Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 29, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg frit August and sea Canton by eau aim w3c 361 Mycol publisher e tort Tiai Murray eur making of Trade duality of civil rights Liberty 6f editorials a provincial police Force progressive party Leader Sid Green is exhibiting a Knack for bran int out ideas that Merit Public his latest that of creating a provincial police Force w replace the ramp in handing out Highway traffic and engaging in other activities that do not need the degree of trailing Given the Federal Force is not Newelt deserves a new because of the increasing Cost of employing Federal manpower to do the Lite ramp has not that Long a history in until the end of the first world its was limited to Alberta and the other prov including had provincial police like All provinces except Ontario and abandoned the responsibility for policing its own Laws in favor of using the Federal police under Manitoba also followed the practice of other provinces where the larger cities retained their municipal with the exception of Winnipeg and most municipal forces in the province have and police work in these communities has been turned Over to the ramp under Long As the Well trained Federal policemen were Avail Able at reasonable the question of separate provincial and municipal forces was never seriously the Federal governments move to increase the Cost to the municipalities to 70 per cent of a figure largely determined by the Federal government itself is sufficient excuse to look again at the possibility of separate provincial and municipal v if the Cost of operating municipal for is not too much larger than the Cost of hiring the factors can be taken into cities the size of Portage a Prairie and and towns the size of Boissevain and Virden might be better served by a Force that does not change personnel every two like it or these municipalities have in fact served As Extension training locations where rookies of the ramp can be sent upon to get their rough edges burnished away by Contact with live situations rather than those in the a More permanent Force in these municipalities by its bring about a More mature attitude toward local As time goes this attitude would Benefit by accumulated experience and the on the part of the that their decisions had to be lived with longer than until the next the creation of provincial and municipal forces might Benefit the ramp As the Federal Force is entering a possibly an extended when it will be attempt ing to restore the image it had before the Mcdonald commission report became this image is not one that is Likely to be enhanced by having Federal police officers handing out traffic All of which is not to say that the present provincial and municipal contracts should be scrapped what is needed is a careful on the part of the provincial government in cooperation with the municipal of the alternatives Winnipeg City police As Green provide province wide Crimi Nal investigation services that Are equal to those now available through the costs must be As Well As the Quality of service that would be available should a change be getting on with Ottawa the leaders of the four Western Liberal parties cannot understand Why the premiers of their provinces cannot get along with the Federal they get along just when the Liberal leaders met in Regina this each of them agreed that Federal provincial problems were almost entirely the fault of the Shirley the said the premiers were 99 per cent to blame for any Little problems that might Doug Lauchlan of Manitoba complained that the premiers were unc opera Ralph Goodale of Saskatchewan said he had had a Little Chat with Federal Cabinet ministers and found them splendid open to any number of that is Good news for westerners who have Felt a Little aggrieved about the Federal government but while Nice to know that Ottawa was receptive to the Western liberals it would be interesting to know what those ideas did for suggest that the Federal government did not enhance the spirit of cooperation when it Cut Back drastically on its North lands agreement with Manitoba did he suggest that the Road to cooperation is not made More smooth by the announced determination of the Federal government to abandon joint programs with the provinces and instead to launch its own plans and let the provinces strive to catch up did any of them suggest that relations Are Likely to get a Little Sticky when Ottawa suddenly announces that it plans to Cut billion from Federal provincial cos sharing did anyone suggest that it might have been better to try a Little harder to negotiate an Energy agreement with the producing provinces rather than impose Radical changes in Energy and then spend the better part of a year picking up the pieces or did they just Tell the Federal ministers that they were doing a great Job and then purr with Contentment when the Ottawa people agreed with them it takes at least two to make a and the provincial leaders cannot be absolved from All responsibility for the present state of Federal provincial but the after do have a responsibility to speak for the people who elected without losing sight of the broader National the Western Liberal so have not been elected by they Are unlikely to be unless they abandon their Bland conviction that Ottawa is always right and the provinces Are always bringing in the sheaves the 1981 crop in the commonly used Well on its Way into the in the area where most of Manitoba wheat is the South and Only tento30 per cent of the combining remains to be and this figure dwindles with every sunny Early yield figures indicate while the Harvest is it is not As Good As was wheat for the most running about 30 bushels to the some Barley at 45 bushels to the acre and some Oats about 50 bushels to the these Are Good but not in some wheat has been affected by Root Birds have damaged some and in some humid weather has been delaying both scathing and All of which Points up the difficulty in with any the final yield and Quality of the Prairie Harvest prior to that Harvest being the figures Are when compared to those recorded last they Are encouraging when compared to predictions that were being made Early in this crop when last years drought appeared about to return for a second across the the picture the biggest wheat producing