PAGE 2, THE HERALD, Thursday, November 24, 1977 the clean-up necessary before work on the new hall can begin. Harvey blll gu Daniel Walker, pictured, here, beside the ofd Odd Fellows Hall is assisting in ow . pe i fe bey, th ? io vine * Se Webber, the foreman on the site, expects work to be completed by mid-June, when Terrace will possibly have a new hall. ‘- by Progressive Alcan to build another plant MONTREAL (CP) — Alcan Aluminium Ltd., Billiton B.V. of The Hague and Anaconda Co, of New York announced today the companies have reached agreement in principle to construct a $500-million alumina plant in-the Republic of eland. An Alcan statement said the company will own 40 per cent of the plant, Billiton 35 per cent and Anaconda 25 per cent. The plant, expected to be finished in four years, will have a labor force of about 800. A jointly-owned — company, _Aughinish Alumina td., will operate the 800,000- metric-ton alumina plant in Aughinish, an island in the non River Es- tuary in Limerick County. A metric ton is the equivalent of a long ton— 1,000 kilograms or 2,20vu. rhtzof the three com- panies will use the alumina in. ‘smelters elsewhere or will sell it to other companies. The alumina vi not, however, be brought into Canada where the existing Alean alumina plant in Quebec is adequate to” supply the Alcan smelters. Ireland’s membership in the . European, Economic ‘Community which permits free entry of alumina into other member countries was a major factor in the choice of country. © Billiton belongs to the RoyalDutch Shell Group Veto Legal? OTTAWA (CP) Justice Minister Ron Basford said Tuesday he will investigate a charge Con- servative Erik Nielson that the federal govern- ment acted un- constitutionally when it ordered that a bill passed by the Yukon legislative assembly not pro- 4, claimed. Basford told Nielson in # the Commons he would Ae aed Most provinces have tourist offices abroad | The Canadian Press Fight Canadian provinces have offices outside their borders for industrial development _tourism, promotion. ross-Canada Survey “ sweebyy~The "Canadian Press shows Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island have no such outside offices. Spokesmen for both provinces say funds are not available and promotion of industry and tourism is done by delegations. With 16 foreign delegations and one provincial office, Quebec as the most representa- tives. Ontario has 11 promotional offices, none in Canada. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nava Seotia and New Brun- swick each have one office and Nova Scotia has four tourism agents in North America. Four provinces have offices or agents in Canada and six provinces have representatives in the United States, Alberta is the only province with a per- manent Ottawa office. In the last 10 years seven provinces have opened foreign offices. During that time Quebec has increased the number of the foreign delegations from four to 17 and Nova Scotia has changed to agents from promotional offices. Several provinces have closed foreign offices. A New Brunswick govern- ment spokesman Said his province's office in London was _ closed recently because the amount of trade gen- erated did not justify the operating costs, Here is the picture province by province: NEWFOUNDLAND The Newfoundland government maintains no promotional offices outside the province for tourism or industrial development. However, the fisheries department sent a representative to Europe this year to investigate the purchase of European fishing trawlers. The = fisheries’ representative is based in London and will return to Newfoundland when his job is completed. For specific promotional jobs, the government hires a ublic relations firm in New York City. PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND Gilbert Clements, provincial minister of tourism, .. parks and conservation, said the province lacks the resources to maintain promotional offices outside the province. He said his department has a toll-free number prospective tourists can use for information and tourists are the provin- ce’s best ambassadors. Dr. Thomas Connor, deputy developmen minister, said industrial development promotion is done by delegations. The province hires an agency to da_ the preparatory work and then a government delegation is sent, he said. NOVA SCOTIA The government has no tourist offices outside the province but maintains promotion agents in ‘oronto, Montreal, New York City and in the state of Wisconsin. Last year the govern- ment decided to eliminate tourism offices and use individual agents after the number of tourists visiting the province decreased. Industrial promotion is handied by Industrial Estates Lid. (IEL), a provincial promotion agency. LEL has several development officers in the province responsible for specific geographic areas, The agency works with the agent-general’s office in London and recently opened an office in Duesseldorf, West Germany. Tourism Minister Maurice Delory said the cost to the province for maintaining tourism agents in Montreal and Toronto is $30,000 each. The Wisconsin agent is paid $18,000 a year and is given the same amount for travel and expenses, said Delory. Ten years ago the government spent half this amount on tourism promotion, he said. The agent-general's office in London works primarily on industrial promotion and is esti- mated to cost the province $192,000 in the 1977-78 