Vol. 39, No. 79 AY, 60 Cents Castlegar By Canadian Press TORONTO — The decision by Canadian Pacific Ltd. to sell its controlling interest in Cominco Ltd. in the first effort at diversification was seen by analysts as a clear signal that CP Ltd. intends to sort out it problems. Meanwhile, Norman Keevil, president of Teck Corp., the company that bought control of Cominco, said the new owners expect to move quickly on a strategy to revive cash-short Cominco. The group led by Teck, a Vancouver-based lead company, is buying 31 per cent of Cominco and the balance of the CP Ltd. stake, an additional 22 per cent, is being sold through stock markets. By dropping Cominco, CP Ltd. gains cash from the sale and avoids an obligation to help out what would have been the biggest forthcoming project within the CP Ltd. group of companies. a RL Teck buys Cominco ‘That obligation is the Red Dog zinc-lead mine in Alaska, the most valuable deposit of its type in the world. Red Dog is to be the successor to the Sullivan mine at Kimberley that has been the mainstay of Cominco operations for several years. By selling to Teck and its partners — Metallgeselischaft AG of West Germany and MIM Holdings Ltd. of Australia — control of Cominco passes to a group better able to rationalize its operations. There is an added bonus to CP Ltd. in that the sale clears more than $935 million of Cominco debt and bank loans from its consolidated balance sheet. Keevil said the new controlling shareholders will move quickly to bring in their ideas on what needs to be done at Cominco. “One of the first priorities is that wi debt down,” he said. ve got to get that CP Ltd. holds 34.23 million shares of Cominco (52.6 per cent of the total issued) and is selling 20 million to Teck and its partners at $14 a share. On the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday, CP Ltd. shares gained 87 cents after the news of the sale was out. It was the most-traded industrial stock. Cominco closed at $13.50, down 50 cents. The total value of the deal is $472.1 million, including $280 million from Teck and its partners. Thomas Bradley, an analyst with Winnipeg-based Richardson Greenshields of Canada Ltd., said the deal is important in terms of what it says about the company's intentions. Where subsidiaries are losing money, debt is usually the major factor. The consolidated long-term debt of CP Ltd. totalled $6.2 billion at the end of 1985. News CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1986 4 Sections (A, B, C&D) TRIO CHARGED IN BEATING eight charges following an alleged kidnap and murder attempt. Nelson city police said Dwayne Clifford Chubb, 18, of no fixed address, Jean Pierre Morin, 18, of Vancouver, and Kenneth Paul Laren, 21, of Nelson were arrested in @ joint Nelson police and Castlegar RCMP operation. Laren was arrested in Nelson and the other two in Sparwood. Police said a Cranbrook man found Jean Joseph Richard Trottier of Quebec beaten and suffering from hypothermia on the Highway 3 overpass at Castlegar. Trottier was taken to Castlegar hospital where he was treated and released. : The offences are alleged to have occurred Saturday, in various locations around Nelson and Castlegar. continued on pege AZ Powers to remain in custody By RON NORMAN and MIKE KALESNIKO Former Castlegar resident Dixie Dee Powers appeared in Nelson provincial court this morning for a bail hearing on charges of fraud and running a pyramid scheme that RCMP say collected $3.4 million in the West Kootenay Judge Ronald Fabbro ordered a ban on publication of evidence from the court proceedings, which lasted more than three hours. Fabbro also instructed that Powers remain in custody. She will next appear in Castlegar provincial court Ost. %te fix a trial date. Powers is also charged with failing to appear in court. Powers, 36, also known as Laura Grace Gibbons, was picked up at the Paterson border crossing Sept. 25 as she entered into Canada from the U.S. Powers was sentenced to one to two yeas in the Wyoming state peniten tiary Sept. 10 after she pleaded no contest to one count of conspiracy to make false statements while selling a security However, that sentence was suspen ded on the condition she return to Canada voluntarily In Nelson today Powers — short and heavy set with bleached blond hair