CULTURAL CENTRE SUPPORTED
Jack Heinrich, Prince George-North MLA and minister of forests, said Monday he wants it clearly understood that he supports a cultural-convention centre in Prince George.
But he fell short of saying how much he thinks the province should pay for the project.
“The cultural complex is something I’ve been wanting for a long, long time,” Heinrich told the annual meeting of his Social Credit riding association.
The MLA said it is a long-term commitment he has had since 1979 and he quoted from a letter of support he sent to city officials last spring.
However, in that letter Heinrich rejected an appeal for provincial money for a feasibility study for the project, saying there was “no precedent” for it.
If “feasibility and projected utilization” is shown for the proposed complex, Heinrich said he would support the project.
But he said he wanted widespread support from
the community before he’ll argue in Victoria for provincial money.
He praised the city for doing a feasibility study and for paying for preliminary architect’s designs. However, he did not commit himself to what he thought the province’s contributions should be.
Mayor Elmer Mercier, upset that local politicians are not backing the project with money as well as words, hopes the federal and provincial governments will each chip in one-third of the project’s cost.
“It’s an expensive item and the biggest concern that we’ve got to have in it is the operating cost,” Heinrich said.
“We’ve had our experience with the Four Seasons swimming pool and we know that we’ve got to be careful,” he said, in an apparent reference to the operating deficit of the swimming pool.
But he added that he sees a cultural-convention centre as an anchor for the downtown core that “would contribute to revitalization and offer both hope and encouragement to both the service and commercial sector.”
Building dispute settlement close
by Canadian Press
VANCOUVER - A tentative agreement is close in the British Columbia construction industry but three unions said Monday the two-year-deal will call for wage cuts and concessions.
While contract negotiations continued, picketing tradesmen discussed a leaked memorandum of agreement that includes an addendum that cuts wages by $4 an hour on residential and high-rise sites.
Wage rates currently in the $19-an-hour range will be frozen during the agreement that will expire April 20, 1988,' according to a leaflet distributed by leaders of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, the Boilermakers Union and the Union of Elevator Constructors.
All building trades are bound by the collective agreement once a majority accepts but individual unions can accept or reject the $4 wage cut addendum. The leaflet recommends it be rejected.
Listed as authors of the leaflet are Norm Farley, plumbers’ business manager, Don Vinoly, boilermakers’ business manager, and Eamie Blades, business representative for the elevator constructors.
All attended contract talks Monday. Vinoly said today he couldn’t comment on how the memo was leaked. The other two could not be reached.
In Prince Geroge, building tradesmen are picketing renovation work the RCMP building and the Spruceland Shopping Centre.
S. Africa death toll revealed
JOHANNESBURG (Reuter) -South Africa said today that 11 black people died Monday during the 10th anniversary of the Soweto uprising.
Government spokesman Leon Mellet told reporters four of the victims were killed in security force action while seven died as a result of clashes among blacks.
The government said earlier that Monday’s anniversary passed quietly.
Meanwhile, black South African workers were reported returning to their jobs as the government — tightening news restrictions that accompanied Monday’s general strike — said it was banning live transmissions by foreign television crews.
Sakkie Burger, senior news director at the South African Broadcasting Corp., said he had been instructed by the Bureau for Information that facilities for transmissions out of South Africa should be provided only if material is recorded in advance.
“The reason is to determine responsibility for what is broadcast outside South Africa,” he said.
Wild flowers
Michelle McFadyen, 8, stops to pick a surprise bouquet for Mom on the way home from school Monday. Wild flowers, like these daisies and buttercups, have bloomed in the last few weeks, dotting the fields and hillsides around town. Citizen photo by Lisa Murdoch
MULRONEY'S MESSAGE CLEAR:
Tories tied to trade deal
WASHINGTON (CP) — Negotiators began talks today for a Canada-U.S. freer-trade deal that Prime Minister Brian Mulroney says is the best means of assuring job security on both sides of the border.
Southam News
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Brian Mulroney made it official Monday night — he will stake his government’s political survival in the next federal election on free trade with the United States.
Mulroney did not state the case so starkly in his telovised address to the nation. In fact, he remained consistent in his refusal to utter the words every Canadian uses to describe his trade initiative with the Americans.
But the message was clear: free trade will be the government’s central focus as it moves in the second half of its mandate.
“I look at this as a declaration of confidence in ourselves. Confidence in our ability to compete with the best in the world.”
Truck crash injures four
Four Prince George residents were injured in a single-vehicle accident early this morning when the pickup truck they were in smashed into the front of an apartment building on Queensway.
Karen Thompson, 20, is in satisfactory condition in Prince George Regional Hosptital.
Dawn Willier, 21, Deanna Willier, 19, and Troy Momeau, 19, were treated and released.
RCMP are continuing to investigate.
Those words conveyed the image of a leader determined to push ahead with a controversial policy.
He warned that the course ahead is not for “the faint-hearted” and marked “an important turning point” in national life.
Mulroney, having cleared the hurdle of duties imposed on Cana-dian-made shakes and shingles, is now betting the country will win its legal battle to stop attempts by protectionist American interests to slap duties on Canadian softwood lumber.
