the recovery
: 978

-ecrease in

SE Rn Cas A RL an

OTTAWA (CP)- A private
forecasting agency
predicted today. that
Canada’s .economic per-
formance in the second half
‘of 1977 will strengthen and

continue

1978. .

The influential Con-
ference Board in Canada,
which is supported by some
businesses, unions and
govenrment .agencies,. said
real economic growth in the
second half of this year
should hit an annual rate.of
four percent, rising to five
per cent next year.

The forecast is one of the
few bright ones made
recently, Government

‘figures show thsat in the
-second quarter of 1977, there

Sees a eta rate aeetere celece rata aaraee pgiaicleteticnre ratios

Chabot

refuses
coal —

question

VICTORIA (CP)- The
opposition tried again
Monday to get Mines
Minister James Chabot to
release government

_ projections on the

development of coal in
northeastern British

umbia.

NDP MLA Graham Lea
(Prince Rupert) said the
president of Fording Coal
Co. Ltd. recently told an
energy symposium = in
Vancouver that coal in the
southeastern area of the
province was enough to
supply all export needs by
1n65. Lea told Chabot Goring
question per at B.C.
could expect to see an in-
demand for
metallurgical’ coal of only
seven million tons by that
year, and asked Chabot if he
had any reason to believe

otherwise.

_ Chabot said he did not
have .any government
projections and noted that

. predictions for. . future.

demand change constantly.

was a decline in the real
gross national product - the
most comprehensive
measure of total economic
activity - of 2.4 percent on an
annual basis.

Those figures led to

speculation that the country
is heading into a recession.

The board predicted the
country’s deficit in in-
ternational. payments will
deepen this year to $5.3
billion and to $6 billion in

1978, largely due to an
outflow of funds to pay for
services,

_The merchandise trade
side of the ledger, in which
Canada usually has a sur-
plus, will be strong this year

with growth in exports this
year of 10.8 percent. But
this growth will decline to
4.4 percent in 1978.

Imports will increase by
about 4.7 percent this year,
rising marginally to a

the™herald

Serving Terrace, Kitimat, the Hazeltons, Stewart and the Nass

‘

t VOLUME 71 NO. 97

Price: 20 cents . TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1977

/

Diving

‘Into.his.own image reflected in the

' g
eas
calm water of

the ¢ominuinilfy pool is 11-year-old Steven Little, He was

as ea ta

the only person to take advantage of the pool's first al- -.

ternoon opening period Monday after staff finished the

annual maintenance.

V. —ToRtA

- Economy will recover, private stuuy

growth rate of 4.8 percent
next year.

Robert Rene de Cotret,
president of the conference
board, said today the
second-quarter decline,
while consistent with earlier
predictions that 1977 would
be a year of slowdown,
“outght not.to be interpreted
as. an indicator of future
trends,"”

“Indeed, we are currently
anticipatinge stronger
performance during the
second half of 1977, which
can be. expected to continue
he said.

De Cotret said the second
quarter decline was due
largely to lower spending by
consumers. But increases
in real disposable income,.

ys”

arising from income tax
cuts, would lead to greater
consumer spending in the
second half of this year.

. The board improvements |
in investment in.machinery
and equipmént, non-
residential and housing
construction, and the
balance of.trade should help
economic growth.

Next year will show
greater growth because of
an expansion in investment,
the board sald, but the
expected recovery ‘shoul
only be described as
“mild.”

The over-all number of
jobs should grow next year
at a rate of 2.8 percent and
the labor force will grow at
about 2.5 percent.

HESPERIA Pat Een ete caCe el eceai sees aopaosre pctetatabeboletararsretetettatene

Go-ahead planned

Shows

help to reduce unem-
ployment from the expected
1977 level of eight percent, it
will still leave the . 1978
unemployment rate at a
relatively high 7.7 percent.

The board projected a
small slowdown in inflation
for the remainder of the
year, with the average of
1977 being 7.9 percent, still
higher than government
predicted levels of 7.5
percent. In August, the 12
month inflation rate was 8.3
percent,

In 1978, the inflation, rate
will drop to 6.7 percent, the
board preducted. But thisis
still well above the govern-
ment’s anti-inflation target
for ext year of four per-
cent. ,

on land claims

By DONNA VALLIERES
a Herald staff writer
_ Land claim negotiations between local Indian bands and
the federal government may get underway at a meeting
next Monday if. newly appointed Indian Affairs Minister
Hugh Falkner keeps the appointment made by former
Indian Affairs Minister Warren Allmand,

_ Neil John Sterritt, land
claims co-ordinator for the
seven Gitksan-Carrier
bands from the Upper
Skeena and lower. Bulkley
Valley rivers, said the
meeting would be the result
of three year’s hard work by
the tribal council to
establish aboriginal land

daries.

