NEXT YEAR SEEN AS 'CRUCIAL' FOR CITY
Alderman Mercier enters race for mayor's chair
by TOM NIXON Citizen Staff Reporter
Prince George voters have a contest for mayor Nov. 18.
Alderman Elmer Mercier announced today he’s in the running for council’s number one seat. He’s a four-year veteran of council.
Mercier is the second candidate for mayor. Fellow alderman Vic Litnosky announced last week he would run.
Mercier said today amalgamation is still the most important job facing council.
“Most people don’t realize it,” he said, “It’s gone better here than in the other places (Kamloops, Kelowna, Naniamo).”
But, he says, the next year is crucial for Prince George.
Next year is the last of five year phase-in period after which the city is to take over full responsibility for police and road maintenance costs.
“We really need a better deal (from the provincial government),” Mercier said, “That fifth year has to be completed very carefully.”
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TLesday, October 10,1978 Vol. 22; No. 196 Prince George, British Columbia
Mercier is an 11-year resident of the city, married, with six children. He’s owner of Atlas Aluminum Welding Ltd.
He also said that he supports more council partici-
pation in economic development assistance. He has been in past a advocate of a city development officer.
“We’ve got to break down the barrier between us and
towns to the north and west,” he said, “to make the city a central distribution point.
“We’ve got it here and we have to sell it.
“If it takes a travelling
road show then we’ll have one.”
Mercier says he thinks council’s been so busy on the amalgamation since 1975, that encouragement of
economic growth has been neglected.
Before 1975, he has been a regional district director for the southwest area from College Heights to Beaver-ly. He represented that area on the 1974 amalgamation study committee.
Deadline for nominations for the Nov. 18 civic election is Oct. 30. The mayor’s seat and five aldermanic positions are up for election.
Aldermen Jack Sieb and Don Wagner have both indicated they will stand for re-election. Bob Martin is undecided.
Two newcomers have indicated they’ll run. Hans
Taal has officially announced, while Roy Spooner said earlier this year he was going to run.
MERCIER
The odds ' favor Dodgers
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Har-rah’s Reno Race and Sports Book has established Los Angeles Dodgers as a strong favorite to take the 1978 World Series.
The odds on the eve of the opening game between New York Yankees and Los Angeles make the Dodgers 2-to-3 favorites to take the series. The Yankees are picked as 13-to-10 underdogs. That means a $3 bet on the Dodgers would return $5 if they win, while a $10 bet on the Yankees would pay $23 if they take the best-of-seven series.
Harrah’s rates the Dodgers 5-to-8 favorites to take tonight’s opening game. The Yankees are rated 7-to-5 in the opener.
See also page 15
Jobless
trend
steady
OTTAWA (CP) - The number of unemployed in September fell from a month earlier but the seasonally-adjusted jobless rate, which indicates trends, remained steady at 8.5 per cent, Statistics Canada reported today.
The federal agency said there were 854,000 without jobs, compared with 892,000 in August. Last September, there were 798,000 unemployed.
The actual jobless rate, before changes to take into account seasonal factors, was 7.7 per cent compared with 7.5 in September, 1977.
The labor force in September was 11,112,000, down about 415,000 from a month earlier, reflecting the return of many students to school after the summer holiday.
There were 10,258,000 persons with jobs last month, compared with 10,635,000 in August.
Unemployment among women 25 and over rose by two-tenths of one per cent to 7.9 per cent and fell by three-tenths of one per cent to 14.7 per cent among men 15 to 24.
Jobless rates for women 15 to 24 and men 25 and over remained steady at 14.1 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively.
Progressive Conservative finance critic Sinclair Stevens called the 8.5-per-cent rate disturbing because it probably foreshadows unemployment of nine per cent in the January-to-March period.
Saskatchewan remained with the lowest unemployment rate at 4.9 per cent, up from 4.6 per cent in August.
