Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 18, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free press saturday april 18, 1981 Winnipeg free press of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published and printed six Days a week Al 300 Carlton Street. Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 943-6331 second class mail registration number 0286 Donald Nicol publish ii John Dafoe Eill Lonal Page Edilio Murray Hurt managing Eli act or. Trudeau won t talk unless he performs one of his celebrated flip flops Over he easier weekend prime minister Trudeau has closed the door on the last minute attempt of eight provincial premiers to find a Way out of the constitutional impasse. Barring an Adverse decision by the supreme court of Canada the country s constitutional future can be expected to unfold As the prime minister believes thai it should. That Means he government s Resolution will go through the House of commons on schedule and be sent off to the British parliament which will pass it with a minimum of debate Over the objections of the handful of backbench ers. The result of thai will be to impose on Canada a radically altered Constitution against the wishes of the governments of eight provinces and a majority of canadians. It will be to ensure two years of sterile acrimonious and divisive constitutional discussion Between Ottawa and the provinces followed by a referendum Campaign which could be even More Bilter and divisive. It will be to strengthen the separatist forces in Quebec and to increase resentment and alienation in other parts of the country. The solution offered by the eight premiers was no Gem but it offered better prospects than that. It would have provided an amending formula which for All its faults would have been consistent with Canadian traditions and with the position taken by the Trudeau government itself from 1968 to 1979. It would have provided an Opportunity for constitutional change to be discussed in an attitude of co operation and consensus and implemented in Canada according to that formula. Ii would have Given canadians in Quebec and throughout the country an example of How the Constitution can evolve through discussion and consensus to meet their needs. It would potentially have achieved All or. Trudeau claims to want to achieve in constitutional Reform without presenting canadians with the spectacle of change being imposed by a Federal government which can claim Little or no support in Large areas of the country. It would have eased the strains on confederation rather than increasing them. Justice minister Jean Chretien s fundamental objection to the provincial proposal was that the provision permitting individual provinces to opt out of constitutional changes which diminished their rights privileges and Powers would Lead to a Chequer Board Constitution in Canada. Potentially it could and there would have been grounds for negotiations aimed at restricting the opting out provision. But the Canad an Constitution is a Chequer Board already with minority linguistic and religious rights applying in some provinces but not in others. And the claim that opting out would Lead to vast inter provincial differences and to Quebec opting step by step out of confederation would be True Only if the Federal government were contemplating a massive assault on provincial rights privileges and Powers. A More valid objection to the provincial proposal was that it took Little note of the work done in parliament on a Bill of rights Over the past six months. The reasons for that Are obvious. A number of premiers most notably Sterling Lyon Are dead against a Bill of rights. But the charter which is included in the Federal government s Resolution is a political reality which the premiers should have recognized. By refusing to do so they made it easier for Ottawa to say no to their proposal. Only the supreme court of Canada can now Stop the Federal plan. The Odds Are that it will not. Or. Trudeau Over the next few weeks is Likely 10 get his Way. Canadians May be paying the Price of that Victory Long after or. Trudeau has left the political scene. For the Post office a dozen years alter the idea was first proposed Canada s Post office is to become a Crown corporation. The move has been hailed As a new Dawn for the country s most maligned Public institution but that Dawn May be some time in coming. The idea behind the new status is sound. It will give the management of the Post office the Freedom and the incentive to adapt to changing needs and technology in communication. It will if it works As anticipated reduce the Burden of i lie Post office on the Public Treasury though it will not prevent substantial increases in postal rates. It will subject labor relations in the Post office to the provisions of the Canada labor code rather than the More rigid and Ponder Ous rules of the Public service staff relations act. All those Are useful changes but they will not produce results overnight. The management has for years been trying to change mid victorian practices with some Success but not enough. The new regime will have to keep trying. The most important immediate change could be an improvement in the impossible labor relations Between the Post office management and the Canadian Union of postal workers. Cup has Long been demanding the change and the Union leadership has reacted enthusiastically to the passage of the new legislation. But the new management will have years of suspicion and bitterness to overcome. Some of the responsibility will fall on the Union. Often in the past the cup leadership has displayed a bizarre notion of How collective bargaining should proceed. The strikes and bitterness in the past have generally been the result of inflexibility on the Side of both unions and management. If the old attitudes can be put aside the Long term Outlook is hopeful because the Crown corporation status will make it easier for the Union and management to negotiate Over the effects of technological change. The changes which have been implemented Over the past few years Are no doubt Only the