of workload.

By MARTIN MILLERCHIP
i ter

NORTH VANCOUVER
“DISTRICT COUNCIL:

“The public is demanding a
greater use of our time. You get
what you pay for, and I don’t
think there is anyone in the com-
munity who would begrudge an
increase of this size,’’ said
Buchols.

Ald. Joan Gadsby also sup-
ported the increases. She
categorized Clark’s proposal as
“fully supportable and viable’’ as
the job now entails ‘‘25 to 30°
hours work a week.

But Ald. Bill Rodgers opposed
the increases. ‘‘It's a contribution
that you make to the community,”’
he said.

“*We commissioned a study and
made a commitment to pegging
our salaries to the cost of living
and the population changes in our
community,’’ continued Rodgers.

Clark responded to Rodgers’
comments by accusing council
members of counting votes around
the table and then taking a popular
Position.

‘Some members put in a lot
more time than others. Put in a
tally of hours and see who does the
work,’’ challenged Clark.

Oniy Ald. Ernie Crist supported
Clark’s motion for a tally sheet of
work hours fogged by council
members.

In 1988, a community task force
recommended the formula to
which Rodgers referred as the basis
for future salary increases once the
district caught up to comparable
municipalities. The formula set the
aldermanic stipend at 30 per cent
of the mayor’s.

The task force also recommend-
ed that council take two years to
catch up the difference in other
comparable salaries, but council
voted to do it in one year.

At the time, Baker voted against
the shorter catch-up period saying
there was no ‘‘basis or rationale
for the increase,’’ and that ‘‘what
concerns me is what I've seen hap-
pening throughout the Lower
Maintand - leap-frogging,
whatever the best guess is.’”

Aldermen Murray Dykeman,
Rodgers and Mayor Baker voted
against the salary increases.

NORTH VANCOUVER
DISTRICT COUNCIL’

WOODLANDS RESI-
DENTS are anxiously
awaiting North Vancouver
District Council’s response
to their proposal to extend
the Greater Vancouver
Regional District (GVRD)
water system to the
Woodlands area of Deep
Cove in a bid to secure a
safe drinking water supply.

By ELIZABETH COLLINGS
News Reporter

In an in-camera meeting on
Monday night, Woodlands
ratepayers preserited council with
a proposal to split the estimated
$2.2 million cost of the project
three ways, with the provincial
government picking up 50 per
cent of that cost and the district
and area homeowners each pay-
ing 25 j:er cent.

The matter will come before
district. council at a budget
meeting to be held within the
next few weeks.

“The ball is in their court. We
have pu: a formal request for-
ward,’’ said Woodlands/
Sunshine Ratepayers Association
president Jan MacDonald, who
added trat the provincial
ministry of municipal affairs has
already committed its share of
the funds.

North Vancouver District
municipal manager Mel Palmer
said council voted in January to
allocate $150,000 towards exten-
ding the water system to the
Woodlands/Sunshine area. But
the ratepayers’ asseciation wants
the district to contribute
$550,000, which Palmer said
works out to a district cost of
more than $6,000 for each
household in the area.

In July 1988, the approximate-
ly 81 households in the area were
ordered by North Shore Health
to boil water obtained from Sun-
shine, Allan and Ostler Creeks
after unacceptable coliform levels
were measured in creek water.

The boiling order remains in
effect.

Bill Kimmett, director of en-
vironmental health, said samples
taken from area creeks at the end
of February indicated readings of
100 total coliform per 100
millilitres of water — 10 times
the acceptable level. A level of
four fecal coliform per 100
millilitres of water was also
found. B.C. drinking water
standards permit no fecal col-
iform in drinking water.

‘*There’s been consistent

3 - friday, March 23, 1990 - North Shore News

Woodlands ratepayers
propose water cost split

TREATED SEWAGE

EFFLUENT

UPSTREAM

A SIGN posted at Francis Creek where it crosses Indian River Road
has led some Woodi!ands residents to suspect Mount Seymour's
sewage system is the source of their water contamination.

levels,’’ Kimmett said. ‘‘There’s
always been something in the
water. It’s not something that’s
going away ... even with heavy
rain.’”

Three people from Woodlands
have reported symptoms of intes-
tinal parasites to the health
department since December of
last year. Although Kimmett said
the illnesses can’t be positively
linked to the contaminated water,
the ‘‘potential”’ is there.

Woodlands resident John Frey
said he believes the contamina-
tion comes from the sewage ef-
fluent discharged in Francis
Creek from the Mount Seymour
sewage treatment plant. The fa-
cility is licensed to discharge ap-
proximately 15,000 gallons of
secondary-treated sewage daily
into shy creek.

But B.C. waste management
officer Harvey Maxwell said
studies carried out by his techni-
cians proved ‘‘conclusively’’ that
Mount Seymour was not the
source of water contamination in
area creeks.

Technician Gordon Shea said

PAULITICS AND PERSPECTIVES
Column launched today

PAUL ST. Pierre begins his weekly column in the North

Shore News today (see page 9).

Paulitics and Perspectives will
provide News readers each Friday
with the insights and outlooks that
have established St. Pierre as one
of Canada’s most respected and
well-read columnists.

St. Pierre, who is also an author
and playwright and a former fed-
eral politician and parliamentary
secretary for external affairs, ex-
alts the heroics of the common

foik and attacks the poltroonery of
those in the upper echelons of
church and state.

He abides by the simple philos-
ophy that ‘‘all governments lie,
cheat and steal.”’

His voice will add another in-
gredient to the varied chorus of
News’ columnists, ensuring that
the News remains the vital voice of
the North Shore.

district and environment officials
had walked the length of Francis
Creek in 1988, ruling out the
possibility of a tributary from
Francis running into Allan
Creek.

Moreover, he said it was
“highly unlikely” the effluent
could seep laterally to another
creek. Waste management regu-
larly test the quality of Francis
Creek which Shea said was fine.

MacDonald concurred that the
Mount Seymour sewage system is
a scapegoat for Woodlands’ con-
taminated water supply.

He blames the problem on the
increased recreational use of the
mountain and the development
of the eastern Seymour area.

MacDonald said the attitude of
the district up to now has been
that the residents chose to live in
the area knowing it was not ser-
viced by the municipal wate:
system.

He said his response has been,
**We chose to live out here when
the water was clean; it was you
who brought out the develop-
ment.”’

PAUL St. Pierre ...new column on
page 9 of today’s News,