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Reaction is mixed to later closing hours

BRIAN MORTON and ALAN DANIELS
Province

Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen isn’t in favour of extending the operating hours of pubs and restaurants but he’d like to exam­ine allowing cabarets to stay open until 6 a.m.

“I’d prefer to study the possi­bility of [cabarets] staying open to 6 a.m., so [patrons] would leave when it’s light and they can use public transit,” Owen said. “But I don’t think I’d be in favour of pubs and restaurants. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”

The provincial government has announced a number of sweep­ing reforms to B.C.’s liquor laws, including a two-hour extension in drinking hours – from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. – but municipalities must first approve it.

Owen said municipalities may be restricted in what they can do to control hours of operation, because liquor regulations are a provincial responsibility. “We have persuasive power, not legal power.”

However, Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum said that he under­stands municipalities would retain the right to set hours for pubs and cabarets.

“Most of our places are open until 12:30 or 2 o’clock. And the control mechanism, as I under­stand it, is with the city.”

McCallum said he doesn’t believe council would want the hours changed, although much depends on where the pubs and cabarets are located. “I don’t think council would support that [later hours].”

Meanwhile, Vancouver resi­dent Emily Goetz isn’t too pleased about the new regula­tions, which could see her neigh­bourhood pub stay open until 4 a.m.

“The noise in that lane [echoes] like a canyon,” Goetz said of the alley that her home and Jeremiah’s Neighbourhood Pub, in the 3600-block of West Fourth, share. “I don’t want to be woken up at 4 a.m.”

Neighbour Neale Currie agrees, saying the pub’s current closing time of 1 a.m. on week­ends and midnight on other days, is fine. “It’s a nice balance, the way it is now, so I’d be against [later hours]. You can hear cars going up our lane and it gets louder when it’s later. There’s a lot of spillover.”

However, Jeremiah’s manager Carl Austin says the new liquor rules are timely, although he doesn’t know if the pub will decide to stay open later.

“Any change is good. But whether we have extended hours, we’ll have to look at that.”

Austin said more customers could show up at their pub if it stays open later, though he thinks existing clientele would simply stay longer.

“But I don’t think we’ll have problems with the neighbour­hood. It’s better they [customers] are in here than out on the street.”

Jennifer Crawford, owner of the Raven Pub in North Vancou­ver, said she looks forward to possibly staying open later. “We now close at 12:30 a.m. It would be excellent if we can stay open until 2 a.m.”

Juanita Giroux, a bartender with the Billy Miner Neighbour­hood Pub in Maple Ridge, agreed that later hours would be great for business. “Cool, that’s what I say. I don’t think anybody would have a problem with that.”

While many residents are concerned about the effect on neigh­bourhoods, Mark Schindler, who lives near Darby D. Dawes Pub in Vancouver, isn’t one of them.

“I think it [the prospect of later hours] is wonderful. I haven’t had a problem with the noise when they close.”

West End Residents’ Associa­tion director Marie Claire Seebohm said West End pubs and restaurants are generally consid­erate of residents, but later hours could mean more partyers com­ing downtown and more drunk drivers on local streets.

Wayne Holm, president of Spectra Inc., a group of restau­rants that includes Milestones, The Boathouse and Macaroni Grill, said the new rules are long overdue, especially one that

allows restaurants to serve alco­hol without ordering food. “This brings us into the proper centu­ry.

“In the bar area of our restau­rants, it will allow us to be on an equal footing with pubs and hotel bars.”

Holm said some of their restaurants may stay decide to stay open later. “If we’re in a strong urban market, we may stay open late. Possibly for an [extra] hour or two.”

Tourism Vancouver spokesman Walt Judas said the new rules will be good for tourism. “Visitors have certain expectations and this gives them a choice. These changes will be welcomed by many in the tourism industry.”

B.C. proposes sweeping liberalization of liquor laws

By JIM BEATTY

VICTORIA – British Columbians may soon be able to drink until 4 a.m. in bars and buy spirits in private liquor stores as the B.C. government expands the rules governing the sale and con­sumption of alcohol.

In what may be the most sweeping reform of B.C.’s liquor laws since prohibition was lifted in 1921, the provincial government is extending drinking hours by two hours, allowing the sale of hard liquor n beer and wine stores, cutting liquor laws by 25 per cent and expanding the avail­ability of booze in rural B.C.

In addition, the province will lift the moratorium on the num­ber of cold beer and wine stores, which was capped at 290, and will allow existing stores to expand.

