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JUNE 20, 1999

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64 Pages

and West Vancouver since 1969

Civil case on Britannia deal dropped

Brady Fotheringham
Contributing Writer

FIFTEEN shareholders
lost $949,000 doing
business with West
Vancouver businessman
Tim Drummond when
they invested in a com-
pany called Copper
Beach Recreational
Funding Ltd. (CBRFL)

six years ago.

The shareholders, many of them
North Vancouver doctors, invested
$25,000 to $350,000 to purchase
and develop land in the Britannia
Beach-Furry Creek area and lost
their investment.

Several retired people and a hair-
dresser also committed a substantial
part of their savings to the land
deal. One investor, Dr. Frank
Sigurdson, had to sell his house and
relocate to. a smaller home.

Drummond now plans to build a
waste treatment plant at the
Britannia mine site in Britannia
Beach to clean up heavy metal
effluent that has been discharging
into Howe Sound.

The Ministry of Environment,
Lands and Parks and the Ministry
of Energy and Mines are reviewing
Drummond’s proposal ~~ betore
approving the project.

According to Drammond’s
lawyer Allen Cole, Drummond’s
company, Copper Beach Estates
Ltd., owes over $11 million froma
10-year-old mortgage on the
Britannia property

Copper Beach Estates Ltd. isa

subsidiary of CBREL..

Cole said Drummond's compa-
nv needs the Britannia mine recla-
mation project to be successful to
pay off Copper Beach Estate’s
debts to, among others, Cole's law
firsn Walker & Co.

“Copper Beach can’t doa mine
cleanup project: alone. They need
investors,” Cole said.

Drunmond’s ability to run a tis:
cally sound company bas come
under fire, now that the former
sharchalders see him submitting
business plans to clean up the mine.

Drummond has been the subject
of a recent West: Vancouver Police
department investigation into the
alleged misappropriation of funds
trom the West Vancouver Cubs and
Scouts Christmas Tree Fan

In 1993 26 was tac suly
RCMP commer i fraud investiga:
tion, The case did.it proceed to
court and Drummond has never
been found liable in the civil case
between him and the former
investors.

Eric Wolstenholme, a sharehold-
er who lost $25,000 in the CBRE

1, said thar the criminal ca

led because of conflicting depo-
sitions on the shareholdee’s part.”

Shareholders bought into an
1,800-acre piece of property nd
around Britannia Beach containing
most of the town and the present
Furry Creek golf course valued at
$20.5 million

The 95 sharcholders purchased
shares in CBRFL and along with
Tim) Drummond planned to sell
part of the land to a developer who
would build a golf course.

In 1990, Tanac Land Develop:

See favestors page &

Who's where 713

Good from afar n7

But up close Bill C-49 A
far trom good

shionable walk
through Bellevue

Recreating the
voyage of St. Roch
History repeats
itself p3

FREE

NEWS photo Terry Peters

Merry mediators

QUEEN Mary Community School Grade 6 peer mediators put their heads together after being
trained to help Grade 1 to 3 students solve problems on the piayground. The peer mediators
inctude (from the top clockwise) Liz Gee, Thomas Joseph, Mozhghan Gherami, Poonam Salil, Sadaf
Banadoran and Stacy Jensen.

is taking the summer off for you!
* make no monthly payments until September.1999