216 oo Saturday, September 5, 1992 @ You all excuse me if I’m spotted walking around town shaking my head a lot in the next little while. Tt all has to do with what some gen- eral managers have been up to lately in the world of professional sports. It all started last week when Ed- monton Oilers general manager Glen Sather was up to his old tricks, getting three guys from Montreal for one guy, he being Vincent Damphousse. As lopsided as the deal may seem on the surface, I think its even more so once you start to dig. : Damphousse’s greatest claim to fame is scoring four goals at the 1991 all-star game in Chicago. Now, don’t think I’m saying four goals is not an accomplishment. But the final scores from recent all-star games have been up around the dou- ble digit mark, so even if Patrick Roy or Kirk McLean pocketed four, I wouldn’t be in awe. As well, Damphousse is a French kid (only 25 in December) who is head- ing to play in not only the hockey mec- ca of the world, but his hometown as well. He’s got two strikes against him before he even hits the ice. Now hold on, you might say, he’s from Montreal and he’s going to play in Montreal. What could be better? For starters, the pressure on Que- bec-born players playing in Montreal is hard enough, but when its his cain him you might as well start calling him Atlas, ’cause he’s sure go- Some trades jus ing to have a lot of weight to carry around. I can’t remember the last Montreal-born player who hit, it big there. In return, the Oilers get Shayne Corson, a guy who has been known to score and rough it up with the best of them. He’s the kind of player Sather dreams of. They also got Brent Gilchrist, a guy who really wasn’t giv- en a fair shake in Mount Royal after putting some nice numbers together in junior. Finally, they got Viadmir Vu- jtek, Montreal’s fourth round pick in 1991. At this point, I could sit back and believe Montreal gm Serge Savard has been painting his office without proper air circulation, but I won't. Instead, that honor would have to go to Minnesota gm Bob Gainey. Gainey was the one who allowed Savard to vindicate himself for that bonehead deal last week by trading sniper Brian Bellows to Montreal for slacker Russ Courtnall. The Stars first-round pick in 1982, Bellows is a perennial 30-goal man who is showing no signs of slowing down while Courtnall, the Leafs first- round pick in 1983, spent a fair bit of last season on the shelf and looked to have a lost a bit of his blinding speed when he returned. The Habs will put Bellows scoring touch to use, while I don’t think Court- nall’s return to the Norris Division will be anything to write home about. t don’t make any sense Jonny on the eater tr a The only thing that could hurt the Canadiens is if Bellows’ chronic battle with Winnipegjetsitis returns, where he’s great one year and pretty mediocre the next. Moving to the world of baseball, the Texas Rangers have inherited a headache that even an aspirin the size of Zuckerberg Island won't cure. I have to wonder what Texas gm Tom Grieve was thinking when he swung that deal for Jose Canseco, es- pecially when he mortgaged the team to get the former ‘Bash Brother.” _ He probably thought that sending slugger Ruben Sierra, starter Bobby Witt and reliever Jeff Russell to Oak- land for the moody Canseco would help them catch the A’s, when in fact it will probably give them a better shot at catching Seattle for dead last in the onathanG REEN | J American League West. _ : Hey, maybe his thinking is that this will lead them to getting the first pick in the 1993 draft. Maybe I’ve mis- judged Mr. Grieve. Let’s phone down to Texas. : “Hi, is Mr. Grieve in please,” I will ask. “Who?” they will ask. “Tom Grieve. You know, the gm,”I will say. “Sir, this is the New York Rangers, and Neil Smith is the gm,” they will say. ; “Oops, wrong Rangers,” I will say, and hang up. Nah, I won't phone him, but Toron- to Blue Jays gm Pat Gillick is some- one who could use a call. : Entering territory he’s been in be- fore, Gillick brought David Cone over from the Mets last week in exchange for the promising Jeff Kent and a mi- nor leaguer. ; Cone is a good pitcher, but Gillick is taking a chance he'll sign with the Jays when his contract runs out after the season. The Mets dumped him be- cause of the $$$ Cone will want, and they saw a sucker in Gillick. ; It this sounds strangely familiar, the same thing happened before with Bud Black and Tom Candiotti, and the Jays got stung both times. . These things make one wonder if something toxic circulated through the air in Texas, Toronto Minneapolis and Montreal within the last week. McAfee cruises to victory | HERE in Castlegar Ladies Open S THE PITCH But as nice as things looked for McAfee after nine, it wasn't long before things turned nasty. Opening the back nine with consecutive bogeys, McAfee said things suddenly returned to normal. “I thought ‘OK, now we're back to reality,” she said. But as much as real life would set in, the 71 other ladies in the field