Star-Phoenix from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada • 14

The StarPhoenix Wednesday, July 21, 1993 PAGE B4 Pools lose battle over barley sales BUSINESS EDITOR PAUL MARTIN ACTING BUSINESS EDITOR JOE KNYCHA Phone 664 8231 Fax 684 -0437 Many farm groups were angered by Agriculture Minister Charlie Mayers decision last month to give individuals and private grain companies the right to sell directly to buyers However, some farm groups argue the wheat board has missed millions of dollars worth of sales the S. They also say farmers should have a right to decide who they sell their crop to. He said the judge did rule in favor of his clients on the issue of jurisdiction "If theres an appeal it goes to Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, he said If we had lost on that point we would have to move to the Federal Court if we were proceeding further. The changes to the wheat board are to take effect Aug. 1.

gued the change ordered by the federal cabinet should have gone before the House of Commons. In a written decision. Justice Eugene Scheibel of the Court of Queens Bench ruled cabinet has the authority to make the change. Beke said his clients are deciding whether they will appeal the decision REGINA (CP) The three Prairie wheat pools lost their bid Tuesday to stop the federal government from removing the Canadian Wheat Board's control over barley sales to the United States. The pools took Ottawa to court over its decision to remove barley marketing from the wheat board.

John Beke, lawyer for the pools, ar Discovery may define diamond field borders 1 LOCAL QUARTERLY REPORTS SOUGHT: Saskatchewan should join five other provinces and the federal government providing its citizens with quarterly financial statements, says the Association of Saskatchewan Taxpayers Four months have passed since the Romanow administration brought down its last budget, spokesperson Troy Lamgan said Tuesday, adding taxpayers are being kept in the dark as to whether or not revenues and expenditures are in line with the governments balanced budget plan Of particular importance is whether the governments tax increases are bringing the revenues they were projected to, he said The effects of those taxes are too important to be left for semi-annual or annual public assessment, he added. DEN DONE PROUD: The Marketing Den of Saskatoon led the way the Advertising Agency Association of Saskatchewans first annual awards program. The company won in five categories It won for best brochure, best campaign, best newspaper ad, best outdoor program and best sales promotion. Phoenix Advertising of Regina placed second, winning in three categories. McKay Goettler and Associates of Saskatoon placed third, with winners for best annual report and best direct mail campaign He found enough intriguing patterns to fly a series of low-level surveys that offered a more detailed picture.

The anomalies Hoffman identified were the bulls-eye patterns, just like those found by Uranerz, Janse said The number of potential targets is in the double-digit range. We may be at the northern edge of the kimberlite field from the Uranerz find, or it may be a separate cluster. Kimberlite pipes, so-called because of their shape, are the host rock for diamonds and often appear clusters of as many as 100 distinct bodies The discovery of the three diamonds this week in a sample of glacial float southwest of Hoffmans staked targets bodes well for the drilling. Janse suspects the material was bulldozed from the northeast edge of the Molanosa Arch by the movement of the glaciers It suggests the targets staked for drilling by Consolidated are, in fact, diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes. Felix Freeman is an analyst with Burns Fry in Toronto.

He has researched the diamond play Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories. Its been known for some time that Uranerz and Cameco found diamonds at Fort a la Corne. It would have been surprising if someone did not find diamonds further north, he said Tuesday. Janse, and other consultants, say much work must still be done. "It confirms there are diamondi-ferous kimberlites up there, but it doesnt yet put them on par with Fort a la Corne, said one independent consultant who requested anonymity.

Uranerz found the location of the pipe and extracted 300 diamonds What Consolidated has found is ankle height by comparison Hoffman says the company is now redrilling the best potential targets with a larger-diameter drill to get a better sample. The work will continue throughout the summer. By Dan Zakreski of The StarPhoenix The pieces in the Saskatchewan diamond puzzle are falling into place with the discovery this week of the precious gems the La Ronge area. Consolidated Pine Channel Gold Corp of Vancouver found the stones two microdiamonds less than one millimetre diameter) and one chip off a macrochamond in a sample from the southwest corner of a geological formation known as the Molanosa Arch. The formation extends a half-moon shape from south of La Ronge to west of Prince Albert The find has the potential to define the borders of the Saskatchewan diamond fields.

