Headlines from this weeks SPEC

March 10, 2002

Five RCMP patrol 800 km of shoreline for drugs
Gilles Gagne

CARLETON - Five Royal Canadian Mounted Police must monitor for drug about 800 kilometers of coast in the Gaspe Peninsula and Magdalen Islands. This squad must at the same time keep an open eye on a few very small airports in the back country, because dealers can use them to import drugs.
If the regions of North Shore and Lower St. Lawrence are added, about 15 policemen must cover more than 3,500 kilometers of coast, and a impressive number of small airports serving the villages of the Lower North Shore and outfitters located in the back country.

Searching for granite and marble deposits in Port-Daniel-Gascons
Gilles Gagne

PORT-DANIEL - A Quebec City based company, Groupe Polycor International, is currently evaluating the size of granite and marble deposits in the Port-Daniel-Gascons area, as well as in the Paspebiac sector.

It is too early to talk about commercial exploitation of the deposits, but Polycor has nevertheless started to sign agreements with some land owners, where deposits were clearly identified. One agreement was signed with the Municipality of Port-Daniel-Gascons.

Procedures to locate the call centre were transparent, says Vision-Quebec
Bonaventure's proposal was not sent to ACI, according to the mayor

Gilles Gagne
CAPLAN - Vision-Quebec executive vice president, Claude Boivin, insists the procedures leading to the choice of Caplan for ACI Telecentrics' call centre was fair and above board. Caplan was picked after a selection process that gave an equal opportunity to all municipalities interested in landing the call centre. Mr. Boivin thus answers to Bonaventure Mayor, Serge Arsenault, who believes the proposal submitted by his municipality was not sent to ACI Telecentrics' director of operations, Dana Olson. The call centre will create 200 jobs this year, and 300 more by 2004.