Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 17, 1979, Winnipeg, Manitoba Cd Janu Aviv 1h of of v Hydro debt May exceed assets by 1980 by Cecil Rosner it Yafo predicts its debt will exceed the value of total assets but a senior finance says he this affect the Utility ability to Cort i file to a prow Valex Hydro assistant be fiesal manager of said tuesday dry weather in 197 depleted the Utility reserves and worsened debt equity but he said Hydro has never been As concerned As various private utile Tefs about this which measures Khomeini urges Iran to remain i strike th6 relationship Between How much the Utility owes to How much its assets Are As Long As Hydos Bonds Are guaranteed by the provincial ment and its ability to borrow Money is it will stay out of serious financial Mckean told the Tritschler inquiry into Ern Hydro Mckean said there is a great Vari Ety of opinion among accountants and financial experts about the Cance of a corporations to while he conceded the ratio was favourable for Ontario and British Columbia utile Manitoba Hydro had traditionally maintained a High Deb ratio which has Only recently worsened because of drought devaluation of the Canadian Dollar has also had a bad effect on the since More than billion 6f its debt is owed in foreign Curren but Hydro is Basing its predictions for 1981 on the Assumption that the Dollar will Rise to 89 cents Ameri he continued but the Ayatollah made it Clear he demands still More before will return to Ibrahim a close aide to that the illegal and treason government of Premier Shah installed by the Irani parliament must Kho Mainis aides added privately their Leader would stay in France until the Bakhtiar govern it intent is out of i will return Iran at the first proper Khomeini was quoted As saying by to keep up the pressure on the new Khomeini issued Call for the general strike to he said it was a National religious obligation for his Fol Lowers to take part in a mass March Friday against the Bakhtiar Cabi and the even More important than the vend of the Pahlavi said will be the end of for feign domination apparently a reference to conflicts to come with the United the Ayatollah and his aides repeated their intention to proclaim a government to organize elections for a constituent Assembly that will write a new a photo Shah statue dangles from its Pedestal in downtown Tehran tuesday after demonstrators used two trucks to tear it fighting erupts in Southern Iran Tehran a pro Shah troops clashed with of anti Shah demonstrators in Ahwaz in Brans Southern oilfield District today and heavy casualties were reported on the Day following the Mon departure from the strife torn t the first rift also appeared in the opposition the Tehran newspaper Ettel Aat said the army opened in Ahwaz after tens of thousands of demonstrators had gathered in front of a the newspaper said there were hundreds of an army spokesman in Tehran said that after morning prayers at the Ahwaz Garrison groups of frenzied officers soldiers ran through the City of calling for in support of the absent one serious clash developed when armed soldiers came upon a group of demonstrators trying to topple a statue of the Shah in an Ahwaz i one Ahwaz reached by Telephone from said theres so much shooting outside that l dont dare go near the in a City 430 Kilometres Southwest of an army officer is reported to have thrown himself under a moving tank after making an impassioned speech in which he said he go on living without the there was no Independent confirmation of the reported Premier Shahpour head of a Shalap pointed civilian called an emergency nation Al Security meeting to discuss the the Shah of Iran left poses with egyptian president Anwar Sadat in newspaper lose libel suit Victoria up Victoria times Bob Bierman said tuesday the has lost the libel suit brought against him and the evening newspaper by provincial Cabinet minister Bill Vander Justice Craig Munroe of the British Columbia supreme in a judgment to be released has ruled that a cartoon which without caption in the after Hoon newspaper june was said Vander then human re sources testified the car which depicted him gleefully taking the wings off a implied he is a sadistic person and that he was not a fit person to be minister of human Vander Zalm became municipal affairs minister in a december Cabi net Bierman said he Hopes the judg ment will be Bierman said if there is no we will have lost the fight just me and the Victoria but everybody cartoonists everybody con hopefully this was Only the first round and were going to also named in the Case were for Mer times publisher Stuart under Bill and editor Barbara Bierman testified he was inspired to draw the cartoon after Vander Zalm advised youngsters around downtown Vancouver to re turn to their reserves because they had better opportunities Hydos projected balance Sheet for 1980 shows total assets will be while total liabilities will be billion with no reserves to make up the inquiry lawyer Richard Scott pointed out that a Hydro Board Stuart testified earlier about the dangers of relying solely on government guarantees of the utile Tys Anderson told the inquiry that investors Are looking through the veil of the guarantee and examining the Utility financial soundness on its own me said the Utility May soon be Cut Loose Foffi these guarantees which could result in skyrocketing interest fates on any future Hydro largest single expense is the interest paid on this amounts to million this year and is projected to climb to million by the interest payment is times what Hydro pays out in total salaries and represents about half of its entire Mckean said the Only Way Hydro could improve its debt equity ratio was through greatly increased Power despite the High Manitoba Hydro is a very successful Utility and the envy of Many other North Ameri can Power he Mckean said Hydro will find it difficult to generate additional reve nue from Export sales this year be cause the transmission lines to the Are already being used to full this problem will be solved after when a third line will be constructed to the Price sprouts on lettuce salad lovers watch iceberg lettuce prices in Winni Peg reached up to a head this although one Chain is Adver Tising them for 59 cents a heavy december Rains and cold weather in the growing California have pushed the Price on this popular Green up in the past few weeks As supplies As recently As last Rains interrupted the iceberg harvesting causing another temporary reports the fresh produce Council of los inclement weather has also affected Quality of the the weather has taken its toll on soft As but Ter and red Leaf lettuce Are All higher in Price and lower in Quality the produce Council also reported wet weather in mexi co and Texas was hampering the growing and harvesting of other fresh produce items such As Toma Navel severe Winter storms in the East Ern United states have prevented some deliveries of fresh produce to those reduced demand be cause of the storms has meant a Price break on some of the items for those in the midwestern the Council vietnamese counter with air raids to am Fot troops on continued from the old american built base at can Tho in