Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 14, 1978, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg of gift wits fit july join in claim Manitoba Cabinet ministers Sidney Spluvak and Norma Price banded together thursday to Forther win nip claim that the size of Manitoba civil service has increased by 180 since the conservatives took office last Sidney Green Ster started the Battle tubs Day when a said statistics Canada i girls on Merit employment showed there civil vants in com pared to in Spivak tabled a memo noting that the personnel administration Branch of management Muttee of Cabinet discovered an error in statistics Canada Federal overpayment opposition Leader de Shreyer said he intends to talk to Federal officials and the provincial auditor about what he Calls manipulation of a million figure representing overpayment of Federal funds to the Manitoba Shreyer asked finance minister Donald crack if its the governments intention to include the million overpayment in reports of Revenue for 197778 but was told All Transfer payments that came i from 197778 Are appropriated to the proper earlier this Saul Miller Oaks accused Craik of inflating the 197778 deficit to million by failing to show the million in Federal equalization and income tax payments As provincial Craik and Deputy finance Minster Charles Curtis said outside the House that the million want included As Revenue for 197778 because it has to be paid Back to the Federal government this data in april which meant All figures to that Date were too in addition to informing the Federal ment committee corrected figures for the first three months of the figures provided for previous quarters have not been the memo for 197 figures Are de stated by 624 by 944 by 834 and by Spivak noted thai with the revised comparing the number of employees in to the number in gives a net reduction of about soft Green said he accepts the new but added that if there right its because the conservatives got Desper and decided they had to Lay off civil servants in order to prove the nip govern ment had been guilty of waste and outside the Spivak said the figures Are also Low because statistics Canada got its information on March a week before layoffs took his memo also included statistics on government employees similar to those tabled by labor minister the statistics show Manitoba had civil servants and May in the afternoon question Green asked if a combination of govern ment an statistics Canada figures indicated the nip government had reduced the civil service by people in one month last he pointed to the Federal Agency september figure of 15336 and the ments calculation of in the labor minister answered that the two figures could not be rightly com pared since employee Gories considered by Statis tics Canada differed from those of the Green then claimed that each of the excluded Cate such As casual pm would simply in crease the september figure and make the a Despon sorted reduction even higher to Leah Price said this was untrue but failed to lab Sherman denies figure was misleading Pak Wagan logging sold the government owned Pak Wagan logging Firmat Wabowden has been sold to two Northern residents for Northern affairs minister Ken Macmaster said the minister said Jack Milvor of Wabowden and Bruce Kondratuk of Jenpeo submitted the second highest of four bids received for the log milling machinery and the highest bid was he because it didst conform in any shape or form to requirements such As establishing where the funding would come the new owners will resume manufacture of milled logs erection of log houses and have agreed to give first consideration to the plants six former he Macmaster said the government decided to sell the logging operation because it lost about in the years it operated before closing this it received in he saying the province will have to pay about More to Clear outstanding 1 assets not essential to carrying on the log milling operation have been sold to the highest bidder or distributed to provincial government departments where Manitoba health minister Bud Sherman thursday denied misleading the Legisla lure in saving hospitals average budget increase would be per cent for Sherman confirmed Hospi tals will receive More funds to cover pay increases to the change in the fiscal yearned from december 31 to March adjustments in their bases and they will Likely end up with about per cent More than last head Ding the extra Cash will meet expenses already the per he represents the amount Hospi tals have been allowed to increase their operating Bud gets Over last years Sherman was replying to Larry Desjardins Boniface who protested that the minister had told the legislature the increase would be per but had Given reporters different later Saul Miller seven Oaks said financial hardship meant hospitals cant replace staff or make allowances for and Are closing Down wards and other Sherman said the Only hos Pital Beds in greater Winni Peg closed permanently Are four at the health sciences reducing its Beds to 1304 from wards closed for redecoration and renova Tion include 20 Beds at mis 25 at Victoria and 48 at he Pic submits second lowest bid finance minister Donald Craik tabled a document in the legislature thursday list ing insurance firms that bid for coverage of Manitoba government the Low bidder was Reed Shaw Stenhouse which submitted a bid on behalf of Simcoe Erie Gen eral insurance Allstate insurance of Canada and Baltic Scandinavia