City bidding system hit 3
Canadian dollar drops 5
Blue Jays rebounding 15
.........22
BANK CARD NOW USES A NETWORK
The Prince George
Citizen
TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1986 • 40 CENTS
"Dad, I need a note for school tomorrow ... preferably a $10 bill."
DISCOUNTED HYDRO RATE, NO UNION
Endako moly mine to reopen
Temperature forecast: Tonight: 1 Wednesday: 23 TOcetf&cx ctctaiU. ftaqi 2
Citizen news services
TORONTO - The 10 million Canadians who carry automated banking machine cards will now be able to use any of the 2,500 machines that were connected into a national network Monday by a group of major banks, trust companies and credit unions.
The Interac network allows customers of any member institution to use a competitor’s banking machine to make cash withdrawals from their accounts. Charges will vary from free to $1 per transaction - depending on your bank.
The network will grow by a further 1,000 machines by September as three more institutions link onto it.
Interac members are: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of Nova Scotia, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto Dominion Bank, Bank of Montreal, Canada Trust, National Bank of Canada, the Canadian Co-operative Credit Society and La Confederation des Caisses Populates et D’Economie Desjardins du Quebec.
Many branches in Prince George are using the system, and with others it’s just a matter of time before the system will be put into place.
Royal bank is using the system, with its six machines in the city, and the Toronto Dominion Bank and the Bank of Nova Scotia each have a machine hooked up.
The Bank of Montreal plans to use national network banking through other banking machines in the city, as it does not have an automated machine in Prince George.
Any machine with a gold logo reading Interac can be used for network banking.
The Bank of Montreal’s machines join the network in midmonth and Canada Trust, National Bank and participating credit unions will have their bank machines hooked-up by late September.
For the time being, cash withdrawals, which accounts for 70 per cent of the use of all bank machines, is the only possible transaction. But the Interac system may be modified in the future to accept other transactions, such as the transfer of funds.
Plane crash claims four
Four people are believed dead following the crash of a singleengine airplane early Monday morning in a wooded area near the Tachie River and Trembleur Lake, about 170 kilometres northwest of Prince George.
The burned wreckage of a Cessna 206 float plane from Bremner, Wash, was found with four bodies aboard. It appeared the aircraft hit some trees before crashing into a heavily wooded area.
Three bodies had been recovered by this morning.
According to reports, an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) on board the aircraft was not activated.
A resident at Fort St. James saw the smoke from the burning plane and thought it was a forest fire. Forestry workers were called in to extinguish the blaze.
No other information was available this morning.
Southam News
OTTAWA — Striking back at the United States in a highly symbolic fashion, Canada has increased duties on American Christmas trees, oatmeal, tea bags, cider, books and computer parts.
“Our objective is to bring home to the United States the cost of protectionism, while avoiding measures which will only worsen our own situation,” said Finance Minister Wilson as he announced the moves Monday.
The measures, which came after a week of agonizing by the Conservative government, were in response to the heavy tariffs the Reagan Administration slapped on British Columbia cedar products May 22.
At the time, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney labelled Washington’s action “bizarre”
Earlier Monday, the U.S. hit Canada with higher tariffs for the second time in less than two weeks. The International Trade Commission in Washington voted in favor of penalty duties of up to almost 41 per cent on Canadian-made steel pipe for oil and gas wells.
Meanwhile, the provincial premiers gave the federal government the go-ahead Monday to speak for Canada on free trade in return for
Sadrack’s enjoying a tall cool one during the current warm spell, taking time out from his duties on the Citizen front page of The Prince George Citizen, where he Sadrack teHs readers what the weather’s like. He’s become a popular feature in Prince George, even'winning a vote to return to the pages to replace Sunshine Sal. Since
May 16 — the newspaper’s 70th birthday — the character created by artist Ray Masson stepped off the page in walking form and is available for community events both in town and for fairs like Expo 86. And from now on, he’ll be known as Citizen Sadrack.
Citizen photo by Lisa Murdoch
CANADA-U.S. TARIFFS
Trade war heating up
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s commitment to consult them every step of the way.
The agreement came after a three-and-half-hour evening meeting between Mulroney and the premiers, who had complained that the prime minister had not delivered on promises of full provin-
cial participation in the talks with Washington.
British Columbia Premier Bill Bennett said discussions with Mulroney included “a lot of frank talk, straight talk, but in that type of climate that’s always harmonious.”
Strike notice served by gov't employees
Citizen news services
The British Columbia Government Employees Union issued 72-hour strike notice Monday, blaming the “unreasonable concession demands” of the provincial government for its decision.
“While a number of less contentious issues have been resolved at the bargaining table, none of the government’s concession demands nave been withdrawn and the union has been stonewalled on almost all of its key proposals,” union president John Shields told a news conference in Vancouver.
The 32,000-member union has been without a contract since Oct. 31, 1985. It earlier voted 83 per cent in favor of striking.
In November 1983. the union went on strike for two weeks, paralysing government services. Liquor stores were closed, welfare recipients had to line up for cheques and people were unable to register babies or marriage plans.
Shields said this strike would not involve all union members.
