The Prince George
Citizen
FRIDAY, JUNE 21,1991
70 CENTS
(Plus GST)
Low tonight: 10 High tomorrow: 22
~Wncluded nips j times
Inside I ty
Gamble didn’t pay off_______________5
Women still lagging -	UN	9
NHL draft preview__________________13
Phone: 562-2441 Classified: 562-6666 Circulation: 562-3301
FLOOD THREAT PASSES
The flood threat has officially evaporated for this spring, says a spokesman for the provincial Environment Ministry.
“The river is dropping. Most of the snowpack is gone by now,” Glen Davidson, regional head of engineering, said this moming.
Davidson said a snowpack survey taken last Saturday in the Upper Fraser River basin showed a “dramatic drop” in levels. The river level stood at 7.33 metres this moming, more than two metres below flood level.
Although our cool, wet spring has been far from ideal for most people, it has been a boon for those in flood-prone areas.
“We had really an ideal spring from a melting standpoint, and that’s why we didn’t have any problems this year,” Davidson said.
City manager George Paul said the city’s flood hotline, where concerned citizens can get information and assistance, will stay open until the end of the month.
“It doesn’t really take any effort to leave them open,” he said. “We’ll be wrapping this up at the end of next week.”
However, there are still some lingering concerns in other areas of the province, said Davidson. The Chilcotin River normally peaks in July, and the snowpack was so high in that area that there still could be some flooding, he said.
Alcan lays off 100; more cuts on way
VANCOUVER (CP) — About 100 workers are off the job and layoffs will continue as Alcan winds down construction of its massive Sl-billion hydroelectric project on the Nechako River system in northwest British Columbia, says a company spokesman.
Bill Rich, Alcan’s vice-president for B.C., said work on the construction site is being scaled down to a “minimal level” to reduce expenditures while the company appeals last month’s Federal Cowl decision calling for a full environmental review of Alcan’s Completion Project.
“We’ve got to get the uncertainty cleared up,” Rich said earlier this week. “We’re not issuing any new contracts.”
He said about 100 workers from the 700-member workforce have left the site and as many as “30 to 40” could be leaving each day.
Workers at the site are covered under an agreement with the B.C.
and Yukon Terrority Building and Construction Trades Council.
Justice Minister Kim Campbell said Wednesday the federal government is also appealing the decision.
Alcan said last week it is appealing Judge Allison Walsh’s May 16 ruling, which overturned a 1990 cabinet order exempting the Alcan project from an environmental assessment.
Walsh also quashed a 1987 agreement between Alcan and the B.C. and federal governments, which accepted the company’s plan to abate any damage to the region’s salmon stocks.
The project, also known as Kemano II, is almost half-built since construction began three years ago.
Alcan has filed a preliminary application with the Federal Court of Appeal to block Walsh’s order for a federal environmental review, pending a ruling on the appeal.
Hostage release delayed - report
WASHINGTON (CP) — Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager made a deal with Iran to delay the release of U.S. hostages until after the 1980 presidential election, ABC news says.
ABC said Thursday that Iranian arms dealer Jamshid Hashemi supplied it with details of what he said were two sets of meetings in 1980 in Madrid with William Casey and two unidentified men.
Casey, who died in 1987, later became Reagan’s CIA director.
ABC-TV’s Nightline broadcast Hashemi’s description of meetings he said took place during the presidential campaign. The network said Casey’s campaign schedule was uncharacteristically blank for July 27-29 and Aug. 8-13, 1980.
The network quoted a newspaper story of July 30, 1980, in which a Reagan campaign spokesman said Casey planned to return home that day “from a trip abroad.”
There have been reports for the past decade that the Reagan campaign made a deal with Iran’s
ruling clerics to delay the release of 52 American hostages until after the election. The 52 had been seized in the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and were held 444 days.
Reagan announced the release of the hostages moments after he took the oath of office, succeeding Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Hashemi said Casey offered to help Iran buy $150 million worth of weapons and ammunition in exchange for the release of the hostages.
