execs
CUTBACKS FELT ON ALL LEVELS
Slumping lumber market grounds
 VANCOUVER (CP) - The slump in the lumber market has dumped a high-flying part of corporate life for executives at two forest products organizations, grounding the executive jet at one company and eliminating first-class travel at the industry’s biggest trade association.
  At B.C. Forest Products Ltd., the small jet used by the company to fly staff between Vancouver and its Mackenzie, B.C., operations and Eastern Canada was grounded last week and its crew reassigned to the company’s other three smaller, propeller-driven aircraft, a public relations officer said Monday.
  At the Council of Forest Industries, first-class travel by executives and visits to some conferences attended in the past have been eliminated, president Don Lanskail said.
  The council’s spending cuts, introduced in July at the beginning of the six-week industry strike, have led it to either cancel or delay until 1982 additions to staff, although no layoffs are
planned, Lanskail said.
  "We generally follow the same direction of the member companies,” he said. “In a very real way, we’re the servants of our members.”
  B.C. Forest Products, second-largest company in the B.C. industry, also is not taking on new employees, not replacing employees that have left and is reviewing all discretionary spending, president Ken Benson said Monday.
  “We are hoping we are going to be able to run everything,” Benson said. “Unless pushed to the wall, we’re not going to shut down.”
  The reason for these cutbacks is an extremely depressed U.S. housing market and a low overall demand for B.C. lumber products.
  An in-depth survey of northern interior sawmills by the Council of Forest Industries has shown that the industry is operating at 70 per cent of its normal capacity, said Jim Shaw, manager of the Northern Inferior Lumber Sector in Prince George.
  More than 1,000 people have been laid off out of a workforce of 6,000, and three or four times that number have been affected indirectly.
  For instance, some companies have decided to curtail or cancel logging operations, and companies that repair equipment would also be affected.
  Out of 39 mills surveyed, six are not producing at all, either because of poor market conditions or because maintenance was required.
  As well, four mflls have gone to four day weeks, and that means employees are receiving 80 per cent of their usual paycheques.
  In the weeks ahead, the majority of companies surveyed predicted more layoffs and production cutbacks.
  John Witmer, president and general manager of Netherlands Overseas Mills, said one shift at the Hixon sawmill and the planer at Bear Lake would be eliminated on Oct. 9.
  In addition, the small planer and the small wood mill in Prince George would be closed and one shift was cut
at the other planer mill here last Friday.
  About 70 people will be affected overall, he said.
  Inventory now stands at 40 million board feet, compared with 15 million when market conditions are normal and production must be reduced because inventories are still growing.
  At Finlay Forest Industries in Mackenzie, John Dahl, vice-resident of operations said one of the company’s two sawmills was closed for maintenance last Friday.
  When operations start again on Oct. 13, there will be only one shift at both mills, resulting in 96 layoffs, he said.
  Because there has been just one shift at the company’s two planer mills, 30 have been laid off since the strike ended.
  Dahl said logging operations have been completely shut down.
  Dahl said logging operations, which are handled by contractors, have been completely shut down affecting about 150 people.
  At Northwood Pulp' and Timber, no employee has been laid off but everyone is on a four-day week at the company’s sawmills in Prince George, Upper Fraser, Shelley, and Houston, said company spokesman John Larsen.
  George Killy, one of the owners of Lakeland Mills, said 31 out of 150 employees have been laid off in the finishing end of the operation.
  He said the company does not want to sell lumber because of low prices, so any finishing that is being done is matched with orders.
  He would not predict if there would be further layoffs.
  At MacMillan Bloedel Ltd., no new employees are being taken on, all new discretionary spending has been cancelled, company operations are being reviewed to trim spending and production layoffs have been announced.
  At Crown Zellerbach Canada Ltd., a hiring freeze has been introduced and spending is being restrained at every level, although no layoffs are planned.
  “The basic feeling around here is that we think the hiring freeze and other economic measures are going to keep us in good stead,” a spokesman
said.