Australian diamond hunter Bram Janse, on contract with Consolidated Pine Channel, passed through Saskatoon Tuesday on route to La Ronge. He came to Saskatchewan to assess the companys samples taken from its recent drill program The Consolidated find is significant because its geologically consistent with the Uranerz-Cameco project at Fort a la Corne, about 100 kilometres south. The companies have recovered almost 300 gem quality diamonds since starting their drilling program in 1991 "Uranerz spent $2 million over two years and identified 70 anomalies (possible diamond sources). They drilled 15 of the targets and they were all kimberlite this is unheard of, Janse said Consolidated got into the game earlier this year when president Dale Hoffman came across a research paper by Saskatchewan Energy and Mines geologist Malcolm Gent. The paper suggested that conditions similar to Fort a la Corne existed further north The idea captured Hoffmans imagination and he began studying airborne surveys of the area near La Ronge in search of the distinctive bulls-eye pattern that signifies a possible kimberlite pipe REGIONAL LANG APPOINTMENT: WINNIPEG (CP) Former federal Liberal cabinet minister Otto Lang is the new president and chief executive of Centra Gas Manitoba the company announced Tuesday.

Lang, a Saskatchewan MP first elected in 1968, held the justice, transport and energy portfolios as a minister in Pierre Trudeaus government. Most recently, the 61-year-old lawyer has chaired the Transport Institute at the University of Manitoba. Lang joined Centra Manitoba's board last year and replaces Garry Hoffman as its top executive. Centra Manitoba, the provinces only natural gas utility, is owned by Westcoast Energy Inc. SASKATCHEWAN PORTFOLIO Welders are busy installing the wash booth, part of a sophisticated paint line to increase the capacity at the Flexi-Coil Ltd plant north of Saskatoon When up and running this fall, the line will be the third operating in the facility One of the lines is devoted exclusively to tanks for the companys air seeder, while the other is for remaining lines of equipment The newest line will service general farm equipment manufactured by the firm.

(SP Photo by Gord Waldner) Rising deficit challenges Campbell to keep pledge to baance budget Northern Telecom awarded $2-million SaskTel contract Northern Telecom has won a $2-mil-hon SaskTel contract to supply transmission and switching equipment to put northern Saskatchewan on the so-called electronic highway. The equipment, to be installed in northeastern Saskatchewan, replaces the existing analog system with a digital network and contributes to Sask-Tels northern service modernization program And excise tax revenues were lower because of lower domestic sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Overall, revenues were down by $3 9 billion over the same two-month period last year. On the plus side, the department said program spending was slightly lower this year because of elimination of the family allowance and its replacement by the new child tax benefit Lower interest charges on the federal debt also helped to reduce spending In the first two months total revenues fell to $14 89 billion, down from $18 81 billion Total spending was $23 2 billion, down from $23 5 billion in the first two months of 1992-93 Campbell inherited from Brian Mul-roney would still leave an $8-billion deficit by 1997-98. The Finance Department cautioned Tuesday that the numbers can fluctuate early the fiscal year, and it takes at least four months of data to get a real assessment of how the year is going Finance said the rise in the deficit was largely due to more efficient operations at Revenue Canada Faster processing of income tax refunds this year cut net tax revenues in April and May, but the total income tax take for the year shouldnt be affected There was also a drop revenues from import duties, which are steadily falling under terms of the Canada-U S.

free-trade deal. OTTAWA (CP) Prime Minister Kim Campbell got a reminder Tuesday of how tough it may be to keep her promise to balance the books five years The Finance Department issued figures showing the combined deficit for April and May had jumped to $8 3 billion, up by $3 6 billion from the same two months last year. The 1993-94 fiscal year began April I Campbell has promised to a lay out a plan before she calls an election this fall to show how she would eliminate the deficit which was $35 5 billion last year in five years The plan was expected to be a key topic at a federal cabinet meeting Tuesday. The fiscal projections that northern telecom 1 MARKET WATCH SHARES UP: TORONTO (CP) Share prices returned to the plus side in Toronto on Tuesday, while New York managed a gam despite renewed talk of inflation The Toronto Stock Exchanges 300 composite index rose 8 40 points to close at 3,876 14, following a drop of almost 84 points over the previous four sessions. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9 50 points to close at 3,544 78.

