The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 28

17.83 TSE s10 65 30-08 LONDON (100) 4045.20 16.30 HONG KONG 13434.24 22.02 TOKYO 20559.91 29.35 MEXICO 3330.48 5.SS GOLD (H.r.) $370.70 $2.20 DOLLAR 73.88 0.19, THE GAZETTE THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1996 4M ion profit at rap SANDRA RUBIN CANADIAN PRESS said it's just a huge institution. "While the numbers sound good, I think you've got to compare our equity, which is large, our assets and oper well, Canadians do well as a result." The Royal's profit last year was $1.26 billion. In Ottawa, Finance Minister Paul Keep tabs on your stocks with The Gazette's Stock Quote Hotline, Call 555-1234, code 35G0. Each call costs 50 cents. Bre-X near deal with Barrick It's worth billions PAUL BRENT BLOOMBERG BUSINESS NEWS ations, which are large, and take a look at our return on equity of 17.6 per cent on the year.

Compare that to other industries. "While we're in the upper quartile, we're not at the top." But Hugh Brown of Nesbitt Martin jumped into the debate. "My biggest interest in bank profits is the amount of taxes we're going to get out of them, so the higher the bank profits the higher our taxes," he said outside a committee hearing. rates so high, while the prime rate for loans sits at 4.75 per cent. Cleghorn said customers are free to choose from a range of credit cards, some with interest rates as low as 9.5 percent.

The Royal had revenues of $282 million from credit-card user and merchant fees in 1996, up from $278 million last year. The Royal saw business grow almost across the board in 1995, but sizzling stock markets provided quite a payday Income from capital-market fees -brokerage commissions, advisory and underwriting fees jumped to $752 million from $434 million in 1995. And mutual-fund revenues shot up to $241 million from $190 million a year earlier. The bank's loan-loss provision was down to $440 million from $580 million a year ago. TORONTO The Royal Bank of Canada announced yesterday that it rang in a record $1.43 billion in fiscal 1996, the biggest corporate profit ever in Canada.

The big banks have found themselves under fire recently for pulling in huge profits at a time many Canadians are struggling just to get by They've also been criticized for credit-card rates that reach 17.75 per cent in some cases. But Royal Bank chairman John Cleghorn made it clear he's not about to apologize, saying a strong bottom line is good news for many Canadians. "Several million Canadians own the Royal Bank through mutual funds or through their pensions," he told reporters. "So if our shareholders do 1 TORONTO Bre-X Minerals Ltd. yesterday said it's close to an agree- Burns said a return on equity of 17.6 per cent for a bank is very close to the top.

"It's a great return relative to corporations in general in Canada," said Brown. "It's a great return relative to inflation rates. It's a great return, period." Yet some Canadians, including Liberal MP Paul Zed, are upset the banks are keeping their credit-card Previously, the biggest corporate profit in Canada was $1.39 billion, made by General Motors of Canada last year. Cleghorn was quick to point out that while the Royal generated a $1.43 billion profit, it paid out $6.3 billion to governments, suppliers, shareholders and employees for the year ended Oct. 31 including $1.3 billion in taxes.

He ment to sell its coveted Indonesian gold stake to Barrick Gold Corp. Analysts figure the sale could bring Bre-X $5.5 billion to $5.9 billion. Bre-X president and chief executive David Walsh said in an interview that the two companies have an agreement that allows for the sale of 75 per cent of Wonders why Fox network can beam into Montreal but his CanWest can 't MARY LAMEY THE GAZETTE Global two broadcast licenses in Alberta, the second time in three years the regulatory agency has turned him down. Alberta and Quebec are the only pieces missing from the national Global network. "It took me four months to get a license to operate a second network in New Zealand.

I've been batting my head against the system in Canada for 18 years," Asper said. He characterized CFCF's campaign against Global's bid as "shameful" and a "disgraceful abuse of broadcast authority." CFCF's ad campaign included warnings that Global's entry into the Montreal market would result in job losses, fewer sponsorships of charity events by the broadcaster and less lo- cal programming. Winnipeg broadcaster I.H. "Izzy" As-per had his day before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission yesterday and he used the opportunity to chide the commissioners for their lack of vision. Asper, chairman and chief executive of CanWest Global Communications wants to set up a third national English television network and he needs a presence in Quebec.

