12, AQUATIC-CENTRE OPENING, January 10, 1990 KATS TROPHYS & ENGRAVING - . ral ‘ DAVE BERG i a te We are proud to have done the glass and glazing for the new doors for your fine Aquatic Centre. \ No. 180-48 Industrial Ave. W. Penticton, B.C. V2A 6M2 Bus. 493-1518 Poe; 495-0426 We’re pleased to be the Supplier of Interior Signage and Bronze Dedication Plaque for our New Aquatic Centre. 24 HOUR EMERGENCY SERVICE Aqua Pool Equipment Ltd. exjende Special congratulations to the Pool Committee Heartiest Congratulations for a job well done! Kathi Sereda 10552-114th Street 2173 Columbia Ave., Castlegar Edmonton, Alberta T5H 3J7 (403) 426-4922 365-8289 School Trustees, Principals, Teachers, Support Staff, Students and Parents extend PROUD CONGRATULATIONS on the opening of the CASTLEGAR AQUATIC CENTRE This fine facility is a tribute to people of vision, anda community of progressive residents. First policeman CasNews columnist John Charters inter views George “Mac” McAndrew instruments Keeping the beat Repercussion hauls: its 35 cases of percussion into” the Capitol Theatre Jan. 27 . B4 LOTTERY NUMBERS The winning numbers in Saturday's Lotto 6-49 draw were 12, 18, 22, 33, 35 and 44. The bonus number was 2. The winning numbers drawn Friday in the B.C. Keno lottery were 3, 5, 15, 17, 20, 27, 47 and 54. The $1,000,000 winning number in Fri The Castlegar night's action day's Provincial lottery draw was 4985652, NHL 8) Hockey: \ scores wraps up Saturday Vol. 43, No. 4 60 Cents _.cyar News CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 1990 WEATHERCAST preciptiotion i{’60 per cent today and 30 per = 3 Sections (A, B& C) Protesters giv CEC workers will lose pay By CLAUDETTE SANDECKI Staff Writer Thirty members of the Canada Em: ployment and Immigration Union protesting the move of jobs to Nelson from Trail ended Friday a four-day, round-the-clock sit-in at the Trail Canada Employment Centre after being served with an agreeable to a meeting with union leaders and community represen- tatives on the issue of moving 10 jobs in the unemployment insurance section of the Trail centre to Nelson, Panton said Kootenay West-Revelstoke MP Lyle Kristiansen and Trail Mayor Marc lin were both to set The injunction was served late Friday evening and union leaders ad- vised the protesters to comply with the court order and leave the building, union member Terry Panton said Saturday. ~ The protesters will each be docked. ' 19 days’ pay as a result of escal up a meeting with McDougall through her deputy minister Arthur’ Kroeger but Friday afternoon Kristiansen told the Castlegar News Kroeger had only agreed to talk to the minister about such a meeting. Union leaders and Kristiansen were penalties imposed by Canada Em ployment and Immigration officials for the four-day protest The injunction was served just hours after the union had been informed Minister of Employment and Im- migration Barbara McDougall was for c on Friday's developments as the CasNews went to press Saturday afternoon. Earlier Friday, seven union mem bers from the Nelson office joined the 24 original protesters in Trail while the rest of the Nelson staff walked a noon- hour picketline, union national VANCOUVER (CP) A retired Cathglicipriest was ordered extradited to Canada from the United States on Friday to stand trial on charges he molested six boys — sometimes at the church and rectory — while he worked as a parish priest in rural British Columbia. Rev. Lucien Meunier, 74, who appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla., will return to Nelson where he was charged Oct 27, 1989, with seven counts of in: decent assault and gross indecency The object of a one-year search by Canadian police, Meunier has served as a priest in New Denver, Trail, Prince Rupert and Kelowna, as well as C.itario, New Brun swick,’ Quebec, Colorado and Virginia. He was charged in Arizona with sexually abusing children and jumped a $100,000 bail bond in 1975. The charges stem from acts which allegedly occurred during Former Kootenay priest ordered extradited __ attached to the extradition request, the 1950s and 1960s. Lawyers for Meunier asked U.S Magistrate Ann Vitunac to excuse Meunier from the hearing because his emphysema made him too ill to attend. But Vitunac required him to be present, ruling prosecutors had to see him in order to prove his iden- tity According to sworn statements Meunier allegedly molested at least seven boys and one girl when he worked as a parish priest in British Columbia and Saskatchewan Many of the alleged incidents oc curred at the church and rectory “The defendant, Luke Meunier, is ordered to be held in custody by the U.S. Marshals to be turned. over to Canada for trial in the case,” Vitunac said. ‘‘I will ask that extradition be expedited."’ “You want to kill me, your honor,’ Meunier shouted as soon as she was finished talking. Revitalization revitalized By CasNews Staff A: proposal _for Downtown revitalization in Castlegar has been revitalized — and this time the provin- cial government and city council have approved funding to help get the idea off the ground City council Tuesday voted to give the Downtown Business Association $2,500 toward the preparation of a $10,000 strategy plan that is to be the first step in making changes to the downtown area The city’s contribution will be mat ched by the merchants and property owners in the area the DBA has designated for the project, DBA president Jack Parkin said Friday That area is defined as North Castlegar between Crescent Street and Sherbiko Hill, he said The other half of the funds will come from the Ministry of Municipal Af. fairs, Recreation and Culture undeg, the terms of the ministry's downtown revitalization program, Parkinsaid + continued on poge A2 president Cres Pascucci said Friday af- ternoon Also on F¢day, union members in St. John’s, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Ottawa staged sit-ins ‘‘in solidarity’ with the workers in Trail, Pascucci said. Union members occupying the executive offices of the Canada Em- ployment and Immigration Com mission in Vancouver ended their two- day sit-in Friday The Trail protesters were informed of the disciplinary action docking their pay by management officials from Vancouver, Penticton and Kelowna during a meeting Thursday afternoon attended by Kristiansen The union members were told they faced a one-day pay penalty for the work stoppage Tuesday, three days’ penalty for Wednesday, five days for Thursday and 10 for Friday for a total of 19 days’ loss of pay for four days of work stoppage, union regional representative Bill Brassington said following the meeting Brassington said the union's demands that the government stop the transfer of the jobs and the disciplinary action were turned down continued on page A2 * ENTERING THE FRAY .. . e up enter the Trail Canada Employme: protest the move of 10 jobs to Nelson w Istoke MP Lyle Kr the door open. costiews photo by Cloudere Sendeck prep to nt Centre to meet with CEC workers staging a sit-in to from Trail. Trail CEC manager Jim Switzer holds Power to stay in B.C. VANCOUVER (CP) — The B.C government officially informed Washington state Friday that it won't continue to sell electricity generated under the Columbia River Treaty to its U.S. customers when the treaty begins to expire in 1998 The so-called downstream benefits worth about $350 million a year in 1990 dollars — were sold in 1964 to the United States. The sales agreements expire between 1998 and 2003 “British Columbia's decision to Ppatriate its entitlement to the down stream benefits is key to long-term power planning on both sides of the 49th parallel,"” B.C. Energy Ministery Jack Davis said Friday Davis was. meeting in Vancouver with Bonneville Power administrator Jim Jura, B.C. Hydro Chairman Larry Bell and Brig.-Gen. Pat Stevens of the U.S. Army Corpséf Engineers New Democrat energy critic Anne Edwards challenged Davis to disclose any energy deal he may have reached with the U.S. now that B.C. has reclaimed the downstream benefits “Last spring Jack Davis called these DSBs a bargaining chip in future power deals withthe U.S.,"" said Ed wards, who represents-the riding of Kootenay in southeastern B.C. ‘Now that the game is over and B.C: has decided to keep the treaty power, it’s time to reveal whatever deals were made."" Edwards said the people of British Columbia deserve full disclosure on this vital issue Under the 1964 Columbia River Treaty between Canada and the United States, both countries share equally in the benefits pf harnessing the Columbia River's Now. British Columbia