NEWS photo Mall Lucente CHAIRMAN of the Seymour Demonstration Forest Advisory Committee Bill “Young addresses Wednesday night’s public meeting on the future of the Seymour River fish hatchery. ‘xsoung said the committee strongly supported the principle of a fish hatchery as an integral part of the Seymour Demonstration Forest. About 75 concerned residents attended the meeting. Feds commit funds to hatchery overhaul FISHERIES and Oceans Canada is committed to a three-phase $183,000 overhaul of the Seymour River fish hatchery. Department spokesman Dennis Deans told a public hearing in North Vancouver Wednesday night Fisheries. and Oceans had made the commitment to the hatchery’s redevelopment, which would be spread over three years.. Financing for the project, he said, would come out of the $120,000 annual budget allotted the hatchery’s operation. Further funding to speed completion of the project or to develop it beyond a basic hatchery facility, he said, would have to come from other sources. But he did not say what the fate of the current hatchery staff would be or whether the contract to run the operation would re- main with BCIT, which established the hatchery in 1977. Deans told the hearing’s crowd of approximzely 75 concerned area fishermen, conservationists and residents that the hatchery, . facing a host of production pro- blems, would likely cease opera- tion for at least a year and reduce - production for the subsequent two years to allow completion of the vital $75,000 first phase, which would include the installa- tion of a badly needed new water system, and the final two rebuilding phases. The public meeting had been organized, Deans said, to find out what North Shore residents wanted the Seymour hatchery to be. “‘Few SEP (Salmonoid Enhancement Programs) projects have caused as much of a stir as word that the Seymour facility was going to close,’’ Deans said. “This is an important meeting. We want to find out what the aspirations of the community are for the facility. What can be done, how it will be done and who will do it.’’ In a May 15 News article chronicling the problems faced by the Seymour River hatchery, Fisheries and Oceans spokesman Colin Masson said the current hatchery contract would expire at the end of August, at which time the federal department had to determine the value of the facility and its future. But residents at the meeting pleaded passionately for the preservation of the facility as a small hatchery, ‘‘not a meat fac- tory”, and the preservation of the unique combination of forest By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter wilderness and recreational fish- ing resources offered by the Seymour River area. . Speakers said the hatchery an “the new 5,600 hectare Seymour Demonstration Forest, which is scheduled to be open to the public Aug. 23, represented a unique opportunity to combine wiJderness, education and recre- ation that must not be squandered. The majority also said they were happy with how the hatchery had been run in the past. Other audience members wanted to know why the federal FISHERIES AND Oceans Canada spokesman Dennis Deans...hatchery will likely cease operation for a year. government could not come up with more money so the facility could be rebuilt quicker and thereby avoid production shut- down. But North Vancouver-Burnaby MP Chuck Cook, who was in the audience, scolded the federal Fisheries Department. He ques- tioned the $120,000 annual budget figure, suggesting more funds might be available, and demanded to know who in the department had originally said the hatchery might be closed, ‘because they certainly did not consult with the ministry.’’ Cook later said the budget for the hatchery was ‘‘not written in stone.’’ Provincial and municipal governments and jocal groups, he said, should be prepared to con- tribute money. But Deans said the $120,000 was a set amount, and that more federal money for the Seymour hatchery would have to come at the expense of other deserving SEP projects. No additional money, he said, was available from the $40 mil- lion annual SEP federal funding announced Tuesday by Fisheries and Oceans Minister Tom Siddon at the Capilano hatchery. Seymour hatchery manager FISHERIES AND Oceans Minister Tom Sid- don...announced $40 million in federal funding for salmonoid enhancement programs Mon- day. Spencer Evans said the most serious problem faced by the hatchery was the quality and quantity of its ground water sup- ply, which was subject to ex- tremely low flows during August and September. Fish mortality from such resul- tant problems as nitrogen super- saturation, low dissolved oxygen and high water temperatures, he said, had been heavy. “During chinook incubation in the fall of '86, we suffered a 75 per cent loss to ponding as a result of high water temperatures,’’ Evans said. Gas bubble disease and fin rot, he said, had also taken a toll on other hatchery fish populations. Following improvements to the hatchery’s water supply in phase one, the $25,000 second phase of the hatchery overhaul will include the installation of a second rear- ing channel, while hatchery office buildings, a feed room, work shop and security fencing will be constructed in overhaul’s $65,000 third phase. Deans told the audience it was up to the North Shore communi- ty to decide what the hatchery would be and who would run it. Members of the hearing agreed to set up a task force of com- munity groups, local government and schools to come up with an overall plan for the Seymour hatchery. 3 - Friday, June 26, 1987 — North Shore News BC RAIL Unions reject company offer TWO-THIRDS of the membership of the seven unions employed by North Vancouver-based BC Rail have voted to reject the company’s first contract offer. Ray Callard, vice-chairman of the council of unions employed by BC Rail, said Wednesday a subse- quent strike vote would be taken by the membership Thursday and Friday. The company, which had operating profits of $51 million on revenues of $300 million in 1986, offered its 1,800 employees a three-year contract with no in- . crease in the first year, and four- per-cent increases July 1, 1988 and July 1, 1989. BC Rail’s manager of labor rela- tions Daniel Pysh said he was disappointed with the unions’ vote. The company, he said, would apply for mediation. BC Rail's vice-president of in- Weather: Friday & Saturday, sunny. Highs 23-26° C. dustrial relations Brian Foley has said the company offered what it could up front to avoid protracted contract negotiations. But Callard said the council ex- ecutive had recommended rejection of the company’s offer because the main issue of contracting out had not been addressed. “We wanted guarantees from the company that no employee would lose their job to contracting out over the term of .the agree- ment,’’ Callard said. Results of the strike vote, he said, would be available early next week. The current BC Rail contract with its unions expires July 1. INDEX Classified Ads Doug Collins. Editorial Page Entertainment . . Home & Garden Horoscope Beb Hunter Lifestyles Mailbox.... TV Listings.........12 What's Going On NATIONAL AWARD Table-hopper garners honor NORTH SHORE NEWS restaurant review critic Timothy Renshaw walked away with a third place in the restaurant critic of the year category of the prestigious Nabisco Brands Canadian Food Writers Awards last week. Winners were announced at the third annual Canadian Food Writers Awards ceremony June 16 in Toronto. Competing for the first time with his Table Hopping column, Renshaw has been entertaining and informing North Shore residents with his weekly survey of local din- ing rooms since early 1985. ‘Eating well-prepared food is a joyous thing and that’s what I try to get across,’’ Renshaw said. “The basis of the column is not technical, but to capture the food and atmosphere from the perspec- tive of people who enjoy going out to eat.’”” The Nabisco Brands program was established to acknowledge outstanding individual food writers and editors and the food writing community for its efforts and achievements. Entries were judged according to writing quality, originality, thoroughness, timeliness and ser- vice to readers. ee Harti t ate: NEWS RESTAURANT reviewer Timothy Renshaw...‘‘Eating well-prepared food is a joyous thing and that’s what I try to get across.”’ First place for community newspaper food writer of the year went to James Barber.