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This is the ammonia truck which overturned, taking the life of its driver, on Highway

Poot

16 west Sunday.

Post office ups letter rate to 14 cents

OTTAWA (CP) — The
basic first-class letter
rate will rise to 14 cents
April 1 and rates charged
for other postal services
also will go up, Post-
master-General Jean-
Jacques Blais said
Monday in the Commons.

Blais said the acrass-
theboard increases are
needed to combat a rising
deficit and ‘‘we estimate
that for the 1978-79 fiscal

~- year,-the: increases will

in about $125

ing
in additional

million
revenue.”

Prairies
hardest
hit

OTTAWA (CP)
Prairie cities were hit
hardest by the rise in the
cost of living during
October, Statistics
Canada said Monday in
its monthly survey of
consumer prices in 14
major cities.

Regina consumers felt.
the heaviest impact of
inflation, as prices in that
city rose 16 per cent in
the month. The cost of
living rose by 1.5 per cent

in Saskatoon and 1.4 per
cent in both Edmonton

—

and Calgary.

Only Winnipeg among
the five Prairie cities
surveyed fared well, with
a monthly increase of
five-tenths of one per
cent. The national rise in
consumer prices between
September and October
was one per cent.

Cost-of-living increases
in the last 12 months in
the five Prairie cities
were! Regina, 10.3 per
cent; Saskatoon, 10 per
cent; Edmonton, 9.9 per
cent; Calgary, 8.8 per
cent and Winnipeg 8.3 per
cent,

SAINT JOHN LOWEST

Saint John, N.B., ex-
perienced the lowest
monthly increase in the
cost of living during Octo-
ber, at four-tenths of one

r cent. The 12-month
increase was 6.5 per cent,

Changes in the cost of
living in the other cities
during October, with the

12-month rate in
brackets, were as
follows:

Toronto, up 1.3 per cent
(8.7 per cent); Ottawa,
one per cent (8.8 per
cent); Thunder Bay,
Ont., one per cent (8.6 per
cent); Montreal, nine-
tenths of one per cent (9.3

“per cent) Vancouver, 0.9

per cent (6,4 per cent);
St. John’s Néfld., 0.6 per
cent (7.6 per cent) i

' Quebec City, 0.8 per cen

(923 per cent) and

Halifax, 0.5 per cent (8.3
per cent).

It now costs 12 cents to
send a first-class letter in
Canada.

“IT am sure that
members will recognize
that no politician, least of
all yours truly, will shoot
to the lop of any popu-
larity poll by announcing
price increases,” Blais
said,

However, he told the
Commons that “even
with these price ‘in-

creases, Canadian postal .

rates will still be among
the lowest in major
Western countries."
PAY 21 CENTS

“Expressed in
Canadian dollar
equivalents, Australians
pay 21 cents for a first-
class letter and so do the
French. It costs the
British 16 cents and
Americans 14 cents.”

Blais said rapidly
rising costs have out-
stripped the growth in
revenue,

The post office deficit
was $568.8 million in the
1976-77 fiscal year and “‘it
could increase to $717
million in 1978-79 unless
drastic action is taken.’’

The post office will
“implement a broad
range of price increases
to virtually all demestic
and international rates.’

“TE the post office is to
maintain its present level
of contribution to
Canadian society, then it
must establish a better
correlation betwee:
postal rates and the cost

of providing postal
services,”

The costs of tran-
sportation, labor and
equipment have  in-
creased.

COSTS HIGHER
Transportation costs

are 20 per cent higher
than they were five years
ago and wages, since
1968, have increased by

120 per cent compared .

with an increase of 107
per cent in revenue.

Blais said the post
office employs 63,000
persons and salaries
account for more than 70
per cent of the operating
costs of the department.

Blais referred  in-
directly to the strained
relations between the
post office and the 22,00¢-
member Canadian Union
of Postal Workers
(CUPW) when he urged
the co-operation of all
postal workers to “make
mechanization work and
to maintain consistently
high levels of service.”

The volume of mail
moved through the post
office is not as high as it
should be and ‘“‘service
disruptions, coupled with
aggressive competition
from other forms of
communication are the

principle causes of this
shortfall.”

John Rodriguez
(NDP—Nickel Belt) said
in reply to Blais that
there have been work
stoppages by CUPW
members because the
post office management

s not lived up to a
commitment to protect
postal employees from
adverse effects
technological change:*
EFFECTIVE APRIL |

In addition to the first-
class mail rate increase,
other rate increases,
effective April 1, are:

Greeting cards of five
words or less and other
third-class addressed

. of--
‘ matter‘and samples ‘will
‘be introduced for pieces

mail of up to two ounces
will have the minimum
rate increased to 12 cents
from 10 cents.

The cost of third-class
quantity rate mailings of
printed matter will be
increased with the
minimum rate per item
Zoing up to 7.5 cents irm-
m six cents.

A new local rate for
unaddressed printed

weighing up to two
ounces. The rate is four
cents apiece in letter
earrier offices and 3.5
cents ta gon letter carrier
offices.

The basic fee for
registration will be in-

“T hear there’s
been some changes
in Unemployment
Insurance.
What's the story?”

New legislation has changed some of the
‘ground rules of our UI program.

