HIS PROBLEM IS A CREDIBILITY GAP Trudeau sings a song we've all heard before... An analysis by DON McGILLIVRAY Southam News Services OTTAWA - Prime Minister Trudeau’s real problem with regard to the economy is the same as Lyndon Johnson’s a decade ago with regard to Vietnam. It is a problem of credibility, of a gap between words and deeds of a public memory of past promises not kept. Will the five-point program Trudeau announced Tuesday pull Canada out of its economic doldrums: Will it, in the words he quoted from the Bonn summit communique, “create more jobs, fight inflation, strengthen international trading, reduce payments imbalances and achieve greater stability in exchange markets?” It might help do at least some of those things if Canadians believed it would. Confidence alone goes a long way toward producing prosperity. But enveloping public skepticism could almost be felt like a physical barrier as Trudeau offered “prosperity that can be ours if we want it, if we will it. and if we are all prepared to work for it.” It is not just that the economy has deleriorated during Trudeau’s decade in power, and especially in the last half of it. It is also that the items in the program—except for the decision to turn the post office into a crown corporation—are about The 20r Copy Citizen Wednesday, August 2. 1978 Vol. 22; No. 150 Prince George. British Columbia as shopworn as Lyndon Johnson's talk about “light at the end of the tunnel.” “We will be cutting $2 billion from current and planned expenditures,” said Trudeau, awakening memoriesof the $1.5 billion “reduction in our projected expenditures” announced in 1975, and the similar announcements of 1976 and 1977. Yet total federal spending has grown to about $50 billion this year from about $35 billion four years ago. “We will achieve zero growth in the federal public service,” said the prime minister. Assuming that this is not the result of trick bookkeeping when post office workers become crown corporation employees, it will remind Canadians of the prime minister’s 1969 promise to cut the public service by 25,000 (or 10 per cent) over two years. Two years later, thre were 3,000 more public servants, not 25,000 less and the total has since grown by another 80,000. "The federal government will be very tough in public sector wage negotiations,” said the prime minister. But the public remembers that the government claimed to be following a “tough line” in 1974-75 when public sector wage settlements forged ahead of the private sector and eventually brought wage controls. “We will remove the intrusions of many government policies and regulations from individuals and businesses,” said the prime minister. But the government has been promising since 1975 to assess “the costs to the private sector of many government rules and regulations.” It promised again, at the federal-provincial summit in February to study deregulation but has only just got around to asking the Economic Council of Canada to do the studying. Those are Trudeau’s four main points. In themselves they will do little io put the unemployed back to work, to reduce inflation, to cut Canada’s deficit with the outside world, the real source of the Canadian dollar’s weakness. Of course, the prime minister also promised tax cuts, but without particulars. This obviously points to a new budget before the end of the year. A tax cut of $1 billion will be needed this fall just to offset the shock to the economy of the return of provincial sales taxes to last April’s rates. But such a budget will do little or nothing to redeem Trudeau’s promise at the Bonn summit “to do all in Canada’s power to achieve growth in the order of five per cent for 1978. ” There is just not enough time. The lag between a tax cut and its effect on economic growth is so long that anything done in the what is left of 1978 will have its effect in 1979 and 1980. not this year. Why, then, did Trudeau preempt prime television time for an economic package consisting mainly of some well-worn promises, along with the decision to turn the post office into a crown corporation? He was obviously bidding for confidence, trying to get consumers to spend their money instead of hoarding it and to get business to invest in capital for the future. School district lockout slated today Prince George School District 57 was to lock out its 380 non-teaching employees at 3:?D p.m. today, a school district source said today. Lockout notice had been served last week after the district and Local 858, International Union of Operating Engineers, failed to reach a new contract. The union represents clerks, custodians and cafeteria personnel. The district made a final offer July 7 and the union is taking a mail ballot returnable by Aug. 25. However, the district stated it wants all contracts settled before the start of a new school year. The outstanding issue in the dispute is the district’s intention to cut accumulated sick leave. The union has filed an’unfair labor practices charge with the B.C. Labor Relations Board, stating the threat of a lockout has had an intimidating effect on its members. The school board has made a reply to the charge, but the LRB has not ruled on the matter. Hospital union gets new pact VANCOUVER (CP) - The Province says a new three-year contract will give 18,000 members of the British Columbia