Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 29, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free press monday june Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published and printed six Days a week at 300 Carton Street Winnipeg r3c 3ct by Canadian newspapers company umsted Telephone 943-9331 Donald Nicol publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Burt managing editor Don t deregulate safety editorials Federal labor minister Gerald Regan is eager to Cut Down on government regulations and inspections aimed at protect ing Industrial health and safety. He would rather leave it to workers and their employers to find jointly the Best ways of preventing workplace accidents and disease. But before he throws the health and safety rules onto the deregulation Bonfire he should have another look at the recommendations of the economic Council of Canada. The Etc is All for deregulation. It wants Market forces rather than government Fiat to determine the Price of eggs the frequency of air service and the number of taxicabs in a City. But it specifically excludes occupational health anti safety from the deregulation Effort it proposes and the reasons it offers Are compelling. Employers can often Cut their own direct costs by adopting unsafe equipment materials or procedures. The costs of the resulting accidents and diseases Are borne by others by the taxpayers who pay for the doctors and hospitals who try to Patch up Accident victims by the workers compensation system that tries to make up part of the victims lost income and especially by the victims themselves. Workers in hazardous jobs Are generally unable to demand pay rates that reflect their risks because they Are unable to measure the risks indeed they May not even know they Are working with dangerous materials. Where Premium pay is offered As in mining production bonuses the result can be to encourage unsafe practices. The Etc agrees with or. Regan that worker management joint safety committees Are a promising Way of promoting safer workplaces. But it flatly rejects his View that there should be less regulating and inspecting by governments in support of health and safety. It Calls for Fuller staffing of Federal and provincial safety inspection branches. It Calls for new regulations ensuring that workers at least Are told what materials they Are working with. It Calls for National standards to bring about greater uniformity in the health and safety regulations of Ottawa and the provinces. Industrial accidents and disease impose staggering costs on the Canadian Economy in lost time medical treatments compensation claims and lost wages. But the incentives of the unregulated marketplace seem to Lead to More accidents and disease not less and consequently to heavier costs. Or. Regan has promised a package of amendments to the. Canada labor code which establishes the rules governing workplace safety in some federally regulated industries but not in railways airlines or Shl Pine. The Federal code affects relatively few workers directly but it provides a Benchmark against which provincial labor legislation is measured. Or Regan has been indicating he wants to lower the Benchmark. The economic Council of Canada has Given him grounds to think again. Justice at the customs the supreme court decision removing the onus of proving innocence from individuals charged with customs violations is Welcome on two counts. First it is a fundamental principle of Justice which has become More and More abused in recent years that a person should not be required to prove his innocence of a crime. The Burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt should rest with the official who lays the charge. Second Canada customs has been seen to abuse its privilege of being Able to charge seize and then stand Back while the individual attempts to take on the entire Federal government to prove that he is not guilty As suspected. The Powers of customs officers As practice before the decision were awesome indeed. The Law As it was written allowed customs officers who suspected that some minor item had been smuggled to seize that item and the vehicle in which it was being transported. In recent years the papers have been full of reports concerning people who did not take the precaution of having their cameras their rings or other items listed before they left the country. They often found that when they returned they were required to provide proof that they were not smuggling. Often while the proof was being sought the articles remained in the Possession of customs and sometimes were sold before the proof could be produced. The advantage that the trial by ordeal some canadians consider any Brush with customs As an ordeal gave the inspecting officers was not lost on their superiors. In Winnipeg a contingent of Canadian forces personnel return ing from Cyprus where those involved had been engaged in furthering Canada s National responsibilities was detained for several hours at the Winnipeg Airport the lieutenant governor of the province on hand to Welcome them was sent Home All because the customs department Felt the need for a personnel exercise and the troops were convenient Guinea pigs. Months later it turned out that the Only seizure made As a result of this inspection and the subsequent forced entry into locked Luggage carried by the troops was one Small knife that had