The record, 4 août 1989, vendredi 4 août 1989

Townships Week I Births, deaths .H Classified .8-9 Comics .10 Editorial .4 Farm & Business .7 Living .6 Sports .12-13 Townships .3 In Townships Week: Professional quilt-makers Sheila and Marion Wintle of Trenholm tell how they beat out the Americans at the Northfield, Vermont quilt show.Inside Baby Vanessa, bom at the MacDonald’s in Magog, is back to celebrate her 1st birthday.Page 3.In history, Bernard Epps takes a look at saving the museums in the Townships.Page 5.And in sports, Gaétan Boucher has moved into a new arena.Page 13.Weather, page 2 Sherbrooke Friday, August 4,1989 50 cents Parizeau wants English debate with Bourassa STE-ADELE (CP) - Parti Québécois Leader Jacques Parizeau said Thursday he is ready to face off against Liberal Premier Robert Bourassa in a televised debate during the coming election campaign.Parizeau also told reporters he is prepared to debate Bourassa in English.The PQ’s executive is putting the finishing touches on its election platform during a two-day meeting which began Thursday in this resort town in the Laurentian Mountains.An election is widely expected U.S.senate views acid rain bill By Scott White WASHINGTON (CP) — President George Bush’s bill to clean up the dirty air polluting the United States — a proposal also aimed at reducing Canada’s acid rain problem — was introduced in the U.S.Senate on Thursday amid renewed political bickering.It has been more than a decade since any amendments to the U.S.Clean Air Act have been passed by Congress, but Bush said last month he was confident that Republicans and Democrats could put their differences aside and act in a nonpartisan manner on his proposals.The Bush bill calls for a nine million-tonne reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions, the main cause of acid rain, by the year 2001.While environmentalists and politicians from both parties have generally applauded the acid rain portions of the bill, the sections dealing with smog, auto emissions and airborne toxic chemicals have been attacked as too soft.Despite a strong effort by Bush’s Republican administration to line up sponsors from both parties, only three Democratic senators joined 21 Republicans as sponsors of the bill.Last month, the bill was introduced in the House of Representatives with 57 Democratic and 90 Republican co-sponsors.The Democrats control both the House and the Senate, meaning it is likely that Bush’s proposals will be amended if the bill is to become law.Congress starts its summer recess next week and the clean air proposals will be sent to Senate and House committees for further examination in the fall.Bush has asked Congress to pass the bill before the end of the year.Senator John Chafee (R-R.L), the bill’s chief Senate sponsor, referred indirectly Thursday to the lack of Democratic support, commenting : “The introduction of the president’s bill is not the end of the process, but a major advance in the march.“After eight years of silence from the White House on this issue, we now have a chief executive who recognizes the need for a major overhaul of the Clean Air Act.” Senator Tim Wirth (D-Colo.) said although he isn’t a co-sponsor of the bill, it is “a very good start.” Like other Democrats, Wirth said he is concerned with some portions of the bill but called the acid rain provisions “very strong and innovative.” If the bill gets through Congress, Canada and the United States plan to negotiate a bilateral acid rain accord to regulate transboundary emissions.for the early fall.The PQ has consistently trailed the Liberals badly in recent opinion polls.The PQ is going to criticize “Liberal inaction” in the areas of the environment, protection of the French language, health, education and the economy, Parizeau told a news conference.“People have a right to know what the government is going to do in these areas,” he said, adding the key word for the Liberal government has been "improvisation” since coming to power in 1985.“Economic management has been marked by improvisation,” Oops! The Sher-Lenn 13-year-old all-star team’s departure was going great until members tried to board the van.Then the door fell off.After some quick repairs, the van was ready to truck the team to Fort RECORD/CRANT SIMEON McLeod, Alta, where they’ll try to defend their Canadian title.For more on the 13-year-olds and their 11-and 12-year-old counterparts who are after a provincial crown in Mascouche, turn to page 13.New plan ends welfare drug scam By Maxine Ruvinsky MONTREAL (CP) — A control system aimed at stopping welfare recipients from abusing free prescription drugs will take effect immediately, André Bourbeau, Quebec manpower and income security minister, told a news conference Thursday.The plan — which follows on the heels of a study of prescription-drug use by welfare recipients — requires potential or confirmed abusers to buy all their prescription drugs from the same pharmacy.