He .said the scheduled
meeting on Monday at
Kispiox Village would begin
with a ceremonial public
meeting to describe
generally the tribal coun-
cil’s position on land. claims
and would be followed b
closed sessions wit!
government officials. to
begin more detailed
discussion.

He said the meeting will
be an important step in land
claiin ‘negotiations . where
both sides would “talk in

House splits over resources board —

VICTORIA (CP)- Second
reading debate on the
controversial bill to abolish
the Vancouver Resources
Board began in earnest in
the British Columbia
legislature on Monday, but
not. before another
procedural dispute delayed
proceedings by about dalf

an hour,

Debate on Bill 65, the
Community Resources
‘Board Amendment Act,
1977, was cut short on
‘Friday when Human
‘Resources Minister Bill
Vander Zalm forgot to
formally moye. second
reading after delivering an
shour-long speech to open the
ebate. . .

Opposition Leader Dave
Barrett siad then that it was
his party's position that
‘Vander Zaim had _ ef-
‘fectively -killed the bill
through his error, a point

hotly.diaputed by the-Soclal .

Credit government...

However, on Monday,
Barrett . admitted in the

“the bill cannot be killed
permanently, the bill cannot
be dropped.”

He said, though, that the
govenrment did not have the
right to. proceed with the
legislation without sub-
mitting a written motion, a
procedure which could have
delayed the debate for at
least another day.

Attorney-General Garde
Gardom, government House
leader, said the govenrment
was well within the rules of
the House by intending to
begin debate without the
formal motion. ;

Speaker Ed Smith ruled
that. the governmerit
position was correct, but
Barrett challenged the
speaker's ruling.

The ruling was upheld by
a 27 to 18 yote, with

ressive Conservative
leader Scott Wallace and
Liberal leader Gordon
Gibson yoting with the
government.

Dennis Cocke NDP-New

. Westminster began the.

opposition attack on the bill,
saying Vander Zalm’s
defence of the legislation

was ‘‘prejudiced beyond

ef,

Cocke said the bill is just
one more aspect of the
*nower-hungry’’ Social
Creditf government which
has done everything within

its power to reduce the

rights of people, com-
munities, and
municipalities.

He said that dismantaling
of the board was neither
logical, desirable, nor

ethical.

The NDP whip said there
was a large rift in the
govenrment caucus over the
bill, arid that opposition to
the legislation ahd led to
Vander Zaim threatening to

resign if the bill wasn’t:

followed through.

Cocke also back RB
personnel who have issued a
detailed rebuttal of Vander
Zalm’s Friday speech.

Gibson said that through

the bill, Vander Zalm has
“kicked thousands of hard-
working community
‘workers in the teeth.”
- “Y'yve never seen such an
upwelling of popular sup-
port against the bill,” said
Gibson. mo
“My mail has literally
been 100 to one in favor of
he, VRB and against Bill

Wallace said the minister
was using a “sledge ham-

mer to kill a fly.”

The Conservative leader
agreed that there were
instances of minor problems
in the VRB, but Vander
Zalm had totally over-
reacted, and in doing so had
totally misrepresented the
facts.

“The minister revealed in
his Friday speech he was
something less than
honorable,” Wallace said,
“The facts and figures that

the minister did quote have
have many inaccuracies.”

Charles Barber NDP -
Victoria said that the bill
restrains and restricts
freedom, and called Vander
Zalm's charged against the

' VRB “phoney and
erroneous,”
He said the bill represents

a “hopelessly and per-
manently impaired social
services policy.””

Liberals defend blacklists

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C.
(CP(- Members of the
British Columbia federal
liberal caucus attending a
weekend conference here
have stoutly defended the
federal government's use of
“blacklists’’ in the late
1960s,

The action was needed to
guard the security of the
couniry in troubled times,
they argued. here Saturday.

“Ninety-nine percent of ©

the people of Canada" want
federal authoritles to take
steps to guard the country’s
security, said Simma Holt
Vancouver-Kingsway.

