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&_Lastlegar News May 20, 1990

LOCAL/PROVINCIAL NEWS

BRIEFLY

By CasNews Staff

Awareness needed, RCMP say

‘The Castlegar RCMP are trying to create more awarness about the
Neighborhood Watch program in Castlegar and Robson and drum up
interest to revive the Block Parent program in the area, Const. Russell
‘Sangster said.

The RCMP will provide information to residents interested in
Neighborhood Watch, which is in place in the communities but does not
have a high profile, and police have the application forms for

in b ‘ing block parents, Sangster said, The
Block Parent program was run in the area about eight years ago, he
added

The Neighborhood Watch program makes residents partners with
the police in preventing crime by teaching homeowners how to better
secure their homes and how to help prevent crime in their
neighborhood. Block parents provide a safe place for children to go
when they are away from their homes and feel in danger.

Convention will be in August

A nominating convention to chose a Social Credit candidate to
represent the riding of Rossland-Trail in the next p’ election will
be held some time in August | but no date has ‘yet been confirmed,

R d-Trail Socred i Walter
Siemens said.

‘When a date is chosen, the constituency association will have to
seek approval for the date from the party head office in Richmond,
Siemens said, adding that three people are considering running for the
candidacy but no one has declared his or her intentions yet.

Siemens said he is one of the three who may run for the position
while Castlegar Mayor Audrey Moore, who won the nomination in 1986
but lost the election to NDP MLA Chris D’Arcy, said she hasn't ruled
out the ‘possibility of running again.

*ve been too busy with a whole lot of other things’ to make a
decision yet, Moore said.

WCE contest set for May 26

Nine zone finals throughout B. C. during May and June will decide
which first aid teams can compete in the Workers’ Compensation
Board’s 33rd annual provincial first aid competion.

This year, the WCB provincial final will take place in Vancouver
June 16. The annual championship meet will play a starring role in
Safety Challenge *90, the Workers’ Compensation Board’s two-day

to Canadian O i Health and Safety

‘Week.
The West Kootenay contest is scheduled for May 26 at Gyro Park
in Trail. The publi invited to watch the competition, beginning at 8
a.m., as the first aiders their life ing skills at a si
industrial accident.
z The Trail event is sponsored by the West Kootenay Mine and
Industrial Safety Association.

Bus summer schedule available

Starting May 28, the regular Castlegar regional transit service will
introduce its summer schedule.

The ms | ‘destinations.
including the downtown district, the Plaza, Selkirk College, South

today and

The members of the Pass Creek Community Choir sing hymns Satu:
of Spiritual Communities of Christ annual Youth Festival at the Brilliant

SINGING IN HARMONY

day during the openi hours of the Union
Culturel Contre, The festival continues

Castlegar and regional areas from Robson in the north to Fairview in
the south. At Fairview a connection with Trail Transit buses can be
made twice daily Monday to Friday.

The summer schedule, in effect until Sept. 3, is designed to better
match hours of service with passenger trip demand, which is lower
when schools are not in session, a B.C. Transit news release says.

A new timetable shows that the bus operates from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday to Saturday and gives all detail of the summer schedule. Copies
of the timetable are available on the bus and at city hall.

The handyDART and paratransit service will remain on its present
8 a.m. to 1 p.m. schedule for a few more weeks. On Aug. 20,
handyDART hours will be extended from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to
Friday to better serve the travel needs of handicapped passengers.

School's music not sweet

NELSON (CP) — Music students
at L:V. Rogers high school are
kicking up stink.

Every time they play, skunks offer
their opinion.

“it s really hard to concentrate,

you have to take a big
breath,” says Grade 12 flautist Moira
Freeman.

‘*Music classes have been cancelled
10 times.”

But Trustee Jane Fowler of schoot
district No. 7 said skunks aren’t the

real problem: ‘‘It’s the building. It’s a
rotten facility.”"

The music room, Lee Hall, was
built by students in the early 70s.

It’s so rundown it’s not worth
peers the plywood skirting. So the

skunks just dig in, as they have for six
years.

