3 Sunday, November 29, NV WOMAN TAKES ALIMONY LEGISLATION FIGHT TO B.C. CABINET OG A NORTH Vancouver mother took her fight for adequate laws to ensure the payment of alimony and child support to the B.C. cabinet this week. And Susan Milliken came away with a promise from Social Ser- vices Minister Claude Richmond for legislation to be introduced by spring to implement a provincially sponsored support-enforcement program. Milliken, a mother of two who established SCRAPS (Society for Children’s Rights to Adequate Parental Support}, headed a coali- tion of seven such organizations secking help from government to enforce the payment of court- ordered child support and maintenance. After more than an hour with cabinet, Milliken expressed con- vam Victoria fidence that some action would be forthcoming. Richmond later confirmed the plan for legislation, saying he nad hoped for draft legislation this fall, ‘“*but it’s complicated, so we'll have to rush on it.”” A brief submitted to the ministers by the Maintenance En- forcement Coalition quoted a study which found that more than 80 per cent of court-ordered pay- ments had not been made at some time. NORTH VANCOUVER School District buildings and grounds direc- tor Ed Bodnar, left, North Vancouver District Fire Department Capt. Bert Batt, Burrard View Community Schoo! principal Lois Hosein (centre right) and Burrard View Parent Teachers Association repre- sentative Sue Geddes, walked through the school earlier this week to examine fire safety features. on co ! “Baker, “Millions of dollars (of gov ernment funds) are spent: suppor- ting children whose fathers have financially abandoned them,”’ said the brief. Milliken said the cabinet was impressed by the fact that considerable savings would result if maintenance payments were en- forced, because many mothers and families would no longer need welfare and GAIN payments. The North Vancouver mother said the courts also ‘forgive’ hundreds of thousands of dollars in arrears alimony and child sup- port. She believes a government- supervised system would ease the financial burden of lawyers’ fees and other court costs. The Manitoba system, in which the province has the power to gar- nishee paycheques and bank ac- counts if necessary “would be wel- come here,’ she suid. Operation of the Manitoba program costs about $500,000 annually, and recovers ebout $1 million. “We'll monitor what legislation they do bring out, and will lobby for changes that ensure that an ef- fective and cost-efficient system is brought in, so that court orders ure in fact paid,’ Milliken said. “We want a set up to enforce maintenance orders. We want a centralized, computerized system which monitors all maintenance and support orders.”’ Milliken said the responsibility for raising children in the province “should be that of the parents whether they are divorced or not, and not be the responsibility of the government, which now has to pay 1987 - North Shore } SCRAPS coalition founder Susan Milliken...‘‘We want a centralized computerized system which monitors all maintenance and sup- port orders.” out millions for children whose fa- thers, or mothers for that matter, decide they don’t want to pay.” BURRARD VIEW SAFETY QUESTIONED Community pushes for VE IN THE on-again off-again world of provincial education ‘funding, ‘replacement of the aging Burrard View Com- munity School in Deep Cove has been put on hold since the need for an upgrade was initially identified in 1974. In the process, the current generation of parents of the 303 childrem using the school! have become increasingly apprehensive about: the safety of the 40-year- old wood-frame structure and are calling for the upgrading or replacement of the facility. _ For ovey a decade, school Loard officials have conceded the facility has been in need of overhaul or replacement and in 1980 the school came very close to being replaced ‘with a new fa- ‘cility on school! board-owned i property at Cove Cliff Road. But plans to move ahead on the new school Fell victim to pro- vincial fiscal restraint policy in 1981. A pitch for a new school will be made again Dec. 14 when a delegation including North Van- couver District Mayor Marilyn North Van- couver- Seymour MLA Jack Davis, North Vancouver School Board superintendent Dr. Leo. Marshall, school! board trustee Don Bell, the new school board chairman (to be decided next week), Burrard | View Parent Teachers Association repre- Van seeks input umunity plan WEST VANCOUVER residents will have three oppor- tunities next month to submit proposals on the future makeup of their community. Public meetings, scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., will be held Dec. 2 at Chartwell Elementary, Dec. 8 at West Vancouver Second- ary and Dec. 10 at Caulfeild Elementary schools, will be held to get resident input to the municipality’s Official Community Plan (OCP), which is currently be- ing reviewed. Apart from the meetings, the municipality is requesting written