fiscal year, $35,000 less than last year. Delory said the province changed to tourism agents from offices because the government decided it needed agents to sell the province's assets, rather than having persons sitting in an office han- ding out pamphlets. He said it costs Jess to maintain agents than it did to run offices. The staff has been recently cut to three from nine and the 1977 budget is $170,000. Baden, who is a special assistant to the minister of industry and com- merce, said he is con- cerned that recent budget cuts will result in poor public relations. Norman Vickar, minister of industry and commerce, said budget cuts occurred this year because the London office was over-staffed and was duplicating some work. ALBERTA Alberta has two provincial offices, one in Toronto and one in Ot- tawa. The Ottawa office, Staffed by three persons, opened in the 1930s. Both offices are run by the department of federal and _inter-governmental affairs, but the depart- ment of advanced education and manpower participates in the Toronto office. The Toronto office was opened in February, 1975.The department of federal and inter- government affairs pays $37,000 annually for maintenance and the department of advanced education and manpower pays the rest. No figures were available for the total cost. The Ottawa branch has an annual budget of $110,000. A spokesman for the department of federal and inter-government affairs said the Ottawa office was established to act as a listening post for the province in Oltawa. The Toronto office is a manpower recruiting office, she said. The three-man staff dis- tributes travel — in- formation and gives information to rsons interested in establishing small businesses in the province, but the office's main function is to assist Alberta employers in se- lective recruitment, she said. John Dowie, director of manpower mobility, said up to 200 persons a week inquire at the Toronto office, which made itself known through Canada Manpower. The province also has offices in three countries. Alberta House in London opened in 1925 and is staffed by 14 persons. The department of federal and inter-government a f fai ris $265,000 a year to its budget. The offices in Tokyo and Los Angeles are smaller and are each given $20,000 a year by the department. The Tokyo office, which opened in 1970, is staffed by three persons who concentrate on business development. The Los Angeles branch opened in 1972. It deals mainly with travel and tourism in- formation and has a staff of two. BRITISH COLUMBIA The three foreign of- fices British Columbia maintains are in London, Los Angeles and San Francisco. All three are sponsored by the department of fravel industry. British Columbia House in Lon- don is staffed by nine civil Servants—the agent- general, a director of information, a consultant and six local persons. Its annual budget is $453,000. B.C, , louse provides information to provincial residents.in Europe and British péople wishing to visit the province. It also vrovides information on business opportunities in B.C A European economic adviser and a com- mercial officer are on staff. The Los Angeles and San Francisco offices are each staffed by two persons and promote tourism in RC There is some in- dication the concept is working, he said. Tours increased three per cent from 1976, the number of recreation vehicles en- tering’ the province in- creased five per cent and cars from the United States increased seven per cent. Delory said the Wisconsin agent, whose territory is the Midwest -and southwestern United States, has arranged 12 bus tours from San Francisco for 1978, the first bus tours to Nova Scotia from that part of the US, The performance of the agent-general's office has been a subject of con- troversy in’ the Nova Scotia legislature. Con- servative leader John Buchanan said, “It's not doing the job it was in- tended for.” However, NDP leader Jeremy Akerman said the office is doing a good job. He said the port of Halifax would not have received as much business this year if the London office was not prometing the port to Eu- ropean businessmen, NEW BRUNSWICK The sole promotion office for New Brunswick is in Toronto. It has been operating for about six years and is run by the tourism department. A tourism office in London was opened in the 1960s but the amount of trade generated did not justify operation costs and it was closed recently, a government spokesman said, QUEBEC The Quebec govern- ment has 16 foreign delegations and one provincial office. Quebec offices are in New York, Brussels, Duesseldorf, London, Paris, Milan, Tokyo, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Tex., Lafayette, La., and Port au Prince, Haiti. A Quebec immigration officer is in Beirut and there is an immigration adviser in Rome and an education adviser in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast. The provincial office is in Toronto. Staffing these offices are 60 civil servants from the ministry of in- tergovernmental affairs, Ke] trade attaches responsible to the in- dustry and commerce minister, 20 immigration officers and five tourism advisers as well as 100 local employees. The intergovernmental alfairs department set aside $4 million of its $26- million budget for the maintenance of these offices in 1977. ONTARIO Ontario has 11 foreign industry and tourism offices in Mexico