The blacklists issue came
up several. times at the
conference in this northern
B.C. city, whose local
Progressive. Conservative
MP Frank Oberle raised it
in Ottawa early this year.

Oberle revealed a letter
circulated in 1971 by then
Solicitor-General Jean-
Pierre Goyer which listed
about 25. people as having
subversive intentions.
Solicitor-General Francis
Fox later told the Commons
the list was of civil servants
suspected. of leaking
classified information.

Last month Oberle

government has several
such lists and that security
agencies. and the RCMP
were being used by Prime
Minister Trudeau's office as
a political tool. .

Holt said that during the
1960s, the media and op-
position criticized the

government for hiring left-
wing activists.

“Then you come along
now and you're
schizophrenic because we
were watching people,” she
Sa.

Senator Ray Perrault,
Liberal leader in the Senate,
Iona Campagnolo, minister
of state incharge of fitness
and amateur sport and Holt
all said security checks are
run. on members’ of
Parliament and their staff
who have access to con-
fidential information.

“The security stakes in
Canada and. the world are
extremely high these days,”
Perrault said.

Asked during a press
conference for her definition
of a subversive, Holt replied
she thought it was “anybody
who threatens the peace and
security of the national
fabric in the general sense.”

Justice Minister Ron
Basford interjected that the
legal definition of the crime
of subversion was. much
narrower and included only
passing on state secrets to
foreign governments or
working towards
overthrow of the govern-
ment by violence.

“In a free society the
concern is a rather narrow
one,” he said.

Asked if she opposed such
groups as Maolsts, Halt
said: ‘I happen to dislike
people who don't like
freedom.”

Reminded that she had

the '

recently called some
newspaper reporters

Maoisists in a speech in.

she still felt some
newspeople were ‘‘more

prone to Maoism than to our

style of democracy.”
She further criticized

fournalists, saying they
often engage in ‘‘self-
serving censorship”. She
said Ottawa reporters
recently failed to record the

House of Commens ob-

’ jection to newspaper use of

documents leaked from its

committee on penitentlaries
and the CBC failed to report
a controversy regarding its
payment for a newsin-

terview.

Basford disagreed, sa
generally, in dolng their
ies the pross are respon-

le.

Leaves the key to
world energy

VANCOUVER (CP)- The
green of a leaf is the key to
satisfying the world’s long-
term energy needs, says a
Nobel | prize-winning
chemist.

Sir George Potter,
director, of the Royal In-
stitution of Great Britain,
told the Vancouver Institute
Saturday that he and other.
chemists . are near
duplicating in a test tube the
complex chemical reactions
of photosynthesis.

These are the reactions by
which plants use sunlight to
convert water and carbon
dioxide into oxygen and
carbohydrates.

The knowledge will enable
man ot cheaply convert
solar energy into fuels to
replace diminishing
reserves of fossil fuels, he

said.
“T am talking about the
complete sclution to our

energy problems by making
fuel,” he said, .
said man will make ar-

tificial leaves. that will’

.on storing sunlight energy
in liquid and gaseous fuels,
and will not require large
amounts of water and
fertilizers as natural leaves

D.

He said solar collectors
would consist of a rigid base
and a transparent cover
with water and inexpensive
chemicals flowing in_bet-
weet.

If costs can be kept below
about $14 a square metre
and the efficiency is 10
percent or better, the
system will be able to
compete with conventional
sources, he. said,

Potter said his laboratory
at the Royal Institution has
in the past 12 months

out crucial pieces of the
photosynthesis puzzle by
applying extentions of the

‘thesis chain.

needs

methods which won him. a
share of the 1967 Nobel prize
for chemistry.

His lab has sorted uot the
first. half of the photosyn-
Two more
years should see the steps
assembled into a ladder, a
one-step test tube reaction
duplicating the process
occuring in a green leaf, he
Sa

The endpoint of that half
of the chain, a compound
known as hydroquinone, is
itself a fuel, he said,
Straightforward chemistry
should liberate hydrogen, a
more useful fuel, from the
hydroquinone’ while
preserving the quinone for
recycling, he said.

Potter then said that when
the rest of the photosyn-
thesis reaction is wun-
derstood, it will be possible
to make carbon-containing
fuels like alcohol and syn-
thetic gasoline.

earnest.”