The CRTC is hearing Global's application to take over CKMI-TV in Quebec City and operate repeater stations in Sher-brooke and Montreal. The bid faces stiff opposition from CFCF-12 and others who say the market can't Bre-X's Busang holding to Barrick, with a 10-per-cent share going to the donesian government as the govern- ment had asked. Biggest find ever Bre-X says the Busang deposit contains 57 million ounces of gold, which would make it the biggest gold discovery in history Walsh, who said Bre-X and Barrick were close to agreeing on a price, declined to disclose other details. "Both sides are doing the best for their shareholders," said Walsh, who called the high-end estimate of $5.9 billion "erroneous." The Indonesian government ordered Bre-X to take on Barrick as its partner to speed the development of the Bu-" sang deposit. Barrick has a partnership with Citra Lamtoro Gund Group, a company controlled by Indonesian dictator Suharto's oldest daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana.

Bre-X and Barrick representatives met officials of Indonesia's mines min-, istry in Jakarta yesterday to update I them on the talks, Walsh said. "I would say that everyone is work-; ing to a very speedy solution," he said. Any agreement will have to wait until next week when the Indonesian secretary-general of mines and energy re-' turns from a trip, Walsh said. Bre-X shares rose $1.30 to $20 in Toronto. Shares of Barrick rose $1.45 to $39.30.

Mixed signals from Jakarta While the Indonesian government ordered the stake to be sold to Barrick, that government has sent out signals that other gold miners might be al- lowed into the process. Placer Dome Inc. and Teck both of Vancouver, and Newmont Gold Corp. of Denver have said they're interested in bidding on the Busang find, which will be among the world's least expensive to mine. But analysts expect Barrick to get the 75-per-cent stake in Busang.

"I don't think the Indonesian government will change their mind," said Doug Leishman, mining analyst with Yorkton Securities Inc. in Vancouver. Since discovering gold at the deposit in 1994, Bre-X knew it would have to take on a partner with the practical mining experience that it lacked. Bre-X is expected to keep a small interest in the project, which is the company's only find, said Yorkton's Leishman. "The fair way for Barrick to structure it would be where Bre-X gets their attributed gold production, say 25 per cent, and then they take a royalty on the rest of the output," he said.

bear further fragmentation. "In my mind, the commission has to look at what kind of broadcast industry it wants to regulate. Fragmentation is no longer an issue. Everyone has a right to go bankrupt. Everyone has a right to compete," Asper Asper calls CFCF's anti-Global campaign The threats left the voluble Asper sputtering.

"What kind of signal is (CFCF) trying to put out to the rest of Canada? That Quebec is a closed shop, a ghettoized society? Or do they want to send out a message that Quebec is open for business?" CFCF objects to what it describes as Global's "backdoor" attempt to enter the Montreal market, which is home to 95 per cent of the 900,000 viewers CKMI hopes to reach. CFCF also asserts that English Montreal is al- said under questioning from a "disgraceful vice-chairman Fernand o5iuj Belisle. It was one of several lively exchanges between the broadcaster and the commissioner, exchanges marked by good-natured abuse of broadcast authority. sparring. The gloves came off when Asper spoke to reporters later.

He described as "a mockery" the CRTC's decision to allow the U.S. Fox network into Montreal homes via cable, while thwarting Global's effort to create a national network. According to Global, English Montreal viewers tune into JOHN MAH0NEY, GAZETTE Appearing before CRTC commissioners in Montreal yesterday, Izzy Asper was defiant as he made his pitch for a TV license in Quebec City. Above, he dons translation headphones. American border stations 41 per cent ready served by two distinct and complementary stations itself and CBC affiliate CBMT.

"Global is not bringing anything new to the market," CFCF president Rene Desmarais told reporters outside the hearing room. Global's arrival could result in the loss of 75 jobs and a 12-hour reduction in local CFCF programming, he warned. Desmarais will have his turn before the commissioners today, as will the CBC. Global's Quebec vice-president, Glenn O'Farrell, said his company sees the Quebec City option as the best way to serve Quebec's anglophone viewers, with an emphasis on regional news, sports and entertainment. "We did not want to be duplicative.

more than viewers in any other city in Canada. "If American signals galore pour in We want anglophone Quebecers to see themselves every day on a province-wide basis," O'Farrell said. He added that English-speaking Quebecers need an institution to "tie them together as a community" The last remark appeared to hit a mark with the CFCF team. Suzanne Gouin, news director at the station's Pulse News, was overheard ordering a colleague to round up video clips that demonstrate the station's ability to of fer regional news coverage. The day wore down with several more interventions, including one by Global's Quebec advisory board, which includes Quebec Liberal Party organizer John Parisella and former Parti Quebecois premier Pierre-Marc Johnson.

