The Prince George
Citizen
FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1989
60 CENTS
Low tonight: 7 High Saturday: 18
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Business 10,11 • _ H I ||| L L
S&K JL«*side I I III L J
Comics 14 .. ' 1 —1
Crossword 23 a| • • I .
Editorial........4 A housing nightmare 8
Entertainment ....12-14
Horoscope .... Pilot hailed in crash 9
International 6 ^
Lifestyles...33,34 —
Pay expectations rise 11
Sports 17-19,38-40 1
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MLAs START VACATION
VICTORIA (CP) — British Columbia legislators started their summer vacations today after 84 days of heated debate called everything from marvelous to disastrous by party leaders.
Premier Bill Vander Zalm, who entered the third sitting of the 34th legislature battling dissent on his own backbench, was effusive about his government’s performance inside the wood-panelled chamber.
“I think this has probably been one of the most successful sessions we’ve ever seen,” Vander Zalm told reporters. “We’ve got some positive legislation. I think it’s been a winner.”
But NDP Leader Mike Harcourt had nothing good to say about Vander Zalm or the Socreds.
“It’s been a terrible session for Social Credit,” said Harcourt, who left his seat vacant one third of the time to tour the province and build support for the next election which must be called by the fall of 1991.
“I don’t think he or his government have been able to make any improvement. In fact I think it’s gotten worse.”
Some of the 84 laws the government passed since March 16 include:
■ Electoral reform: elimination of dual-member ridings, increasing the size of the legislature to 75 members from 69 and the creation of a permanent non-partisan electoral boundary commission.
■ A new School Act: the government eliminated school prayer, recognized home schooling and will allow parental advisory councils to advise teachers and principals.
■ A $40-million housing program to encourage developers to build rental housing.
■ Judicial reform: the government will simplify legal language in the courts and merge the county and B.C. Supreme Court systems by July 1990 to help decrease case backlogs.
PM pledges
legislation on abortion
OTTAWA — With pressure building for the government to act, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said Thursday that there must be new legislation to replace the abortion law struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada 18 months ago.
But he wouldn’t elaborate on the form of the bill, or speculate on the chances of any approach winning a majority in a free vote in the Commons.
Speaking to reporters outside his Parliament Hill office, Mulroney overruled hints by Justice Minister Doug Lewis that the government might avoid legislation on the issue.
Lewis, who personally favors freedom of choice, has told reporters it would be difficult to frame a law that could win majority support in the House and would respect the Charter of Rights.
“For the minister of justice
CN, unions reach accord
MONTREAL (CP) — A tentative agreement between Canadian National and its 8,150-member shop-craft unions offers a 13.6-per-cent wage increase over three years, CN said Thursday.
The statement said negotiators for the Associated Shopcrafts Unions will recommend ratification when the proposed contract is put to a vote sometime in the next few weeks.
The agreement provides for a retroactive wage increase of 4.5 per cent for 1989 and hikes of four and 4.5 per cent in 1990 and 1991.
The agreement, reached with the help of Labor Department mediators Mac Carson and Jack Wynter, also calls for the indexation of company pensions.
CN also , agreed to share gains from investment earnings of the CN employees pension fund, improve shift differentials and provide better health care benefits.
that’s a valid question,” said Mulroney. “Personally, I think — and the government believes, in the circumstances — that it’s necessary, in whatever manner, in a serious manner, to fill the legislative void. And we’re going to do it.”
These words, delivered in French, went farther than an earlier comment in English in which Mulroney had promised only to “try and bring forward a piece of legislation” when Parliament ends its summer recess in late September.
The New Democratic Party — the only party with « consistent po-
See also page 5
licy on abortion — favors unrestricted freedom of choice. The Liberals are sharply split on the issue.
Provincially, Ontario Liberal Premier David Peterson has said it’s clear a federal abortion law is needed, though he wouldn’t suggest what it should be. Nova Scotia’s Conservative Premier John Buchanan said Thursday that the federal government should fill the legislative void this fall.
“I think they are going to have to resolve the matter,” Buchanan said, adding that the absence of federal law is allowing judges to render decisions based on their own morality.