Southern has almost completed its and the hot and dry weather experienced there has produced Early and a significant Factor in today a High protein in Northern Sakatch yields will be but will suffer from some Southern Alberta is showing excellent with Early combining producing yields that Are tento15 per cent above Northern Alberta suffers from the same problem As Northern and needs Cool weather to prevent Burn this years Prairie Grain Harvest May not go into the record books on the High but it will produce yields that Are bound to satisfy Grain companies and governments scare tactics the Canadian air traffic controllers association is out to frighten us after agreeing with the Federal government to have its claims of dangerous incidents in the air resulting from the dismissal of controllers in the United states studied by teams made up of its own members and representatives of the ministry of catch has made Public an unevaluated list of incidents and demanded that flights to the United states be no one else in a responsible position in this country shares Atcas View of the the which was sharing the evaluation with the air claims none of the incidents represented a the who put their own lives and those of their passengers on the line every time they take agree with the the controllers Case is further weakened by the fact that they broke the tacit agreement for joint assessment of the so called incidents and went ahead with their own scare those tactics add to the suspicion that the aim of catch at the moment is not to make the skies safer but to frighten canadians out of their and that leads to the suspicion that the ultimate aim is to express Solidarity with their troubled colleagues in the United states and to strengthen their own bargaining position with the Federal when they Are at Canadian air controllers Are competent professionals doing a difficult and important the tragedy is when they enter the Public they manage to forfeit their Tif and that not even counting Revenue liquor control mortgage property school Board a Monitor for the editors by Frank Walker special to the free press Montreal members of the Kent commission pronounced themselves surprised at the Sharpness of the press to the commissions recon it is difficult to believe the commissions proposals for solving the problems of newspapers Are hot Only they Are also totally foreign to Canadian obliquely they do for or rather to what the crts is authorized to do in the Field of telecoms controls Are no matter How you spell them or what code words you use to describe and there Are code words aplenty in the commissions act of parliament the Core of the commissions recommendations is an act of parliament from which would emanate a press rights rights in this context meaning something much less than the rights usually envisaged when Freedom of the press is being discussed in North at any the panel would not be empowered so we Are told to interfere with what individual news papers but it could provide guidance another code word and would receive including an account of his stewardship by the Edi who would work under a the form of which would be spelled out by the the commission does not Tell us what would happen if an editor refused to submit such As any responsible editor would certainly but if the panel is to have any presumably it must have perhaps the editor would be dragged before the bar of the House of commons to answer for his or stripped of his typewriter by the or ordered before the chief Justice in the province in which he though chief justices in Canada Are not a group distinguished for their sympathy with or understand ing of press the editor chief would also have the Benefit of an advisory Council with in his own this committee would consist of two appointments by the two elected by the journal though not including the editor in three other members Resi Dent in and representative of the com the committee would discuss the objectives of the paper and the role of the As defined in his contract receive the editors annual reports and discuss them with him hold special meetings and provide the press rights panel with full minutes and conclusions of All its the idea is newspapers Are not run by committees and no newspaper would refer its confidential inhouse discussions to an outside appointed by even Assum ing that the calibre of the panel would be a vast improvement Over the calibre of persons appointed to the and there is no reason to do the principle behind the proposals is a Gross interference in the conduct of a newspaper and with Freedom of however we spell it the panel is not a mechanism for protecting the but a Means of influencing and the very curious one on the part of the commission that three Ottawa appointees would be bet Ter qualified and More honest than those who direct editorial functions at present is a belief not on Faith in the but on a cynical distrust of Threeman panel the form of the panel is it is a Threeman accepting the Normal Way of playing the political game in one member of this panel would have to come from que if precedent is any would be from leaving the the Pacific coast and the Mart times to scramble for the remaining but the by the commis Sions own must be Community and regionally oriented and in this Day and with feelings As they the idea that two representatives of Central Canada should determine the Fate of papers unrepresented on the or a minority on is typical of the Type of thinking which has this country in it is also typical of the thinking of an Ottawa the report is permeated with the curious theory that controlling editorial while calling it something determining the duties of an editor in while calling it something controlling while calling it something makes the press of this country Freer and More it does no such no editor chief would accept the idea that his conduct should be assessed by political appoint we know enough about no editor chief Worth hiring would spend his time explaining his operation to a Community judges the editor chief is responsible first and Foremost to the Community he the Community is his judge and and he should listen to but not be dictated to by if he has any and there is no reason Why he it should lie in his own charac Ter and his own certainly Ottawa in the first and the kind of people they in the should