Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 20, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free August t service by Peter Thomson Ottaw there is a Romance about to is therefore naturally assumed that anyone who supports re Tention of fait service is being More romantic than that was message transport minister Jeanluc Pepin delivered a he announced a cutback in rail passenger he announced that service will he reduced on 15 including one of the two daily transcontinental about 19 per cent of passenger lines Are being discontinued in the cuts will affect an estimated million passengers and railway aft i in announcing the projected the appearance of a minister being reluctantly the Federal he explained is pouring hundreds of Mil Lions of dollars into rail passenger service each it cannot afford to continue at the present therefore it was cutting Back support Tor via rail on the big losing lines to consolidate efforts on main traffic corridors where there is a reasonable Chance of passenger service becoming the decision had been taken by Cabi die transport minister and would not be referred to the Canadian transport commission to hold Public As is the usual a referral would have led to hearings that would drag on for two years before service could be and that would Cost an additional Pepin has been soundly condemned for what he did and How he did opposition transportation spokesman Don Mazankowski immediately stated that the government was acting too quickly before via had a Chance to develop anything like the full potential in rail passenger traffic and that by Short circuiting the decision it had undermined the he insisted that the massive reduction in rail service should at least have been fully debated in the with infinite Politi Cal announced the service cutback while parliament was recessed and maps dispersed for the the deed was done in the dog Days of summer when pay Little attention to government or what government is opposition Leader Joe in a move to counter the announced that the conservatives would hold their own Public hearings and that process is Well under by midweek the tories had held two Days of hearings in one Day in one Day in Sherbrooke and one Day in already the hearings Are taking a the from from civic from Busi Ness and from professional is the tory Road show promises to produce the Public attention that the governments Midsummer action was designed to the Mazankowski is that All the evidence is there is no one defending the govern ments one might judge that the railway romanticist Are having their innings while the realists Are staying that would be a dangerous Conlu there Are several reasons that one might wonder if the government is indeed following a Wise course in ing up on rail passenger service at this it should be noted that every other industrialized country is adding not rail facilities and ser Canada is the Only one going in a different a rapid increase in rail traffic in Ether countries has come about Putty because of increasing fuel in of conium was have been shielded from world fuel Canadian passenger and freight carriers have not Felt the full Impact when they and the Day is rapidly More fuel efficient Hen such As railways will gain a pet Tive whether the gain would be enough to warrant retention of rail service remains to be the Point that present transportation decisions Are being made in a make believe world of subsidized fuel a second disconcerting Factor about rail service discontinuation relates to the amount of government subsidy going into each Many years when Jack Homer was conservative transportation he produced figures show ing that air service recovers Only 35 per cent of infrastructure Auto motive transport recovers 50 to 60 per cent of infrastructure Marine transportation recovered just 20 to 25 per cent of infrastructure but railways recover Over 80 per cent of infrastructure those figures have been but no new ones have been produced to provide a different there is a danger that especially transportation will look at the hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into railway subsidies and ignore things like Mirabel Airport which loses More than million a year and has to be Force fed to keep losses from going higher than that a third reason to question the governments decision lies in the Sharp increase in rail passenger traffic in recent the trend is it just has not had time to be fully Mea even More disconcerting is the ten Dency of government officials to look upon government subsidies in terms of when the government has to put up the rather than on an investment basis where costs could be depreciated Over the life of the by showing All of the investment costs in the years immediately it is not difficult to create a frightening one which can cause politicians to i f i y w svs v transport minister Jeanluc Pepin above refused to allow debate or Public hearings on the governments decision to Cut via rails passenger so Joe Clarks conservatives Are holding some Public hearing of their own there is a worrisome feeling that the government is indeed acting in haste on discontinuing rail for it is assumed that Points losing rail passenger service will get bus in some cases that is not or if bus companies Are required to provide the they will have to be Voyageur for has 28 bus routes i Only one of which contributes to fixed the rest barely cover operating and it is questionable whether the in its decision to reduce rail passenger has fully considered the effect on other industries such As it is necessary to be a Little realistic about the huge Federal government deficit and the need to reduce spending where but there Are Many reasons to question whether a whole Sale reduction in rail passenger ser vice in the Long really a Sav Reagan moves to avoid conflict with Israel by Bernard Gwertzman the new York times Washington refusing to say whether the israeli air attack on Iraq nuclear reactor violated israels 19 year old arms agreement with the United the United states has Sig naked a decision of another avoid a confrontation with Israel at a time when the Reagan administrations diplomacy in the Middle East is still being formulated and israeli cooperation will be vital for under american the administration had grounds for cutting off future military Aid to Israel if it decided that there had been a substantial violation of the 1952 agreement bar ring use of arms for any but defensive on june president Rea through Secretary of state Alex Ander Haig had informed con Gress that a substantial violation of the Accord May have he said that a review of this entire mat Ter would be conducted and the results reported pending completion of that four f16s due to be delivered june 10 were held in the next two 14 additional planes f16s and two Fiss also delayed after Isra Els bombing of Beirut on july administration officials said tuesday that the administration had never seriously considered cutting off Aid to such a move would have Crip pled that country economically and set Back its military program significant it also would have created a Politi Cal tempest in Washington that would have been unacceptable to this admin or to any adm Nistra Given the longstanding american commitments to that is the officials that when Haig announced the results of the review tuesday he did not address the key question the study was sup posed to answer whether Israel had used the american planes in his formal Haig said consultations had been held with Israel and and he noted that the in Lebanon was he then concluded by declaring that the president has lifted the suspension of military aircraft deliveries to he refused to say if the review had addressed the question of