been taken out of Canada to Cyprus in the first place. The supreme court decision should not make it imn Ossip to enforce Canadian customs Laws and officers should be capable of working under the same restraints that exist for other enforcement agencies in the country. Of course their work could be made considerably easier if the Federal government were to revise the archaic limits allowed in duty free goods for canadians returning from other countries. The decision however could shift the main emphasis of customs conduct in this country from harassment to intelligence the basis on which most other countries enforce customs Laws. The government Man says in our Case we re one of the Lucky ones o who Tod advantage of the Ger foam the provinces can t lose empty barns in Manitoba across Manitoba dozens of empty buildings bring a form of silent support to agriculture minister James Downey s opposition to More marketing boards. The buildings once housed flocks of laying hens in the Days before the Canadian egg marketing Agency when Manitoba producers supplied a much larger part of the Canadian Market for eggs than they do now. After two Battles in the supreme court of Canada that were part of what was termed the Chicken and egg War the regulators stepped in and the Manitoba production was Cut Back to reflect what the bureaucrats rather than the Market itself thought should be this province s contribution to Canadian egg production. Since that time egg prices have skyrocketed and while canadians get More than their fill of Catchy television commercials telling them they should eat More eggs they do not Benefit from the lower prices and ample supplies of the product where regulations do not hamper Market forces. They can Only watch in dismay As eggs Are dumped because they Are Rotten and chickens killed because they Are producing More eggs than the bureaucrats want. Oddly enough even the Farmers who Are left in the business of producing regulated eggs Are not enjoying the Prosperity of those living where Competition and Market forces do the regulating. Or. Downey has predicted correctly that if marketing boards Are put into place for hogs and cattle As the Federal minister Eugene Whelan wants to do then Manitoba producers will suffer. Or. Downey says that a National marketing Board for hogs would result in Manitoba producers being Cut Back by half a million animals a year. This he says would also damage the Economy of the province by reducing the spinoff activities that hog production is now responsible for. Quite recently a study by a respected Manitoba agricultural economist Clay Gilson found of related business activity was generated for every Dollar directly generated by the hog Industry. Or. Downey has identified stabilization payments As nothing More than consumer supported subsidies. Several studies have been completed on the results of stabilization payments and All say the Cost to Consumers is unjustified. A National hog marketing Board or. Downey has predicted would see Manitoba hog producers phased out of business. This province does not need empty hog barns to stand beside its empty poultry buildings. By Anthony Westell special to the free press Ottawa in a recent fire breath ing speech to the Canadian Council of Unity Patrick o Callaghan publisher of the Edmonton journal said that prime minister Pierre Trudeau a s cruelly seeking to establish the constitutional supremacy of the Federal government Over the provinces and that in so doing he was sowing seeds of distrust that might Flower into Western separatism. Intemperate or. O Callaghan was of course Only repeating in his own intemperate style views widely held in Canada but the fact remains that he was wrong on both counts. Or. Trudeau s constitutional proposals will strengthen the position of the provinces in confederation and it is the inability or unwillingness of or o Callaghan and others to grasp this truth and to make it known in the West that encourages distrust. The truth is that for Many years there has been uncertainty about the proper procedure for amending the British North America act the heart of our Constitution. One View has been that the Federal government has to obtain the consent of the provinces before putting before the Canadian Parlia ment a Resolution requesting the Brit ish parliament to make changes in the ban act that would affect the Powers of the provinces. Even if this were not Clear in Law ran the argument a convention had grown up which should have the Force of Law. The opposing View has been that in negotiating the system of government and writing it into the ban act the fathers of confederation clearly intended the Federal government and parliament to be supreme in Canada. Negotiation to obtain the consent of the provinces might be desirable but in the crunch the Federal parliament could act on its own is. Could ignore provincial objections and unilaterally request the British parliament to Amend the ban act As it pleased. After negotiating with the provinces for years and failing to reach agree ment on proposals for Reform or. Tru Deau decided to act unilaterally that is to take the second View that in the crunch the Federal parliament can act without provincial consent. A number of provinces went to court to argue that or. Trudeau was wrong in his View of the Law that the Federal parliament could not act without provincial consent. So