THE PAST year was an eventful one for the North Shore
and its residents. In order to provide a perspective of 1987,
the North Shore News has reproduced summarized versions

of the major North Shore events of 1987.

Today's first in-

stallment of a two-part series includes the monihs from

January through to August.

September through December 1987 news highlights will
appear in the Sunday issue of the News.

JANUARY:
* Plug pulled on Park Plaza —
North Vancouver's $1.4 million
Park Plaza Country Club closed
Jan. 16 leaving 1! employees
without work and approximately
1,500 members without a club. The
club, which slipped into receiver-
ship in June 1986, remained clos-
ed, except for its ice rink and bar
and banquet facilities, for the rest
of 1987, its future uncertain.
North Vancouver District Council
studied a developer’s proposal to
rezone the land for residential use,
but voted in April not to rezone
the 4.38-acre property.
¢ North Shore mail haited — Mail
delivery on the North Shore was
halted after inside workers
picketed at the main postal station
in Vancouver, Dispute was over
pay hikes, and the letter carriers
refused to cross the picket lines.
© West Vancouverites lead money-
earning pack — Revenue Canada
figures showed the municipality
with the country’s top average per-
sonal income is West Vancouver
for the second vear running. Based
on ‘84 tax return figures, the
average income was $30,742, up
from the '83 average of $29,554,
Still in the top 10, Nosth Van-
couver slipped from a two-year
spot in fifth place to eighth place
with a $22,218 average.
© West Vancouver celebrates 75th
anniversary — The party of the
year included a new coat-of-arms,
a gala civic dinner at the
Hollyburn Country Club, a full
calendar of entertainment events
and a proposal for a small per-
forming arts stage ino a natural
garden setting in Ambleside Park.
MARCH:
eNorth Yancouver drugstore
becomes the first drugstore in
Canada to sell wine — The Lon-
don Drugs Lonsdale Avenue store
began selling B.C. wine and wine
products on a short-term trial
basis. In August, a provincial ti-
quor policy review commission
reported the public did not want
such outlets, London Drugs slam-
med findings as inaccurate, and
pointed to their own survey detail-
ing public support.
© Charges laid in North Vancouver
murder — North Vancouver
RCMP charged 23-year-old Edward
Douglas Lakes with second degree
murder-in the death of 24-year-old
Donald Richard Duplissie. The
dead man was the twin of Darlene
Pryce, whose husband Ronald shot
their four young children and then
committed suicide in September
1986, Duplissie was found with his
throat slashed in the parking lot of
St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
APRIL:
¢ Pulp mill pollution concerns
raised -— West Vancouver resident
Terry Jacks raised local resident
concerns that air pollution drifting
over Howe Sound to West Van-
couver from the Canadian Forest
Products Port Mellon pulp and
paper mill was becoming an in-
creasingly serious threat to the
health of North Shore residents.
Jacks demanded that the 79-year-
old mill, which has exceeded air
pollution standards for the past 10
years but has never been fined by
the provincial government, install
the machinery required to. bring
the mill into compiiance with the
air pollution levels permitted under
its licence.

In December, Canfor announced
a massive $1 billion plan to in-
crease mill production and upgrade
its pollution standards from ‘B’ to
stricter ‘A’ fevels.
¢ Instruction only — Teachers in
North Vancouver joined teachers
around the province in an instruc-
tion-only campaign to protest Bills
19 and 20.

The campaign ended in North
Vancouver in September. Teachers
in West Vancouver voted in May
not to join the campaign.

B.C. unions called a one-day
general strike June | to protest the
two bills.

MAY:

e North Shore roots for Rick
Hansen — Rick Hansen wheeled
home to a triumphant return from
a round-the-world wheelchair
journcy to raise funds for spinal
cord research and to raise
awareness of issues facing the

industry helped raise $50,000 for
the fund.

FUNE:

* Choice sweeps seats — For the
second year runaing, pro-choice
candidates swept the four avaiable
seats in the annaal Lions Gate
Hospital board elections. Winning
vole margin was approximately
300 for each of the candidates.
JULY:

«Squamish Highway cissures
cause much grief — Ongoing con-
struction and blasting along the
highway to widen the strip to four
Janes began disrupting the lives of
Lions Bay residents and com-
muters using the route. The resi-
dents were outraged when con-
struction at Strip Creek Bridge,
Lonetree Creck Bridge and Log-
ger’s Creek Bridge caused delays
hours longer than the 20-minute
waits promised by the highways
department. Kesidents met with

NEWS photo Stuart Davis

SOME O¥ the news highlights of 1987 included (clockwise from top): drought at Eagle Lake water reservoir;
West Vancouver's 75th anniversary; fire destroying a picr at Vancouver Shipyards in September; the completion
of the Man in Motion Tour; a royal visit in the fall by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

disabled. North Shore residents
raised thousands of dollars for the
tour. Among the many efforts
made, Handsworth Secondary
School council and students raised

