ib li t ej i tlt rill n* is os Canron awarded WHY DO PRIME emcesen cece mete] Hyd 4 q RATES CH A NGE auction of 0-day treasury bill, which Ottawa uses to y ro contract ris That decision, says Day, put the spotlight on Canron Ine., of Vancouver, the City of Seattle provided ON TH R D ‘Thursdays. “Which means that the bank rate has become — has been awarded a $540,000 for'an increase in the level of a major factor in the prime rate decision.” contract to construct steel the Seven Mile reservoir. In But the bank rate isn't the only infl on prime, for the five spill- turn Seattle City Light aban- Gat OUI “eay Wig LEEZ 480g 90, H “eonjdesty sNoA MOA ‘s008 ow JOJO A JUDIPHY ey weyshs Buyer jeo0jder1; Buysixe TIGVHUVAY MON ¥ 1401484 ewOeWOH 84) IGTSINOIE AINWIHD ON ¥ i7WOH UNOA MI J8IHMANY er0pdesiy y eA0H “FIV dINd V AVN NOA dt ¥ * A@uusty> © ;NOYI!A jJOm: Z0LZ-S9E “G17 09 1V9INL9373 2 ONIGWNd NOSEID 2 atiuva aed -8@ pejeunmou-psemy kwwg Aun Ajj0214203d oju1 Ajeyos pun Ajispe $44; Bz [Osew earsuedxeu! uo Bursn 10 * SJUBA @LUD|JOWOH [USA 12819 MON — ‘s20uu0D, ORY V8I8I04 UO ul eWo}4 BurAr] snow, sJ0}0A yO AynDeg ey Aojue uOD 4831) 84} 404 ‘MON “BOj011; SOB 40-04-j0-810)8 mou s eydsep s94j060}' ony ie reg ft Hiv aH | gets igri — Hay i Rte pea “tt yee il a el g be % He frat F fp 35 ule 00-01 (2d) “Pjo-1894-01 i Sa 960805 ay OIGUINICD STL 87ZS-S9E OA 40} OUIOY © YIM, By MARIO POSSAMAI Canadian Press TORONTO —_The ancient \inhabitants of England named the fifth day of the week thursdaeg — the day of thunder. In recent years, Thursday has often been a day of jarring changes for anyone with a bank account or a loan. Since Jan. 1, 1985, chartered banks have adjusted their closely-watched prime lending rates 26 times — and 21 were announced on a Thursday. “On Thursday, you automatically think: ‘Is there any reason for prime to change?’ " says Charles Baillie, executive vice-president at the Toronto-Dominion Bank. Prime used to be what top corporate clients paid for bank loans. But now that big borrowers have alternative ways of raising money, prime tends to be more important for smaller borrowers and savers. The cost of a consumer loan or a car loan is usually pegged to prime. You may, for example, get a $3,000 loan to build a patio fence at — in banker's jargon — prime plus two. That's two percentage points above prime. LESS INTEREST On the other side of the coin, a shift in prime will usually be reflected in the interest paid on savings accounts or other types of deposits. Lower prime, therefore, will tend to mean that you'll get less interest from your savings account or term deposits. Why are so many prime rate changes on Thursday? A major reason is that’s the day when the Bank of Canada announces it influential rate — charged on its infrequent loans to chartered banks. Thursday is “the culmination of the week's activity,” says Raymond Day, general manager of money markets at the Toronto-Dominion. The bank rate is a signal to the chartered banks of the direction the central bank thinks interest rates should which partly explains why a change in the bank rate is only periodically reflected in a shift in prime. q it Thursday, for example, the bank rate rose to 9.24 per cent from 9.14 per cent and prime remained at 10 per cent. Each day of the week, bankers keep close tabs on other factors that influence prime. * There is, for example, the cost of raising the money they need to fund their loans. If banks don't offer a high enough rate of interest, savers — small and large — will deposit their money elsewhere. A similar thing occurs with borrowers. If loan rates are too high, says Day, “you're going to lose your business, If you're too low in a rising interest rate environment, you're going to get more business than you want and it's going to be expensive to fund that business.” As Thursday gets nearer, bankers also keep an eye on the fortunes of the dollar. MODERATES SHIFTS The Bank of Canada tries to moderate shifts in the dollar by raising or lowering interest rates. If the dollar is dropping, it will boost interest rates to attract foreign investors and thereby bolster the currency. “The decision that takes place on Thursday is the result of the dialogue that happened Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” says Day. But, he notes, “there isn’t a formula that determines whether or not prime should move. “Essentially, it's a combination of the change in the cost of funds, particularly in the very short-terms of maturity — 30 days or sun — with the changes in the bank rate since the previous prime rate increase or decrease.” By the time the bank rate is released at 2 p.m. Thursday, money men have a good idea how much it will way gatés at B.C. Hydro's Seven Mile Dam on the Pend Oreille River. When these are installed B.C. Hydro will, raise the level of the reservoir by 4.7 metres (15 feet) bringing the reservoir to its full design operating level in June 1988 and increasing the capacity of its powerplant by 43 mega- watts (MW) to 650 MW. The new operating level will ex- tand the Seven Mile reser- voir into the United States. ~ ‘The Skagit River Treaty, signed by Canada and the U.S.in April, 1984, and an agreement between B.C. and doned plans to raise the Ross Dam on the Skagit. Environmental impacts as- ted with the work at wen Mile have been re- viewed. Hydro is now under- taking further investigations to determine what detailed mitigation measures may be needed. Already about half a dozen osprey nests have been identified close to the reser- voir and these will be re- located or special measures taken to avoid disturbance. A strip of trees along the “RAY BYSTROM Strand and Mosby Realty Ltd. pleased to Congratulate Ray Bystrom on the successful completion of his ESTATES’ AGENTS course through the University of British Columbia. existing reservoir will be cleared , FERRARO'S Thursday Castleaird Plaza bia Ave., D August 27 unok pmesys Friday Rourday August 28 August 29 go. shift — and whether a prime rate change is in the offing. Ae ¥ PI 188UOD OUL, yeo1Gew Guyzzep pus ‘o@s018 ((dn-eyeW) cookies available all day for seniors. B.C. Rail racks up profits By DON RAMSDEN gold mines up on the Bridge River (near Lillooet) and gave Press us a little extra traffic.” (ony weet 00: SOUNIA BOSBUUIA 18 818g WoL 2109 @a8Qg) edo gqog sewoojem (UeyBLS sor) unpney Aw WB 0187 :Byrye dOHS JONVYNSNI Peinpeyos tots, 40605305 ‘100445 YP - (ZL VeAOW vosy 30 Ours “seA0; wIdsUD OUL UE OEY. 1 4 20198 Asequewns0p £161 sueID 0A MON 18 S19F WO, MON ‘sou UnOD RAON@ wereyip ur pepuetes 8) AMepy Moy OO} y £961) .,A0g 104004, ‘814 1nOge 081018 vf YOa1e) Aeg eye) Bime} Auer 992015 Woy 30) Bury: \dnsqueg Bur qnd :\seng veyiung on180eW, 20) nUeW 8 suR;d ONY SreHeUNy POLBONSIYD 08 8/0u oy) Jo ews aw “TANLLNGS ‘LIN ZT sequiaydas ‘Aopseupeyy 0} yBnosy 17 sNBny ‘Aopsunyy MO OUL 1nBeys05 AY DIGUINIOD ISTI MOA 30} BWOY 0 YIM, 87ZS-S9E (" * panusjuo2 Aopnjog Z sequiejdes ‘Anpseupeyy o} yBnosys 77 sNBny ‘Aopsuny) AL =) Canadian VANCOUVER — The ear-splitting whistle accompanied by a blast of steam signals the arrival of the Royal Hudson, back from a lazy tourist jaunt to Squamish. The historic steam engine is an eye-catching sight each summer along the BC Rail tracks between North Vancouver and Squamish — a quaint sideline enterprise for the provineially owned railway. These days, the British Columbia Railway (BC Rail is its operations subsidiary) can afford to sponsor picturesque tourist attractions. But for a good chunk of this century, the entire Pacific Great Eastern Railway — as it was known then — was so isolated and poor it was ignored even by hoboes looking for a free ride. The privately funded PGE was born in February 1912, with a mandate to build a standard-gauge line from North Vancouver to Prince George in central British Columbia. Then a severe recession hit the province, the railway went broke, the government took control of it in 1918 and construction was curtailed. For several decades the main line ran only from the tiny town of Squamish, 60 kilometres north of Vancouver, to Quesnel, about 350 kilometres farther north, across the Coast Mountains and the sage-brush country of the Cariboo. TRACKBED ROUGH Already dubbed the “Please Go Easy” and “Past God's Endurance” because of its rough trackbed, the PGE's isolated starting and stopping points earned it the nickname “Prince George Eventually.” Eventually was not until 1952 when the 130-kilometre link north of Quesnel to Prince George was completed. Hoboes regularly rode the transcontinental trains in the 1980s but rarely hopped aboard the Pacific Great Eastern because “it went from nowhere to nowhere,” says Bob Williamson,. 