“The vast majority of welfare recipients” are not abusing the medical cards that arrive monthly with their welfare checks and entitle them to free prescription drugs, Bourbeau said.“The government cannot, however, close its eyes to obvious cases of abuse,” he said.The study, conducted by the province’s health insurance board with the collaboration of Quebec doctors’ and pharmacists’ professional organizations, turned up some 1,300 suspicious cases, Bourbeau said.Abusive practices include trafficking in prescription drugs, use of the card by non-recipients of social aid, and the renewing of nonrenewable prescriptions.Bourbeau said recipients who were abusing the system visited numerous doctors to obtain prescriptions that were then filled at different pharmacies.The study identified 1,297 welfare recipients who in 1988 filled an abnormally high number of prescriptions.It also showed “a direct and evident relationship between the amount spent on drugs and the number of pharmacies visited,” Bourbeau said.He stressed that “only a small minority” of welfare recipients are abusing free access to prescription drugs.The figure of 1,297 represents less than one-half of one per cent of the province’s 450,000 welfare recipients.Those welfare recipients will be required to fill all their prescriptions at the same pharmacy, which they can choose, and their medical cards will go to that pharmacist.POLICE INVOLVED Of the 1,297 recipients identified as potential abusers, the files of 46 have been turned over to police, Bourbeau said.“But we have to be very careful,” he added, explaining that not everyone who takes a lot of drugs is an abuser.Cancer patients, for example, spend large sums, especially in terminal phases of the illness, on pain relievers.“We have to make sure we are zooming in on people who are operating a ring — and not on sick people who need the medication.” But welfare rights groups were not impressed.Jean-Yves Des:{agnes said his group, called Common Front, is “scandalized, revolted and disappointed that Minister Bourbeau and his government persist in their crusade to denigrate people on social assistance.” Desgagnes said the news conference, to which welfare rights groups were not invited, was unnecessary, and announced “arbitrary measures” to deal with “a false problem.” Given the tiny number of potential abusers of the system, “Why make a public campaign over it, why call a press conference?” Des-gagnes said.He said the Liberal government of Premier Robert Bourassa, “tries to hide its inaction on the problems of poverty and unemployment (by) blaming the victims.” he said.“It’s not normal that we find ourselves after years of economic prosperity with an unacceptable level of unemployment.” The former Quebec finance minister said the PQ will also push the necessity that Quebec separate from Canada.MEECH DEFEATED’ ‘ ‘The defeat of Meech Lake is the defeat of the weakest constitutional demands Quebec has made in 25 years,” he said.“Not only is Lake Meech threatened but we are experiencing now the rejection of Quebec by Canada.” The Meech Lake constitutional accord is in trouble on several fronts.Most notably, Manitoba and New Brunswick have refused to ratify the pact, which would identify Quebec as a distinct society Parizeau said the PQ will also press the Liberals on the question of abortion in the wake of the Chantal Daigle case.Parizeau has said Quebec should pass it’s own legislation on abortion, but Ottawa has moved to protect its jurisdiction by intervening on an appeal to the Supreme Court of an injunction preventing Daigle from obtaining an abortion.Environment ministry blamed for PCB blaze MONTREAL (CP) — The Quebec fire commisssioner has placed blame for the PCB fire at St-Basile-le-Grand last summer squarely on the provincial Environment Department in a report from his inquiry into the blaze.Cyrille çDelage says department negligence allowed Marc Levy, the owner of the warehouse that caught fire last Aug.23, to ignore provincial regulations.