AH, THAT CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!
by Canadian Press
  VICTORIA — Massive cost overruns on the billion-dollar Coquihalla Highway in British Columbia were deliberately kept from the public for political reasons, a provincial inquiry has concluded.
  Inquiry commissioner Douglas MacKay, appointed to investigate the massive cost overruns on the highway’s construction, said in his report the legislature was misled by documents presented by the government of former premier Bill Bennett.
  “These deliberate and planned actions were politically motivated and were designed to give the impression that the Coquihalla High-
  OTTAWA (CP) — Almost 6,000 Canadians with incomes in excess of $50,000 a year paid no income tax in 1985, the year before the imposition of a minimum tax.
   And of those 5,978 high-income Canadians who managed to avoid paying any income tax, 165 earned more than $250,000 that year, preliminary taxation statistics obtained from Revenue Canada show.
   Investors accounted for almost 5,000 of those who ducked the taxman in 1985, and professionals — doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers, artists and entertainers — made up most of the rest.
   Strangely though, only 38 highly paid accountants, who earn their living helping other people pay as little tax as possible, managed to escape the taxman themselves.
   “What these figures do is just highlight the inequality and unfairness in our tax system,” said New Democratic Party Leader Ed Broadbent, who led the political fight for a minimum tax.
   “It’s scandalously unfair when people at the poverty level in Canada are paying taxes and the average Canadian family is paying far too much,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
   Neither Finance Minister Michael Wilson nor Liberal party spokesmen were available to comment on the figures.
   The Conservative government, under pressure from opposition critics to live up to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s election campaign promise that the rich should pay a “handsome” tax, implemented a minimum tax in 1986.
  How well the minimum tax
 way was on budget,” says the report released Tuesday.
   The inquiry did not detail what the political motivations were in hiding the true costs of the highway, which will be about 300 kilometres in length when fully completed.
   But during public hearings, the inquiry was told construction was rushed so the highway could open for Expo 86. Bennett celebrated the official opening of the highway by being driven down the blacktop in a flashy convertible.
   The Coquihalla cost now totals $998.4 million. The original estimate was $500 million for three phases.
  The NDP Opposition called the
no tax
 works in ensuring the rich pay their fair share of tax won’t be known until the 1986 taxation statistics are released late next year or early in 1989, possibly after the next election.
   Wilson has conceded, however, that he expects that even with the tax, which is expected to raise an extra $150 million a year in revenue, an estimated 2,000 high-in-come Canadians will continue to pay no tax.
   That, however, would be down from the almost 6,000 in 1985, and the almost 7,000 in 1984.
  Under the minimum tax, most Canadians will pay at least 24 per cent tax on incomes in excess of $50,000.
 NOW HEAR
      VI Ilf*
 ■ Santa Claus took time out from his busy schedule this week to visit the city council chamber. He pulled a pair of “golden” skates from his sack for Mayor John Backhouse and invited the mayor and council to participate in the Kinsmen Club's annual charity skatethon next month. Santa made his entrance while members of the Kinsmen Club sang, “Here Comes Santa Claus” in a presentation to council. “Your worship, don’t turn out to be a cheap skate,” quipped Aid. Richard Godfrey. The Jan. 23, 1988 fund-raising event is geared toward raising money for community projects like the Children's Festival and the Shriners Telethon.
6,000 CANADIANS
High income,
by Associated Press
  SEATTLE — Homemade dolls and handmade wooden toys didn’t meet the expectations of some people at a housing project Christmas party and when they threw the free presents at their benefactors, the party turned into a food fight.
   The city Parks and Recreation Department, which helped sponsor the party, is investigating the incident.
   “There was misinformation, I guess,” said department spokesman Andy Reynolds.
   There were about 120 children and some parents at the party, said August Drake-Ericson, a recreation supervisor.
   The melee began when a parent, upset at the quality of the gifts, threw a doll at Drake-Ericson, others upset a table of food and children started hurling the handmade rag dolls and wooden toys until police arrived to restore order. There were no arrests.
