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The Prinee George
Citizen
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1986
40 CENTS
Spray calms cravings 7 NHL teams previewed 13
Weather trivia calendar 22
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New Adventure ............P4
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.........23 *P --- Plus Magazine
Sporting Tyrolian hats, Premier Bill Vander Zalm and wife Lillian do the bird dance at Oktoberfest celebrations Friday. Lillian also played a rousing
rendition of Roll Out the Barrel on the accordion for the cheering crowd.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Foes unimpressed
The announcements by Premier Bill Vander Zalm Friday are recycled ideas that do little to address the issue of- decentralization of services, local New Democrat and Liberal candidates say.
In a joint news release, NDP candidates Ed Bodner and Lois Boone said the opening of the rehabilitation unit and the expansion of the psychiatric outreach program do not address the needs of Prince George.
“We still have a shortage of nurses and speech therapists. The waiting list for elective surgery stretches 1,500 names, there are no specialized treatment facilities for children and adolescents, and patients requiring specialized treatment for cancer must be referred to Vancouver.”
Bodner said while the rehabilitation unit was closed because of restraint, the government was building mega-projects like the Coqui-halla highway and Expo.
Prince George South Liberal candidate Bev Christensen said by reopening of the rehabilitation unit the Socreds are solving a problem they created.
"They built the unit and closed it, then emerged as the saviors again.”
Christensen said the expansion of the psychiatric outreach program should have happened years ago, especially in light of its relatively low cost.
“At a cost of $200,000, I find it very cynical of them to wait for the election to announce this much-needed program,” she said.
Grain action warned
OTTAWA (CPI — The government may proceed with legislation to end the strike-Iockout of Thunder Bay, Ont., grain handlers Monday if there is no settlement this weekend. Deputy Prime Minister Don Mazankowski said Friday in the Commons.
If there is no settlement by Monday, the government would have to
.. .and in Monday's Citizen.. .
Power does strange things to some of Canada's political leaders. Columnist Charles Lynch gives examples in Monday’s paper.
Also planned:
■ A look at the filming of The Name of the Hose, a tale of intrigue and murder in a 14th Century abbey.
■ A study says people who snore loudly may be reducing their level of intelligence.
seek unanimous consent of the Commons to introduce back-to-work legislation immediately.
If any MP refused consent on Monday, under parliamentary rules the government would have to give 48 hours notice and bring the bill in on Wednesday.
New Democrat House Leader Nelson Riis said progress was being made in mediation between the grain handlers and the six elevator companies which employ them.
Earlier. Labor Minister Pierre Cadieux said it would be premature to bring in back-to-work legislation because progress has been made in contract mediation.
Answering a question from Conservative MP Geoff Wilson from the Saskatchewan riding of Swift Current-Maple Creek, Cadieux said he had appointed the best possible person to mediate the four-week-old dispute.
Bill Kelly, associate deputy minister of labor, entered the talks this week.
The dispute has tied up Canada busiest grain port.
Nightlife won't end with Expo
VANCOUVER (CP) - The pubs and clubs will remain at the Expo 86 site after the fair closes Oct. 13 as the provincial government added Friday to , the attractions that will stay while modular pavilions are dismantled.
“It’s a whole new ballgame down here,” said Russ Fraser, the minister responsible for B.C. Place Corp., as he announced the B.C. pavilion area, including its popular bars and nightclubs, will reopen Oct. 17.
Deputy Premier Grace McCarthy also announced the government has changed its mind about demolishing most of the major structures on the Expo site immediately after the fair closes and is assessing ways of keeping them in operation.
Aside from Expo’s modular pavilions and other temporary structures, all major buildings on the site will be considered for future use during a two-month review of the site.
Richard Floody, vice-president of Irish Rovers Free-house Corp. that has been operating the B.C. Pavilion pub and night clubs for most of the fair, said the company has agreed to keep the businesses going and is hoping for a renewal at the end of March.
A first priority is planning entertainment programs for Grey Cup Week, Nov. 24 to 30, he said. The Canadian Football League championship game is Nov. 30 in adjacent B.C. Place stadium.
'LUMBER REPLY ISN'T FINAL'
American lumber firms could still accept a Canadian offer to settle the tariff dispute following a meeting to explain the proposal Friday, says Premier Bill Vander Zalm.
