y., 82 Castlégar News January 6, 1988 SPORTS Canadiens ready to succeed Oilers MONTREAL (CP) In each of the National Hockey League cities they have visited in the first half of the hedule, the Canadi have usually been heralded as the leading contender to wrest the Stanley Cup from the Edmonton Oilers. wy The main reason is the 53 points the Canadiens accumulated in their first 40 games, edging the Calgary Flames by one point in the overall midseason standings. The Canadiens, for the most part, have displayed few flaws — a disciplined, well-prepared” unit, with solid goaltending and four lines that produce a fine balance of offence and defence. It is the type of team general manager Serge Savard and coach Jean Perron strove for in training camp, when they resisted the urge to tinker with a squad that was eliminated in the Wales Conference final last spring. But even Ronald Corey, the Canadiens president, admitted recently that the team's performance has exceeded expectations. FEELS SURPRISE “If someone would have told me at the start of the season that the team would have 53 points in its first 40 games, I would have been overjoyed,” said Corey before the Canadiens played their 41st game last Saturday night, losing 5-2 to the Los Angeles Kings. “Frankly, I'm surprised by the outstanding first half.” Th adiens have impressed plenty of observers with their resilience. Just when it has seemed the club might be headed for its first stretch of losses of the season, it has worked that much harder and avoided a prolonged tailspin. GRETZKY OUT OF ACTION THREE WEEKS EDMONTON (CP) — The injury that was originally expected to keep Edmonton Oiler centre Wayne Gretzky out of action for a game or two will sideline the NHL's leading scorer of the \last seven years for at least three weeks. “He's undergoing daily treatment but he's definitely not ready to skate,” team physican Dr. Gordon Cameron said of Gretzky's sprained right knee. Treatment for the injury — which occurred after Gretzky scored the final goal in a 6-0 win over the Phil adelphia Flyers last Wednesday — includes ultrasound and icepacks. Gretzky slid into the end boards with Philadelphia defenceman Kjell Samuelsson on top of him. That came with just 77 seconds left in the game. “I knew when! went down that it was bad,” Gretzky said, after being told of the decision to keep him out of * action. “I felt a pop or a snap. The top of my leg went one way, the bottom another. “But I was kind of hoping . . . with treatment and any kind of luck I thought I'd be ready for Winnipeg (on Friday). Dr. Cameron told me I'd be out three weeks, maybe more.” Cameron said Gretzky suffered a “substantial wrench to the knee and nature dictates that it'll take time to heal.” If Gretzky is out three weeks he would miss about 12 When they absorbed their worst thumping — a 9-3 loss in Calgary, the second stop of a four-game road trip — there was mild concern, but the next night in Vancouver, the Canadiens rebounded for a 4-1 triumph. “I don't think it shattered any of the players’ confidence,” Perron said earlier this week. “If anything, it was a good thing, in that it brought us back to earth.” HOLDS SLIM LEAD ‘ Perron is among those who believe the Canadiens cannot be lulled into a false sense of security because of their proficient first half. Despite their commendable showing, the team has only a slender two-point lead over the Boston Bruins in the Adams Division. “We can't overlook the fact that the serious part of the schedule is still to come,” noted Perron. “The second half is going to have to closely resemble the first half if we are to be where we want to be, and if we stay away from major injuries and continue to work hard, I see no reason why we can't have the same succe: Bobby Smith, the centre whose 52 points are the most on the team, echoed the assessment of his coach. “We shouldn't try to change our style,” said Smith, “You look at the four lines we have — we haven't changed them much this season — and it helps when you know whe you're going to be playing with every day. “I think that type of continuity has been a big reason for our success so far.” The Canadiens play the Buffalo Sabres tonight at the Montreal Forum. ‘y January 6, 1988 ( ‘astlegar News 33 —_—— NEW YORK (CP) — Spy magazine is scared silly that Canada, a country of polite people who thank their bank machines and drink “whole milk, straight up,” is taking over the United States. “For decades, Canadians perched themselves outside the brightly lit window of these United States, putting their noses up to the glass and wondering why