Eight years of planning ends as Games open
EDMONTON OFFICIALS 'WALKING ON AIR'
The
20r Copy
Thursday, August 3, 1978 Vol. 22; No. 151 Prince George. British Columbia
EDMONTON (CP) — Eight years of planning and anticipation climaxed today when Queen Elizabeth opened the lltli Commonwealth Games, a 10-day outburst of sports and culture given shape and substance by thousands of volunteers.
It’s a proud moment lor this city of half a million people— the third Canadian city to hold what has come to be known as The Friendly Games. Hamilton had the Games — the first
— in 1930 and Vancouver in 1954.
“It’s made us all feel as though we’re walking on air,” said Mayor Cec Purves of the $44-million effort that has given the city a spanking new stadium, an aquatic centre, a velodrome and a shooting range for future use.
The stadium, with its 42,500 orange and red seats, is the site for the official opening ceremony, which featured an opening show of a magnitude never before seen in this city— Canada’s sixth largest and northern-most provincial capital.
The theme is “Canada Welcomes the Commonwealth.” With 1,200 performers including 750 dancers — Indian dancers, French-Canadian dancers from Alberta. Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba, Highland dancers and Ukrainian dancers.
The 1978 edition of the Games include the biggest cultural program ever to be held during the affair.
Arts and sports have sporadically mixed at previous
Games. The 1970 Games were held at about the same time as the Edinburgh Festival of the Arts and in 1974 New Zealand held a local festival for the Games in Christchurch.
The Edmonton program, known as Festival 78. includes a carnival bringing together more than 400 performing artists, companies and craftsmen from 25 Commonwealth countries; a Canadian folk arts festival with more than 400 dancers, musicians and singers; a concert series featuring Canadian musicians in the popular, jazz and country music fields, art exhibitions, craft exhibits, theatrical performances and special events.
Organizers anticipate a small $30,000 deficit on a $43.9-million budget —a figure Games controller Fred Evans considers break-even. The largest portion of the budget—$36 million for facilities managed by the city— has a chance of coming in $100,000 under the target set in i973.
Maury Van Vliet, president of the city’s Commonwealth Games Foundation, said organizers managed to resist grand ideas. "The pressures have been tremendous. We knew if we pressed just one button to let in an unbudgeted cost it would be like breaching a dam. The millions would pour out.” The city did allow itself one extravagant moment when
it approved construction in the Commonwealth Stadium of a $50,000 rest room for Queen Elizabeth. The Royal Flush, as it came to be known, may or may not be used.
Lister Hall, a student’s residence on the University of Alberta campus, is the athletes’ village. It has three 10-storey towers, 1.875 beds, its own morning tabloid newspaper, a radio station supplying special Games programming, various forms of entertainment and 25,000 books borrowed from the city's public library.
Women competitors occupy the fourth through 10th floors of one of the towers. Male competitors are not allowed above the third floor, although the women are free to visit the men’s residence.
With most of the city’s 6,000 hotel and motel rooms occupied by Games officials. VIPs, media representatives and regular customers, many visitors will be staying in private homes or with friends and relatives.
All told 2.500 volunteers put long hours of preparation into the Games, responding to an appeal made in August. 1972. Another 3,500 volunteers were recruited for the 10-day period of the Games themselves. '
Among the volunteers are 270 hostesses and hosts, who will act as information guides and assist teams, visitors anti the media.
REED SELLING OUT
Premier Hill Bennett takes helicopter ride over city Wednesday.
Citizen photo by Jeun Witte
FACES CHARGE
__New constitution seen
McCarthy deported as key to tax savings
DUBLIN (CP) — Patrick Vincent McCarthy, deported from Canada and brought back to Ireland on a military cargo plane, appeared in a Dublin court today charged with attempted murder.
The 24-year-old Irishman, looking pale, arrived at Shannon airport at dawn, was met by Irish detectives, and taken to Dublin’s Bridewetl police station for about three hours of questioning.
Wearing a dark blue shirt and slacks, McCarthy later appeared before Justice Sean A. Mahon in Dublin district court charged with attempted murder of bank official Edward John Coleman last Aug. 26. He was remanded in custody for another court appearance Aug. 10.
McCarthy was originally picked up in Vancouver for jaywalking on March 24.
The government’s first three efforts to deport him in July failed.