insurance of other bidders were the Manitoba Public insurance on behalf of Aronovitch Leip sic Johnson Higgins Willis Fader March Mclennan Kirby Gardner Reed Shaw Stenhouse and Ward Mccann Marsh Mclennan for common wealth insurance Royal insurance of Canada on behalf of Aronovitch Leipsic Johnson Higgins Willis Faber Marsh Mclen Nan Kirby and Gardner Ward Mccann Watt associates and insurance brokers Johnson Higgins Willis Faber it said quotations were invited from a number of agencies on the basis that among them they represented different fire insurance companies and were consid ered to be in a Good position to canvass the legislature whizzes 20 Bills by third Reading the Manitoba legislature continued at High Speed giving 20 More Bills third and final Reading an omnibus tax Bill retroactively approved a Feder a provincial sales tax Cut to two from five per cent and diverted million from the Manitoba Public insurance to general the tax one of the few Bills actively opposed thurs Day by the nip will divert a two Entanal Ion gasoline surcharge from it also increases corporate capital tax exemptions to from raises tobacco and Gaso line exempts Mobile Homes from sales tax and ends the tax on fuel for farm and Forest a Bill letting stores open seven Days a week if no More than four employees work at any one time the seventh Day received easy passage after pressure from religious groups led to retention of current provisions allowing larger stores to close either saturday or a Bill raising la salaries and expense allow ances 73 cents this year and an omnibus act converting several Manitoba statutes to metric and an other exempting most sinners from property is the genuine thing fluff Lemha commissar Vodka perhaps in you would say the real no a commissar is pyre Grain so it mixes perfectly with most of its greatest attraction is its Low the genuine commissar genuine Vodka real family Law package amendments on Way attorney general Gerry Mercier will probably some changes to the Manitoba governments pro posed family Law package following Public which ended thursday after 27 hours of Public involving 50 Mercier said he hoped the amendments to the pro posed legislation would be ready for the next meeting of the Legislatures statutory and orders com tentatively scheduled for once he declined to give hints about possible amendments tothe marital property and family maintenance which the conservative government have re written to replace the family Law legislation left on the statute books by the former nip noting the concerns of the number of women who appeared before the committee that the government has a Tere Down the equal sharing principles of the former legislation and the views of the Winnipeg chamber of com Merce and the estate planning Council of Winnipeg that the government has gone too observed obviously the Bills will not have the unanimous approval of everyone in the we can Only Hope to develop Laws that Are accepted and approved by the during the final four hour thursday night Abe Anhang of the estate planning Council told the com Mittee the application of the proposed new Law ridges would make it necessary for couples who had Al ready made their economic arrangements to opt out of the new legislation in order to achieve their he said division of commercial assets on marriage break despite the judicial discretion to vary the equal could interfere with the commercial life of the Community and affect partners and Leigh a became the second person during the six Days of hearings to support the conserva Tive she said if the nip haunt been up inflexible about having Mutual opting this government would not have had to introduce such Broad judicial Downey stance sought opposition Las again blasted agriculture minister Jim Downey thursday for not giving a Clear commitment to Amend is proposed legislation to create a cattle producers association in the weve asked him Downey since May 13 what his intentions Pete Adam Rose said at a meeting of the Legislatures agriculture committee reviewing Bill 25 before it goes up for third and final Downey said hell Amend the Bill making association membership voluntary and freeing those producers wanting no part of it from the associations he added he first wants to hear the 39 or so delegations wishing to speak on the f thursday night Sam Yuskiw no place Dubonnet and other opposition members again probed delegations during 4h hours of often repetitious aug tog for Only four submissions three for and one against Bill Bert president of the Manitoba farm said the Bill would give cattle producers a unified voice to or behalf of the Jna Jority of cattle both he and Harvey Winnipeg beef said producers can of the fee of to is cents per head of cattle they making association membership Bui Marguerite a Lac Dubonnet by of said Maul 35 is a shaking piece of legislation and proposed 15 to give the producers democratic control1 the a checkoff pro posed in Bill has Tutu anything to offset Tot crisis thai the beef Industry has experienced in recent she said legislative briefs pour entrances to the legislative building grounds be barricaded from Midnight to 8 because of an inordinate amount of traffic at Public works minister marry finns said Enns assured Las the barriers now under construction at the Osborne Kennedy Street and Boine Avenue entrances were not intended to Seal off the ground to Normal Public Access but came in response to police and residential complaints of heavy