In the broadcast, ABC said it had found hotel records in Madrid that corroborate Hashemi’s statement that he and his brother Cyrus were in Madrid when they said they were.
ABC also said that a man named Robert Gray was listed as a guest in the Plaza Hotel in Madrid in the summer of 1980. Casey named Robert Gray to be a top official in the Reagan campaign and he was co-chairman of the Reagan inaugural in January 1981.
(■HHMHWUMMNMWMMWnWIM
INDEX
HERMAN
Ann Landers .... 35
Bridge.................27
Business 22,23
City, B.C..............2,3
Classified .... 25-33
Comic...................20
Commentary...............5
Crossword...............26
Editorial................4
Entertainment . 18-21
Family..................35
Horoscope...............27
International............9
Movies..............20,21
NaUonal..................8
Sports...............13-16
Television..............28
58
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'Wait till you guys feel this leather.'
‘TAX FREEDOM’ LAST WEEK
Now we’re working for ourselves
VANCOUVER (CP) — Tax Freedom Day — the theoretical day Canadians finish paying their tax bills — didn’t budge from last year, says a study released Thursday.
The taxman stopped collecting from workers June 15, the Fraser Institute said.
The conservative think tank defines Tax Freedom Day as the point at which Canadians start working for themselves after toiling for governments to pay the year’s taxes.
In 1961, Tax Freedom Day was May 3.
“The good news is we don’t have to pay much more tax than last year,” said Michael Walker, executive director of the institute.
However, Canadians are becoming increasingly concerned about their tax burdens, partly because of the new goods and services tax, he said.
“It also may be because of greater travel and cross-border shopping in the United States,” where tax rates are lower, said Walker, whose group advocates lower taxes and less government intervention.
The average Canadian family with an annual income of $52,000 will pay $23,645 in taxes to the three levels of government this year, or 45.5 per cent of gross income, says the institute.
Last year, the same family had an annual income of $49,500 and paid $22,433 in taxes, or 45.3 per cent
Provinces with Tax Freedom Days one day later this year were: Newfoundland (May 17) and British Columbia (June 11); waiting two days longer were Prince Edward Island (May 15), New Brunswick (June 2) and Saskatchewan (June 11); Albertans
could celebrate Thursday (June 20), six days later than last year.
Three provinces saw their situation improve by one day — Nova Scotia (May 30), Quebec (June 12) and Ontario (June 25), although the latter deferred a large tax burden through its budget deficit.
Manitobans got tax relief May 28, two days earlier than last year.
Canadians will need to work until July 16 to pay off both taxes and government budget deficits, compared with July 12 last year, the institute calculates.
In all, the provinces will defer $16.4 billion in taxes while the federal government will defer $30.5 billion.
Ontario’s $9.7 billion budget deficit this spring helped push that province’s Tax-and-Deficit Freedom Day to Aug. 2, 23 days later than any other province.
“That’s an extraordinary result,” said Walker, whose group’s
Telethon money distributed
Ten non-profit groups, hospitals and agencies were announced today as recipients of the $108,000 raised by the 1991 Shrine/CKPG-TV telethon.
Myron Sam bad, telethon chairman, said he was pleased with the amount donated because it was not a good financial period for many people and companies. An additional $10,000 grant has been applied for but is not yet approved.
Each applicant must prove financial need, preferably be involved with children, and can’t already be receiving money from the 3.C. Lottery Commission, said Sambad.
Prince George Regional Hospital was the recipient of the big ticket item, $75,000 to assist in the purchase of an $185,000 operating microscope for the neurosurgeon.
Other grants went to:
■ Prince George Tern Crisis and Information Line — $10,000 towards operating costs.
■ Mackenzie and District Hospital. — $7,000
towards the cost of a chemistry analyser in the laboratory for patient tests (total cost is $97,000).