Sterritt . would not
elaborate on details of the
claim, but said the main
issue was land. Aboriginal
territory of the Gitksan-
Carrier tribes covered a
total of 20,500 square miles
from outside Cedarvale to
the head. waters of the
Skeena River. '

The 4,500 native people in
this area have been
relegated to 41 square miles
of reserve, Sterritt said,
including the villages of
Kitwanga, Kitseqeucla,
Kispiox, Glen Vowell,
Gitanmaax, Moricetown

and Hagwilget.

- Purpose of the meeting,
the land claims co-ordinator
said, 1g: to. inform ‘native
‘poopie of thé area of the land

‘claims ad ‘to provide

“greater local awareness of
the issue and the process.”

At the meeting the
Gitksan-Carrier tribal
council along with village
eldera will present a map
autlining the territorial
limits of the member
villages as well as a
declaration of intent
reg future bi-lateral
negotiations between the
federal government.and the

natives of the district.

These negotiations will
consider all people of
Gitksan and Carrier an-
cestry both status and non-
status. .

Sterritt said that although
the present land claims
in existence for only three
years, tribal chiefs have
attempted to negotiate a
land settlement for the past
eentury, ‘“‘but nobody
listened."

Since being forced onto
reserves, the natives were
not allowed to purchase
land,. their hunting and
fishing rights were eroded,
and various federal and
provincial laws prohibited
them from harvesting and

trapping in traditional

ways, Sterritt said.

“We will be seeking cash
compensation for erosion of
these rights,’ he said,
alth he did not state
what figure would be.

Sterritt said the meeting
would .be “‘the first small
step” in negotiations and it
would be three to four years
before any settlement ia
made. .

“But we're patient,” he
added.

was not expected to par-
tielpate. in . Initial
negotiations, Sterritt said,
because of the receni
statement made by Labour
Minister Allan Williams
denying that the province
was involved in land claims
negotiations.

Willlams instead referred
to past talks with Nishga
tribal council as
“discussions.”

Sterritt said he was upset

’ about the abrupt change in

federal ministers respon-
sible for the department of
Indian affairs and feared
the meeting would not go
ahead as scheduled because
of the change.

However, he said, new
minister Hugh Falkner was
a good choice for the
position because of his
experience in native issues.

Sterritt.said he expected
the meeting date of either
beconfirmed or postponed
this week.

Falkner's office in Ottawa
was. uncertain as to the
minister's itinerary for the
next week and did not state
whether the meeting would
go ahead.

Brian Hartley, B.C.
negotiator for the office of
native claims of the
department of Indian af-
fairs, said he hoped the
meeting would go ahead on
Monday because it has been
scheduled twice before and
cancelled,

Hartley plans to attend
the meeting, along with the
Minister of Indian affairs
and Skeena MP Iona
Campagnolo. —

The Gitksan-Carrier
definition of aboriginal
boundaries .is the. first
componant in negottation,
Hartley said, and in meeting
with the tribal council, the
government is showing its
intentions of serious
negitiations.

“There’s much more to
come,’’ he said.

The government has
made it a polich to negotiate
Indian land claims since
1973 if the claimants can
establish that they have.
never been compensated for
lost land, Hartley. said,
which is the case with the
Gitksan-Carrier tribe.

“No doubt they have a
legitimate claim in the eyes
of the federal government,”
he said.

No position has been taken
by the government until the
first meeting is held and the.
native spokesmen present
their boundary claims. .

Hartley said that possibly
the reason for the Gitksan-
Carriers wanting the
meeting hinges on the fact
that the Nishga tribe of the
Nass region has already
approached the federal
government on land claims-
issues.

Once. boundary maps are
established, it may be
discovered that there is an
overlap in the Nishga and
Gitksan-Carrier claims,
Hartley said. |

He stated he felt that B.C.
was still willing to negotiate,

. despite Williams’ denial.

In the last meeting bet-
ween the Nishga tribal
council and the federal and
provincial government last
October, it was agreed that
both governments would
reply to the positions af the
Nishga tribal councils.

Ottawa has been waiting
for a numbe rof months to
find cut B.C.’s stand so that
joint reply can be amde,
Hartley said.

He said he expected the
reply to be made later this
year, depending on Vic-
toria’s position.

Seas SAnaee ti tocececitenetatatese
‘ *

Weather
Mondey
Hi-12
Low-8
3 millemetres of rain in
last 24 hours
Tuesday
Hi-15
Low-9
Cloudy and rain, with a
few sunny perlods,