“The direct consequence was that people's lives were placed in danger,” says Delage in the public report, which he submitted last week to Public Safety Minister Gil Rémillard.Instead of allowing unscrupulous businessmen to keep hazardous materials, “why didn’t the state take care of it?” Delage asks in the 16-page report.“The province could very easily find an area that isn’t part of a municipality to build safe warehouses with stricter rules.An old principle states that one is never better served than by oneself.” Levy left Quebec immediately after the fire and is thought to be in Florida.The fire, forced the evacuation of about 3,300 people for 18 days and cost the Quebec government about $30 million.Thousands of litres of PCB-laden oil burned in the fire, sending a a toxic cloud over three communities in the area.The firemen deserve praise for the way they handled the deliberately set blaze, Delage says, adding the town of St-Basile did all it could to get rid of the depot.The blame falls on the Environment Department which could have limited the damages if it had acted competently and firmly, he says.FAILED TO ACT “At regular intervals since 1981, reports had been submitted by ministry inspectors, underlining the infractions of the law, the irregularities, the deficiencies of the building and almost nothing was done,” Delage says.Delage also knocks the Environment Department for not moving in when it knew PCB-laden oil was being stored along side highly flammable solvents.“It is unacceptable that the storage of these type of materials was allowed in a warehouse such as the one in St-Basile, where there were solvents.” He also questions why the department allowed Levy to exceed the warehouse’s capacity.“In 1983, when the ministry knew that the warehouse was full to the maximum authorized capacity with contaminated products, a transfer of 2,000 gallons of PCB oil from a Hydro-Quebec installation was authorized.” And he criticizes the department for allowing Levy to withdraw bank guarantees against accidents at the warehouse.Levy was required by his contract to give bank guarantees of $7.50 for every gallon of liquid PCBs he took in.This sum rose to $151,000, but in 1986 all but $50,000 disappeared.NOTHING DONE Delage complains that even with the $50,000 nothing was done to make the warehouse safer.“It would have cost between $50,000 and $100,000 to make the installation secure against fire See PCBs page 2.SVP angry; Bacon no comment QUEBEC (CP) — A fire commissioner’s report into the PCB-warehouse fire at St-Basile-le-Grand confirms that the “Quebec Environment Department has lost control of hazardous-waste management in the province,” an environmentalist says.Daniel Green, co-president of la Société pour vaincre la pollution (SVP), also said Quebec provincial police should investigate the department to determine whether bureaucrats did not deliberately turn a blind eye to the activities of warehouse owner Marc Levy.“The mistakes were so blatant that we’re wondering if there wasn’t any corruption in the department,” Green said Thursday in an interview from Montreal.Environment Minister Lise Bacon refused to comment Thursday on the report which accuses her department of negligence.“Mrs.Bacon is still reading the report and will give her reply in a few days,” Bacon spokesman Jocelyne Richer said.Bacon was not environment minister at the time of the PCB fire.She replaced Clifford Lincoln earlier this year after he quit the cabinet to protest a provincial language law.Delage praised the community of St-Basile for doing everything it could to get rid of the warehouse, words which pleased the town’s manager.“It doesn’t change what happened but it’s nice to get some appreciation,” Michel Gagnon said.Delage also had kind words for firefighters who fought the blaze for several hours.The PCB waste from the fire is currently being shipped to an incinerator in Wales and should be completely removed from St-Basile in about four months.Parizeau amused—more westerners than Quebecers want province to separate By Peter Lowrey QUEBEC (CP) — What really amused Parti Québécois Leader Jacques Parizeau about the Gallup poll was the part suggesting that a greater percentage of British Columbians than Quebecers wish Quebec would separate.The usually jovial Parizeau, dressed in a summer suit instead of his usual banker’s pin-stripes during a recent walkabout at an outdoor farmers market, threw back his head and positively chortled at that news.Indeed, the poll of 1,034 Canadians taken in July had a startling message: it suggested that 28 per cent of all Canadians would just as soon see Quebec go its own way.That included 36 per cent of British Columbians, 28 per cent of Prairie residents, 22 per cent of Ontarians, 25 per cent of Atlantic resi- dents and 34 per cent of Quebecers.