  At B.C. Timber, the B.C. Resources Investment Corp. subsidiary, no special spending restraints have been introduced because production and employment have been cut back since the end of the strike, executive vice-president John Montgomery said.
  At Crestbrook Forest Industries Ltd. spending checks were introduced four months ago, president Stuart Lang said.
  “Anything that was discretionary was basically cancelled,” said Lang. “This included capital projects of a non-productive basis, a replacement item, for example. That has not changed any expansion proposals or thoughts we may have.”
  Rob Min gay of the International Woodworkers of America said Monday almost 8,600 of the union’s members are off the job.
Gas tax in effect Thursday
Interest
relief
unlikely
  WASHINGTON (CP) - Canadian Finance Minister Allan MacEachen held out little hope Tuesday of measures to ease record-high interest rates in a federal budget expected in October, saying Canada’s inflation must be tamed first.
   “It is clearly in our objective to bring interest rates down in order to reduce hardships for families and businesses,” MacEachen said in a speech to the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
  However, “any retreat from a monetary policy aimed at combating inflation would have only short-lasting effects and would soon combat our difficulties.”
   Inflation is at an annual rate of 12.7 per cent, according to September figures.
TWO CITY BOYS
Buddies a
       by BOB MILLER Staff reporter
Youngsters who play together stay together—but sharing a hospital room with identital injuries is stretching the odds.
Wayne Elder, 11, of 701 Ahbau and Marcel Deschamps, 12, of 890 Union wound up in hospital Monday night, each with a fractured left ankle, after a tree they’d climbed snapped in half, pitching them 20 feet to the ground.
From their beds in Prince George Regional Hospital the boys explained they climbed the tree in Elder’s neighbor’s yard “for something to do.”
It was kind of a skinny tree that bent over toward the top and Marcel shinnied up first, dropping his jacket for Wayne to wear because the bark was rough on bare arms.
when they got out on the bent part of the tree there was a sudden “crack”
II the way
 and the next thing the boys knew they landed in a heap on the ground. The falling tree smashed the neighbor’s fence and the two broke their ankles in the wreckage.
 “We started screaming and the neighbors came out and they thought we were faking at first,” Wayne said.
 “But when they found out we were really hurt they helped us into the (Wayne’s) house.”
 The boys fathers took them to hospital where they were recuperating today in the same room — a sadder but wiser pair.
 Marcel was to be released from hospital today, but Wayne will be in for a few more days. Both boys will be wearing casts for about 40 days.
 Wayne said he’d rather be in school than in hospital because, “I can take work but I can’t take the pain.”
 Both have vowed to their parents to swear off trees.
. VICTORIA (CP) — Motorists will pay more, and the provincial treasury will be the beneficiary of a new gasoline tax system which goes into effect Thursday.
   The tax on gas, diesel and other fuels will increase every three months and is based on the price of gasoline in the Vancouver Consumer Price Index.
   Recent increases in gasoline prices mean one litre will cost one-third of a cent more after Thursday, or about 1.7 cents a gallon.
   At present, the cheapest gasoline in Prince George sells for 36.1 cents per litre.
  It will give the province some $4 million extra in gasoline sales tax in the next three months.
  Future gasoline tax increases in B.C. also will reflect a bonus to the province from the energy agreement signed between Alberta and Ottawa.
  That agreement calls for whopping gasoline price increases over the life of the five-year deal, so it means the provincial gasoline taxes will be based on higher-than-expected prices.
  The tax system covers clear gasoline, clear diesel, propane used in motor vehicles, aviation fuel, marked gasoline, marked bunker fuel, marked propane and butane, and marked gasoline and diesel used under special permit by farmers and fishermen.
   The gasoline tax will rise from 5.32 to 5.66 cents per litre. For diesel fuel, the tax will rise from 5.76 cents to 6.1 cents, and for propane, it will rise to 4.56 cents from 4.22 cents.
CW— photo by Ric Ernst
Marcel Deschamps, left, and Wayne Elder recuperate after fall.
