The Prince (George
Citizen
FRIDAY, AUGUST 9,1991
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Mystery blaze
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Insp. Teeb Thibauft of the fire commissioner’s office examines the wreckage of a motorhome for evidence of arson. The 1978 motorhome went missing Wednesday from the Esther’s Inn parking lot and was discovered ablaze at the Forests for the World park on Cranbrook Hill at about 10:30 p.m. Anyone with information about the suspected arson is asked to phone police.
Gas price probe urged
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen Staff
Only a formal investigation by the federal competition bureau will answer Prince George residents’ concerns about uniformly high gasoline prices in the city, says Prince George-Bulkley Valley MP Brian Gardiner.
Having a federal official come out to listen to residents’ complaints on an informal basis is fine as far as it goes, but will probably be inadequate to address claims of price-fixing at the pumps, he said Thursday.
“People just don’t believe what they hear from the gas companies — that the market decides it and everything. They just don’t believe thaL”
Gardiner said he had not received a response to a letter he had written to the competition bureau
in late June. In the letter he had asked the Ottawa-based agency to look into the situation in Prince George where gasoline prices are consistently higher than in surrounding regions.
Prince George-Peace River MP Frank Oberle told city council July 29 an inspector from the consumer and corporate affairs ministry would visit Prince George this month and meet with individuals who want to discuss the matter of gas pricing in the community.
“What I’ve asked for is a more serious look at things than what Frank has arranged — for someone to come here and listen to people,” Gardiner said. “That’s an informal survey of issues. Fair enough. That’s good. But we want not just an informal chat with people; we’re talking about an investigation.”
The federal competition bureau is investigating wide variations in gasoline prices from province to province that seem to have little to do with transportation costs and distances from refineries, according to the July 25 issue of the Financial Times.
Regina and Saskatoon enjoy the lowest prices in Canada, although those cities are hundreds of kilometres from Edmonton’s refineries, the Financial Times said.
An official at the Regina Chamber of Commerce, who would identify herself only as Sandy, said the city is enjoying a gas war and the price of a litre of regular unleaded is down to 45.9 cents per litre.
Before the gas war began this week, the prevailing price was 53.9 cents per litre, she said.
Unemployment lowest in Prairies
July ’91 Change
jobless from June
it rate '91
Newfoundland 18.6% ♦ 1.7
Nova Scotia 12.6% ♦ 0.7
P.E.I. 16.1% ♦ 1.2
New Brunswick 12.6% ♦ 0.8
Quebec 11.9% ♦ 0.1
Ontario 10.0% ♦ 0.2
Manitoba 9.6% ♦ 1-1
Saskatchewan 7.4% ♦ 0.2
Alberta 8.4% ♦ 0.1
British Columbia 9.8% ♦ 0.2
Source: Statistics Canada
Jobless rate up
Citizen news services
The unemployment rate in the Central Interior is now the highest in the province, Statistics Canada announced today.
The unemployment rate for the area north of Williams Lake and out to Smithers now stands at 13.6 per cent, 0.2 per cent higher than it was last month.
However, Margaret Meers, labor market analyst for the Canada Em-ployement Centre, warns that due to the small sample sued to find the unemployment rate, this may not really reflect a change from last month’s figure of 13.4 per cent.
The lowest unemployment rate in the province, at 7.8 per cent, is in Greater Vancouver.
For the province as a whole, the rate dropped 0.2 per cent to 9.8.
“I think the Figures reflect a slowdown in logging this summer and the fact we’re less affected by tourism than other parts of the province, and even that’s lower here,” Meers said.
Nationally, the unemployment rate was unchanged in July at 10.5 per cent
Postie
‘dazes’
dogs
Postal carrier Steve Walker has been bitten by dogs more than 20 times while delivering the mail in the Range Road area. Now he’s training them to leave him alone.
Walker now carries a Dazer — a small plastic tool that looks and works like a garage door opener. It puts out a sound so high pitched people can’t hear it, but it literally dazes dogs.
“We’ve been using it for two or three months on an experimental basis and it works very, very well,” said Jim Amep, supervisor at post office station B.
“Unlike other things we’ve tried, people can’t hear it at all but the dog just stops barking.”
Amep stressed that “it’s a training tool, not a protection tool. If a dog is in the midst of an attack when you use it, it won’t help unless you can cram it in the dog’s mouth.”
However, if used before a dog lunges, the Dazer confuses the dog.
“It’s working well,” Amep said.
“Steve says most dogs now tend to avoid him.”
The Dazer used by Walker is one of the few in northern B.C. The nearest one is in Williams Lake. So when he’s not using it, other letter carriers with problem dogs on their routes are using it to train dogs to take up new hobbies as well.
Convention backs death penalty
by Southam News
TORONTO — The Progressive Conservative party says the federal government should restore the death penalty for first-degree murder.
The party approved the proposal Thursday following a passionate debate between abolitionists and retentionists attending the Tory national convention.
Several delegates argued that the death penalty was no deterrent to crime and that restoring it might lead to the execution of innocent people.
“In a free country like Canada, no one has the right to kill any one else, including the state,” said one
delegate.
