Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 22, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published arid printed six Days a Al 300 Carlton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 Winnipeg free the Wynn pee Tribune 1890 Donald n1col publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Bilert managing editor Rudy Redekop controller editorials those unfair assessments a property tax is always it taxes the owners of property according to the supposed value of their even if a property is not producing even if the owner does not have sufficient income to pay the no amount of refining in the rules and procedures of property assessment will remove that fundamental professional appraisers can honestly disagree about the value of a property and even about the Steps that should be taken to establish its a property May have one value derived from the income it another value derived from the Cost of building an equivalent Structure and yet another value derived from prices recently paid for similar properties none of these methods is obviously More fair than comprehensibility and stability Are at least As important As fairness in property a Reform requiring vast increases in bureaucracy and record keeping in return for a Small gain in fairness would not put the on further the rules and procedures should be simple and Clear enough that the individual property owner can understand his rights and can argue with the on a reasonably equal footing and without hiring professional about the value attributed to his the assessed value of a property should not change dramatically from year to year unless the property or the neighbourhood has dramatically perfect fairness in property assessment an elusive goal not Worth but Short of perfect the City of Winnipeg should be allowed to do a great Deal better than it does now in distributing the Burden of its property tax among its property the present based essentially on rules thumb guesses at 30 year old construction produces dramatically different assessments and hence tax Bills for similar buildings with similar Market the cites assessors have the knowledge and expertise to produce an assessment Roll with fewer the obstacle is the provincial government which has put assess ment Reform on hold pending a wide ranging that presided Over by former Premier Walter has been in Progress for two the Weir committee last year recommended consolidating the Winnipeg assessment department which does properties in City with the provincial department which does properties elsewhere to form a new assessment Agency jointly controlled and financed by municipalities and the the committee is still thinking about what rules the new Agency should the Winnipeg system has produced absurdities by slavishly following a formula related to replacement Cost while ignoring Market the British Columbia government reformed assessments Over the last three years and produced absurdities of a different sort by slavishly following Market value when a speculative Bubble inflated real estate school boards and municipalities reaped Windfall revenues without altering their tax rates while with no change in their properties or their personal Circum found their taxes sharply the present system in Winnipeg has the merits of stability and relative property owners know that their assessments will not change suddenly for reasons beyond their the City is not Given automatic tax increases through the impenetrable Workings of the assessment department if the councillors wish to raise the they must do so openly and honestly by raising the a Homeowner of not pleased to learn that someone else in a similar House is paying much less but he knew or could have known what the assessment was when he bought the unless he bought it Brand he would not be any More pleased to find that his taxes could be raised annually by the vagaries of the real estate the government and its assessment review committee should not aim for a drastic upheaval in the property tax it is a workable system with a few they should aim to smooth out the wrinkles that produce the interest rate Tim bomb painfully High interest rates have already prompted a outburst of indignation on the part of homeowners who fear they will lose their As a report in this newspaper on saturday pointed that could be nothing compared with the Tim bomb which is due to explode in the near a study prepared for the Federal housing minister warns Over the next 18 the rent paid by the average Canadian will rents will soar because the interest rates paid by the apartment owners have risen just As much As those paid by As the apartment owners Roll Over their and As new leases come the increased Cost of the mortgages will be reflected in the adding vastly to the number of canadians who will find themselves in prime minister Trudeau dire those hardest hit wih be the mostly Young who live in the newer apartment most landlords will probably be Able to make the increases stick because tight Money has led to cutbacks in apartment construction and Low vacancy even those in provinces which retain rent control will not be spared because rent control Laws generally allow landlords to pass on higher that fact illustrates the scale of the problem which the Federal Cabinet faces As it tries to come up with Relief for those hardest hit by High interest any Broad program of interest rate Relief for homeowners would be vastly unfair because it would simply amount to a Transfer of Money to homeowners paying astronomical mortgage payments from apartment dwellers paying astronomical since Many homeowners at least have an equity in their that could mean subsidies from the most needy to the less the rights of soldiers the department of National defence will probably Appeal an Alberta decision permitting a Manitoba Soldier to get bail under the National defence he was the decision by the Alberta court of Appeal in effect eliminates the special control military such As the armed forces and the have had Over their the Manitoba Soldier was found guilty of trafficking in a prohibited drug and was sentenced to one year in jail at the Canadian forces detention Centre in he appealed the but discovered because he was a member of the armed he was denied the right to apply for bail which he could have applied for had he been a the