The district wants $10 million to
renovate the school and replace Lee
Hall. But the Education Ministry says
it’s only a medium priority item.

“When (Education Minister Tony

Brummet) visited, he told us at least
we've got-a roof over our heads,”’
said Fowler.

So do the skunks.

“One day we knew they didn’t tike
what we were playing,’ recalled
‘Grade 10-trumpet_player Sean Latta,
one of 80 ‘music students. ‘‘They
made these high shrill noises .. . and
we were just waiting for them to
blow. When they did, we got out of
here as fast as we could."”

Music director Bruce Hunter says

the varmints are ornery and bad tem-

“They burp and fart and fight,” he
said. ‘‘Sometimes we stop rehearsal to
tisten.”*

Five skunks have been trapped sin-
ce-fall__

“*The kids’ sandwiches make great
bait,”” said maintenance man Roger
Bond.

Now the skunks are wise to his
traps.

Besides, it’s mating season.

Castlegar youth
dead after crash

~ | ~By CasNews Siaff

A 16-year-old Castlegar youth died
in hospital as the result of injuries
sustained in a three-vehicle accident
on Highway 3 west of the Kinnaird
bridge early Saturday morning, RC-
MP said.

The youth’s name is being withheld
at the request of the family, police

Tight away because the injured were _
from out of town and their families

LOCAL/PROVINCIAL NEWS

More forestry
study called fo

VANCOUVER (CP) — British
Columbia needs to devote more effort
and spend more money on forestry
and forest products research, a
University of British Columbia
Professor told the forest resources

n.

The total expenditure for forestry
research in the province is $34 million
annually, much less than the United
States and Sweden spend, said Denis
Lavender, head of the. university’s
forest sciences department.

“*We need to adopt a tax similar to
one in Oregon that requires a levy of
five cents per thousand board feet of
timber harvested to be devoted ex-
clusively to forest products research,”
Lavender told the three-member

which was concluding its
blic hearings.

He suggested the money could be
administered by the B.C. Science
Councit-and directed “to long-term
research to provide stable funding for
private forest research laboratories.

Any new forest policy for British
Columbia must recognize the diver-
sity of provincial forests and of
businesses that depend on it, said Ken
Stenerson, woodlands manager for
Scott Paper Ltd. in Vancouver.

The company uses a single har-
dwood species — cottonwood — as
the fibre base for its consumer tissue
products. The timber comes from a
tree farm licence, part of which lies in
the Fraser Valley, with a rotation
period of 25 to 30 years.

“*Scott is one of the few companies
in the province to have planted and
harvested the same trees,"” Stenerson
said.

Scott Paper supports the tree farm
licence system which gives security of
tenure and provides licenceholders
with a measure of assurance that in-
vestments made today will generate
future returns, he said:

He was echoed by forestry con-
sultant Gerry Burch, who said that
while the wilderness preservation
Program should be expanded, long-
term area-based tenures should be
supported.

“They have been proven around
the world to be the best form of
tenure,”’ he said.

Clear-cutting should be permissible
in most timber-harvesting areas,
mainly for ecological reasons, Burch
said. However, the ‘‘openings’’ (the
clearcut area) could be smaller,

BLOOMING csi thease

Ken Wyllie, Regional District of Central Kootenay director for Area J, takes time from his dutie:
pri the West yersoqerd National Exhibition Contre’ ‘5 Blooming Garden Party fourth annual fundraising event to pose with

Wonderla

Alex Re@dy, left, Dosie Crawford, who came as the
ind ato painted the roses red, and Orienta
that included a silent art auction and wine tasting.

CasNews photo by Burt Compbett!