far the supreme courts of Manitoba and Quebec have upheld or. Trudeau s View while the supreme court of Newfoundland has held that the provinces Are right and that their consent is required before the Constitution can be changed. Uncertainty this difference of High Legal opinion makes Clear that there is real uncertainty about the proper procedure for amending the Constitution. It is not a Case of or. Trudeau inventing some strange new doctrine and seeking to impose it on the provinces As or. O Callaghan and others seem to Sug Gest. Now this argument is before the supreme court of Canada for what should be a definitive judgment which Ever Way the court goes the provinces will wind up in a better position than before. If the court rules that or. Trudeau is wrong and that the Federal parliament needs the consent of the provinces be fore requesting changes in the ban act the position of the provinces in relation to Ottawa will be greatly strengthened. The old argument that in the crunch the Federal parliament is supreme Wil be gone and the prov inces will be seen to be equal partners with Ottawa in the process of constitutional Reform beyond any further doubt but what if the court agrees with or. Trudeau and rules that Ottawa request changes in the Constitution without provincial consent won t that place the provinces in a position of inferiority won t the court be saying that what we have in effect is a unitary state in which Ottawa rules supreme. Yes but Only momentarily. Surrender for having established the Federal supremacy under the Constitution As it stands or. Trudeau proposes at once to surrender that supremacy. He is pro posing to add to the Constitution an amending formula that will ensure that in future Ottawa without doubt will need provincial consent before making changes guarantee that never again will the Federal government and parliament be Able to override the objections of a majority of the prov inces. To put it another Way if the court decides that we Are now in effect a unitary state or. Trudeau will at once transform it into a Federal state in which the provinces will have clearly set out Powers the court has said they do not now enjoy. The truth therefore is that the result of or. Trudeau s constitutional Initia Tive will be to clarify and decentralize the Power to Amend the Constitution which is the ultimate Power in a democracy. How can or. O Callaghan and his westerners reasonably object to that maintain boards during the past few weeks there have been a lot of attacks on marketing boards in general. On june 18 a big headline really got under my hide Consumers pay for milk twice. The claim Here is that Consumers pay for milk at the store and then pay for subsidies that producers receive. The claim is not Only unfair but untrue. The opposite is much closer to the truth the consumer of milk is subsidized by the producer who accepts a lower than average income for his product. Fluid milk is not subsidized by one Penny. We producers in Manitoba Are out numbered almost we Are always outvoted. We desperately need a marketing Board to give us a fair Chance. Consumers must be aware that we have to compete with powerful multinational corporations which make and distribute imitation products and popu Lar substitutes. Recently we heard that the postal workers Are threatening to strike for an 18-per-cent increase in their wages. In the same report it was stated that their present average salary is per year with no investment. If milk producers were making anything like that kind of Money there might be some reason to criticize our Board. If we look at the average milk pro Ducer he has close to in land buildings equipment and cows. He should be making 10 per cent or More on this investment without having to endure criticism from anybody. In fact he is making about six per cent and his wage is much less than the postal workers after you deduct expenses. Try to get the postal workers to be Happy with around an hour that the milk producers receive it is in the Best interests of both Consumers and producers that boards be maintained. There May be room for improvement and we Welcome constructive criticism designed to keep us efficient. But destroying marketing boards would be a sure sign to Farmers that they should get out of producing certain products for they will be guaranteed nothing but unfavourable prices. Armand Desharnais president Manitoba milk producers Coop inc. St. Pierre Jolys Man. Letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from readers. Writers must give their name and address. The author s name will be used and letters Are subject to editing. Cheap food marketing boards desperately needed by milk producers with regard to the controversy Over farm marketing boards after 45 years in the business of supplying cheap food for the Consumers of Canada i should rank As an equal with the commission members investigating the boards. The Consumers association seems to be upset that farm marketing boards tend to increase food prices to Consumers. If the association or the commis Sion can prove that to be True then the marketing boards Are doing a Good Job. They Are there for one reason Only that is to increase the net income of the producers of eggs poultry hogs tur keys Etc in comparison labor unions get a new contract every year for higher wages Shorter hours and More fringe benefits. The result is higher