everyone inside was having so much fun,” the hip, often satirical magazine says in its January-February issue. But no more. Canadians own more than two million square metres of New York City office space and their investments in the United States have grown seven-fold over the last 10 years. From actor Michael J. Fox to the board game Trivial Pursuit, Spy notes, Canadians have wormed their way into every niche of the éntertainment business. The Canadian infiltration frightens Spy because, “like the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, they are virtually impossible to identify as they take control.” In that science-fiction movie, one version of which starred Canadian Donald Sutherland, the invaders sapped the life-out of people and emerged from slimy pods as their clones. CANADIAN EH? Spy neglects to mention that its co-editor, E. Graydon Carter, is a Canadian himself, having once written speeches from former prime minister Pierre Trudeau before moving to New York. And it errs in singling out “quarts of whole milk” as Canada's favorite beverage — milk being sold in litres. Moreover, official sources reached independently say the average Canadian drank 106.9 litres of milk in 1985, only five litres more than the average American. Nevertheless, Spy presses on in telling Americans how to pick a Canadian out of a crowd. “Canadians wear unnecessarily sensible shoes with round toes and heavy crepe soles,” it says. “At 4 job interview, a Canadian will ask about the i plan The Canadian invasion Canadians do everything,” Spy adds. “They will sap our strength through interminable conversations about distance between cities, undermine our aggressiveness through relentless courtesy > Canada, founded largely by loyalist “weenies” who fled the American Revolution, is today a thrifty country, with 6.8 million more savings accounts than people, says way Spy says Canada taking over U.S. Spy “America’ was settled by men, Canada by corpor. ations,” Spy snickers. “The country was the ereation of investors, first the Hudson Bay Company, later the railroads. America had people before it had laws; Canada had laws before it had people. “Order in Canada is a higher value than freedom.” Spy trots out the widespread perception of Canada as being dull, so dull that two of its eight U.S.-style football teams have the same name — the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Ottawa Rough Riders. “Canadians are like computers that take hours to boot up,” says Spy. “The other prominent tipoff is relentless niceness; Canadians feel guilty about making the slightest imposition, and they never forget to say ‘Please’ and “Thank you,’ even to bank machines.” games, more than he has missed in his previous eight seasons. He missed one game his first season, six games in 1983-84 with a slightly separated shoulder — Edmonton went 1-5 during his absence — and one game last season, “The style I play, I don’t take the body a lot,” he said of his relatively injury-free career. “I guess injuries are always a part of the game, but when you're leading 5-0 and there's just a minute to go in the game... . “I guess something like this has been long overdue though. It's fortunate it's never happened before.” HEATS UP RACE Gretzky's absence will not only hurt the Oilers, currently on a four-game road trip with centre Mark Messier also injured with a hip flexor, but will also create scoring race. No one has finished within 65 points of Gretzky in the scoring race since Marcel Dionne, then with the Los Angeles Kings, was 29 points back in 1980-81. In Gretzky's first season, 1979-80, he and Dionne finished tied with 137 points, but Dionne was given the title because he had 53 goals, two more than Gretzky. Gretzsky currently leads the race with 86 points, interest in the individual including 30 goals. However, points of him. Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who leads the league with 32 goals, is only 11 points back at 75. Denis Savard of the Chicago Blackhawks follows with 73 and Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings has moved to fourth place with 65 points. Gretzky isn't too worried about the scoring race — he said a tight race would be good for the league — and added that the injury may ultimately work to the Oilers’ advantage. “I've been playing hockey since Aug. 1. Maybe this injury will be a blessing in disguise come April and May.” four players are within 20 individual Pistol Pete packs it in PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Pistol Pete Maravich, who grew up with a basketball in his hands and became