response to the proposed OCP changes be submitted to West Vancouver municipal hall by Dec. 16. All B.C. municipalities must review their community plans every five years, according to pro- vincial Municipal Act regulations. The deadline for West Vancouver’s By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter OCP update is March 1988 The municipality’s OCP was of- ficially adopted seven years ago. West Vancouver Mayor Don Lanskail said Monday the OCP overhaul was basically ‘‘a fine- tuning. There are no_ radical changes. There are no controver- sial issues that | am aware of. We just want to keep West Vancouver a quality suburb.” Final wording of the overhauled OCP will be presented at public hearings in January and February. Consultants headed by Bob Burgess/Domain Design Ltd. have been working on the plan’s revi- sion for the past eight months. West Vancouver's deputy municipal manager Doug Allan said the municipality was careful to have the consultants steer clear of making recommendations ‘‘or what would be the point of public meetings?” Instead consultants presented 24 considerations for changes to the plan. Eight main areas were identified by the consultants’ report as needing revision or new council direction: population and the dramatic shifts in age structure that have been forecast for the area; residential development above and below the Upper Levels Highway; residential design stan- dards; schools and education stan- dards; parks and recreation facili- ties; social services and seniors See W. Van Page 11 MICHAEL B News Keparter sentative Sue Geddes, Sherwood Park Parent Council co-chairman Susan Mueller and a_ repre- sentative from the Deep Cove, Dollarton, Indian River Com- munity Association are scheduled to meet with Education Minister Tony Brummet. The group is lobbying for ministry budgetary consideration of a new Indian River School and the resolution of the problems at Burrard View. In a March 11 Setter to Educa- / tion Ministry Deputy Minister R.) J. Carter, school superintendent Dr, Leo Marshall noted, ‘‘Bur- rard View school is poorly situat- ed, poorly constructed and does not warrant the expenditure of money for its renovation, It is still our desire to replace it or to supplement it with Cove Cliff School.”’ As a result, safety upgrade. ‘items, such as a $23,000 expen- diture tu improve safety access to the school, have been put on hold pending decision from Victoria to school upgrade include Burrard View: In the” 1988-89 expenditures budget. The narrow access road leading to the school is categorized by the North Vancouver District Fire Department as an obstacle. The school currently has no sprinklers, smoke alarms or fire doors. But according ty ‘North Van- couver District Fire Department Capt. Bert’ ‘Batt and North Van- couver School Disirict director of buildings and grounds Ed Bod- nar, the building meets: ‘district safely standards, “The school, alarm system is monitored and’ the school board has voluntarily added heat detec- tion devices, ; extinguishers and Additional fire exits over the ‘Years and fire doors will be add- ed,"”’ said Bait. Said Bodnar: “The fire safety standards are comparable from a construction viewpoint with the rest of the district. Seventy-five per cent of the schools in the - district dre wood frame.”* But:said Burrard View Parent Teachers Association | repre- sentative Geddes, “Everything in this school is designed to work if nothing goes wrong.’ Students attending the school when it was first considered an obsolete structure are now uni- versity-age. Contracts sought at WV shipyard “For a yard of Versatile’s ca- From page 1 Because Versatile currently has a limited number of repair and shipbuilding contracts until con- struction on the Polar 8 icebreaker is scheduled to begin in mid-1989, the workforce at the company’s North Vancouver yard has dropped to what Alsop estimated is tess :than 100 tradesmen. Marine Workers and Boiler- makers Industrial Union secre- tary-treasurer Bill Scott said the MWBIU currently has ‘‘one’’ steelplater working at Versatile. The union, which represents about 70 per cent of Versatile’s workforce, had 60 steelplaters employed at the yard in October. Layoffs at the yard earlier this year trimnied its MWBIU tradesmen from 600 to 109 and reduced its’ 150-member office staff by 37 per cent. pacity and...its huge management infrastructure to be operating with under 100 people is fatal,’’ Scott said. But Alsop said Versatile’s North Vancouver operation has contracted to drydock a ship in December, ‘‘and has a lot of irons in the fire’’, but nothing ‘big and exciting’? to announce at this time. He would neither deny nor confirm rumors that Versatile has plans to lease out its Lonsdale Avenue frontage. Versatile, he said, is currently examining all aspects of the company’s short and long-term plans and looking at ways to make the best use of all its land. “The opportunity to im- prove,’’ he said, ‘tis always ex- citing.”’