Parkway road work riles

Friday, September 18, 1992 - North Shore News - 3

residents

Improvements will create new problems, meeting delegation charges

MOUNT SEYMOUR Parkway residents who hoped to
have read improvements halted on the busy arterial road
will have to settle instead for a meeting with North Van-
couver District engineering staff.

Parkway residents between
Apex Avenue and Mount Seymour
Road appeared before district
council for the second time in
tree weeks on Monday night in
an attempt to have their concerns
addressed.

They told council they had
received little or no notice about
the improvements and their scope.

But’ work will continue on
“non-controversial areas’? after
district engineer John — Bremner
told council, ‘‘If we outright stop
the contract, that will lead to
claims from the contractor.”

By Martin Millerchip
Contributing Writer

The work is part of the finai
phase of a reconstruction project
that extends from Riverside Drive
to Roche Point Drive.

Begun in 1985, but divided into
five phases for financial reasons,
the project will:

@ separate eastbound and west-
bound traffic with a 12-foot-wide
landscaped median that allows for
left-turn lanes;

@ create bicycle lanes on both
sides of the parkway;

EEE A PS
NORTH VANCOUVER

DISTRICT COUNCIL

@ create sidewalks on both sides
of the parkway;

@ move bus bays off the road;

@ install an ornamental street
lighting system.

But residents allege that far
from improving the parkway the
changes will create another set of
safety problems.

Ken Bemister told the News that
widening the median from three to
12 feet and eliminating the ex-
isting parking lane will bring
fast-moving traffic closer to a
sidewalk that will have more than
double the number of existing
obstructions.

NEWS photo Nell Lucente

‘COMPETITORS make thelr way Sunday across the Lions Gate Bridge during the 1992 Coho
- Salmon Run. The annual 14 km racs — beginning in Ambleside Park in West Vancouver and
finishing at the Kitsilano Pool in Vancouver -- attracted over 6€0 athletes. More than one third
of the runners were from the North Shore.

“Volunteers would assist rangers

From pege 4
” Sokalski

. said. that when the
GVRD first identified a need for
park rangers, the program focus
+; was to educate the. public about
the benefits and potential dangers
when visiting individual parks.

Patrollers are identified by
. GVRD uniforms.

Said Sokalski, “There's a sign.
of authority, and the pubiic does
not view you as a threat: iden-
. tification is critical.’’

-GVRD_ park. patrollers are
equipped with two-way radios,
hip-packs ‘containing park infor-

». mation, ‘ minimal fi rst-aid equip-
‘ment and whistles.
Since establishing its park
. patrols. in. the mid-1970s, GVRD
administrators have expanded the
regional ranger program to in-
clude park rangers with ticket-
writing enforcement powers.

In practice, patroilers issue two

". warnings and write a ticket on a
third offence for possible infrac-
tions, including disorderly noise
($100 fine) and cycling in pro-
hibited areas ($100).

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The GVRD parks officials ad-
vised the committee to encourage
public. volunteer participation in
any move to make the park safer,

' “Whether you were hiring five
or six patrollers, I don’t think that
would be enough eyes and ears,’’
Sokaiski said.

. The Lynn Canyon park
patrollers will not be’ enforcing
bylaws.

IJchn Bremner, district director
of parks and engineering, advised
the. committee to consider the
Lynn Canyon park rangers as
“‘educators.”* :

Said Bremner, ‘‘The success of
our youth workers comes. about in
developing a rapport with indi-
viduals and then moving on to
more constructive issues — get
these young people to make wise,
informed choices."”

If park rangers observe alcohol
being brought into the park,
Bremner said they could deal with
it ‘reasonably and firmly.”

But said North Vancouver
RCMP. Insp. Peter Wlodarczak,
“They may panic and phone us

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Gi Zap..
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every time they see a six-pack of
beer down there. If they see
someone with liquor, we'll say

we'll come down if we

. Subject to budgetary approval
by North Vancouver District
Council, the park rangers will be
hired and paid between $12 to $15
an hour to patrol Lynn Canyon
Park seven days a week next year,
9 a.m. to dusk, from mid-June to
Labor Day and on weekends in
May and September.

Meanwhile, the committee sup-
ported a proposal by North Van-
couver resident Carole Anne
Bertenshaw to establish a Lynn
Canyon Volunteer Safety Watch.

Volunteers would assist. park

rangers in foot patrol duties and —

be trained in first aid and water
safety.