Wednesday, September 30, 1981 Prince George, British Columbia
> 988 GAMES
 Calgary to host Winter Olympics
  BADEN-BADEN, West Germany (CP) — Calgary has been awarded the 1988 Winter Olympics. Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was awarded the 1988 Summer Olympics.
  Calgary, making its fourth bid for the Games, was selected on a second ballot by the International Olympic Committee, winning by a 48-31 margin over Falun, Sweden.
   Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, the third candidate for the Winter Games, had been eliminated on the first ballot, getting only 18 votes, while Falun managed 25 and Calgary 36.
   Seoul was selected over Nagoya, Japan, 52-27.
  Attending the announcement were Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed and federal sports minister Gerald Regan.
   Lougheed called the decision a proud moment for Calgarians and said it was a “super job by the Calgary delegation.”
  Regan called the decision “a tremendous thing’ ’ and credited the effort by all levels of government - especially the Calgary delegation.
  Joint bids from Calgary and Banff, Alta., had failed three times before, while Canada has had six unsuccessful bids for the Winter Olympics.
  However, this time Calgary mounted a massive campaign, sending envoys around the world calling on IOC members and leaders of the winter sports federations.
  The Games are estimated to cost $415 million with the Alberta government guaranteeing $123 million through a $70-million direct grant and a $53-million loan which would be repaid from Games revenues.
Rules imposed on rail cargo
  OTTAWA (CP) — Trains carrying dangerous commodities will have to be inspected before they pass through cities — and those trips will have to be made at low speeds, the Canadian transport commission ruled today.
   The commission also set deadlines of one to six years in which railways will have to make safety modifications to their cars if they are used to ship dangerous goods.
  The ruling by the commission followed months of hearings on safety recommendations in a report by Mr. Justice Samuel Grange on a November, 1979, derailment that forced the evacuation of 225,000 people from Mississauga, near Toronto.
  The conditions announced today are less stringent than those proposed by Grange. The commission said it had to “balance the need for public safety with the legitimate public interest in the economic health of the railways, the industries dependent on rail transportation and the consumers of those industries’ products."
  Cortina d’Ampezzo, an Italian Alpine resort, staged the Games in 1956. The Falun delegation, which was headed by Prince Bertil, presented plans to stage the games on a divided basis, some events in Falun and some in Are.
  The vote had been expected to be even closer than it was. The Soviet Union was reported to be against the Calgary bid because of Canada’s support of the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
  However, Alberta Recreation Minister Peter Trynchy said Tuesday that Alberta was considering offering Edmonton’s Commonwealth Games facility to the Soviet Union to train for the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
  That may have helped convince the Russians to drop their rumored opposition to the Calgary bid.
  When the name of theTTost city for the Winter Olympics was announced, the Calgary representatives jumped from their seats and danced with delight around Calgary Mayor Ralph Klein.
  Seoul’s delegation sat impassively as the result of the voting on the Summer Games was announced. But the Nagoya delegation immediately turned around and shook hands with the South Koreans.
   The large margin of Seoul’s win over the Japanese industrial city had been a surprise.
  It had been expeted to be much closer because the Soviet bloc among the IOC members had reservations about staging the Games in South Korea. Seoul has no diplomatic ties with any of the Communist countries, which boycotted two recent world championships in South Korea.
   But Japan’s disadvantage was it had staged the Games twice in recent years - the Summer Games at Tokyo in 1964 and the Winter Games at Sapporo in 1972.
   It will be the first Summer Olympics to be held in South Korea and the first time since 1932 both the Summer and Winter Olympics will be held outside Europe.
   It also will be the second Olympics to be held in Canada. Montreal acted as host to the 1976 Summer Olympics.
  Calgary will be one of the largest cities to act as host for the Winter Games. The Olympic village planned at the University of Calgary is to have about 2,500 rooms.