   The upset mothers “were looking for better quality toys and were afraid their children were being denied,” said Drake-Ericson.
   The toys were donated by Boeing employees to a social service agency with a centre at the housing project.
   “They were handmade stuffed toys, embroidered,” said Judi Carter, a director of the agency. “People had spent hours making these.
   “There were wooden cars with carved wheels, and painted. It was wonderful. If they had not been there, there would have been nothing for those children.”
   Carter said those attending the party “assumed the good stuff was being held for someone else, but we never get the big stuff that’s on TV.
   “It was about raised expectations. They see stuff on TV being given to Toys for Tots and then come to the party and say, ‘Where is it?”’
The Prince George
Citizen
 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1987 <^>	40 CENTS
Policeman to stand trial 5 
Boy wasn't from ships    7 
Flyers return to form    9 
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City, B.C.........               .........6 
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TELEPHONE: 562-2441
         Low tonight: -12 High Thursday: -5 k TOttrfAci	fuxqt 2
  "Get the stuff wrapped. They "lust be asleep by now.”
      Shawn De Merchant takes to the air on his sled, airborne after sliding down an iced ramp at his Fraser Crescent home. He and his friend Jason Sled jump Morgan, who waits for his turn, built the course that starts at the top of the front stairs and slopes to this jump platform built at the edge of the
front yard.	Citizen photo by Lisa Murdoch
CASH REQUEST APPROVAL
 Hospital efficiency cited
   News the Prince George Regional Hospital has received a boost to its base budget is a vote of confidence in the efficiency of the hospital, says administrator Allan Husband.
  He was responding to an announcement Tuesday that $800,000 had been allocated to the hospital’s base budget from the $20-million fund established by the provincial government to assist hospitals facing budget deficits.
  Husband said the hospital received 97 per cent of the $825,000 it requested.
   He said the hospital administration had projected a deficit of more than $300,000 during the 1987-88 budget year. But this had grown to $825,000 by the time the administration made its presentation be-
 fore the three-member panel established to review submissions from the hospitals.
   The review panel examined the work load and efficiency of all hospitals applying for money from the fund, he said.
   The nursing shortage and increased activity in the intensive care nursery were the main reasons for the increase in the hospital’s deficit, Husband said.
   “The intensive care nursery was much busier, and we’re caring for a lot more very sick babies. The nursing shortage has also caused financial problems because we’re having to pay overtime to cover all the shifts,” he said.
   The fact Prince George now has a pediatrician who specializes in
Victoria choice 'fair'
  OTTAWA (CP) — A special inquiry has found that Victoria was fairly chosen as the Canadian city to bid for the 1994 Commonwealth Games.
   And the federal government will support the city, Sports Minister Otto Jelinek said Wednesday.
   Jelinek said in a prepared statement he will encourage “all parties to unite behind Victoria. . .to ensure Canada’s success in securing the 1994 Commonwealth Games for the benefit of all Canadians.”
  The other candidate for the Games is Cardiff, Wales.
   The inquiry by Richard Pound, a Montreal lawyer and vice-president
 of the International Olympic Committee, concluded that the executive of the Commonwealth Games Association of Canada acted within its authority in awarding Victoria the right to bid for the Games.
  The executive committee overruled its selection committee, which had chosen Halifax. Jelinek ordered the inquiry to clear up all suggestions of unfairness in the process.
   The switch brought protests from Halifax, which said the executive was biased in favor of western Canada.
  Jelinek said he agreed with Pound’s findings.
GROCERY STORE ROBBED
  Prince George RCMP were searching for an armed robber with the aid of a tracking dog in the vicinity of Fifth Avenue and Ospika, shortly before noon today.
   The man, who was reported to be armed with a shotgun, robbed a grocery store in the area of an undisclosed sum.
   The suspect was described as a male in his late 20s wearing a blue ski jacket and a blue baseball cap. He fled the scene on foot toward Ruggles Street.
  A than armed with a shotgun robbed the Fifth and Carney Street Shell station of an undisclosed sum at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
 neonatology — the care of the newborn — accounts for the increase in the number of acutely-ill babies being cared for in Prince George.