Joe Borowski of Winnipeg, who took his anti-abortion fignt to the Supreme Court, was pleased with Mulroney’s statement, adding: “I’m not surprised. After all, we’ve been demanding a new law since the lap-dogs of the Supreme Court destroyed the old law.”
In Vancouver, Joy Thompson of Every Woman’s Health Clinic said no law is needed because there is no indication the absence of a law has led to an increase in abortions.
But Betty Green of the Vancouver Right to Life Society, who has gone to jail for her protests against abortions, said: “Well, this is the same sanctimonious nonsense that we’ve been hearing from Mulroney for 18 months now.
“Mr. Mulroney is going to have to climb off his fence and recognize that he has to begin to deal with this matter on an urgent basis.”
HERMAN
"It's OK, officer. She's looking for the emergency brake."
Citizen photographer Brock Gable is on a roll in a 1940s Harvard — and loving it. Gable took his own portrait by balancing the camera on the instrument panel in front of him. The Harvard is one of many vintage aircraft appearing at the Vanderhoof International Airshow this weekend.
AIRSHOW THIS WEEKEND
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by MARILYN STORIE Staff reporter
It’s as good a chance as any to find out if you have a subliminal death wish.
Preliminaries for a media flight in a Second World War pilot trainer, a 1940s Harvard, meant writing up a brief will and remembering to go to the bathroom beforehand.
The choice of clothing was simple: blue jeans, T-shirt and the all-important windbreaker. A last-minute thought was to put on a pair of lime green socks for easy identification of the body in case of a crash. No one had the nerve to ask me about the socks.
A mysterious shift trade between Citizen photographers took place the day before the flight. This may have been due to the mission briefing from Vanderhoof airshow chairman Wayne Deorksen who kindly arranged for Citizen staff to get a taste of what classic flying’s all about.
Deorksen, a man whose eyes twirl and whirl when he mentions planes, told the original photographer to wear a cowboy bolo tie if she thought she might get
sick during the flight. That way, he explained reasonably, she could cinch it up tightly if she felt a bout of nausea coming on.
A different and only minimally nervous photographer appeared on the tarmac the day of tne flight. No one had told him the bolo tie story.
Piloting the approximately 550-horsepower planes, which incidentally arc worth from $80,000 to $100,000, are Western Warbirds veterans Bud Granley and Tom Roger. This is not a cheap way to travel by any means. Fuel and oil for an nour’s flight is about $100.
“Every thousand hours you have to have an engine overhaul and that costs $35,000,” said Deorksen. “That doesn’t even include the regular maintenance.”
There are about 1,500 Harvards left in North America, but at one time there were over 22,000.
“A lot were milled down for scrap after the war,” explained Granley, an airshow pilot of legendary status who must spend about 90 per cent of his waking hours in the air. When he’s not flying maiden ladies like the Harvard, Granley’s piloting a Boeing for United Airlines.
“Bud’s flown practically everything,” said Bill Amaretto, a Mustang pilot. “If it’s not locked up, he’s generally in the cockpit like a flash.”
It was humbling to find out I’d be riding with a pilot of this stature.. It was also a relief. A cockpit to Granger is what an office would be to an earth-bound citizen.
Granley’s round-engine Harvard is brave with the war paint of the Royal Eagle Squadron. The two-seater Harvard, I found, does not come equipped with pull-down meal trays, overhead air jets or box-office movies. There is no stewardess in the aisle. There is, in fact, no aisle.
What there is, is a joy stick and a control board with somewhat fewer dials and gauges than most people have on their dishwashers nowadays.
In the classic war movie the Allied pilot and co-pilot hop in the plane and instantly head off to turn back the Axis tide. It turned out to be a little more complicated than that. It took five to 10 minutes before I was properly strapped into a cat’s cradle of webbing and safety belts.
The game plan was for both planes to take off simultaneously, one with the Citizen photographer and the other with me. Take-off went smoothly and Deorksen’s prediction that “you’ll feel like you’re riding a time machine into the past” was right on the money.
