The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 35

i hi. T. u' 'J i i 1111 'tw'nf'Mi' THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1998 D3 HI book for 0 tests MM MARY LAME THE GAZETTE cation. Under the original deal worked qui between CFCF and Vid6otron, Viddotron would have bought CFCF's cable assets and in return CFCF would have purchased Vid6otron's broadcast operations. The broadcast component includes Tele-Metropole, which would have given CFCF a stranglehold on Quebec private English The issue was resolved when Vid6otron bought CFCF In its entirety In April and announced that it would sell CFCF's English broadcasting arm as soon as possible.

The revitalization of CKMI will result in capital spending of $9 million and create 75 jobs. The station is currently a repeater station rebroadcasf-ing programming from CBMT in for Alberta, where the company sells programming to a number of Independent broadcasters. Gaining the three licenses means the fulfilment of founder Izzy Asper's long-held dream of establishing a third national network in Canada. The CRTC held hearings on the Alberta licenses in July and is expected to examine the Quebec City request in December. CanWest hascommitted to scheduling a minimum of seven hours per week of prime-time Canadian programming and an additional four hours a week of peak-hour prime time Canadian drama.

Peak-hour prime time is between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Glenn O'Farrell, a Quebec City native and president and chief executive of TVA CanWest, described the financial commitment as the "the largest ever made by a Canadian private-sector broadcaster." Tcl6-Metronole and CanWest want to disaffiliate CKMI from the CDC network and transfer ownership to the new partnership. According to their plan, the station will become a regional broadcaster, with repeater stations in Sherbrooke and Montreal. The station will offer up to 12.5 hours a week of regional programming, including a daily evening newscast and arts and entertainment programs showcasing Quebec talent.

CanWest had hopes to launch the reborn CKMI this month, but that plan was put on hold during last spring's scramble over CFCF Inc. The CRTC said it would wait for the dust to settle on the sale of CFCF to Groupe Vldeotron Ltee before hear the appli ban on drugstore smokes Hew Clearnet phone TORONTO Clearnet Communications Inc. launched a wireless phone system yesterday that combines pager, two-way radio and cellular-phone functions and is aimed at the business market The device being sold as MiKE -can be mounted like a cellular car phone or carried as a compact, 5-inch long handheld phone that customers can slip into a pocket. Clearnet said the service starts Monday in the Quebec City to Windsor corridor. The company, which now employs 85 people in Quebec, will boost that jobs total to 150 in the province by 1999, company executives told reporters in Montreal.

They pegged the firm's capital Investment to date in the province at $50 million. The Investment figure will jump to about $250 million within three years, said Robert Simmonds, Clearnet's chairman. Falconbridge picks CEO TORONTO Falconbridge Ltd. has appointed chairman Alex Balogh as chief executive while it finds a successor to Frank Pickard, who died of a heart attack while visiting a mine site in Chile this week. Balogh is also deputy chairman of Noranda Falconbridge's controlling shareholder, and a former president of the world's No.

2 nickel producer. Pickard, 63, died Wednesday morning during a visit to the site of a future copper mine in a remote part of northern Chile in the high Andes Mountains. Labor deal at Inco THOMPSON, Man. About 1,400 locked out workers at Inco Ltd. could be back at work Monday if they ratify a tentative contract during the weekend.

The agreement was reached after the two sides came together Thursday for the first time since the lockout in this northern Manitoba city began Sept. 16. Neither side would release details of the deal. New Theratech chair CanWest Global System is waving a $165-million carrot in front of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission in aid of its application for a Quebec City broadcasting license. TVA CanWest, a joint venture between the Winnipeg-based broadcaster and Montreal's Tele-Metropole, said yesterday it will spend the money over seven years on Canadian programming if the CRTC approves its applications for a Quebec City broadcast license as well as licenses In Calgary and Edmonton; Quebec is the only province in which CanWest is not a player.

