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3 - Sunday, ‘April 16, 1989 ~ North Shore News

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NEWS photo Mike Wakstleid

PEOPLE ENJOYING John Lawson Park in West Vancouver discovered an interesting sight Wednesday afternoon when a barge broke free of its
moorings and headed out to sea. A tug secured the barge and towed it to the pier at the park.

‘EXTENDED BASIC SERVICE’

Cable TV subscribers steamed
over Shaw marketing tactic

A SHAW CABLE TV marksting bid, which puts the onus
on subscribers to say ‘no’ to the company to avoid paying
for six newly-unscrambled satellite TV channels, has some
local pay TV subscribers transistor-popping mad.

The cable company has been of-
fering subscribers a free, month-
long six-channel preview of a
package for which Shaw used to
charge its customers $10.95 plus
tax. But at that price, Shaw was
only able to sign up 14.5 per cent
of its 57,000 North Shore
subscribers.

The new “‘extended basic ser-
vice’? sales strategy has proven to
be successful for other cable com-
panies, with an average 80 per cent
of consumers buying into the pay
TV plan.

After this month the six-channel
package, which includes The
Nashville Network, The Sports
Network, Cable News Network,
Arts & Entertainment (N.Y.),
WTVS PBS Detroit and
MuchMusic, will cost a subscriber
$2.95 plus tax.

To reject the package, customers
must tell the company that they
don’t want it. A phone call to
Shaw, or the return of a ‘no’ card

By MICHAEL BECKER
News Reporter

included in a promotional package
Shaw sent out to subscribers earlier
this month will cancel the service.
Shaw technicians will then install a
filter on to the viewer's cable line
to block the six channels.

According to Better Business
Bureau assistant general manager
Kaye Bakes, the consumer adviso-
ry service has been inundated with
calls from North Shore TV viewers
angered by the marketing ploy.

Said Baker: ‘‘As I understand it,
it’s not illegal, but it’s unethical.
You don’t have to pay for what
you don’t order. You should not
have to fill in that card. We’re tell-
ing people that they don’t have to
fill that form in if they don’t want
the service. To my way of think-
ing, it’s classed as unordered mer-
chandise.”?

Said Shirley Gilbert, a North
Vancouver resident and 11-year

SUBDIVISION CONTROL

West Van wins appeal decision

WEST VANCOUVER District has won a B.C. Court of
Appeal decision that supports the power of municipal
planning approval officers to control subdivision develop-

ment.

The April 4 decision from a
three-judge panel overturns an
earlier court ruling that had
directed West Vancouver approv-
ing officer Don Walker to approve
a development plan from West
Vancouver residents Gordon and
Janice Hlynsky.

The plan submitted by the Hlyn-
sky’s proposed that their property
at 1720 29th St. in West Vancouver
be subdivided into two parcels.

But, after considering two plans .

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter
from the Hlynskys, Walker decid-
ed not to approve the plan
primarily on the grounds that the
dimensions of the lot and the pro-
posed building siting did not fit in
with the rest of the neighborhood

or ‘‘preserve the character of the
existing area’? as set out in West

Vancouver’s Official Community .

Shaw Cable subscriber: ‘I’m going
to be charged for this the first of
May. What would have happened
if I had been been away for this
month. I didn't ask for this ser-
vice. Why should { have to pay for
it?”

Maria Ferbey, owner of Maria’s
On Marine Specialty Deli in West
Vancouver said she was billed for
the new satellite TV package on a
cable bill due April 16.

Said Ferbey: ‘‘I phoned Shaw
about it and she (a receptionist)
basicaily said that that's the way it
is. 1 have not got a contract with
Shaw Cable for these six channels.
The parallel to this is (f { were to
deliver a sandwich to every house-
hold in West Vancouver and then
have the amount billed on their
Hydro bills. These are the junk
channels they couldn’t sell. The
onus is on me to cancel a contract
I have never instituted with them.’’

But said Shaw system manager
Terry Medd: ‘‘The bottom fine is
that we’re giving a no-questions
asked credit, within a reasonable
time of three or four months, for
people who want to refuse this
service.”*

Medd said that for the first week

Plan and did not conform to the
intent of the area zoning bylaw.

The Hlynskys subsequently peti-
tioned the B.C. Supreme Court to
overturn Walker’s decision and
won after the judge hearing the
case ruled that the approving of-
ficer had based his decision on a
“specious and totally inadequate
factual basis.’’

The judge found that the
unusual shape of the lot along with
the new siting of the home did fit
in with the neighborhood’s charac-
ter “‘and, in particular, the terrac-
ing effect which has been estab-
lished on this hillside.”

But in the April 4 decision of the
three-judge panel overturning that

following the unscrambling of the
six channels and the Shaw infor-
mation mail-out, the company's
North Vancouver office was
flooded with an average 1,000 calls

SHAW system manager Terry
Medd ...‘‘giving a no-questions
asked credit.’’

ruling, Mr. Justice W.A. Craig
disagreed that the courts ‘‘should
engage in a careful, critical analy-
sis of the approving officer’s deci-
sion or that the court must critica-
lly test the substance of the deci-
sion....the Chambers Judge did
what she should not have done,
namely, she simply substituted her
opinion for that of the approving
officer which is not permissible.”
Mr. Justice Craig stated that the
court should assess the approving
officer’s decision ‘by giving him
considerable latitude. A Chambers
Judge should not lightly, or ar-
bitrarily, come to a conclusion

contrary to that of the Approving

Officer.’ .

B. Island
golf pian
rejected

THE GREATER Vancouver
Regional District (GVRD)
Parks Committee has re-
jected further consideration
of a propcsal to put a golf
course into Crippen
Regional Park on Bowen
Island.

The proposal, considered a poor
one by many of the committee
members, was voted dawn at a
Wednesday committee meeting.

The parks committee had earlier
agreed in p.incipal to putting a
golf cours: ‘nto 50 acres of the
600-acre park. But the issue divid-
ed residents of the island.

A motion by North Vancouver
District Ald. Bill Rodgers at the
GVRD Parks Committee meeting
to reject continued consideration
of a proposal presented to the
committee by the Bowen Island
Golf Association was supported in
a 13 to 5 vote.

a day from subscribers. The office
usually handles 300 to 400 calls a
day.

“When you send out this vol-
ume of letters you're going to get
some pcople taking exception to
it,"? Medd said. ‘The real story
here is that we're still out there
providing the choice.”

The telephones have also been
ringing more frequently at the in-
vestigations office of the provin-
cial Ministry of Labour and Con-
sumer Services. According to the
ministry’s chief investigator
Michael Wood, his office has been
flooded with ‘‘a large volume’ of
complaints about the Shaw move.

But said Wood: ‘This sort of
practice is not new for the cable
companies. A legal opinion from
the Attorney General’s lawyer sev-
eral months ago was that this prac-
tice was not illegal.’

a4] Business ...... 20
Classified..............34
Doug Collins........... 9
Comies................33
Editorial Page.......... 6
Entertainment.......... 16
Fashion ............... 13
Horoscopes ............ 33
Bob Hunter............ 4
Lifestyles..............29
Mailbox............... 7
Travel ................ 26
What's Going On........33

WEATHER

Sunday and Monday, mostly
sunny. Tuesday, mostly cloudy
with chance of showers. Highs
near 14°C,

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