5 master of ceremonies

gordener in Alice in
| gardener Eleanor Elstone, right, were barks winners during an evening

Court asked to keep Ottawa in deal

VANCOUVER (CP) — The federal government
cannot be allowed to renege on its agreement with the

on shared: welfare

asenior B.C. that Parliament

party can opt out by giving one year’s notice.
A lawyer for the federal government argued earlier

has supreme authority to amend

troduced legislation to change the assistance plan rules,

the i can't

change the
And if they did, the federal government has the power to

tering into future agreements with the federal gover
ament. He likened the agreement to contract law.
“Contracts between federal and provincial gover-

government official told the B.C. Court of Appeal.
British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario are
ing the federal g *s decision to limit in-

legislation as it sees fit. Lawyers for the four provinces
saw things differently, saying the federal government
cannot unilaterally and without warning change the

creases to their Canada A Plan to five
per cent a year for two years. Manitoba is supporting their
challenge.

The five-judge panel reserved judgment after three
days of hearing.

The assistance plan, created 23 | years ago, calls. on the
federal gi to match pi to
welfare “and: some smater ; Bither party can
withdraw from the agreement by mutual consent or one

“*Canada should not be permitted to renege on this
Bob Edwards, B.C.’s assistant deputy attorney
general, said in closing arguments in the case.

The United Native Nations and Native Council of
Canada were granted intervenor status in the case.
Natives living off reserves are the largest single sroup that
-could-be affected -by the timits:

Edwards said while the federal government. has in-

terminate its contributions to the plan.

The inability of this province to be on equal terms
with the federal government is ‘‘pernicious and objec-
tionable,’’ Edwards said.

Chris Bredt, representing Ontario, supported the
B.C. position that both sides should be required to abide
by the assistance plan agreement.

“‘What’s sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gan-
der,”’ he said. ‘This principle flows from co-operative
federalism.””

er Stan Rutwind said Alberta believes the
federal move would destroy provincial confidence in en-

nments are pretty much a necessity these days the way this
country has evolved.""

He was replying to Justice Mary Southin who said
she had *‘grave doubts this instrument is a contract in any
meaningful way,’’ a position taken by Joseph Arvay of
Manitoba.

Marvin Storrow, representing the aboriginal group,
argued the rules regarding the Canada Assistance Plan
should apply equally to the federal and provincial gover-
nments.

“There must be a high level of co-operation between
federal and provincial governments.

have not been notified.

Police said a westbound 1983
Toyota collided with an eastbound
1988 Nissan, forcing the Nissan into «
an eastbound 1986 Ford.

The Nissan and Toyota are likely
complete losses while the Ford
i damage of about

said Saturday
A-total of five people were taken to
Castlegar and Trail hospitals after the
accident and at least one is suffering
from serious injuries, police said,
ding that names cannot be released

Judge studied factors

By CasNews Staff

A number of factors were taken in-
to account by the judge before he sen-
tenced Castlegar resident David
DaCosta to a 90-day intermittent jail
term and three years probation with
conditions on two sexual assault
charges, senior Crown prosecutor
Dana Urban said.

DaCosta —was—originally—charged
with seven sexual offences but the
Crown stayed proceedings in all but
two.

“In my opinion, taking into ac-

count all the circumstances, it was in

the best interests of justice to proceed
on only two (charges),’’ Urban said.

DaCosta, 30, pleaded guilty to the
two charges last week in Nelson
provincial court and the judge accep-
ted the joint submission for senten-
cing from Urban and DaCosta’s
lawyer Leigh Harrison.

In sentencing DaCosta, the judge
took into consideration the deterrent
effect media coverage of the case has
had on the accused, the fact he was

suspended without pay from his job
at Westar Timber Ltd.’s Southern
Wood Products sawmill for several
months after being charged, his 2'4-
year-old daughter who relies on him
for support, and his wife who is about
seven months pregnant, Urban said.

The judge considered the fact
DaCosta has been under regular
psychiatric_care since his_arrest_last
August and no new offences have oc-
curred, Urban explained, adding that
a sentence longer than 90 days would
have resulted in DaCosta losing his
job.

As well, the Crown had some reluc-

tant witnesses and the judge toak into
account the fact that DaCosta’s plea
saved the victims from testifying, Ur-
ban said.

The incidents that led to the charges
occurred in ‘‘an atmosphere of hor-
seplay with sexual overtones,’”
Harrison said he explained to the
judge.