Capital punishment is “vengeance” not justice, said another.
The House of Commons voted against restoration of the death penalty in 1987 and the issue has been laid to rest, added Tory MP Lise Bourgault.
But delegate Rod Kelly of British Kelly countered that capital punishment was “an old Tory policy that is near and dear” to many party members.
Executions would help save money and “murderers who’ve been executed cannot repeat offend,” he said.
“There’s no need to keep murderers in jail for life when we can execute them.”
The convention clearly agreed,
approving the death penalty resolution by a margin of 58 to 39 per cent
The resolution is official party policy, but is not binding on the government.
The capital punishment vote was one of a series of controversial issues dealt with during a lengthy debate on justice matters.
In other decisions, delegates strongly rejected an anti-abortion resolution, as well as a proposal to make Stetsons the only permissible form of headgear for the Mounties.
The RCMP’s decision to allow Sikh members to wear turbans has raised strong opposition, particularly in Western Canada.
B.C. delegate Don Campbell
said the Mountie uniform was one of the country’s few remaining symbols and should not be changed.
Another delegate agreed, adding that the use of turbans could lead to other forms of headgear.
“What’s going to be next?. Feathered head dresses?”
But Toronto delegate David Rotenberg warned that condemning turbans would hurt the Tories by cutting them off from Canada’s cultural communities.
“This resolution is a watershed for the party. Are we the party of the WASPs. . .or the party of all people.. . ?”
On social issues, the convention urged the federal government to
institute user fees for medical treatmenL But the impact of the decision, when 55 per cent of the delegates in attendance approved the resolutions, was mitigated by the sparse attendance at the debate dealing with social policy.
Only about 500 Tories, of an estimated 2,500 at the convention, were present when the motion to impose “modest user fees” on patients was passed.
And only about 300 participated when a motion to ask the government to examine the idea of a guaranteed annual income program was approved.
The delegates voted down a motion & eliminate the principle of
universality on social programs, as well as one that would allow sex education in classrooms.
“Fine,” said one exasperated delegate who wanted sex education taught in schools. “Let’s not under any circumstances teach our children about sexuality, let’s let them find out for themselves.”
The motion on extra-billing produced one of the liveliest discussions.
“Health care is growing at an uncontrollable rate,” argued Ray Kolynchuk, a Toronto area Tory, “so I urge everyone here to adopt the motion.”
Another said a small user fee was necessary to “deter hypochondriacs and others.”
Poll indicates
action wanted on economy
by IAN AUSTEN Southam News
OTTAWA — Reviving the economy and restoring national unity would do more to cure the electoral woes of the federal Conservatives than dumping Brian Mulroney as leader, an Angus Reid-Southam News poll suggests.
While slightly more than three-quarters of the 1,508 people questioned strongly disapproved of Mulroney’s performance as prime minister, a substantial number conceded that concrete economic and constitutional achievements might make them reconsider the Conservatives.
“I was somewhat surprised by the number of Canadians who said they are willing to take a second look at Brian Mulroney and the Conservatives,” Reid said from his Winnipeg office.
The results should encourage Mulroney who promised delegates at the current Conservative convention in Toronto that the party will again be victorious if he is kept as leader.
The telephone survey was taken between July 25 and Aug. 1.
Thirty-two per cent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to vote Conservative if the party dropped Mulroney.
But 46 per cent said voting Conservative was a possibility if the party ■“led the country in a period of strong economic growth” and 39 per cent might change their minds if it had “worked out a solution to Canada’s national unity problem.”
“In spite of the severe problems that currently confront the Conservatives they have some opportunities ... on the economy and national unity (rather) than having a blood bath right now,” Reid said.
While those questioned might rethink their views, they aren’t very optimistic about Mulroney’s ability to deliver.
When asked if the prime minister could stage a turnaround before the next election, 62 per cent said he is “too unpopular” to win again, while 34 per cent thought he could repeat his 1988 performance at the Rplls.
Three-quarters of those polled in the former Conservative stronghold of Alberta thought a reversal was not possible while Quebecers were almost evenly divided about the chances for another Conservative government.
If the survey has a glimmer of optimism for the Conservatives, it also contains hints of gloom for federal Liberals.
Although the Liberals are currently the most popular party on a nationwide basis, their support is weak in a number of key regions.
And the poll suggests that many voters don’t like Opposition Leader Jean Chretien.
“The problems confronting Mr. Chretien are probably one of the biggest political assets Brian Mulroney has,” Reid said.
Nearly half of the people surveyed nationwide, 48 per cent, said they disapproved of Chretien’s performance as leader and 36 per cent said his removal as leader would make them more likely to consider the Liberals.
“There’s more of them saying that than are saying it about Brian Mulroney,” Reid added.
Strike mandate granted
Employees at Fletcher Challenge Canada’s sawmill in Mackenzie, represented by the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, voted 87 per cent in favor of giving their bargaining team a strike mandate, returning officer Dave Seright reported today.
This doesn’t mean Local 18 of the PPWC will necessarily go on strike, but it gives the union negotiating committee the right to call a strike if they feel one is warranted, and strengthens their position at the bargaining table.
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