Solicitor General Rich Coleman said the changes will sim­plify and modernize B.C. s complex liquor laws while making the province more attractive to tourists.

“These changes will provide more consumer choice for bev­erage alcohol purchases,” Cole­man said Friday after receiving unanimous support at an open cabinet meeting.

“By having the restrictions we’ve had, we have actually turned an industry into dinosaurs over a number of years,” Cole­man said, citing the incremental increase in liquor laws over 80 years.

“It is time to rethink the [licensing] scheme in the context of today’s world and eliminate those rules not clearly focused on public safety or community standards.”

Beer and wine stores will be allowed to sell hard liquor as of April 2, which will generate another $15 million for the province. Most of the other changes will take place in the next few months once new regu­lations are written.

Coleman said municipalities will have to approve of many of the changes that would allow for more drinking establishments, more liquor sale outlets, fewer rules and extended drinking hours.

For example, the province will allow a two-hour extension in drinking hours – from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. – but municipalities, such as Vancouver, must first approve it.

“There is no reason to believe that a large number of [new] licences will occur,” Coleman said. “Licences will not be grant­ed where there is evidence the market is already saturated.”

At present, a complex tangle of 19 licensing categories define which establishments can serve liquor, including hotels, bars, pubs and cabarets.

We have actually turned an industry into dinosaurs over a number of years.
RICH COLEMAN B.C.’S SOLICITOR-GENERAL

The changes introduced Friday will reduce the number of cate­gories to two: Establishments will either be “food primary,” such as cafes and restaurants, or “liquor primary,” for bars, pubs and lounges.

The government plans to cut more than 25 per cent of B.C.’s 5,800 liquor regulations, which have long been a source of irrita­tion for the hospitality industry.

The regulations control every­thing from the positioning of walls and the colour of paint to the type of furniture and the advertising on coasters.

“We’re not going to be in the business of having silly rules on liquor. We’re going to be in the business of public safety.”

By cutting “oddball” regula­tions, as many as 14 licensing inspectors will be freed up to enforce underage drinking laws and rules on over consumption and overcrowding. In addition, there will be increased enforce­ment on illegal booze cans, oper­ating primarily in Vancouver, which serve alcohol after the legal bars close their doors.

Competition Minister Rick Thorpe said the changes, partic­ularly the expansion of spirits to cold beer and wine stores, will increase customer convenience and selection.

“There is overwhelming sup­port from the public to have spir­its available in cold beer and wine stores,” he said.

The changes may open the door to privatizing B.C. s 222 gov­ernment liquor stores, but Thor­pe said the province is several months away from a decision.

The B.C. government is also changing the rules affecting liquor sales in rural British Columbia, where booze is sold from 144 rural agency stores, such as general stores.

The government is cutting regulation to allow for more rural outlets to sell liquor.

“Why should somebody that lives in a rural community have to drive 20 kilometres to buy a bottle of wine for dinner or a six pack of beer to watch the hockey game?” Thorpe said. “Why shouldn’t they have the same access in rural British Columbia that all other British Columbians have in major markets?”

Relax: Daryl Simpson of Bosa Ventures puts buyers’ minds at rest.

STEVE WHYSALL
Sun

So you’re keen to buy a new condo instead of paying rent, but you’re not sure you can afford it.

Perhaps you’re a first-time buyer and nervous about taking the leap and eager to know more about the financial complexities of buying a new home.

Daryl Simpson, sales and mar­keting executive at Bosa Ventures, one of B.C. s biggest new homebuilders, knows plenty about condo financing.

“First-time buyers have a lot of important questions they need to get answered,” he says. “They want to know exactly how much mortgage they qualify for, what happens to the money they put down as a down payment, and they want to make sure they are aware of any hidden costs.”

Developers have different down payment requirements, says Simpson. Some ask for five per cent of the total purchase price when you buy and then a further series of five per cent payments to make a total 25 per cent by the time the new home is complete.

This is good in one respect because it means buyers have a sizeable equity by the time they move in, but it also tends to keep some first-time buyers from get­ting into the market.

Other developers require a $1,000 deposit at the time of purchase and then another payment to bring the total to five per cent of the purchase price when all subjects are removed and the contract becomes firm and binding. In most cases, this takes less than a week.

“The down-payment money doesn’t go into the developer’s pocket. That’s a popular miscon­ception,” says Simpson. “The deposit is designed to shift some of the risk to the purchaser. What the developer is looking for is a show of commitment from buyers that they are going to see the project through.”