a ball-handling, sharp-shooting wizard in college and the NBA, died Tuesday after collapsing during a pickup game. He was 40. Gary Lydick, who also had been playing in the half-court game at First Church of the Nazarene, said Mara vich's last words before collapsing were, “I'm really feeling good.” “Maravich said, ‘I haven't played but once in the past year, in an NBA legends game. I need to do this more often. I'm really feeling good,’ " Lydick recounted. “Maravich turned to walk away and immediately fell to the floor,” Lydick said. “He lost consciousness and perspiring; he Maravich, efforts to revive him were futile.” Maravich, college basketball's all. time leading scorer and a veteran of 10 NBA seasons in New Orleans, Utah, Atlanta and Boston, was visiting Cali- fornia to appear later Tuesday on a Christian radio show, Focus on Family. Lydick said the group had played three or four half-court games Tues day morning and Maravich was not ex erting himself. “He wasn't even hardly was without even trying,” Lydick added. who points a game in college, amassed an NCAA record of 3,667 points in three years of playing for his father, coach Pete (Press) Maravich, at Louisiana State University in the late 1960s. Pete went on to average 24.2 points a game outclassing © us the Jazz. averaged 44.2 during his decade in the NBA. He was introduced into the NBA Hall of Fame last May, a month after his father, who was 71, died of cancer. He signed a $1.9-million US con tract with the Atlanta Hawks in March 1970, at the time pro sport's richest contract ever for an athlete coming out of college. Seven years later, he signed a $3-million agreement with New Or-. leans to become a charter member of Maravich scored a career-high 69 points against Alabama during his LSU days, and the zenith of his pro career came with the Jazz in 1977 when he scored 68 points in a game against the New York Knicks, then an NBA record for a guard Holmes a no-show for press ATLANTIC CITY,’ N.J. (AP) — Mike Tyson showed up ina suit and tie for a news conference Tuesday, but Larry Holmes didn’t show up at all. Instead Don King, pro moter of Tyson's defence of his undisputed heavyweight title against former champion Holmes on Jan. 22, had a telephone hookup with Holmes's office at Easton, Pa. But Holmes did not come to the phone Dick Lovell, a Holmes em ployee, read a statement which said: “He's training very hard and taking the fight very seriously. Any and all questions will be answer ed Jan. 22.” “I'm sorry Larry Holmes didn’t show,” the 21-year-old Tyson said. “It’s probably unprofessional of him. I think he’s trying to psych me out “I believe in his mind he Castlegar Aquanauts License No. NDS 62514 BINGO Sat., Jan. 9 Arena Complex Early Bird 6 p.m. Regular 7 p.m. SAME PAYOUTS AS PREVIOUS BINGOS! 60% Payout Early Birds 60% Payout Specialty Games PACKAGES AVAILABLE thinks he can beat me, but I'm the best fighter in the world. I don't think he could have beaten me at his best.” The 38-year-old Holmes was upset when Tyson re. fused to shake hands with him at a news conference Dec. 1 in New York. Meanwhile, Tyson's co- manager, Bill Cayton, an nounced that his fighter has signed a $26-million deal with HBO television for six fights over a one-year period, be ginning with a match against an unnamed opponent March 21 in Tokyo. The contract also calls for HBO to have the delayed rights for a closed-circuit match between Tyson, 32-0, and former International Boxing Federation title holder Michael Spinks if such a bout is made. Halmes, 48-2, lost his world title to Spinks in 1985 and re. tired one year later after failing to win a rematch. Province to help ailing Eskimos EDMONTON (CP) — The Alberta government is con sidering providing a loan guarantee of nearly $1 mil lion’ for the cash-strapped Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. Premier Don Getty, a former Eskimo quarterback, confirmed this week he has met with Eskimo officials and the government is deciding whether to provide the Grey Cup champions with a loan guarantee. In 1986 the province pro- vided a $900,000 guarantee for the Calgary Stampeders when that club was on the verge of financial collapse. _ That guarantee, along with help from the city of Calgary and a strong season-ticket drive, kept the Stampeders alive. “Having done it for Cal. gary, I think if Edmonton needs it, and that's what we're talking about with them right now, I see no reason why one of the cities should be treated differently than the other,” Getty said today. “I think they're an impor- tant organization in Edmon- ton and Canada, as