today in brief
A NIGHTMARE in slow mo-tion. That’s the way a tragic car crash haunts a survivor of the accident, which killed three teenagers. The Saturday Forum.	Page
FILM-MAKER Sandy Wilson of Vancouver has seen enough money leave Canada for tne U.S. to make up her mind about free trade.	Page
Index
Ann Landers............17
Bridge..................15
Business.................7
City. B.C.................3
Classified............13*16
Comics ..................8
Crossword...........P4.14
Editorial.................4
 Entertainment ..8.P11-P13
Family .................17
Gardening..............P2
Horoscopes.............15
New Adventure ........P4
Religion .................9
Sports................11-12
Travel ................P15
 •P—Plus Magazine
 Tai chi Page 11
"I'm second from the left, back row."
 Sadrack says
   Mainly sunny skies are expected today with a high temperature of about -8. The weather office expects increasing cloudy skies tonight with lows near -13.
   Sunday should be cloudy with a few snow showers in the morning, with a high between -2 and -5.
   The high Friday was -11, the overnight low was -22, there was a trace of snow and 2.6 hours of sunshine.
   A year ago today
 the high was 1, the low was -6, and there was no precipitation and no sunshine.
   Sunset today is at 4:03 p.m. and sunrise Sunday is at 8:28 a.m.
 Details page 3
>
The
Prince George
Citizen
40c
Saturday, January 4, 1986
ACTION AGAINST LIBYA 'DANGEROUS'
wary of military
risals
Tariff ruling shocks fishermen
HALIFAX (CP) - Fearing that a dangerous precedent could be set. industry and government officials vowed Friday to fight a U.S. decision to impose a 6.85-per-cent tariff on imports of fresh Canadian groundfish.
“If they (U.S. interests) succeed we are very concerned they are going to go into shellfish,” said Allan Billard, executive-director of the Eastern Fishermen’s Federation. ‘‘And let’s face it, scallops and lobster are our two major exports.”
Billard and other industry officials — worried about the security of the large U.S. market — were
 shaken by a U.S. Commerce Department ruling against Canadian groundfish. The ruling affects imports of cod, haddock, sole and other groundfish — valued at $53.6 million U.S. in 1984.
   In handing down its decision, the Commerce Department said Alan-tic fishermen and processors are subsidized by government programs, such as loans for boat construction or repairs. The department was acting on the complaints of New England fishermen, who say their Canadian counterparts have an unfair advantage.
   “They don’t understand the nature of federal-provincial agree-
 ments in Canada,” Nova Scotia Premier John Buchanan fumed Friday. “Federal-provincial agreements on agriculture, fisheries and development are not subsidy programs; they are economic programs.”
   The ruling must still go before U.S. trade law administrators who will determine whether the duty should be adopted and imposed in the spring. In the meantime, Canadian groundfish will be charged the 6.85 per cent as a bond that will be refunded if the tariff is rejected.
  Gordon Cummings, president of National Sea Products Ltd., said the tariff wiU not have much effect
Our dollar hits record low
    TORONTO (CPI — The Canadian dollar dropped to its lowest point in history against U.S. currency Friday as a wave of speculative trading hit North America.
    In Canada, the dollar plunged to a low of 71.02 cents U.S. before the Bank of Canada stepped in to save it. “If the (central) bank hadn’t stepped in. the dollar would be gone.’’ a currency trader at one of the five largest banks said.
    The central bank buys Canadian dollars with its reserve of U j funds when the currency is under attack.
    In the Chicago money market, speculators sent the dollar spinning down to 70.80 cents — $1.4124 in Canadian funds.
    The dollar closed at 71.25 cents U.S., down only 0.03 cents from the previous close, thanks to the central bank’s efforts. At that rate, it would take $1.4035 in Canadian funds to buy one U.S. dollar on the wholesale market.
    But the Canadian currency was not alone. The
 U.S. dollar left all the major world currencies in the dust as traders decided it had fallen about as low as it was going to go.
   Further weakness in the Canadian dollar is possible, but “watch out for the correction,” a trader at the Royal Bank of Canada said. The dollar is "so oversold” that it could bounce back next week, he said.
   Meanwhile, the currency's lingering weakness has economists scratching their heads. Based on economic fundamentals, the dollar shouldn’t be failing, said Douglas Peters, senior vice-president and chief economist at the Toronto Dominion Bank. “I don’t have an answer.”
   The currency's performance over the last year has been erratic. It plunged from about 75 cents in March. By mid-July, it had climbed back to 74.4 cents, only to collapse again.
   Its recent weakness bodes ill for Canadian interest rates, which may be forced higher soon to stem the flow of money to U.S.-dollar investments.
on fresh fish sales before the spring because American buyers do not have many other suppliers available this time of year.
  But the decision could encourage U.S. fishermen to go after similar duties on frozen fish, scallops and lobster, warned Cummings, whose company is Canada’s largest exporter of fresh groundfish.
  “That would be devastating,” he said. ‘‘But I think we’re a long way from that.”
  Fresh fish makes up $50 million of National Sea’s $450 million in annual sales. A whopping 80 per cent of that fresh-fish production goes to the United States.
  There were fears Friday that the groundfish tariff could end up being much higher than 6.85 per cent. The U.S. Commerce Department made no ruling on Canada's unemployment insurance program, which New England fishermen see as a subsidy that should be subject to a countervailing duty.
  Billard, whose group represents
10,000	inshore fishermen, said the U.S. government could decide to double or triple the tariff yet.