Basford resigns cabinet position
VANCOUVER (CP) - A beaming Ron Basford resigned as federal Justice Minis-
BASFOKD
ter Wednesday as he carried out an earlier promise to quit 15 years of political life in order to spend more time with his family.
Basford, who quit the cabinet after a decade of high-pressure responsibilities in four portfolios, told a brief news conference that he will continue as MP for Vancouver Centre until the next election.
Basford was one the cabinet's senior ministers and highly identifiable with his stone-bald skull, the result of a scalp ailment.
Basford became justice minister in September, 1975.
Premier Bill Bennett said here Wednesday a new constitution for Canada will mean a bigger paycheque for the average resident.
Constitutional reforms proposed by the federal government call for greater participation by the provinces in decision-making and Bennett believes this will make government more efficient, and therefore cheaper for the taxpayer.
Bennett was asked in a interview here what the complex question of constitutional reform means to the average person working in Prince George.
He said people should forget the word constitution and instead think of the proposals as ‘‘rules for modern government” where regions get a better say in how the country is run.
Labor pledges to take on PM
OTTAWA (CP) — Organized labor Wednesday promised a stiff fight, up to strike action, against any attempt by Prime Minister Trudeau to use the almost 325,000 members of the public service as sacrificial lambs in his fight to control the economy.
Trudeau said in a television speech the public service will not be allowed to grow past its present level.
Bennett said the cost of running government in Canada represents 40 per cent of the gross national product, compared with 30 per cent in the U.S.
By making government more efficient through a new constitution, costs will become lower, he said.
In other areas, Bennett said provincial Conservative leader Vic Stephens is wrong in
comparing a taxpayer revolt in California to people being upset with taxes in B.C.
"The average property tax in California is three per cent of the value. Proposition 13 only asked that it be brought down to one per cent.
"In B.C. today the property tax is already about one per cent of value - just what they hoped to achieve with their dramatic reform.” he said.
Santa came early
Premier Bill Bennett played Santa Claus in Prince George Wednesday, giving away and promising more than $2.5 million to local and district groups.
Locally, handouts of public money went to the Spruce City Wildlife Association which got $2,650 and the city which was promised $1.5 million in a cost-sharing agreement to cover costs of the Hart Highway sewer extension.
The Spruce City Wildlife Association will use the money lor stream and lake clean-up, stream and habitat improvements and spawning channel construction.
The association is contributing an equal amount to the project, either in money or labor.
The city will get $100,000 this fiscal year for the sewer extension and another $1,454,000 in the fiscal year ending March
Matching funds will come from the city after the needed bylaws are adopted. The government’s contribution was not unexpected.
Today the premier is going west where he’s expected to give away almost $1 million toward airport improvements at Vanderhoof, Burns Lake and Houston.
Takeover set for city mi
by ELI SOPOW
Citizen Staff Reporter Canadian Forest
ProductsLtd. is planning to buy out its partner in Prince George Pulp and Paper Ltd.. Intercontinental Pulp Co. Ltd. and Takla Forest Products Ltd.
The move was announced Wednesday in Vancouver and will mean no change in senior management of the companies.
About 2,000 workers are employed in the various companies involved in the deal.
Reed officials said the selling price is $60 million and the deal should be closed by the end of the year.
In March of this year a Reed official said in a telephone interview from Toronto that the company had no plans to sell its holdings here.
Reed has been divesting itself of Canadian operations which were marginal or did not relate to its core business in the forest products industry.
However the company’s release said Wednesday that it has continuing problems, including a large debt load.
Reed Ltd. of Canada is a subsidiary of Reed International of England which is involved in paper making in that country and also is part of the Daily Mirror group of companies.
Reed and CFP each own 50 per cent of Prince George Pulp and Paper Ltd. Intercontinental is owned 37.5 per cent by Reed, 37.5 per cent by CFP and 25 per cent by Feldmuhle A. G. of Dusseldorf, West Germany.
Prince George Pulp and Intercontinental in turn owns 50 per cent each in Takla Forest Products.
The two companies also own 50 per cent of 13.C. Chemicals Ltd. in Prince George.
Feldmuhle is part of the empire of the late Friedrich Flick who made Mercedes-Benzes.
CFP is a Vancouver company run by the Bentley family and is the second largest family company in Canada, next to Eatons.
The deal must get approval from various government and financial organizations.
BULLETIN
Big surplus for B.C.