entered a standing room only court house at 9:30 a.m. She appeared clam and relaxed as she took her seat beside her lawyer, Don Skogstad of Nelson At no point did Powers acknowledge the crowd, which had been whispering and fidgetting awaiting the start of proceedings. but became immediately silent in the brief pause before Powers entered the courtroom. Powers sat motionless throughout the proceedings. sing softly with lawyer Skogstad oceasionally conver One of those present for the court case was Daniel Anthony Voykin, 29, of Brilliant, one of four men charged in connection with the alleged pyramid scheme Meanwhile, in a telephone interview Tuesday with the Castlegar News Crown counsel Dana Urban said Powers’ five-year-old son, Jeremiah ‘Anthony Gibbons, has been returned to B.C. from Wyoming Urban said the boy is being held secretively in a foster home Powers made her first court appear ance Monday morning in Castlegar before provincial court Judge Bruce Josephson. It lasted only about five minutes and was held in a nearly empty courtroom. Castlegar lawyer Ken Wyllie told Josephson he was contacted Sept. 26 and asked to represent Powers in her bid to obtain a releare pending trial However, Wyllie said he could not represent Powers because he may be in a conflict of interest position He noted that Powers returned voluntarily to Canada, yet is still being detained. He also pointed out that the Crown counsel is “resisting her re lease.” Wyllie said Don Skogstad agreed to represent Powers in Nelson provincial court today THE WINNER Runner-up Sid Crockett lifts Castlegar Mayor Audrey Moore's hand in triumph ON FIFTH BALLOT Moore wins By RON NORMAN Editor Castlegar Mayor Audrey Moore captured the Rossland-Trail Social Credit nomination Monday night in a marathon race that saw her pitted against two of the party's old guard Moore outpolled Sid Crockett of Genelle 146-109 on the fifth ballot. Castlegar News publisher Burt Campbell was third However, Campbell threw his support behind Crockett after the fourth ballot in a bid to topple Moore But the move came too late. Moore had 126 votes after the fourth ballot, which turned out to be only two votes shy of the majority she needed to win. Campbell had 68 votes when he was forced to drop out, but he couldn't carry all of those votes with him into the Crockett camp. The Campbell votes split on the final ballot with about 30 going to Crockett and the rest heading to Moore “I feel great and it's a great feeling to have the confidence of the people,” Moore said in her victory speech : I'm going to need help from all of you. Tonight we go from here to victory on (Oct.) 22nd.” Moore said later in an interview she was “overjoyed at the way things went,” and she downplayed the stop-Moore movement that emerged after the fourth ballot Asked if her relative newness to the Social Credit party led to the move by Campbell and Crockett to join forces to try and stop her, Moore replied: “I (am not) really sure what that had to do with it.” She said the party has a new leader in Premier Bill Vander Zalm, who is taking the party in “new directions” and attracting new candidates 'm just very proud to be on the Vander Zalm atter hearing results of final ballot. CosNewsPhote by Ron Normon nomination Campbell said he backed Crockett, the party's vice-president, on the final ballot because “he's worked in the ranks, a real Social Crediter.” Campbell said there were only three “real Social Crediters” among the eight candidates for nomination: himself, Crockett and Walt Siemens. He later added that Chuck Lakes would be also considered a member of that group. “What you're asking is if the two candidates who happen to live in Castlegar (Moore and Campbell) should have ganged up on one of the most conscientious, dedi cated and hard-working true Social Crediters in the riding. The- answer is no, we shouldn't have and I didn’t Campbell called Crockett a “realist.” “We knew a greater percentage of my support would go to Audrey, and he was ready for the fifth ballot results that had Audrey go over the top “d Moore led from the outset, strength on the first ballot when she took 80 votes to Campbell's 61 and Crockett’s 49 Moore stretched that lead to 99 votes on the second ballot while Campbell stalled at 62 and Crockett closed