Times Colonist from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada • 3

Frimy, August 19 A3 Times Colonist MULE Cy' in, I "t''Pt Will) iinmuuimnLmm mmm wmmm wmmm mm wr. -junar wvxzrst? r-r-? -r Alcohol for first in seven sales up time years ANNE MUNROCANADtAN PRESS Workers continue building "tunnels to nowhere" following confusing Metro Toronto vote ic nnnrnvp M. M. pay for tracks (nn-Hnlntn nnnfttnlnv I i mnnail lino kaan confusion." lie has been However, the report cautioned that the figures are strictly sales and should not be confused with liquor consumption. The numbers are based on amounts sold in wine, liquor and brewery outlets.

The amount of alcohol downed by people who brew their own wine and beer along with bottles picked up at duty-free shops are not included, Statistics Canada said. The figures show Ontario held its. own as the heftiest retail market for wine, beer and spirit sales. A total of 875.6 million litres were sold overall in 1994-95. Quebec came next at 620 million litres.

The report also found: Different parts of Canada prefer different drinks. People in Yukon and the Northwest Territories buy the most spirits per capita while in Quebec they buy the least. The larg-, est per capital sales of wine are iff; Yukon, British Columbia and Quebec while Newfoundland and Saskatchewan have the lowest sales per person. Domestic alcohol sales fell faster than the imports over the last decade. Since 1984-85, sales of domestic wines have dropped 11.8 pef cent while sales of imported wines have gone up one per cent.

Imported beer sales jumped 95 per cent over the decade, while the sale of Canadian brands fell 4.4 per cent. The net income of liquor authorities, plus provincial government revenues from the sale of alcoholic beverages, rose to $3.2 billion. tiinnpls money spent on transportation projects that were never finished. In 1988, federal Auditor General Ken Dye sparked a huge controversy when he criticized several Nova Scotia projects that used federal and provincial money. Dye reported two bridges built near Dartmouth were never con nected to any roads.

This isn't even the first time On tario has spent money 'on a discarded subway line. Just after they took office over a year ago, provincial Conservatives killed a line that was supposed to run east and west through the city along Eglinton Avenue after about $95 million was spent. The city has already spent $30 million on the line, with the province picking up the rest of the $119 mil lion. It could cost another $170 mil lion to close out the project if it's killed. "complete "They will think this is usual for politicians not to know what the hell they are doing." Lastman had asked council for a commitment to finish building the new line just north of the city but the motion failed in a tie vote Wednesday.

That vote could have killed the subway line. But Dennis Flynn, one of 16 councillors who voted against the funding commitment, surprised everyone by voting in favor of finishing trackless tunnels that have already cost $1 19 million. "I was completely confused, completely thrown when this thing passed," said Lastman. But Flynn said it's wiser for the city to continue building empty tunnels than to fill in tunnels they've dug so far. "That would really be a waste of money." It wouldn't be the first time pub- Check Out Our Lowest Pregnant glue-sniffer quits hospital Times Colonist news services WINNIPEG A pregnant 22-year-old glue sniffer who is at the heart of a debate over fetal rights walked away Wednesday from the hospital where she was undergoing voluntary treatment, CBC Newsworld has reported.

Sue Coke of the Health Sciences Centre said the woman was in stable condition after undergoing treatment for withdrawal symptoms and went to stay with her sister in Winnipeg. Justice Perry Schulman of Court of Queen's Bench had committed the woman to hospital but his decision was later stayed by the Manitoba Court of Appeal. Environment minister out TORONTO Ontario's environment minister is the only person who will be out of the inner circle today when Premier Mike Harris shuffles his cabinet. Brenda Elliott will be replaced by Norm Sterling, the province's consumer and commercial relations minister, government sources said. Hepatitis victims sue MD TORONTO A neurologist is being sued on behalf of people allegedly infected with hepatitis from contaminated needles at six area clinics.

The statement of claim filed Thursday in Ontario Court's general division alleges that Dr. Ronald Wilson used improperly sterilized needles for electroencephalogram tests in the clinics. Public health authorities have linked 70 cases of the potentially fatal liver disease to the clinics. Drakes duck their mates WETASKIWIN, Alta. The Wetaskiwin chapter of Ducks Unlimited has abandoned an experiment to allow women to its annual fund-raising dinner and the gala Oct.

