Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 27, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press saturday june 7 the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from readers. Writers must give their name and address. The author s name will be used and letters arc subject to editing. Readers forum education fund picture Black it is obvious the new education support program has done Little to reduce inequity in How we collect school funds. Total property tax rates Are still High still vary greatly Between divisions and still press most heavily upon the poorer homeowners and ten ants. The major change is that we Are paying much More to the province and correspondingly less to the local Divi Sion. By percentages we Are indeed to 1967. But collecting Money is Only half the Story How it is paid out is equally crucial. Some trustees have complained bitterly that the 1981 Grants help them less than their neighbors. Just wait until next year when the full effects of recent legislation become Clear when teachers and trustees alike realize that what we thought we saw is not what we Are going to get. In presenting the esp formula last january the minister made much of How it insulates a division with declining enrolment against a Sharp drop in Grants. This would be achieved by paying about per Pupil up to 75 per cent of last september s enrolment and Only for each additional Pupil. It sounded Good for those who expect a loss of students bad for those who expect a gain. Minister of education Keith Cosens did not reveal until May that the entire program will be funded in direct pro portion to the total provincial enrol ment. For 1982 the province will pay out the 1981 amount adjusted for changes in the consumer Price Index and in Overall school enrolment. For instance if the Cost of living rises 12 per cent and enrolment drops four per cent total school Grants will go up Only 7.52 per cent. This makes no sense on the Provin Cal scale because everyone knows costs do not go Down As rapidly As enrolment. We cannot scuttle a course because of one Pupil fewer and we cannot reduce the classroom tempera Ture a third because Pupil count Falls that much. In fact heat costs a great Deal More this year than last because fuel prices Are climbing much faster than the Chi. Per Pupil costs also Rise much faster than the Chi chairperson Mira Spivak recently pointed out that despite vigorous budget cutting Winni Peg s per Pupil costs have risen 120 per cent in the past six years. This greatly exceeds the Chi increase of about 80 per cent. It makes even less sense at the division level for if some divisions really Are protected against the effects of declining enrolment others must be correspondingly punished for main Taining theirs. Since the total funds Are firmly capped in proportion to total enrolment any division which gains can do so Only at the expense of others. This legislated formula fixes How much will be available Long before school boards approve and submit their budgets. It May help Board planning to know the worst in Advance but it is surely depressing to realize that government support is completely unrelated to what trustees believe they need to spend. A second threat lies in the absence of any guarantee of How much the prov Ince will put into education funding from general Revenue. What govern ment pays to school divisions comes from two sources general Revenue income and sales Federal trans Fer payments and the provincial prop erty tax. Since 1973 there has been a guarantee that 80 per cent of school Grants would come from general reve nue now the province can further reduce its present 65 per cent contribution merely by again raising its property tax rates. The present government did not fore see All the difficulties created by the changed Grant system but it has been very thorough in arranging to get Max. Mum political credit at minimum Cost. Maybe next year when class sizes grow and teachers Are Laid off it will be understood these Are the tragic consequences of a program advertised As generous but now emerging in its True restraint colors. Murray Smith Winnipeg nursing doubts with regard to the article of june 4, Hospital won t try to retain five nurses who quit top posts John Kuntz executive director of the Hospital stated that the administration does not expect this to affect patient care at any hospitalized person who has been seriously ill can identify the key role that nursing care has successful recovery. This care depends on the individual qualities of the nurse As Well As the support and guidance the nurse receives from her superiors. The Quality of care that the nurse is Able to provide will also hinge upon How effectively the Ward is organized and Man aged. Winni Eggers have been receiving Quality nursing care at the Victoria Hospital for a number of years. The Hospital has established a reputation among patients As Well As nurses for its progressive approach to the delivery of care. It seems tragic that those people who have been in Good part responsible for this should be encouraged by the Hospital administration to resign. Nurses in Manitoba Are not a surplus commodity especially nurses with the considerable experience and knowl Edge of these unit directors. Or. Kuntz and his administration and the Community at Large should be asking them selves a number of questions d if the structural changes in the Hospital organization to which or. Kuntz refers have been so effective Why Are the majority of nursing unit directors leaving d considering the role of the unit directors How can their resignations not be reflected in patient care d does the administration View nurses As so unessential easy to come by that they can simply allow even encourage these directors to leave or. Kuntz suggests that his administration wishes to be democratic in allowing these nurses to resign. This is an interesting concept of democracy when the majority of nursing leaders disagree they Are encouraged to leave. Perhaps this principle of democracy could be More effectively employed to resolve whatever conflict