beginning if the Post office is to provide canadians with efficient and economical mail service. If the new status helps management and workers achieve that change with reasonable Harmony then it will be Well worthwhile. Gallery Phil Mallette the taming of British unions suited fighter the Bruve words of . Defence Secretary Caspar Wein Berger concerning tile development problems being experienced with i he f-1s fighter will be seized upon by Canada s minister of defence Giles Lamontagne As Welcome ammunition to be used against the criticism being voiced in this country As Well. The unfortunate part of this stand by or. Lamontagne is that should the f-18 come up to specifications and be built As planned the aircraft itself will not be Well suited to Canada s defence needs. Or. Weinberger is fighting complaints about the machine within his country complaints that produced reports that the . Forces May Cut Back on the size of their initial order for the fighter. If this happens it would indicate that the planners in the . Have severe reservations about the ability of the fighter to perform As it should. While visiting Ottawa or. Weinberger shrugged off reports of development problems bin at the same time opened talks about the possibility of Canada the Only foreign country to place a firm order for he machine sharing development costs. It is not Likely that Canadian officials when the order was placed were aware that the machine was so far Back on the development schedule that this country would be asked to help pay to get it into the shape a purchaser has the right to expect. The f-18, a twin engined Jet fighter nosed out the Fhi to get the Canadian contract for something More than 130 aircraft. While it is generally accepted As a better machine than the f-16, which had Only one engine the decision did not convince Many experts that Canada had taken a route of Economy in selecting a machine that was closer to the Bottom of the list of six finalists in the bidding than it was to the top. The information will probably never be made Public be cause the armed forces in this country or elsewhere Are not in the habit of complaining about political influence on decisions to Purchase new hardware. The main complaint advanced against the f-18 for Canad an use is the limited Range of the machine. Even if other problems the ones that Are causing or. Weinberger trouble in the ., Are us Jed the machine will still have the same Short Range it was designed with. Range while not As critical in the aircraft committed to Europe As part of Canada s nato forces is quite important for the other task to be assigned that of the defence of North America. If development problems continue to plague the f-18, they could be cited As a legitimate reason for Canada to re open the bidding to the machines that were squeezed out earlier. By . Macrae special to the free press London Odd things Are happen ing to British Trade unions during the recession. In private Industry As Dis Tinct from the civil service strikes Are Ai their lowest level for years. Wage increases in private Industry Are run Ning at Between eight and nine per cent Well under the 13 per cent rate of inflation. Restrictive practices Are being pruned. The old pattern of bargaining in much of British Industry used to be that each year a wage increase was agreed on Between a confederation of unions and a nation wide employers association. Then each big Industrial company and maybe each big Industrial Plant had a Row As each employer was bullied to pay More than the National minimum increase. Today National agreements Are not taking place in most private industries. Wise employ ers Are settling Only at Plant level and slightly less Wise Industrial relations directors of big companies Are trying to make themselves self important by settling at company level. A regular Rule in British Industry has been big Means More Industrial Trou ble. In plants with More than workers seven out of eight report some strikes or go slows during the course of a Normal year. In plants with less than 100 workers two out of three do not report any trouble at any time. This policy go for Industrial Plant bargaining has even worked in at least two of the giant nationalized industries. British steel had a crazy nation wide strike at the turn of 1979 1980, at a time when it was losing million a Day. The workers were sur prised that the nationalized Industry did not surrender to a nation wide strike and that when they got Back to work they found plans Well advanced for closing some of their biggest loss making plants. Two of the big steel plants in Wales were making Especial losses and steel Headquarters were deciding which to close. At that time a ton of steel in the two plants took 10 Man hours to make versus five in in order to avoid closure the work forces at the two plants volunteered to drop restrictive practices and accept voluntary redundancies. With a much lower work Force both Are now producing More steel with a productivity rate per ton of 5.7 Man hours and 4.6 Man hours respectively. Fear of the sack some of the same advances have been achieved under fear of the sack at British Leyland. The two groups of workers now on strike in Britain Are two of the least usual groups the mild Bank workers and the unpopular civil servants. The Banks made larger profits out of High interest rates last year and the Chancellor of the exchequer thought that one of the few popular tax in creases in his March budget would be the retrospective tax he imposed on Banks Windfall profits. But Bank work ers had expected to get an above the inflation rate raise from their profit making employers this month and they Are furious they cannot have it. Civil servants have had a near to of per cent raise in the past two years because of the ridiculous comparability system under which previous governments had agreed to pay them. Under this civil servants themselves Drew up lists of other people s salaries to what they thought their pay should approximate the graduates among them thought they should have salaries like merchant Bankers who frequently