play no part in there running through the report and its not so much support for the press As antagonism to presumably the government again a very silly that the three members of the Kent commission were the individuals Best qualified in Canada to look into the problems of the it is not a Happy augury for the but personalities even if they were the the principle is wrong and the record of the crts affords ample evidence of the crts has been responsible for another commission code word and directing performance of radio in this How Many canadians believe that the rec Ord of private radio is Worth duplicating in the press the Over the has shown no serious intent of improving the press Side of it seems rather to have spent its time nitpicking Over percentages of so called Canadian to in my is to to remind or give and that is Basic to the Kent commis Sions idea of what the press in the English the Monitor is also a senior Pupil in a charged with keeping and sometimes act ing As teacher to Junior the comes closest to the commissions attitude and would be a practice with which at least the com Mission chairman would be the what the giant multinational will pay for Hydro Power is fundamental to any agreement it will make with the province on the proposed no other major Industrial process requires As great a volume of electric Power per unit of output As does it is an economic necessity to locate smelters Only where adequate Quanti ties of electric Power can be obtained at a guaranteed Low Alcan says about its it is in the interest of the people of the province to know whether this guaranteed Low Cost will also be a Good Deal for the the legislature and the citizens should examine the principles of the agreement before it is but that May not happen under the present policies of disco this is a special Deal for Many Rea there should be full disclosure to dispel any suspicions of the govern ment being anxious to attract Industry and so not bargaining hard enough on its greatest Alcan will be Manitoba biggest using 10 per cent of present installed Don minister of Energy should study the Alcan Deal Val Werier says that information cannot be revealed at present because one can not negotiate in the Public that May be but guidelines for such negotiations should be Public knowl Why should not the information be examined by a commit tee of the legislature Manitoban re member the disastrous results of Chur chill Forest industries when the government kept the details secret even after it was the Alcan agreement May not be made Public before it is there will be discussion in the legislature when amendments Are made to the Hydro act and the water Power act to accommodate very Likely All the basics will come out in the course of the says there will be an Opportunity in the legislative process to have a thorough but As Craik the agree ment May be made before the Legisla Ture in that the legislature will be dealing with a fait or Craik notes that this is not the usual Deal where Power is sold directly for a Alcan wants a minority ownership of a Power and the Money advanced will be to calculate the Alcan is to Advance Money in terms of 1981 dollars As an Craik says the figure mooted May be million in inflated costs by the time the smelter comes into operation in a few assuming that Al cans interest costs on this Money ire f 100 million then this amount will be divided by the number of kilowatt hours to establish the Price per kilowatt Power Cost Craik says that Alcan May be paying 30to40 Mills for Power com pared to the consumer now paying 22 the Mill rate is calculated by dividing Hydro Revenue by the number of kilowatt hours the Cost of any new Power Plant today should be in the neighbourhood of 40 a tile in addition to using the Alcan interest costs to calculate the other changes will include water rentals from the Hydro fees for management of the Plant and transportation of will there be any provision for Esca lation of rates to take of inflation that one of the additional charges and it has not yet been says Craik did not reveal the other charges being Limestone has been mentioned As the Plant in which Alcan would president of a later Plant is now being at downstream from Lime Stone on the Nelson we May want Limestone for our selves and for the Sale of Energy to be says declares Blachford the Way we ire looking at its going to be a Good thing for if that is the Why will not All the cards be put on the table it is a reasonable Assumption that Alcan will seek special in locating in Manitoba at the invitation of the Alcan will have to pay a great Deal More in transportation costs in locating in Alc Nowns and operates 14 smelters across the of which six Are in it also has interests in five other smelters through related All of them Are by Ocean connections for cheaper transport of the raw from Australia the May come from Australia and be refined there or in Japan before being shipped to Manitoba from the West it will mean rail transport of about Miles an expense not encountered Manitoba would have the first Inland aluminium the Issue of the Price of Power is an integral part of the yet the government is isolating it and discus sing it in Why should this not be considered along with the Environ social and economic aspects of the development these topics will be the subject of environmental assess ments with Public hearings on the guidelines for the assessments and then Public hearings on the assessments the Power Price Cawwa be a Sepa says one whether the Alcan project is Good for Manitoba must be the sum of plus and minuses associated with the the Hydro Price is a logical part of the one authority says in Sakatch according to its the Issue of the Power Sale and the special circumstances involved would be the subject of an environmental Impact Alcan is getting special consider it is the Only user Given the Opportunity to invest in a Power this will provide capital for but it will also give Alcan substantial tax advantages in being Able to write off the this advantage to Alcan be considered in the bargaining we dont consider says 9 Hydro officially we Are not aware of Alcan is considering All is Manitoba doing so Are the interests of the province being safeguarded Over the Long term these issues should be subject to discussion by a legislative committee and not after the is ;