Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 13, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free november 7 focus it option j to Isanti Ottawa a Man with Large problems to tackle and seemingly Little room to finance minister Allan Maceachen last night managed to take a few healthy Forward Steps in his with the help of his million Energy he lopped about billion off the Federal deficit pried away some inequities in the tax sys and in the process gave about 12 million canadians a tax and he offered help to the Small businessmen and Farmers most victimized by today though now interest despite rising unemployment Fig Maceachen opted to hold firm in making the fight against inflation his top that for the to hinges largely on getting the deficit under and securing the Confidence and cooperation of Canad on the face of the budget achieved the sizeable reduction hoped for in reining in the Public spending that has been putting heavy pressure on the costs of goods and it did so while leaving in place the incentives canadians need to save and As forecast a the actions came at some Cost to the the government plan de Prives them of million in Transfer payments this though promising a million net gain through in creased then for the rest of the five year period the net gain turns into a loss for the rest of the five year with Ottawa holding Back a planned and Rais ing a Mere billion extra on their obsolete provision the bulk of funds saved by Ottawa in this new Transfer plan comes from a no obsolete Revenue guarantee provi introduced As a temporary Mea sure in 1972 that outside economic observers have been suggesting is sex but the provinces consider the Money to be and Are not Likely to take the loss particularly so since the move is coupled with a renewed budget commitment from Ottawa that it plans Touse its billion health and pos secondary Edu cation payments to bind the provinces to new National health standards and to redirect some of its education spend ing away from universities and into vocational skills the stage seems to be set for bitter Federal provincial negotiations Over the arrangements negotiations Over Revenue sharing when the 11 governments meet at the bargaining table later this tone Over substance the As contains its fair share of tone in Many As important As the audience listening to Maceachen speech would have been left somewhat in the dark As to where Maceachen was planning to obtain this years v in valid As was his promised Effort to end a series of personal tax benefits granted the these Mea sures play Little part in this years beyond the major increase in Energy revenues and the savings in provincial the bulk of his new funds comes from changes in the timing of corporate depreciation deductions an Extension of the five per cent corporate sales tax million and a reduction in the general Persona tax credit to a Stan Dard for individuals without de Joan Cohen Ottawa editor pendent spouses saving him Mil the repeal in a series of tax defer ral and avoidance measures begin to take effect in producing about in additional personal income tax the personal tax system it will create both fairer and an encouragement to More productive in vestment in the National background papers to the for that the canadians with incomes Over in 1979 managed to average in tax they used provisions in the income tax act that allowed them to defer tax or otherwise re Duce their taxable earnings for income earners in the to 000 those savings average Over decisions distorted these escape As finance department officials often distort investment Money is put out of reach of the tax Man instead of to its Best the of will always hire tax lawyers and accountants to maximize their but it makes sense to lower the Maxi mum tax rate to 50 per cent from the present 64 per where the wealthy cannot reasonably argue that the tax Burden is and then systematically remove the artificial escape one of the sad things in the budget is that it offers no Promise that the government intends to work its Way out of its deficit even with the help of its mounting returns from Energy now accustomed to Mas Sive spending May have for gotten that up to the Early 1970s balanced even budget were commonplace occurrences in our National the Federal government appears to have forgotten debt still soaring As outlined the governments spending plans show two years of Defi Cit cuts moving Down from a Peak of billion this year to billion in then the climbs granted that by inflation will have reduced the Impact of the deficit forecast for that and that even the billion will re quire continued spending restraint in the projections mean that the net Federal a Mere million in 197273 is doomed to continue its relentless climb to in 198586 the government will be spending or 20 per cent of its total just to service its this the outlay at billion is 22 per cent of total Federal it took years of in Many wasteful spending to get to that in its economic the Bud get outline is less gloomy than Are Many of today economic though acknowledging an economic continuing through the first half of it forecasts growth in real output of per cent during the and a modest recovery the forecast also sees a gradual decline in beginning this year arid continuing through with a faltering Economy reducing demand in the Market a lower rate of increase in import prices and a moderation in the Rise of food and Energy the governments acknowledging that a wide Range of views exist about the future prospects for the on which our own welfare so comes Down with a of allow growth at per cent in followed by a gradual and inflation rates moving Down to per cent