Crier Comment: Considering the costs of saving the 'blue cabin'

Home to artists Al Neil and Carole Itter for nearly 50 years, the small cabin was one of many squatter’s shacks along Dollarton’s mudflats in the 1930s. Mike Wakefield photo/North Shore News

It’s a tiny, dilapidated blue cabin with huge historical value.

Last month the District of North Vancouver voted 5-2 in favour of taking $10,000 from its contingency fund to assist with the remediation costs of the “Blue Cabin.”

Home to artists Al Neil and Carole Itter for nearly 50 years, the small cabin was one of many squatter’s shacks along Dollarton’s mudflats in the 1930s that were inhabited by other artists and writers, including Malcolm Lowry, author of Under the Volcano.

By the 1960s most of the cabins had been razed but the Blue Cabin had immunity. It was located on the McKenzie Barge site.

But in 2015 the private piece of land was sold to developers. The cabin is stowed away in temporary storage but its future remains uncertain. Vancouver’s Grunt Gallery and other partners, including the North Vancouver Museum and Archives, are trying make sure the 80-year-old cabin is saved and restored. They envision creating a floating residency for artists on the Burrard Inlet.

District of North Vancouver Coun. Lisa Muri strongly favours preserving the cabin and the history it represents.

“It’s important to be able to have something tangible that you can look back on and remember what life used to be like,” she said during last month’s meeting. But not all council members agreed. Coun. Robin Hicks, who along with Coun. Roger Bassam voted against the motion, isn’t convinced the cabin should be a priority for municipal funds.

“How much do we as a society spend on a dilapidated hut?” said Hicks. “I think $10,000 is not an insignificant amount and it could be used to help the homeless or more charitable endeavours within the district.”

So should preserving a decades-old cabin be a priority?

Others weren’t so quick to dismiss the importance of historical connective tissue. Reid Shier, director of the Presentation House Gallery, noted in a letter to council: “The Blue Cabin is one of, if not the last, foreshore cabin ‘squats’ that once proliferated on the intertidal zone of North Vancouver and Burrard Inlet. The history is an instrumental and vital part of our region, and the preservation of the Blue Cabin presents the last opportunity to save an especially important part of our shared past for our future generations.”

We agree.

The historical significance of the artistic community that lived on the shores of the Burrard Inlet is captured in a National Film Board’s short documentary entitled Mudflats Living and there’s also an incredible installation by artist Kevin Lum featuring replica shacks at the Maplewood conservation area that also features storyboards that pay homage to the historical significance of the creative community by the sea. But, as Muri noted, to have something tangible matters.

The little blue cabin is a real piece of history that you can see and touch, which makes it a powerful storytelling device for sharing a long-lost history with future generations. It’s priceless.

What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email to jbeddall@nsnews.com

Crier Comment: Game of drones

North Shore News File Photo

Last month a Deep Cove couple encountered an unwelcome peeping drone hovering outside their Panorama Drive home.

It’s hard to say exactly what the Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV), a.k.a drone, was up to. Taking aerial photos for a luxury home listing? Surveying the waterfront? Or was it something else?

Whatever the intent, the incident raises privacy and safety concerns about drones as they become increasingly more ubiquitous in the skies above.

So, who’s keeping tabs on the drones?

Transport Canada regulates the use of drones, and if an incident is reported the department will investigate to see if the operator followed proper rules and safety protocol.
Police can also investigate whether Criminal Code and privacy laws have been broken.

While this is still relatively uncharted territory and it may be hard to prove laws have been broken, police still encourage residents to call the non-emergency line if they’ve had unwanted flying visitors buzzing around their personal space.

Drones are getting more affordable and easier to fly. You can buy one equipped with a camera at a big box store for less than $100 and if it’s being used for personal use and weighs less than 25 kilograms you don’t need permission from Transport Canada to start flying it.

The only stipulation is that you follow certain safety tips, including fly during daylight in good weather; always keep it in sight; respect privacy of others; and don’t fly close to airports, in populated areas or near groups of people, near moving vehicles or higher than 90 metres, or anywhere that may impede first responders.  

If the drone is being used for work or research and weighs more than 25 kilograms a special flight operations certificate is needed.

On its website, Transport Canada reminds drone users that they “must respect the Criminal Code, Trespass Act, as well as all municipal, provincial, and territorial laws regarding trespassing and privacy.”

The federal department concedes that an increasing number of Canadians are now flying UAVs, but that doesn’t mean everyone is aware of the rules. In the U.S. plans have been announced for a drone registration system. At the moment Transport Canada is developing stricter regulations to address the growing popularity of UAVs that will likely establish aircraft marking and registration requirements, licensing and training and flight rules. Stronger regulations should happen sooner than later.

Just as you need to pass mandatory testing to get a licence to operate a motor vehicle or boat, operators of these unmanned aircraft should also be required to fully understand the rules and regulations of operating a UAV. They should also be well aware of the consequences for breaking these rules, which can include stiff fines and even jail time, something many recreational operators probably don’t realize.

Drones perform many important functions, from aiding search and rescue teams and police to helping farmers surveying crops, but in the hands of a few misguided pilots the unmanned aircrafts can pose a threat to privacy and safety and sour public opinion about UAVs.

What are your thoughts? Send an email to jbeddall@nsnews.com