Soldier put his Case before the Alberta court of which in a two Toone in his the Soldier be eligible for release in and his Appeal will not Likely be heard until by which it has come to my attention that some comrades Are attempting to have a More gloriously revolutionary Nice Day than other the report has prompted one Liberal Bac Bencher to demand that the government implement a two edged one that would help renters As much As the problem with that approach is since everybody is either an owner or a there is no place to find the Money to finance the that Means apart from very limited programs to help a very limited number of most canadians can expect no Relief until interest rates go and they cannot expect interest rates to go Down until inflation moderates and the pressure on the Canadian Dollar in the Short the government has limited room for it can put pressure on the Banks to be kind and it can promote various schemes which will reduce monthly mortgage payments slightly in return for raising the ultimate Cost of buying a it can ease interest rates Down marginally and accept a lower value for the it can provide Short term help for a limited number of people and perhaps raise the Money to do so by soaking the those will do nothing to help the vast majority of canadians who Are going to pay the Price of High interest rates in the coming Relief for them will not come until interest rates generally Are lower and that will not happen until inflation is until the Federal budget is under better until investment smarts flowing into the country rather than out until the Reagan administration is or to change the policies which first pushed rates up to their present by the time All those things canadians will probably have passed through a period of serious social time he May be free in any the decision is one that places in doubt the Validity of a Federal and it is not Likely to be left untouched by the Legal advisers to the minister of National they could Appeal the Alberta decision to the supreme court of it is a matter that might Well be settled in the highest court in the strictly controlled Organiza such As the military and the Federal police Force through their deny their members rights that they would have As these circumstances were More readily accepted in the and there were relatively few complaints about the possibility of double jeopardy for members of military have a habit of and with the attitudes of the the supreme court is the place to decide whether a Canadian has fewer rights because he happens to be employed in the defence of his speaking proper in Quebec by Frank Walker special to the free press Montreal Are difficult times for the language purists at the office de la Langue after winning the War of the except for the Odd remaining they Are advancing into much More difficult terrain the spoken language of que Here threats do not work and the enemy is millions Strong and Reward singly their Best shot you As a linguist from Mani Toba reminded legislate Lan Tell that to the officials of the they Are going to give it their Best somehow or first visually and now they Are going to make us mind our vocabulary and speak no matter what it we will of go to jail or pay fines for these we will just be not that it is our fault it is the Langlais who Are responsible for poisoning our language and debasing the thought processes which go with it is not geography or an Accident of it is the overwhelming pres ence of an alien Tongue which May be All right in its proper which is not but which allowed to flow freely into this will destroy a precious and unique this is True and very sad and certainly no one who loves this province will wish those who Are endeavouring to preserve the language anything but whatever can be brought to Bear in logic and Justice on this problem should be beginning with the Cradle and ending with the every Effort should be made to strengthen the French Lan Guage in Quebec but freezing the spoken language at a Given moment in time does not do the speech then parts company with the written word until the two become strangers to each this is what is happening in the Caribbean and i remember a fascinating conversation years ago with the editor of a jamaican the problem was just this in his paper they used school English but out on the Street another language had what were they to do when it came for example to court Testi Mony were they to in which Case what the paper reported the witness said would not be what he said and might be subject to every kind of error in shades of or should they concede was a Street language and reproduce it As far As i the problem was never it is something of which the authorities Here should be the spoken word in Quebec is not bad French because it May differ in some respects from so called Correct French or the French of it is rather a changing exercise in human reflecting at every moment a change in perception or the need for new tools to describe new draft is draft that is what makes the latest efforts of the office not Only difficult but Bor Dering on the there is no Point to a Battle Over the word it is Here to stay and calling it Ham Bourgeois not Only sounds silly but said in the right surroundings is liable to bring Down the similarly who will have the while resting in the Taverne Henri to ask for a Bierre a la pression when he Means a draft in this environment particularly a Man could earn himself a very Odd reputation by following the proposals of but even granting some purpose to the there is not even agree ment on what is Correct French and what is just for to ask for a Poulet a la Broche in the Barb a place with which i am not would Only elicit from the waitresses i am a sniff and a question Are you speaking for according to this Young who was born near Nice in a Poulet Broche is a kind of shish not a barbecued Chick still it is one of the suggestions made by office in a list of recommendations for restaurants handed out the other there Are Many More and they Are causing a Small for when the office Speaks a lot of Good especially those who need licences to earn a living or operate a become very anxious to there is nothing wrong we Fth advice and there is no penalty apparently for not following it even though official sources these Days often sound As though they Are not so much asking