It owns stations in the rest of the country, except Group wants SHEILA McGOVERN THE GAZETTE The Non-Smokers' Rights Association, buoyed by the Supreme Court of Canada's decision to uphold an On-, tario law prohibiting pharmacies from selling cigarettes, figures it has the ammunition it needs to get a similar law here. The Quebec Order of Pharmacists would have no objection to such legis- lation, general director Alain Boisvert said yesterday, but the order seriously doubts that Ontario's law is good enough. On Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Larry Rosen, owner of the Sav-On Drug Mart chain. Rosen, backed by 600 other store-owners, wanted the court to strike down legislation imposed by the government that bans the sale of cigarettes on the premises of a pharmacy Francois Damphousse, spokesman for the Non-Smokers' Rights Association in Quebec, said the law sets an important precedent and should help non-smoking activists trying to persuade the Quebec government to introduce a similar ban here. $.

frm The government is looking at stricter controls on tobacco, but Damphousse said the issue of selling cigarettes in pharmacies has received little attention. The government has concentrated more on issues like guaranteeing smoke-free workplaces and preventing the sale of cigarettes to minors. Damphousse argues a ban would play an important role in changing attitudes. "People have the perception that if these products are sold in pharmacies, then they can't be bad for you," he said. A different approach However, it is likely the government will take no action until it hears from the order of pharmacists, which has been taking a different approach to getting smokes out of pharmacies.

Boisvert said the order believes the Ontario law is flawed because it deals specifically with premises. There are examples in Ontario of people getting around that law by opening boutiques "we call them tobacco shacks" just outside of their premises, Boisvert said. In Quebec, the order has taken a different route and is now involved in an Northstar system. ZCJL -igS3nrara WM Internal disciplinary hearing to determine if selling cigarettes violates the order's professional code, which forbids pharmacists from running businesses "incompatible with the honor, dignity or the exercise of their profession." Boisvert said the disciplinary committee which has been mulling the issues for several months is expected to rule on the issue in a matter of weeks, if not days. However, it is hard to say what it will decide, Boisvert said.

It could find the code, as it is now written, is too vague. If that's the case, he said, the order would rather the government allow it to rewrite its code and clearly specify that selling Cigarettes is incompatible. There are about 1,500 pharmacies in Quebec and only about half of them sell cigarettes, he said, and it is usually the big chain stores that do. And those large stores, who are members of the Quebec Association of Pharmacy Owners, have objected to bans in the past. Quebec pharmacies sell about $225 million worth of cigarettes every year, which represents 5 to 7 per cent of their total sales.

300 horsepower. Ferocious FINANCING FOR 36 MONTH LEASE Couche-Tard extends offer forSilcorp DOW JONES Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. said yesterday that its offer to purl chase all of the common shares of Sil-corp Ltd. will be extended until Oct. 21.

In a news statement, Couche-Tard said that, in all other respects, the original offer, which was mailed to holders of Silcorp's common shares Sept. 9, is unamended. The original expiry date was 19. Couche-Tard's offer is $16.50 a shard. Silcorp's board has rejected the offer, calling it "inadequate." Couche-Tard said it expects a notice of variation to be mailed to Silcorp shareholders on or before Oct.

1. Silcorp, based in Scarborough, operates 550 convenience stores in Ontario, western Canada and Michigan. Alimentation Couche-Tard of Laval operates convenience stores in Que: bee. styling. Dealers k'jse included.

Theratechnologies Inc. said it has named Jean de Grandpre as chairman and Andre de Villers as president and general manager. The company said de Grandpre replaces Terrance A. Mailloux as chairman. It said Mailloux, who has also stepped down as chief executive, will continue to serve as a member of the board.

Theratechnologies said de Grandpre has been a member of its board since the company's founding in October 1993. De Villers is a co-founder and principal shareholder in Theratechnologies, the company said. He has been president and director of research and development since December 1993, it added. A company spokesman said the chief executive post is being eliminated. Theratechnologies researches and develops health-care products.

Velan completes issue Montreal-based Velan Inc. said it has completed an issue of 6,402,000 subordinate voting shares at $16.50 a share. Velan said gross proceeds of the sale are about $105.6 million, of which about $9.6 million is from the exercise by the underwriters of an option to purchase 582,000 shares to cover over-allotments. It said it estimates net proceeds of about $100.3 million. The proceeds are to be used to repay bridge-loan debt it incurred to finance in part the repurchase of Velan shares held by Deutsche Babcock AG.

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