““DaCosta_went_too_far_in_that
situation,’ Harrison told the
Castlegar News. Harrison added that
he understands the union and
management at Westar put an end to
the “‘horseplay” after DaCosta was
charged.

Doctors submit
new proposal

VANCOUVER (CP) — B.C. doc-
tors have submitted a new proposal in
an effort to break their contract

Taxes__

continued from front pege
the tax-rate increases and an overall
increase in assessed values which has
resulted from new construction and a
percentage decrease in tax exemptions
for heavy industry, Gairns says.

However, the increase in. revenue
will be spent maintaining or im-
proving city services such as policing
and fire protection, the costs of which
have increased this year.

© Overwaitea

© Shoppers

© SuperVatlu

® Zellers
Not a! ppeirapensen tngcnager a0
ih yew not receive one of these

ore ond would ike to S00, pleese

‘our Circulation Department et
365-7266.

with the provincial gover-
nment.

Dr. John Anderson, president of
the B.C. Medical Association, said he
could not provide any details about
the proposal, but added that it did not
reduce the doctors’-demand for a fee
increase.

“Government negotiators looked
at the proposal and said they would
get back to us, and that’s all that hap-
pened,’ said Anderson.

Negotiations are due to resume

Thursday.

Health Minister John Jansen and
Finance Minister Mel Couvelier were
not available for comment

Doctors in Prince George,
Kamloops and Victoria plan to hold
four-hour study sessions, beginning
with Prince George on Wednesday, to
Protest the pace of negotiations. Their
last contract expired April 1, 1989.

The association is seeking fee in-
creases of six, 5.5. and 5.5. per cent in
each of three years. :

The government has offered a 3.5
Per cent increase to the Medical Ser-
vices Plan budget in the first year.

9 killed a Ié-year-old

$1,000, RCMP said.
The accident is under investigation.

early
Phare youth = sent tive phen eae to hospital

—CosNews photo by Patrick Nekleve

Burial site

continued from front page

destruction by development and pothurters while
awaiting the return of the skeletal remains of our an-
cestors,”’ band members say in the letter.

“*We have been communicating our plight on a
regular basis to various people and agencies in Canada.
We are indeed force to protect our dead from you and
others who persist in treating us as though we are in-
visible.’”

As well, the band does not need the help of B.C.
Heritage—Trust—and—the ¥ outdoor
recreation branch of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs to
select a location for reburial ‘‘so that no additional
burials are disturbed and future development of the site
will not impact on the reburial area,’’ the letter says.

“We will be directed exactly — per our religious
teachings — as to where and how to conduct the reburial
of our people.’’ The band reminded the museum director
it does not want development of any kind of the site.

The band hired a lawyer last year to help get the
remains returned but he began pursuing a lands claim and
the band members voted to ‘‘let him go,’’ Swan said.

The Indians are not interested in pursuing a claim,
which would imply the band did not own the land to
begin with, and are currently looking for a lawyer to
represent them in their claim that the land is their
inheritance, she said. The band has discovered there are
other Arrow Lakes Indian burial sites including one near
Edgewood, she added.

Swan said the band has also been informed B.C.
Heritage Trust may have bought the burial site from a
land developer who was not a Native and the band is con-
sidering its legal position if that is the case.

Hewitt said nothing was decided during the after-
noon meeting and another meeting will be held,
although no date has been set. He would give no details of
what was discussed.

Celgar

continued from front page

to the West Kootenay region to use only the very best
in our mod

“*Environmental concerns are dictating the design of
the new mill equipment,”’ he noted.

“*Recent advances and testing of chlorine-free
Processes at hardwood mills are already producing en-
couraging preliminary results, pointing the way to future
elimination of all chlorine for softwood pulp.””

Peroxide has been more readily adopted by har-
dwood pulp mills where less bleaching is required to
achieve a marketable product because softwood contains
more lignin, a dark, natural glue-like substance which
makes the wood more difficult to bleach, Sweeney said.

