Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 21, 1980, Winnipeg, Manitoba Allim Fleu Winni fief free july focus Boom mixed Blessing the contrast Between old and new in this picture is a summary of the history of Federal tax forced truce at Gas pumps a few Days Marc Lalonde announced that the Federal tax on Gaso line would be increased by one half cent a or the equivalent of two and a Quarter cents a to say that he surprised the country would be an Joe Clark is still at tempting to understand what Hap and is talking about a lawsuit to Roll Back the the increase came without and gasoline prices shot up no was More surprised than the gasoline companies in Winni the announcement caught them in the Middle of one of the traditional summer gasoline wars in this and so shocked them that Winni Eggers found themselves paying not the two and a Quarter cent increase Lalonde had but a Between Friday and that was the equivalent of nine cents a Gaso line that had been Selling for cents a litre on a Friday was suddenly Selling for cents the next monday morn almost a thankful for the average with an 18gal Ion that represented a difference for a thankful of nearly what the jump did do was to Point out to Winnipeg motorists that even the switch to and the reduced perception of savings that Price fluctuations has not stopped the gasoline companies in Winnipeg from continuing the old Baitman switch tac tics that lure people into their pumps one Day with Low and catch them when they come for a refill with a Price jump that defies motorists will remember the tactics of the gasoline companies Back when Canada was taking those ministers every six months toward world while there might be gasoline wars waged in the Middle of the when the time for the predictable increase Drew every pump in the City was pushed up to tha maximum that the motorists pocketbook could when increase takes effect when the predictable govern men ordered increase a new Benchmark higher than Ever was established for Gaso line in the if there were to be gasoline Price wars to be waged after the Price they would be waged from the starting Point of the higher if no wars Deve men the higher Price would Transfer the extra dollars from the pockets of the motorists into the Cash registers of the Oil if the truth were to be no gasoline company wants to see Price they have the Price wars forced on in Winnipeg in by Fred Cleverley the facts of geography and Winnipeg is the last major Centre be tween the production Fields to the West and the bigger markets of the to move gasoline past Winnipeg and across Northwestern Ontario in a re fined state costs More Money than the companies want to Lalonde shocked everyone the refined gasoline piles up in Winnipeg because of the cold when heating Oil is gasoline is produced and it must either be sold or the costs of shipping it to the Eastern Canadian cities must be absorbed in the Oil companies own version of blended pricing that occurs when crude is shipped to Toronto in a More primitive for Winnipeg the Only thing to do is to and enjoy the Price advantage when it the and geography Are on our these two factors will result in a surplus of refined gasoline in this City from time to the surplus will result in lower which will exist As Long As the surplus nature disrupted the Only thing that can disrupt Naas far As the Price of gasoline is is when a Federal minister takes it into his head to increase taxes without any thai catches the Oil companies off it also catches the Odd there is one Winnipeg Driver who is still shaking his he was caught with a full tank of gasoline when the prices started dropping last and had not bothered to refill when the Federal announcement was he consoled himself with the news that the Federal tax would add Only a couple of cents a gallon to the he disco that in these couple of cents translated into nine cents or they had held a War and he had missed expansion endangers afrikaner by Simon Jenkins in m fat most of its White South Africa Economy has become a defensive shield so powerful no Poten tial enemy dare ignore the vast mines of the reef and the free state contain half the worlds known re serves of Gold and manganese and Tore than 80 per cent of the reserves of Platinum and South Africa has the worlds fifth largest Coal its Oil Forcial Industry is technology Cally the worlds most and South Africa could Well be self suf Focient in Energy within two meanwhile it is building up an intricate web of economic relationships with the Black states to the North yet the South african Economy gives Rise to implications which its White beneficiaries Are finding increasingly at the Start of the Many afrikaners still regarded eco nomic advances As a Trojan horse whose gains might suit the English speaking businessman but held no benefits for worse it offered Blacks and coloureds a share in White Industrial Prosperity from which the 30 per cent of afrikaners who remained on the land might be How could the Black Homeland economies develop As separate but equal with Blacks flocking to White areas for work a decade of uninterrupted expansion in the when South Afri Cas growth rate averaged