“We will not be calling all of the government workers out all at one time,” he said. “We will be looking at an expanding target group concept to maximum inconvenience to the government with minimum inconvenience to the public.”
There are 1,700 BCGEU members in the Prince George region. Their jobs include such diverse areas as highways workers, office clerks, liquor store employees, healthcare workers, environmental
emergency response teams and social workers.
A strike could also affect services like registration for birth, marriage and land titles.
Annual salaries for public service workers range from $15,600 at the lowest office assistant level to $41,000 for the 14 pilots in government service. The average salary is $20,000, said BCGEU spokesman Sheila Fruman.
A shaky start for IWA talks
VANCOUVER (CP) - The president of the bargaining group for British Columbia forest companies labelled as “fairyland type” the demands made by woodworkers when negotiations for a new contract began Monday.
And Jack Munro, regional president of the International Woodworkers of America emerged from the 90-minute meeting saying the industry offer is “unbelievable nonsense.”
Keith Bennett, president of Forest Industrial Relations, said negotiations did not start ofif well.
The 20,000-member union has asked for a one-year agreement, an increase of $1 an hour, improvements in benefits such as dental care and health and welfare, major changes to the pension plan, especially in the area of early retirement, and protection against contracting out.
The forest companies are offering a two or three-year contract, no raises in the first year and no increases in benefits. The current base rate in the contract which expires June 14 is $14.08 an hour.
The Endako molybdenum mine, 225 km west of Prince George, will reopen soon at one-third capacity with a work force of 170 people, says company spokesman Bill Thompson.
Thompson, manager of corporate communications for Placer Development Ltd. which owns Endako, said recruiting will begin immediately and the mine should be operating at its target production of five million pounds per year soon.
He said the decertification of the Canadian Association of Industrial Mechanical and Allied Workers in March made the operation of the mine more flexible.
“It certainly improved the outlook for the mine at the time it occurred.”
But he said a number of other factors had to “fall into place” before the mine could*be reopened.
A power supply agreement with B.C. Hydro has reduced start-up costs, for example.
B.C. Hydro will supply Endako with up to 25 megawatts of electricity for five years at a discount, starting at 50 per cent and declining to 20 per cent in the last phase of the agreement.
Thompson said the molybdenum market has not improved since the mine, which employed 550 workers, was closed in 1982.
“The market has remained more or less static, in fact it has gone down.”
But he said the poor market and slumping prices has knocked out a number of producers in other areas.
He said when two important primary producers in the United States attempted a comeback and failed last year, Placer undertook a market analysis and decided to reopen after restructuring to fit the smaller operation.
“This created a window of opportunity,” he said.
About two-thirds of production will be used to supply metallurgical products to domestic and foreign steel industries. The remainder will be made into lubricant or chemical-grade products.
Endako has been supplying its traditional customers with reduced quantities of molybdenum from inventory during the closure.
Coal workers vote to strike
Coal workers at the Quintette Mine near Tumbler Ridge have voted 97 per cent in favor of a strike to back contract demands for housing and transportation breaks.
The local executive of the United Steelworkers of America and company management meet again June 10. The old contract expired Saturday and the strike vote was held over the weekend.
No wage increases have been offered by the company, but this is not an issue, Paul Keaiy, a member of the union’s bargaining committee, said today.
The union is looking for cheap company housing in Tumbler Ridge townsite as well as travel allowances for driving to and from work, said Kealy.
Cats escape licence law
by BERNICE TRICK Staff reporter
Pet owners in Prince George who are opposed to having their cats licensed can relax.
There’s no legislation in the province to allow municipalities to license felines, says chief bylaw enforcement officer John Hacock.
Hacock’s report, received at Monday’s city council meeting, was in #response to a request by council to look into the feasibility of implementing such a bylaw after checking out policies in other communities.
Hacock contacted several communities in B.C. as well as Yellowknife. Whitehorse and Hamilton, Ont.
“None of the places contacted have a cat bylaw and all felt there is no authority for such legislation to be passed,” he says.
Aid. Phyllis Parker made a motion to submit a resolution to the Union of B.C. Municipalities to change the Municipal Act so cat control bylaws can be enforced, but it was defeated.
“You can’t control cats. It’s wasted time and effort.” maintained Aid. Ed Bodner, adding, such a bylaw would simply create “maSs hysteria through the catching of and doing away with them.”
Aid. McKnight opposed the motion saying cats are necessary to control rodents like rats and mice.
However, he said animal traps, such as those the city rents out, are useful in problem neighborhoods.
Parker said she doesn’t agree with the city policy of renting out traps to catch cats.
“I understand catnip is used for bait and I disagree with that because there’s no discrimination made between stray cats and valued pets.”
Hacock said the animal control office receives hundreds of complaints every year about cats destroying gardens and flowerbeds.
The city provides six live animal traps which are rented out for $1 per day. During spring and summer there’s a waiting fist for the traps, says Hacock.
The Ontario Humane Society has developed a pilot cat control bylaw requiring permits to possess cats, which must be neutered or spayed and innoculated against rabies.
Offenders are liable for fines ranging from $50 to $250.
Hacock believes the bylaw is a good guide to use should a higher authority approve more control of
cats.
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