is the league,” Getty said of his former team. “I'd certainly want to see them successful.” The Eskimos, who won the Grey Cup with a 38-36 vic. tory over the Toronto Argo- nauts in November, have said they expect to announce a 1987 loss of nearly $800,000 at their annual meeting next month. NHL ALL-STAR TEAM Goalies in hot race MONTREAL (CP) — Fan voting for the National Hoe- key League's starting all-star teams ended last week, and last-minute ballots will de- cide the goaltending position in the Wales Conference, where four players are sep- arated by fewer than 25,000 votes. In results released Tues- day, Ron Hextall, the Phil- adelphia Flyers netminder, had received 128,056 votes, a 13,000-vote edge over Pat rick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens. But Kelly Hrudey of the New York Islanders and Mike Liut of the Hart- ford Whalers, with 108,668 and 103,112 votes respec- tively, also had strong sup- port. Final results will be an- nounced with hoth the Wales and Campbell Conference next week. Elsewhere in the Wales Conference, the balloting is more: decisive. Mario Lem- ieux, with 259,308 votes — which leads all vote-getters NEL to look into stolen playbook DENVER (AP) — The Na- tional Football League has launched an investigation in. to the attempted sale of a 1987 Denver Broncos play book by a man who held it as collateral for a debt. Broncos coach Dan Reeves said the playbook was issued during training camp at the University of Northern Col orado at Greeley last summer to free-agent wide receiver Mickey Bell, who handed it in after he was waived. Then, it disappeared. The missing playbook ended up in possession of Paul Deines of Evans, Colo., who accepted it from a bus- iness associate six months ago as collateral for a debt. Deines, unaware of the playbook’s value, placed a classified ad in The Denver Post's Saturday and Sunday editions. The ad read: Bronco playbook looking for approp- riate home. Bill Malone, an_ investi gator for NFL security, con. tacted Deines within hours after the ad appeared Sat urday and retrieved the playbook. Malone is now Hand trying to contact the man who gave Deines the book to determine how he obtained “Somebody took it out of our room up there where we keep the books,” Reeves aid. “How a guy got it, I have no idea. I got the playbook back. That's all I was concerned about.” Malone said he isn’t certain how the book got outside the Broncos’ organization and isn’t willing to concede it was stolen. If investigation determines it was stolen, Malone said he would turn his information over to police. Since the playbook was issued during training camp, it did not contain a complete list of Broncos’ plays and formations. Reeves said he wasn’t sure how much it would hurt the team if the book got into the hands of Denver's opponents. “I really don't think it would hurt you at all,” he said. “I think we probably worry too much about what other teams could do with your playbook.” injury hampers Percy BANFF, Alta. (CP) — Karen Percy of Banff, Alta., a candidate for a medal at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, has suffered her share of crashes on the World Cup ski circuit. But it’s an injury she suffered while doing some recreational skiing that may hamper her medal oppor. Ski race cancelled MUNICH (AP) — A men's World Cup slalom ski race originally planned for Jan. 5 and then rescheduled for Jan. 12 in Bad Wiessee, West. Germany, was called off Tuesday for lack of snow. International Ski Feder. ation officials were trying to move the race to Linz, Aus. tria. Mild weather also forced cancellation of two women's downhills and a super giant slalom Jan. 14-16 in Pfron- ten. The Pfronten super giant slalom will be staged Jan. 9 in Lech Am Arlberg, Austria. One of the two women's downhills might be moved to Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, on Jan. 15, officials said. tunities next month. Percy, who won a bronze medal for combined skiing at Leukerbad, Switzerland, last month, tore ligaments in her thumb and now has the hand in a cast “I just fell kind of on my side and I put my hatid down,” she said fror. her home here. The injury, ranor in com parison to “ume of Percy's World Cr:p crashes, has kept her ofi skis this week while the rest of the Canadian women's team is training on the Olympic runs at Mount Allan. Percy is to resume training next week but won't have the cast removed until next month. She said the injury shouldn't affect her Olympic ambitions, although there is some concern it may inter- fere with her slalom racing. The Olympic bined — has