Hospital Employees Union (HEU) an 11-per-cent wage increase in the first two years and equality with provincial government health workers in the third. The morning newspaper says the award, retroactive to Jan. 1, was endorsed by arbitration board chairman Allan Hope and HEU president Jack Gerow. Lawyer I. G. Nathan-son, representing the Health Labor Relations Association (HLRA), dissented. Currently, provincial health workers, members of the B.C. Government Employees Union, earn from $111.50 to $238 a month more than HEU workers in comparable jobs. HEU members, however, have superior benefits. It took eight months for the arbitration board to settle an award after the union voluntarily submitted to arbitration. P.O. STATUS CHANGED Gov't makes pledg to reduce spendi New stands Citi/vn photo by Douj; Wellei Rodeo-goers will have somewhere new to sit this year. Carpenter Bob McDonald is busy putting the seats on the new steel frame grandstands at the rodeo site at the exhibition grounds. The $20,000 grandstands and portable bleachers will provide seating for 2,200 at the National Rodeo Association Rodeo August 12-13 during the Fall Fair. More on the fall fair, page 3. OTTAWA (CP) — Prime Minister Trudeau promised Tuesday to reduce federal income taxes and curb government spending and employment and use the money saved to stimulate more economic activity. Saying he is “fed up” with the Post Office, the prime minister also announced it will be made into a Crown corporation rather than run as a federal department. Specific new proposals for the economy will be revealed in coming weeks, Trudeau said, adding that there will be no election “at this time”. Some observers took this to mean there will not be a general election this fall because the government is working on its economic plans, but others said a fall election is still possible. Trudeau refused to elaborate on his comment. Sinclair Stevens, Progressive Conservative finance critic, said Trudeau may be playing a shell game by suggesting he will cut federal spending. Some of the money is to crime from future plans, and it will simply be spent on new programs still to oe revealed, Stevens said. In his statement, Trudeau said the government will cut $2 billion from present and planned spending, but much of that "will be shifted to new economic priorities.” If the economy is in such bad shape, Stevens added, Trudeau should call a fall election to see who it is that voters want to run the country. The prime minister’s nationally televised address follows the economic summit of leading industrial nations two weeks ago in Bonn, West Germany. Trudeau, who returned to Canada last Sunday night after a Moroccan holiday, told the Bonn participants the government will try to get a five-percent real economic growth rate this year. The prime minister announced several steps to lead up to the new economic measures coming in following weeks, and said several cabinet ministers have been recalled from holidays to start meetings next week. Among the promises made Tuesday: —No growth in the civil service and an actual reduction in the number of federal civil servants next year. —A hard stand against public service unions in wage negotiations and a promise that their salary increases will follow, not lead, those paid by private employers. —Less government intervention in the economy, which Trudeau said means “returning functions to the private sector.” Finally, in his most specific promise, Trudeau said the Post Office will be made into a Crown corporation, rather than run as a federal department. Canadians are “increasingly fed up” with strikes in the post office, and so is he, Trudeau said. See also page 6 It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a policeman! by JAN-UDO WENZEL Citizen Staff Reporter The highway is straight, clear of traffic and you’re in a hurry to get home. Somewhere up in the sky a plane is flying in the same direction. You know you are going faster than the posted speed limit. You come to the turn-off which leads to your home in the country, pull in to your driveway and stop. Just as you get out of your car, a police car pulls into your yard and the officer tells you he is going to give you a speeding ticket. You are surprised and start to argue, but the officer simply points skyward and again you see the small plane you saw along the highway. “You were observed travelling at a speed exceeding the posted limits. This observation was made by a police officer in the plane you see,” the officer says handing you a ticket showing the speed and the time at which the offence occurred. This event described above actually took place near Prince George Tuesday. And this one driver was not the only one surprised when RCMP stopped cars on Highway 97 just south of Stoner. At that section the highway is marked for traffic patrol by aircraft and Tuesday was the first time a plane had been used in Prince George to catch traffic violators. Sgt. Ben Duncan in charge of traffic operation in Prince George sub-, division, is the man in the air with his radio and a stop watch. The stretch of highway is marked with four white lines in each direction. The lines are 500 meters apart. When a car hits the first of the lines the stop watch is activated. If a car travels the distance between the lines faster than 17 