   “We’re not referring so many to the Sick Children’s Hospital in Vancouver,” he said.
   Hospitals in Quesnel and Fort St. James and a diagnostic and treatment centre in Fraser Lake have also received additions to their base budgets.
   But St. John Hospital in Vanderhoof did not receive any of the $150,000 it requested.
   Ben Gumm, administrator of the hospitals in Vanderhoof and Fort St. James, said St. John Hospital’s request is still under review.
   The hospital budget increases announced Tuesday in Victoria are from a $20-million fund established to assist hospitals facing budget deficits in the 1987-88 budget year.
   Quesnel’s G.R. Baker Memorial Hospital received a $250,000 addition to its base budget, which is 96 per cent of the $260,000 it requested.
  Hospital spokesman Lorrie Strain says the additional money will be used to restore housekeeping and dietary services eliminated during budget cuts in 1982.
   “This had an effect on patient care because it meant nurses had to provide these services,” she said.
   The 25-bed Stuart Lake Hospital in Fort St. James received $97,000 of the $110,000 it requested. Gumm said this restores the $100,000 cut from the budget two years ago.
   “Ever since the increase we’ve been operating at a deficit,” he said.
   He blames the nursing shortage for much of the deficit.
    “Because of the size of the hospital staffing requirements for the professional staff remain unchanged whether we’re busy or not because you have to have certain professional staff — nursing and in the labs — on duty,” he said.
   No one was available to comment on the $67,000 base budget increase given to the Fraser Lake Diagnostic and Treatment Centre.
SOARING COSTS
Coquihalla probe: legislature misled
 overruns a cover-up by the Social Credit government and immediately sought a one-day recall of the legislature to establish a committee to investigate the Coquihalla and determine political accountability.
   However, Premier Bill Vander Zalm rejected the NDP demands, saying they were attempting to stir up further controversy.
   “I’m not out to nail anyone on this,” said Vander Zalm. “I think we can look back and make judgments which ever way we wish it, but I don’t think there’s any point in mud-stirring or nailing anyone for anything.”
   NDP highways critic Dale Lo-vick said because MacKay had a mandate only to deal with administrative, not political, accountability, a legislature committee should investigate “the cover-up and misappropriation of public funds.
   “We must clear the air,” he said. “We must go the next step beyond, to talk beyond administrative accountability, to talk about political accountability.”
   Moe Sihota, NDP justice critic, said Attorney General Brian Smith should investigate Treasury Board members under the Financial Administration Act.
   He also said Vander Zalm should ask the Lt.-Gov. Robert Rogers to waive the oath of secrecy which shielded government officials from public testimony during the Mac-Kay inquiry.
   Prior to Expo, the Bennett government said repeatedly that the only toll road in Canada, which links the Vancouver area and Fraser Valley with the interior of the province, was on budget.
  MacKay doubted whether the highway would have been completed if its true costs had been revealed. Tolls on the highway were increased to $10 from $8 for cars on Sept. 1. Trucks pay up to $50 depending on their size.
   “If all of the estimates and costs had been reported correctly to the legislature and to the public in a timely and accurate manner, one wonders whether funding would have been provided for its completion on the schedule and to the standards that it was built,” the report says.
   Cost estimates presented to the legislature were “haphazard, misleading and incomplete estimates,” the report says.
   In the report, the result of public hearings over five months, Mac-Kay said neither the Highways Ministry nor the Treasury Board had an adequate system for authorizing, controlling and reporting on the project.
   MacKay also said there was no overall plan for the highway and that major change ana additions were made without proper documentation or approval.
   Highways Minister Stephen Rogers said changes will be made in the ministry to deal with the criticisms.
   “The whole procedure of how we estimated the work projects and how we reported work projects is something that wasn’t up to date with any type of modern reporting and we wifi be changing it,” he said.
   The report recommends better capital plans and standard procedures for estimating costs, a comprehensive capital cost management system and better reporting systems to the legislature.
   MacKay also suggests a review of the ministry’s overall management process and structure, with a report in six months. Rogers said the review is already under way.