$3,500 from a Jello eating contest, _

coin drive, raffle, lip synch and
cupid compatibility contest. The
Mount Seymour Lions raised
$10,000 from a Christmas tree
sale. Seven North Shore residents
on a fund-raising committee for
the Vancouver Employce Benefit

highways representatives and rep-
resentatives of West Vancouver-
Howe Sound MLA John Reynolds
to vent anger and look for alter-
natives. In October, Highways
Minister Cliff Michael announced
four-hour daily closures for
blasting and safety work. A ferry
service between Horseshoe Bay
and Porteau Cove was considered.
An earlier suggestion for a route
through the Capilano watershed to
Britannia Beach was ruled out.

3 - Friday, January J.

e West Vancouver residents enrag-
ed over rail herbicide spraying
program -- West Vancouver rest
dent imma Koss-Awde embarked
ona grassroots battle ta attempt to
halt HC Rail plans to spray
blackberries slong a 1O-mile strip
of West) Vancouver track with
Roundup. a glyphosate herbicide.
The spraying program was initi-
ated at the request of the West
Vancouver Fire Department. The
company claimed the chemical was
safes residents claimed otherwise.
Residents taunched an appeal be-
fore the Environmental Appeal
Board, The company suspended
plans to spray in September. The
hearing took place in November. A
decision is still pending regarding
the validity of the company permit
to spray,

¢ Water main repair to cost $2.5
million — The Greater Vancouver
Regional District approved a $2.5

NEWS photo Neli Lucente

million expenditure to repair per-
manently the 400-foot north shaft
of the Capilano ‘reservoir’s water
main, which exploded Dec. 11,
1986 and cut water supplies’ to
areas of Vancouver, the West End
and North Vancouver.

The repair work, which involved
the insertion of a welded ; steel
sleeve down the shaft’s eight-foot
diameter, began in December.
© BC Rail and its unions reach ten-
tative accord to halt shut-down —

1988 ~ North shore News

Rail service to most North Van-
cuuver waterfront industry wis
shut down in a labor dispute be-
iaeen rail workers and the com-
pany. Dispute was resolved and
trains were roling before in-
dustries exhausted their materials
reserves and began to Jay off
workers.

AUGUST:

© Polar 8 sails to Versatile Pacific
Shipyards Inc, — After almost 18
months of lobbying from focal
government, the local shipbuilding
industry and local shipyard
workers, the federal government
officially awarded the contract for
design and construction of the
$350 million Polar Class 8
icebreaker to North Vancouver's
Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc.
and its Vancouver partner, Sand-
well, Swan Wooster Inc. Design on
what will be the largest icebreaker
in the world is expected to be
completed in mid-1988, and actual
construction is scheduled to begin
in mid-1989. Employment provid-
ed for Versatile’s North Vancouver
and Victoria yards is estimated to
run up to 1,000 over an 18-month
peak period.

But layoffs continued at Ver-
satile. By the end of 1987 less than
100 tradesmen were working at the
company's North Vancouver
yards. Contract negotiations be-
tween Versatile and its unions con-
tinued through December. Earlier
in the month, Versatile president
David Alsop headed a group of 14
Versatile managers in making a bid
te purchase the shipyard from
Versatile Corp., its financially-
troubled cocporate parent.

Delivery date for Versatile'’s $92
million Henry Larsen icebreaker
was delayed again in November
after technical problems caused by
faulty power transformers surfac-
ed.

Elsewhere along the North Shore
waterfront, North Vancouver’s
Vancouver Shipyards Co. Ltd. was
awarded a $6.2 million contract
from the federal government in
September to build a 700-class
icebreaker and joined with another
North Vancouver shipyard, Allied
Shipbuilders Lid., in a national
shipbuilding consortium that made
a bid to build 12) mine patrol
vessels for the Canadian gov-
erament.
¢ Seymour Demonstration Forest
opens — A unique 5,600-hectare
demonstration forest was officially
opened Aug. 23 by the Greater
Vancouver Regional District in its
lower Seymour watershed. Unlike
purely recreational facilities, the
demonstration forest was conceiv- -
ed as an educational facility that, »
through trail development, hikes
and organized backwoods tours,
will promote public awareness of |
West Coast forest usage,
wilderness environment and ap-
preciation of integrated resource
management. ;
© Federation Cup by NEC tennis
fournament in West Vancouver —
Top woinen tennis players from
around the world came to West
Vancouver’s Hollyburn Country
Club for the Federation Cup tour-
nament, drawing thousands of
spectators. The following month
Officials announced Grouse !-foun-
tain as host for a men's World
Cup ski event March 1988.

FRONT: PAGE PHOTO
Old and. new |

LOOKING FORWARD

100, during. the leap year. cf

Aisws photograp! .
by. Mike. Wakefield