PAGE 4, THE HERALD, Wednesday, November 9, 1977

Published by
General Office . 635-6357 Sterling Publishers

Clreutatlon (Terrace). 635-6357

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r. '

_—(the herald) —

. .

Trade outlook i
bleaker

OTTAWA (CP) — Canada’s international trade prospects
are bleaker now than they were 10 years ago and fun-
damental changes are needed if the country is to become
internationally competitive again, the Economic Council of
Canada said Tuesday.

The federal advisory body traces the decline to higher
foreign borrowing, escalating services payments and lower
receipts for merchandise exports.

The couneil’s annual review warns that it will not be easy
to improve Canada’s trade balance.

For example, itnotes, the recent devaluation of the Cana-
dian dollar to about 90 cents U.S. gives exporters an effec-
tive 10 per cent advantage, by making their products
cheaper in foreign markets.

However, Canada is often forced to accept whatever
prices are offered for its main exports, particularly wheat
and newsprint. Since there is little real competition for

these products, a cheaper Canadian dollar does not
speceadrrity trad sales oat fab; fie council Keport says.
MODERNIZE PLANTS:

Part of the answer lies in spending to modernize existing
plants and in more specialization in fewer products, the
council says. More control over production costs, wage re-
straint, and more vigorous promotion of export sales and of
Canadian tourist spota are also needed.

The council] warns against a return to protectionist
policies, noting that Canada has already resorted to tariff
and non-tariff barriers to protect industries such as textiles
and clothing producers.

Such moves run the risk of counter-measures from other
countries. It would make more sense for the federal and
provincial governments to get together in order to develop
an industrial strategy for competing in world markets, the
council's report recommends.

Looking to the longer term, the Economic Council says
that Canadians are going to have to save at a much higher
rate than U.S. citizens do. That is the only way investment
capital will be provided for economic expansion.

e alternative is more foreign borrowing, with con-
sequent high interest and repayment costa.

e Economic Council says there are a number of
“‘worrlsome” developments, including less foreign in-
vestment here and a much greater reliance on debt
bo: . Recently, Ontario Premier William Davis was
told by Japanese businessmen that Canada is no longer as
attractive for investment as previously.

It is time for a federal-provincial review of foreign
borrowing and possibly for the introduction of specific in-
centive measures for the Canadian tourist industry and for
selected export industries, the council suggests.

France fans spark

of Quebec separtism

WASHINGTON (CP) — “It is our melancholy duty to
int out that the French have misbehaved once again . ... in
e matter of Quebec,” the Washington Post said in an
editorial Sunday.
- Referring to the honors given Quebec Premier Rene
Levesque during his visit to France, the newspaper said:
“From time to time it pleases French politicians to toy
with the idea of a Quebec that is an independent nation
father f than a province of Canada. Quebec, after all, speaks
nch.
“This deliberate fanning of the sparks of Quebec separa-
tism—which is to say Canadian dissolution—is a most dan-
gerous kind of meddling in another. country’s business.”
The Post said there is a contrast between the moral
support given Levesque by France and the actual help
Quebec would need if it became independent. _.
“Thes es were full of references to fraternal sympa-
thies, cultural affinities, national destinies and that sort of
thing. If Quebec should eventually choose to break away
from the rest of Canada, its immediate requirements would
of course be more mundane. It would n heavy financial
support, investment and possibly access to new markets,
There wasn’t much about that

HCRAALT

LDI977 Untrersot Prase Syncdicote Wy

“Maturity is a feeling that comes over you when
you look back on your life and realize you ware
’ wrong on iust about everything.”

Catcher in cheque-bouncing circuit Lyon gets support
against bilingualism

WINNIPEG (CP) — Premier Sterling Lyon's recent
criticism of the federal bilingualism program has been
given qualified support by leaders of Manitoba’s French-

TORONTO (CP) ~— David
Harrison is in the cheque-bouncing
game. He catches.

As Toronto managing director of
Telecheck Canada, he has stacks of
statistics to go with his job if in-
suring merchants against bad
cheque artists.

If a cheque authorized by
Telecheck turns out to be a dud,
Harrison buys the cheque from the
merchant and then tries to collect.

Merchants pay for the service.
about 550 Toronto stores have signed
up for Telecheck since last October.

Harrison has ammassed a list of
50,000 bad-cheque passers since he
opened for business.

