Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 11, 1978, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free March province cuts Back on Aid to Winnipeg sources of which could include higher parking meter other user fees and if the full Burden were placed on property tax pay the Mill rate would of Lamb by about nine Points to 72 Mills on april tagging extra to the tax Bill for purposes on a House at an administrative review of civic service vacancies an Eye to their Elimina Tion could Lead to a full scale program by the Steen layoffs would be a last resort but Are still a he three weeks of re Pencil scrutiny by councils five committees saw million erased from the cites record million spending were just going to have to go Back to Sharpen our pencils and make More Steen the five committee chair men who also attended the meeting were extremely disappointed that All their Progress had been completely wiped he the mayor said they be surprised after what Treyve been Reading about what this government has been doing and their warnings of things to their response was 0h Here it the which nor Mally funds 100 per cent of continued operating costs at Assini Boine has promised less than the City budgeted Mercier said this amount is proportionately equivalent to Budge tary reductions being established for the provincial Parks system in Steen said Council will be forced to decide Between reduced service at the Park and zoo or higher taxes to make up the the provincial govern ment demurred on another request from the City to take Over its deficit Ridden ambulance As the Ontario government agreed to Steen we were Down on our bloody Knees asking them to take it the provincial ambulance Grant totals this up from also unanswered was a re quest for speedy approval of a bylaw allowing the City to Levy taxes on the Sale of liquor and which has been languishing in Provin Cial hands since Council endorsed the move last Mercier did agree to introduce an amendment to the City of Winnipeg act in the Forth coming legislative session allowing Council an Exten Sion on the March 31 deadline for setting the Mill Council has until april 10 to do so without losing Grants approved include million regional Street Mil lion towards the inner City health for regional for the Winnipeg convention Centre and for City Weed outstanding Are Grants to offset Hospital debt charges and for the dutch Elm Dis ease control Hoover proposal revealed Stonewall residents look at the burned out remains of the towns United Church which was destroyed by fire Early Frazer said a new Church May be built on the same site in the near but in the meantime a number of alternative locations Are being considered for replacement Cost of the Church is estimated at Chicago a the Chicago Tribune reported Friday that the late Fri director Edgar Hoover suggested 10 years ago that the Fri should try to neutralize Black comedian Dick Gregory and also pro posed alerting the under world to criticism Gregory made about the crime Syndi in a confidential memo Randum dated May Hoover told the head of the Bis Chicago office that Gregory had been quoted As saying Syndicate hoods Are living All they arc the filthiest snakes that exist on this Macmaster Calls layoffs Tough decision woman jailed two years for fatal apartment fire Mary who set a Rooming House afire two years ago because a Friend failed to deliver some and killed two men As a has been sentenced to two years less a Day in jail for causing death by Crimi Nal a 37yearold housekeeper with a serious drinking last sep tember was convicted of two counts of causing death by criminal negligence and two counts of causing bodily harm by criminal negligence As a result of the fire at 610611 Spence evidence introduced at the three Day trial was that sin who then lived at 598 Spence became angry after a Friend she had been visiting in the Rooming House failed to return after she had Given him for she left the Rooming but on her Way out found a piece of newspaper just out Side the she lit and threw the burning paper Back inside under a Stair it started a fire that caused extensive Interior damage and killed two two others suffered smoke Sherman upset at proposal continued increase to go into effect april but want retroactivity to when their last contract referring to the crust letter Sher Man termed it a not very constructive i am still calling on the medical profess Ion to work with us and to help us show leadership to the entire province in a positive and constr Tiye the minister he said he would be dismayed if crusts letter were to produce a significant number of resignations from and it would concern me very much if a major portion of our doctors in fact opted out worse if their was an actual mass opt Sherman said he is calling on the Manitoba medical profession to tighten their belts and to suffer with the rest of us rather than throw up their hands and walk the health minister said most sectors of the Economy will find they have to cooperate with the Lyon administration during this restraint which we All have to work under until the Economy of this province is Back on the the president of the medical association could not be reached for comment on his own letter earlier this in which he said doctors Are falling Back financially All the time As their costs increase More than their crust was reported away on a Winter in the Winnipeg area the number of people Laid off in Northern affairs and renewable resources and transportation services totalled 29 and included eight permanent employ nine term employees and 11 departmental employees people hired on a the other layoffs were scattered across the sixteen people were Laid off in the three in Lac Dubonnet and one or two in each of 21 other in the two departments 39 permanent fi7 term 45 contract employees and 21 departmental employees lost their for a total of renew Able resources and transportation services will lose 93 