City, Tokyo, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Brussels, Frankfurt, Milan, Stockholm, _London and Paris. These offices employ: 11 managers and 33 local reons on a contract sis. The total budget last year, excluding Ontario House in London, was $1,653,000, Premier William Davis Said rapid industrial expansion in France is creating greater op- portunities for consumer and industrial trade between Ontario and France. Claude Bennett, minister of industry and tourism, said France is Canada’s third largest source of overseas tourism revenue. “With our new office in Paris we should be able to more fully explore the tourism tential that exists in ance,'’ he said, MANITOBA Manitoba House in Minneapolis, Minn., is the only office the govern- ment maintains outside the province. It opened in September, 1975, and is Staffed by a marketing officer and a stenographer-counsellor, Neil MacPhail, a spokesman fer the epartment of tourism, recreation and cultural affairs, said the marketing officer at Manitoba House promotes the province's cultural attractions and as a result of his efforts about 15 tour operators in Minneapolis offer ckage tours of lanitoba. SASKATCHEWAN The agent-general's office in London is Saskatchewan's only office outside the province. It was established in 1947 to handle industrial development and trade. Ted Boden, who was agentgenerdli March, 1977, said he also represented the province in Europe. He said 30 per cent of his work was diplomatic and the rest was promotional. RATS ARE DESTRUCTIVE Rats will destroy an estimated $1 billion worth of U.S. property in 1977, excluding fires they'll cause by gnawing elec- trical insulation. ‘ consult Northern Affairs Minister Hugh Faulkner, Nielson said Faulkner had ordered Yukon Commissioner Arthur Pearson not to proclaim a bill passed by the 12- member assembly amending existing in- quiries legislation. The Yukon MP said later in an interview that a cabinet order was required to prevent the bill from becoming law, not simply a directive from the northern affairs minister. Nielson said the government does not want the bill passed because it fears it will result in an inquiry into the conduct of Pearson. The commissioner had recommended : earlier that charges ‘against a local lawyer ‘be with- drawn by his ditector of legal affairs'‘after a Supreme Court judge had adjourned the case, Nielson said Pearson's recommendation amounted to -judicial interference. . The amendment was aimed at broadening the inquiries act to allow an inquiry into the- conduct of the commissigner. Basford promised to in- vestigate, but. :said he assumed that legal ad- vice had been. sought before the order was given, ah an at Few commiteérs in. Canada OTTAWA (CP) Statistics Canada says 49 per cent of Canadians drie to work and back by themselves, compared with only 16 per cent who use public transit. In a recently published study on commuters’ travelling habits, the federal agency found that 5.8 million commute to work daily in 4.6 million Python on the loose NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. (CP) — Ka, the 10- foot python stolen Tuesday from the hotel dressing room of Phoenix, his owner and exotic dancing partner, was returned Wed- nesday. The three-year-old snake, who was about to shed his skin and needs a Steady supply of live rates to keep in shape, was left in a basket outside the hotel’s back door. Phoenix, a dancer who uses the snake in her stage act, has noidea who took Ka, or why. “But I’m relieved that whoever it was had the sense to bring him back. I just hope they kept him warm,” she said. Pythons, being cold- blooded, are susceptible to cold. A dose of below zero weather for a couple of hours would have caused Ka to stiffen up, th perhaps for good. The python was almost the subject of a snake hunt. One New West- minster private detective had offered his services, and Vancouver police were also on the scent Phoenix, who had carried on her act without her main attraction, put Ka back to work as soon as she was sure he was able. “He just loves being with me," she said. Ka just stuck out his tongue. Hy cars and another ‘1.3 million use .. « public transportation to reach their jobs. 4 In three years from November, 1973, the survey found the number of workers using‘cars to reach their work has risen by 297,000 or 5.4 per cent. This contrasts with the additional 45,000, or 3.6 per cent, who are using public transit. Most of the congestion associated with, heavy traffic occurs in metropolitan areas, and the survey found that about twothirds of the residents of larger cities use their cars td get ta work, The private automobile was most widely used in Hamilton, Ont., Van- couver, Edmonton and Calgary. In those four areas, more than 70 per cent of all commuters travelled to work by car and &0 per cent of all commuters drove alone in thelr cars, < :: Police beat. Terrace RCMP are looking for the owner of some fishing gear! which was lost during the'last 18 months, _ Police believe thé items were stolen from a vehicle left on the side of @ road somewhere between Terrace and Kitimat. __ If you have lost ‘these items please contact Terrace detachment RCMP and ask for: Cst. Larry York. ’ A Terrace woman had her purse stolen frdm her car last night where it was parked in front of her house in the 4000 block Benner. : The car had been left unlocked and was run- ning. e@ purse contained about $30 cash" and identification, °°