The Prince George
Citizen
FRIDAY, MARCH 22,1991
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Mulroney called sorcerer 7
UN to lift food ban 10
Canucks face test
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FANTASY GARDENS AFFAIR
Taped calls put premier on spot
by KEN MacQUEEN Southam News VANCOUVER — Taped telephone conversations made by an irate real estate agent indicate B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm accepted a $20,000-payment from a Taiwanese billionaire during negotiations on the sale of his Fantasy Gardens theme park.
The tapes are the latest bizarre development in the gardens controversy — and they have left the premier hinting at conspiracies and questioning B.C.’s justice system.
Recordings of two conversations — apparently made Dec. 3 and 4 by Vancouver agent and developer Faye Leung without the premier’s knowledge — were released to reporters Thursday by her lawyer, Larry Pierce.
The tapes show a near-hysterical Leung shouting at Vander Zalm after she was apparently cut out of
any commission or profits on the $16-million sale of the Richmond gardens and an adjoining property. Both properties were purchased by Taiwanese tycoon Tan Yu in two complex deals she says she set up last summer and fall.
“Tan Yu got a good deal. You got a good deal, but I got the bum rap,” she shouts at one point. “I’m the underdog.”
She warns several times that she may go to the media with her version of the sale of his Richmond theme park or turn it over to a “gang” of lawyers. “You be careful because they’re not going to put up with you,” she shouts. “They’re going to go all the way.”
Vander Zalm has difficulty getting a word in during the two calls. He appears taken aback by her anger and promises to juggle his schedule to set up a 10 p.m.
meeting in a parking lot so the two can work it out “without the lawy-ers.
The tapes are damaging on a number of levels.
They show the premier was hip-deep in the negotiations before, during and after the controversial sale. Vander Zalm has always denied that, saying that his wife, Lillian, played the lead role to avoid any conflict of interest since Tan Yu was also doing business with the government.
They also seem to add credence to Leung’s claim that the premier was paid $20,000 US by Tan Yu as an advance on a '\ 0-per-cent commission the Vander Zalms and Leung were to collect if they helped him buy a Petro-Canada gas station and other property neighboring the gardens. The Petro-Canada property was eventu-
Cost of ‘91V system chopped by district
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen Staff
Implementing the enhanced 911 emergency response system won’t cost Fraser-Fort George Regional District taxpayers as much as first anticipated, directors were told at a meeting Thursday.
Borrowing money will not be necessary because FFGRD has decided to raise funds through taxation one year ahead to pay for the system, which is scheduled to go into operation in December, without borrowing any money.
The method will save taxpayers about $400,000 annually in debt charges.
“During election time we proposed to borrow $1.6 million and pay it back through yearly taxation over a seven-year period,” said Dave Wilson, FFGRD administrator.
“Instead, we’ll start taxing this
year as though it were in operation instead of waiting until next year.”
Homeowners in Prince George with a home valued at $67,000 will pay about $21 in taxes in 1991 instead of the first estimation of $25. Taxes in 1992 and subsequent years are expected to be as much as 25 per cent less than this year.
Total money to be raised for taxes in 1991 is $2.1 million. Out of this amount the regional district will spend $1.6 milllion on capital costs to build the system. The remainder of the total capital cost of $2.3 million will be made up of a B.C. Lottery grant of $758,000.
The $500,000 difference between the $2.1 million being raised and the $1.6 million being spent on capital costs will be used later this year.
A total cf $200,000 will be paid for the wages of personnel which
Taxman has to wait 83 years, says judge
VICTORIA (CP) — Sharon Ferris admits she didn’t file a tax return for 1987 — a problem she has since corrected.
But a sympathetic judge is seeing to it that Revenue Canada will wait a long time to collect the full $1,000 he had to fine Ferris for her delinquency.
After Ferris pleaded guilty in provincial court to failing to file the return, defence lawyer Leandre Rupert-Bailey said the minimum $1,000 fine the Income Tax Act requires is cruel and unusual punishment and violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The minimum penalty for impaired driving is only $300, Rupert-Bailey noted.
But Crown counsel James Main told the hearing Wednesday that courts have no power to impose less than the $1,000 minimum, and cannot suspend sentence.
“It may seem unusual to some people, even some counsel, but that provision is there,” he said.
Judge Robert Metzger agreed he had to fine Ferris $1,000.
But he made it payable at the rate of $1 a month, with no jail time if Ferris defaults.
At $1 a month, it will take 83 years and four months for Revenue Canada to collect in full.
INDEX
Ann Landers .... 33
Bridge.................41
Business 22,23
City, B.C. . . 2,3*26,27
Classified 38-43
Comic..................35
Commentary 5
Crossword..............40
Editorial...............4
Entertainment . 35-37
Family..............32-34
Horoscope..............41
International . . . 9,10
Movies...............36^7
National.............7,12
Sports..............13-20
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begin training in September, $100,000 for leasing of B.C. Telephone lines, $100,000 for an equipment and maintenance reserve fund and $100,000 for a contingency and miscellaneous fund.
The program was initiated following a public referendum in November which received the support of more than 90 per cent of the electorate.
The 911 system is designed to hasten emergency service, make dialling more simple and alleviate confusion about addresses and locations, especially in rural areas.
When residents dial 911 during an emergency, operators relay calls to ambulance, fire department or police, at which time telephone numbers and locations automatically appear on the screen.
The system is used throughout the world, including the Lower Mainland.
Homemaker pension plan launched
VICTORIA (CP) — A multi-million-dollar proposed
homemakers’ pension plan has been introduced, following on a year-old provincial government promise for a white paper on the subject.
The bill will be open to public input for a few weeks, and then possibly redrafted and reintroduced, said Carol Gran, minister of government management services.
