moron ar erert omnes Sage gy % | i ey ence tary 1 Copal nec ame aeae yc ties RET MT Tree tm aa aa PRES, a Nove j Canada | Suburb *. ay mber 13, 1985 News 98: s Number..One an Newspapé sculpture PAGE 33 THE SECOND shutdown of construction on a multi-million dollar research building being built at North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Quay has ended with a cash payment of $2.1 million going to the building’s contractors. Burnaby’s Gama Con- struction Ltd., the contrac- tor on the Pinecorp Research Building, 267 West Esplanade, resumed work on the $20 million, 48,000- square foot building October 28 after walking off the job site October 10. Gama originally halted work on the project for two weeks beginning August 22. The combination of both work stoppages has conse- quently pushed back com- pletion date of the building from October 30 to some- time in December. CONGLOMERATE Stan Milacek, general manager of Gama, said his company is satisfied with payment: ‘‘We have signed a discharge of the subtrade lien against the building sub- ject to the transfer of the $2.1 million.” The research building is one more property in the growing number of real estate properties acquired by Pinecorp Research and Development Corporation, 145 Chadwicke Court, North Vancouver. The company was launched on the sea of investment funds loosed in January 1984 when the fed- eral government’s Scientific Research Tax Credit pro- gram was given royal assent. Conceived as an_ invest- ment incentive to encourage corporate and private sectors to get involved in research development, SRTCs_ pro- vided companies hoping to raise research funds with tax credits they could exchange for investment monies. Tax credits to investors amounted to 50 cents on every dollar invested in the company’s research projects. The program ran into problems, however, when investment monies began pouring through various SRTC loopholes into the coffers of companies set up to take advantage of the tax incentives. Before October 1984 companies could obtain cash in advance of doing research and those monies raised, Revenue Canada spokesman Lyle Garford says, were not always being used to finance bona fide research projects. QUICK FLIP SRTCs attracted ques- tionable operators to what became a quick .and easy “quick flip’’ financing method. An SRTC company could sell, for example, a debenture to investors for $10 million, redeem that the next day for $6 million and $5 million in tax credits. The SRTC company would be left with $4 million in cash and an obligation to do $10 million worth of research. According to a- recent story in the Financial Post, “SRTC’s already stand to cost $1.5 billion to $2 billion in lost tax revenues."’ The May 23 federal budget changed the rules for the controversial program, eliminating SRTC’s and See Pinecorp Page 9 AN apprehensive Hayley Wright waits while a Mt... Seymour whiskeyjack has a bite to eat. Hayley was just one ‘of many snow lovers who checked out the condi- tions on the local mountain this weekend. The ski hill was open for its first day with four fect of snow at the top and two feet at the bottom. .