In Alberta, the unemployment rate was 5.1 per cent, up from 4.9 per cent in August.
The jobless rate in British Columbia fell to 8.1 per cent from 8.4 per cent.
The jobless rate rose in six provinces and fell in four.
JOBS, INFLATION
MPs predicting stormy session
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Thanksgiving
The traditional Thanksgiving horn of plenty spilled into the aisle at Knox United Church Sunday as members of a number of the local churches gathered for the annual inter-church Thanksgiving service of worship.
OTTAWA (CP) - f National unity ranked a definite second to the problem-plagued economy with MPs today as they gathered for the resumption of Parliament after a 14-week summer recess.
Measures to curb unemployment and inflation and boost a dropping Canadian dollar appeared the top priority for both Liberal government strategists and opposition parties.
“There’s no question about it, people are talking about the economy and we’re hearing less about national unity, "said Liberal Frank Philbrook (Halton) in a recent interview.
Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet must decide on specific measures to follow a* series of economic restraint announcements made after the prime minister’s nationally-televised address Aug. 1, in which he promised tax cuts - still unspecified - and spending restraints. The government likely will make its intentions clearer Wednesday when it announces in the speech from the throne its legislative plans for what is expected to be a stormy new session. Today was the last day of the current parliamentary session.
Finance Minister Jean Chretien has promised a budget before Christmas and is expected to include personal tax cuts.
Prominent economic groups have warned that without such cuts, the government restraint program would only increase already high levels of unemployment and inflation in the coming year.
MPs interviewed across the country last week said constituents have made it clear they are worried about the unsettled economic state of the country.
RHODESIAN MOVE
Discrimination to end
SALISBURY (AP) - In a move clearly timed to coincide with Prime Minister Ian Smith’s visit to the U.S., the biracial transition government announced today it has agreed on what officials termed the total removal of race discrimination in Rhodesia.
“I am so happy I could jump for joy,” black leader Bishop Abel Muzorewa told reporters after a meeting of the governing executive council.
An official statement said
currently segregated urban residential areas will be scrapped, and state-run schools and hospitals will be opened to all races.
Details of the announcement are to be given by black and white government ministers at a news conference later today.
Officials said laws repealing race discrimination must be passed by the legislature, which is still dominated by whites. The assembly recessed last month until Nov. 28, but the officials said it might be
recalled to pass important legislation.
Muzorewa told reporters gathered outside Smith’s office that the executive council has resolved “all outstanding issues” on discrimination.
“These include urban residential areas and conditions of tenure in tribal trust lands, the decisions which effectively mean the repeal of the Land Tenure Act,” Muzorewa said in a statement. The bishop is current chairman of the executive council.
INSIDE WORKERS POISED FOR STRIKE
Letter carriers okay pact, but.
OTTAWA (CP) - The 19,000 members of the Letter Carriers Union of Canada have ratified a compromise settlement with the post office, a government spokesman said today.
Union officials are to announce the margin of acceptance later.
But as the letter carriers settled, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers appeared headed for a full-scale strike. The 23,000-member union representing inside workers is in a legal strike position Thursday, but some members at Belleville, Ont. Jumped the gun and left their post,s Monday night.
The agreement between the post of-
fice and the letter carriers’ union was reached two weeks ago with the assistance of federal labor department mediators.
Leaders of the militant inside workers union say they will call a strike Monday unless progress is made in settling their bitter dispute with the government.
Jean-Claude Parrot said in a radio interview today he sees little chance of settlement.
The two major post office unions were concerned with different issues.
The main concern for the letter carriers was money and union negotiators estimated two weeks ago they squeezed
an additional $4 million out of the federal treasury board in the final bargaining session.
The inside workers’ union wants the right to negotiate in advance proposed technological changes and an end to the use of casual, non-union labor in the post office.
The letter carriers ended their rotating strikes after negotiators reached a tentative agreement for wage increases of 43 cents an hour in the first year of a new 18-month contract and an additional 27 cents in the final six months of the agreement.