Other provinces allow developers to post a bond and insure deposited funds so they can withdraw them and put them to use. “But in B.C. you can’t touch these funds. Provided the necessary safeguards were in place for consumers, I don’t think it would be a bad things, but most developers don’t find it necessary anyway.”

Deposited down payments do allow a developer to get financ­ing, so in a sense they are used to advance a project, he says.

“For instance, a lending institution will look at the trust account and see all the people who have purchased. This trans­lates into confidence in the project. It is an indication that there is sufficient equity.”

Another misconception is that if you take out a mortgage on a condo that hasn’t been built yet, you start making mortgage pay­ments before you move in.

“This scares a lot of people off. But the fact is that when you get pre-approved for a mortgage, you don’t start making your monthly mortgage payments until the building is complete and you actually move in to your new home.”

As for how much mortgage a person qualifies for, Simpson says the formula for calculating

the amount is straightforward. “What a mortgage broker will do is take a person’s gross annu­al income and multiply it by.32 (the gross debt service ratio) and divide the result by 12 to get the monthly payments. That gives the lender an idea of how much mortgage a buyer can afford.”

Simpson recommends that all buyers should visit their bank or credit union before going condo shopping. This is simply to avoid disappointment, but many developers have representatives of a lending institution at their presentation centre to provide immediate assistance and advice.

Some developers offer a mort­gage buy-down or a mortgage cap. This means the developer and the lending institutions have got together and worked out a financial package where the developer either agrees to pay the difference to “buy down” mortgage payments to a more affordable monthly payment or the financial institution agrees to freeze a certain interest rate for a number of years in exchange for the opportunity to represent buyers.

This arrangement gives buyers confidence that once they get into their new home, they will be able to afford the payments for the next two or three years. With a buy-down, mortgage interest rates can be cut as low as 2.9 or 3.9 per cent.

One of the most creative ideas in condo financing at the moment is a product called Equity Edge; says Simpson.

“‘this is sold by London Guar­antee, the leading warranty insurance provider in B.C. It allows a buyer to purchase a bond to the value of the down

payment instead of coming up with cash.”

The price is 2.5 per cent of the value of the bond plus $100 appli­cation. Which for $10,000 would be $350.

Not all developers will accept the bond as part of a down pay­ment, but it is worth asking about, Simpson says.

As for closing costs, there is GST, which is reduced from seven per cent to 4.8 per cent on a new home priced through a government rebate and the proper­ty transfer tax (PTT) which is one per cent of the price of homes under $250,000.

“Lawyers fees are usually about $600 but a lot of banks and credit unions will take care of these if you take a mortgage out with them,” Simpson says.

Simpson says buyers have 72 hours to change their mind from the moment all subjects are removed and the contract is signed and becomes firm and binding.

Finally, buyers could be responsible for a share of property taxes and water levy. “If the seller has prepaid the property taxes, the statement of adjustments will make you assume the balance of the property taxes for the year.”

When do realtors get paid? Not a big concern for buyers, but commissions are something paid in full at the time of purchase and sometimes half is paid at time of purchase and the rest when the buyer takes occupancy.

Regardless, the fee for a real­tor’s services is always paid by the seller, never by the buyer, Simpson points out.

Province

Vancouver-based Trans Canada Labels has once again won the Consumer’s Choice Award for the Best Label Company. According to Ms. Noor Meherally, direc­tor of marketing at Trans Canada Labels, their corporate slogan”Stick with the Best” says it all.

“Our company philosophy is simple – we strive for excellence in everything that we do!

“;By voting us as the best in the labeling business, our customers have demon­strated that they appreciate this philosophy”

When asked what she believes is the rea­son for their success, Meherally said, “Our expertise in the labeling business, com­bined with good old-fashioned customer service… We are constantly working to provide the best possible quality, prod­uct selection, value and service – and the customers recognize this.”

As for their products, Trans Canada Labels undeniably offers one-stop shop­ping for all your labeling needs. Whether you are looking for Labels, Tags, Barcode & Label Printers, Scanners, Label Designing Software, Thermal Ribbons, Label Dispensers or Automatic Label Appli­cation Systems – they have it all! Trans Canada Labels can provide just about every type of label possible – from blanks, such as, laser sheets & thermal labels, to custom printed 1 to 8 colors & 4-color process.

They supply labels for diverse applica­tions to numerous industries; such as, Shipping & Warehousing, Barcodes, Gro­cery, Dairy, Food & Seafood, Meat & Poul­try, Pharmaceuticals, Laboratories, Auto­motive, Electronics, Lumber, Nursery, Hardware, Garments & more. Trans Cana­da Labels also specializes in durable, fade & tamper resistant decals for outdoor use; such as, Alarm Company Decals, Bumper Stickers & Asset Marking Decals.