lose their jobs in competitive markets rather than vicars who have the same sort of Job Security As civil the government is willing to pay the grossly Over manned civil service Only a seven per cent wage raise this year after their enormous past raises. The civil servants have aimed their guerrilla strikes particularly at 1 tax collections 2 defence establishments even during the Poland scare and 3 customs and immigration officials especially on the troubled Irish Bor they have been amazed to discover that the British people do not approve of strikes even in and regard 2 and 3 with contempt. Mines spew out tons of pollution Manitoba is a formidable polluter of the atmosphere. Two Northern mines can spew up to tons of Sulphur dioxide Gas daily. This is a staggering amount. These figures Are in tons not in pounds. It has never really been examined but Manitoba has the dubious distinction of being a top disseminator of Sulphur dioxide an ingredient of acid rain. In Canada the largest source of Sulphur dioxide emission is the non Fer Rous smelter Industry one that prod uces such metals As Nickel Copper Zinc and Lead. The International Nickel Inco Plant at Thompson and the Hud son Bay mining and smelting company hams at flin flon together make Manitoba no. 2 in Canada in the Dis Pei Sal of this pollutant. Sulphur dioxide Inco at Thompson May disperse As much As tons of Sulphur dioxide daily through its 500-foot stack the flin flon Plant 885 tons daily through its 825-foot stack. Currently the plants Are each Emit Ting about 700 tons daily because of reduced production. That is a startling amount of pollution. Experts and mining officials May be accustomed to these frightening Fig ures for they have been with us for some time. But the Public has a right to ask what is the potential damage of the dispersal of 4.3 million pounds of the Gas daily the disturbing answer is that the information is not available. There May be Long Range effects but there is no hard says one environmentalist. Can we afford to wait until we get the hard inform How is Sulphur dioxide formed Sulphur is present in ores. When the metals Are extracted at High tempera Tures the Sulphur released unites with oxygen to form Sulphur dioxide. Acid rain forms when Sulphur dioxide mixes with oxygen and water vapor in the atmosphere. It Falls As mild acid in rain or Snow. The cumulative effect can be disastrous. Acid rain Drifting to Canada from american industries has devastated thousands of lakes killing fish and All organic life. The chief emissions of Sulphur dioxide in the United states come from burning Coal or Oil to produce electricity. These plants produced an estimated 19.5 million tons in 1980, compared to tons from similar plants in Canada. Canada produces 2.2 million tons of Sulphur dioxide from non ferrous industries compared to two million tons in the . Of the Canadian total tons come from the two Manitoba mines. The Issue of pollution came into the news recently with the recommendation from the Manitoba clean Environ ment commission that the flin flon Plant reduce the fallout in the area around flin flon. This order would have meant that the daily maximum emission of 885 tons would have to be reduced by 70 per cent according to the company. Such a measure would Cost Mil lion in capital construction costs and million annually in operating expenses says the company. The environment report admits that to control the emissions would require major re visions at the old flin flon Plant and would be financially As a result environment minister Gary Filmon assented to an Appeal from the company against reducing the emissions at the present time. The company has reduced pollution in the Plant in other ways. It has Cut Down the emission of dust particles of Metal mainly Copper cadmium Lead and Zinc from 27 tons to six tons daily. As for the emission of Sulphur dioxide Gas there Are no controls. The 825-foot stack was built in 1974 solely to disperse and dilute the Gas in the atmosphere. There is no question As to the Poten tial damage even though it has not been measured. Harms humans says Larry Strachan then head of air pollution control in a report dated May 1980 and presented to the clean environment commission the effects of Sulphur dioxide and heavy metals on humans plants animals soils Waters and materials is Well documented. The literature indicated that these pollutants have an Adverse effect on humans and animals can damage and kill plants and other vegetation can acidify soils and water and can act As a corrosive agent on materials the effect is degradation of the surrounding a Federal provincial vegetation and soil Survey in the flin flon area re Veals High Levels of heavy Metal contaminates at five Kilometres. It notes that arsenic Mercury and Lead Are recognized As hazardous pollutants in but their Impact on the flin flon area is not Well documented. There is a similar situation in Thompson where the allowed emission of Sulphur dioxide is much higher. The Manitoba environmental control Branch in 1975, asked for a reduction of emissions by at least 50 per cent within five years. Nothing happened. Where do the Sulphur dioxide and the other pollutants end up after Drifting through the skies is Manitoba Contri buying to the acid rain in Ontario and Over Hudson Bay this is possible because of the prevailing winds but the information is not available. We Are working with a lot of in says a government spokes Man. The government has introduced pro Grams to obtain the answers. Moni Toring stations to measure the effects on the air soil and vegetation have been set up at flin flon and Thompson since 1972. It was Only last year that stations were Sei up at Norway House and the Island Lake area downwind from the smelters to collect and assess the rainfall for acid rain. Says the spokesman. We could be causing acid rain in Manitoba but we Don t an environmentalist says the emission of 885 tons of Sulphur dioxide at flin flon is not acceptable. There should be some commitment that some thing will be done Down the however there is nothing in sight Down the Road. 4 ;