"Guiding Tourists Professionally Locally and Worldwide"

Guide Lines
1 November 2000

Congratulations to CTGA member Janet Robbins who was the only person who called to say that Mt. Waddington, the highest mountain entirely within BC, is NOT located on Vancouver Island. It's actually located on the mainland's central coast. Guide Lines took the information, for our 17 October 2000 newsletter, out of the "Key Facts About Vancouver, BC, and Canada" book that we and the Pacific Rim Institute of Tourism wrote in 1997. As many of you know we were trying to get this book up-dated last spring but ran out of time. Hopefully we can have a new one ready by next spring, but this is going to be a little more difficult as funds at PRIT are low. CTGA members will have to try and tackle this situation right after New Years Day. Mt. Waddington, by the way, is named after Alfred Waddington, an Englishman who arrived in Victoria in 1858 and was a notable champion of unsuccessful causes (. . .there's a lot more history to this fellow).

Notice of Annual General Meeting: Our next meeting is our AGM of the Canadian Tourist Guide Association of British Columbia to be held on Thursday 16 November 2000 at The Hampton Inn and Suites, 111 Robson St. (at Beatty across from BC Place Stadium) Vancouver, 7 PM. Members may show up by 6:30 PM if they would like to tour this new hotel and it's facilities. Coffee and light snacks will also be available at no charge. NO need to rsvp. The purpose of the meeting is to review the financial records of the association and to elect a new board of directors. All present directors are reminded to hand in their reports at least one week ahead of the meeting. By law we must hold an AGM once every year. While it is not one of our more exciting meetings, it is still informative and gives everyone a chance to socialize and offer support to your board. . .of your association. We are in great shape but please plan to attend this important meeting.

During the last two winters (January to March) the association has had a number of successful meetings and outings including the wildly popular overnight trips to Duncan and Seattle. At the AGM we would like to hear your ideas or thoughts on our plans for the up-coming season. We are also planning to continue with the local-guide certification introduction meetings.

The Burnaby Village Museum has invited the CTGA to hold our annual Christmas Party at their location on Thursday 7 December, 2000. Check this out: The site will be decorated with thousands of festive lights; all exhibits will be open and staffed by costumed greeters plus colourful characters; a full traditional turkey dinner; a chance to see a live Christmas show in the theatre; and a ride on the indoor C.W. Parker Carousel. Cost: $20 per person. Open to CTGA members and one guest (adult or child). RSVP ASAP to Jeff at either 876-2576, or dial 251-1500 & then dial 876-2576. The dinner will start promptly at 5:30 PM.

The annual CTGA Christmas Lights fundraising Tour will most likely take place during the week of December 11th. It might happen on the 11th or maybe the 12th or 13th. We can not pinpoint the exact date at this time, however we will let you know. A list of January events will also be out at the end of this month.

Are you on THE LIST ? As you know a Canadian Federal General Election has been called for Monday 27 November 2000. The percentage of voter turnout during the 1993 election was 69.6%, and in 1997 it was 67% (in 1996 in the US it was 39%). Voter turnout should be much higher. Many people around the world do not have this important right, or if they do the voting is often rigged. "I'd vote if there was someone to vote for. . ." We hear that at every election. Look at it this way, voting gives you future bragging rights to praise or complain if things do or don't go the way you would like. Guide Lines strongly encourages everyone to please cast a ballot, especially young people. It doesn't matter for who. . .it's just so important to vote. Please get on THE LIST and vote. To get on THE LIST dial 1-800-463-6868.

The Israel Tour Guide Association is hosting the 9th World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations Convention from 28 January to 2 February 2001 in Jerusalem, Israel. The CTGA of BC has several brochures which contain the full itinerary, schedule, pre and post tours and convention registration forms. Please contact us immediately if your thinking of attending and/or would like a copy of the brochure. The latest newsletter of the World Federation is available from us or by visiting the website at www.wftga.org.

Hill's Indian Crafts, located in Gastown at 165 Water Street is no more. Well not quite. . .all Hill's stores have been renamed Hill's Native Art. They are still North America's largest Northwest Coast Native Art Gallery and the owner and the Marketing Manager invite you to either drop by or visit the new web site at www.hillsnativeart.com.

"Canada: A People's History," the CBC's journey through time and a great new look at our home and native land's history. Three years in the making, it is a massive 30-hour documentary on Canada and its many inhabitants. The 16 episode series, which will be spread out over the next two years, has already begun and is well worth a look, especially for tourist guides. We understand that it will be available on video, website and book format soon. This ambitious multimillion dollar production can easily be found in the TV listings. Sometimes it's running in two hour segments, and other times in one hour. Do look for it.

