paflinpent shes. Victoria, By Cy Winners of the Cas- tlegar Writers’ Guild short me writing con- test... A7 _ schedule Wheelchair athlete Rick Hansen's Man in Motion world tour takes oftfrom Movie today ++ B7 bonus number was 33. and 64, The icing iE in Saturday's Lotto 6-49 draw were 1, 27, 29, 34, 42 and 48. The The numbers drawn in the Lotto West-The Pick Friday night were 11, 14, 23, 31, 32, 43, 47 The $500,000 winning number: in Friday's Provincial lottery draw is 3005557. The 11th annual West Kootenay Trade Fair continues to at the Community Complex. & CosNews editor Ron Norman captured some of Saturday's activity in @ special photo feature CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 1987 adie Fan, 2 Sections (A &B) AIR DISASTER . . . Castlegar RCMP and area fire departments responded to a simulated air crash Saturday morning in Raspberry near the CP Rail bridge. Crash victims were scattered around the area, luding some on the Castl side of the river below Ist Street. Exercise was part of emergency disaster training. — Cashews Photos by Burt Campbell \ Cominco loses $152 m —“ VANCOUVER (CP) — Cominco Ltd. of Vancouver has been a money-loser for four of the last five years. Shareholders didn't hear any optimistic predictions from new president Robert Hallbauer on Thursday. “[ hope the news is better next year,” Hallbauer told the annual general meeting after detailing the company’s 1986 net loss of $151.6 million. It lost $98.1 million the previous ar. ; This is Cominco’s first year out from under the Wing of its founding parent, Canadian Pacific Enterprises Ltd Cominco is primarily known for its lead-zinc operations in eight countries, but among other things also produces 1 fertilizers, semi materials and compon ents for the electronics industry and precision fabricated metal parts and P s for equipment. Hallbauer, the former senior vice-president of Vancou ver-based Teck Corp., outlined an aggressive strategy for Cominco to work out of debt while developing new revenue sources. “We're not in a holding pattern,” Hallbauer said in an interview. “We're trying to do both things at once.” Teck, along with Metallgesellschaft AG of West Germany and M.I.M. Holdings Ltd. of Australia, bought controlling interest in Cominco last year, the 80th anniversary of its formation by the Canadian Pacific Railway to exploit the mineral wealth on the property it had been granted. The only profitable year Cominco has had recently was HEARING TOLD on't privatize B.C. liquor sales By SURJ RATTAN Staff Writer Privatizing B.C.’s liquor sales will do more harm than good, according to the majority of briefs presented at a Castlegar hearing in Castlegar Thurs- day. A liquor policy review panel is touring the province to get feedback on whether Victoria should hand over the control and licensing of liquor to the private sector. Thé stop in Castlegar _was the seventh of 15 scheduled stops. It will visit Nanaimo Monday. The panel is chaired ‘by Chilliwack MLA John Jansen andfncludes Boun- dary-Similkameen MLA Jim Hewitt and Okanagan-South MLA Larry Chal- mers. Rossland-Trail MLA Chris D'Arcy told the hearing he is against the idea of privatizing liquor sales, but added that the provincial government should establish “clear-cut guidelines” for issu ing liquor licences. “Applicants. should never have to re-do plans due to rules or standards that were not in writing when the applicant was first in touch with the LLB (Liquor Licensing Branch) to de- termine feasibility of licence,” said D'Arcy. D'Arcy said liquor sales should not be privatized because “alcohol is a toxic drug.” “Proliferation of take-out stores will add to the public costs of treating social, human and property damages from excessive alcohol consumption,” said D'Arcy. The provincial government will re- ceive about $400 million in revenues this year from the Liquor Distribution Branch and D'Arcy said the province cannot afford to lose that money, otherwise it would have to raise taxes. He added that private retailers would not be able to provide “the huge variety of products” currently pro- vided by the Branch. As an example he said the Rossland liquor store offers 1,400 separate items for a city of 3,500 people. Gaby Gravel, chairman of the B.C. Government Employees’ Union local 509, and a representative of liquor store employees in the West Kootenay, said allowing alcohol to be sold in corner and grocery stores would mean an increase in health risks and police costs. “It is well established that consump- tion increases as availability is in- creased. As consumption increases, so do health related costs, law enforce- ment costs, productivity losses and Liquor Distribution family and social breakdowns,” said Gravel. He added to D’Arcy’s claim that the provincial government