employees while Northern affairs loses the layoffs in Macmasters departments account for about half of the 373 layoffs announced by the provincial government this Premier Sterling Lyon has said there Are Likely More to employees who have been Laid off will be Given first priority As new jobs Macmaster expects that Between 20 and 25 new jobs will come open in his departments in the next 00 Days with the possibility of As Many As 10 in the next he promised the layoffs wont mean a drop in the level of service the two departments provide to Northern adding in i continued believe the people Are going to be better in talking to people in the communities in particular it is a surprising reaction that people Felt there were too Many people coming in to see each one seemed to have a different direction they wanted the communities to its a the people Are saying they would prefer to generate their own ideas and let us be in a supportive an encouraging people have a fair idea of where they want to go and what they want to Twenty nine of those off Are employed with the government air who said there was no question in my mind that we were overstaffed and Over air planed in the air said that five of the 18 planes the government owns will Likely be others Laid off include clerical staff and personnel in adm Nistra Northern manpower Extension lands and surveys and resources Many layoffs Are the result of the Amalga mation of the departments of renew Able resources and transportation services and Northern affairs which goes into effect March others foreshadow changes in the work the departments have been doing in the Macmaster says he intends to upgrade programs such As local government services and Northern employment services while cutting Back programs such As Northern development manpower and Extension he said his department is currently reviewing the Canad Manitoba North lands agreements and he has informed the Federal minister of Northern affairs they will be propos ing new directions for the program when officials from the two Levels of government meet for discussions in no specific plans for the North lands agreement have been formulated he but indicated he personally would favor moving to wards More hardware programs such As sewer and and construction of roads and Premier Sterling Lyon told his weekly press conference his party had promised during the elec Tion that cutbacks in the civil service would be by he agree the government had broken this he said the government had been forced to adopt methods of cutting Back the civil service other than attrition because of the Large deficit they found when they look Lyon also recalled that during the election he had warned contract employees that any person who received a Job because he carried an nip card need fear for his the government is trying to get it Down to a situation where the bulk of the civil service of Manitoba Are dedicated Lyon in recent years there have been some acquisitions of staff who Haven found they had too much to he said that even within the Mani Toba government employees association Many admitted Dur ing and after the election that areas of existed that had to be cleaned up in order to restore civil service he there will be a Good number of people leaving the civil service who Are doing meaning Ful work but for whom there is not the financial resources to continue their it was impossible to give employees any More notice than Treyve he because the Prepa ration of government spending Esti mates has been squeezed into a Short period and is Only now nearing com since the governments Fis Cal year ends March the layoffs had to be effective before that Thompson angry Over staff cuts research Centre scrapped continued come Greasley the finished plans for the Centre Are sitting on a local architects he the new air command Headquarters will not help the Winnipeg builders through the depression there now experiencing be cause of the delay Between the announce ment and he actual Start of he even if the plans for the research Centre Are Guay said he could not Promise Winnipeg would have but he said he would fight to have it the new air command Headquarters is to be located on the West Side of the air replacing Barracks on the East Side which were built in 1941 and Are now being used As by Bob Lowery Thompso based civil ser vants reactions to the Mani Toba government staff cuts Friday ranged from deep disappointment to bitterness and receptionist at the main door of the new multimillion Dollar provincial office building said she had never seen so Many sad in several offices where the cuts were Visi tors were welcomed with the Welcome to our there were 31 layoffs in the Northern affairs depart ment in Carol director of the departments training ser vice said weve got to take a serious look at this business of unloading civil servants after every elec she and three of her 10member staff got their Cabinet hears Winnipeg beefs the Boom or bust cycles of income for agricultural and suggested that producers be assured a measure of stability in their returns to cover increased a Stop loss level should also be introduced to avoid incentives for Over the wheat act again came under criticism by the wheat production prices have risen about 30 per cent during the past three years and Farmers want an increase from to per the increase to the consumer would be less than one cent per loaf of said taxation and Energy were major Points in the bureaus various taxation reforms were Sug and Hall also said if any possibility of shortage of Energy action must be taken to ensure there is no shortage for food production or for the production of the feed and control chemicals that Are so continued vital for the curtailment of research by Agri culture Canada was and Hall said the Bureau finds it completely unacceptable that the government should impose financial restraints in this the Manitoba Chambers of com Merce told the