Meherally continues, “With our state-­of-art presses and computerized colour ­matching systems, we are capable of pro­ducing high quality, full color labels. How­ever, it is not enough to produce quality labels at fair prices – timely deliveries and service are equally important.

“Our customers deadlines are important to us … and when you treat your clients with respect, they in turn reward you with their loyalty.”

Trans Canada Labels also carries the best selection of Thermal Label and Bar-code Printers in Western Canada.

With Brand names like Datamax, Zebra, Sato, TEC, Eltron, C-Itoh and more, they have the right Label Printer for every appli­cation and budget.

What is a Thermal Label Printer?

“It is a Desktop Printer which allows com­panies to design and print variable labels and tags, on-demand at their own loca­tion.

“For example, a Bakery can print small quantities of different bread labels, with the ever-changing best before date, in-­house, as and when required.”

They no longer have to invest in buying huge quantities of pre-printed labels and face the possibility of obsolescence should an item or ingredient change.

“Buying a Thermal Label Printer can be confusing. We spend the time to go over

`Stick with the best’ slogan says it all for this company

the customers’ needs, potential label vol­umes etc., to assess and then recommend the right printer for the job”.

And when it comes to labeling software, Trans Canada Labels offers the world’s best sellers – Bartender, Easylabel, LabelMa­trix and LabelView.

Trans Canada Labels also has a fully equipped Parts and Service Department,

with factory trained technicians, to pro­vide on-site or in-house service, software training and tech support.

For optimal print quality, Trans Cana­da Labels offers the best ribbons on the market – Sony Brand Thermal Printer Rib­bons.

In addition, Trans Canada Labels offers a complete range of automatic label appli­cation equipment for applying labels to bags, bottles, cartons, CD’s, videos … _just about anything! These applicators, with or without conveyors can be easily adapt­ed into the customer’s production line.

You can reach Trans Canada Labels at (604) 525-7898 or 1-888-5-LABELS.

Sun

Business lobby’s vision of a subsea link to the North Shore is the latest rebirth of a century-old dream

Jeff Lee
Sun

For more than a century — even before the horseless carriage arrived in Vancouver — some people have been preoccupied with trying to connect the North Shore communities to Vancouver via a tunnel under Burrard Inlet.

The latest proposal to build a six-kilometre tunnel from Main at Terminal in Vancouver to Capilano Road in North Vancouver is but another one of those ideas that have captivated us since the Burrard Inlet Tunnel and Bridge Company first proposed a tunnel under Lions Gate in 1894.

This continuing interest in subterranean transportation links has spawned ideas over the century both realistic and whimsical, with some bordering on the fantastic.

These dreams of tunnels have been linked inextricably to the political ambitions of the day. In the 1960s through to the 1970s, it was then-premier W.A.C. Bennett and “Flying Phil” Gaglardi, his highways minister, who brought the idea of an automobile tunnel closest to fruition, and in the process helped trigger the infamous “freeway debates” that led to the quashing of any third crossing and the banning of freeways within Vancouver city limits.

The third crossing and freeway debate bracketed the political career of Michael Harcourt. He entered Vancouver civic politics as a lawyer defending Strathcona and Chinatown property owners who would have been affected by the construction.

But 24 years later, as premier, he ignited another third-crossing debate when the NDP sought alternatives to repairing or replacing the aging Lions Gate Bridge. It chose to redeck the bridge, and ignored at least four submarine concepts, some of which would have cost as much as $1.2 billion.

However, the idea of building a tunnel continues to be bandied about. This week, a business lobby group called TransVision, made up of organizations like the Greater Vancouver Gateway Council, the Vancouver Board of Trade and municipal chambers of commerce, released a poll showing 77 per cent of Lower Mainland residents support the idea of a toll tunnel.

The idea of a subsea link was born out of a necessity to link the two sides of the inlet more securely than by the frail bridge at Second Narrows, built in 1925, which was continually being knocked out of service by wayward tugs and freighters pushed about by the inlet’s strong rip tides.

The first proposal in 1894 by Burrard Inlet Tunnel and Bridge appeared to be more one of whimsy. It received government approval, but the company eventually built a bridge at Second Narrows.

But the idea was resurrected again in at least 1931, 1954, 1959, throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, 1993, 1994 and this year.

