Hi
    Nation
Could Las-Vegas style casinos be on the way to Alberta. Page 6
  Homes
                             There is more to CMHC than you think there is. Page 23
Television
John Larroquette's show could be on the chopping block. Page 14
                                                                               Spruce Kings have little trouble cruising to seventh straight. Page 17
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                                                                                                                                                                                            Low tonight; -6 High tomorrow: 1
 Details page 2
PRINCE GEORGE
Citizen
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1995
 65 CENTS
 Singin’ the blues
 Singer Shlrman ‘Tank’ Doucette rocked the Other Art Cafe last night with the help of Rob Montgomery on guitar, Bob Popowich on bass and Bob Woods on drums. The band, Incognito, has been at the top pf .the Vancouver music scene since the early ‘80s and has become known as one of Canada’s premier blues banfls. Incognito performs at Other Art Cafe again tonight.
Ramsey foresees change in billing
                                                                                                                by ALLAN McRAE Kamloops Daily News
     KAMLOOPS — B.C.’s general practice doctors could some day be paid an annual fee for each patient they attract rather than relying on the current fee-for-service system, says Health Minister Paul Ramsey.
     Ramsey said the option, one of several addressed in a discussion paper reviewed by health ministers across Canada recently, could lead to reduced costs and improved care.
     “Doctors may have more inclination to apply more time to counselling their patients on preventive medicine,” he said.
     Ramsey said patients would continue to have the right to decide what doctor they want and they would be free to find a new doctor if they weren’t satisfied.
     “I think we have to start a very serious discussion on how physicians are paid,” he said.
     It would also allow doctors to pay more attention to the elderly and others who require more help than the average patient, he said.
     But doctors say capitation (or counting patients) is an old idea tried in Britain’s public health system and in some private U.S. health systems and proven to be a disaster.
     “What happens,” said Dr. Tony Milobar, “is that people abuse the system even more. (Doctors) are at their beck and call day and night whether they need help or not.”
     Dr. Victor Dimfeld, presidentelect of the B.C. Medical Association, said most doctors see capitation as unacceptable. He said he worked under such a system with a large private U.S. healthcare group.
     “It’s interesting the Ministry of Health would look at it as being feasible because they haven’t discussed it with us,” he said.
     Dimfeld said he has seen the
 discussion paper prepared for Canada’s health ministers and, while the Canadian Medical Association is currently reviewing it, the BCMA has yet to take a position on it.
     However, Dirnfeld said his experience is that capitation leads to doctors loading up with as many patients as they can attract and then trying to provide services to all.
     “But, quite frankly, there is a significant drop in quality of care, superficial care and rapid turnaround,” he said.
     Dimfeld said all the evidence he has seen, other than reports prepared by health economists on commission to governments, indicates that fee-for-service is the most economic model unless Canada is prepared to accept user fees, something he feels may be inevitable.
 CARPENTER VOWS TO FIGHT ON
MACKENZIE AMBULANCE SYSTEM
Service condemned
                                                                                                by GORlJoN HOEKSTRA Cftizen Staff
    A Mackenzie woman says the ambulance ^ervice there is not responding ip a timely manner to emergency cMls, but the director of B.C. ambulance services says they’re doing their best to fix the situation.
    The wonjan, who wished to remain anonymous, said in the past two weeks xin her opinion, the ambulance service has not responded twice in' a timely manner to emergency cplls.
    “I’m jusjt. fed up,” said the woman, whcj works in the logging industry. 1
    “It just c&n’t go on this way. If we have an ambulance service, fine. If we^jdon’t, then tell us we don’t.” |
    Last February, the logging and pulp mill /community of 6,000, almost 200 kilometres north of Prince George, lost its only fulltime ambulance attendant.
    It’s fair/ to say there are still
 some concerns, said Mackenzie mayor Tom Briggs.
     “There are times when the response time has been less than adequate.”
     He said the District of Mackenzie is pursuing the matter with Emergency Health Services and the Ministry of Health, but there still has been no resolution.
     Briggs said Val Pattee, the executive director of the ambulance service, has been to Mackenzie twice, and the town also talked to Pattee and Health Minister Paul Ramsey at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Whistler last year.
     “We’re hoping, sooner rather than later, there will be some resolution.”
     The number of calls — on average about 300 a year —just didn’t support a full-time unit supervisor, said Pattee.
     That works out to one or less calls per shift, he said.
     Pattee says there are 80 or so communities throughout the
 province, some bigger than Mackenzie, that operate their ambulance service strictly with part-time attendants and it works.
    He understands that cutting of the full-time position has upset the community, but believes they can receive good service with part-time attendants.
    “Unfortunately, the ambulance attendants are not making the adjustment to fill the schedule as much as possible,” he said. “What we need to do is recruit enough people, so that everyone is comfortable with how many shifts they have.”