costs to the consumer. The unions Are doing a Good Job in getting higher incomes for their Mem Bers at the expense of everybody else. That is what they Are there for. They did not organize to produce More per hour and insist on lower wages every year. When the egg producer or hog beef and Turkey producer is caught with an oversupply of eggs we All expect he should reduce the Price of eggs and work for nothing. If at 90 cents per dozen the producer makes 10 cents a dozen net he can make a Good living. I do not mean eight hours a Day and Only five Days a week. He is dumb enough to work seven Days a week to give the consumer a Good Deal. If you Cut the Price of eggs by five cents you reduce the producer s wages by 50 per cent. If you Cut the Price by 12 cents per dozen he not Only gets Noth ing he pays to keep his Job or goes bankrupt. If it is right for the producer to sell on the so called free Market to auction his cattle and hogs to sell his Grain to the professional gamblers on the Specula Tive Market then it must be equally right for labor to do the same. Maybe we should enshrine in the new Constitution that All canadians have an equal right to put a Price tag on what they produce be it an hour s work a dozen eggs or a farm tractor. J. Harms Mather Man. Second hand on june 19 you published an Arti Cle entitled trustees delay decision on Sites for French programs. The title is misleading As the text indicated a Deci Sion had been made. However misleading headlines aside your reporter obviously receives his information second hand and does not attend meetings. For instance the article reads that superintendent George Derenchuk recommended that the Board maintain the status quo except for kindergarten. It did not mention that this was recommended at the May 5 meeting. Your reporter failed to report that at the june 16 meeting or. Derenchuk recommended that grades 8 and 9 go to Louis Riel which was the basis of trustee bark or s motion which failed to find a Seconder. It is Well known that certain Mem Bers of the Board do not want the immersion program expanded to North St. Boniface. However there Are some members of the Board and some Mem Bers of the administration who Are doing their utmost to solve the prob lems of school rationalization in the division As a whole. C. Nyczay Winnipeg no set walks the article by Val Werier develop ment threatens unspoiled Park free press june 20 was Good and also very True. As an older resident i resent the few Young parents who were so rude about our wanting to keep Oman s Creek a Green natural area. In this Day and age of High costs it is a pity that the City Treasury cannot try to Stop foolish spending. Taxes Are ridiculous so Why borrow Money to put a Bridge and service building on a Little Creek and Park in a couple of years the building will deteriorate such As the Wolseley recreation build ing. I brought up a big family who really enjoyed the Creek. I also was a Long time Leader of girls and we used to walk around on nature hikes and engage in sports activities. Our group received a certificate for cleaning up the area. I am old but i still enjoy natural walks not set ones. We have so few open Green spaces in the City which Are enjoyed by All at All times of the year that we need to keep Oman s Park As it is. Winnifred keep Winnipeg docile Public the explanation offered by per Holt ing manager of Public affairs for the Post office in his letter entitled postal mix up free press june 6 is wanting i important respects. First the letter in question purportedly misdirected and then returned to the sender by the . Postal service could not have entered the american postal system if it had not been directed there by someone in the Canadian Post office. Second it would not have reached Nevada on the strength alone of the contraction be since that is the official abbreviated designation for the state of Nebraska. Third it seems very unlikely that the rubber stamp used to advise the sender that addresses must be in English Only could have been applied in a . Post office because it is equally unlikely that Post offices there Are routinely equipped with such Stamps. Finally a . Postal worker confronted with the state abbreviation be minus the zip code would not primarily conclude from this that the address was not in English such a letter would almost inevitably be treated As a simple undeliverable letter and would be returned to the sender without any notation As to the language of the address. It is very much to the Point that the Canadian postal service finds it Neces sary to have officials in each Region whose principal Job responsibility is to make excuses for Sloppy and incompetent service. The Canadian Public suffers at the hands of the postal service with a docility that is simply amazing. The tyranny of the postal unions and the lethargy and exhaustion of the manage ment Are universally accepted Asun changeable facts. Thus is lacking the principal requirement for Reform improvement and change. Postal patrons need not expect that the impending postal corporation will be such a change. The corporation has Long been a goal of the postal unions and no one remembers when they had any other Mission than to extort More and More Money for less and less work. . Dorosh president Central publishing co. Winnipeg birthdays mrs. Mall cent Duthie Hartney Manitoba born South end on sea England june ;