a lock on the starting centre position, as does Michel Goulet of the Quebec Nordiques at left wing. Gou- let's total of 162,967 votes is more than 44,000 ahead of Mats Naslund of the Mon- treal Canadiens. Kevin Dineen of the Hart- ford Whalers boosted _ his head over Montreal's Claude Lemieux at right wing. With 138,689 votes, Dineen has a comfortable margin of more than 33,000. The two starting defence- men picked by the fans will almost certainly be Ray Bourque of the Boston Bruins Merle and Paul Coffey of the Pitts- burgh Penguins. Bourque is second to Lemieux in total votes, with 214,103. Coffey, traded by the Edmonton Oil ers on Nov. 24, has 187,684 votes, well ahead of Mon treal’s Chris Chelios and the Flyers Mark Howe, who have 148,096 and 141,847 respec. tively. Coffey actually appears on the Campbell Conference all star ballot, but a player traded to the other con ference after the printing of the ballot is only eligible for selection in the conference to which he was dealt. takes giant slalom TIIGNES, France (AP) — Carole Merle of France won a giant slalom race today, her first victory on the World Cup Alpine ski circuit. Merle, who was third in Tuesday's giant slalom, had a combined time today of two minutes 27.96 seconds for the two legs. Swiss veteran Maria Wal- liser was second in 2:28.62 while first-run leader Blanca Fernandez-Ochoa of Spain edged another French skier, Catherine Quittet, for third place. Fernandez-Ochoa posted a time of 2:28.63 to 2:28.64 for Quittet. Another Swiss ace, Michela Figini, continues to lead the overall World Cup standings ~“jth 106 points despite a 14th-place finish today. Merle, 23, broke an ankle last year and just returned to racing in December. After a third on the first run, she had the second best time on the second run. “Today's race was more difficult than yesterday,” Merle said. “I couldn't see very well.” Walliser, a two-time over all World Cup champion, was seventh in the morning then came back in the afternoon with the third-be8telocking. Fernandez-Ochoa had only the 12th best time in the afternoon, also complaining about the weather, which was cold, cloudy and windy on a course that dropped 340 metres. Quittet is the leader of the French skiing revival and took the lead in the giant slalom standings with 57 points, just a point ahead of Vreni Schneider of Switzer. land. Schneider, who won Tues- day's race here, ‘came fifth today with a time of 2:28.90. Austrians Sigrid Wolf and Anita, Wachter followed in sixth and seventh. The next race for the women is a super-GS Satur day in Lech Am Arlberg, Austria, a replacement for a race cancelled in Pfronten, West Germany. Mid-Week Wrap-up HOCKEY BASKETBALL ne CAMPBELL CONFERENCE Norris Division cre Dereon seessesss> t 8 38 medals will be determined by the results from a slalom, which requires constant use of the hands as skiers knock gates out of the way, and a special downhill race. The thumb injury isn’t ex. pected to bother Percy in her other Olympic Alpine events — downhill, super giant slalom and giant slalom. Eetses leesesce Boltimore 6 Utica 4 rd EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlentic Division w Portland 126 Seattie 114 TRANSACTIONS BASEBALL Americen Leogue Boston Red Sox sign piicher Dennis ley to © one-year con Twine sign catcher So! her Jett Satzinger to one NATIONAL LEAGUE 8 Reds sign outtivider esoto nd pic! shville of the Ay invited him to training comp Los Angeles Dodgers sign pitcher Don Sutton te eone-yeor contract St. Louis Cordinals sign pitcher Donny Cox to © one-year contract WOCKEY New York Rongers send contre Stev Nemeth 10 Colorado of the Internationa! Hockey League Probers enter stock market TORONTO (CP) — Energy Probe, the social agitator that warned a generation of the dangers of acid rain and nuclear energy, now wants to instruct its followers in the moral joys of the stock mar- ket. The Toronto-based lobby and research group has as- sembled a prospectus and begun seeking investors for a “socially responsible” mutual fund that will put its money in non-exploitive and en- vironmentally benign in- dustries. The creation of Lawrence Solomon, one of the original founders of the Energy Probe in the 1970s and its current treasurer, the mut- ual fund will have two com ponents. The Environmental Investment All-Canadian Fund will qualify as an RRSP investment while the En vironmental Investment In- ternational Fund will act as a hedge by holding U.S. stocks in that currency. With the prospectus going out this week to 12,700 po- tential investors selected from Energy Probe's list of Ontario