PAGE 4, THE HERALD, Wednesday, November 9, 1977 Published by General Office . 635-6357 Sterling Publishers Clreutatlon (Terrace). 635-6357 ~ PUBLISHER... W.R. (BILL) LOISELLE MANAGING EDITOR... STU DUCKLOW Published avery weekday at 3212 Kalum St. Terrace B.C. A member of Varitied Circulation. Authorized ps second class mall. Registration number 1201. Postage pal. cash, retirn Postage guaranteed. NOTE OF COPYRIGHT The Herald retains full, complete and sole copyright In any advertisement produced and-or any: editorial or photographic content published In the Herald. Reproduction Pa permitted without the written permission of the 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