If that fight is lost in the cominj months, it will be a political deatl warrant for the trade talks Mulroney has promoted with such determination.
But Canada won a similar case a few years ago and Mulroney clearly has decided to start the battle for public support now.
He emphasized the bright side of
Excedrin capsule contained poison
by Associated Press
AUBURN, Wash. — A cyanide-laced Extra-Strength Excedrin capsule caused the death last week of a 40-year-old Auburn mother of two, Auburn police have confirmed.
Auburn Mayor Bob Roegner declared a public emergency, and all Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules were being pulled from store shelves in tne Auburn area, including the store where it is believed Sue Snow purchased the capsules.
Snow was found collapsed in her home by a relative June 11, said Officer James Monnett of the Auburn Police Department. Snow, a bank manager, died later that day at an Auburn hospital.
J
free trade, entering only one caveat.
If there is any doubt about a deal providing jobs and prosperity, “there will be no deal.”
He said current protectionist sentiment in the U.S. means “vital markets are in peril” and trade negotiations are the way to counter that.
For those worried about the outcome, he pointed to the wealth generated by the 1964 Auto Pact, which he suggested proves that removal of trade barriers creates wealth.
Plane wreck to be probed
Mackenzie RCMP are investigating the wreckage of an airplane sighted north of Fort Ware, which they believe may be an aircraft missing since January.
Scott Trask, 25, pilot of a Cessna 185 was reported missing after failing to return from what was supposed to be a one-hour flight into the area Jan. 3.
. . .and in tomorrow's Citizen. . .
In Wednesday’s entertainment pages, you’ll read about a band that has entered the Space Age, as well as reviews by Rolling Stone.
Also planned: *
■ How aldermen voted at this week’s city council meeting.
■ A look at Star Wars research by the Canadian Armed Forces.
El Vlkl^ A l)CAMICf4
FLYING ARSONIST?
.
VANCOUVER (CP) —■ Ten fires in a straight line through a wilderness park 300 kilometres north of Smithers appear to have been purposely set from an aircraft, fire officials and police said Monday.
As 50 men continued battling the latest blaze — a 60-hectare fire threatening to bum out of control east of-Chukachida Lake in Spat-zizi Park today — Dease Lake RCMP were investigating tips received as a result of a $5,000 reward offered to anyone providing information leading to an arson conviction.
Inspectors who toured the northwestern B.C park after three fires were discovered near Coldfish Lake on June 4 said recent good weather made it impossible for the fires to be naturally or accidentally caused.
“Lightning doesn’t work that way,” said Verne Barge of the B.C. Forest Service in Dease Lake.
He said the chances of the fires not being the result of arson were “one in a billion.”
Paul Pashnik, regional forest protection officer, said the fires, believed to have been set June 2, 3 or 4, were caused by someone flying.
Equipment set up to monitor lightning strikes showed none had occurred since mid-April.
'I believe patriotism is a good thing here, but not for people in foreign countries/'
The Prince George
Citizen
TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1986 40 CENTS
Labor council displeased 3
Mulroney's travel costs 5
Duvalier's booty sought 7
Ann Landers................10
Bridge......................19
Business....................23
City, B.C...................2,3
Classified................16-20
Comics......................8
Crossword..................18
Editorial.....................4
Entertainment...............9
Horoscopes.................19
International ................7
Lifestyles...................10
National.....................5
Sports....................13-15
Television ..............J8
Low tonight: 5 High Wednesday: 17 TdMtkt dctotfJU, 2
Molester to appeal indefinite jail term
VANCOUVER (CP) - The lawyer for convicted child molester Robert Noyes has filed notice of appeal against imposition of an indefinite prison term on the former teacher and school principal.
The notice of appeal and accompanying notice of motion for leave to appeal cite 18 separate legal grounds or errors which lawyer Ken Young claims were made when Mr. Justice Raymond Paris declared Noyes a dangerous offender and imposed the indefinite term.
Noyes was sentenced June 9 following a marathon B.C. Supreme
Chopstick plant reopening eyed
CanAspen Manufacturing Ltd., operators of Prince George’s chopstick factory, hopes to reopen soon after a shareholder’s meeting this Saturday, according to Yugin Pak, company director.
The factory has been closed for the past three weeks during a reorganization by management.
Tony Bensted, has been released from his position as vice-president, Pak said.
Court hearing on the Crown’s request for the dangerous offender declaration.
He pleaded guilty Jan. 6 to 19 counts of sexual or indecent assault on children over a 15-year period in five British Columbia communities. Most of the incidents involved boys aged six to 16. No force was used.
Seven of Young’s grounds for appeal relate to Paris’s ruling that tne dangerous offender provision of the Criminal Code does not violate the Charter of Rights.
Young argued during the initial six days of the 45-day hearing that the law violated the Charter and constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.”
In his judgment, Paris said the law required him to predict Noyes’ failure in the future to control his sexual impulses by looking at past failures.
Young argues the judge should have looked at Noyes’ current state.
Since December, the former teacher has been taking a drug which inhibits the sex drive. Evidence at the hearing said that while on the drug, Noyes is virtually castrated.