(However, the margin of error— four percentage points 19 time out of 20 — means that the Quebec and B.C.figures could actually be reversed in another poll.) Why shouldn’t the chainsmoking former Quebec finance minister, who has led the PQ back to hardline separatism, be smiling?GOOD NEIGHBORS When Parizeau, former premier René Lévèsque and the PQ took over the provincial government in 1976, the number of Canadians who wanted Quebec to separate stood at 16 per cent “We’re coming to the point where Canadians are realizing we would make better neighbors than partners in the same country, ’ ’ Parizeau said.Other Quebec opinion-makers failed to see the mirth in the new numbers.“Their ill temper against Quebecers comes from their desire to impose their monolithic — and unacceptable — vision of the country,” fumed Raymond Giroux in an editorial in Quebec City’s Le Soleil.An adjacent cartoon showed an English Canadian painting Kill the Frog on a wall.Other signs of the great divide between French and English Canada, which Hugh MacLennan wrote about in his 1945 classic Two Solitudes, have seemed to abound this summer in Quebec.At times, Quebecers seemed to be casting about for another country to join.LOOK TO FRANCE Archeologist René Lévèsque, who last summer thought he had found Samuel de Champlain’s lost grave beneath a Quebec City church, began a campaign to get France to acknowledge Quebecers as French citizens.Lévèsque, a former priest who has been searching for the grave of the founder of New France for almost 40 years, contends that under a treaty dating back to colonial days, French descendants were guaranteed citizenship in perpetuity.“Others may be interested in this for political reasons but I’m interested in the cultural possibilities,” says Lévèsque, noting that a 1987 poll suggested 57 per cent of Quebecers wouldn't mind a French passport.If that doesn't suit Quebecers as an option, a new movement called Quebec-51 is trying to gain status as an official political party in the province.The francophone group, which wants Quebec to become the 51st American state, has already collected 1,000 signatures in support.The land south of the border has always seemed more attractive to many French Quebecers than has English Canada, as illustrated by successive waves of migration to the New England states and the large French-Canadian holiday communities in such states as Florida.CLOSE TO HOME On this point it’s worth noting that one can still fly to Miami from Montreal for half the price of a ticket to Vancouver.Premier Robert Bourassa, educated in Quebec, Britain and the United States, couldn’t be reached for comment on the Gallup poll when it was released.He was vacationing on the Maine coast, only a five-hour drive from Quebec City.“It will always be difficult to live side by side with two different languages, a different history, different traditions, with huge geographic and psychological distances,” said Claude Masson in an editorial in Montreal’s La Presse.Masson was philosophical about the 27 per cent of Canadians outside Quebec who think Quebecers should forfeit their Canadian passports and hit the independence road.They can’t grasp “our perpetual demands” as we try to defend our culture, he said.What does Quebec want?“The question will last as long as this country lasts,” wrote Masson.“In 10 years or 100 years, it will be the same question.” 2—The RECORD—Friday, August 4, 1989 Quebec appeal court should have used federal law — justice department By Peter Moreira OTTAWA (CP) — The Quebec Court of Appeal was mistaken in basing its decision in the Chantal Daigle abortion case on a provincial, not federal, law, the federal Justice Department says.The department filed papers with the Supreme Court of Canada on Wednesday laying out its position on the case of the 21-year-old woman who has been barred by Quebec courts from having an abortion.The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear Daigle’s appeal of the injunction , which was won by her for- mer boyfriend, Jean-Guy Tremblay.When the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case this week, it allowed the federal government to intervene, which means its lawyers will be heard on the case.The papers filed Wednesday say the Quebec Court of Appeal, which upheld an injunction granted July 17 by Quebec Superior Court, erred because it said the rights of the fetus must be protected under the provincial charter of rights.