would have needed a major miracle to catch McAfee, who shot 43 over the final nine to finish with a five-over 81. Local Ruth Trickey finished closet to McAfee, firing an 88, while Diony McArthur was another four back at 92. Sparwood’s Sheila Witting- ham captured low net hon- nors, coming in with a 71. Castlegar’s Mary Perehud- off and Barb Pyett tied for sec- ond at 74, while Genevieve Jackson took third with 75. With school getting under- way next week, McAfee said she'll be putting her competi- tive clubs away for the season, taking them out to whack the ball around on weekends. “(Winning the tournament) was a nice finish to a wonder- ful summer,” she said. i Local school teacher tops among field of 72 NEWS STAFF A favorite of gamblers in Las Vegas, seven proved to be an equally lucky number for Diane McAfee this week. Utilizing a strong and steady driving game, McAfee cruised to a seven-stroke vic- tory Tuesday in the annual West’s Castlegar Ladies Open. McAfee said she was up late Monday night tending to personal matters, so when Tuesday morning’s tee time rolled around, winning the tournament wasn’t really on her mind. “I just wanted to get through the day,” she said. And getting through the day proved to be quite easy for the Castlegar school teacher, who found herself sitting at even par 38 after the front nine. McAfee said her play of late hasn’t been strong, so her front nine score was a pleas- ant surprise. “I haven’t played that well the last three weeks, so it was different for me to play well,” she said. “I thought “What's going on here?” eer RENT THIS SPACE! Ph. 365-7266 ATHLETE OF THE WEEK Bill Van Yzerloo & the rest of the Kootenay Cocoons Winners of t83 medals at last weeks B.C. Seniors Games By CASTLEGAR SPORTS CENTRE Sporting Goods & Fishing Tackle + Fly tying * Rod building + Local fishing info. the Avenues EH's in slo-pitch action last News photo by Jonathan Green vers pitcher Dan Perepolkin puts everything into it against ie neni hi Sunday. Unfortunately for Perepolkin, his everything wasn't enough, as the EH’s won. + Athletic wear 365-8288 2177 Columbia Ave., Castlegar @ Saturday, September 5, 1992 Nine to FIVE Your business Is our business Neil Rachynski 365-7266 COMINCO TO PICK UP THE SLAG Cominco Ltd. has announced that slag- dumping from the smelter into the Columbia River will end by Dec. 31, 1995, one year ahead of schedule. This commitment which ends the dumping of 360 tonnes of slag per day will require Cominco to find a suitable site for land FORESTS FUTURE The Canadian Pulp and Paper Association is getting ready to host a world conference. Meetings will look at new forest equipment, techniques and issues affecting the future of the world’s forest industry. About 30, 000 people from 30 countries are expected to attend. Meetings will be held at various B.C.sites from Sept. 13 to 25. For information call Pierre Lachance at (514) 866- 6621. B.C. TEL’S TERRIFIC. An American human resources trade publication gives B.C. Tel an A+. The grade was given to the comany’s B.C. Tel Education division for having one of the five best corporate training programs on the continent. _WorkPLACE Free trade good for us — Wilson Ina recent speech to Conservatives in Surray, International Trade Minister Michael Wilson offered a vigorous defense of the recently nego- tiated North American Free Trade Agreement. Frank Bucholz of the MetroValley News Group reported on Wilson's talk. The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement has been good for Canada, and the co, but imports $1.7 billion in autos and parts. He expects those figures to be come more bal- anced with the new agreement in place, and cannot understand criticism from Rae, Cana- dian Labor Congress president Bob White and Buzz Hargrove of the Canadian Auto Workers. Wilson emphasized the long-term implica- new North American Free Trade Agreement will be even better, says International Trade Minister Michael Wilson. Wilson said criticism of NAFTA and the Canada-U.S. agreement by the governments of Ontario and B.C. “Nowhere in this agreement have ceded any sovereignty. Instead, it is a strengthening of opportuni- ties.”’ Michael Wilson and federal opposition parties has been off the mark. He labelled remarks by Ontario Premier Bob Rae and B.C. Premier Mike Harcourt “loose statements” that ignore many of the facts. “Nowhere in this agreement have ceded any sovereignty,” he said. “Instead, it is a strength- ening of opportunities. This agreement will cre- ate opportunities for the province of Ontario in particular, putting us on a level playing field in the export of auto parts and autos.” He pointed out that currently Canada ex- ports $80 million worth of auto parts to Mexi- tions of the agreement with the United States and Mexico. He said that Mexico is the “clear leader in Latin America” and its participation in a pact with the U.S. and Canada will act as a lever for other Latin American countries to adopt better economic policies. “Mexico has secured for