And the CTV network presented a brief that sought to put Global on hold until the commission deals with the larger issue of the sale of CFCF Inc. to Groupe Videotron Ltee. to the market but Canadian signals cannot, that would seem self-evidently ludicrous to me. One should err in favor of more competition, not less" he said. Asper is still smarting from last month's CRTC decision not to grant Read this column during an extra coffee break while at work mental defective.

But think about it. He was that way all along. At least now that you have confirmation of the suspicions you have always harbored, you can begin to protect yourself by systematically manipulating his tiny mind. Scott's suggestion is that have a book that deals with the needs of the ordinary workers instead of our sworn enemies, the downsizers. The Dilbert Principle is written from the standpoint of an actual downsizable cubicle-dweller because that is exactly what author Scott Adams was during the nine years he worked for a telephone com hours of Real Work with hours in which you maintain the Appearance of Work while actually enriching your personal life by photocopying copies of your resume, surfing the Internet, taking frequent, long coffee breaks or training on company time for your next job.

Probably the most exciting way to beef up your hours of Apparent Work is to jump on the telecommuting fad. Your employer is delighted not to have to provide you with costly office space, since you're working from home via a computer link, and you're delighted to have a two-hour day, JAY BRYAN you employ a sort of bureaucratic judo in which you use As a business writer, I've spent the past couple of decades struggling through lots of books and articles on the science of management probably more of them, all told, than is really good for one's mental health. With all due respect (and in most cases, that means not very much) to the authors of these works, none of them has the explanatory power or, more important, the practical survival value of this year's runaway business bestseller, The Dilbert Principle. You may be tempted to discount the seriousness of this book because it was written by the same guy who does a silly comic strip about the misadventures of Dilbert, the technical wonk who is daily tormented and outmanoeuvred by his more devious office colleagues. But let's consider this objection for a moment Really, how silly is a comic strip set in an office where the capricious bureaucracy ensures that very little useful work ever gets done, where the least competent people automatically become the managers and where the keys to effective management are to keep employees uninformed, intimidated and humiliated? Can you honestly claim that this bears no resemblance to your own workplace experience? Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is that it wasn't written by a management consultant or a millionaire entrepreneur, so for once we pany For that reason, it isn't really accurate to call this a management book.

More accurately, it is a book on how to survive in spite of your company's management. Adams's guiding premise is really quite simple: all managers are idiots. In fact, Adams argues persuasively that nearly all inhabitants of planet Earth are idiots, with all the gadgetry and civilized accomplishments of which we are so proud having been produced by a few mutant smart people. "The rest of us are treading water as fast as we can," he writes, and that almost certainly includes your boss, particularly since it is a law of nature that those who have no talent for useful work inevitably gravitate into management. Now since your boss is undeniably a powerful presence in your life, it might be less than reassuring to read that he is a dangerously irrational your opponent's size, strength and stupidity against him.

You begin by accepting that management has the power to set most of the rules, and there is no point in using logic or other forms of direct resistance. Thus when the manager advises you to work smarter, not harder, you know very well that he really means you have to work a lot harder, but shouldn't expect to get paid for the extra hours. Your response in this case is to bring into play an oppressed employee's instinctive knowledge of Adams's Law of Compensation Equilibrium. In other words, if your hourly pay drops because of all the unpaid overtime, you simply restore the balance by replacing which you needn't feel guilty about since it probably represents more true productivity than you would have managed in a 10-hour day at the office. Valuable though it is, though, I don't know if I would go so far as to suggest that you buy The Dilbert Principle, since it is a hardcover located several dollars north of my normal bookstore grazing range.

But you should definitely consider following my example and calling up the publisher, HarperCollins, (how on earth can people become actual publishers if they don't know enough to put spaces between their words?) to ask for a free review copy Dilbert Treads water a-i MMMMMHUMlMHMMkjNMi.