“The court has erred in that interpretation because the question of entitlement to an abortion.is a matter within the exclusive le- gislative authority of the Parliament of Canada,” says the federal paper.And, it says, it is well established no provincial legislature may make laws that deal with the jurisdiction of the federal government.“Although a provincial legislature may validly legislate .in a way which touches upon abortion, it cannot and should not be read as doing so in a way which prohibits abortion, as the Quebec Court of Appeal appears to have done.” The Quebec government, which filed similar papers Thursday, says the province has the authority to legislate on human rights.Quebec, the only province intervening in the case, admits the federal government has jurisdiction in criminal matters.But, it argues, abortion has not been a criminal offence since the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the country’s abortion law in January 1988 Therefore, Quebec believes an avenue has been opened for the provinces to deal with the issue.The case of Daigle comes as the federal government is working on a new abortion law.The Conservative government tried to get MPs to approve an abortion law last summer, but each of the six options presented to the Commons in a free vote was rejected.Daigle, a former secretary, was on her way to a Sherbrooke, Que., hospital to have an abortion when she learned Tremblay had obtained the injunction.In his brief to the court, Tremblay, 25, says the couple began living together last December in Pointe-aux-Trembles, a Montreal suburb, and “decided to have a child.” But after a fight July 3, she returned to her parents in Chibouga-mau, Que., and told him two days later she would get an abortion July 10.He says Daigle’s advanced stage of pregnancy — she is in her 22nd week _ is a factor the court should consider in ruling on the injunction.Daigle’s brief says she abandoned contraception at Tremblay's insistence last January and learned in March she was pregnant.Meanwhile, the relationship was deteriorating rapidly and Tremblay was becoming more and more aggressive, it says.When he grabbed her by the throat July 1, Daigle says, she went to the landlord for refuge and police were called.South African police accuse Canadian observers of interference in Namibia By Brendan Seery WINDHOEK (CP) — A Canadian observer group that recommended police in Namibia be retrained for their role after independence was guilty of “uncalled-for interference” in Namibian affairs, the South African-controlled police said Thursday.A statement issued by police headquarters accused the observers of a “total lack of understanding of police work.” The statement said the force is proud of its record in combating crime and added that the “bona tides and motives” of the Canadians were “highly doubtful.” The non government team — which included Flora MacDonald, former external affairs minister, and Shirley Carr, president of the Canadian Labor Congress, made its recommendations after touring Namibia for 10 days last month.As they observed voter registration for an election this November, the Canadians travelled more than 4,000 kilometres and spoke to a cross-section of church representatives, political leaders and officials of the South African administration.The observers said they noted accusations that the police force had been harassing civilians in northern Namibia, the scene of the fiercest fighting in a 23-year guerrilla war waged by the South West Africa People’s Organization to evict the South Africans.Many of the complaints against the police have been levelled against former members of a counter-insurgency unit known as Koe-voet (Crowbar).SWAPO accused the Koevoet members of atrocities during the guerrilla war.SUGGESTS RETRAINING The Canadians suggested an in- By Paul Mooney OTTAWA (CP) — The election process and the system leading to Namibian independence from South Africa are seriously flawed, a Canadian observer team reported Thursday.It called on the federal government to maintain a strong presence in the South African colony and to assist in its development when Namibia becomes an independent state.Flora MacDonald, a former Conservative MP and cabinet minister, Paul Purrit of the Canadian Labor Congress and Meyer Brownstone of Oxfam-Canada were part of a six-member obser-ver team which travelled throughout Namibia for two weeks in July.ternational team of police officers be sent to Namibia to help retrain and restructure the police force — and in particular the former members of Koevoet — to prepare it for its role after independence.Another observer— Frank Judd, the head of Oxfam (U.K.) — said he agrees there was harassment by police in northern Namibia.The police statement in reply to the Canadians’ comments described the visitors as being “the least MacDonald noted Canada has supported Namibia’s quest for independence for more than a decade.