showing surprising the gap with 57 votes. Campbell picked up more votes on the third ballot when he shot to 72, while Moore posted 118 and Crockett 68. But Crockett leap-frogged over Campbell on the crucial fourth ballot, polling 78 votes, a number of them coming from the Siemens camp. Siemens had polled 28 votes in the third ballot and was forced to drop out Campbell, on the other hand, saw his support shrink to 68 on the fourth ballot, as the drawn-out voting moved late into the evening and some of his supporters went home. The meeting lasted until nearly midnight five-hour continued on poge A2 surprise A. By Canadian Press TRAIL — Community leaders ex- pressed surprise but little concern Tuesday at the news that Canadian Pacific Ltd. has sold its controlling interest in Vancouver-based Cominco Ltd., the largest employer in Trail. “I think we will have to wait and see what their style and modus operandi is,” said Mare Marcolin, a retired Cominco executive who is chairman of Trail’s community economic action committee. “All of them are very reputable companies,” he said. “They've operated in communities in which they have had a strong an influence as they (Cominco) have had here . . . I don't think it will be detrimental.” Canadian Pacific, which owned 52.5 per cent of Cominco, sold 20 million of its 34.2 million shares at $14 each to a consortium made up of Teck Corp., Metallgeselischaft Canada Ltd. and M.LM. (Canada) Inc. The remaining shares will be offered to the public, at an initial price of $13.50 each. Mayor Charles Lake said he is con cerned about the takeover because a foreign company is involved, “but the flip side of the coin is that with Teck being a major mining company in western Canada, and the West German firm supplying the furnace technology they will be genuinely interested in Cominco and this could be better for the company Ken Georgetti, local president of the INSIDE represents 2,300 Cominco workers, said he doesn't think the takover will affect his members. “As a Canadian, I would like to see Comineo wholly Canadian-owned,” Georgetti said. “But it seems our federal govern- ment has embarked on a vestment policy that says they don’t care who owns what.” Chris D'Aréy, who represented the the last B.C. the future of Cominco rests with how well commodity prices do and how severely government resource taxes impact on the company.” Canadian Pacific expects to realize an extraordinary gain of about $100 million in the fourth quarter of 19866 through the sale. It said it will receive $397 million in cash and $75 million in a promissary note. Vancouver-based Teck operates mines producing copper, gold, silver and zinc. Metallgeselischaft, the Can- adian subsidiary of the West German mining giant, owns 20 per cent of Teck. Cominco produces zinc, lead, copper. silver and gold, and has major interests in chemicals and fertilizers. With federal and provincial govern ment help, it is modernizing its smelter in Trail, and recently agreed to buy a new furnace from a Metallgeselischaft subsidiary SKELLY HERE: New Democratic Party leader Bob Skelly arrives in the West Koqtenay tomorrow He will speak in Trail Thursday night before coming to Castle gar for a public breaktast Friday . AB TAX SALE: This year’s municipal tax sale attracted only two buyers TRANSIT COSTS: The new bus system for the Castlegar area will cost the average homeowner about $9 a4 KISS OF DEATH: PEKING A Chinese bridegroom killed his new wife at a wedding reception with o kiss on the neck that was too passionate and too long. on official newspaper has reported The Lanzhou Evening News said guests a! the reception ina city in northeast China heard a scream from the bedroom and rushed in to find both bride and groom unconscious on the soto They were rushed to hospital, but the bride was dead The groom, who was not named, later said the was kissing his new wife on the neck. Doctors decided the passion, intensity and length of the kiss caused heort palpitations which killed the bride NEW EXHIBIT: The West Kootenay National Exhibition Centre features the exhibit A Show of Hands beginning Thursday Ae SEASON BEGINS: Castlegar Jr. Rebels open their regular KIJHL season Friday night in Beaver Volley... B! CAR COSTS: Quebec is the costliest province in which to operate o cor cl