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_ Your Number One
Suburban Newspaper

THE Yap

A MEETING Wednesday between members of the Marine
Workers and Boilermaker Industria! Union (MWBIU) and
North Vancouver-Burnaby MP Chuck Cook failed to shed
any light on when and if Bel-Aire Shipyard would reopen.

MWBIU president John Fitz-
patrick said Cook was sympathetic
to the plight of the approximately
150 union members thrown out of
work with the Jan. 3i closure of
the shipyard, ‘‘but he said there

_. Was very little he could do.’*

Cook said Thursday that the
problems facing the shipyard and
its workers were out of his hands.

“Sure it’s a tough situation, but

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

there’s not a damn thing I can do.
Even if the shipyard were to be
resurrected, there’s no work out
there. Nobody is building any
ships right now.’’

The biggest tragedy of a pro-
longed closure, he added, was that
the Bel-Aire team ‘of workers

Doar

would eventually break up, and the
best of that team would go
elsewhere.

CLOSURE TRAGEDY

Fitzpatrick said the Conservative

government had reneged on pre-

election promises to make the
shipbuilding industry a top priori-
ty.

Instead of implementing a 25 per
cent duty on foreign-built fishing
vessels over 100 feet and doubling
duty rates for the temporary im-
portation of foreign vessels as
promised, Fitzpatrick said, the

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Conservatives had removed ship-
building subsidies and assistance
grants.

“The Koreans are dumping
ships here that cost less to build
than our yards pay for the materi-
als,” Fitzpatrick said. ‘‘How can
we compete against that?’’

But Cook said if such promises
were made he would like to see
them.

NO POLICY

“It sounds like those statements
were more vague promises than
anything specific,’’ Cook said.

wa parse

- NEWS photo tan Smith

f ANGRY. BEL-AIRE shipyard workers join their Vancouver Marine Workers and Boilermaker Union counterparts in a demonstration at
’ Canada Harbor Place Friday afternoon. Minister for Regional and Industrial Expansion Sinclair Stevens was in the World Trade Centre at the

time. The workers were voicing their disapproval of broken Tory camp

aign

promises to boost the marine industry.

se ace

Pash

TS

In comparing the situation in the
East Coast shipbuilding industry
with that of B.C., MP for Nova
Scotia’s Cape Breton-East Rich-
mond riding David Dingwall told
the News that Conservative ship-
building policy is non-existent.

““And as a result of such gov-
ernment incompetence,’’ Dingwall
said, ‘‘there is just chaos and con-
fusion, while shipyards on both
Atlantic and Pacific coasts are be-
ing savaged.”*

Cook said he could see little
light on the West Coast ship-
building horizon, unless the
Western Canadian Shipbuilding
Consortium (WCSC) was suc-
cessful in landing a contract to
build ice class vessels for the Rus-
sians.

Made up of North Vancouver’s
Versatile Pacific, Genstar, . Allied
Shipyards and Vancouver's Rivtow
Shipyard, the WCSC has been
negotiating with the Russians since
early 1984. .

But even if WCSC is successful,
work would not be on shipyard
floors until 1987.

Cook also pointed to the possi-
bility of West Coast yards doing
work on the federal government’s
proposed Polar Class 8
icebreakers.

PROMISED OPENING

The MWBIU's meeting with
Cook resulted from Monday’s
gathering of Bel-Aire workers at
the shipyard’s gates following an
announcement by Paul Pigeon,
corporate secretary of the Pinecorp
Group of companies, that the yard
would be reopening.

Purchased by Pinecorp in
Sepiember, 1985, Bel-Aire was
closed Jan. 31 when the shipyard’s
bank accounts were frozen by
Revenue Canada, which is seeking
$2.2 million in unpaid taxes from
the sale of the John P. Tulley, a
hydrographic vessel built for the
federal government.

Seizure of Pinecorp assets by
Revenue Canada began one week
after the shipyard’s closure, fol-
lowing investigation into the af-
fairs of the 12-company Scientific
Research Tax Credit operation.

Revenue Canada is seeking close
to $20 million in taxes from

See Consortium