Every time a name goes into his
computer program for a bad cheque,
it stays there until the cheque is
made good, he said, Between 2,000
and 3,000 names are added monthly.

Telecheck was developed in
Hawaii and its Canadian franchise is

owned by Laurentide Financia
Corp., Vancouver, a subsidiary of
Power Corp. of Canada Ltd.,
Montreal,

When Harrison gets a bad cheque,
he sends the author a notice asking
for payment. If this doesn't produce
results, a second notice alludes to
the fact that writing a bad ch
an offence under the Criminal Code.

If that fails, Harrison sues in small
claims court. If he finds a persistent
offender, he reports the matter to
police.

Most Telecheck merchants pay a
one-time fee of $35 to get the service
and a monthly rate of $25, which
covers $2,5$5 worth of cheques.

Small merchants may make other
arrangements, including gettin;
information on names of people at 44
to 58 cents each. They pay a fee of
two per cent of the face value of any
cheques validated by Telecheck.

In order to answer merchant calls

eis

on a 24-hour basis, Telecheck here
has 16 telephone operators. If there
is no adverse information in the files
on the customer, a_ verification
number is issued for the cheque.
But if Telecheck refuses the
cheque, the merchant hands the
issuer a card which says the store's
policy is to accept cheques only if
ey are approved by Telecheck.
e Telecheck merchant displays
a decal identifying the service,
which Harrison said is a warning to
had-cheaue artists.

He said atl information in
Telecheck's computer is kept in
Canada and it does not provide
coverage on United States cheques
near border

He said most bad cheques are
written by women. “It is usually not
pest an oversight or a case of poor

kkeeping — they hope
will go through but scmething else
comes the ahead of it — usually a
case of wishful thinking.”

points.

the cheque

cova

Six-year-old Rano Kambo found the wet snow near
§.T. Kenney School easy to pack, but there wasn't

gue o

anyone around to pelt with snowballs.

in the French communique.” -

Survey show catalogues cut prices

TORONTO (CP) — Some
leading catalogue mer-
chandisers. have heen
cutting store prices since
issuing their fall and winter
catalogues in a year-end
effort to attract the con-
sumer, a Toronto survey has

Own, -
_ Securities analyst David
Baird of Burns Fry Ltd., an
investment house, said
Tuesday the final three
months of the year is a peak
selling period for most
catalogue companies and

Tire Corp

said,

“competion has become
very intense.”

Baird said a Burns
survey was,made of suc
companies as Consumers
Distributing Co: Ltd., Shop-
Rite Catalogue Stores,
Woolco Stores and Canadian

While each company had
items at lower prices than
others had, Consumers Dis-
tributing's fall catalogue’ in-
dicated lower over-all prices cat
coveredin the survey, Baird prices on a broad range ©:

But the other chains have

been cutting prices at store
level to meet the com-
petition, he said.
. For example, the survey
noted, Canadian Tire
recently reduced its prices
on small appliances to
match the lowest catalogue
prices of any of its com-
petitors. aa

Consumers Distributing
then issued a pre-Christmas
catalogue further reducin

items with the reductions

Friendship ‘coming’ slowly. but
surely twixt USA and USSR

WASHINGTON (CP) — U.S.Sovie

: understanding appears to be slowly im-

proving but the relationship remains a
elicate balance of contradictions.

In contrast to the charges arid coun-
tercharges that flew between th
‘superpowers early this year whe
President Carter launched his human-
rights campaign, the two countries now
are extending
range of fields. ;

USS. officials say praspects are good in

strategic arma limit talks for a new SALT -

agreement; both countries are pushing

together for Middle East peace talks; :

Western capital continues to flow into
Eastern Europe; and Soviet commercial
dealings with the West continue to in-
crease.

But ominous signs of hostility also
remain, . :

Strategic nuclear weapons, mor

werful and sophisticated than any

fore produced, are being deployed by
both sides.
TANKS PARADE .

The modern T-72 tanks: that paraded
througn Red Square earlier this month on
the 60th anniversary of the Bolshevik
Revolution symbolize the overwhelming
quantitative superiority that Soviet
conventional forces have in Europe. U.S,

planners have allocated billions t

remove that superiority but say they will
“Wot sliteeed before the mid-1930s.