On Thursday, the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, a group of American companies seeking penalty duties on timber imports from Canada, rejected the plan to raise the export price of lumber, saying it was too low.
Vander Zalm, campaigning in Prince George Friday, echoed International Trade Minister Pat Carney by saying the Canadian offer is firm.
“The coalition wants an explanation for when these measures or additional monies will come into effect and how. This we are providing them with,” Vander Zalm said after a short telephone conversation with Carney on Friday.
“Hopefully, with this explanation and the knowledge that we are not going to negotiate and not going to batter this back and forth, that will end it.”
He said Canada hopes to hear in the next few days whether the United States will accept the offer.
He said he did not expect American lumber pro-
ducers to be thrilled about the Canadian proposal.
“But I realize there is also such things as diplomacy between the two countries, and I think it is in the U.S. interest to have good relations with Canada.”
The coalition is seeking immediate penalty duties of up to 36 per cent on Canadian lumber imports.
Vander Zalm also said Carney has prepared a memorandum on a proposed Social Credit economic blueprint, and will take it to cabinet Tuesday.
The blueprint includes proposals for the provincial takeover of Vancouver International Airport and possibly others, provincial control of a new port south of the city, development of Vancouver as an international financial and banking centre, and tax breaks to attract international investors.
“The suggestion in the memorandum is, in fact, that a combined committee be established of provincial and federal people to look at all of the details,” VandeF Zalm said.
The premier has not put a price tag on the blueprint due to the delicate nature of negotiations with Ottawa.
Hospital will ge funds for 'rehab'
by DIANE BAILEY Staff reporter
After a year of negotiations, the provincial government has loosened the purse strings and promised to reopen the rehabilitation unit at the Prince George Regional Hospital.
Premier Bill Vander Zalm told a crowd of about 750 at a luncheon Friday the government has approved financing of $2.7 million per year to operate the 26-bed unit.
Vander Zalm was in Prince George Friday for a day of campaigning in the two local ridings.
He tied the opening of the unit to what he called the need to decentralize government and services in the province.
“We can’t continue to rule, or govern, or make decisions for Prince George and area from Victoria or from Vancouver,” he said to the applause of the audience.
The rehabilitation unit was opened in 1982, but shut down after only a few weeks of use when 80 beds were closed here because of the Social Credit government restraint program.
“It is a necessary program in order to avoid people having to travel great distances in order to get this type of treatment,” Vander Zalm said.
Hospital administrator Allan Husband said he wants to get more details about the financing, but called the announcement an “en-coiJraging piece of news.” .
“It will be difficult for us to arrange staffing for this big a facility,” said Husband, referring to the chronic difficulties PGRH has attracting health professionals.
“At least we now know we can start. This has been at an absolute standstill for almost five years.”
Hospital board chairman Myron Sambad said PGRH has been negotiating with the provincial government for a year in an attempt to get the unit open again.
Vander Zalm also announced a $200,000 per year increase in financing to expand the psychiatric outreach program in Prince George, to be run in conjuction with the University of British Columbia.
A psychiatrist will be appointed to head the psychiatry department at PGRH and to the teaching faculty at UBC.
“The funding will also provide for two psychiatrists to be appointed each year as teaching fellows at UBC and they will spend six months working out of the Prince George area,” Vander Zalm said.
Husband said PGRH has been trying for years to get involved in the education process.
“If we could get involved in this way. we could first of all get some help for existing pyschiatrists. It would also help us in recruiting,” he said.
Also related to the theme of decentralization was the announcement by Vander Zalm that a regional Workers’ Compensation Board appeal board will begin operating out of the Prince George office this month.
Prince George-South MLA Bruce Strachan said later the decentralization of the WCB appeal process has been Social Credit government policy for a couple of years and should help clear the backlog.
Vander Zalm also made some general comments about the need to diversify the provincial economy.
“We must attract these manufacturing industries to Prince George in order to create more job opportunities,” he said, touching on the high technology potential of the Centre for Advanced Research Technologies (CART).
Vander Zalm received an enthusiastic response from the crowd gathered at the Coliseum for the luncheon, which included a group of 30 Grade 4 students from Sacred Heart school.
With the Oktoberfest oompah-pa band playing in the background, the premier took a twirl on the dance floor with wife Lillian and a local campaign worker before catching a helicopter to Mackenzie with Prince George-North candidate Gordon Springate.