exists so that the Hospital can retain the Core of its nursing management and continue to utilize their knowledge and expertise to provide Winni Eggers with the Quality of care they expect and deserve. D. Brooks Winnipeg look again at Alcan Deal the editorial judging the Mega pro jets free press june 20 prompts me to respond. In the Light of past experience you Are quite right in questioning the value of Large resource developments and whether the Short term benefits Are Worth the Long term costs. With reference to the proposed pot Ash Deal the careful and thorough research of my colleague Vic Schroeder has shown that the memo Randum of agreement and the conservatives recent tax changes tip the Scales heavily in favor of the private sector partner International minerals corporation the contradictory and confused statements by Deputy Premier Donald Craik betray his Lack of understanding of this Issue. I wish to Deal at greater length with the Alcan proposal and raise some questions which you May or May not have considered in arriving at the conclusion a similar Deal would be a Good one for d it is generally assumed that Alcan would Purchase a minority in Terest in Limestone generating station although nowhere in the letter of intent is Limestone in return for its minority share perhaps 40 per cent of the Power from Lime Stone Alcan would put up the same percentage of the Cost of construction. Thus in order to accommodate Alcan s 40 per cent approximately 400 megawatts the government is committing Hydro to build the majority share of about 600 megawatts. Does Manitoba need any other 600 megawatts of capacity at a Cost of per haps the chairman of Hydro Kris Kristjanson told the legislative s Public utilities committee on april 2, the addition of Large installations on the Nelson River in the last few years has resulted in a surplus Power generating capacity approach ing 40 per with a present generating capacity of about megawatts this 40 per cent surplus is approximately megawatts. Hydro made the same statement to Manitoban in recent inserts mailed with Hydro Bills. If we now have the surplus that or. Kristjanson alleges Why is tire government forcing Hydro to provide a Large increase in that surplus just to accommodate Alcan in View of or. Craik s statement that the Alcan Deal is quite Independent of aluminium ingots from an Alcan Plant ready for loading onto a ship at port Alfred Quebec the so called Western Grid what does or. Craik intend to do with this sur plus Power d the regulation of Lake Winnipeg and diversion of the Churchill River were investments by the people of Manitoba and designed to increase the production of Power from generating stations on the lower Nelson. Thus every new station including Lime Stone is More valuable because of prior Public investment and a Sale of a minority interest in Limestone with out reflecting these costs amounts to an indirect subsidy to Alcan. D Power produced on the Nelson River is useless to Alcan unless it is brought to the proposed smelter. Al though transmission is mentioned in the letter of intent it is not in the Section dealing with shared costs and or. Craik told Las at a private briefing that Alcan would not be charged for transmission costs. The do transmission from the Nelson to Winnipeg represents another invest ment at Public expense and the free use of this line will save Alcan the prohibitive Cost of building their own line. D is it right to deny Manitoban the use of generating capacity forever the proposed contract Calls for a 35 year term renewable for 15-year Peri ods without limit., Hydro rates Are set by averaging the Cost of Power from Hydro s Vari Ous stations ranging from a fraction of a cent to just Over two cents per kilowatt hour. The Cost of Limestone Power has been estimated at three cents per kilowatt hour and if Lime Stone were built for Manitoba use the three cents would be included in the averaging for rate purposes. By Alcan paving itself three cents per kilowatt hour Manitoban would be denied the Benefit of those 400 megawatts when in the future Hydro builds new stations at 10 cents 20 cents or 50 cents per kilowatt hour. Surely it makes better sense for Alcan As a Good Manitoba corporate citizen to pay the same averaged Price for Power in future decades As any other Manitoba corporate citizen. The government is demonstrating its desperation for development with reckless disregard for the costs to future generations of Manitoban. It has admitted the bankruptcy of its policy of Reliance on the private sector to develop the Economy of Manitoba and has instead committed the tax payers to costly involvements in All four Meg projects. It is the same mentality of desperation that inflicted Chi on this province. By announcing the Meg projects Over a year ago the government has Little room to manoeuvre and will Promise almost any thing in order to confirm Mega projects before the impending elec Tion. Jim Walding la for St. Vital opposition Hydro spokesman Winnipeg two views of israeli raid on Iraq reactor israelis cheered the news that their planes had attacked Iraq it seems that whenever there is a change in ownership of a company regardless of its nature but particularly of a newspaper the first statements emanating from the new owners Are pious pronouncements that there will be no change in editorial policy. No Sale has put this theory to rest better than that of the free press. Prior to Kenneth Thomson s acquisition the editors of the free press in their Wisdom were very pro Israel understanding fully Why Israel behaved As she did. It appears the free press now is very disturbed that the reactor in Baghdad was demolished. Better for the iraqis to have been if Lucky enough to penetrate Israel s defences to Plant a bomb on Tel Aviv. Have the haters and pro terrorists Given any thought to what Israel s terrible retaliation would have been no Arab country now in existence would survive. Israel has done the world a favor by removing the menace of an a bomb from the hands of a madman such As Saddam Hussein who gets his jollies by watching