Waters

continued from front page

Waters, who made history last year by becoming
Canada’s first elected senator, was in Castlegar drum-
ming up support, money and memberships.

Since Mulroney hasn’t accepted the results of the
@lection and refuses to install Waters in the upper
chamber, Waters has plenty of time to spend pitching

LOTTERIES

the Refe line.
Since the Reform Party gets much of its support
— it claims a membership of 35,000 — from
H i Tories, Waters takes every opportunity to

The $1,000,000 winning number in
Friday’s Provincial lottery draw is
4824482. There are also subsidiary
prizes.

The winning numbers drawn Friday
in the B.C. Keno lottery were 4, 5, 7
8, 23, 25, 31 and 44

The winning numbers drawn Thur.
sday in the B.C. Keno lottery were 3,
18, 32, 40, 44, 46, $0 and 52.

The winning numbers drawn in
Wednesday's Lotto 6/49 were 3, 22,
23, 31, 33 and 47. The bonus number
was 28.

The winning numbers drawn Wed-
nesday in the B.C. Keno lottery were
4, 10, 14, 22, 26, 29, 30 and 50.

These_numbers provided by The
Canadian Press must be considéred
unofficial.

make sure no one forgets about the federal deficit, the
goods and services tax, Meech Lake and Senate
reform.

“The Reform Party doesn't pretend to have all
the answers,’’ Waters said. But the party is in the
process of a complete platfc
stands on the environment and Native rights.

‘The comments were not sugar coated and Waters
made no apologies for that. But are Canadians ready
to swallow a pill not specially coated to avoid stomach

upset?

“*I can’t answer that question,””
kind of answers come at the polls.’’

The next chance the Reform Party will have to
gauge its progress will be the.byelection in the Van-
couver-Quadra after Liberal leader John Turner steps
down at the Liberal leadership convention in Calgary
June 23.

“*That will be an exciting indication of whether
we’re making inroads,’* Waters said.

Inroads in B.C. and the West are one thing but
the goal of the party is to be nationally based and
that’s going to take time, he said.

“I've been called some nasty names in Eastern
Canada and so has Preston,’’ Waters said, referring to
party leader Preston Manning.

Though just 50 people in Castlegar was a disap-
pointing turnout, Waters said he isn’t discouraged.

“In Red Deer we used to have meetings when only
12 people would show up and now we get 3,000. We
knew this area would be a tough One to crack because
this has been an NDP stronghold, but we'll be back.””

he said. ‘Those

pNATIONAL NEWS

CP News Analysis
By LARRY WELSH

OTTAWA (CP) — Signs are
that John Crow, governor of the
Bank of Canada and the man
keeping interest rates high, was
right again.

The economy managed to
generate $6,000 new jobs in April,
the biggest employment increase
in almost a year despite high in-
terest rates and fears the country
is on the brink of a recession.

Although Crow would never
say_so publicly, he might well-con-
fide: ‘*I told you so.””

Three times last week, Crow
suffered slings and arrows from
MPs for conducting a ‘‘very
odious monetary policy’’ that
seeks to curb inflation by
restraining fast-growing spending
in the economy.

But Crow has stuck to his anti-
inflation guns in the face of a
growing crowd of critics, who
have been calling on him for more
than a year to declare a truce in his
inflation fight and lower interest
rates.

So far, many economic
statistics have supported Crow:

© The unemployment grate
dropped sharply in Marchand
remained unchanged in April at
7.2 per cent.

© Inflation has crept up instead
of down, rising to an average of
five per cent last year from 4.1 per
cent in 1988.

© Inflation rose to 5.5 per cent
in January before slipping to 5.3
per cent in March.

* The number of people ear-
ning a regular paycheque jumped
by a surprising 56,000 in April.

Canadians may not like it, but
Crow told the Commons finance
committee his campaign for a bet-
ter ecoromy where prices don’t
rise — what some economists call
zero inflation — is far from over.

“We're not going to reach price
stability any time quickly,"’ he
said.

