WESTERN CANADA HURT BY INTERNATIONAL FORCES Western Canada's resource-based economy is being hurt by international market forces and there is little Ottawa can do about it, Finance Minister Michael Wilson said. "If you can tell me how we can get the international energy price up and how we can get the price for copper up and how we can get the price for wheat up, then we will listen," Wilson told the House of Comnons Finance Committee. Although under pressure from oil companies and wheat farmers for help in battling depressed commodity prices, Wilson said it has to be recognized the area was a "prisoner of market forces outside the boundaries of this country." Wilson, appearing before the committee to discuss the government's spending estimates released earlier this week, said the government is doing what it can in the region, citing more than 3.5 billion dlrs in aid for western agriculture. "Those resources are a reflection of very real concerns on our part in dealing with a very difficult problem," Wilson said in response to questions about management of the economy from opposition party members. He said the long term answer for depressed regions of the country was reaching a free trade pact with the United States, which he claimed would improve the outlook for Western Canada.