NEWS photo Terry Peters

Grand-daddy tanker

THE LARGEST tanker ever to visit the Port of Vancouver sailed into Burrard in-
let fast Thursday and was dry-docked at North Vancouver’s Versatile Pacific
Shipyards Ltd. The American Trader, owned by New York-based American
Trading and Transportation Co., is 37,209 tonnes and has a dead weight of
$2,030 tonnes. The tanker, which is at Versatile for steel repairs, is 249 metres
long, 38 metres wide and 17.6 metres deep. It contains 15 cargo tanks and was

built in the United States in 1969.

Labor hearing adjourned in
CN employee discipline case

A CANADA Labor Relations Board (CLRB) hearing was
called Monday to hear an appeal from a North Vancouver

Canadian National

Railways

(CN) worker who was

disciplined for refusing to handle two rail cars full of lig-

uid chlorine.

But the hearing was adjourned
the same day it began, and no
fu.ure daic has been sec for a new
hewring.

Lawyer Shona Moore, repre-
senting the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers, local 945
and CN employee Ron Dumont,
told CLRB hearing chairman
Calvin Davis that she needed more
time to prepare her case.

Dumont said he refused to
move two train cars loaded with
chlorine on Nov. 15, 1990 from
CN’s Lynn Creek yard in North
Vancouver uni! a proper physical
brake inspection had been carried
out by a qualified car inspector.

“I believe that it is both unsafe
and unlawful to move a train be-
tween Lynn Creek and Sapperton
(near Coquitlam) without knowing
that 85 per cent of the brakes are
operative,"’ Dumont stated in a
letter to A.E. Bartlett of Trans-

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

port Canada, ‘There is no other
way that it can be determined that
a train has 85 per cent of the
brakes operative, or that two cars
with inoperative brakes are coupl-
ed together, than to walk (around)
the train."”

But Bartlett, in a letter to Du-
mont, said his investigation show-
ed “conclusively that the pro-
cedures were properly complied
with and that no defects were
present on these cars."’

The union and Dumont are ap-
pealing Bartlett’s ruling.

Moore argued that Bartlett was
wrong in his decision not to order
a physical brake test of the two
cars.

“It’s a review of a decision of a
safety officer that this train be

moved 16 miles through a heavily
populated area. We say the means
of transporting this chlorine train
is unsafe,’ said Moore. ‘We say
the safety officer was simply
wrong.”

But CN lawyer Duncan McPhail
objecied to the adjournment and
said it was the third time Dumont
had attempted to have the hearing
adjourned.

“Employees should not be using
their right of refusal (to work) to
bring about safety campaigns. If
the complainant seriously con-
tends there is a safety risk then it
is incumbent upon us to proceed
right now,’’ said McPhail. ‘*My
client takes the position that the
transfer of these trains is absolute-
ly safe.”

Davis said he ‘‘was not happy
about these proceedings.”*

“tv's them or us. We've been
battling to keep that out of this
forum. I’m not pleased that we're
looking some ways down the road
(for another hearing),’’ said
Davis. ‘“‘This board does not have
a mandate to change regulations.
The question in my eyes is was the
work properly performed?”

Sunday, January 27, 1991 - North Shore News - 3

Fire-loss

amount
hits $2.5m

THE TOTAL loss resulting
from an Oct. 18 arson fire
at a West Vancouver mov-
ing and storage facility has
been pegged at $2.5 million.

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

Because of the nature of the
fire, wrangling over the issue of
insurance liability continues for
the owner of Ferguson Moving
and Storage and the scores of
clients whose possessions — in-
cluding valuable antiques and art
— were destroyed in the fire.

Several of the fire-lass victims
are exploring the option of laun-
ching a group legal action against
Ferguson.

Meanwhile the owner -has ap-
plied to the municipality for a de-
velopment permit application to
build another storage facility on
the Marine Drive site.

Said Ferguson Moving and
Storage owner Paul Reano, ‘‘!
would think some people will take
us to court over this, but there is
nothing concrete yet.

“The arson aspect of it is really
a grey area. I’m not too impressed
with the insurance response to
this, including our own (insurer).
We're struggling to get our own
pay-out on this,”’ he added.

Reano estimates his company’s
loss at between $406,000 and
$500,000.

The moving and storage com-
pany’s standard storage rate to
clients included a maximum liabil-
ity of $1.32 per kilogram per arti-
cle. The company also offered the
option of additional insurance.

But a fire victim who estimates
that she fost $15,000 worth of
goods in ithe Ferguson blaze has
been unable to recover any of her
loss despite having purchased
some additional insurance through
Ferguson.

In au earlier News story, an in-
surance adjuster handling the in-
surance case for Ferguson argued
that the company should not be
found liable for arson losses.

But *ccording to Reano, some
of the fire victims have been able
to collect on ‘floater policies’? at-
tached to home insurance policies.

Reano claims his company

W. Van storage
facility clients
still await
reimbursement

worked with ‘‘the best coverage in
the industry as far as general in-
surance coverage.””

Brian Stanhope, vice-president
of the Insurance Bureau of
Canada, said if fire loss coverage
is included in a policy then set-
tlements should be available
regardless of how a fire has oc-
curred.

The Ferguson fire broke out at
about 2 a.m. on Oct. 18. Police
investigators found a pane of glass
had been taken out of a door that
nad been locked earlier.

Reano was alerted to the fire
when a friend, who monitors
ernergency radio frequencies on a
scanner, heard the fire departmeni
dispatch.

Said Reano, ‘You look after
people’s goods and make sure that
everything is up to standards, We
never thought once of an arson.
You never think of people pur-
posefully burning a place down.
People talk about sleepless nights.
} don’t go through a minute of
the day — it’s like a toothache. If
J could rectify it monetarily, |
would. But the fire has devastated
the company. [t kills you. We're
just staying afloat.”

Some of Reano’s former clients
criticize Ferguson for not having
had a sprinkler system installed in
the 60-year-old wooden building.

But Reano said a_ sprinkler
system was not required in the
building because it was an older
building.

“If they (the fire department)
had come to us five or 10 years
ago and said this building should
be sprinklered, we would have
done it. It's a big cost, but we
weren't required (to have the
sprinklers installed),”’ he ssid.

A new building could be in
place by September. The fire
department is recommending that
the structure be fully sprinklered.
The police department is recom-
mending the installation of a
monitored alarm system and that
all exterior doors and door frames
be made of steel.

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Weather
Sunday and Monday, mostly cloudy with a chance of flurries or
showers. Highs 3-5°C; lows near -2°C. Tuesday, periods of rain.

Highs, 6°C: low -1'C.

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