Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 8, 1979, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free june Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published six Days a week at 300 Carlton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by f publications Western Telephone 9439331 second class mail registration Nurr ber 086 Donald Micol acting publisher r s Malone chairman Peter Mclintock editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing Ednor Maurice Western Ottawa editor r Shelford president general manager unnecessary Why Are Winnipeg taxpayers being forced to underwrite an expensive election Lor a new mayor when there is an easy and sensible Way of avoiding this Cost this is a question that Many City residents Are asking it is a question to which the City Council and the provincial legislature should gite serious thought once this election is it May Cost up to to select the new which is hard to take in a year in which taxes have gone services have been reduced and use fees have been increased for several Cit supplied services and the taxpayers humor can hardly be improved by the carnival atmosphere of an election in which 12 candidates Are several of whom cannot seriously expect to gain More than a handful of the estimate by City officials is based on the need for 700 Deputy returning officers and 700 clerks at the which produces a wage Bill of on the Cost of printing about ballots which must be longer than usual because of the number of on the fees for Hall rentals and on the need for some additional staff for organization of the election and in the City who is the chief returning and his office must be diverted from Normal duties to election one Cost that has not been incurred is which itself Cost about in the last the list that will be used is of the Winni Eggers who were eligible to vote in the 1977 civic but it is hard to believe that this election should be taking place when there is an acceptable alternative that would Cost the Nocost alternative would have been to allow Deputy mayor Bill who has been acting mayor since the May 10 tragic death of mayor Bob to keep doing the Job until the end of Steens term in Norrie has shown himself to be a capable and competent fulfilling the mayoral role on Many he is an experienced and respected City me proved in the 1977 mayoralty election that he has substantial Public Steen had votes but was closely by Norrie with if it had been possible for Norrie to act As mayor for the balance of Steens the City would have been Well served and taxpayers would have been saved but this sensible alternative was not possible because of a Lack of foresight by those who Drew up the City of Winnipeg under Section 96 1 an election must be called in Case of the death or resignation of an elected a provision that makes sense when Only one Ward is As in the concurrent tache Ward election for the Council seat now vacated by Bob it makes much less sense when the required election involves the whole which is the Case if the mayor must be Section 96 2 of the act gives the Council the right to decide not to fill a vacancy if it occurs in the year in which the term in other if the current mayoral vacancy had occurred after november 1 of this the Council could have asked Norrie to hold the fort until the 1980 a decision that would have saved Winnipeg taxpayers the lesson from All this is that the City of Winnipeg act should be changed As soon As possible to give the Council the right to decide to not fill a mayoral vacancy at any not just in the last year of the mayors this would not change the requirement for filling vacancies in individual it would save Winni Eggers the Cost of unnecessary mayoral canadians Are savers All parties agreed during the recent election Campaign that Canada should become self sufficient in Energy As soon As no sensible citizen quarrel with this but it will Cost a lot of for pipelines and other huge something like billion in the next according to the experts of the Royal canadians will not be Able to provide that much for Energy when about trillion altogether must be found for various Public and obviously capital from foreign sources is needed in Large the total depend of on the investment rate and the Peoples own a new study by the United states Treasury and another by statistics Canada show that the financial habits of canadians have been widely a popular legend holds that they Are afraid to put their Money in common Stock where no return is guaranteed and put it mostly in such debt instruments As Bonds where interest is guaranteed though its real value keeps the american officials on the that canadians invest heavily in enterprises of for their business investment in the United states now stands at billion and is proportionately this amount is far than the United states investment of billion in the flow of capital southwards in recent years has exceeded the flow while these figures deny the myth of too much Canadian they indicate too Little Confidence in Canadas economic prospects in the Long Are despite All the confusing political however the Public attitude is judged there can be no doubt about canadians Thrifty they Are among the largest savers in the statistics Canada says they saved about 11 per cent of their disposable after last year As against five per cent in the a writer in Canadian business even argues that they have been Over saving and not spending enough on immediate consumption to maintain adequate economic if the earlier and lower saving rate had an extra amount of billion would have been spent on goods and services last year and greatly stimulated the the supposed error of Over saving is not shared by Canadian most of them Are plunging headlong into Domestic and and it is Only because the citizens save massively that the governments can find enough Money to borrow for their vast needs beyond their tax the practical problem is not that canadians Are excessive savers by nature but that they Are saving on a grand scale mainly because they fear continuing inflation and set aside a big part of their income against a future Day when it will lose More of its current they Are putting too big a part into debt now yielding High interest and insufficient into the risk stocks of Canadian corporations while investing heavily in the United though a business slowdown is generally expected the simple fact disclosed by the latest figures is that the Ordinary citizens Faith in their own country economic future has been for a decade at by the extravagance of their by budget deficits above by the resulting until the ruinous