HE VOICE OF NORTH.AND WEST VANCOUVER

By- CHRIS LLOYD

NE te ag arte a ieaepestrah enereooegteces
FRR an ate Gar oe ee ENE Me

Tel, 980-0511 -

~Canadians are fat cats, whose expectation

_ levels exceed their work output and who get up to

their necks in debt rather than cut their living
standards. And here on the west coast we're the

biggest culprits of all.

These are the essence of
comments made by Capilano
MP Ron Huntington in an in-
teryiew with theNews.

“Canada is spoiled beyond
belief,” says the minister for
small business. “Our an-

TROUBLED BRIDGE over the waters of Second Narrows received a
boost Wednesday when the damaged span was raised from where it had
been lying since it was hit by a freighter on October 12. A crane hoisted

_Reaching Every Door on the North Shore

ticipation levels are too high,
we're not competing with
other industrialized nations
of the world and we're slipp-
ing very seriously.”

And these are the reasons
that the building of a massive

ptarerasopeatre Tamers

"Classified. 986-6222

ot

floating drydock = for
Burrard-Yarrows is to be
done by a Japanese firm, he
says.

Huntington’ completely
agrees with labor leader Jim
Kinnaird that it was insane
for such a contract to be
awarded to an offshore com-
pany.

But he adds that in spite of
various concessions and
delays for the benefit of
Canadian © bidders, which
cost taxpayers a total of $11

million, Canadian
panies’ were © still
competitive.

com-
un-

“I really wanted it to be
built in Canada and did
everything I could to bring
about a Canadian bid,” he
says. “I did everything I
could to make sure that the
Canadian consortium got a
bid on it and a fair chance ...
but the consortium was very
very naive.”

Canadian bidders, he

’ maintains, were saddled with

a burden that he feels is a

self-inflicted
demise -

“Our productivity is not
competing with other na-
tions, our labor costs are
higher than other competing
industrialized nations.”

His solution, consistent
with the  belt-tightening
philosophy of the Clark
government, is for Cana-
dians - as individuals and as a
nation - to reduce their an-
ticipation levels and not to
live on credit:

CONTINUED ON PAGE A8&

national

up the submerged end of the span using cables and then workmen,
pictured here, lowered the span onto a suppor beam. The span will now
be caken apart and repaired. For story see Page A3. (lan Smith photo}

’

By NOEL WRIGHT

West Vancouver's
Blue Buses have been
saved from the shotgun

wedding with the
Greater Vancouver
Regional District's
transit system which

was threatened a week
ago and will continue
to operate in their
present form.

That's the word from West
Van Mayor Derrick:
Humphreys following _ last
Wednesday's crucial GVRD
meeting at which the transit
funding agreement between
the regional district and
Victoria was approved by a
40-25 vote of GVRD
directors.

There had been fears
earlier that the vote would
be too close to be ac-
ceptable The final com-
fortable majority — together

CONTINUED ON PAGE A4

‘weather
* wt, f: {

SUNDAY:
rain, continuing mild.

Periods of

MONDAY:

change.

Lice

ae
ie i
: .