  "That 6.85 is just the beginning,” said Billard. "And the whole thing smells very badly as a bad precedent.”
  In Ottawa, International Trade Minister James Kelleher promised Friday to try to block the ruling. The government will continue to press Canadian arguments during the next stage of the Commerce Department's investigation, he said.
  "We are determined, with the continued co-operation of the provinces and the Canadian industry, to turn back this serious threat to a vital Canadian export ”
 WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States has forces in the Mediterranean that could launch a retaliatory strike against Libya, but military officials feel any such action would be dangerous and difficult, Pentagon sources say.
  The U.S. navy has conducted what it called a routine deployment of a battle group into the Mediterranean, the sources said Friday, but President Ronald Reagan has made no decision to proceed with any type of military response to the Dec. 27 terrorist attacks on the Rome and Vienna airports.
  Speaking on condition they would not be identified, the sources said top officials, including Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger, were asked to prepare for a possible “strategy meeting” at the White House today.
  Reagan was asked in Mexicali, Mexico, where he met Friday with Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid, about reports of U.S. military movements in the Mediterranean.
  “I’m not aware that we're doing anything out of the ordinary at all,” Reagan said.
  Asked whether a buildup of U.S. forces was under way, he said: "You’ve got to stop listening to Khadafy.”
  The United States accused the government of Libyan leader Col. Moammar Khadafy of supporting the Palestinian group blamed for the airport raids, and Khadafy has accused the United States of aggressive intentions.
  On Friday, the U.S. carrier Coral Sea and her battle group ended a holiday port leave in Italy and steamed into the central Mediterranean in what navy officials termed a routine manoeuvre. Sources said the battle group includes two cruisers, two destroyers and two frigates.
  The Pentagon sources also confirmed that earlier this week at least six EA-6B Prowler radar-jamming aircraft were dispatched from their base in Washington state to the Sigonella air base in Italy. The planes, along with a small number of other combat planes sent from the United States, are on hand to assist attack jets from the Coral Sea in the event of an air strike, the sources said.
  But the sources noted Libya has a wide range of sophisticated weapons, including Soviet-made fighters and surface-to-air missiles as well as coastal patrol boats, a half-dozen diesel-powered submarines and anti-aircraft guns and radar.
  Defence Department officials cited many sticky military and political problems that would arise from a strike against Libya. Beyond the military problems of knocking out radar and missile sites as well as Libyan fighters, one source cited fears for the safety of Americans inside Libya and the ramifications of an attack if Soviet advisers were killed.
 bul lotin
 QUALICUM BEACH, B.C. (CP) — An RCMP officer was in satisfactory condition in hospital today after suffering shotgun pellet wounds to his legs while apparently investigating a murder in this tiny Vancouver Island community.
  Police in nearby Parksville and Courtenay were refusing to release details.
  However, local radio reports said the unidentified officer was shot while investigating the murder of a woman.
  Police barricades were still in place this morning on roads leading to Qualicum Beach. a quiet seaside community of 3,000.
PLUS!
  TABLOID INCLUDED
Confidence on the rise, survey says
  OTTAWA (CP) — Canadian corporations are more optimistic than they were last year and plan to invest more in new plants and equipment in 1986 than they did in 1985, a federal survey released Friday suggests.
  The survey of large firms conducted in October by the Department of Regional Industrial Expansion indicates corporations may advance real capital spending by 7.5 per cent in 1986 over the 1985 level to roughly $27 billion. A similar survey last April was more pessimistic, with businessmen saying they expected investment to decline slightly.
  Although final figures are not yet ready, information available to the government for 1985 indicates spending growth was up 4.6 per cent to $25 billion in 1985.
  Manufacturers have the most ambitious spending plans. The survey suggests they will spend roughly $7 billion, or 22.2 per cent more on real capital investments in 1986 than they did in 1985. Transportation equipment makers, chemical manufacturers and primary metals companies had the strongest spending plans.
  Non-manufacturers are considerably less optimistic, forecasting spending growth of 3.2 per cent in 1986 to a total of about $20 billion.
Mu I roney pay story premature7
  OTTAWA (CP) - The federal cabinet will decide "probably in the next few weeks” whether to take a pay cut this year similar last year’s, a spokesman for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said Friday.
  "There is a proposal that has been drafted that will go forward for discussion and decision but the assertion that the PM and cabinet had sort of picked up the 10- and 15-per-cent cuts is premature at best,” said Bill Fox, communications director.
  Fox was reacting to a report last week by The Canadian Press that Mulroney and his cabinet colleagues would regain what they lost in 1985 when the 1986 salary increases came into effect under a complicated legislative formula.
  MPs’ pay packages are composed of a basic salary and an expense allowance common to all MPs plus a special tax-free allowance for extra duties assumed, such as cabinet positions, the Commons Speaker, whips and parliamentary secretaries.
  In 1985, Mulroney took a 15-per-cent cut to his special allowance while his cabinet ministers agreed to forgo 10 per cent on their special allowances.
  Mulroney earned $129,900 in 1985
—	$800 less than the 1984 prime ministerial salary of $130,700. Cabinet ministers earned $110,300 in
1985	— a decrease of $500 from their 1984 salaries of $110,800.
When the temperature drops and everyone bundles up creates a peaceful setting on Cranbrook Hill on a clear against the cold, it’s easy to overlook the picturesque day.
scenery in the Prince George area. Here, the snowfall	citizen photo by Brock Gable
Winter
scene