Soviet reconnaissance bombers: still
periodically probe the defences of the

nited States— an October scrutiny came
within a few minutes of Boston—and in
space the Soviet Union is demonstrating
an unmatched ability to destroy vit
communications and spy’ satellites.

eir co-operation in a wide |

The two governments, however, have
many years experience in managing such
a contradictory relationship. It is con-
sidered normal, even in domestic political
terms, for one set of U.S. officials to ap-
prove large grain sales to the Soviet Union
while another set of officials plan new
ways to devastate the Soviet Union,

_ The danger, from the U.S, point of view, ,

is that the increasingly stable relationship
may be -disrupted when the faltering
Soviet president, 70-yearold Leoni
Brezhnev, dies.

KIRILENKO SUCCEEDS?

Observers predict Brezhnev’s suc
cessor may be Andrei Kirilenko, a loyal
Brezhnev supporter, But Kirllenko, No. 2
man in the Communist party, is himelf 71
and is seen as no more than a potential
caretaker.

After Kirilenko, who? Nondoctrinaire
managers who might adopt Western
economic practices? Militarists wh
might be tempted to exploit their
currently-predominant conventional
superiority?

ther worrisome questions in the U.S.-
Soviet ‘relationship arise from the un-
certain prospects for Eurocommunist
parties and Communist sympathizers in
developing countries—and, on the other
side, from continuing instances of dissent
and public protest in Soviet satellites.

In addition to developments in the U.5.
and Soviet spheres, the character of the
superpower relationship could change
markedly in response to the changing
winds in China. ‘

Allinall, U.S. policymakers have sound
reason for both worry and hope as they

seek to peer into the clouded 19608. ©

running to the end of this
month, Baird said.
The survey covered 38
items in the small electrical
appliances, houseware and
cookware, sporting and
leisure products, hardware
and tools and auto products
categories.
SPECIFIED ITEMS
Among representative
items surveyed were a
General Electric Toast R
Oven, West Bend
Superhealth cookware,
Cooper hockey shin pads,
Black and Decker saws and
Torcan battery chargers.
Based on the fall and
winter catalogues—and all
companies have reduced at
least some prices since the
catalogues were issued—the
representative group of
items at Consumers would

cost $1,130,19, the survey |

sald.

The same or similar items
at Wooleco would cost
$1,191.57, it said. Woolco
rices on iterns such as a

“BSR record turntable were

substantially lower than
those cha by the others.

Total fali catalogue price
for the same items at Shop-
Rite, a subsidiary of Hud-
son’s Bay Co., was $1,202.

Shop-Rite’s catalogue
price on several tool and

rdware items was the
lowest in the group sur-
veyed, the spokesman said,
Its price on a Stanley nine-
inch plane, for .example,
was more than $1 lower than
that of any of its com-
petitors.

The Canadian Tire
catalogue price for the
Burns Fry sample totalled
$1,237.26 or 9.5 per cent
more than that of Con-
sumers. But Canadian Tire
then cut its prices and is
competitive with the other
catalogue firms, especially
on small appliances, Baird

Its price for a battery
charger, for example, was
the lowest in the survey.

Baird said the shopper
can save
Christmas by comparing
what the varidus catalogue
companies offer.

money iB’

ty

speaking commun.

Progressive

king last week in Quebec City to the
‘padre se Conservative national convention, said Ot-

tawa’s bilingualism was a “rigid, quota-infested” plan.
The remicr maintained emphasis should be on teaching
French in school, rather than on ensuring that government

employees speak French.
Sbat-Yves' Rochon, preside:

nt of the Educateurs Franco-

Manitobaine said he agreed with Lyon's comments,
However, he wondered if the. premier would translate his
feelings about federal bilingualism into more provincial
programs in the education system.

Jean Jacques Le Francois,

editor of the French weekly

La Liberte, said he doesn’t disagree fully with what Lyon

said.
MAY BE MISTAKE

“I'm infavor of bilingualism across Canada, but I can see

it may have been a mistake to sys

tematize it in the civil

service ... bilingualism really hasn’t been sold properly to

the Canadian people.”

Le Francois said he is inclined to say that bilingualism

has been a failure.

“Tt’s utterly ridiculous that people in their 60s are sent to
language school to learn French and then come back to
their own communities and never have to use it. It’s a waste

of time and money.”

Joe Clark questions.
_ RCMP activities

It is generally accepted ©

throughout the world that

povernments, on occasion,
ve to authorize and follow

some secret activities.