22 will be open to men only, says banquet chairman Neil Malloch. Attendance dropped from 200 to less than 160. Now that the dinner is back to its drakes-only format, Mal loch expects a crowd of about 250 to raise $20,000 tor Ducks Unlimited wetlands conservation projects. Bouchard rejects unity train EDMONTON Lucien Bouchard has turned down Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's plea for the Quebec premier to ride along with his counterparts on what has been dubbed the "unity train" due to media coverage in Quebec, Klein said Thursday. Search continues for downed pilot WHITEHORSE Searchers scoured the Iskut River Thursday for the pilot of a DC-4 cargo plane that crash-landed after an engine caught fire.

Pilot Don Bergren, 41, of White-horse escaped from the plane along with two other men after the Wednesday accident but disap peared. Co-pilot Dan Quaile, 27, and mechanic-engineer Stewart Clark, 36, also from Whitehorse, were picked up by mine workers. Parrott suspect appears in court TORONTO The man accused of killing an 1 1 -year-old Toronto girl will have a preliminary hearing Sept. 25. Frances Carl Rov.

38. chareed with first-degree murder in the 1986 death of Alison Parrott, appeared in court briefly on Thursday. Pilots' deal flies MISSISSAUGA, Ont Air Canada pilots have overwhelmingly approved a new three-year agreement. The Air Canada Pilots Association voted 93 per cent in favor of the deal. It includes a four-per-cent wage hike retroactive IS April 1995.

The Canadian Press OTTAWA A jump in the number of Canadians at the legal drinking age meant stronger liquor, beer and wine sales last year for the industry. Canadians consumed more than two billion litres of wine, liquor and beer as alcohol sales rose for the first time in seven years, said a Statistics Canada report released Thursday. But while more alcohol was sold, people were individually buying less of it. There were simply more adults in the population to buy the bottles, the federal agency said. "The adult population of Canada, aged 15 years and over, grew by 2.1 per cent from 1993-94," said analyst Jeannine D'Angelo.

Wine sales held steady at 10 litres per person. Liquor sales dropped to 5.4 litres from 5.6 litres. Beer sales fell to 86.5 litres from 87.1 litres. The decline in per capita sales continues a trend that began a decade ago. Howard Collins of the Brewers Association of Canada said the decline in beer drinking is probably due to three things.

"The Canadian population is aging and beer drinkers tend to be young adults," he said Thursday. "The second reason is lifestyle. People are looking at a healthier lifestyle and are drinking less." The third reason is taxes, he said. Provincial and federal taxes make up 53 per cent of the retail price of beer, compared with 19 per cent in the United States. Cloverdale 1 1 ininu 1 hstri LEVEL LOOKS, TEXTURES ANP PATTERNS, FOR ANY AREA OF YOUR HOME.

SUPER PRICES. but won't II I I Trackless tunnels have already cost 1 1 9 million but vote commits even more spending The Canadian Press TORONTO "If you're looking for logic, don't look to politicians." That's how one area legislator reacted to Toronto's decision to spend another $130 million digging two subway tunnels without approving money for laying track or building stations. "I wish I could explain it," said Mel Lastman, who called the vote the "strangest thing" he's seen during his quarter century as mayor of suburban North York. Lastman, who's been promoting the extended line through his area for years, said Thursday he expects people will react to the decision with Suspect: Lived on Saltspring Harbor in the U.S.A. so my family and I can still be as one and only a ferry ride away." He has maintained a common-law relationship with a woman for most of the time he has spent in Victoria and on Saltspring Island, he said.

Gervasoni, known as the Weasel in his native New Jersey, is wanted by Florida officials to stand trial for the 1986 strangulation of his girlfriend Paula Pasciak. Her body was found stuffed underneath a bed in a trailer the couple shared with Pasciak's mother in a small town near Disneyworld. The mother thought her daughter had gone travelling until the smell led her to look under the bed. Pasciak's body was there. Her feet and hands were bound, and a blue pyjama top had been used as a gag.

Gervasoni had been living in Canada for years under the assumed name of Gordon Neil Mclntyre when the television show Unsolved Mysteries did a feature in 1993 on the Florida killing. The show led to CrimeStoppers tips. Gervasoni, who had lived for seven years on Saltspring Island and was working as a painter, was arrested. In 1994, then immigration minister Sergio Marchi declared Gervasoni a danger, because of previous convictions in the U.S. for armed robbery and escaping custody.

That cleared the way for deportation. Gervasoni sought refugee status-claiming he was worried about being raped by AIDS-infected convicts in Florida prisons. On Thursday, he said the 34 months he has spent at Wilkinson Road were "good for me compared to the journey and battle I've yet to come upon in my near future." In his attempt to stay in Canada, Gervasoni tried to have Victoria charges of sexual assault, harassment and firearms charges against him reinstated. Authorities had dropped them to speed deportation. mm wi 100 NYLON.

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