Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 11, 1978, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg Effiee City facing higher property taxes tier in Early january to expect Only million because of a shortfall in provincial income tax last years Grant totalled to make up this differ Steen said the City will have to increase the rate of Cut expenditures fur ther or find alternative 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 climb by about nine Points to 72 Mills on april tagging an extra to the tax Bill for civic purposes on a House assessed at an administrative review of civic service vacancies with an Eye to their Elimina Tion could Lead to a full scale attrition program by the Steen layoffs would be a last resort but Are still a he the provincial govern ment announcement nullifies three weeks of re Pencil by councils five committees saw erased from the cites record million spending continued 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 of Here it the which nor Mally funds 100 per cent of operating costs at Assini Boine has promised less than the City budgeted Murcier 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 he 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 for regional Street Mil lion towards the inner cily health for regional for the Winnipeg convention Centre and for City Weed layoffs Tough decision to make Macmaster continued Par mental employees people hired on a week week 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 combined 39 per manent 67 term 15 contract employees and 21 departmental employees lost their for a total of renewable resources and transportation services will lose 93 employees while North Ern 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 Mac master expects that Between 20 and 25 new jobs will come open in his departments in the next 60 Days with the possibility of As Many As 40 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 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 com ing in to see each one seemed to have a different direction they wanted the communities to Ken Macmaster 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 Laid off Are employed with the government air mamas 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 Northern Man Power Extension lands and surveys and resources Many layoffs Are the result of the amalgamation of the departments of renewable resources and transportation services and Northern affairs which goes into effect March others foreshadow changes future changes in the work the departments have been doing in the Macmaster says he intends to upgrade programs such As local govern ment services and Northern employment services while cutting Back programs such a Northern development manpower and Extension he said his department is currently re viewing the Canad Manitoba North lands agreements and he has informed the Federal minister of Northern affairs they will be proposing new directions for the program when officials from the two Levels of govern ment meet for discussions in no specific plans for the North lands agree ment have been formulated he but indicated he personally would favor mov ing towards 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 election that cutbacks in the civil service would be by he agree 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 took Lyon also recalled that during the election he had warned contract employees that any person who received a Job because he car ried 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 v v v f photo by Gerry Stonewall residents look at the burned out remains of the towns but in the meantime a number of alternative Are United Church which was destroyed by fire Early being considered for replacement Cost of the Church is Frazer said a new Church May be built on the same site in the near estimated at Jelinek claims 14 spies in soviet embassy staff Book closed on vote abuses Ottawa up the controversy Over soviet spies in Canada bubbled up again Friday with new allegations that 14 russian embassy personnel Are acting As intelligence agents for the soviet secret progressive conservative my Otto Jelinek released a list of soviet diplomats in Ottawa he said Are working As intelligence Jelinek distributed the names to the government and to reporters and said the information came from Reli Able sources indirectly connected with the ramps Security there was no immediate confirmation or denial of the charge by the Deputy prime minister Allan Maceachen told reporters he is neither brushing off the charges or getting excited about surely the Security ser vice is on their toes and aware of what Jelinek is saying in the House of com Maceachen Jelinek demanded in the commons that the govern ment review the status of All soviet re placements be thoroughly screened and that travel per mits for soviet diplomats now in the country be can celled pending an i Vestiga continued woman jailed two years continued it was then 6 and Sinclair went Home for a Crown attorney Doug Abra said that after Reading psychiatric and medical reports on the it was difficult not to be sym a he said her drinking problem had been compounded by marital problems and other family but he said that by setting a fire in such a establishment a Rooming Sinclair was inviting he asked county court judge Thomp son to consider deterring others from com mitting similar acts in imposing he noted that such offences in the past have resulted in sentences ranging up to 15 but he added that he want Sug Gesting anything so harsh for the defence counsel Earl Solomon asked for a term of probation accompanied by a heavy he said that would be sufficient rence to the the act of throwing the burning newspaper into the building want she was so saddened she want aware of what she was he said that her Case be one to include deterrence to others As an element of jail would be of no Benefit to but judge Thompson said a period of incarceration was he also noted that psychiatric reports showed Sinclair was not psychotic and that the Only cure for her drinking problem would be an extended period of treatment for both alcoholism and any term More than two years less a Day would mean serving time in and judge Thompson said he didst want her to be so far removed from familiar Terri tory and her in addition to the jail he imposed a term of 18 months probation and ordered that she receive any necessary treatment for her including getting Hospital Crous 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 docs 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 Murcier 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 Genera 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 Lyon said the provinces chief electoral Jack had sent former pre Mier de Schreyer a report last year that labelled the Section of the act covering corporate donations As am he said Reeves had recommended the Section either be repealed or but no action was the province would be belter off with no election expense legislation rather than continue with the cur rent said the Premier of All the they really Are a dogs i think most of the Politi Cal parties realize some of the ambiguities have to be cleaned certainly we have to Amend the act before the next just is unworkable in the present Lyon said he would be pleased if some amendments to the legislation were Possi ble at the forthcoming ses Sion of the Cabinet members hear Manitoba gripes president of the Organiza and urged an i depth analysis to see How serious the problems of some producers the Bureau also called for an end to 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 have risen about 30 per cent during the past three years and Farmers want an in crease from to per Tho 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 and Hall also said if any possibility of shortage of Energy action must be taken to ensure that there is no shortage for food production or for the production of the feed and control chemicals continued that Are so vital for Agricula the curtailment of re search by agriculture Canada was and Hall said the Bureau finds it completely unacceptable that the government should impose financial restraints in this the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce told the representatives that rightly or wrongly Many Small Busin esses believe that govern ment is too Large and grow is inefficient and Over the government share of the economic pie is too big and an excessive Drain on funds which could be used for investment and Job 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 re commended were the Polar Gas the defence re search establishment an announcement 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 Thompson reacts to layoffs with bitterness and dismay by Bob to wkly Thomp so based civil servants reactions to the Manitoba government staff cuts Friday ranged from deep disappointment to bitter Ness and a 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 visitors were welcomed with the Wel come to our there were 34 layoffs in the Northern affairs department in Carol director of the departments training service said weve got to take a serious look at this business of unloading civil servants after every she and three of her 10member staff got their Pink slip Layoff notices by registered mail Friday she discounted much of government claims that Cost cutting was the Only reason for the Lay if they have come to us last fall and told us to get to id believe they were Seri Ous about saving they left most of the service con fused and left us sitting on our seats Cor the last four which has been costly and in 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 Secu Rity to make it another seven year term pm Walt claimed his political associations figured in his Larry director of Field worker training with North Ern manpower was Cut with his staff of he has been an 11year permanent employee with the he noted that hed joined the service under one tory administration and was departing under describing himself As Lonpo Hodgins said he was sorry to have to abandon his work at a time when changes in the re Mote communities were result ing from he and his staff Are responsible for training 90 Field Hodgins is one of Thompsons senior civil he said no body has talked to him about being Laid off until be 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 Board 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 Mcl of who has flown hours Over the past 25 years All of them in Bush coun try 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 he fought the progressive conservative nomination in last Falls another Pilot Cut was Gib of flin one of Canadas Best who has flown in the 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 fight ing operation for this summer to a British Columbia 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 there Are also reductions in Thompsons air Mechanic staff and the two dispatchers Are to be Laid one will be replaced on june a supervisor 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 1967 Centennial Cross country race from the Rocky mountains to ;