One of the earliest serious tunnel proposals came in 1931, after a tug knocked out the Second Narrows bridge for the 20th time. R. Crowe Swords proposed to a Royal Commission investigating the accident (which knocked out bridge traffic to North Vancouver for four years) that not one, but two tunnels be built to the North Shore.

Swords thought two side-by-side automobile tunnels should start near Lost Lagoon and dip under the Stanley Park zoo “where the buffalo are quartered.” The North Vancouver portal would have been east of the Capilano River. He also suggested a rail tunnel should be built from the east end of False Creek to the old Moodyville site on the other side of the Second Narrows.

His idea for the self-financed tunnels never came to fruition, and West Vancouver businessman A.J.T. Taylor proceeded with plans to build the Lions Gate Bridge, on which construction was started in 1936. But ever since, Sword’s view that the tunnel should start in or near Stanley Park has been faithfully replicated over the years. Nearly seven decades after his drawing of a tunnel incorporating the park appeared in the Sunday Province, engineers were still using similar locations.

In 1954, Victor David of David Neon Ltd. reopened the debate. He proposed a $25-million, four-lane tunnel starting in Stanley Park and ending at the then-Pacific Great Eastern railway station in North Vancouver.

His argument was that bridges were “obsolete” and a danger to navigation. Premier Bennett expressed interest in the idea, but it appeared to go nowhere.

In 1958, Vancouver alderman Halford Wilson championed a tunnel crossing, estimating it would cost about $150 million to construct. No less than four engineering firms devised proposals, including one for a 4.5-kilometre tunnel from Lions Gate to False Creek.

Gaglardi, the highways minister, dubbed it “Hal Wilson’s pipedream.” But two years later, Gaglardi came out with a tunnel concept of his own that included a rapid transit monorail and would cost upwards of $500 million.

The idea included a twinning of the Lions Gate Bridge.

In 1962, Hans Bentzen, one of the engineers managing construction of the Massey Tunnel at Deas Island, proposed a similar immersed tube tunnel in Burrard Inlet. (An immersed tube tunnel is one made of prefabricated sections and laid on the bottom of a waterway, instead of being bored through bedrock.)

The Massey tunnel, which opened in 1963, was one of the first of its kind in the world. Bentzen was one of the most consistent proponents of an inlet tunnel, making repeated representations to government — the last time when the NDP considered alternatives to rebuilding the First Narrows bridge.

But perhaps the most fantastic of the proposals over the last century was that of the engineering firm Swan Wooster. In the mid-1960s, it suggested building a $100-million causeway with entrances at Thurlow and Bute Streets on the south side, running out into the inlet near Prospect Point, where the tunnel would start. By the 1970s, the proposal had been modified to create a dramatic, three-kilometre peninsula made from reclaimed land connected on one side to a tunnel under downtown Vancouver ending at False Creek, and to the tunnel under the inlet ending near Pemberton in North Vancouver.

It was Bentzen, however, who kept the flame for a tunnel alight in the 1990s. He never gave up, and with a colleague, Kurt Helin, proposed in 1993 a new, $1.2 billion concept that incorporated a proposed 70-hectare island off Prospect Point that would have been built with material excavated for the tunnel. He wanted to develop the island with high-end residential towers, which he said would finance the whole project.

Bentzen’s proposal was one of at least five tunnel ideas considered by the NDP between 1994 and 1996, including ones by Klohn-Crippen Engineering, Sandwell Engineering, Harbourlink (Barry Griblin) and Vimarc Consulting. Most were centred around Stanley Park, but Vimarc’s proposal was for a $450-million, four-lane tunnel from Clark Street in Vancouver to Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver.

Bentzen died in 1997 at the age of 90, shortly after the NDP government rejected all the plans and decided instead to redeck the bridge. His widow, Virginia Bentzen, said this week he was disappointed no one ever built the tunnel, but he remained convinced to the end that one eventually would be built.

Harcourt said Wednesday he too believes a tunnel will one day be necessary. But he’s not convinced it needs to be built around grandiose plans that include causeways, islands, long submarine tunnels or big highways.

Like Sword 70 years ago, he thinks a simple, four-lane tunnel starting near Lost Lagoon and ending in North Vancouver will do more to ease traffic congestion than any bridge over the inlet.

© Copyright 2002 Vancouver Sun

Sun

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Sun

Health advocates furious that pubs get OK to set up smoking areas

Michael Smyth
Province

The crusade by the Work­ers Compensation Board to ban smoking in all B.C. pubs and restaurants will finally grind to a halt today.