built rere Taree, storage dams — Mica, Keenleyside and Dun can and the Unitéd States built the Libby dam in Montana The province sold its share of the downstream benefits (1,400 megawatts a year) for $254 million under three separate 30-year agreements, expiring in 1998, 1999 and» 2203, because it didn’t need the electricity at the time. ’ Local unemployment By CasNews Staff The unemployment rate in the Castlegar-Nelson region dropped to 8.7 per cent in December from 12.8 per cent in November but officials at Em ployment and Immigration Canada and Statistics Canada said they couldn't pinpoint specific reasons for the sudden improvement A combination of factors ranging from additional employment in the retail sector prior to Christmas to con tinued employment in the construction industry because of the unusually mild winter may be responsible for the drop in the rate, said Judy McCandlish, a labor market analyst with Canada Employment in Nelson McCandlish also noted. that Statistics Canada samplés a relatively small number of local residents to at tain the figures and that may lead to fluctuations in the rate “Tmay be that-t2:8 percent for NovemBer is actually high and that 8.7 per cent is more realistic,” McCan dlish said “There -is a margin for. quite a variance’? of the month-to-month figures, she added Ted Brown, regional adviser for Statistics Canada in Vancouver agreed National rate, page Aé He told the Castlegar News the West Kootenay area is one of the smaller sample areas in terms of the number of people surveyed. As a result, there is a ‘much smaller confidence level’ in -_Health By CasNews Staff . More studies need to be done before any firm conctusions can be drawn about the effects of wood smoke on the health of humans, a respiratory resear ch scientist told the Regional District of Central Kootenay board of direc tors Saturday in Nelson Nevertheless, there is a potential for adverse health effects from particles and chemicals contained in wood smoke, Dr. Sverre Vedal said The RDCK board, which is the rate for the local area and the mon th-to-month figures are ‘a lot more volatile For the figure to go down that much I'd have to suspect some of that movement is because the sample size is not that large,"" Brown said In the Castlegar-Nelson area, which also encompasses the area around the Arrow Lakes and Kootenay Lake, the number of people in the working population age 15 and over in Decem The B-C, government has the option of taking back the power or negotiating new saleg conirars with U.S. utilities when the original deals expire “Since the power deals were struck, the value of the electricity has in creased greatly,’’ said Davis. * British Columbia's buoyant economy and the increasing long-term needs mean that we will need the power here."’ Despite tife windfall, Davis said, the province will stilhave to build the Site C Dam on the Peace River because of the surging demand for electricity Davis said public hearings into the Site C will begin in the second half of this year drops ber was 65,000, Brown said. Of those 41,000 were in the labor force — that is, they were working or wanted t work Of those, 37,000 were employed and 4,000 were unemplayed, Brown said In the Trail-Grand Forks area which includes the south Okanagan as far as Kelowna, the unemployment rate dropped to 11.1 per cent in December from 12.8 per’ cent in November threats outlined. becoming increasingly concerned over the health effects of smoke from slash burning in the Creston Valley and other areas of the Kootenays, invited Vedal to the board meeting to discuss what corretatians there are between slashburning and respiratory itiness. Vedal said there are two primary sources of helath risks from wood smoke — particles and chemicals. He said respiratory health effects of particles are restricted to particles smaller than 10 microns in size since only particles of that size are inhaled into the respiratory tract. A micron is one-thousandth of a millimetre Particles contained in smoke from wood stoves, fireplaces and slashbur ning are around one-tenth of a micron in size, Vedal said For that reason, there are potentiat concerns, at least for respiratory health,’ be said Vedal said Canadian air quality standards for total suspended par continued on pay a2