■ Git. Baker Memorial Hospital in Quesnel — $7,000 to assist in purchasing diagnostic equipment
■ St John Hospital in Vanderhoof — $7,000 to help purchase a baby warmer for the delivery room.
■ Prince George and District Skill Building Library — $3,000 for buying toys for all children. Toys are also availble for learning disabled children.
■ Salvation Array ~~ $1,500 was given at Christmas time last year to assist with dinners for the needy and destitute.
■ Prince George Native friendship Centre — $1,500 towards the 1990 Christmas dinner provided for underprivileged..children up lo 12 years old.
“A Night to Remember” —- $1,200 shared between six Prince George secondary schools for their 1991 dry grad celebrations, to encourage this event in the community and help save Hves.
■ Quesnel and Vanderhoof secondary schools — $200 each for their dry grad celebrations.
Trash reduction meetings planned
The Fraser-Fort George Regional District has to get to work now to comply with provincial legislation requiring it to reduce municipal trash 50 per cent by the year 2000, director Bob Headrick told board members Thursday.
The board decided to send a letter to the environment ministry approving in principle a proposal by Valley Recycling, formed by McBride area residents, to apply for that department’s 50-per-cent
subsidy for transportation of recyclable materials.
The regional district’s Local Solid Waste Advisory Committee will hold several public information open house meetings next month to seek comment about how to reduce the amount of garbage going into municipal landfills, said Headrick, who is chairman of a steering committee to lode into the issue.
These meetings take place July 3
in Valemount, July 4 in McBride, July 10 in Mackenzie and July 11 in Prince George.
The district has to prepare a detailed waste management plan by 1995 and reduce its solid waste stream 30 per cent by the end of that year. To prepare the plan, the district hired the consulting firm of Gartner Lee in February.
The waste stream has to be further reduced to 50 per cent of present levels by the year 2000.
budget restraint views are at direct odds with the Ontario NDP’s fiscal policies.
Ontario leads the pack with a total tax bite of 48.1 per cent this year, followed by Alberta at 46.7 and British Columbia at 44.2. The tax-rate grab is lowest in P.E.I. at 37.3 per cent of gross income.
Federal and provincial income taxes of $9,263 account for 39.1 per cent of total taxes to be paid this year by Canadians, compared with $8,684, or 38.7 per cent last year.
Sales taxes this year are pegged at $3,538, up $227 from last year.
The federal GST accounts for about half the amount Canadians pay in sales taxes, said the institute. The net effect of the GST, which replaced the 13.5 per cent manufacturers’ sales tax on Jan. 1, will cost taxpayers an extra $500 this year, it said.
Police run
benefits
disabled
You can help mentally handicapped people enjoy athletic competition by sponsoring a local policeman to run in the 1991 B.C. Law Enforcement Torch run.
The Prince George RCMP detachment is spearheading this year’s run to raise funds for the B.C. Special Olympics. About 30 local officers will run a 10 kilometre route with special athletes. The run begins and ends at Pine Centre Mall.
Volunteers from the RCMP, municipal police forces, corrections and sheriff organizations from more than 35 B.C. communities will complete several different routes, scheduled to cover more than 3,300 km (2,050 miles).
Runs began Monday and arc scheduled to end July 4 with, a grand finale at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver.
As many as 1,000 officers are expected to participate in the community runs, each of them supported by pledges through the Adopt-A-Cop program. Last year officers who ran the Special Olympics torch from Calgary to Vancouver raised more than $145,000.
Anyone wishing to donate for the run can contact Const. Kevin Murray at 562-3371 in Prince George. All donations go to the B.C. Special Olympics.
Carson Baxter, 1 takes time out from playing in Fort George Park to enjoy some lunch, even the PnrU nirnir	Part that ended UP on his face- Carson and about 100 other pre-schoolers from around the city said
°	”	so long to spring Thursday at a picnic in the park put on by the Prince George Family Day Care
Society. Carson attends the College Heights Day Care.
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