t os c2 Castlégar News March 13, 1985 BUSINESS VANCOUVER (CP) — A billion-dollar building boom is turning Vv Vancouver leads the nation in construetjon, says Ted Droet- into a high-rise haven in NEW IN TOWN? stunning defiance of a lack- 7 lustre economy. LET US PUT the beh of the preted OUT THE MAT economy will hum again to the tune of Expo excitement FOR YOU! | and Pacific Rim trade. < Their confidence in the future is expressed by archi- tects in prestige designs of tinted glass, stainless steel and polished granite — all helping to create the glossy impression of a city on the move. Joyce 365-3091 Connie 365-7601 The downtown projects are worth a total of more than $983 million. Throw in public undertakings such as Expo 86, Canada Place and the Light Rapid Transit, and it's Tax Time Don't leave this important task to amateurs. Updates in tax laws and requirements make our professional knowledge a must. Let us prepare your income tax return. Kokanee Tax Service Call Jill or Janet 278 Columbia Ave., Castlegar 365-2416 BAR-KING RANCH & KENNELS (Formerly Wineburgs) A HAS / Precious Puppies! AKC. REGISTERED HIHT: . Mele mote.......00. SBAS —* Vorcinations TOY FOX TERRIERS rere moles oo. $285 * Dewormed oe emoles......00. $BIS — * Nodury PRICES INCLUDE TAX AND DISCOUNT. Call 509-732-4358 Rt. 2, Colville, Wash., 99114 tboom, director of overall planning for the city. But Droettboom worries that it will take until the early 1990s to fill the new of- fices, unless there's an in- fluex of businesses. “One has to wonder at this great Pi i of confi- Vancouver high-rise boom defies economy should help to fill vacancies, he says. “I think we are at a time when it is not best for land- lords, but the people who have these Buildings are in it for the long haul,” he says. “I think they are looking to average it out, and in the end they'll be a good long-term dence in the sector at this particular time, and wonder again in terms of some of the negative factors . . . . like declining markets for our traditional resource based industries,” he says, VIEW PROTECTED Other planners are con. cerned about how future high-rise construction will affect views of downtown and the mountains. A recent survey by Mac- aulay Nicolls and Maitland International put the city’s office vacancy rate at 16.5 per cent at the end of 1984, up 5.4 per cent from the pre- vious year. But senior vice- president Kelly Heed says Droettboom is underestimat- ing Vancouver's emergence as a Pacific Rim business centre. Most of the major devel- opments are due for comple- tion before or in 1986, and a decline in the number of fur- ther projects, combined with the predicted business mo- mentum created by Expo Peter Maddocks, vice-pres- ident and general Computer graphics on the rise By MIKE FUHRMANN TORONTO (CP) — Making spaceships zoom through imaginary galaxies or planets explode is all part of a day's work at a Toronto computer graphics company. The artists and icians at Omnibus Comp Graphics Inc. use $10 million worth of . computer equipment to create the kind of special effects sought by Royal LePage, says Van- couver may be overbuilt now, but he predicts foreign and North American business will move to Vancouver to harness Pacific Rim trade. Mayor Mike Harcourt says the development boom is just one way in which Vancouver is maturing into a cosmopol- itan city, along with trans- portation and transit im- provements, the develop- ment of the port, the con- vention centre and Expo. Harcourt says he doesn't think the large number of high-rise buildings will de- ize the d be- Holly sei-fi film p and television advertising agencies. This year about $100 million will be spent in North America on computer graphics, says John Pennie, Omnibus president and co-founder. He predicts the market will be worth $1 billion in five years. “We're doing a film right now with P: aboard the Starship Enterprise in the film Star trek I, the Search for Spock, were also provided by Omai = Sometimes clients want to see their image ees wets up. The TV networks, for example, had logos that “lo very Canadian — you know, not very dynamic or energetic,” said Pennie, calling the new computer generated logos “more forward looking. Traditional hand animati rs by Walt Disney are time consuming And while computer animation i Omnibus normally charges between $1,500 and $5,000 for each second of film or videotape delivered to its customers — the price of computer power is falling. Within 10 years virtually all film animation will be done on computers, Pennie said. LOST MONEY But so far Omnibus's profit picture has been bleak. In 1984 the firm lost $1.3 million on sales of $2.2 million. Pennie, blaming the loss on equipment delays and startup Costs for the U.S. facilities, told the company's annual Meeting last week “the cash drain has stopped. He predicted the company will turn a profit in the final quarter of this year and be in the black in 1986. However, some