New federal contract may spur shipbuilding boom in NV A NATIONAL shipbuilding consortium that includes two North Shere shipyards has won a $4.5 million vessel design development contract that could lead to the award of millions of dollars worth of shipbuilding contracts locally and create hundreds of jobs in the North Shore shipbuilding industry. By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter The contract is one of two parallel contracts awarded under the defence department’s Naval Reserve Countermeasures Program to provide design proposals for 12 Canadian Navy minesweepers. A construction contract to build the ships will be awarded next September and could create at least 200 jobs in the North Shore ship- building industry. . The consortium, headed by Ca- nadian Shipbuilding and Engincer- ing Ltd. of St. Catharines, On- tario, includes Allied Shipbuilders Ltd. and Vancouver Shipyards Co. Ltd., both based in North Van- couver, In 1987, the consortium submit- ted an unsolicited proposal to the federa! government to build 12 mine patrol vessels as outlined in the government’s white paper on national defence needs: Challenge and Commitment, A Defence Pol- icy for Canada. The proposal was rejected, but the consortium is now one of the final two bidders that will land the estimated $550 million vessel con- struction contract. Under the consortium’s plan, at least four of the 12 vessels, each costing approximately $40 million, would be built on the West Coast. FENCO Engineering of Toronto and its two principal subcontrac- tors, MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates of Richmond and Nova Scotia’s Halifax-Dartmouth In- dustries Ltd., have also been awarded a contract to come up with a minesweeper design and construction proposal. Both proposals will be submitted to the federal government at the end of May 1990, and the contract to build the 12 vessels will be awarded next September when one of the two design proposals will be chosen. Delivery of the first vessel is scheduled for 1992, while the last of the 12 will be delivered in 1998. According to original consor- tium estimates, the project would create approximately 2,500 man years of work across the country and 200 full-time jobs, or 1.é mil- lion hours cf direct employment, at the two North Vancouver yards if each built two of the ships. But those estimates were based on the ships being built to cqm- mercial standards. With plans now for the minesweepers to be built to more exacting military standards, the number of jobs created by the pro- ject will be higher. Vancouver Shipyards general manager Tom Ward said the an- nouncement of the design contract award “‘is a very positive thing.”* He said at ieast four of the vessels, and probably six, would be built on the West Coast regardless of which shipbuilding organization won the final construction con- tract. When all 12 vessels have been duilt, four will patrol the West Coast. The remaining eight will be stationed or Unc east coast and in the Great Lake: CAR AUDIO cennoisseur Joanne Taylor has her inner ear probed by 240 watts of musical power. The stereo system in this car, modest by | boem-car standards, is worth more than $3,000 and is protected by a $700 alarm system. Some car audio systems are driven by over 1,000 watts of power and can cost as much as $20,000. REE CONSIDERS LEGISLATION TO MUFFLE NOISE [Boom cars blasted by val rig A WEST Vancouver right-to-quiet advocacy group is out to bust boom cars. By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter The Society for Soundscape Awareness and Protection is ask- ing B.C. Solicitor General Angus Ree to silence loud car stereos by amending the Motor Vehicle Act during the next legislative ses- sion. Said society chairman John Beltz: ‘‘We’d like something along the lines of ‘nolody shall play an amplified sound device so loud that it can be easily heard in a car immediately in front or immediately behind or at the curb.” Ree agrees with the thrust of the group’s gripe and says he in- tends to give serious considera- tion to the request for an amendment to the act. “‘We’ve got a number of pro- posals for amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act and that is one to consider for the next ses- F sion,’’ Ree said. ‘I’m very sym- pathetic to these people who would like to see this controlled. I'd like to hear my own car radio | when I’m driving myself and not somebody else’s noise. “‘These people are very ir- responsible. They remind me of small children making noise to get attention. I would consider it a@ moving traffic offence. I don’t see why a traffic officer just couldn’t go after these people as they hear them go by. But it would require an amendment to the act,”’ he said. Beitz said his group has been pursuing the issue since 1985, when the society went before Vancouver City Council to lobby for a noise control bylaw cover- ing the loud playing of car stereos. Said Beltz: ‘‘The old stereos could be loud enough. We pro- posed this before the new boom car phenomenon.”’ But business has been booming for local car audio installation specialists. It’s not unusual for motorists looking for that big bass boom to be paying anywhere rom $5,000 to $30,060 per car system. Add on the cost of a hair-trigger alarni system, in- stallation charges and extra in- surance costs and the dollar outlay multiplies. Said Fenner Rothwell, a car stereo system installer with Per- Air pollution menitoring CONSTRUCTION on a 24-hour air-monitoring station for the North Shore is tentatively scheduled to begin at the end of September. The $100,000 computerized fa- cility, which will be located in Mahon Park, wil! measure such air pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone. Greater Vancouver Regional District spuhesman Doug Whiticar said the stauon should be operating by November. Once operational, it will feed North Shore air quality informa- tion into the GVRD’s current Lower Mainland network. The information will be re- corded and included in the GVRD's air-quality index, which is upuated twice daily. formance Car Stereo in North Vancouver: “In the last three years, things have really started to pick up. Progressively things have been getting busier and bus- SOLICITOR General Angus Ree ...°‘They remind me of small citildren making noise to get attention.” ier. There are people who will just walk in off the street and plop $3,000 on the counter and say, ‘Hey, I want acar stereo.’”” Rothwell agrees with fining people who drive down busy ht-to-quiet group streets or through residential areas with their systems blaring music. But, he said, “‘For the people who enjoy their cars, we have a lot of people with Ferraris and Mercedes, they want to be able to get sound that they get in their house — as if they’re sitting in their living room. You can create that in a car.”’ North Vancouver car stereo buff Markus Entz, who drives around with a $5,000 system, also agrees there should be some limitation to ear-pummelling displays of bass on wheels. “There are a lot of hair-brained idiots out there who want to advertise their systems. I think they should enforce people clos- ing their car windows. I didn’t do this for the public. I did this for me. I do this for my pleasure. 1 don’t want hassles.”* Said Beltz in conclusion: ‘‘I don’t particularly want to hear this racket. It’s unwise to spend this sort of money, because peo- ple won’t go on permitting you to blast this noise all over the place. It’s ridiculous. You’d be better off spending that money on soundproofing your apartment se that your neighbors don’t have to hear it.”” station te open this fall Only particulate matter in North Shore air is currently monitored by the GVRD. Air monitoring stations are located near the First and Second Narrows bridges, but, because of their distance from central areas of the North Shore and their proximi- ty to waterfront industries, they do not accurately represent North Shore air quality : Whitica: saw that Mahon Park was choser: because ft is 2 good central location away from heavy waterfront industry. The location, he said, also pro- vides gocd security for the station and its sensitive computer equip- ment, The GVRD currently operates 47 air monitoring stations in 14 communities around the Lower Mainland. Air quality information is avail- able 24 hours a day by calling 432-6419.