spiral has been curbed savings May remain High but they will not be used to the Best outside audits the opposition in the Manitoba legislature is attempting to make much of the fact that the use of private auditing firms for Crown corporations will increase the Cost of such those complain Are missing an important the use of private and Independent firms was traditional in Manitoba before the previous administration began its policy of in House auditing conducted by an expanded staff working for the provincial the move Back to private firms is not diminishing the responsibility of the provincial in it is a Means of Clearing the decks so that the provincial auditor can better fulfil his main function of checking to make sure that proper practices Are being the provincial auditor will still review the private audit More it was becoming increasingly difficult for the provincial who used Tobe responsible for every move from the initial audit to the final to criticize adequately the work of his own private firms Are involved in the audit of private any deviation from general business practice on the part of Crown corporations will show up the move to private auditors appears to be one designed to keep Crown corporations from becoming government candidates presidential dithering by Joseph Kraft Washington shout Salt and nobody but whisper gasoline and the whole country that com made to Jimmy Carter by one of his expresses the most important known fact about the gasoline it has inspired so much worry and irritation that the country cannot trans act far More important so Clearing away the developing a Clear sense of where we has become an urgent assessing the it is Neces sary to go beyond the Public relations and bureaucratic rivalries of the past few the trouble goes Back to the beginning of the Carter administration at and engages the Energy com the consumer lobbies and pub Lic As Well As the chopping and changing president Carter has chopped and changed with every passing Dur ing his Campaign he gave the impress Ion he was going to decontrol prices and go for rapid development of solar in once in he emphasized the immediate he called for a new Energy and had his chief assistant in the Energy James put together a comprehensive Energy program in 90 in presenting that he spoke of the moral equivalent of and called for major emphasis on Conser vation and a switch from Oil and Gas to Coal and nuclear when trouble developed in the con Carter changed he embraced the widespread notion that there was More Prospect of glut than he accepted a congressional program that emphasized incentives in the form of higher prices to Foster More production of Oil and natural then there took place the events which precipitated the present Short ouster of the Shah of Many on the and at least a few persons in expressed deep concern at the but the president and the Secretary of state kept assuring the country that there would be no Adverse nobody else quite matches that rec Ord of ups and but very few of us and i most certainly include my self have a clean the Energy for May not be manipulative but they have let narrow self interests dictate their pub Lic a constant theme of All the Industry literature is that higher prices would importantly alleviate any in the Best higher prices can do is slow Down the depletion of Oil resources in the United they Are not As so often implied by the Industry an answer to the Corne cutting on top of that general piece of mis there Are Little bits of Corne cutting designed to secure competitive Occidental Petro Leum has pushed especially hard for shale where it is out Westing House has overstated the Case for nuclear the latest development is the announcement by Exxon that it needs to acquire the Reliance electric in order to realize a major innovation in Power production that will make Possi ble important Energy even to the inexperienced that Sud Den announcement looks like a manoeuvre to acquire a new company under cover of the Energy after cannot Exxon License the invention for other electrical companies the consumer and environment lob Bies Are no they have consistently resisted developments that could ease the National Energy problem at Little thus the environmentalists have joined with the railroads in Block ing Coal slurry the consumer because it would help the Oil have blocked the quickest Way to augment gasoline a three Way Swap whereby Oil from alas a would be diverted from the West coast to Japan in return for mexican Oil which would be diverted from Japan to the West not forthcoming then there is the Public in we have not exactly been forthcoming when it comes to making rather than ease up on gasoline con or even slow Down on the we have been prone to be Lieve the most outlandish theories of conspiracy by the Oil companies and As matters stand now after so Many ups and it is not going to be easy to dispel but a useful first step would be for the president to bring to the White House a panel of experts on Oil sources and flows with instructions to put together for All of us the Best information so that the United states will at least have a coherent picture of where we stand with respect to the gasoline Joseph Kraft is a correspondent living in Field enterprises its viewpoint 1 am writing to comment on an editorial appearing in the free May titled which appears to show a Complete misunderstanding by the writer of the position of the Manitoba teachers society on a num ber of changes proposed in the prov inces Public school since the editorial deals largely with i will Start i have no idea what your writers interpretation of the word tenure is when applied to his comment that few jobs have Security equal to that enjoyed by a teacher with seems to imply some right to a Job or a guarantee of no under terms of the present As Well As the proposed simply Means that after two years employ ment in a a teacher who is being dismissed has the right to know the reason and if they feel it is unjust have it adjudicated by a third who is not a teacher or it does not guarantee a Job or provide any special the society position simply is that a even in the first two years of should have the right to know Why they Are being fired education Keith Cosens and some Appeal if they feel it is quoting directly from a news release we issued on May i said we think it is the and the duty of a to ensure the competency of its and dont see How this request will in any Way Compromise this dealing with the Issue of sick i am at a total loss to know where the editorial writer gets the impression teachers want some sort of compensation for unused