For the 18th year in a row the Port of Vancouver's Cruise-ship industry has set a record for the number of passengers carried. For the first time the number has exceeded one million passengers on the Vancouver-Alaska run. 1,053,985 passengers came to the city which is up 11% from the 947,659 passengers carried in 1999. We also attracted 28 ships from 13 cruise lines in 2000 and the number of sailing's rose to 333 from 309 a year ago. The POV estimates that the cruise industry contributes $508 million annually to the BC economy. You may have noticed that the Canada Place pier is now in the process of being lengthened. The port is spending $79 million to build another berth there although it is not due to open until 2003. By 2005 it is hoped that we'll have an expansion of the convention centre open. The project, which would be located about two-blocks west of Canada Place, just needs $405 million from the federal and provincial governments. The tourism industry has already raised $90 million towards the $495 million total cost.

The Eaton Centre Metrotown complex in Burnaby has just been renamed METROPOLIS AT METROTOWN. The new name unites the existing entertainment complex formerly known as Metropolis with the centre. The renaming will hopefully prevent any confusion when the Eaton's store in downtown Vancouver (at Pacific Centre) reopens very soon. Eaton's, which has been running several new excellent TV ads, will be operated by Sears of Canada. Georgia and Granville has seen a few changes of late: first the Hudson's Bay puts up those eye-catching gray mannequins all along their canopy and then adds the bold phrase "Shopping is Good." Then, last month, London Drugs re-opens kiddycorner from where they used to be back in the late 1960's, and Eaton's, after many inside and outside renovations, is set to make a come back on November 25th.

In case you missed it, the colourful 800 Vancouver street banners that went up in June of this year were designed by North Vancouver artist Elisa Rathje. Ehsa is a recent graduate of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design who works with computer-generated images and digital video. Her design on this years banners have pictures of people who appear to be falling or floating. She explains:

"The street banner program elaborates both conceptually and technically on my continuing concern with the moving image and aligns with previous projects using multiples in lithography, digital printing, installation, video and the Internet. The potential for repeating and sequencing the banner images encouraged me to approach this as an animation project. I envisioned the placement of banners in the street as a city scale flip-book or zoetrope in which the speeds of the traffic audience passing the sequences of images induces the "persistence of vision" that is, to the viewer the images appear to move. I am interested in emphasizing the relationship of movement to sight through an animation which relies on the velocities and gazes of cyclists, pedestrians and drivers in the city streets. Each image is framed as a web browser window, iconographic of the internet and its increasing presence in contemporary life. Time is marked by the counting of binary digits. These are structured as video time code identifying each frame or an animation of figures of flight." (Underlining is mine...-editor)

The City of Vancouver has an active street banner program with three types of the nylon banners: the annual ones on Cambie, Georgia and Burrard Streets (which 91 has been on-going since 1958 from June to October), Business Interest Association banners such as those found on Robson, Davie and other areas, and a user group program for annual or once only functions (such as the annual Vancouver Sun Run or Art Gallery banners from October to May). Selection of artist and theme is determined by a banner committee of three local artists/architects. Once the Cambie, Georgia and Burrard Street banners are removed, the city donates them to the UNICEF store at 536 W. Broadway (Vanc.) where they can be purchased. The annual cost of the program is about $81,000 which includes reproduction costs, mounting and removal. For more info via the web go to www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/continuum.html.

Recently we have all noticed a new and very tall building in the downtown Vancouver skyline. It is the yet to be opened "One Wall Centre" located on Nelson at Hornby. On page 202 of "The Greater Vancouver Book" by Chuck Davis (1997) there is an article by Jeff Veniot on Building Statistics of Greater Vancouver. The stats are in metric but for this purpose we will point out the six tallest buildings in feet (from sidewalk to rooftop not including masts or antennas).

1) The winner and still champion is The Harbour Centre (opened 1977) Seymour and Cordova at 481 feet (not including the 100 foot white mast).
2) The Royal Centre (1973) Burrard and Georgia at 460 feet.
3) Park Place (1984) Burrard and Dunsmuir at 459 feet.
4a) Bentall Tower IV (1981) Melville and Thurlow at 450 feet.
4b) One Wall Centre (2001) Nelson and Hornby also at 450 feet.
5) Vancouver Centre (1977) Georgia and Seymour at 448 feet.
6) TD Bank Tower (1972) Georgia and Howe at 417 feet.

The 9th tallest building is the Landmark Hotel (1973) 1400 Robson at 396 feet. So why does the One Wall Centre seem taller than the others? Glad you asked. . .its due to the ground elevation. The Harbour Centre tower sits at one of the lowest points of land in the downtown core, while the One Wall Centre sits at the highest point and this is why it "APPEARS" to be the tallest.

If you were to take a look back at any of the past CTGA/BC Guide Lines newsletters, including this one, I'm sure you will find that they contain at least a couple of bits of useful information and possible commentary topics for guides. Why not show a couple of these newsletters to fellow guides who are not yet members of the CTGA? If you would like to contribute to this newsletter simply let us know. We would love to receive your views, facts or stories. Guide Lines would like to thank the following people who supplied me with some information including access to the web: Pam Smithson, Patrick Weitemeyer, Janet Robbins and Airia Surakka.

Can't find your Guide Lines Newsletter and you need a quick date and location info update? Dial 251-1500, then 876-2576. Available 24/7 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week). We hope to see or hear from you soon. Til then Happy Trails!!!