In general, the rules of eligibility and
payment have been improved, Now they more
accurately reflect the ease or difficulty of finding
and keeping a job in the region in which each UI

claimant hives,

Parliament has decided that people who live
in areas of high unemployment will be given
certain advantages over those who live where jobs

are more plentiful.

“That’s all well and good.
But what does it mean to the person
who just lost a job?”

On December 4, the entrance requirements

will change.

In regions of low unemployment, claimants
will need up to 14 weeks of insurable employment
to get UI benefits. This will only happen in places
where it’s easier to get and keep a job.

In regions of high unemployment, claimants
will need as little as ten weeks to qualify.

But until December 4, the entrance require-
ment remains at eight weeks wherever you live,

“Does all this affect the

waiting period?” —

No. The basic two week waiting period
remains the same everywhere,

And so do the rules on the waiting period
when a claimant has left his or her job for no good
reason or been fired for misconduct. In such cases,
a claimant may have to wait up to eight weeks
from when employment ends until benefits be-

come payable.

creased to $1.25 frm $1,
while the speciai delivery
fee will go up to 80 cents
from 60 cents.

Publishers mailing
rates for books,
magazines, hewspapers
and periodicals will be in-
creased by between 20
and 25 per cent.

Blais defended the
‘hefty second-class’ mail

‘rate increases of between

20 and 25 per cent. Those
will apply primarily to
newspapers and other
publications.

“This has been a
highly-subsidized _rate,’’
Blais said. “The post
office has been carrying
the can.”

&

et ameenedt

Weve
Listed
Here!

“And how long can
you get benefits for?”

The old maximum was 51 weeks. The new

maximum is 50 weeks,

But since September 11, the total number of
~ weeks for which a claimant qualifies also reflects
the unemployment rate in his or her region.

- -- Right now, we measure unemployment by
dividing Canada into 16 economic regions. Later,
in 1978, we will fine-tune the program to 54
regions so that UI will be even more closely
related to local labour market conditions.

“Do you still get the same
amount of money?”
Absolutely. The UI benefit rate is two-thirds

of your average weekly insurable carnings:
The maximum ts $147, less tax.

If you wish your Business
Phone listed for your customers

THE HERALD, Tuesday, November 22, 1977, PAGE 3

Maggie a
movie star

MONTREAL (CP) —
Margaret Trudeau will
star. in a Canadian
feature-length movie
which i begin
production here Dec. 5,
says Robert Menard of
Videofilm Productions
Ltd. of Montreal.

Mrs. Trudeau and
British television star
Patrick McGoohan have
already signed contracts
for the lead roles in Kings
and Desperate Men, “a
taut thriller’’ expected to
cost $1.2 million, Menard
said today. .

Asked if he thought
Mrs. Trudeau showed
promise 4S an actresss,

enard exclaimed: ‘Oh
yes, 10 problem!”

He said the film's
producer and director,

exis Kanner of
Kineversal Inc., had seen
her in a_ television
program in Vancouver.

“Kanner had the
feeling that she could be a
great actress. It’s just
one of those things you
ean feel easily.”

The amount
Minister Pierre
Trudeau’s estranged wife
will be paid for her part in
the film is “a secret,”
said Menard.

Bruce Dem, who
played Daisy’s husband
in The Great Gatsby, and
Andrea Marcovicee, an
American of Italian
descent who played

Prime

DAILY HERALO

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too.

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alongside Woody Allen in
The Front, may algo act
in the film, said Menard,
A brief outline of the
script, most of it written
Edmund Ward of
Britain, describes the
film as “a taut thriller
(which) examines with
tensile and ruthless
fairness the charisma of
real and compassionate
objectivity.”

The story is about a
Broup of terrorists who
ay siege to a radio
station and broadcast a
mock trial to condemn a
judge and the social
svstem.

The film contains ‘‘all
the elements of the
contemporary and
growing crisis of piracy
and (depicts) the panic-

aralysis of a major

orth American metro-
polis.”

Menard, the associate
producer, said the film is

ing financed solely by
Canadians and called it
“a completely Canadian
production.

“The entire supporting
cast will be Canadian,
he added. ‘‘And Margaret
is, of course, Canadian.”

Mrs. Trudeau was not
available for comment.
She has been living in
New York since her
separation last summer
from the prime minister.

“Then there’s maternity,
sickness and age 65 benefits.

Any changes there?”

Sickness benefits were only payable during

the first 39 weeks of the claim. Now they are
payable at any ime during the entire benefit

Maternity benefits of 15 weeks and the
special one-time benefit (equal to three weeks’
benefits) at age 65 remain the same.

‘The same people will still pay for the
program in the same proportions, and the types of
employment insurable for UI remain the same,

“Do I still go to the same UI office?”

Yes. Until UI offices and Canada Manpower
Centres move in together, no changes will be made.

The Unemployment Insurance Cononisston and the
Department of Manpower and Inamgration have become
the Canada Employment and Ironigration Commission.
Fora time, you'll still see our local offices identified as

Unemployment Insurance offices or Canada Manpower
Centres. When they're together in ene location, they'll be
called Canada Employment Centres.

who want to

Working with le
orking wi peop!

| * Employment and Emplaret
tmmigration Canada Immigration Canada
Bud Cullen Bud Cullen
Ministce

Minister

il