supporters, Solomon said he is being conservative in expecting an initial sub- scription of about $1 million in the fund. He has already invested about $100,000 of his own in startup costs, and he and fellow energy probers are subscribing to the tune of about $250,000. DAMPENS INTEREST Word-of-mouth interest was such a few months ago that he had been expecting a subscription of between $5 million and $10 million. But after the October stock market crash “people stop- ped calling,” he said. The Energy Probe fund is one of an increasing number of vehicles for ethical in- vesting, challenging people to put their money where their morals are. But Solomon, turning 40 soon and a contented stock market dabbler on his own, does not play up the ethical aspect of the venture too much. He said it is hard to find many “goody-goody” invest- ments, and he does not want companies trying to cash in on Energy Probe's reputa- tion by holding themselves out as exemplary. AVOID ‘BAD GUYS’ So far, about 15 of an expected 20 corporations have been vetted by Energy Probe for investment by the fund, most of these in manu- facturing, services and high technology. EIF Fund Management Ltd. — with Solomon as its sole director and officer and a professional adviser — picks the investment targets, with the research being carried out, for a fee, by Energy Probe. Any after-tax profit from this management fee goes to Energy Probe. Socially responsible _ in. vestment vehicles, popular in the United States, effectively came to Canada two years ago when Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, the country's largest credit union, set up its Equity Growth Fund. BABY GIFTS . . . Castlegar's New Year's baby and parents, Jeanand A Bill Stephens are showered with gifts. (Left) Dr. Ron Perrier presents hens with a child safety seat, courtesy of the British Colum- the Ste, merchants. bia Medical Association and Muriel Wilson, president of the Hospital PITTSBURGH SPILL People without water By The Associated Press Thousands of Pittsburgh- area residents lined up at water tanks and braced for what could be weeks of sponge baths, TV dinners and dirty clothes, as towns in Ohio and West Virginia pre. pared for the huge oil slick heading their way. In Pennsylvania alone, the oil spill on the Monongahela River has left 15,000 people without tap water, resylted in 1,000 layoffs and cancelled classes for 20,000 students. “This morning, I showered, shaved and washed in two cups of water,” William Banks, 57, said Tuesday night while waiting to fill a tub and buckets from a tank at a Robinson Township fire hall “You don't realize what you have until it's gone and you miss it,” said Jack Car. ney, 47, assistant chief for the Forest Grove Volunteer Fire Department. The spill occurred Satué day night when an Ashland Oil Co. diesel fuel tank col: lapsed 27 nautical miles up. stream from Pittsburgh About 13 million litres of the oil gushed out, and an estimated 3.8 million litres flowed over a dike into the Monongahela. Ashland chairman John Hall said Tuesday the tank was built without written permits and did not undergo standard tests. But he said there is no proof those failures caused the accident. COMPANY WILL PAY Hall apologized and said the company will pay for cleanup and some related costs. The work is expected to cost millions of dollars. The oil is spreading quickly downstream. East Liverpool, Ohio, closed its Ohio River intakes Tuesday after oil was detected and began using a 36-hour reserve supply for 30,000 residents. The oil was expected to hit Wheeling, W. Va., 87 miles downstream from Pitts burgh, this afternoon. Crews there rigged two pipelines across the Ohio River to keep water flowing to 42,000 resi dents. One was stretched across a train trestle; the other along a bridge. Jeanne Ison, a spokesman for the Ohio River Sanitation Commission in Cincinnati, estimated the oil could reach Huntington, W. Va., by next Metal prices boost TORONTO (CP) — Two of Canada's largest metal pro- ducers — Inco and Falcon. bridge — are riding a wave of booming metal prices which experts say won't recede for another year. The 1980s have been tough for both debt-laden pro ducers. Inco Ltd. — the non-com munist world’s largest nickel producer — posted stag- gering losses from 1982 to 1984 and barely broke even in 1986 as demand fell and commodity prices collapsed. Falconbridge Ltd. — the western world’s second-lar. gest nickel producer — lost money in 1982, 1983 and But analysts say 1987 was a good year for both and 1988 will be better. “Things are a little better, eh?” crowed Bill