The Prince T
Citizen
MONDAY, MARCH 18,1991
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LED CITY THROUGH SOME TOUGH TIMES
Former mayor Mercier mourned
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen Staff
The man who led Prince George through the deep recession of the 1980s and was instrumental in bringing about amalgamation in 1975 has died following a lengthy bout with cancer.
Former Mayor Elmer Mercier died early Saturday at his home in Vemon at age 56.
He was elected four times as mayor of Prince George from 1978 to 1986 after serving three years as alderman.
He stepped down in 1986 to seek a Social Credit seat in the B.C. government, but was unsuccessful. He then retired from politics, and two years later, moved to Vemon.
A funeral service is scheduled at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Vemon First Baptist Church, to be followed by cremation. A memorial service will be held in Prince George at 1 p.m. Friday in the First Baptist Church on Fifth Avenue.
He is survived by wife, Bunty, sons Chris (Kelley) and Allan (Deanna), Prince George, Brent (Shawna), Vemon and Nolan, Mexico; daughters Janice (Bob) Raczi, Prince George and Gaylene
ELMER MERCIER
(Barry) Schmidt, Vemon and five grandchildren.
Bom in Entwhistle, Alta., Mr. Mercier moved to New Westminster two years later and on to Clinton at age eight where he met and married Bunty, his wife of 34 years.
He came to Prince George in 1967, settling on Haldi Road, where the family lived for 21 years.
During this time he was president of the Kinsmen Club of Prince George and, by 1975, was operating three companies — Atlas Aluminum Welding, Schneider Sheet Metal and Schneider Sawmill Contracting.
His term as mayor began on a high note in 1978 with a vibrant economy, but soon a deep recession hit and “overnight the city turned into a no-growth zone,” he said in a 1986 interview.
Despite the recession, Mercier is credited with initiating the new Yellowhead Bridge across the Fraser and leading the overpass project at Cameron Street Bridge.
Other projects begun or completed under his leadership included the opening of the new public library and turning the old one into the Senior Citizens Activity Centre, new Workers Compen-
sation offices and expansion of Four Seasons Pool, Kin Centre and RCMP headquarters.
Under his leadership, the Prince George Region Development Corporation, Rivers Heritage Trail Committee and courtrooms at Plaza 400 were established.
While delighted at being instrumental in bringing the Holiday Inn to the downtown core in 1980, he was disturbed by the loss of businesses like Stedmans, Birks Jewelers and The Bay during the recession.
In a 1986 interview with the Citizen, Mercier said his greatest satisfactions during his years as mayor were the arrival of Holiday Inn and the new public library.
As his most bitter disappointment, he cited the failure of Cambridge Development Corp. to expand Parkwood Shopping mall to help meet the need for greater diversification in retail stores.
He was at the helm of the infamous Cadillac Fairview-Wood-ward’s debate in 1981 — a massive scheme to revitalize the downtown with a four-block shopping centre.
Negotiations were going on with proposed developer Cadillac Fair-view, when Woodward’s got into
the act by proposing a major expansion.
It became a competition with residents and aldermen taking sides by supporting either the $55-million development or a triple Woodwards expansion.
In the end, neither of the ambitious schemes became reality.
Council rejected Woodward’s request for more commercial land (a tie-breaker decided by Mercier). In the following spring, 1982, Cadillac Fairview withdrew its downtown proposal.
Mercier began his civic political career here in 1973 as an elected Fraser-Fort George Regional District director for Chilako River-Ne-chako electoral area southwest of the city.
He said he got into politics “after; getting mad one day because his area wasn’t getting anywhere’’ in city amalgamation discussions.
During the amalgamation movement of 1974 and 1975, which brought communities outside the bowl area into city limits, he sat on the four-member committee as the FFGRD representative.
In June, 1989, Mercier was diagnosed with Eton Lambert Syndrome, a rare type of cancer affecting the muscles and neurologi-
cal system. He underwent a series of chemotherapy treatments.
His condition continued to improve to the extent he returned to work last year as co-manager of a yacht club and director of Air B.C.
He visited Prince George numerous times, including “coming home” to attend the B.C. Summer Games in July and to celebrate this past Christmas.
He remained keenly interested in this community and was aware of all current happenings. He was always glad to hear from Prince George people and liked to be included.
About five weeks ago he welcomed an opportunity to give The Citizen his opinion of a proposed increase in salary to the mayor’s office.
“That kind of pay jump is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of,” he said in his no-beat-ing-around-the-bush manner.
“It will set such a precedent in B.C. that we’ll all get carried away.”