“One of the ironies in fact of
the 1989 situation was monetary

Crow's policies
may turn out
to be correct

ANALYSIS

policy was strongly criticized and
inflation rose. We're moving
away from price stability, not
towards it.’”

The facts may back Crow, but
many executives and analysts fear
the central bank governor's quest
for zero inflation is causing
serious, permanent damage to the
economy.

Although overall employment
rose sharply in April, 45,000 jobs
disappeared from the manufac-
turing sector and 122,000
manufacturing jobs have been lost
since last August.

Trevor Eyton,
Bracan Ltd., one of Canada’s
largest resource conglomerates,
warned last week that Crow’s bid
for a “‘utopian zero level of in-

Sflation’” may do more harm than
good.

“We must avoid the tendency
for overk:

Already there are signs high in-
terest rates are hurting the
economy without arresting in-
flation.

Statistics Canada has reported
the economy contracted in
January and February after ac-
counting for inflation, the first
consecutive monthly declines since
the recession in the early 1980s.

Other telling figures are expec-
ted this week when Statistics
Canada reports on the country’s
trade performance and the in-
Nation rate in April.

A big drop in exports under the
weight of a high Canadian dollar
and high interest rates, and a
jump in inflation could suggest
the Bank of Canada’s monetary
policy is on the wrong track.

Or a decline in inflation and a
respectable showing by exporters
will provide more evidence that
Crow is»well on his way to
restraining price increases. and
securing better economic growth
in the future.

President of

Quebec separation feared

MONTREAL (CP) —
are beginning
economic consequences
separation.

Warnings
to fly about the
of Quebec

With foreign investors waking up
to the fact that safe, boring Canada
isn’t looking so safe and boring any
more, a chorus of alarm can be heard
from the country’s highest corporate
circles.

“The spectre of the potential
breakup of this country has got to
make everybody nervous,’’ William
Stinson, chairman of Canadian
Pacific Ltd., said after addressing the
recent annual meeting of the Mon-
treal-based company

“Anybody who thinks two coun-
tries or three countries or four coun-
tries—is— stronger than one country
economically is a dream
world.””

Last month, Edward Neufeld, chief
economist of the Royal Bank of
Canada, the country’s biggest char-
tered bank, issued a similar warning
“It doesn’t take a great deal of
research to imagine the consequences
of destroying a country.”’

living in

He wouldn't be drawn into any
scenarios, saying only “‘there is simply
a great deal of danger — economical
and financial — involved in national
chaos.”*

“The price would be paid by all the
governments of Canada,’ he said.

Financial markets are already
showing signs of edginess about
Canada’s constitutional problems.

The dollar, under pressure because
of uncertainty over Canadian
monetary policy, has jumped ner-
vously with any new Meech Lake
development.

The New York brokerage firm, Fir-
st Boston, said in a report that the
minimum Canada would pay for con-
tinued uncertainty is higher interest
rates to lure jittery investors.

The debate is familiar in Quebec to
those who lived through the 1980
referendum when every kind of
economic argument was mustered
against sovereignty.

But in Quebec, where business
leaders have been saying their vibrant
entrepreneurial spirit makes the
province ready for anything — even
independence — observers say there

are major questions still to be an-
swered.

For instance, the unemployment
rate is nearly twice that of neigh-
boring Ontario. What would a debate
over dividing up the national debt,
questions over currency and trade
relations with the rest of Canada and
the United States do to the jobless
rate or to the economy as a whole?

Independence supporter Francois
Vaillancourt, an economist at the
University of Montreal, concedes
sovereignty would result in a lower
standard-of-living for Quebecers for
five to 10 years.

“‘It’s not for anyone who wants to
get rich quick,’’ he said, only half
jokingly.

Even the usually reclusive Paul
Desmarais, chairman of Power
Corp., has entered the fray

The Sudbury, Ont., native who
parlayed his father’s schoolbus line
into a financial colossus worth $2.3
billion, said he believes Quebec
business leaders have not considered
the economic nuts-and-bolts of
separation

Instead of talking about the Con-
stitution, ‘“‘we would spend all our
time fighting about dividing up the
national debt,”’ he said.