    The ambulance service is training more attendants. to spread the work around, added Pattee. Three more are in training and two more people have signed up for it.
    Pattee said there is “no doubt there are times when we don’t have the coverage we’d like to have," but the budget doesn’t permit it.
     HOPE, B.C. (CP) — Whil police try to piece together the lasf^ hours of Melanie Carpenter’s life, the slain woman’s family joined the fight to keep dangerous offenders behind bars.
     “This chapter of the story is over but there’s going to be another one beginning after,” a stoic Steve Carpenter said Friday after confirming his daughter’s body had been found.                          (
     “I won’t rest until the legislation in this country is changed so that other families don’t have to go through what mine did in this last three weeks.”
     Melanie’s suspected abductor was Fernand Auger, a convicted sex offender out on statutory release after serving two-thirds of a two-year sentence for a robbery and weapons offence.
     Scavengers looking for fishing’ nets and rope found her body Thursday near the rugged banks of the Fraser River, 180 kilometres east of Vancouver. She had been bound and stabbed.
     She died within hours of being abducted Jan. 6 from the tanning salon where she worked alone in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, chief investigator Frank Henley of Surrey RCMP’s serious crimes unit said Friday.
     “I would suggest at this time she died very near to where we found the body,” Henley said. “I would judge from the condition of the body she’s been there for some time.”
     But with Auger committing sui-
 Steve Carpenter pictured with his estranged daughter Tina has vowed to fight to keep dangerous offenders behind bars.
 cide by inhaling car exhaust fumes, detectives still want to trace his movements between Melanie’s disappearance and her death.
     As volunteers, friends and family consoled each other at the Surrey search centre established by her father, Carpenter vowed to work to keep violent criminals like Auger off the street.
     He was especially angry because Auger, 37, was released even though the parole board said he was a risk to reoffend.
     “A psychiatrist said he wasn’t fit to go on the street but our govern-
 ment, because of statutory release, let him out,” said Carpenter as his other daughter, 19-year-old Cindy, wept quietly at his side.
    “The politicians better listen because believe me, I’ll be relentless — and I’ve got the whole nation behind me.”
    Claimed sightings of Auger’s rented Hyundai Excel put him on a different highway leading to Alberta than the Trans-Canada which follows the Fraser River.
    Auger was found dead in the car inside the garage of a vacant rural home south of Calgary.
 INDEX
  Ann Landers.............21
  Bridge .................31
  Business.............11-13
  City, B.C,............3,10
  Classified...........26-32
       -1
  Comics .................14
  Coming events ..........16
  Commentary ..............5
  Crossword ..............30
  Entertainment ....14,15
  Horoscope...............31
  Lifestyles..............21
  Movies..................15
  Sports ..............17-20
  58307 00100
 Farcus
                                                                                                                                    “It’s not a bribe — but let’s just say there’s plenty more where that came from.”
MacMillan Bloedel boycott failing
    VANCOUVER (CP) — The full-page newspaper ads trumpeted the unions’ catchy slogan: Say No! to MacBlo.
    But customers seem to be saying yes to MacMillan Bloedel, the forest products giant.
    The boycott call from the B.C. Federation of Labor and the Canadian Labor Congress came two months ago as the unions protest the end of a decades-old MacBlo policy of only hiring established trades unions.
    It followed more than 100 arrests on a picket line outside a MacMillan Bloedel plant in Port Albcrni on Vancouver Island. In
 two ugly days last fall, punches were thrown, tires were slashed and rage was at the boiling point.
     But consumers seem to be boycotting the union’s boycott.
     “We’re not hearing from customers that it’s a concern,” MacBlo spokesman Steve Mitchell said.
     Mitchell said the company’s marketing division concluded the boycott’s effect “has been nonexistent.”
     “It has had no significant effect on sales.”
     Ken Georgetti, B.C. Federation of Labor president, tried this week to put the best light on the effort, declaring that it will be a “long
 campaign.
    “We’re putting on a- campaign against MacMillan Bloedel but we’re not measuring (its effect) yet,” he said.
    “There is no demonstrable way to measure it, but if British Columbians believe in the issue they will support it.”
    CLC spokesman Larry Widen conceded the congress had no evidence of any effect so far.
    “These things take considerable time to take hold,” said Widen.
    CLC president Bob White said earlier he was prepared to take the boycott outside Canada’s borders by urging international labor orga-
  nizations to recognize and promote the campaign.
     “That has not been taken yet,” said Widen.
     That action may come after the current media blitz that began with the full-page ads, said Georgetti, who said he would travel abroad if necessary to promote it.
     The dispute centres around TNL Construction Ltd., which employs members of a so-called rat union on the Port Albemi site.
     Trade unionists despise TNL and its independent union because they believe the union is management-friendly and workers settle for sub-standard contracts.
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