representatives that rightly or wrongly Many Small businesses believe that government is too Large and is inefficient and the government share of the economic pie is too big and an excessive Drain on funds which could be used for investment and Job Crea and Small businesses Arent recognized by the Ken spokesman for the suggested the government undertake a thorough Cost Benefit Analy Sis of Many programs and establish better monetary other programs which the Chambers of Commerce recommended were the Polar Gas the defence re search establishment an announce ment cancelling the research project was made later in the regional air and spokesmen for the organization also reminded the government that National Unity was not just a language iss and care should be taken to look at economic problems of the nation As Ken spokesman for the associated tenants action defined the housing crisis in Winni and said the available housing was practically Zero in the inner funds would be available to Provin Cial governments for housing if and when the provincial governments were Able to show that part of the financial Cojaiu fitment would be used to solve the housing Pink slip Layoff notices by registered mail Friday she discounted much of government claims that Cost cutting was the Only reason for the if they have come to us last fall and told us to get to id believe they were serious about saving they left most of the service confused and left us sitting on our seats for the last four which has been costly and in product the head of another Branch who want Cut predicted layoffs on such a scale would mean the end of the career civil he said there int enough Security to make it another seven year term Walt claimed his political associations figured in his Lay Larry director of Field worker training with Northern manpower was Cut with his staff of he has been an 11year per manent employee with the he noted that hed joined the service under one tory administration and was de parting under describing himself As non Hodgins said he was sorry to have to abandon his work at a time when changes in the Remote communities were resulting from he and his staff Are responsible for training 90 Field Hodgins is one of Thomp sons senior civil he said nobody has talked to him about being Laid off until he got his Pink at the Thompson government air service pilots were smarting from the in their waiting room there were Only seven names left on the pilots Hoard a Cut of All agreed that the layoffs were based strictly on seniority but some of Northern Manitoba most experienced Bush pilots were among those heading the list was de of who has flown hours Over he past 25 years of them in Bush country or in the he had Only three years seniority with the John another Bush Pilot with 21 years of flying was caught in the same Man he fought the Progress Ive conservative nomination in last Falls another Pilot Cut was Gib of flin one of Canadas Best who has flown in North for 11 he said it would be hard to know where to find a Job in Northern Manitoba even though its my Home and where i want to the pilots found it hard to understand Why the province has contracted some of the fire fighting operation for this summer to a British co Lumbia they said the profits for the contract would go outside the province and the pilots were from the fire fighting had been done by the government ser there Are also reductions in Thompsons air Mechanic staff and the two dispatchers Are to be Laid one will be replaced on june a super visor said he keep up with the paper Well have to bundle it up and sent it off to he Mcechern was the Lead paddler in the Manitoba Canoe which won the Centennial Cross country race from the Rocky mountains to in that race All canadians were paddling there was spirit we must not lose our Faith in this he Lyon denounced for inaction on possible voting violations Lyon told reporters the possible violations involved two political parties and 51 candidates in last october provincial they included 39 candidates who failed to file details of their election expenses and donations within 60 Days of the As prescribed by the All have since been though some Are still income the new democratic and conservative which failed to file annual audited financial statements for which should have been turned in by the nip has since filed its but the pcs have 15 including who could conceivably have been in Viola Tion of a provision of the act covering corporate Dona the 15 candidates received More than 40 corporate donations during the continued election illegal under the Lyon did not mention numerous other possible of including those involving about a dozen Candi dates who exceeded the Legal spending limit during the election of 65 cents per As he did not include an apparent violation by which neglected to re port All of the out province workers it recruited for the election Campaign As required by the under the penalties for candidates or parties failing to file returns can be As High As a the penalty for accepting a corporate can Lead to an la giving up his legislative seat and not being Able to seek Public of fice again for eight it was unclear whether Defeated candidates in last Falls election could still at tempt to overturn the elec Tion of the Winner by pointing to a violation of the donation one legislative act limits appeals to 60 while another does a government spokesman said later if an unsuccessful candidate decided to Chal Lenge an election citing one of the he would probably have to go to court to see if he could go to in a statement distributed at his news Lyon said he had been asked by Mercier to make a decision on the various possible violations because As one of Many involved he was not a totally disinterested the Premier said the actor Ney general did not have knowledge of the corporate donations received by his Campaign he ordered them returned last month after he was notified of their possible said ;