And major companies, suchas
Power, Canadian Pacific, forest
Products giant Domtar Inc. and

Inc., the ‘based
transportation empire, all say the un.
certainty is scaring away foreign in.
vestment.

Desmarais said two foreign in-
vestors have backed off from doing
multi-million dollar deals with Power
because of the wrangling

Bombardier_chairman—Laurent
Beaudoin said in a recent interview
‘‘People are worried.’”

Western Europe is moving closer to
monetary union and even taking its
first tentative steps toward political
unity, he noted.

Beaudoin said Europeans look at
Canada and say, ‘‘Those Canadians
sure are crazy.”"

“With Europe 1992, countries are
getting more united and here, we are
saying we should separate,”’ said
Beaudoin. ‘‘There’s something

wrong

Chamber wants new budget

OTTAWA (CP)

much trouble Finance Minister Michael
must immediately bring in a new. federal budget, the
president of Canada’s largest business group said.
“Daily, there are disturbing economic signals
that the economy is getting deeper and deeper into
trouble — that we may be heading for our first
quarrer of negative economic growth since 1982,’"

Canada’s economy is in so

Wilson

time to produce results.

Tim Reid, head of the Canadian Chamber of

Commerce, said in a speech in Guelph, Ont
“The federal government should bring in a
to get the
"’ Reid said ina
summary of his comments released in Ottawa
Economists-consider two consecutive quarters
where the economy shrinks
a recession. The last was in

revised federal budget immediately

Canadian economy back on track,

of negative growth
rather than grows
1982.

Reid said’ Canada’s econdmic situation has
\ worsened dramatically since Wilson's budget.

Wiilson announced $3
billion in spending cuts and no new taxes — a
package he forecast would mean a slight cut in the
to $28.5 billion from

In his Feb. 20 budget,

federal deficit in 1990-91
$30.5 billion the year before

He predicted the budget and other government
Moves would result in a $10-billion deficit reduction

by 1993-94.

over the last week,
trading Friday.

But recent interest rate hikes mean the finance
minister won't be able to meet his forecasts for
deficit reduction, said Reid.

Wilson, on tour in Bridgewater, N.S.,
his government's tight monetary policy needs more

“The fiscal year is barely six weeks old and
talk of an early buget is premature,”

Wilson said Friday's decline in the annual in
flation rate for April to an 11-month low of five per
cent was an encouraging sign.

Reid’s statement for
represents 170,000 businesses across Canada in 500
chapters, marks the most scathing comment from
the group since Wilson bought down his budget

The Canadian dollar, which has been wobbly
fell below 85 cents during

But dollar traders said it was unclear if that
was a reaction to Reid's statement or continuing

pack it in

He said some businesses are being forced to

**Sudden business failures like these are shades

said

of the bad times of the 1970s and early 80s and are
enough to deeply concern all Canadians."

Higher interest rates also cost Ottawa more to

* said Wilson

service the $350-billion federal public debt.
Since January, interest rates have risen 1.5 per-

centage points to an eight-year high.

the chamber, which

cent

per cent

The prime lending rate banks charge their best
customers is currently 14.75 per cent.

In February, Wilson’s budget projected that
short-term interest rates would average 11.1 per
To this point in the year, however, they've
been two points higher than that at more than 13

Reid said every one-point rise in interest rates
adds another $1.7 billion to the federal deficit.

The Royal Bank recently projected that in-
terest rates won't fall until 1991 unless there’s a

rece!

Reid said Ottawa's failure to get its fiscal
house in order has led to inflationary pressures and
meant Canadian business is paying higher interest

over Canada’s

¢ Bank of Cansda Sal been pushing up in-
terest rateSto cool the economy and fight inflation.

Inflation Has-been running at more than five

April

per cent for months.,

Earlier Friday, Statistics Canada-reported that
the annual inflation rate dipped to $.0 per Sentin
the lowest rate in 11 months.