SWEEPING POWERS OVER PRODUCING PROVINCES
PM secretly planning to create energy agency?
by Financial Times	"
  The Financial Times of Canada says the Trudeau government has secretly laid plans for a new energy commission with sweeping powers to force federal energy policies on the provinces and the petroleum industry.
  In a copyrighted story, the Times says the new government body, to be called the National Petroleum Agency (NPA), could be used to bring the production and sale of all oil and natural gas in Canada under Ottawa’s control, according to federal officials and a confidential government document.
  The NPA would be only part of a wide-ranging, nationalistic energy policy Energy Minister Marc Lalonde is expected to announce next month — a package of measures that will affect consumers and businesses throughout the country and change the face of the oil and gas industry, the Times says.
  The NPA Would be empowered — at the direction of the federal cabinet.— to develop and administer a system to purchase oil and natural gas at the wellhead from producing companies and establish a national marketing system. In a
The
Single Copy 20' Outside Prince George 25*
Citizen~%
  Vol. 25; No. 189 Monday, September 29,1980 • Prince George, British Columbia
 “emergency,” the agency could compel petroleum companies to keep producing.
 The NPA could give the federal government a strategic advantage in any battle with Alberta over resource jurisdiction. In such a showdown, Alberta would claim the right to set maximum monthly production levels for most of its
 oil	fields — in effect controlling exports to the rest of the country.
The NPA would allow Ottawa to respond strongly without the clumsy options of appealing to the courts or falling back on federal constitutional powers, says the Times.
The agency would begin with only a small staff. But it could be substantially expanded, says the planning document, to
administer the incentive programs for exploration, development, and the “Canadianization” of the petroleum industry Lalonde is expected to announce in his energy strategy.
 The federal government has pledged to reduce foreign ownership of the petroleum sector to 50 per cent by 1990 from the current 70-per-cent level. A petroleum monitoring agency will be established to handle the paper work and Industry scrutiny called for in the new regulations.
 The Times says other elements of the national energy program are expected to include:
 An estimated SI.5 billion in funding to promote conservation and the development of alternative fuels;
 •	Another $1.5 billion to encourage substitution of natural gas and electricity for oil;	' <- **
 A natural gas export tax, expected to raise $10 billion to $12 billion over four years;
 An oil refinery tax, expected to raise about $10 billion; Another new agency, the resource management authority, which will administer rules far oil and gas exploration qn all Canadian lands under the Canadian oil and gas act.
ACTION COULD DISRUPT ALL GOV'T OPERATIONS
Federal clerks hit the picket lines
TODAY
         “Remind me again. Am I working or striking today?'1
FEATURED INSIDE)
 Expos back on top
  The Montreal Expos are back in first place, as the exciting National League east division baseball race moves into the final week. Page 13.
 Oktoberfest explosion
 The leader and four, members of a banned neo-Nazi group have been released for lack of evidence in the deadly bomb attack on Munich’s Oktoberfest. The explosion killed 12 persons and injured 213. Page 5.
Index
Bridge ..............................19
Business..........................8, 9
 City, B.C...............2, 3, 6, 25
Classified.....................16-24
Comics...............................10
Crossword........................18
Editorial..............................4
Family.........................26, 27
Horoscopes.......................28
International......................5
Morberg column.............25
Movies...............................10
National..............................7
Sports...........................13-15
Entertainment...........10,11 Television.........................11
THE WEATHER
]
   Dismal fall weather is upon us again — it’s enough to drive a moose to milk.
   According to the experts it will be mainly cloudy with frequent showers today and Tuesday and continuing heavy winds. The showers and the winds are to lessen Tuesday.
  The highs today and Tuesday are expected to be from 15 to 17 with the low Tuesday morning 5. The low today was a balmy 12, caused by the warming winds. High and low this date in 1979 were 14 and 1.
   Sunset today will occur at 6:54 p.m. and sunrise Tuesday, barring a major solar catastrophe will be at 6:09
Sadrack says . . .
JSgM; J
-Mr'—
   Details Page 2
  NOW HEAR THIS
 •	Snowbear came out of hibernation for the United Way kick-off and auction Friday only to have his golf club stolen. However, a bid of $25 for its return solved the problem. Citizen reporter Don Morberg’s T-Shirt was purchased jointly by two citizens for $8 and snipped down the middle. One half was purchased for $15 by Ruth Iverson who resisted offers to purchase the other half, explaining she was only half-enthused with Morberg.
 •	The Terry Fox campaign has had a good effect other than raising money for cancer. At the Austin Road Elementary School the teachers are keeping track of how far their kids run each day during the warm-up run for physical education class. The amount is then plotted on a map of Canada each day. The kids also get a geography lesson and a resulting awareness of Canada. Atlantic Canada, here we come.
 Got a news tip? Call The Citizen’s 24-hour news line at 562-2441.
Strike backs up COLA demands
 OTTAWA (CP) — About 40,000 federal clerks walked off the job across the country today in the first day of a strike that could disrupt virtually all government operations.
  Picket lines appeared at major government office buildings, employment offices, post offices, customs points and federal courts.
  The clerks’ union has said it does not intitially intend to try to interrupt mail delivery and at postal terminals in Toronto, through which much of the country’s mail is processed. Pickets in Toronto were not blocking 16tter carriers, inside workers or truck drivers from crossing their picket lines.
  In Montreal and Quebec City, pickets were stopping trucks from leaving the main postal station. But other postal workers were crossing picket lines and post office spokesmen said they did not anticipate mail service would be disrupted.
  In Ottawa, where almost half the 40,000 striking clerks work, picket lines appeared on almost every block in the downtown core. Other picket lines were set up in front of all entrances at government buildings elsewhere in the city and in Hull across the Ottawa River in Quebec.