As telling and not so much telling As it is not pleasant to live with complaints or visits from the office and its language policemen or to find ugly phrases scrawled on your these things just As follow the proper attitude there Are 101 suggestions in the list provided for using them would according to a language office a proper practice and by which one can not Ising them would reflect the oppo i am betting on the i really cannot see a customer at three in no apostrophe now in Quebec ordering a Boeuf Marine accent please when he Means smoked it might happen but it would cause a lot of furthermore it would also produce an argument since at the charcuterie Hebra ique de known less formally and probably illegally to affix Cion does of smoked meat As Boeuf Marine Means any kind of pickled meat and not the real thing which is the Pride of the Stab set on this there is no end to the instead of drawing sensible lines and leaving what is familiar the process of change for the Sake of Chang goes on and Little stores of no importance except to their owner and customers must change identity in order to convey to the world that Quebec is French and nothing to look at Montreal today is to look at a City which does not we Are not visually what we appear to be unilingual comm we Are splendidly diverse and nothing is gained by pretending other certainly what is spoken under those so Correct signs is something different a living language adapting and adopting from there and it is Worth having and Worth protecting but what the office and others seek to give us is something Frozen in time and As unreal As school English in the telethon 1981 the Jerry Lewis telethon has be come a modern Day tradition of labor this event epitomizes the mean ing of labor bodily mental toil to strive for an labor also Means pain or is symbolic and applicable to those people whom the telethon i As i am one of those i am grateful to Jerry for the clips Jerry Lewis g great show that were used throughout the Tele they were direct and there Are Many of us in the disabled Community Here in Winni Peg who think of ourselves As people first and and As Handicap Able rather than we do not want others to do for us what we can do for i am aware that there Are people who feel that we always have our hand i phoned september 7 like thou Sands of other i had a pledge to i am a member of the disabled but i am privileged to be employable and i believe god helps those who help Marg manness Winnipeg help students i would like to thank All employers who hired University students Par time to help pay for their expensive University Winnipeg transit could also play an important part if they issued to Stu dents a photographic identification such As senior citizens Are in order for them to ride transit buses at a reduced we should encourage our Young peo ple to continue their and help them when they Are so eager to study and work for a better Bernard Tesluk Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and the authors name will be used and letters Are subject to no increase during the past two the resident taxpayers of Winnipeg have been informed that Winnipeg school division 1 trustees will receive a substantial increase in their Index in Many residents in the River East school division North East Paul and part of the Rural municipality of Clements Are of the opinion that the increase to be received by Winnipeg school division 1 trustees also applies to the River East school division the residents of the River East school division should be informed that their trustees will receive no increase in their indemnities this and have not had any increase since september the trustees of River which is the third largest school division in the believe that trustees should receive a reasonable indemnity for their but All Are of the opinion that serving As a trustee is a Public service in the interest of the education of our the Public schools act allows for each school division Board to set its rate of therefore each school division Board is responsible to justify to its residents any increase in remuneration to their elected i would Hope that the present criteria remains and As elected we will justify the Confidence of the electorate who Are responsible for us being in Allen Rouse chairman River East school Board 9 Winnipeg no involvement in a letter to the editor entitled beyond free sep tember 17 Jacques director of development aluminium company of Canada stated that Alcan has not and will not become involved in any aspect of Manitoba or Canadian the people of Manitoba should be made aware of the fact that Alcan donated to the progressive conservative this fact is reported in the Canadian elections act return for a donation can hardly be viewed As no involvement in Canadian Eugene Kostyra Winnipeg reduce interest finance minister Alan Maceachen announced recently that the interest rate on new Canada savings and on present Canada savings will Rise to per cent on november at the same he criticized the Banks for charging 20 per cent on the by its helps to keep interest rates who can blame people for wanting More than 20 per cent on mortgages the Federal government offers per cent on with no bother about arranging a mortgage or collect ing mortgage payments it makes no sense for the Bank of Canada to announce on september 10 that interest rates will go Down on half a and then on september 11 for the government to offer per cent on its the fact that the interest rate on cubs is now per cent and the Bonds Are not being cashed in at a High rate is an indication that there is no need to pay per on september there were billion of cubs if this amount remains the and sales of new Bonds equal the total will be about billion huge a saving of million in one year for the taxpayers could be made if the interest rate was reduced from per cent to 19 per Jim Cowan Winnipeg protect children i am not a just a worried in recent there have been too Many acts of violence perpetrated on our Young i was instrumental in hav ing an exhibitionist what hurts me is the apathy of apathy until an incident occurs within their own something must be done to bring the severity of these crimes and the not so Remote possibility of a personal involvement to Light for All Sauerbrei Winnipeg i sympathize but i cant do anything about the new pro i ;