James, Fal- conbridge's affable chairman. “This will certainly drama. tically improve our cash flow.” - An Inco spokesman said the company did not want to comment because “every. thing is very volatile.” The nickel price on the London Metal Exchange, which averaged $1.88 US a pound in 1986, started 1987 at about $1.60. By December, it had risen 128 per cent to $3.65. On Monday, it hit a record $4.44, and it remained above $4 Tuesday. COPPER SHINES Inco and Falconbridge are also among the world’s lar. gest copper producers, and copper prices have also risen dramatically. Copper averaged 61 cents US a pound last January and climbed 115 per cent to $1.31 in December. On Mon. day, it hit $1.63 and it fell back only a little Tuesday. The last time prices even approached these levels: was in 1980. “It's quite extraordinary, really,” said economist Pat Mohr, a commodity specialist with the Bank of Nova Scotia. “Unless there is a major international recession, the prices will stay up very high,” she said. “Supplies are going to be very tight this year.” The price crunch of the mid-1980s~ forced marginal producers to close, but de. mand has been rising since 1985. Mohr said demand is likely to remain high through 1988 despite the stock market crash of last fall — as business investment con tinues to surge. A $2 increase in nickel prices — at 1987 sales levels — would add an estimated Tuesday. The Ohio provides drinking water for about 327,000 people, Ison said. At least one nursing home in Pittsburgh, heated by steam, was forced to move elderly patients to an ad jacent gas-heated building. Mobay Corp., Pepsi Cola Bottling Co., Calgon Corp. and some smaller businesses have closed, laying off 1,000 people. Other employers are considering curtailing oper ations. Western Pennsylvania Water Co. serves 750,000 people in Pennsylvania by drawing water from two Monongahela River intakes. One had to be closed because of the oil, cutting off 135 million litres daily. That left the other inlet to pump 200 million litres. Inco $380 million US to Inco's revenue and $260 million US to Falconbridge's. GREAT IN ‘88 Neither company forecasts its earnings for 1988, but analyst Tom Byrne of Mc Leod Young Weir in Toronto says both should be very profitable. Inco which reports in U.S. dollars earned $50 million US, or 39 cents a share, in the first nine months of 1987; a $41-million US profit in the third quarter was its highest quarterly earning since 1981. Byrne estimated Falcon bridge will earn $2.75 a share this year, which translates into $167 million Cdn. Byrne figures the company added another 55 cents a share profit or about $61 million US — in the fourth quarter. uxiliary and Verona Walker and Robyn Bobby of the Beta Sigma Alpha Phi chapter give the Stephens $675 in gifts from Castlegar Group says chemicals in water WASHINGTON (AP) — A Ralph Nader group says nearly one out of five water systems serving the U.S. public contains some unreg. ulated chemicals and nobody knows how many people are getting sick from them The group also said the Environmental Protection Agency has adopted regu lations for only 30 of 2,110 contaminants found in water. The accusations were made by the Centre for the Study of Responsive Law. The environmental agency responded that the centre is admitting that only 190 of the 2,110 contaminants are known or suspected to be harmful causes of cancer or other problems. Also, the amounts of contaminants being found may not be dangerous, an agency official said. Lawrence Jensen, assis. tant administrator for water, said the centre “doesn't make much effort to tell you the levels. Parts per trillion, sure, we can detect it, but that doesn't mean we should regulate it.” It's not news that hun dreds of chemicals are found in America’s drinking water supplies. On a normal day at Cincinnati, water drawn from the Ohio River will contain 106 STUDIES USED The centre's work was done by researcher Duff Conacher and collaborator Walter Hang, a staff scientist of the New York Public Interest Research Group. They used studies done by the environmental agency and the National Cancer In stitute” as well as other and queried state ies Of the 2,110 substances, 2,090 are organic compounds, meaning they contain carbon. Most of the rest are metallic. B.C. WAITS FOR LABOR EXPLOSION By STEVE MERTL Canadian Press VANCOUVER — The labor relations minefield in British Columbia appears especially perilous in 1988. With several major contracts due to expire this year, the province seems to be holding its breath, waiting for an explosion. It could come in the public service. A