INDEX
58307
'I've got two chances at it this year.'
The Prince George
Citizen
THURSDAY, JANUARY 31,1991 51 CENTS Low tonight: -2
(Plus GST) High tomorrow: 4
FIRST MAJOR GROUND FIGHT IN GULF WAR
The riddle of life
Militia kill guerrillas
Oilers crush Canucks 13 Stormy meeting expected 3f
TELEPHONE: CIRCULATION:
562-2441 562-3301
Schools wait
Allies recapture border town
for gov’t word on financing
by BEV CHRISTENSEN Citizen Staff
Wage and budget restraint and the date of the provincial election have introduced an air of uncertainty into the budget process of school districts around B.C.
The first indication of what they can expect will come today or Friday when, according to B.C.’s new School Act, Education Minister Stan Hagen is required to announce the average per-student grants B.C. school districts can expect for the budget year beginning July 1.
Hagen has already hinted there will be no large increases and another element of uncertainty was
Doctors’ pension plan now dead?
VICTORIA (CP) — A provincial government deal giving British Columbia's doctors a $25 million pension plan may be dead, says Finance Minister Mel Couvelier.
Couvelier said he doesn't think Revenue Canada will alllow the pension plan because it is tied to a new fee schedule for doctors.
Tax officials had said earlier the deal would only be non-taxable if it was entirely separate.
"It was clear it was a package deal," Couvelier said.
"I’ve said it, the minister of health has said it, and the premier has said it. .the doctors even took a lower fee schedule in exchange for that $25 million."
But B.C.’s doctors disagree the pension deal is dead.
"As far as I’m concerned, the premier gave us a pension plan," said Hedy Fry, president of the B.C. Medical Association.
introduced into the school district’s budget process when Premier Bill Vander Zalm announced Tuesday his government will be introducing public sector wage restraints adds
Another unknown factor in the budgeting process is when the provincial election will be held.
If it’s held in the spring, any decisions of the present government could be changed by the next government, says School District 57 board chairman Gordon Ingalls.
Although there’s been no hint when Hagen will provide the base-per-student grant, B.C.’s new School Act requires him to provide that information by Feb. 1.
Local districts will be advised later of the amount of their per-student grant Last year School District 57 received $5380 per student which is 102 per cent of the average per-student grant in B.C. of $5359.
The administration of School District 57 recently put forward a proposed 1991-92 operating budget of $110 million to trustees which, if all the initiatives are accepted, represents a 11.23-per-cent increase over the 1990-91 budget.
Preliminary budget figures for the district show, in order to maintain existing education services, the district will require $99 million or 6.36 per cent more than last year.
District superintendent Jim Im-rich points out one of the factors the government includes in its calculations is the economic condition of the provincial economy.
"And last year the economy was pretty good compared with this year," he said.
Ingalls admits, as trustees begin the district’s long budget process, there is a lot of uncertainty.
"We are looking for an increase of from 6.36 to 11.23 per cent and there’s no indication what we’ll receive,” he said today.
Quesnel plywood plant closes
Quesnel Mayor Steve Wallace says he will meet with Regional and Economic Development Minister Bud Smith tonight about what steps can be taken to save jobs at the Weldwood Canada plywood plant in the Cariboo community.
The company said Wednesday it is closing the plant The move would leave 350 employees out of work starting Monday, Cariboo MLA Neil Vant said today.
The layoff is temporary but of
indefinite duration, Vant told The Citizen.
The city of Quesnel, 115 kilometres south of Prince George, has a population of about 8,400, and a trading area population of about 24,000.
The company blamed poor market conditions and high provincial cutting fees for the closure.
Al Caputo, the plant’s personnel manager, said this morning he did
not know how long the layoff period would be.
"It’s temporary^ certainly, not permanent."
Vant said he had drafted a letter to the premier and Forest Minister Claude Richmond proposing that the appropriate regulations be changed to allow plywood to be declared a value-added product. That could allow the company to obtain a break on stumpage without violating the Memorandum
of Understanding on softwood lumber that underlies the provincial government timber-cutting
fees.
Vant said he had worked out that proposal with the plant’s general manager, Dominic Gam-miero.
Wallace said Weklwood’s stumpage fees had recently gone up to $8.5 million a year from $2 million.
Ann Landers .... 33
Bridge................28
Businas 22^3
City, B.C............2,3
CUaMsd 26-32
Comic.................20
Commentary 5
Cromword..............27
Editorial..............4
Entertainment . 20£1
Family...............
Horoscope ......
International ....
Lotteries............
Movta...............
National.............
... 13-
Sports
Tefcvti
by DAVE TODD Southam News RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — After a night of heavy fighting, Saudi Arabian troops said their counterattack'had dislodged Iraqi forces from the Saudi border town of Khafji early today.
However, Iraq continued to claim victory in the first serious fighting of the gulf war, and there were reports as many as 60,000 Iraqi troops were massing north of the Kuwait town of Wafra, about 40 kilometres from Khafji.
In an announcement on the official Saudi Press Agency said today ’’Khafji has been cleansed completely of aggressive forces,*’ but made no mention of casualties on either side.
U.S. military sources said 11 marines had been killed and two wounded in the battles. Two marines were reported missing.
When reinforcements arrived, the Iraqis opened fire, the marines said. The dead marines were the first U.S. troops killed in ground fighting in the war.