“I think the (Canadian) government has a real responsibility to treat Namibia as a special case,” she told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa.She said Canada should raise Namibia’s problems in the United Nations Security Council, contribute money for health care and education, help the emerging nation to develop its fishing industry and to take control of off-shore islands from South Africa.The observers said former South African-backed counterinsurgency police known as Koevoet (Africaans for crowbar) are now wearing regular police uni- qualified to speak on police matters” and claimed that MacDonald and her group had not made any effort to contact the police commissioner or senior officers in Windhoek.Meanwhile, the police were criticized for shooting to death a former SWAPO guerrilla in a house search in northern Namibia.The police said they had tried to contact UN police monitors to accompany them on the search ; a UN forms, but their presence is intimidating Namibians seeking to register to vote in the elections which begin Nov.6.Intimidation of potential electors is increasing in northern Namibia, and the observer team heard several stories of would-be voters being beaten.MONITORED BY SOLDIERS The transition to independence in the desert territory is being monitored by a UN peacekeeping force of more than 4,500 soldiers, including about 250 Canadians.The observers were also critical of plans to gather all ballots in the capital of Windhoek to be counted.The procedure will take far too long and will raise suspicion of fraud among electors, they said.Ballots should be counted at 23 dis- official denied that.In Pretoria, the chief UN official in Namibia said racist laws and allegations of police harassment and detentions of dissidents by guerrillas won’t delay Namibia’s independence.“I am reasonably confident that we are three months away from holding an election,” UN Special Representative Martti Ahtisaari of Finland told a conference.Sixty per cent of the estimated 650,000 eligible voters have registe- trict centres and sent to Windhoek later, they said.Brownstone was especially critical of a South African provision which will allow its administrator-general in Namibia to reject any recommendations from a newly elected constituent assembly on how Namibia will achieve full independence from South Africa.Calling the provision “outrageous,” Brownstone said it appears to negate the whole purpose of registration and elections.Namibia, with a population of 1.6 million, will become an independent state as part of a UN plan under which South Africa will withdraw from the colony it has controlled since the First World War.red for the Nov., 6 vote, he said.Namibia, a desert territory of 800,000 square kilometres and about 1.6 million people, will become an independent state as a result of a United Nations plan under which South Africa agreed to pull out of the territory it has controlled since the First World War.The transition to independence is also being monitored by a UN peacekeeping force of more than 4,500 soldiers, including about 250 Canadians.The observer team also urged Ottawa to impose further economic sanctions against South Africa, saying it’s the only thing that will spur South Africa to dismantle the apartheid system where five million whites dominate 26 million blacks politically and economically.Earlier, the South African-controlled police denounced suggestions the group made last month that police be re trained after independence.The police called the suggestion “uncalled for interference in Namibian affairs.” The police headquarters in Windhoek issued a sharply worded statement accusing the Canadian observers of “a total lack of understanding of police work.” Election arrangements seriously flawed — observer team Only new contract could stop Quebec nurse strike service.They can call a strike, but they