The plan is a voluntary, locked-in retirement benefits scheme that Gran acknowledged could be difficult to defend politically because of the much-criticized doctors’ pension plan that was approved earlier this year.
“I recognize that is one of the political downsides, but the doctors’ pension plan, in terms of being part of their fee structure, is defensible,” Gran said.
She was reminded that Revenue Canada ruled the doctors’ pension plan could not be linked to the fee negotiations.
“Then the federal government will reject that and it may be a problem for the (provincial) government and the doctors.”
Inflation rate 6.2 per cent
OTTAWA (CP) — A 2.7 per cent jump in clothing prices in February kept the annual inflation rate above six per cent last month.
The inflation rate dropped to 6.2 per cent from 6.8 per cent in January, Statistics Canada reported today. There was no change in the monthly price increases.
ally sold to Tan Yu for more than $1 million.
The RCMP commercial crime unit is investigating that transaction and it was announced Thursday that a special prosecutor has been appointed by the attorney general to oversee the probe. It is an offence under the provincial Real Estate Act for persons other than real estate agents to collect commissions.
Leung reminds the premier of a meeting in August where she said Tan Yu turned over the $20,000 to the premier.
Leung: “Do you think I got a penny? Do you think I got gas money out of it... ”
Vander Zalm: “I didn’t get anything either.”
Leung: “Well, that $20,000 cash — I even turn it over to you that . night. I was supposed to hold it in trust but I turned it over to you. I
went down to the Bayshore (hotel) safety deposit box ... ”
Vander Zalm: “Oh, that’s in trust. No problem.”
She describes the August negotiations, which she claims saw her cut out of any profit on the gardens’ sale. In exchange, she says she was to get a 10-per-cent cut on neighboring land sales.
Leung: "And, Chrissakes, what crap! The money and time I spent, I could make so much money. . .1 turned everything down. Over what? Wasting my time over your bloody friends.”
Later, the premier says, almost plaintively: “If you’d have left the lawyers out of this, we’d have finished a long time ago.”
Vander Zalm has rebuffed demands that he step down, claiming his critics should wait until the end of March when the province’s
conflict-on-interest commissioner is due to report on the affair.
Events, however, have continued to spiral out of his control.
He seemed especially shaken this week when the RCMP investigation was revealed. It led Thursday to the unusual instance of a premier questioning the motives of his province’s justice system.
"Even if all the charges were correct — which they’re not — there’s nothing criminal, so I question (RCMP) involvement, or how it is they’re involved, or why it is they’re not doing other things that might need their attention a lot more,” Vander Zalm told reporters in Victoria.
The premier also suggested that Leung, currently embroiled in an unrelated lawsuit for civil fraud in the B.C. Supreme Court, may be part of a conspiracy against him.
<7 Ay. •
Spring, eh?
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
This was the second day of spring? An overnight snowfall caught at least one motorist by surprise this morning, with highways reverting to winter conditions. This car was retrieved from a ditch off Highway 16 West in the East Beaverly area.
BUT WARNING ISSUED
Air test results cheered
by DIANE BAILEY Citizen Staff
Local officials who have been concerned about air quality in Prince George say they are pleased that the city recorded its cleanest air in 10 years last year.
But Dr. Robert Dykes of the Nechako Environment Coalition warned we should not assume the pollution problem has been solved.
Air quality data collected in 1990 and released Thursday shows the lowest levels of total reduced sulphur and sulphur dioxide ever recorded since testing started in 1981.
“It pleases me to know that we are getting such good results,” Northern Interior Health Unit manager Elsie Gerdes said of the data, which shows TRS levels were within acceptable guidelines nearly 97 per cent of the time.
She said she will “look with great interest” to the results of an ongoing health study that compares hospital admissions and doctor visits to daily TRS readings.
A study released almost two years ago looked at data from 1984 to 1986 and found a “small but significant link” between high levels of air pollution and respiratory problems in Prince George.
A preliminary report for the years 1986 to 1988, when TRS was at some of its highest levels, is set for review by health offi-
cials, says Prince George medical health officer Dr. Jim Lugsdin.
Lugsdin said he is not sure when the report will be released to the public. But he did say “The report looks good. Let’s put it that way.” Lugsdin said he is pleased with the 1990 air quality results.
"Clean air is extremely important,” he said. But he added that TRS is not the biggest health issue Prince George faces.
“I am actually more concerned with the amount of smoking that goes on in restaurants than I am about the TRS.”
Dykes, also a local physician, said the problem of pollution is “not as simple” as TRS levels.
Particulates in the air have an impact on health, he said. And sulphur dioxide levels, although they are well within provincial stand-
ards, are still measured only at one testing station. That is not good enough, he said.
“The three of them can intertwine so you can have an additive effect.”
Dykes said in his practice he is seeing “more and more” people with respiratory problems that he feels are related to air quality.
He said he is concerned that people become more sensitive to pollutants the longer they have been exposed to them.
“We have people who have been here since the 1960s and it is taking smaller amounts to trigger the problems.”
Dykes said although government and industry is “trying hard, we are still having problems.”
“I think we are one hell of a long way from fixing it.”
Bulletins
OTTAWA (CP) — A postal union says business mail disruptions will begin April 2 if Canada Post doesn’t improve a contract offer to employees.
Representatives of the 4,000 members of the Union of Postal Communications Employees said today they won’t delay private mail to pensioners, the unemployed and others.
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EXETER, N.H. (AP) — Pamela Smart, a high school instructor accused of manipulating her student-lover into murdering her husband, was convicted today of murdcr-accomplice and murder-conspiracy charges.
A Rockingham County Superior Court jury returned the verdicts after deliberating for more than 12 hours over three days.
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