In New York, the market started lower after S. Federal Reserve Board chair Alan Greenspan told a banking subcommittee that the central bank will raise interest rates if inflation seems to be rising Inflation and higher interest rates erode the value of fixed income securities like bonds They also eat away at corporate profits, which can hurt stock prices. Greenspan also said the Fed had cut its predictions for 1993 economic growth, another point that didnt sit well with investors, said Michael Metz, investment strategist at Oppenheimer and Co. in New York. The big question now is whether Wall Street has been too optimistic about earnings prospects for the rest of the year and 1994, he said Its a time for reflection and reassessment here and I think you'll see that in this choppy, erratic market.

However, the market rebounded to give New York a positive end to the day. In Toronto, oil and gas stocks, which had been dragging down the index, reversed course and posted a marginal gain of 0 04 per cent. Sliding gas, oil stocks prompt mutual fund sales Digital networks allow voice, data and video communications to be transmitted across digital telephone lines or through the air, said SaskTel project manager Rick Gibson The Northern Telecom equipment will dramatically improve the quality and reliability of Sasktels northern service, Gibson said. The project also brings SaskTel closer to its goal of becoming 100 per cent digital by the end of 1995 Digital-based services will be available to La Ronge, Stanley Mission and Southend SaskTels northeastern customers now have access to the electronic highway, said Gary Donahee, president of Northern TeleCom Canada Ltd. The global digital network allows for advanced features and services such as video conferencing, he added tion, they will bolt." Starita is philosophical about the rush for the door by some investors.

They were not prepared to understand the market. Besides, many have shifted over to Royal Trusts Canadian Special Growth Fund, which specializes in small capitalization issues, he said In the six months up to June 30, the Royal Trust Energy Fund had chalked up a gain of about 75 per cent before falling back recently. some investors, especially those who opted for mutual funds dealing the oil patch Paul Starita, president and managing partner of Royal Trust Investment Services Inc says redemptions in the Royal Trust Energy Fund so far this month have cut $50 million out of its $1S0 million base We encourage people to be very nimble, he said Then there is another group what he describes as scalded cat exits. At the first sign of any correc TORONTO (CP) Falling oil and gas stocks have prompted investors to sell some of their holdings in energy-based mutual funds, many of which had dazzling returns until recent weeks The slide in the oil and gas sector has been under way since the beginning of the month The Toronto Stock Exchanges oil and gas index has dropped about 11 per cent so far in July, compared with a 52 per cent gam in the first six months of the year. The sudden turnaround has spooked by David Waisglass Gordon Coultharl Farcus dips to 26-year low Bank rate Dale Patterson of The Canadian Press TORONTO From the giddy lows following the Second World War to frightening highs of the early 80s, the Bank of Canada rate has set a standard for nearly 60 years The bank rate was first issued by the central bank on Mar.

11, 1935. It was at 2 5 per cent then and remained that way until Feb 8, 1944, when it fell to 1 5 per cent. The rate remained at that level the lowest history until Oct 17, 1950, when it went up to two per cent. From there it slowly climbed throughout the years, reaching a peak of 21 24 per cent on Aug 6, 1981 week drop occurred soon after Oct 22, 1992 when the rate fell 1 57 percentage points to 8 26 per cent from 9 83 per cent These days, the bank rate is set each week at one-quarter percentage point above the average yield on 90-day government treasury bills sold at auction to financial institutions. In the old days of the fixed rate, things were different.

"The rate was changed not because of any specific event, but as a confirmation of what was happening in the marketplace, says Guy Theriault, a spokesperson for the Bank of Canada The rate confirmed market trends The rate dipped Tuesday to 4 53 per cent down from 4 58 last week. The rate is at its lowest level since it was 4 5 per cent on Sept. 27, 1967. Other significant rates and dates. Last at 4 25 per cent on Dec.

6, 1965, Last at four per cent on Nov. 22, 1964, Last at 3 5 per cent on Aug. 10, 1963 The bank rate has been issued on a weekly basis since Mar. 10, 1980 Originally issued on Thursdays, the day of the setting was changed to Tuesdays on Nov. 24, 1992 The biggest jump on record took place on Oct 1, 1992, when the rate rose 1 93 percentage points from to 7 62 per cent from 5 69 per cent Its biggest one-.