must ensure that complete nursing staffs in emergency rooms, intensive care and burn units are maintained.Lavallee has promised that nurses would provide essential services in over 400 hospitals across Quebec.In Quebec City Wednesday, Treasury Board President Daniel Johnson repeated his position that the government has no more money to offer the nurses — with or without their strike mandate.Another key development for the nurses at the Laval meeting was the selection of a new negotiating committee.The former negotiating committee resigned in Quebec City last month after the delegates openly criticized it for accepting a government offer which included salary increases delegates felt were inadequate.The nurses started out their campaign to get a new contract last April by asking for a 20.5-percent increase in 1989 They refused to accept any overtime for almost three months to back their demands.But the negotiating committee accepted a tentative agreement from the government which gave them a four-per-cent salary increase in 1989, 7.5-per-cent in 1990 and between four and nine per cent in 1991, depending on seniority and inflation.#¦___frei «Bcara George MecLaren, Publisher.569-S511 Randy Kinnear, Assistant Publisher.569-9511 Charles Bury, Editor.569-6345 Lloyd G.Schelb, Advertising Manager.569-9525 Richard Lessard, Production Manager.569-9931 Mark Gulllette, Press Superintendent .569-9931 Guy Renaud, Graphics.569-4856 Francine Thibault, Composition 569-9931 CIRCULATION DEPT.819-569-9528 KNOWLTON OFF.: 514-243-0088 FAX: (819) 569-3945 Subscriptions by Carrier: weekly: Subscriptions by Mall: Canada: 1 year- 6 months-3 months-1 month- U.S.& Foreign: 1 year-6 months 3 months 1 month- Established February 9, 1897, incorporating the Sherbrooke Gazette (est.1837) and the Sherbrooke Examiner (est.1879).Published Monday to Friday by The Record Division, Groupe Québécor Inc.Offices and plant located at 2850 Delorme Street, Sherbrooke, Quebec, J1K 1A1.Second class registration number 1064.Member of Canadian Press Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation $1.80 $74.00 $44.00 $3060 $15.00 $151.00 $92.00 $6200 $32.00 Back copies of The Record are available at the following prices: Copies ordered within a month of publications: 60c per copy.Copies ordered more than a month after publication: $1.10 per copy.LAVAL, Que.(CP) — Quebec nurses could go on strike within the next two months if they don’t get an acceptable contract offer from the provincial government, the head of the Quebec Federation of Nurses warned Thursday.Over 600 delegates representing the province’s 40,000 nurses wrapped up a two-day conference in Laval, just north of Montreal, by setting Aug.24 as the date for a vote that could allow their union leaders to call a general strike.They also voted to refuse to work overtime — a tactic they used when the labor dispute began in April but discontinued when a tentative agreement was reached in June “If our members want it, a strike could be carried out fairly quickly,” federation president Diane Lavallee said after the meeting.“ It is not to our advantage to let the situation drag on.“We will try to sit down with the provincial government immediately after the (strike) vote is taken,” she said.“We will try to get an acceptable settlement from them but if we can’t we will exercise our mandate to call a strike.” ELECTION EXPECTED A strike, if called, could take place during a provincial election campaign which is widely expected this fall.But the nurses could only stage a limited work stoppage because nursing is considered an essential Government plans to nip tax speculation in the bud OTTAWA (CP) — A technical paper on the Mulroney government’s proposed goods and services tax will be released on Tuesday to clear up some key questions on how the new tax will work when it takes effect in 1991.Federal officials say they hope getting details of the tax out in the open will end some of the speculation and rumor about the effect of the new levy.A big part of the paper will spell out the economic benefits of the tax, which will replace the existing 13.5-per-cent federal sales tax that’s only applied on manufactured goods at the factory level.However, the Consumers’ Association of Canada, small business and other groups —- from restaurateurs to funeral directors — are already griping about the way the tax will work.And the opposition parties are ready to battle the Tories, who may face a tough time persuading Canadians they need another tax.