{Chemical plant = closure idles 70 in Squamish Canadian Occidental blames depressed domestic market CANADIAN OCCIDENTAL Petroleum Ltd. has closed its Squamish chlor-alkali production plant, throwing about 70 CanadianOxy and contract empioyees out of work. But the company said Tuesday that it will continue to operate its Squamish-based sodium chlorate facility. Tom Sugalski, CanadianOxy's senior vice-president of chemicals, said the production plant closure results from a depressed domestic market for chlorine. . CanadianOxy responded to the § decline by securing export markeis but he said that has now become uneconomical. The company has spent millions of dollars in capiral in the Squamish plant since acquiring the facility 54 years ago. Sugalski said CanadianOxy has begun detailed engineering studies to evaluate alternative technologies and other commercial options that could be incorporated at the Squamish site in the future. He added that the studies will take up to one year before con- clusive findings can be drawn. “This is an extremely difficult decision for CanadianOxy to make. We know our decision is By Surj Rattan News Reporter going to have a major impact on our employees and the Squamish community’’ said Sugalski. ‘‘We have plans to assist all our af- fected employees and we will work with each of them and their union representatives to help them mar- ket their job skills and find other employment.”’ Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd. is a publicly traded, diver- sified energy and chemicals com- pany participating in oil and gas operations in Canada, the United States, South America, the North Sea, New Guinea, Pakistan and the Republic of Yemen. ft also has interests in both the Syscrude plant and the Osio oil sands project in northern Alberta and operates industrial chemical plants in both central and western Canada, including North Van- couver. N. Van Scheol Board : faces $5M shortfall District 44 to meet with MLAs NORTH VYANCGUVER teachers will receive salary in- creases starting with their Nov. 15 paycheques. And ‘while the North Vancouver District 44 School Board (NVSB) has agreed to give the North Van- S couver Teachers’ Association 3 (NVTA) 2 7% wage hike for the # 1990-'91 school year, it said it does not have the money to cover ‘a second 7% salary increase for the 1991-'92 school year. In February, the NVTA and the NVSB reached a two-year collec- tive agreement that cailed for 7% wage increases in each year of the contract. But in June, wage commissioner 2 Ed Lien rejected the contract, calling it excessive. He also ordered the two sides back to the bargaining table. . Bill 82, the Compensation m Fairness Act brought in by the 8 outguing Social Credit govern- ment, gave Lien the power to rol! back any public sector collective agreement he deemed too rich. But Premier Mike Harcourt has promised to throw out Bill 82 and has said that B.C. teachers should be paid the salary increases they had negotiated with their respec- tive school boards. NVSB chairman Marg Jessup said the school board has the money to pay North Vancouver teachers the first year of their contract but cannot afford the se- cond year which, Jessup said, aniounts to a budget shortfall of about $5 million. She added that the school board will ask for a meeting with North Vancouver MLAs for help in solv- ing the budget shortfall. Jessup added chat the NVSB will also ask the new NDP ¢ tion ministry for un increase in Bbicck funding or a special aid B srant. “We're hopeful they will listen By Surj Rattan News Reporte to our plea. We can’t pay the se- cond year of the contract right now,” said Jessip. ‘“‘We signed the contract in February, but we didn’t know what our (bdlock- funding) allocation was until March.”’ Said NVTA president Linda Watson, ‘‘With a new government and a new opposition, we're hopeful something can be done (about the extra funding). The mood of the teachers improved when we elected a new govern- ment and it improved again when the school board decided to im- plement our new contract.’’ The former Social Credit pro- vincial government had only allocated a 3.75% increase in education block funding for the province this year over last year. The average annual provincial block-funding allocation is cur- rently $5,259 ner student. The education ministry had said it would itcrease that amount in the coming fiscal year by 3.75%. But at $5,124 per student, the NVSB’s current block-funding allocation is already below the provincial average. There are currently 16,036 stu- dents enrolled in District 44 schools. Teachers’ salaries account for 67.2% of the NVSB’s $86,323,854 budget for the current fiscal year. Prior to the most recent con- tract settlement, aunual Disirict 44 teachers’ safaries 44 ranged from $21,170 up to $53,295 for a 195- day work year. NEWS photo Stuart Davis EAGLE HARBOUR Road resident Patti Ann Reynolds and Jonathon, her canine companion, display some of the spent fireworks she collected near her home after Halloween. Reynolds Is upset by the pollution caused by fireworks. Police make Haliow HALLOWEEN WAS more litter than jitter on the North Shore this year. The two North Shore police departments repeated what has become an annual October rit- ual: the seizure of Halloween fireworks weaponry wielded by local youth out for a bit of batEstic fua. in West Vancouver some of the more nasty pieces con- fiscated included a ‘‘butterfly”’ knife, a baseball bat, toy guns tigged to shoot fire balls and metal bolts, and a homemade hand-grenade fitted with large protruding nails. Mail boxes were the favored target in West Vancouver. But the police reported no major Budget Beaters §@ Business MComics ......... Frugal Gourmet. a8 Lifestyles By Michael Becker News Reporter injuries. Meanwhile Eagle Harbor Road resident Patti Ana Reynolds is fed up with the refuse littering the streets every year after Halloween. Last week she collected a large plastic bag full of the ex- pended fireworks left in her block and at the beach near her home. “The majority oi the stuff was in the car park at Eagle index @ North Shore Now MDr. Ruth WV Listings & Whats Going Gn Second Class Registration Number 3865 en seizures Harbor. Said Reynolds, ‘‘! spoke to Mayor Sager and he suggested that in the past what they did was have a family gathering of kids and some- body put on the fireworks show in the neighborhood. The other thing would be to have a community display them and ban chiidren from having them.”’ The impact of freely-fired fireworks goes beyond the in- convenience of people living in her neighborhood. Said Reynolds, ‘‘They were firing them into the water and at night we have herons, ducks, geese, seals. They haven’t been back since Halloween night. I’m sure it really disrupts their habitat as well.”’ Weather Thursday and Friday. rain. Highs °C, lows OPC.