per cent a pushed such doubts into the fierce controls the major engines of this growth were the immigration of skilled Whites and unskilled expanding food and raw material High Public sector and fierce controls on imports and overseas capital move they did the afrikaners no apparent in the Post 1948 afrikaners were moving into positions of economic Power from where they were Able to influence nationalist policy away from a nervous crypt so Cial ism toward growth oriented free Enterprise though English names and products still dominate the South african econ afrikaner organizations provide training and leadership to a new generation of afrikaner the afrikaner nation of the civil service and the expansion of Public investment in Paras atals gave the afrikaners a Central stake in the most rapidly industrializing of the Public sector appointments since the nationalist Victory in gone almost exclusively to afrikaners and in return government contracts have bolstered afrikaner Pri vate parity in 76 in afrikaner income per head was estimated to be Only half that of the English speaking in it finally achieved anywhere but in South this economic Blitzkrieg by a previously oppressed group against its erstwhile oppressors would be a source of yet the afrikaner the world expects us to hand this Victory Over to the Black in the Early afrikaner economists debated about How far continued White Hegemony could survive such rapid the warned that continued Industrial expansion would increase Black Lead to continual turmoil Over the pass Laws and undermine separate develop the Var Lietea regarded expansion As a liberalizing Force which would break Down the barriers of educate the Whites to change and Cre ate a Black Middle class As a bulwark against the argument centred on whether the per cent growth target of the eco nomic plans in the Early 1970s should be if by what the growth faction South Africa had two years of dramatic Public Sec tooled this Boom ran Headon into the 1974 world Oil South Africa Bill the tribal que a South african Survey for Oil imports and its cur rent account deficit total foreign Trade accounts for almost half of South Africa Gross Domestic leaving it highly vulnerable to International recession and to secular movements in the Gold Gold prices slipped and the country was hit by two major political in the portuguese Empire depriving South Africa of Buffer states to its North and there was the Prospect of steady increases i defence spending and in the drafting of skilled Whites Tor military then in Soweto erupted at the insistence by Andries Treu Nicht of afrikaans teaching in Soweto in Gross Domestic investment fell for the first time since 1972 Indus trial inventories soared and then Plum the balance of private sector capital flows in and out of the country most serious of All for White South More people left the country than came into the Economy declined in 1976 and remained Static in for three the Gold Price did not it was world Economy which came to their in stagflation and further uncertainty in the Oil markets suddenly sent the value of net Gold output up no Gold exports also surged Forward and the balance of payments on current account moved sharply into the Economy came under the Thrall of a new guiding Owen who became finance minister in underlying his budget speeches is what the scr Lites see As the True revolution in modern the recognition of not Enterprise As the new engine of eco nomic Bot has Promise in prime minister Botha reaffirmed his governments Faith in private Enterprise and promised a reduction in state in return he asked for private Industry help in reviving the Economy and strengthen ing his policies toward the Black Home lands and neighbouring this a peal was further driven Home this March when Horwood introduced his latest the rate of growth had now increased three years in a Row and he had budgeted for an expansion of five per cent in the terms of Trade had been running in South Africa the balance of payments showed a healthy surplus foreign debts had been repaid Early and the current account surplus had this was helped by a 55 per cent increase in the value of Gold output Over the year and a buoyant Industrial sector pushed merchandise exports for the first time since net immigration in the last Quarter of 1979 was both Black and White unemployment had started to and private investment had begun to breaking through the investment Barrier by Means of an expansion in consumer demand is Hor Woods major he has doubled his tax cuts and other reliefs in the increase in Gold tax revenues has Ena bled him to do this with no increase in the budgetary deficit the South african Economy is As he admits now awash with huge quantities of this Money is locked into the country by rigid Exchange controls but is spurned by a Thrifty government and by companies chary of assuming a Lon term growth of consumer demand which increasingly Means Black demand in an unstable political one reaction to Hor Woods invest ment plea was particularly vehement it was by woefully ignoring Black education and training in the the nationalists have left Industry with a bottleneck in