itself a preferred po- sition that other countries in Latin America don’t have. Investment will go to Mexico in- stead of to other Latin American countries, and the response will be to improve economic poli- cies and join the agreement. dards.” Wilson also emphasized the opportunities for Canada in Mexico. In particular the auto industry will benefit, but he also sees major benefits for the telecommunications indus- try.Engineering firms, the forest industry and financial institutions are also expected to reap benefits. He downplayed concerns about the low wage rates in Mexico affect- ing Canadian jobs, and he empha- sized the environmental aspects of the trade deal. “This agreement has more envi- ronmental provisions than any other agreement today. It will not permit companies to move operations (in or- der to adhere to) lower environmental aspects of the trade deal. The international environ- mental agreement takes precedence over NAF- TA. There are provisions for dispute settle- ments, with panels drawn from the ranks of en- vironmental experts. With this agreement, there is no basis for a country to lower stan- Wilson said NAFTA “supersedes” the exist- ing trade agreement with the United States, and in that respect it will be an improvement on the existing free trade agreement. Report still relevant two years later Well, it was like trying to pull a wisdom tooth wrapped around a sinus cavity, but we finally got the Price Two years ago the mayor wouldn’t let staff open letters addressed to her or council. Two years ago city staff were “I feel when you're elected, surely you’re being entrusted to make a few. decisions,” Mathieson said. negligent. city was suffering staff demotivation. ‘demotivation.’ Waterhouse report released. Good thing, too. City council has some explaining to do. How could they ever let things get so bad at in 1990? The two-year old study, which evaluated the city’s overall operations, is scathing. In fact, it comes just short of calling city operations grossly What it stated was that the council’s political intrusions, poor management as well as You believe that? Not a ‘lack of motivation’ but rather NeiiRACHYNSKI still going on. Yes, I know. Council has said they’ve followed from happen anymore. “Besides,” they say, “that study is over two years old. It’s not relevant to today’s council.” Well, friends and neighbors, the report is still relevant. - 4 aul ~ The Bottom Line Oh, the humanity. One has to wonder what was going there — and whether it’s report’s recommendations and these kind of things don‘t there planning. many of the told not to deal directly with the mayor or council members. Two years ago priority work was done on a rush basis. Even Price Waterhouse’s own consultants couldn’t figure out if the city’s activities fit council’s priorities because was The city maintains this doesn’t happen anymore. Fine. But why was it allowed to happen in the first place? Councillor Mathieson said at Monday’s . news conference this whole process to reveal the study wasn’t even necessary. no workload Marilyn Well, Marilyn, voters don’t hand out carte blanche. We have the right — if not duty — to question our elected officials any time we want for anything we want; and expect an honest answer. I tend to agree with Coun. Doreen Smecher on this fiasco. “The study should have been released from the beginning,” Smecher said. Just remember to plug your ears and hum when they start saying the Price Waterhouse study is obsolete because it’s two years old. We don’t need to go through this again. Health care system robs kids to pay their parents About a month ago, I had a phone call from a U.S. reporter who was cu- rious how our Canadian medicare system worked. I told him that in a lot of ways it worked very well, but that despite the acco- lades being reined on it by some politicians, and those who have a vested interest in big budgets, the overall health system is financial- ly unsustainable. He was suprised to learn that unlike his coun- try where individual states are prohibited borrowing, Canadian provinces have the power to borrow un- limited amounts of money at any time. He was also suprised to learn that what’s keeping the Canadian medicare system going is the huge amount of money being borrowed by these provin- cial governments. “If our provincial gov- ernments couldn’t borrow huge sums of money every year, Canada wouldn't have a medicare system at all,” I said. “The real ques- tion you should be asking then is not how it works, but how long Canadian governments can keep bor- rowing to pay for it? In this case, it is abso- lutely true that Canada’s health system cannot be economically sustained at current levels for much longer, and it’s also true that the generation of young people who are com- ing up now are going to pay for the health care that is currently being received by the middle age and old- er generations. Some might call it a kind of Robin Hood reverse economics; take from the kids and give to the par- ents.