contract covering the 32,000-member B.C. Govern- ment Employees Union expires July 31 and, after five years of fighting wage controls and privatization, the union appears ready for a confrontation. “If I was going to bet my week's grocery money on anything, I'd bet on a strike,” says union president John Shields. The goodwill that started to take hold in this labor- sensitive province began to dissipate late in 1986 in the face of an 18-week-long woodworkers’ strike. It evaporated last year with the Social Credit govern- ment’s rewriting of provincial labor laws, which unions saw as an attempt to give employers the whip hand. The unions responded by calling a one-day general strike, British Columbia's first provincewide walkout in 11 years. DENY LAW Today, labor leaders still refer to the Industrial Relations Act as Bill 19, as if denying it has passed into law. Ken Georgetti, president of the 250,000-member B.C. Federation of Labor, says “there's a good chance” a confrontation with the private-sector can be avoided if employers don't try to use the new laws unfairly. But the public sector is another matter. “(Premier) Bill Vander Zalm, as an employer, not a politician, seems to me to be setting himself up for a confrontation with the workers,” Georgetti says. Members of the Government Employees’ Union run everything from provincial prisons and social services to liquor stores and highway maintenance. A separate bargaining unit operates B.C. ferries and its contract is up Oct. 31. Shields says his members are growing more militant in the face of what they consider a direct government attack on their jobs. SERVICES FOR SALE Five years of cutbacks and restraint, including wage controls, have been followed by plans to sell some public services to private companies, starting with the highways maintenance division. The union plans to bid for the highways operation, but only as a stop-gap to save jobs, says Shields. However, he says the union won't try to privatization at the bargaining table “The issue is clearly money for all our people.” Public employees are making 25- to 30-per-cent less than they did when wage controls were put in place in 1982, Shields says, noting B.C.’s public service trails only New foundland as the lowest paid in the country B.C. teachers also bargain this year, with the right to strike for the first time, and construction unions face contractors who've decided to abandon industry-wide bar. gaining fight STILL TOUGH The temperature in the forest industry is decidedly lower as company and union negotiators strive for compromise. But neither side has abandoned the tough positions that dragged out the 4'-month strike in 1986. That strike was settled without resolution of the central issue — contracting out work which used to be done by union members. Vancouver lawyer Ken Mackenzie is to produce a report on the issue by next month. Both the International Wood. workers of America and Forest Industrial Relations, which bargains for 88 coastal mills, have seen drafts of the report. Both sides refuse to discuss its contents and won't say whether it provides the basis for a compromise before the woodworkers’ contract expires June 14 “I think there is a very strong will on both sides to find a collective agreement without any kind of work stoppage in "88," says Keith Bennett, president of Forest Industrial Relations. . “We've learned you've got to find some middle ground.” VIEW SHARED That view is shared. “I somehow personally don't think we're going to get into a colossal battle that we had in the ‘86 negotiations,” agrees Bob Blanchard, first vice-president of the wood- workers’ union. But the olive branches hide steel. Bennett says forest companies can’t lock themselves into job-security contract clauses that will hurt competitiveness. “The contracting-out issue is a matter of principle,” he says. There's another wild card in the deck — the provincial Industrial Relations Board under commissioner Ed Peck, The woodworkers, like other B.C. unions, view the board as resolutely anti-labor. There's a belief the govern. ment is waiting for a chance to invoke the council's powers to intervene in disputes deemed a threat to B.C. economy, and that employers are playing hardball in bargaining so the council will have to step_in. But Bennett says forest companies aren't interested in using the council as a stick to beat the woodworkers and hopes the union won't use contract talks to “in some way politically embarrass the Industrial Relations Council. “We do not look forward to third-party involvement in negotiations,” he says.