85, a retired PGE telephone lineman. Besides, there were only two trains a week in each direction, recalls Williamson. The typical train consisted of a baggage car, mail car, day coach and sleeper, box car and sometimes a flat car. “Things were pretty quiet around the 1930s (but) the Depression made gold more valuable and they opened some Housing hits six-year peak VANCOUVER (CP) — Home Builders Association of British Columbia housing B.C. executive officer. starts their highest level in “There seems to be a six years last month as mod- certain satisfaction about in- erate interest rates con- terest rates now.” tinued to fuel the housing Mortgage rates currently market, says a Canada Mort- gage and Housing Corp. survey. Corporation statistics show that 2,883 homes were built in B.C. urban areas in July, five per cent more starts than in June and 75 range from about 10% per cent for a one-year term to 11h per cent for five years. The record month for B.C. home construction was 3,581 in June 1981. Corporation regional economist Helmut Pastrick expects a total of 24,000 homes will be built in The railway operated on a shoe-string budget for many years, says writer Tim Horton, who is completing a four-volume historical look at the PGE and BC Rail. NAILS REUSED Nails and bolts were reused and machinists spent a lot of time rummaging through the scrap heap. “If you could say one thing about the railway’s personnel it was that they had to become very creative and adept at doing jobs with little or no tools,” Horton said in an interview. The delicate job of reacquiring railway land in West Vancouver fell to Gordon Ritchie, who begins his retirement this summer after 33 years with the Crown corporation, most recently as administrative vice-president and corporate secretary. “Over the years until 1954 when we went back into reconstruction, the abandoned right-of-way was used for gardening and there were garages on it, roads, etcetera,” said Ritchie. “And, of course, some of the real estate agents had told the owners that they owned right down to the waterfront.” RECALLS TALKS He remembers the property negotiations, “particularly with some of these dear old girls with their prized straw- berry patches on our right-of-way.” The British Columbia Railway pushed into the Peace River district in 1958, and the northern line to Fort Nelson was completed in 1971. The grand opening of that extension brought another call for Ritchie's diplomatic skills. As a train of dignitaries, including former premier W.A.C. Bennett, prepared to travel the final section, Ritchie got word that the Fort Nelson Indian band was going to block the tracks short of the northeastern B.C. town. Ritchie's overnight negotiations paid off. There was only a “token blockade with a couple of sticks across the track but the Indians had made their points and I had agreed to arrange meetings” with the government to hear the natives’ grievances. The ill-fated Dease Lake extension into the virtually un- developed area of northwestern British Columbia was shelved in the 1970s. But BC Rail expanded with an electrified branch line into the northeastern coal fields at Tumbler Ridge in the early 1980s. This decade also saw the completion of a corporate re- andr ing that has produced six years of substantial profits. Corporation president Mac Norris credits the stream- lining of the management structure, rebuilding of the railway line and an efficient plant. But although net income reached $51.4 million in 1986, he doesn't predict bigger profits. “There are some clouds on the horizon,” he says, citing the uncertainty surrounding northeast coal, the downturn in the U.S. lumber market and 'the possible effects of railway deregulation. SENIOR CITIZENS DISCOUNT DAYS For people 65 years and older *10% off your total food bill to a maximum purchase of $100. *10% off discount does not apply to fluid milk or cigarettes. Please present pension card to qualify for discount. PLAZA SUPER-VALU OPEN SUNDAY! 3 10a.m.-5 p.m, FOR YOUR SHOPPING CONVENIENCE! per cent higher than July 1986. B.C. this year, making it the “(The figures) reflect the strongest’year since a record general recovery in the econ- 41,585 homes were built in omy that seems to be taking 1981. filac€ and the fact that people The survey noted large are feeling more confident monthly gains in multiple about buying a home,” said housing starts in Victoria, Keith Sashaw, Canadian Kelowna and Chilliwack. — PARENTS — Returning to work or school? WAY it hill < “wy hobbit hill 749 - 11th Avenue, Castlegar, 365-7280 & NOW ACCEPTING REGISTRATIONS * — Quolity licenced child core, oor, 3-5 (] 3a IDIAYIS IINWANSNI 3171dWOD V ONIDIAOSd 106014805 Vv D1qQUIN/OD LSTL 10) yuees. 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