the Mekong the number of troops involved was unknown but the intensity of the fighting indicated sizable other pol pot forces were also holding the provincial Capitol of just South of the tone the great Lake that bisects Northwestern by holding which is on National Highway the pol pot forces were denying the vietnamese the most direct Highway to Western Cambodia and forcing them to use the much longer Highway North of the tone this was evidently causing the vietnamese Supply troubles and their units in the far West have been stalled about five Miles Short of the Border with military analysts believed that the most important fighting was that around Kong the largest of about 17 islands along a desolate 20mile coastal strip of marshes and it is vital that the pol pot forces retain a Supply Channel Here to get arms and food into the nearby cardamom mountains where Thev evidently intend to establish a the pol pot regime has begun broadcasting from a new radio station in Kunming in Southern the calling itself the voice of democratic came on the air tuesday and Moni tors quickly established its the station also uses the same wavelengths used by peking radio for cambo Dian language archers get additional terms but being frightened or wounded is no he Montgomery asked Justice Hunt to impose life sentences for the kidnapping adding he wished he could ask Hunt to sen tence the archers to 150 years in when asked whether he would Appeal the Montgom Ery said he know until after the Appeal of the first degree murder lawyers Hersh Wolch for Archer Jay Prober acting for a Cher said they we rent sure whether they would Appeal the both lawyers earlier told jus Tice Hunt that a severe sentence be Wolch explained that archers whole course of conduct following the shooting was to survive and to seek medical help for his Wolch also noted that Archer suffered from mental including bouts of Prober said there were several mitigating factors in considering sentences for the he said the kidnapping and unlawful confinements were not none of the victims were assaulted and Archer was wounded at the of the the end of court proceedings tues proceeded by a five week trial last was the latest chapter in one of the longest and most expensive murder prosecutions in Manitoba his costing an estimated testimony at that trial had shown that Archer kidnapped Penny and tied his wife their daughters Cindylou and Cheryl and Derrick who was staying at the Penny Archer also left nor Man Graham and his wife tied up in their own Home before he stole their car and returned with Penny to his Home where he had left Archer to guard the Penny family and Chip continued from there the archers forced Penny to drive them to the Home of Lloyd and Wilma Archer also tied up the hatches before going to the Home of Marcus soon after their arrival at the Scherz an ambulance picked up Archer and took her to Brandon general Hospital where she was treated for the gunshot wound she received during the shootout with Archer held his wife Stephanie and Penny hostage for about 96 hours while demanding 000 and Safe passage out of the coun try for him and his the incident finally ended when Archer released his hostages unharmed and gave himself up to Little interest found in Unity continued certainty could Well be associated with intensification of antagonistic forms of provincial or regional think Mariejosep an economist who supervised the told report ers National Unity advocates should be encouraged by the report because it shows canadians have an open mind on National people have different perceptions but they Are not pitted against one an miss Drouin the report noted except on the Are beginning to accept the concept of two founding nations in that did not mean they were accepting bilingualism any the official languages act is widely misunderstood at Best and detested at there is no doubt that bilingual zing education is the least contentious of possible Bilin Gual note the emphasis on least con this should not be read As not the report said Many canadians deplored the absence of a National Lon term goals and widely revered but were open minded on these Ottawa refuses Access to papers Quebec up the Federal government has refused to hand Over state papers relating to Ottawa actions during the 1970 october crisis to a Quebec Justice department in the decision was confirmed recently by a letter from Louis Philippe Federal assistant Deputy minister of to special Crown prosecutor Jeanfrancois who has been working on a report on the crisis for the provincial Justice a copy of the letter was obtained by reporters last Duchaine requested a series of documents from the ramp and a number of Federal depart noting that they were Neces sary to Complete his but in the Landry replied that Ottawa was Only willing to sup ply information on the kidnapping of former British Diplomat James which touched off the tight lipped civil servants hinder task Force save St pop Paw a by Steve Pona a Volunteer task Force investigating the social Impact of government funding cutbacks is being hampered by tight lipped civil servants afraid of losing their task Force member Clark Brownlee said 1 a Winnipeg social complained at a Public meeting in the Winnipeg Centennial Library that its very difficult to get accurate information about How restraint is affecting government civil servants Are very much under the gun right now and the last thing they feel free to talk about is he it makes it very difficult for it makes it difficult to get hard a lot of people were quite straight Forward in saying i value my Job and j cant do any Good without it Soi cant answer your he spokesmen for social agencies funded by the government were also reluctant to answer he Agency directors dont want to talk because they fear it might jeopardize their chances for funding next task Force chairman Robert an associate professor of so Cial work at the University of Manir said he suspects the ment does the task Force to Complete its he told the meeting that people government dont want to hear the facts and they dont want to Wiear that some of their decisions Are causing real hardships for the task Force was created by the Manitoba association of social workers last May to study the Ern ments social policies and about 25 most of them Over the age of attended the three hour meeting Russion varied from declining vice Levels in hospitals and nursing Homes to government secrecy processed a former nursing of Heston said government restraint is having dire effect on the services old people Are receiving in health care while the number of patients has been the number of personnel has remained the same or been Cut leaving fewer people to do More Cosson staff Are not allowed time to do the kinds of things that should be done to preserve dignity in nursing Harry of 291 Annes said some old people Are guilty of overloading the health care system by request ing medical assistance for the slightest i wonder How Many people would be going to the doctor if they had to pay for two Public meetings have been held in Winnipeg and a third is ruled for Brandon task Force spokesmen said they expect to produce the first of a series of reports in ;