The two-month-old forest industry strike, which has dogged the campaign from the start, was not left behind in the festivities.
Ric Schofield, a Northwood Pulp and Timber employee, carried a lone picket sign reading: “Style does not put bread on the table, work does.”
“I am here to make a point. I am not here to run down Bill Vander Zalm,” he said.
"I don’t know how I am going to buy my next groceries.”
Before leaving Prince George. Vander Zalm stopped by Oktoberfest to dance, mingle and drink a little beer.
He also addressed the audience and mentioned the election briefly, which did not impress Prince George South NDP candidate Ed Bodner.
“If he wanted to mingle like the rest of us, fine,” said Bodner.
“I don’t think we should turn a community function into a political rally.”
CART
★
receives
aid
The provincial government will provide temporary assistance to the Centre for Advanced Research Technologies (CART) in Prince George while it studies the potential of its programs.
Premier Bill Vander Zalm said in an interview Friday that the province is willing to support CART until November, when it expects a consultant’s report on the centre.
“We have asked that a review be done, by us, of what programs they should be concentrating on and the feasibility of the programs. This would be done by a qualified engineering firm,” he said.
The province has also asked for a “tightening up" of the pianage-ment structure and a change in the structure of the board.
“It is our desire to have the board for CART composed of Prince George people rather than Lower Mainland people being on the board.” Vander Zalm said.
Vander Zalm estimated the prov-
ince will have to put "in the order of $100,000” into CART to carry it to the end of November.
By then the province will know "how much money is required and where it ought to go," said Vander Zalm.
He said he has a commitment from federal Science and Technology Minister Frank Oberle that the federal and provincial government will each pay half
Ed Clinits, manager of CART, had said earlier this week the centre will close Oct. 15 unless the federal and provincial governments can reach a financial agreement.
CART, a privately-run spin-off from the College of New Caledonia, has a staff of six providing training in computer-aided design and manufacturing.
The centre is a division of North Western Technology Ltd., a private company owned by a non-profit foundation headed by CNC principal Charles McCaffray.
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—. "Pull up to the front of that apartment building and leave the engine running."
Hunting in north was tradition
by BERNICE TRICK Staff reporter
Three men from the Lower Mainland whose single-engine air--plane crashed Thursday evening in Prince George were scheduled to go on a hunting trip this weekend with Aid. George McKnight.
Franz (Frank) Happ. 54. from Burnaby died when the four-seater Piper Comanche 250 crashed into an embankment north of the airport on property owned by the Prince George Auto Racing Association (PGARA).
Claude Rene Leblond. 40. from West Vancouver is in serious but stable condition at Prince George Regional Hospital.
A third man, identified late Friday as Keith Ernest Scott. 44. of
Delta, was flown to Vancouver General Hospital following the crash where he remains in extremely critical condition in the intensive care unit.
Identification of Scott was withheld until one of his children on a camping trip could be notified, according to McKnight.
It has not been determined yet who was flying the airplane.
McKnight said both Leblond and Scott are licenced pilots and owned the plane jointly “mainly for business reasons.”
The hunting trip, into bush areas in this locality, has been an annual event for 16 years, said McKnight. who was to join the party during the next two weekends.
“They’re all super fine people.
gentlemen all the way. good hunters and good sports.” said McKnight. who described Happ’s death as “a major loss and a shock.
“It seems so futile when things like this happen, but when it involves close, personal friends it’s really driven home. *
“Frank was just a great guy to have in camp. He was a hard worker and had an absolutely delightful sense of humor ”
Happ. an iron foundry worker, has two teenage sons.
It was Scott, owner of a scientific equipment repair company, and McKnight who originated the annual outing 16 years ago, when the two were next door neighbors in Delta.
“Since then, others have joined in and the party just grew,” he explained.
Two other members of the hunting party. Ron and Harold Mann from Vancouver and Ontario, respectively. had driven to Prince George carrying all the hunting gear.
According to airport manager Wayne Harley, the airport control tower had contact witn the plane until it went out of view when the crash alarm was sounded by the tower controller.
The airport weather office reports the weather at the time of the crash, at approximately 6 p.m., was overcast with light rain and visibility of 12 miles.
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