sick the writers position is that sick leave is designed to prevent loss of income due to illness and not to be considered As some sort of Bonus for being Lucky enough to avoid the society agrees with him and has always agreed with him on this under terms of the present a teacher is entitle to 20 Days of sick leave a during each of the first three years of employment in a Divi the new act provides that a teacher earns sick leave at the rate of one Day for every nine Days of actual the society Point is that if sick leave is to become an earned similar to vacation there is the possibility that an arbitration proceeding might consider there is some vested right for unused we have not advocated this we to the pointed out the difficulties it might raise in the we also took the position in our submissions to the that both school boards and teachers would receive thousands of dollars in rebates from the unemployment insurance premiums currently paid if some changes were made in the statutory sick leave these recommendations have been completely in i would like to Point out that teachers in Manitoba have one of the lowest percentages of absences due to illness of any Industry group in the your editorial writers third dealing with an apparent complaint from teachers that the act does not letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from the authors name will be and All letters Are subject to Airport irritant time to resign require everyone to be is also difficult to if your writer reads the he will see the act does require that every child of school age attend and that a child who is handicapped is not excused from attending without specific ministerial we have pointed out that one Section of the act requires parents to ensure that their children attend while another Section says that a school Divi Sion does not have to provide facilities for these special needs if it does not want to do surely this is a recognizing the costs involved in pro Viding these facilities and the problems some divisions could the society policy has and continues to be in Light of these that the Divi Sion provide the facilities for students with special and if they cannot afford the it should be paid by the provincial if the editorial writer feels that our position that some children will not be Able to receive an education because of special needs is perhaps he could explain his position to the parents of those the Manitoba teachers society recognizes that in the drafting of any new legislation there Are bound to be Ano Malies and questions about the interpretation of some the along with the Manitoba association of school and other groups has drawn some of these to the attention of the minister of Valentine president Manitoba teachers society Winnipeg Happy 92nd birthday Daisey Coates Winni Peg born May chauvinistic this letter is in reply to Taylors comment entitled one Way Street on May you have a chauvinistic we would be interested to know where you get your information in your information is not Many French speaking persons learn to speak but How Many English speaking persons learn to speak French we feel that your opinion is very so please open your eyes and become More 31 French speaking students who Are studying English Winnipeg moderate Joe As a new democratic candidate in the May 22 Federal i stated in press interviews that the results of the election both in Manitoba and else where would dictate to Joe Clark that canadians did not want to see him emulate Lyon right Wingis in his government and his As a i am pleased to see that prophecy come True in Clarks Cabinet appointments in which he has opted for the More progressive of his we As a country and As canadians want no part of extremism of either the right or left and that True democratic approach was emphasized Here in Manitoba in 1969 with the election of the Schreyer led by a prag Matic and compassionate in Manitoban were deliberately misled by Sterling Lyon who promised publicly he would not Cut Back on essential programs but who went Back on his word and thus Cost his Federal Leader seats in the May 22 Federal v0te Frank Syms Winnipeg i like Fred i have to totally disagree with John Mcmanus claim that a major irritant in the customs area problem appears to be i wonder if George Bill or John Mcmanus have Ever had to come through these customs As overseas As i have been required to do or if they have been Able to compare these facilities to others As those at after a tiring eight hour carrying Little children and hand lug i could not care less whether a carpet was on the floor or there were ashtrays or pictures of the recent eclipse i think it is a disgrace the Way International travellers Are treated at the so called Winnipeg International i think there Are Many better things that can be done to solve the Irurita 1 customs officers should be As others to spot Passen Gers requiring detailed interrogation and allow others to pass through quickly and with 2 help should be available to Lessen the Burden of hand such As Young children and the elderly should have priority instead of having to stand in lineups lasting usually Over one 3 set could form the lineup so that at least the elderly there Are Many frail elderly persons travelling can have some weight taken off their feet and prevent what has happened every time i have stood in these line ups one or More have become it is heartening to learn that business is booming at the Winnipeg International for wish i did not have to use the customs which i am sure discourage Many overseas travellers from visiting this Nigel Macdonald Winnipeg the Federal election is Over and the outcome is now history there is a change in it is indeed right and just that All of those who received political appointments whilst under the Liberal regime should a logical Extension of this is that All of those who received politically motivated appointments should also because it is just and right that those who received political appointments should it should then necessarily follow that Schreyer should Buechler Winnipeg rare movies on behalf of the Indian and Metis Friendship i would like to congratulate the Canadian broadcasting corporation for its selection of movies presented on Western Roundup wednesday in every Case so the movies selected have portrayed native people As honest and cooperative rather than such movies Are rare in someone must have screened these the Csc is to be congratulated for weeding out films that present an misleading picture that of fends All of Don Marks Community development worker Indian Metis Friendship Centre Winnipeg ;