  Callers to the passport office were told today that the service has been shut down until the clerks’ strike ends.
  Inter-office government mail was also slowed.
                                   Pickets, apparently in good spirits, carried signs which for the most part called for the government to grant a cost-of-living allowance, a main union demand.
                                 Strike captains at some of the picket lines said clerks are prepared for a long strike but most hoped it could be ended quickly. They said some clerks, traditionally among the least militant of public servants, were nervous and somewhat scared because it was the first time on strike.
                                 Some clerks would not talk to the media, saying they had been instructed by the union not to do so.
                                 Some clerks were reporting to work, but there was no immediate indication how many.
                                     One strike captain said there was grumbling by some clerks who felt they should have been consulted about the government’s last contract offer.
                                   The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the clerks’ union, shunned a plea Sunday from Donald Johnston, treasury board president, to put the offer, made Friday in an llth-hour attempt to head off the strike, to a vote.
                                    Instead the strike, which is expected to affect everything from meat inspections to customs service at airports, began on schedule.
                                The strike was officially launched at midnight Sunday night when a handful of night-shift clerks, including those at Canada employment and immigration offices in the Ontario centres of Kingston and Belleville, walked out.
                          Mail service was not expected to be hampered and the government planned to continue mailing the 7.7 million income support cheques it sends each month. The union planned picket lines at major government office buildings, employment offices, post offices, customs points and federal courts across the country.
                            There are 7,120 clerks among the 46,843 who cannot strike by law because their duties have been judged essential to public security and safety.
Four city locations affected
  The Fifth Avenue post office in Prince George is closed today, but the 15th Avenue station remains open.
  The closure is linked to the walkout of federal clerks across the country. Today 32 of 56 local clerks eligible to strike posted picket lines at the downtown post offices, the Royal Bank Building, the Oxford Building and the Unemployment Insurance Commission.
  Mail is still being sorted downtown and box holders can pick up their mail. Letter carriers are delivering mail in spite of picket lines.
  The clerks belong to the Public Service Alliance of Canada and another 58 PSAC members are working because their jobs are designated “essential”.
Timber
 controls
 outlined
 TERRACE, B.C. (CP) — The forests ministry released a policy paper Saturday outlining tighter controls on the amounts of timber being harvested in the province.
  Forest Minister Tom Water-land told the Northwest Loggers’ Association that the main purpose of the policy is to establish “an orderly administ- , ration of cut control within public sustained yield units or timber supply areas.”
 Under the policy, any licencee who cuts less or more than permitted would be subject to specified penalties, Waterland told the audience in this northwestern B.C. community.
 Those who cut less than amounts established annually by the ministry would risk losing some or all of his allowable annual cut.
Cltizm photo by Brock Gable
Fifth Avenue post office was one of four locations picketed in Prince George today.
IRAQ IS WILLING
Truce depends on Iran
   by Associated Press
   Iraq said today it would agree to a United Nations Security Council call for a ceasefire if Iran also would heed it.
   There was no immediate response from Iran and the two Persian Gulf countries, meanwhile, pressed on with their war.
    Iraq reported fresh territorial gains in southwestern Iran. Iran claimed a sweeping naval victory while seeking a role by the non-aligned bloc to bring
 about arj end to the war.
   Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, Salah Omar Al-Ali, told a reporter in New York City that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein informed UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim that Iraq is roady to accept the ceasefire call, but that Iran would also have to agree to stop fighting.
   The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war between the two Persian Gulf oil powers. President
 Mohammed Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan went from Tehran to Baghdad on his peace mission after Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr told him: “We will continue to fight until the last aggressor is driven from our territory.” President Saddam Hussein of Iraq in a broadcast from Baghdad said Iraq would stop fighting if Iran recognized Iraqi sovereignty over all of the Shatt al-Arab estuary at the head of the Persian Gulf, returned to Arab control the
Air controllers face discipline after protest
  Air traffic controllers at the Prince George airport joined fellow workers across the nation for an eight-hour work stoppage Sunday.
  The two controllers normally on duty during the day shift called in sick.
  There are eight air traffice controllers stationed in Prince George.
  All CP Air and Pacific Western Airlines flights during the day were can-
 celled until the controllers returned for the late shift. Flights resumed in the evening.
   Meanwhile, a federal government spokesman said disciplinary action would be taken against controllers who booked off sick Sunday in the massive protest, which brought air traffic across the country to a virtual standstill for most of the day.
  The spokesman said, however,
 that senior government officials were'still meeting to determine exactly what action to take. A final decision likely would not be made until Tuesday.
   The controllers’ action was taken in sympathy with a work-to-rule campaign by their colleagues in Toronto that had slowed traffic at Toronto International Airport for the last week.
   The nine-hour protest ended Sunday afternoon when controllprs obeyed a call from their union executive and returned to their jobs.
   The decison to proceed with disciplinary action was taken today at a meeting of senior transport officials, including Arthur Kroeger, deputy minister of transport, the spokesman said.
 three small islands at the mouth of the gulf seized by Iran in 1971 and called off the propaganda campaign by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his supporters to incite a Moslem uprising against the Iraqi government.
  Iraq made the same demands last week after stepp-ing up border fighting with Iran, and the Iranians rejected them.
   Hussein said he is ready to negotiate directly with Iran or through any third party or international organization to reach a “just and honorable” settlement that would recognize Iraq’s “legitimate and historic rights.”
   On the battle front, Iraq reported ground fighting along a 325-kilometre invasion front, running north from Abadan on the Shatt al-Arab to Mehran.
   Iraqi communiques claimed the capture of Ahwaz, the capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province 110 kilometres north of the Shatt al-Arab and 80 kilometres from the border, but Iran said the report was “a great lie.”