“I think it is going to create a politicial nightmare for the Conservatives,” Jim Peterson, Liberal industry critic, said Thursday.CP News Analysis By Clyde Graham The basic outline of the proposed nine-per-cent tax, on almost every good and service you can buy, was already made public in the April federal budget.What’s coming on Tuesday is the nuts and bolts of how the tax — expected to collect about $27 billion a year—will be applied at every step of production.Finance Department officials have been burning the midnight oil to work out solutions to some tough problems.The tax is designed to be as comprehensive as possible and will shift a major tax burden on to services for the first time.SOME EXEMPTIONS There are major exemptions including basic groceries, prescription drugs, medical devices, housing rent, health and dental services, day care, some financial services, legal aid and education.A major issue — affecting a lot of companies and money — will be how those exemptions will be defined.For example, which items in the supermaket deli will bedbasic groceries and which would be classified as taxable fast food or snack food?Another problem will be setting out how the myriad of public institutions such as schools, hospitals and municipalities will get rebates to offset the cost of the tax.The new tax will collect as much as $10 billion a year more than the existing federal sales tax, but Finance Minister Michael Wilson has promised to pay that back to Canadians in the form of rebates.Most of the money will be paid as credits to help out lower- and middle-income Canadians.Other money will be used to offset the impact of the tax on housing — a particular problem in high-priced Toronto.Housing and poverty groups will be poring over details to ensure they’re fair.Small business groups are interested in the kind of paperwork they’ll be forced to do for the government.The Finance Department has promised to keep it simple, but the Canadian Federation of Independent Business is skeptical.There’s a host of other problems : — Applying the tax at pay phones and vending machines.— Tackling the complicated area of transportation services.— Providing tax relief for bad debts on goods or services that have been sold.PCBs: Continued from page one.(but) nothing was done, even though there was a guarantee for $50,000 from Mr.Levy to do it with.” The legislature must make environmental laws clearer and easier to apply, the commissioner says.“From now on, not one day should pass before draconian pre-ventitive measures are taken against buildings used for storing toxic wastes.” Delage paints Levy as a unscrupulous cheat, who took money for services he didn’t render and ignored the danger his operation posed.The commissioner held public hearings into the fire last spring.Meanwhile, tests conducted tor the federal government indicate that small wild animals caught in St-Basile a few days after the fire had higher than normal levels of contaminants in their blood.“We found traces of dioxins and furans with a surprising level of concentration, considering the short period of time they were exposed.’’ said Jean-Luc Des-granges, a researcher with the Canadian Wildlife Service, a branch of the federal Environment Department._____ Furans and dioxins are toxic byproducts from the partial burning of PCBs, a banned coolant used in transformers.Desgranges said the contaminants found in such animals as mice, frogs and rabbits are not dangerous for humans but that more tests are necessary on other animals in the food chain to determine whether they also were affected.Weather Doonesbury BY GARRY TRUDEAU Friday sunny with cloudy periods.A 30 per cent chance of showers.The high 24.AMD NOW The TRUMP OR5ANI- ?7AP0N IS PRÛUP TO WIROPUCB 1 me number ONemeimFWWR \ I in me worn?, Mies honey man ! 1 y THANK YOU.ACTUALLY, THAT5 MRS.HONEY PUNS, NOT MIS51 OR SHOULD I SAY, me ABOUT-TO BB EX MRS HONEY DUKE ! AND THEREIN UES A GRUBBY TALE OF GREW AND DECEIT! FOR DETAILS, SiTAY TUNED FOR PIVOP c T auMONY PROCEDURES THAT.ouL MAKE THE LU!LU AM HURT TRIAL LOOK UKE A PICNIC ! HOLD IT I'M LAMBCHOB NOT PAYING NO, IAMB CHOP.AMILLFOR HE YOU'RE TIRED THIS CAN IS.YOU JUST OF WORMS' CROSSWA PATEUNE MPÂâ'Jfi 11*- WKSTI.KY HUNT SHKRBROOKE KI.KMKNTARY Sl'HOOl, SO WHAT THE HEU HAPPFNW, PUKE ?I SEND YOU TO CHINA TO GET ME A FREEDOM FIGHTER i AND YOU BRING ME BACK A MASSIVE LAWSUTT! BOSS, ITS JUST JET LAG! I CAN TURN HER AROUND! GIVE ME A FEW PAYS, AND I'Ll HAVE HER THANKING YOU ON EVERY TALK SHOW IN THE COUNTRY' fF :