analysts are skeptical of the saying optimistic predictions when as pioneered ing and labor intensive. is still expensive — Pictures in whic children fly over a cityscape,” Pennie said in an interview. “It's a look that hasn't been tried before in computer animation” — but that’s all the 45-year-old entrepreneur would say since he's under contract not to reveal details of the film, to be released in July. Since being formed three years ago, Omnibus has grown to 60 employees, established animation facilities in New York and Los Angeles, and raised $4 million in a public stock issue a year ago. While its fast growth has attracted attention in the industry, TV viewers have also seen the company’s work, such as the spinning three-dimensional logos for the Global, CTV and CBC cause city hall has encour- aged developers in recent years to include public amen- ities such as plazas, weather protection and small parks into their projects. Droettboom believes some of the construction is a carry- over from 1981, when the economy was good and the office vacancy rate low. Valium lost its patent NUTLEY, .N.J. (AP) — Valium, the fourth best-sell- ing prescription drug in the United States, has lost its patent protection but no ma- kers of generic drugs, which an analyst said could cost 80 per cent less, have federal approval. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration go-ahead for any generic manufacturers is at least five months away, and possibly more after Hoff- mann-La Roche Inc. asked the agency to refuse any petitions while it reviews standards for production of i the drug’s chem- ieal name, said agency spokesman Michael Shaffer. Hoffmann-La Roche first produced Valium in the U.S. in 1963. At least two com. panies, Lederle Laboratories in Wayne and Zenith Labor- atories in Northvale, have filed applications to make it. Valium was the top-selling prescription drug in 1975 in the U.S. when 61 million prescriptions were filled, compared with 25 million last year when it was the fourth selling drug, said the com- pany spokesman John Door. ley. This isa Limited Time Offer! networks. USE COMPUTER Why do animation ona 2" images are not subject to the law of gravity,” Pennie said, “so we can make things happen that aren't easy to do other ways” — like eight minutes of exploding galaxies and sub-atomic particles which Omnibus is creating for a PBS TV documentary called Creation of the Universe. Scenes pany’s pi the company went public in January 1983 didn't pan out. Omnibus's current projected profits “are not a sure thing,” says Robi Roncarelli, editor of a computer animation trade newsletter. . The company needs to increase its business with U.S. advertisers or land some jobs with the big American TV networks and film companies, Roncarelli says. And Omnibus’s estimate of the size of the computer animation market may be overstated SELL IN CANADA About 20 companies worldwide produce computer graphics for the motion picture and television industries, but Pennie said he has no competition in Canada. ur competitors are American companies selling to Canadian clients.” To keep up with those competitors Omnibus is spending more than $1 million on software research this year, with $800,000 coming from Ottawa's National Research Council in the form of a grant. “Ultimately we will be able to stimulate real life artificially using computers,” Pennie said. $6.8 MILLION PURCHASE Unicorp majority shareholder TORONTO (CP) — Unicorp Canada Corp. has purchased $6.8 million shares of Union Enterprises Ltd., easily making it the largest shareholder and possibly giving it control of the energy holding company. “The shareholders of Union have spoken — they've supported Unicorp,” a jubilant Jim Leech, president of Unicorp, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. The company had imposed midnight Monday as a deadline for the offer, but d Tuesday it is i affairs of Union, which owns Union Gas Ltd., Ontario's second-largest gas utility. Union, chaired by former Ontario treasurer Darcy McKeough, has accused Unicorp of being too small a pany to take ibility for a 500,000 utility, Unicorp, in turn, has accused Union management of entrenching its own position. The takeover bid, begun in late-January, has involved its bid for all union shares to 5 p.m. Friday in all p mud-slinging news conference, an Ontario except Alberta. While Unicorp said Tuesday it had assembled control of the firm, Leech conceded that if a last-minute deal by Union for Burns Foods Ltd. is permitted, Unicorp's share in Union will drop from about 52 per cent to 41 per cent. At present, there area about 33 million shares in Union Enterprises, but an additional eight million voting shares issued in return for the Burns shares would raise that total to 41 million. Unicorp’s announcement indicates that even if they have assembled official control of the company, the relatively small Toronto real estate and investment