This past week in
Parliament, several
questionable activities of
our own government have
come to light. The apparent
pattern of breaking the law
which has emerged in the
last few months is alarming
as well as the use of
“national security’’ as an
excuse to hide a multitude of
sins.

We now know that, on at
least four occasions, the
security service of the
RCMP broke the law of
Canada in the name of

national security — the raid

on L’Agence de Presse
Lbire du Quebec, the bur-
ning of a barn near Mon-
treal, the theft of dynamite,
and an illegal activity
resulting in: information

the Parti Quebecois. And
there may be more.

Unfortunatley, this recent
attention has focused on the
Royal Canadian Mounted
Police. Naturally, if the
RCMP breaks the law, it
must bear. the  con-
Sequences. However, many
of the activities that have
come to light have not been
performed by rank and file
members of the RCMP, but
rather by the special
security service.

It is important to un-
derstand the relationship of
the security service to the
RCMP. Theoretically, it
exists under the Com-
missioner of the RCMP. In
practice, it is directed by a
director general who,
whatever his relation to the
Commissioner, also reports.
directly to the Solicitor
General, and, on occasion,
to Prime Minister Trudeau.
Thereis avery real question
as to whether the activities
of the security service are
activities which the Com-
missioner of the RCMP is
authorized to control.

That raises the basic
question: Who sets the
policy of the security a
paratus in Canada? Who
polices that apparatus?
he” know who should set

@ policy and police the
activities, In our system,
cabinet should set the
policy, control the security
Service, and bear the

responsibility for any ex-
cesses by the security
service.

It appears that the
Trudeau cabinet is not
carrying out that respon-
sibility. I say “appears”,
because there are at least
two interpretations of those
facts which have become
public since the spring of
this year. One interpretation
is that ministers are not
meeting their responsibility
to oversee and control the
security service. The other
interpretation is that the
cabinet is setting pokicy but
will not accept respon-
sibility when things go

wrong.
Members of our Party
have very serious reser-
vations as to whether or not
the terms of reference of the
McDonald Royal Com-
mission are broad enough to
allow this inquiry to look at

the central: question; What
about the membership Hsts .. q
. and the financial affairs of

was the role of the ministers
in all of these affairs? What
is the responsibility of the
cabinet in all this business?

A full inquiry into the
responsibility of misniters
of the Crown for the ac-
tivities of the security ap-

“paratus of the Government

of Canada and the authority
on which security forces in
this country are acting is
essential. Our Party would
prefer to ahve a special
patliamentary committee
invested with full powers to
carry out this investigation.
This committee would
gather evidence, subpoena
Witnesses, and would
present a clear picture to all

anadians as to what
exactly is going on here.
That. is our Party's
preference.

It is also important that
the House of Commons and
the people of Canada know
what has been the role of the
cabinet committee on
security and intelligence,
chaired by Prime Minister
Trudeau.

There has been an_at-
tempt made suggesting that
the authority for these
matter rests solely with the
director general, a pbulic
servant. We want to know
where the Government of
Canada was throughout all -
of these matters, the
government that is
responsible to the House of
Commons.

Joe Clark, MLP.,
Rocky Mountain.

CARS sends thanks |

The Arthritis Society will
meet its provincial target of
$120,000 if every community
in B.C, responds to our need
for support the way Terrace
has done this year,

I would like to express our
appreciation publicly to the

errace Order of the Royal
Purple and to the C.A,K.5.
Campaign.

They were successful in
achieving $3,020.35, the
highest total ever,

incere - thanks is also
expressed to the’ residents
and businesses of ‘Terrace

"Who. responded so willingly

to the request for funds to
expand and continue ar-
thritis programs.

The gratitude comes from
the Society’s treatment staff.
who knwo what this help
means in terms of patient

. see famil

care. It is from our
researchers who depend on
communities around the
province to help launch and’
maintain vital research
rojects, which will one day
ind the cure for arthritis,
the most crippling of
dieeases. It is from
professional educators who
each the spectality of
rheumatology to an_it-
hreasing number of medical
and paramedical personnel
and whose messages reach
the public urging them to
octors early

should arthritis strike their
families, This is when most
disabling can be prevented.
I would also Bay thank you
to the media without which
this kind of success would
not be possible.
"J. Paul Crocott
Provincial co-ordinator