would lose a significant amount of money if it did away with the Liquor Distribution Branch. “At present, the LDB is the fifth largest source of provincial govern- ment revenue. The LDB operates a retail business roughly equivalent to $1 billion in annual sales revenue. The government of B.C. will receive more than $420 million in net income this year from LDB operations,” said Gravel. Meanwhile, Gravel said the BCGEU continued on page A2 Vancouver route gets another flight By CasNews Staff Canadian Airlines International has added another flight to its Castlegar to Vancouver route beginning today. Weekday service will be increased from two flights a day to three. Departures from Castlegar will be at 9:10 a.m., 1:15 p.m. and 3:45 p.m., with the first two flights using a Dash-7 turboprop and the last a Boeing 737 jet. As well, the first flight will be direct and the last two routed through Pen- ticton. The flight will leave Vancouver on weekdays at 7:05 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1:55 p.m. with all flights stopping in Penticton. Saturday service will be increased to two flights from the present one flight. The departure times will be the same as the first two weekday flights. There will tinue to be just one flight on Sundays, leaving Vancouver at 1:55 p.m. and departing Castlegar at 3:45 p.m. CAI is the new airline formed by Pacific Western Airlines’ takeover of Canadian Pacific Airlines. The com- pany also owns 40 per cent of Time Air which flies the Castlegar to Calgary route and will be handling the Dash-7 flights to Vancouver. “This schedule adjustment reflects improved services which are part of the first phase of changes undertaken as the networks of Pacific Western and Canadian Pacific are integrated,” Cana- dian Airlines International says in a news release. CAI says new signs will also be going up at airports across the country and the company will change to the Pegasus 2000 reservation network to- day. Meanwhile, ‘ower say they are with the resporise from boat racers, Depyoy said be had hoped for 12 entries but sow expecta 16 to 20 boats, eo ee Deproy said ot entries is because rhe cool fer the large number here are coordinated with faces in Washington State around the same time. i As well, he said the $10,000 in prize money “helped.” Deproy emphasized that the races are not a Trail or Organizers teas month's jot boat races on the” Columbia River between Trail and Castlegar the a ttraet ‘than 5,000 sp of tow “I would be dappetnted it we did’ inpart 6,00 i Castlegar Chamber from out Deproy said he originally spectators — both local local andi out of town — for the May and 10 races. But he said response from outside the area has been _ in 1984 when high zine and fertilizer prices d to produce a $23-million gain. Since then it has been at the mercy of unstable commodity markets. Cominco got a toe-hold on profitability in the first quarter of 1987, posting unconsolidated earnings of $5.5 million, compared with an unconsolidated loss of $26.6 million for the first quarter of 1986. Hallbauer conceded Cominco, part of CP Enterprises’ diverse array of holdings, may have started drifting in the last years before it was sold. “It's obvious Canadian Pacific was thinking of getting out of the mining business,” he said. “You're not going to do continued on page A2 ding $5,000 in the “This isa very said. He pointed out 30,000 spectators. “We're not going to get 90,000 people this year, but next year (we'll get) 10,000.” Deproy said the Columbia River is particularly suited to jet boat racing because it is so accessible for spectators. He also said the race is the first of what will be an annual event. tremendous. ‘That is in part because the Organizers are - 1 jet boat races in Idaho attract Castlegar event, but a “Trail-Castlegar-Columbia River event.” ‘The races will be run in four 50-kilometre legs over two days. The first leg will be from Waneta to ' Keenleyside Dam. Racers will then gather at the dam, make any adjustments and then race back down the course to Waneta. They will repeat the process the next day. ¢ “These boats go in excess of 100 miles per hour,” _ Beproy said. “A tremendous amount of the time they are going to be flying — literally.” ‘The races are the first jet boat races in B.C. and TSN + The Sports Network — will be covering them from to finish. ‘As well, Deproy said the races have been “sanctioned” by the jet boat racing association. +. About 20 safety boats will dot the course — half from Trail and half from Castlegar. Deproy said pleasure boats teannot be banned from the river because the Columbia is ‘a navigable waterway. _ “We can only strongly suggest they (not be) there,” he said. But he added: “If anyone is on the course during race fime the:race is over. That's it.”