company will come to play an increasingly large role in the Securities C ission hearing and millions of dollars worth of newspaper and broadcast advertising. BATTLES CONTINUE And the legal and regulatory battles still aren't over. Unicorp is asking the Ontario Securities Commission, the Toronto and Montreal stock exchanges and the Ontario director under the Business Corporation Act to rescind the Burns deal. Unicorp says the deal, in which $125 million worth of convertible preferred voting shares were issued in exchange for Burns shares, is illegal because it violates exchange rules against issuing voting stock without exchange and shareholder approval. ON THE PURCHASE OF * Chesterfield Suites * Recliners Beds * Swivel Rockers * Dining Room Suites * Dinettes TORONTO (CP) — Selling hot, nutritious breakfasts to 48 youngsters hasn't been easy for Fran Kubina, who operates a special five-day-a- week project to send children off to school pfoperly fed. Many of tht children are accustomed to sugar-coated cereals, said Kubina, who serves up bacon and eggs, pancakes, french toast or scrambled eggs instead. Kubina said she had to persuade the children that bacon and eggs for breakfast also beats a bag of potato chips; but once convinced, they came back for seconds, Rick Gosling, recreation co-ordinator for the Metro Housing Authority, which sponsors the program in a predominantly highrise neighborhood, said “So many single parents are going off to work as early as 6 a.m., before the kids get up to go to school. “T've always worried about them heading off for class without breakfast.” Operated on a shoestring budget, The Breakfast Club relies mostly on handouts. Much of the food dished up by Kubina and her student staff of two is donated by local businesses or a church. Children are charged 25 cents a breakfast. Farm women change CALGARY (CP) — A new generation of farm women has grown tired of seeing themselves portrayed in bib aprons and bread dough, says Alice Groenveld, president of the newly-formed Alberta Women in Support of Agri- culture. “A lot of popular ad. vertising images portray farm women in the house wearing cotton dresses and bib aprons,” Groenveld said in an interview. “I don't even own a cotton dress.” She said modern farm women are just as apt to be running a tractor or per. forming accounting chores on a computer. “The role of farm women has changed,” she said. “We are much more actively in- volved in the day-to-day operations and long-range planning of the business.” The 70-member group, formed last August, has set out to change farm women's image. It will ask the Alberta government to make agricul ture courses mandatory at the elementary and high school level so urban children realize where their food comes from and how impor. tant th agriculture industry is to the economy. 20's Canadian Brands REGULAR & KINGS CARTON CIGARETTES Limit 2 per customer ESTABLISHED 1890 1.5 LITRE MR. CLEAN ALL-PURPOSE CLEANER 450 mL CP 135 or IVORY HAMPOO or 369 9 MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE Regular or Drip LESS 1.00 COUPON BELOW { Go0d.0,the last drop, REDEEMABLE ONLY AT SHOPPERS DRUG MART Regular or Decaffeinated (any grind) Offer expires Mar. 27/85 BOUNC! FABRIC SOFTENER 100's/400 i.u LIF ADDITIVE- CL 110-24 y A° BB EXPOSURE KODAK [Te ff COLOUR " ma) B PRINT FiLM sdhlenccniled . Cc Living Room Table Groups TOOTHPASTE * Mattress & Box Spring Sets nor Teen Ss at Smeal esumene learn leadership HAMILTON (CP) — An Sofa, Chair — $900 after-school creative play No Down Payment program for children is teach Ist Payment, May 10 i é hip skills to teen 12 Monthly Payments of $75 oa rs. With No Interest Charge (O.A.C.) Project LEAD — which stands for leadership, exper ience and development — is sponsored by the Hamilton Junior League as part of an international leadership training program for teen agers aided by a $290,000, 40-month grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Through role playing and the mentor concept, adult volunteers from the league Act Now! This Offer is Limited! teach teenagers more about & themselves and train them to work with children. HOMEGOODS and training other students FURNITURE WAREHOUSE teria 50th-anniversary gift to the AT CHINA CREEK ers. S$! : INDITIONER EXAMPLE co Purchase Date — March 10 V.C.R. $599 plus tox NO EXTRA CHARGE FOR No down payment DELIVERY ANYWHERE 6 Months 1st Payment — May 10 Interest 6 monthly payments of $106.82 Free (O.A.C.) with no interest charge cain Bae) DE] EXAMPLES — rvrcrore 0010 moreno On Approved Credit PURCHASE OF: 6 Months interest Free *V.CR * Portable Televisions * Console Televisions JUSVAHLO0L 139 USVAMLOOL BNOAWIY ww IOI g Superb big-screen RCA XL-100 color plus the convenience of remote - n |e sa ‘aq SAVE UP TO 24% On Various Forms of Budget Financing HOMEGOODS _ FURNITURE WAREHOUSE 8 through Seterdey trom AT CHINA CREEK community. As it progresses, the students are recruiting