innocent people being hanged in the Public Square of Baghdad. The world seems to have Learned nothing from the holocaust. They should listen intently when or. Begin says never Sid Goodman Winnipeg raid unjustified your editorial of june 10 entitled Israel s unjustified raid was 100 per cent Correct. I find it astonishing that some Winni Eggers will defend an offensive action of the israeli govern ment on a neighbouring country. Complaining about criticism for an unwarranted military action is clearly an instance of chutzpah. Menachem begin will Stop at Noth ing to win re election on june 30, whether it is to offend his american backers his egyptian friends or whether it is at the risk of a War in the Middle East. God save us from the Hawk like poli cies of or. Begin and those who believe in Israel right or wrong. L. Davies Winnipeg Day care service Good but not Good enough one of the most positive but least noticed aspects of the provincial government s 1980 White paper on taxation has been expansion of Day care ser vices and the inauguration of lunch and after school programs. The figures Tell the tale. After three years of near Static funding the monies available for pre school and school age child care have increased from million in 1979-1980 to a forecast million this year. Last year the prov Ince actually spent million. The number of children being served by the programs has risen from in Day care alone in september of last year to in Day care now and another 900 in lunch and after school programs. By next fall the number is expected to increase again to the conservative government s Deci Sion to spend More on Day care and to provide the first regular funding for lunch and after school programs has placed Manitoba near the top in Canada in terms of services available for children of working mothers. The government s response has been generally welcomed by child care groups but there remains one prob Lem it is still too Small in relation to the need and there Are still no Stan Dards beyond those enforced by Munici pal bylaws. The tories went into the expansion As part of the White paper s focus on assistance to the working poor. The Section of the White paper states one additional implication of the growing number of single Parent families and the higher participation rate of women in the labor Force in Manitoba is a requirement for More Day care pro Grams. There is a particular need for lunch hour and after school programs for working mothers with school age Norma Mccormick the director of the health sciences Centre Day Nur Sery is doing a study of Day care in All 10 provinces for the Federal advisory Council on the status of women. In an interview Mccormick said Manitoba s Good Day care lobby has paid off. Initially she said the government wanted to switch Day care funding so that it would be available solely to Low income working women who would otherwise be on welfare As is the Case in several other provinces. We convinced them that there would be a political backlash if they used tax Money from the Middle and upper income for a program that was specifically denied Mccormick. Said the concept of maintenance a per child space provincial Grant to All Day care centres initiated by the nip is almost unique in Canada and has meant that Manitoba May have the most Access Ible provincially funded Day care sys tem for All income Levels in the nation. While Mccormick gives the tories full credit for their moves in Day care and particularly for their expansion of the maintenance Grant system to lunch and after school programs she says the need remains far from filled. According to statistics she has com piled there Are children under the age of six in Manitoba. More than half of them have mothers who work. This translates into a need for Day care roughly 10 times the spaces Avail Able. Mccormick s Cross Canada figures Are equally dismal. For every 100 preschoolers there Are 4.1 spaces in b.c., 7.8 in Alberta 2.6 in Saskatchewan 4.6 in Manitoba 4.8 in Ontario 3.2 in Quebec 4.7 in new Brunswick 6.3 in Nova Scotia 5.1 in Prince Edward Island and Only .8 in Newfoundland. Newfoundland just provides Day care for children of single parents. Provincial Day care programs Are partially funded by the Federal govern ment which Cost shares 50 per cent of All subsidized fees. Manitoba s annual maintenance Grant of per child space for Day care and per child space for noon and after school plus Parent fees of per Day subsidized according to income do not permit paying Day care workers much More than the minimum wage. This plus the fact there Are no provincially enforced standards Means the Way chosen to control costs is at the peril of the Mccormick says. Day care has become a ghetto of poorly paid and thus poorly skilled employees with a very High turnover with no mechanism for enforcing provincial standards Day care centres Are licensed under municipal bylaws governing welfare institutions. Governments of All political stripes seem to be terrified of going into Day care in a big Way for fear it becomes another huge costly social program like health or education. But Mccormick says studies show that children do most of their learning Between birth and age five. Children who have come through the custodial kind of care most frequently offered by Day centres Are starting to show up in school with learning she continues. Yet mothers Are Between a Rock and a hard place in most cases. They have to leave their kids in situations they know not to be the Best but they Don t have the luxury of choosing not to work. Also parents feel that if the province is funding the program it must be Good. They Don t realize the province really has no the provincial government deserves full credit for its expansion of Day care to Date. But its next task clearly is to improve and enforce standards. As Mccormick Points is ironic but society would t tolerate Lack of standards in any other publicly funded institution like a doonesbury it . Ave Loose paper Ami x gosh. Eiffel Don Twarry. wipe communist Okay. I Thakill the Fressura go r1pih5. Of office ;