   It also is one of the more convenient sites in recent Games. The university campus is 500 metres from the site planned for the opening ceremonies, 200 metres from the speed skating track and a 10-minute bus ride from the Olympic colliseum.____
  CBC-TV announced it would broadcast tonight a 30-minute special program on the successful Calgary bid following the major league baseball game between Montreal Expos and Pittsburgh Pirates.
See also page 13
'Excited beyond belief"
  CALGARY (CP) - Calgary’s successful bid for the 1988 Winter Olympic Games left some Calgarians, like Cliff Black, general manager of the Chamber of Commerce, * ‘almost too excited.” “I’m absolutely excited beyond belief,” said Black who heard on radio the International Olympic Committee’s decision to award the Games to Calgary.
  “It’s something we’ve worked for for a good many years and it’s incredible.
   “It will mean an awful lot to future generations. We will be building facilities that everyone will benefit from for years and years to come.
   “That’s the main thing, the lasting effect of the Games, the facilities we will get that we’ve needed for so long.”
  Black said the professionalism of the Calgary presentation — a 30-minute production Tuesday -was probably what swayed the IOC delegates to Calgary.
   “I have a feeling it was the presentation, it was so expertly done. I watched it last night on television and it tugged at the heart strings a little. I think people realized we deserved the Games.
   “It will be a tremendous asset to all of Canada.”
  Black agreed Calgary’s offer Tuesday of subsidized travel for athletes also played an important role in the final decision.
  “It’s a long way from Europe, especially right now with the economy of the Western World in a slump. That can’t help but creep into your feelings when you’re making the decision.
  “They knew we can do it and have the money to do it."
  About 150 Calgarians had gathered in the city’s convention centra to hear the decision.
   “There was a lot of yelling and cheering,” said Bill Nield, president of the Calgary Boosters Club that decided almost three years ago to put together the fourth bid from Calgary. “We had a direct link with the Calgary committee room in Baden-Baden but when the decision came it was hopeless for about 20 minutes, they couldn’t hear us and we couldn’t hear them, we were too busy being excited.”
HERMAN
 ( stamps)
'Keep your left arm straight and remember to follow through."
FEATURED TODAY
 Expos need help
  The Montreal Expos’ lead has disappeared and they now need help from other teams if they hope tocatch the St. Louis Cardinals. Page 13.
 Road trips tough
  A Prince George basketball player has learned road trips aren’t the most pleasant experiences, especially in the Philippines. Page 15.
Index                                        Entertainment........ ,46-48    
                                      Family...................... .40-41    
Business...................                Horoscopes............. .......48 
City, B.C. 2, 3, 6,25, 33, 36             International...........           
Classified................. ..16-23   Movies...................... ......46  
Comics..................... .......46 National.................... ........7 
Community pages.            ..38-39        Rolling Stone.......... ......47  
Crossword..............     .......18       Sports.............13-15, 26-27  
Editorial..................            Television................. ......18  
THE WEATHER
   Thursday’s forecast for the Prince George region should see continuing cloudy skies and occasional periods of rain, with winds tapering off. Temperatures should reach 14 with a low tonight of 6.
   Tuesday’s high was 13, the low 6 and 6 mm of rainfall was recorded.
   In 1980, temperatures reached 11 with a low of 4 on Sept. 30.
   Sunset tonight is 6:50 p.m. and sunrise Thursday 7:13 a.m.
Sadrack says
NOW HEAR THIS
•	People in the north aren’t shy about expressing themselves between the lines. Items in the Pipeline Update column of the Fort Nelson News are separated, not by rows of asterisks, but rows of dollar signs.
•	College Heights residents near Cowart Road complaining about the nearby sewage treatment plant could be blaming the wrong culprit. Try tagging the driver who ran over a “pussy cat” in the area that turned out to have white stripes — a skunk.
•	A forest ministry spokesman tells us that this spring's Crystal Lake vandalism problem had a happy turn of events: People sentenced by courts to do community work helped clean up debris and glass, raked the beach and painted tables, as well as doing work at other forest service recreation projects.
  Got a news tip? Call The Citizen's 24-hour news line at 562-2441.
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