VICTORIA (CP) — British Columbia had a budgetary surplus of $232.9 million during the first three months of the current fiscal yeur, Finance Minister Evan Wolfe said today.
million forecast in the budget presented April 8, and up from the $196 million surplus recorded in the same period during the 1977-78 fiscal year.
Wolfe said the quarterly financial report shows the
S.-,- “I-. II.............11. Ml. That I, up from .he $197.3 coll«c(«l $1.1 bd-
|jQn—51 j.g million more than forecast, and spent $862.4 million, or $23.8 million less than forecast for the three-month period.
Lockout prompts pickets at local schools
by JAN-UDO WENZEL Citizen Stuff Reporter
Construction of the Heritage North elementary school and demolition of burned-out classrooms at Highland elementary have been closed down today by picketlines by locked-out school district employees.
The lockout started Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. over failure to reach a collective agreement with 380 nonteaching employees working as custodians, clerks and cafeteria personnel.
Local 858, International Union of Operating Engineers, posted pic-
ket lines at various schools, including the construction of Heritage North and the demolition of the fire-damaged Highland school.
Carpenters employed by the school district are honoring picketlines, as are other construction workers.
Maintenance personnel are still working in schools where no pickets are posted, but they refuse to cross the lines at schools behind pickets.
The union has termed the lockout an interference with a mail ballot in which members are voting on the contract offer made by the district July 7. The ballots are due to be returned by Aug. 25.
The union has filed an unfair labor practice chaige against the school board claiming the public threat of a lockout was an intimidation of members, while a vote was in progress.
The board has made a reply to the charge, but no ruling has been handed down by the B.C. Labor Relations Board.
The outstanding issue in the dispute is the district’s demand to cut back on accumulated sick leave.
Under the last contract employees were entitled to 18 days sick leave a year up to a maximum of 90 days
after five years of employment and to a maximum 180 days after 10 years.
The board wants to cut down the sick leave to 30 days after five years and to 120 days after 10 years.
The district also offered a 7.5-per-cent wage increase across the board. Unionofficialssaid that would increase wages by about 30 to 50 cents an hour depending 011 the type of work performed.
No talks are scheduled to solve the dispute, but both sides say they are willing to start talks at any time.
The minister told a news conference that the government still expects the $4.28 billion budget to balance at the end of the fiscal year March 31, 1979.
"The province traditionally has more money at the begin-ing of the fiscal year than ai the end of the year as heavier expenditures occur during the summer months,” Wolfe said.
He said second-quarter spending is expected to exceed revenue by $153 million.
TODAY
"Don't worry about it. We'll catch it when it's recalled!"
FEATURED INSIDE
PLO official gunned down
Two Arab gunmen shot their way into the Paris offices of the PLO and assassinated the organization’s representative in a hail of gunfire. Page 5.
Top pro to play here
* Dave Barr, Canada’s top touring golf professional, will be here for the B.C. Open next weekend. Page 8.
Index -
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City, B.C.......... .......2,3,11,13
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THE WEATHER
The forecast for Prince George today and Friday is for sunny skies and warm temperatures.
The expected high today is 28, the low 5. Friday’s expected high is 25.
The high Wednesday was 25, the low 3, with no precipitation. On this date last year the high was 25, the low 8.
NOW HEAR THIS
i§ Talk about coming late to your own party . . . That Captain Cook suit rented by the Prince George Canada Day committee for its July 1 celebration arrived this week. It had been shipped by bus for the celebration; but didn’t get here until now, although the sword part of costume did arrive on time.
, • A gravel truck hauling fill onto a racetrack got the rig stuck in the soft surface and had to get a bulldozer to pull the truck free. “Well,” he said to the watchers, "now I can say I’ve spun out on a drag strip.”
• Sometimes you don’t have to go far to get caught in a police radar trap. RCMP had radar set up Wednesday night on the street outside their own building.
fe A Prince George man really knocked himself out for the sake of a moose last weekend. While riding down Blackwater Road on his bicycle, he ran into the moose. Luckily the moose took out his anger on the bicycle instead of the man, who lay unconscious on the ground while the moose stomped the bicycle.
0 It was a comedy of errors, .says organizer Pat Snider. Federal Consumer and Corporate Affairs Minister Warren Allmand was scheduled to stop in Prince George for two hours today but had to cancel out due to a sore back. Then his director of consumer services arrived in town an hour early. Somebody forgot about the time difference between here and Alberta.