In the Saudi capital, coalition commander Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf told reporters: "They (the Iraqis) certainly have a lot of fight left in them." But the commander said at least 24 Iraqi tanks, mostly Soviet-made T-55s, had been destroyed.
U.S. officials believe the invading troops were not part of Iraq’s front-line forces, which they described as badly-equipped conscripts. More likely, they said, the troops came from "a more hardened" second echelon of Iraqi defence lines made up of least 10 infantry and two armored divisions.
CAMPAIGN RAISED $405,214
United Way cash distributed
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen Staff
Prince George and District United Way worked hard to raise $405,214 during the 1990 campaign, and today is pay-out day.
A total of $381,000 has been distributed among 21 social agencies in Prince George and three Mackenzie agencies to assist operations this year.
This year’s total represents a 23 per cent increase over the 1989 campaign which totalled $328,465.
Once again Child Development Centre heads the recipient list with an allocation of $44,460 including $5,680 from specified donors.
Association for Individuals with
Mental Handicaps (AIMHI) comes next with $27,422 including $6,422 specified money (the largest amount of specified donations), followed by Canadian Mental Health with $25,257 including $1,257 specified money.
The remainder of allocations are:
■ Prince George Crisis Centre: $24,933 ($1,933 specified).
■ Big Brothers and Sis-ters:$24,U7 ($6,117 specified)
■ Phoenix Transition Home: $21,628 ($4,628 specified)
■ Canadian National Institute for the Blind: $21,384 ($1,584
specified)
■ Canadian Red Cross: $21,011 ($1,032 specified)
■ St. Patrick’s House: $18,453 ($853 specified)
■ Sl John Ambulance: $$17360 ($960 specified)
■ Canadian Paraplegic Assoc ia-tion:$15314 ($714 specified)
■ Intersect: $15,434 ($1,959 specified)
■ Mom’s and Kid’s Drop-In: $14,995 ($495 specified)
■ John Howard Society: $12322 ($622 specified)
■ YM-YWCA:$11,955 ($955 specified)
■ Sexual Assault Centre: $11,486 ($2,086 specified)
■ Elizabeth Fry Society: $11,403 ($1303 specified)
■ Teen Crisis Line: $8,079
S2,079 specified)
Prince George Hospice Society: $7,192 ($1,192 specified)
■ Fort George Highway Rescue: $5,343 ($2,143 specified)
■ Prince George Stroke Recovery: $1,663 ($163 specified)
Associate member agency, Society for the Hearing Impaired received $255 in specified donations.
Bank rate
OTTAWA (CP) — The Bank of Canada rate fell for the ninth week in a row to 10.73 per cent from 10.88 per cent today.
In Baghdad, the Iraqi government claimed its forces had captured American soldiers, including women, and they would be kept in the town. The Pentagon said it was "highly skeptical’’ of the report.
Iraq said its air and ground defences shot down 10 coalition planes and missiles in what it said was a major victory for President Saddam Hussein. Baghdad radio said he had planned the attack last Saturday while visiting troops in Kuwait.
The broadcast, which described President George Bush as a "loathsome criminal," said Iraqi troops were "wiping out the renegade invaders and knocking out the forces of infidelity, corruption and treason."
Coalition military planners believe the unexpected Iraqi advance was designed to draw the al-
and outgunned American infantrymen.
There were other problems for the coalition Wednesday.
■ British military sources reported that Iraq has begun pumping more oil into the Persian Gulf, this time from a loading terminal in southern Iraq. It was not known how much oil was being poured into the Gulf, already fouled with more than 10 million barrels of crude poured by Iraq from a Kuwaiti oil complex last week.
■ The White House clarified a new Soviet-U.S. ceasefire offer to Baghdad, saying nothing short of a massive Iraqi withdrawal could stop the war. The Israeli government rejected any resolution of the war that suggests linkage between Kuwait and the Palestinians.
■ Jordan’s foreign minister condemned the deaths of four refugees killed by coalition war planes
while they were fleeing Iraq. U.S. military officials deny they are deliberately targeting civilians.
The Iraqi attack came in four advances along a front stretching from the Persian Gulf 40 kilometres west into the desert
Three of the Iraqi assaults, backed by tanks or armored personnel carriers, were stopped within a few hours by coalition troops supported by jet fighters and helicopters, U.S. officials said.
Early today, Saudi troops were reported successful in furious attempts to push back the fourth assault — a heavily armored battalion — near the Saudi oil and resort town, about 10 kilometres from the Kuwaiti frontier, the officials said.
Marines involved in the fighting told Associated Press that Iraqi tank crews drove up to the border and said they wanted to defect
Up and awayl
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Peter Hogan is flying high during Wednesday’s practice session for a team entered in the Mardi Gras blanket toss competition to be held Feb. 10. Blanket tossing is a sport in which teams of people pull up on a round blanket or canvas to send one person flying into the air. It originated among the Inuit living in northern Canada and the local competition is being sponsored by the Native Friendship Centre. Last year’s winning team tossed their ‘lossee” about five metres into the air.
Southam News Graphics
lies into the wider ground battle for which the U.S. is still preparing.
U.S. officials said most of the Iraqi losses were caused by U.S. air strikes requested by surprised
Saudi Arabia
Q
0 50
kilometres
058307001008