Pulling into the skies with a throaty roar, with the smell of oil fumes rising like incense in the enclosed cockpit, was an instant trip back into the era of Betty Grable pin-ups and food stamps. I wanted to find a bridge and bomb it.
Whereas flying in a helicopter is akin to sitting on a comfortable couch which is occasionally buffetted by a large dog, the vibrations coursing through the frame of a small airplane give the impression of being a bone that someone has casually tossed to the wolves.
Not in a Harvard, however. The plane is rock solid and once it hits the air, its maneuverability is amazing.
It is a staggering experience to glance over at the photographer flying in the other Harvard and realize he’s upside-down. It is even more staggering to realize that you are.
Even three Gs of pressure was less of a thrill than the sudden urgent press of the safety harness, a welcome touch that lets you know it’s the only thing between you and an endless fall into the deep blue, sky.
Sometimes passing within scant metres of each other, the pilots showed off the right stuff with their practised formation skills. After experiencing crossovers, loops and rolls through the sky above Prince George, believe me — it’s hard to go back to being a groundhog again.
The gates open at the Vanderhoof International Airshow at at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. The air action begins at noon and flies on to 4:30 p.m. daily.
Research centre proposed
by KEN BERNSOHN Staff reporter Federal Forest Minister Frank Oberle says he wants to put a new applied forest research centre in Prince George, but is making sure it’s needed first.
Oberle met today with industry representatives, consultants and Forestry Canada officials to discuss what’s needed here.
“I’m not out to build monuments,” Oberle said in an interview.
“I want to know if there’s a need and if the private sector will contribute to and use such a facility.” Oberle said he thinks an applied research centre is needed, especially since forest companies are now responsible for reforestation under changes to the provincial forest act.
“I see insect and disease control, improve site preparation, plus treatment and tending of the forest on an ongoing basis as the type of things we (the federal government) could help with,” he said.
A federal forest research centre in Prince George was recommended by a consultant’s report last year, but so far there has been no federal commitment to build one.
Oberle said no decisions have been made about the size or location of this type of centre, but one possibility would be putting it at what’s now the Agriculture Canada experimental farm near the airport where there would be room for both types of research activity.
When asked about money for the centre and for a new federal-provincial forestry agreement, Oberle said, “The Prime Minister has created a new department and announced a major commitment to forestry. Obviously a major infusion of money will be needed.”
Local nurses have problem with strategy
by SHERYL THOMPSON Staff reporter
While awaiting word from Vancouver on the next step of negotiations, nurses at Prince George Regional Hospital say they are struggling to put their job action into place.
Gil Lainey, local spokesman for about 440 Prince George members of the B.C. Nurses Union, said in an interview today that hospital administration is “ignoring” the nurses work-to-rule mandate, forcing nurses to perform duties like moving beds, housekeeping, mopping floors and picking up laundry and garbage.
“If these things aren’t done, they (nurses) do it and they don’t feel quite right about it but feel it has to be done,” he said.
“If no one else will do it — the nurses will.”
Lainey said nurses have been trying to refuse non-nursing duties since the strike ended June 30. Union members rejected a tentative agreement July 12.
Hospital administrator Allan Husband is out of town and not available to comment today.
The hospital generally runs four operating rooms and is currently running three. One ward that had been shut down during the strike has been re-opened, but another medical/surgical ward remains closed. The hospital’s step-down unit, which bridges the care between the intensive care unit and the regular ward, is also closed. The rehabilitation unit is expected to open shortly.
Lainey said that since about 1980 or 1981, there have been cuts in support staff “and they’re looking at getting nurses to pick up the work.”
“Whether there’s a reluctance to hire people to do these duties. . .1 don’t know why administration is having difficulty getting people to do these duties,” he said.
Despite the difficulties, Lainey said nurse morale is “fairly good under the circumstances, but we’re waiting for some direction at this point.
Meanwhile, meetings with the union’s bargaining committee and the union executive continue in Vancouver but “no decisions have been made as to if negotiations will continue with this bargaining committee or if things will change," Lainey said.
Last week nurses voted 65 per cent against accepting a tentative contract settlement, which would have given 17,500 nurses at 144 B.C. hospitals a 29-per-cent wage increase compounded over three years.
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