whether Israel had violated the asked if he thought it he said that one can argue to eternity whether a Given military action was defensive or offensive in on june the Day after the israeli when the administration feared that the Arab world would turn against the United states a different note was Reagan ordered the state department to Issue a statement that condemns the israeli air the department spokesman also said the United states had no evidence that Iraq was planning to build nuclear the administration found that the reaction of the Arab world to the israeli attack was unexpectedly this reduced pressure on Washington to do More than join i a United nations Security Council Resolution that condemned the israeli Haig sent an Robert Mcfear to Israel to meet with prime minister Menachem and on july 13 a joint statement was issued that said misunderstandings arising from the raid had been clarified to the satisfaction of both on the basis of that vague the administrations plan was to lift the suspension on july but begin upset that sched ule by launching the attack on Beirut that that prolonged the suspension for another month because of the need to achieve a new ceasefire in Lebanon and because the administration did not want to Embarrass president Anwar Sadat of Egypt by releasing the planes at the time of his visit to the United states earlier this one High ranking american official said that the administration decided on what he called the minimal option to say and do As Little As possible about the israeli he said that the mood in Congress was against punishing Israel beyond the two month plane the decision was taken instead to eliminate the Baghdad raid As an Issue Between Reagan and some officials had suggested maintaining the suspension of the aircraft delivery until begin arrived on september 8 for his first talks with but that was vetoed on the grounds that the begin visit should be devoted to seeking ways of reviving the negotiations leading to self Rule for the palestinians and on longer Range Middle East the administration did not want to provide begin with an Issue such As the suspension of the delivery of the planes that would have allowed him to avoid having to Deal with other questions relating to the dormant self Rule Nego officials said that the administration still has not devised a negotiating Strat egy on the Middle and is unlikely to do so until after begin has been but they said that pressure is building from Sadat and the saudis for some initiative on the palestinian question before the end of the for proposed during his recent visit that the israelis and the Palestine liberation having agreed last month through intermediaries to a ceasefire in Leba now be pressed to recognize one the administration does not expect begin to alter his firm opposition to dealing with the but it is curious about what he will propose to Advance the if what the israeli Leader suggests fails to offer much of an the administration will have to decide what to do to keep the Middle East diplomacy officials int Ergo verment squabble hurts northerners while the provincial and Federal governments Battle about style and thousands of Northern Manitoban Are caught in the each Side believes it has a valid but one argument seems to have less Validity than the after very Little Public sympathy can be Given to a government which states that funds Are being withheld because of the Lack of political such callousness has Tittle there was no other Way to interpret i sentence in a telex sent by Federal minister Pierre be stating that the current system of funding the North lands agreement does not Comro Odate current Federal concerns about Federal presence and identity in program perhaps the Yin Cial government has claimed More credit than it deserved for share of b t is Ottawa responding in a responsible manner the nor Blands agreement has been the subject of problems since its begin Ning in when the fed eral government praised itself Tor the largest Coron fitment Ever undertaken by the department of regional economic and provincial officials were dire rotated because the under the dome Arlene Billinkoff million five year plan was considerably less than uie desired million instead of providing new initiatives for economic development in the critics said it merely con firmed Federal support for already exr listing under the the Federal government paid 60 per cent or 118 million a year and the province provided 40 per cent or ij2 despite some the program progressed relatively smoothly and in an additional Molion was with that Hopes were High As negotiations began this year on a new unfortunately the March 31 deadline passed with no cries of protest began to be heard in May and the province maintained Ottawa had the Northern affairs minister plug Gourlay said if the problem was not resolved certain programs might have to be shelved because of Lack of funds ii was All the Federal not charged nip critic Ron he believed the problem because of the provincial governments failure to bar in any Case the agreement was in june and be Bane said the current agreement would be extended on a modified while alternative ways to conduct the program were that approach sounded acceptable to finance minister Brian provided it contained the same amount of Money million and however As a political he feared a reduction in funding As the f e4eraj government attempted to deliver programs instead of funnel Ling them through the provincial sys u appeared to be part of an ego Aspe panes telex in Early August ransoms Assumption was the joint program would not tie renewed on the previous basis be cause the Federal government was not receiving enough political credit for the Money Ransom ha4 never heart a government so wat ant about its desire for publicity and Sterling icon said they should not get away with but maybe they could the Exchange of insults continued As Federal people accused the province of playing for was it holding up its funds for the a Peg Core area development program be cause of the nor winds problem on the other provincial politicians insisted their Ottawa counterparts were in b4d meanwhile Lloyd Axworthy maintained the program had not been can celled and Bis people were merely looking for a better some Money would he but it would Only be about 17 since the province had already budgeted for it was inevitable that certain programs would go out the the scene of die two governments at loggerheads provided an excellent Opportunity for the App to take the statesmanlike role with a Little poli tics writing to be Northern affairs critic Jay Cowan said the Federal governments frustration with the political Maneu Hertog by the Manitoba tories was warranted and he shared their dissatisfaction with the Way the province had used the North lands agreement for political to he wrote about Bis astonishment of the regrettable Federal but also the Vinces taking of liberties by demand ing credit for programs which had been jointly instead of the constant he urged both bios to they should put aside Petty differences and political ing because Manitoban were becom ing the victims of unnecessary conflicts and that Type of advice was not Likely to be the province has probably claimed More credit than it deserved for certain programs but the Federal government appears to be even More guilty of be Bane was recently quoted As saying that As part of a new Ottawa intended to develop its own programs and receive proper the provinces could just fit their own programs around the Federal ones and everyone would know who Are the Good those facing cutbacks in the North do not really believe there is a hero in feat but they Are Well aware of those who will the the Doon Sciury ;