Bertenshaw asked the committee
to recommend to council the ap-
proval of a nominal grant to assist
in the development and_ basic

, equipment costs of the volunteer

program, °

Weather
Saturday, sunny,
Sunday mostly cloudy.
Highs 18°C, Lows 9C.

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He also said that the whole
controversy could have been
avoided if the district had con-
sulted effectively with the
residents..

Other residents fear that
because the extended median wili
eliminate left turns into and out
of driveways, illegal U-turns will
increase.

Most of the residences back on-
to an unopened lane allowance,
which owners acknowledge could
solve the issues of parking and
access,

But the opening and paving of
lanes is usually a local area initia-
tive,

Funds for such projects are ad-
vanced by the municipality and
recouped in annual payments with
focal taxes. But residents like L.A

Skelton do not want to foot the
bill.

In an August letter <0 council,
Skelton wrote, ‘‘Since this prob-
lem is being created by the
reconstruction project, the cost of
remedying the problem should be
a part of that project.

“It does not seem fair to make
homeowners shoulder this cost
when the reconstruction was nei-
ther requested nor wanted."*

Bemister refused to prejudge
what a meeting with engineering
staff might achieve, but he said he
was impressed with council’s ac-
tion.

“We expected to have it (the
improvements) railroaded
through,”’ said Bemister. "

Infant formula
protest targets
NV drug store

Gift-pack promo Criticized .
by breast-feeding advocates

AN UPPER Lonsdale Avenue drug store has been
targeted by the B.C. Breast-feeding Society (BCBS) in
a province-wide consumer boycott.

The BCBS has called for the
boycott of all London Drugs
stores in the province because
of the company’s distribution
of free ‘gift packs’ to new
mothers that contain a baby
formula sample, formula in-
formation and -‘‘breast-feeding
video”’ produced by a company
that manufactures formula.

According to the BCBS,
80% of B.C. women start to
breast-feed their newborn
babies but most give up in the
first few weeks, partly in
response to aggressive formula
promotion.

With proper support, the
BCBS claims that close to 97%
of women can _ successfully
breast-feed their infants.

Infant Feeding Action Coali-
tion (INFACT) board member
Renee Hefti said the promotion
by London Drugs violates both
the World Health Organiza-
tion’s (WHO) code of market-
ing. breast milk substitutes and
UNICEF’s Baby Friendly I[ni-
tiative.

_ WHO's international code
includes these provisions: ‘‘No
advertising of formula products
to the public; no free samples
to mothers; no promotion of
products in health-care facili-

“Both federal and provincial
health officials in Canada have
endorsed both these codes,’’
said Hefti. ‘‘This kind of
advertising perpetuates the
myth that formula. is better
than real milk. This is just not
true.”*

Hefti says that the free video

contained in the gift package is”

just another example of big
corporations taking advantage
of women.
**Phere are
. breast-feeding techniques. in
the video,” said Hefti. “But
the underlying theme
throughout the tape is that of
planting seeds of doubt (about
breast-feeding) in the minds of
vulnerable new mothers.”’
Breast-feeding advocates
disclaim formula use because
the cow-milk-based substitutes

some good

’ the boycott,

By A.P. McCredie
News Reporter“

lack essential immunological
protection ingredients found in
mother’s milk.

Last week a group set. up
pickets outside a London
Drugs’ store in Vancouver to
make their point.

Hefti said that while there
are no plans for such action on -
the North Shore, an aggressive .
letter-writing campaign is
under way.

in 1990, the b.C. Ministry of
Heaith requested that all hospi-
tals and public health facilities
stop distribution of formula
packs.

In a press release, the BCBS
states that “having lost the -
health-care system’s help to |
promote formula, the -com- |
panies are now using phar-.
macies as ‘a marketing
avenue.””

The release also stated that
research has shown that. for-
mula samples and industry-
produced breast-feeding in- |
formation are successful mer-
keting techniques that increase
formula saies and decrease |
breast-feeding rates.

“The formula industry ad-
mits there is a 93% brand loy-
alty if they can hook women
on their product,’ _ the state-°
ment contends.

A London Drugs Tepre-
sentative had no comment on
but referred the
News to a released statement
by London Drugs vice-presi-
dent .of merchandising and
pharmacies, Leonard Marks.

In the statement, Marks says
that London Drugs is not sug-
gesting mothers use formulas
and that such a decision is
strictly up to the individual.

“Of course it is a type of
prometion, but it is not an in-
discriminate one,’’ Marks said.
“It is for women who have had
a baby aud who we hope will
become customers.of London
Drugs and take advantage of
the products we seil.’*