68 pages Office, Editorial 985-2131

Funding Lions Gate upgrade

A TRIP across the Lions Gate Bridge is going to cost you
a loonie, according to B.C,’s Transportation and Highways
Minister Art Charbonneau.
In a Tuesday morning news
conference at the Pan Pacific
Hatel in) downtown Vancouver,
Charbonneau outlined three op-
tions being pursued by the pro- tax revenue payment scheme
vince and the Greater Vancouver would mean the job couldn't get
Regional District (GVRD) to bring done ‘as quickly ay it needs to
the craffic artery over Burrard In- be."
let's First Marrows into the 2st Charbonneau said he believed

By A.P. McCredie
News Reporter

century.

“It would be my proposal that
however we handle this, we should
make it (the updated crossing) a
user-pay bridge,”’ said Charbon-
peau. {This is a $100 million pro-
ject, and we should fund the cost,
bascd Of amertizauon of the debt,
perhaps over 20 to 25 years, with
atoll."

Rut Charbonneau added that
‘this is a bread public policy

thar ‘tthe people of Vancouver
would like to see the profile of the
Lions Gate Bridge miuintained™’
and that a proposed five-lang
replacement of the bridge would
“not fly.”

The minister plans to meet with
the mayors from: the North Shore
and Vancouver tc. discuss cach
municipality’s concerns.

Charbonneau said he also wants
to ralk with the Squamish Nation

Indian Band about the proposed
bridge options.
* See NVC Council page 3.

decision, and it could be paid for
out of tax revenues.”
He warned, however, that the

LIONS GATE BRIDGE OPTIONS:

THE THREE proposed options for upgrading Lions Gate Bridge:

@ 1!) $86 million: Keep the existing bridge, strengthen its understruc-
ture; place cycling and walking lanes outside the existing bridge cables,
thus widening the existing three lanes.

Highways minister Art Charbonneau noted that this option would
only ‘marginally’ alleviate traffic congestion, and would ‘moderately’
widen the causeway through Stanley Park.
© 2) $118 million: Widen the existing span to four lanes. This would
require changing the suspension cables on the bridge. Cycling and walk-
ing paths would be built outside the cables.

The Stanley Park causeway would have to be widened more than
under Option 1.

6 3) $121 million: Build a new five-lane span beside the existing crass-
ing: dismantle the Lions Gate Bridze.
“One lane would be dedicated to High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) traf-

fic, and its users would be exempt from paying tolls.

West Van rally restarts
District 45 bargaining

WEST. VANCOUVER
School District 45 (WVSB)
and West Vancouver
Teachers’ Association
(WVTA) president Wayne
Rowley agreed at Monday
nighi’s board meeting to
return to the bargaining
table.

The agreement was preceded by
a WVTA_) meeting in’ which
Rowley reiterited teachers’ de-
mands for # contract clause speci-
fying teacher-student ratios in
District 45 classrooms.

District 45 veachers have refused
since early January to do ad-
ministrative paperwork as part of
union job action to protest the
lack of progress in contract talks.

The teachers marched to

*

sonra
CERES

“WEST
SCHOOL BOARD

District 45 offices to deliver letters
of support for the WVTA's
bargaining objectives.

In an address to the board,
Rowley said District 45 had an
average student-to-leacher — ratio
of 2 in elementary schools and
26:1 in secondary schools com-
pared with the provincial average:
of 23:1 and 24.6:1, respectively.

But District 45 board chairman
Peter Bradshaw said that im-
plementing such a class-size
restriction would cast the school
district more than $1.8 million in
its first year alone. The money
would be needed for additional
teachers and portable classrooms.

REACHING EVE

_ WEDNESDAY
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Special feature: 52

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Mall suspect arrested

WEST VANCOUVER Police Const. Ed Pearce arrests a 44-year-old man suspected of shoplift-
ing at West Vancouver's Park Royal Shopping Centre on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 6. Accord-
ing to a police spokesman, an Eaton's store detective observed the suspect plying his trade
in the sporting goods depariment of the West Vancouver store. The suspect was then seen
stealing a container of change from an unattended cash register in the mall liquor store. The
store detective was assaulted when he attempted to detain the suspect. The suspect was
eventually caught by the detective and several citizens.

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