See also page 9
Come south, Canadian MDs told
TORONTO (CP) - Recruiters from the U.S. said Monday that Canadian doctors would have guaranteed monthly incomes and rent-free offices for ayear if they moved to the U.S.
Humana Inc., a U.S. corporation owning 97 hospitals, paid for a cocktail party attended by more than 60 doctors, who party host John Hollander said would find advantages such as lower taxes and lower cost of living in the U.S.
Canadian doctors are needed because their U.S. counterparts are specializing more and heading for the metropolitan centres, leaving a void in rural areas, Hollander said.
The recruiting focused on a 400-bed medical centre near Kansas City, Mo.
BULLETIN
CARACAS (AP) — A fire that officiuls said uppurently was started by a gasoline-spraying drunken national guardsman swept through a bar in the Venezuelan capital today, killing at least 22 persons.
Information ministry officials said it is believed the guardsman doused the establishment with gasoline and set it ablaze.
OTTAWA (CP) — Finance Minister Jean Chretien said Tuesday his department has started working on a new budget that will be presented “by mid-November.”
In reply to Commons questions by Opposition Leader Joe Clark, Chretien said he plans to meet provincial finance ministers at the end of the month as part of the consultative process leading to the budget.
Opposition parties have been demanding a new federal budget as a tool to deal with unemployment, rising inflation and an uncertain dollar.
U.S. beer: 600,000 cases left
VICTORIA (CP) - Consumer and Corporate Affairs Minister Rafe Mair said today there is enough United States beer in British Columbia liquor stores to last at least another two weeks.
He said there are still 600,000 dozen left in stock and the liquor distribution branch will not be trying any gimmicks to sell the beer because “by the time we finally come up with some cleaver solution to get rid of it, it’ll be gone.”
The beer was imported during the recent labor dispute in the B.C. brewing industry to meet consumer demand.
The government has been limiting the amount of local beer sold in liquor stores until the present U.S. stock is sold.
TODAY
"By the time I was your age I was worth 20 million dollars. And that's when 20 million dollars was worth something."
FEATURED INSIDE)
Young girl mutilated
A merchant seaman — described by a neighbor as a “peach of a fellow” is being held today in connection with the rape-mutilation of a young girl whose arms were hacked off below the elbows. Page 5.
Feelinq Check those Loto Canada • i q numbers. You could be a
lUCky . millionaire today. Page 10.
Dentists' statement hit
MLA Howard Lloyd has something to say about dental fees. Page 3.
Index
City, B.C....2, 3, 7,11, 14,29
Morberg column... ..........29
.26, 27
C
THE WEATHER
J
The forecast for Prince George today is for thunder showers and 20-30 km per hour winds. Wednesday should be cloudy with some sunny periods and isolated showers.
The forecast high both days is 13, today’s forecast low is 3. The high Monday was 16, the overnight low 7 with 6.2 mm of rain. On this date last year the high was 7, the low -2.
( NOW HEAR THIS)
# A recycling depot, sponsored by a federal grant, will be officially opened Oct. 21, but it won’t be at 110 First Ave. as previously announced. The address will be 212 First Ave., according to project co-ordinator Michael Day.
. # After a well-dressed Victoria woman pleading guilty Friday in provincial court to causing a disturbance by fighting in the Columbus Hotel beer parlor, Judge J.H. Kenney commented, “People down south think Prince George is such a terrible place for fighting and so on. And now I find out it is the people from Victoria who are doing all the fighting.” The judge granted the woman a conditional discharge.
0 Family pride, and a conservation officer’s incorrect spelling resulted in a lighter sentence Friday for a Fisheries Act violator. In fining a man $35 for fishing with three lines at Kenney Dam, Judge J.H. Kenney told him, “and if the beggars had spelled Kenney right, it would have been heavier.”
United Way
Target: $185,000 Today’s total: $42,700