skilled labor so serious As to be a major Brake on understaffed is Cor recently reported it was 12 per cent understaffed in Artisan grades and that poaching by the private sector had led to a 30 per cent annual turnover in its skilled about 40 per cent of its White trainees Are undergoing National service and its White unions Are bitterly resisting Black a recent Survey found that 33 per cent of All respondents said the skilled labor shortage is the major Factor limiting increased similar warnings have come from the managing director of the Yasol Wilfrom Coal from Harry theres a major recruitment drive with a forecast shortfall of White skilled workers by the end of the dec it is Clear the Economy will have to rely increasingly on its Black workforce to prime the pump of Industrial despite a division within the govern ment prior to the 1980 both sides agreed on one Point a Swift expansion of Black education and train ing Horwood announced a 32 per cent increase in spending on these the government is planning 300 Industrial training centres and 12 new Black technical institutes including one in the prime minister announced in response to student riots that coloured education would be Given top and he is pressing ahead with the Reform of labor controls which close off Job promotion into skilled grades to Black Black workforce an upturn in the business Cycle is finding South african Industry Short of skills and employers Are having to worry about the Quality As Well As the Quantity of their Black enforcement of the pass Laws is restricting the Supply of labor and making existing often expensively trained Black staff choosy and obstreperous about the jobs they government officials weave a web of regulations which make most european labor Laws seem like Liberty sooner or the governments Market strategy must come against its Central Challenge is the govern ment really prepared to chop away at apartheid Central the Bantu labor and group areas Laws by which it regiments the working and Domestic life of every nonwhite South Afri can All questions about modern South Africa turn on this Simon Jenkins in political editor Tif the a slum settlement outside Cape town in South Africa final word on rent Bill with voters somewhere Between the strident extremes of opinion about the proposed changes to the landlord and tenant act the condominium act lies a unfortunately it is difficult to find that position As the Public hearings opinions about the governments intention to carry through the end of rent controls and ease the conversion of apartment blocks to condominiums reflected those of the members of the Only the numbers were re it was the minority who espoused More Freedom for while the majority told about rising rents and fears of the increasing Powers of the the individual tales and group his tories appeared to have some but it remained evident there would not a continuation of rent As under the dome Arlene Billinkoff Warner Jorgenson while he would alter some provisions in the he would remain True to his unlike other times when tory poli cies were Bent in order to meet immedi ate needs and gain Public support such As the Promise to bring in Competition for aut Opac the front Bench was Adamant about tots the position was made Clear in 1979 when the program to remove rent control in stages this legislation was the final stage of the provincial program and the magic Date was july when All landlords were required to give three months notice of rent increases with no limit to the amount of those that implied which the tories did not Jorgenson insisted a Complete monitoring system would be instituted and All would be therein was the problem because the predicted very Little would go Well when disputes would not even reach arbitration unless both sides somehow it seemed unlikely that a who imposed a Large rent would want second opinion on the several Urban tory backbench ers were also less than such As compulsory were if several even threatened to oppose the that was a familiar refrain amid the there was no Way they would support such a seriously flawed which had neither common sense nor social because it was totally biased towards the with no safeguards for it was insane and but the Bill was insisted the Harry a was Well aware that Bis party would not be popular with the vast there were problems in the Bill which even Enns his party bad no intention of allowing unjustified excessive rent he but was he in the position to offer that guarantee Jorgenson said he would consider amendments to ensure safeguards Are provided for undue rent but he was not going to Bend too landlords who refused to submit to mediation or arbitration would have to pay moving expenses for while a bit of leeway would be inserted for tenants who protest to the there were other changes but Howard Pawley translated it As a message to the tenants of take your lumps and move regardless of the rent control was not going to after the Bill fulfilled a Basic tory goal of Freedom of Choice and less government even if it did Hurt some Jorgenson was Likely to remain True to his whether the path he has chosen is Correct will be seen in the next ;