It was to be his last public statement Although he was feeling fine at the time, the turning point came about two weeks later when his health began to fail quickly.
See also page 3
INDEX
Friendly ferret
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
SPCA supervisor April Gibbs says more than cats and dogs benefit from hospitality at the Prince George animal shelter. Shown here is Slinky the ferret, an affectionate type who could have been more aptly named Snuggly the Shoulder Warmer.
End secrecy, ombudsman says
VANCOUVER (CP) — The time has come for British Columbians to have access to information kept by provincial government agencies, says B.C. ombudsman Stephen Owen.
“We’ve had too much secrecy in our society. It’s time we en-
joyed openness,” Owen told a weekend conference in Vancouver at which he released his report, Access to Information and Privacy.
B.C. residents currently have no absolute right to obtain information, Owen said in his report
Instead, the decision to disclose information is discretionary and this sometimes leads to inconsistency and arbitrariness, he said.
Historic Soviet vote supports Gorbachev
by Canadian Press MOSCOW — The majority of Soviet citizens have apparently responded “yes” to President Mikhail Gorbachev’s plea for national unity in a historic referendum Sunday, preliminary figures released today suggest.
But Gorbachev also appears to have suffered a stinging rebuke in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev, the three largest cities in the country at the same time as arch-rival and radical reformer Boris Yeltsin was winning a landslide victory in a separate ballot.
Gorbachev predicted victory Sunday in the referendum after casting his ballot in Moscow. Preliminary figures released by
the official Soviet news agency Tass suggest he will win on the basis of strong support in the Asiatic part of the Russian province and the five Muslim-dominated Central Asian republics.
But these early returns also show he scored only an exceedingly narrow win in Moscow, 50 per cent to 46 per cent, with the rest spoiled ot invalid.
He lost 53 to 45 per cent, with the rest spoiled or invalid, in Kiev, capital of Ukraine.
A Leningrad politician said 70 per cent of residents there voted “no.”
Meanwhile, Yeltsin was cruising to victory by a 3-1 margin on a separate question of whether his
current post of president of the Russian Republic, should be renamed executive president with some broader powers and be subject to direct election by the people.
In the national referendum, only scattered voting took place in six of the 15 republics because their pro-independence provincial governments would not organize it or refused to recognize its results.
Violence marred the voting by pro-Moscow Communists, soldiers and ethnic Russians in Moldavia and Georgia, two of the six republics.
Nationalists were reported to have beaten up voters in Kishniev, the Moldavian capital.
Cities say gov’t grant a cutback
NANAIMO, B.C. (CP) — An announcement that municipalities will receive a 3.8-per-cent increase in basic and unconditional grants from the provincial government drew a cool reception Saturday from civic politicians.
Victoria Aid. Martin Segger said the increase, announced at the Association of Vancouver Island Municipalities annual meeting, doesn’t cover the inflation rate so it amounts to a cutback in spending power.
“That’s something that will have an impact, a direct impact on the ability of municipalities to meet government’s expectations in terms of constraining rising property taxes,” he said.
Municipal Affairs Minister Lyall Hanson has told municipalities to voluntarily keep property taxes to 1990 levels or the province could step in and do it for them.
In a written statement, Hanson urged local governments “to join in the spirit of the province’s taxpayer protection plan and use these grants to offset the impact of municipal expenditures on the local property tax payer.”
He said the 3.8-per-cent increase would “allow municipalities to maintain the gains achieved last year when unconditional grants rose 18 per cent.”
Among resolutions passed by the association was one calling for the provincial government to substantially increase the minimum wage to ensure no worker lives in poverty.
CBC plans revealed
HULL, Que. (CP) — CBC president Gerard Veilleux promised today greater Canadian content in prime time, a new French all-news service and more regional programming as the public broadcaster charts a tighter course for the future.
Veilleux told the federal broadcast regulator the Crown corporation had no choice but to cut staff and close stations to chop $108 million from its spending budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1.
The corporation rejected other options of trimming more expensive Canadian programs or selling stations to private broadcasters.
“I didn’t come to the CBC in order to conduct a step-by-step
privatization of the CBC,” Veilleux told the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission at a special hearing.
“We don’t believe the CBC exists to show American programs on our screen,” he added.
Instead, the national television network will boost Canadian content in prime time to 91 per cent and bump up regional contributions to the network. Network officials had long set 95 per cent as a goal for Canadian content but plans were shelved indefinitely as the corporation was besieged by continued budget cuts.
The CBC is appearing at the commission hearings, expected to continue for six days, to explain why 1,100 jobs were cut.
"He's an exchange student."
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