overnight for some strange he about cars enter the grounds each compared with Only 528 vehicles during the Larry Desjardins Boniface called Enns a spoiler when he later suggested the governments restraint program might be eased to install better lighting on Moonlight strip in the East this area had third More night traffic than anywhere Enns Enns also quickly dismissed a suggestion by Howard Pawley that the heavy traffic was caused by individuals arriving to attend Public hearings on the ments controversial family Law health minister Bud Sherman says he will investigate reports of privately owned group Homes operating in fort Rouge without the minister was responding to a suggestion by Lloyd Axworthy Rouge that several private residences for people suffering mental and emotional disabilities were becoming a nuisance to the surrounding Axworthy said the private Homes were not directly subsidized by the government or run by social agencies but that some residents were receiving provincial social he asked if any Type of supervision or licensing could be provided by Sherman Sherman said most group Homes and Community Resi Dences Are supervised by two branches of his education minister Keith Cosens says eight courses will be offered to students in Lynn the Pas and flin flon this year under a reduced inter universities North the program will also offer correspondence and supplementary tutorial courses in other Remote communities and constitutes a very reasonable attempt to meet Northern Cosens the minister had been asked by Ron Mcbryde Pas to confirm that the program had suffered a drastic reduction from last when 27 courses were offered in 12 Russell Doern has asked consumer affairs ministered Mcgill to investigate the alleged hiring of another conservative party this time by the Manitoba Telephone Doern said Ian Grant was hired by the Utility after apparently serving As Campaign manager for Matthews la Len he asked labor minister Norma Price to find out if this move circumvented the governments redeployment plan for 115 former civil servants Cut by the conservatives since taking a Cue said Grant was apparently hired by the former nip government in 1976 and denied any conflict with the redeployment Domino added that Grant had not been his Campaign last Transcona Naper Wilson Parasiuk questioned the hiring of Manfred a former conservative party to work for the governments Amateur sports the first phase of the dental assisting course at Keewatin Community College in the Pas has received accreditation from the Canadian dental education minister Keith Cosens has the 10month course trains students for work As dental assistants in the Public and private Manitoba also has an accredited dental assisting program at red River Community College in during the first phase of the students receive instruction in chair Side assisting and preventive the College is awaiting a decision from the Manitoba dental association on accreditation of phase two of the which deals with subjects such As dental rays and cleaning of health minister Bud Sherman said thursday a proposed treatment and rehabilitation Centre for alcoholics in Brandon has not been scrapped by the the minister told Leonard Evans East the concept of the Kelly Centre project is still very much alive and there is a very Strong possibility it will get off the ground within a few Sherman said the government will consider moving the Centre to the new Brandon correctional but he noted that a province wide strike by construction tradesmen had halted work on the f a commemorative plaque designating government House an official historic site will be unveiled at Manitoba 108th the plaque will be unveiled by former lieutenant Over nor John Mckeag and former chatelaine Errick former chatelaine Richard Bowles will Manitoba lieutenant governors have made their Homes in the Large White House East of the legislative building since 0 t the Manitoba Cabinet has approved Grants totalling 098 for 37 projects under the Manitoba youth corps the which include recreation Community Public works and service will provide jobs for 275 Young people from Northern tit amendments to the farmlands Protection act now before the legislature will improve land prices by making More capital for the Purchase of Farmland Agri culture minister Jim Downey said Downey said the legislation passed by the new democratic party government last year was so restrictive it prevented a retired Farmer from buying Jwj for his sons or an Uncle who want a Farmer from buying land for a he said shortage of capital for Purchase of farm land is a National and was discussed when agriculture ministers from across Canada met in this the distributed to Las earlier this removes All Purchase controls from Canadian individuals and corporations but reduces the amount of Manitoba land non Anadi ans can buy from 160 to 20 it Sidney Green criticized the government thursday because an order Council passed at the last Cabinet meeting held by the new democratic party govern ment was never signed by the Green said the order reinstated Vivian then head of the rent review to the civil service position she held before her appointment to the Rosenbergs contract As head of the Hoard Hast been renewed by the conservative when faced with circumstances in he the new nip gave Wnent didst ignore orders the previous conservative Cabinet reinstating several people who been serving As executive assistants to the civil servant status they held ;