seconds, the driver is speeding at over 100 km an hour. Speed limit in B.C. is 90 km-h. During Tuesday’s flight, quite a number of cars were spotted driving at speeds up to 135 km-li. After a car under observation passes the lines it travels about another two km before being stopped by police officers on the ground. The ground crew is in radio contact with the observer in the plane. When the ground crew is asked to stop a car, the plane will follow in to positively identify the vehicle as the one that was clocked from the plane. But not only speeders get caught. Those overtaking on solidlines are in for a stop, and cars that weave along the road also are pulled over if the observer suspects the driver could have been drinking. “It is a very efficient way to patrol traffic,” Sgt. Duncan said. One of the officers working on the ground said the drivers are usually surprised when told about the violation they received a ticket for. “ We just point to the plane and explain,” the officer said. Duncan said that air patrols luive proven quite useful in other areas in B.C. and in other provinces. The network of air surveillance has spread through B.C. and in the Prince George subdivision was first used in the Dawson Creek area. In Prince George, RCMP hire a plane and pilot from Columbia Airlines. The plane flies at about 1,000 feet altitude and about 1,200 feet to the side of the highway. The white markers on the pavement are visible and the observer can see traffic approaching from quite a djstance. “The use of aircraft is another step in trying to prevent accidents and get unsafe drivers off the road," Duncan said. Patrols will be flown at irregular intervals and various locations. Ottawa borrows again OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government once again intervened heavily in foreign exchange markets during July to support the dollar’s value, drawing on another line of credit for U.S. dollars to buy up unwanted Canadian currency. Official reserves figures released today show the central Bank of Canada, at the government’s direction, spent more than $350 million U.S. on exchange markets purchasing Canadian dollars to prevent their value falling too fast. The Canadian dollar closed Tuesday at 87.89 cents U.S. CN agent removal approved The Canadian Transport Commission today authorized the Canadian National Railways to remove agents from 11 points between Prince Rupert and the Alberta border. The application by the CNR was debated at a hearing here in September of 1977 and affects Penny, Vanderhoof. Upper Fraser. Redpass Junction, Giscome, Houston, Burns Lake, Telkwa, Kitwanga, New Hazeiton and Kitimat. Residents of Penny, about 90 km east of here, have maintained removing their agent will destroy a vital communications link with Prince George. BULLETINS TORONTO (CP) — Potential disruption of Commonwealth Games coverage was averted Wedneday when members of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians voted to accept a two-year contract offer from the CHC. TORONTO (CP) — Most Air Canada ground service personnel at Toronto Internationa] Airport wulked off the job today, forcing the airline to cancel seven afternoon flights, un Air Canada spokesman said. TODAY ‘I'm about to prepare a new peace plan. Bring in the copying machine!" FEATURED INSIDE A hive of activity If you like the idea of 60,000employees who never goon strike, beekeeping may be the hobby for you. It can be a profitable sideline, say local beekeepers. Page 34. I,M ( ili/en fQcirc OTCEMnmmEnt TV listings included in Mid-Week supplement. Keep up the fair work The B.C. Lions came up with another lacklustre performance Tuesday and had to settle for a 22-22 tie with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Page 7. Index Bridge....................... .........19 Family......................... 11, 35 Business................... .........14 Gardening column.... .....15 City, H.C..............2,: 1, 13, 15 Classified................. ...16-23 Comics...................... ........33 National...................... .......6 Crossword............... ........18 Rolling Stone............. .....32 ..........4 ....7-9 ‘ THE WEATHER The forecast for Prince George today and Thursday is for sunny skies and warm temperatures. The expected high both days is 27, the low both days is expected to be 8. The high Tuesday was 23, the low 3, with no precipitation. On this date last year the high was 25, the low 10. NOW HEAR THIS • Overheard at the golf course: “How come much of the practising for the B.C. Open is done at the Yellowhead?” • A city man is uncertain if his plants are poisonous but he’s got suspicious about his cat. The feline friend hit one of the plants Monday and today the plant has shrivelled away to nothing. • Prince George customers of Inland Natural Gas don’t have to worry about a rate increase agreement negotiated recently between the federal ;jnd Alberta governments. The Inland Natural Gas marketing manager said today there will be no effect from the agreement since Inland buys Alberta natural gas only during “peak” periods of use. However Inland has asked for an interim increase of 10 cents per thousand cubic feet as a result of hearings last summer with the B»C. Energy Commission, and a decision on this application is expected this month. That would raise prices here..