The government will snuff out the WCB plan once and for all at a public cabinet meeting in Fort St. John, sources told The Province.

The WCB ban was origi­nally scheduled for imple­mentation last September but

was delayed while the province reviewed the issue.

In its place, the Liberals will intro­duce a “compro­mise” policy, allowing restau­rant and pub owners to set up smoking areas in

their establishments as long as the area is fitted with a ventilation system to suck out smoke.

Ventilation must be designed to protect pub and restaurant workers from sec­ond-hand smoke, even though anti-smoking groups say no one has invented a system that can do that. To address those concerns, the government is expected to bring in a new rule: Workers will be given the right to refuse to enter the smoking area.

Sources say the govern­ment will allow up to 45 per cent of the total area of a pub or restaurant to be designat­ed for smoking. And it will decree that workers can spend no more than 20 per cent of their working time in the smoking room.

Municipalities will still have the right to establish their own smoking bans within their own boundaries.

The plan will be present­ed as a compromise between factions that wanted a total smoking ban [mainly public ­health advocates and the WCB] and those who wanted wide-open smoking [mainly pub and restaurant owners].

It’s no coincidence the gov­ernment has selected Fort St. John to make the announce­ment: It’s bound to be popu­lar in the north, where smok­ers didn’t want to be forced outside to light up in sub-zero temperatures.

But employers will be faced with the cost of installing ven­tilation systems and chang­ing their floor plans.

Heather MacKenzie, presi­dent of Airspace Action on Smoking and Health, called the new rules “sick­ening,” adding: “Workers are being poisoned by second-hand smoke. Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in non-smokers.” Said Vancou­ver Councilor Fred Bass, co-chair­man of the B.C. Medical Association’s tobac­co and illness committee: “There’s no scientific evi­dence or industrial standard that ventilation will get rid of the risk of spond-hand smoke. This decision is grossly wrong.”

Pharmacist Bev Harris, health advocate for the Clean Air Coalition, said second­hand smoke is “a known car­cinogen … it causes cancer.”

And she said overriding the WCB is “a dangerous, prece­dent-setting move.”

A complaint filed last fall over Labour Minister Graham Bruce’s decision to delay imposing the WCB ban is being investigated by the B.C. Human Rights Commission, said MacKenzie.

• Sources also say the gov­ernment is about to announce it will allow beer-­and-wine stores to sell hard liquor, beginning with about 20 outlets across B.C.

Ashley Ford
Sun

When the largest cruise liner to operate on the West Coast makes its first visit to Vancouver on May 11, her 2,600 passengers will disembark into the finest cruise ship terminal in North America.

The $79-million cruise ship terminal expansion at Canada Place will be completed and open for business a year ahead of schedule.

“We are 90-per-cent complete, on budget and will be ready for the beginning of the Alaska cruise season,” Peter Xotta, senior manager for business development at the Vancouver Port Authority, said yesterday.

“We feel it is the premier facility of its type in North America.”

Xotta said the work was completed ahead of schedule because of good weather and few problems in the pile driving and deck expansion.

“You never really know when working with water but it went much better than expected,” he said.

The expansion adds a third berth and is large enough to allow marine behemoths such as the 109,000-ton Star Princess – which is too big to transit the Panama Canal – to easily dock on the east side. Xotta says the terminal can handle the largest cruise ships afloat.

Star Princess is a magnificent beast. It is 951 feet long, has 18 deck levels and can cruise at 22 knots. It has a nine-hole putting green, four pools, nine whirlpool spas, three dining rooms, 17 bars, three show lounges and a casino.

The terminal will help cement the city’s position as the pre-eminent port serving the Alaska cruise trade.

The Star Princess alone will generate an estimated 50,440 passengers. Each cruise ship arrival pumps more than $1 million into the local economy. Star Princess and 20 other ships will be based here.

The terminal has been designed to ensure the estimated one-million-plus cruise ship passengers each year can move through as effortlessly as possible. There are expanded facilities for baggage, passengers, bus staging and all in a very secure environment.

Some 52,000 square feet of space on an entertainment-promenade level atop the terminal will eventually house restaurants, educational attractions, sports and other recreational activities.

On the cruise-ship level there is 17,000 square feet of space for other retail or – commercial use. A substantial out door ­promenade area has been created at the northern tip of the terminal for public use.

Doug LePatourel, of Colliers International, retained to lease the space known as The Pointe at Canada Place, says the goal is to attract a major entertainment enterprise to complement the existing Imax theatre.