for both 1982 and it forecasts an end to Europe recession next Maceachen budget statement in the not put the Best possible face on what his govern ment was offering canadians in these troubled and left the full picture to the Small print of the assorted documents that accompanied his miracles not on menu he was not expected to work Mira this budget was perhaps too late and the nation too deep into troubled times for him to accomplish and there were a few Sleights of As but the people out there in dire straights will sleep better somewhat protected from the still sparing in the housing homeowners Are a6le to Hope for direct government help if no amount of straining and adjustments in their per Sonal budget can produce the mortgage payments for which their Banks Are the minister will not get an e for Effort from the where a Long awaited encounter Over fiscal sharing is the next major item at the bargaining but most economic observers will Likely agree he did about As Well last night As a Man in a bad economic squeeze could More focus on Page 8 increased Oil revenues and Transfer payment reductions gave Allan Maceachen some Money to help homeowners and debt Ridden Rcv Charlotte Oleson the one to beat by Fred Cleverley if a Man answers the Home Telephone number listed for the progressive conservative candidate in the new Riding of do not hang and also do not presume that the voice you hear is that of the the most common problem Stan Ole son has these Days is explaining to Telephone callers that the candidate they want to talk to is his Char who took the Nomi nation away from Henry the former member for the now extinct constituency of Rock on a second has decided to Swap the Back room of political activities for the More visible role of constituency the nomination meeting pitted her against who threw his hat into the ring after another sitting con Jim decided not to seek if Stan Oleson has identity problems in this they Are not shared by his Ole sons biggest problem is convincing people she Calls on that she has not yet been elected to the legislature nor has she been appointed to Gladstone which takes in parts of the old constituencies of Portage la Rock Lake and is consid ered to be so solidly conservative that the new democratic Irwin Joel had to be recruited from outside constituency Borders and the Alex is All but out of con Oleson professes a desire for a tougher although she con cedes that Gladstone is a Good constituency in which to be a conservative Oleson could be said to be an Al female with two Louise Fraser and Viola from nearby manag ing her her party credentials Are of High including the fact that when Sterling Lyon ran in the Souri Killarney Char Lotte Oleson seconded his she arrived in the Community of Glenboro to teach school in mar ried the Man who is now the Secretary treasurer of the school and has lived there Ever she is considered to be a certain Cabinet appointee if the Lyon government is returned mainly because she is one of two women running on the conserva Tive this bothers her saying that any appointment will reflect her abilities than her but it does not bother her As much the dozens of questionnaires she has received since getting the she has ignored Many of these ques reasoning that the voters of Gladstone Are not at All interested in her answers to questions posed by such organizations As the students for Gay Charlotte Ole sons acceptance throughout the constituency is some thing that is envied a bit by the speaker last Harry he is seeking reelection in the newly enlarged constituency of and while the territory includes a slice of his old Birtle Russer it also has much of the constituency that was represented in the last legislature by Morris who has decided to Bow out of provincial the changing of Rural boundaries has a greater effect on any incumbent because of the Builtin competitiveness that exists Between Small commune while the new Virden is Predo eminently conservative Blue it contains pockets of nip where any change in conservative candidates nearly always results in More ant conservative As Graham has inherited a territory that was it is often by the antics of Morris Mcgregor often campaigned in a Man Ner that suggested he was at outs with his own he once burned Duff Roblins Campaign literature in Public because he disagreed with and in 1977 Mains treated in the company of de he once introduced Walter then walked of the saying he had More important things to it is said that Mcgregor ran one Campaign Many just As a teacher de scribed As teaching one for 27 Harry Graham got a warm Welcome in his new particularly in when he was introduced there by but he will have to convince voters that he is As Independent As Mcgregor if he wants the same degree of his nip 65yearold Maude an Arrow River District is conducting a methodical but one that few expect will have much of an Impact in southwestern it was hard to choose a Laziest gimmick the Manitoba election Campaign like the awards Given by the Canadian football Are usually at a Blackie dinner attended by All on the eve of the big election thanks to the efforts of one disgruntled Candi we can All get look at the winners before the envelopes Are ceremoniously this to protect his used a Plain Brown envelope to slip the report of the nominating committee under the office the report is More interesting than the awards because it gives the reasons for selecting the the most promising campaigner award is about to be hands by nip Leader Howard Howard staked out his intention to go after this award Early in the when he promised to take million out of our pockets and create a suitable successor to such other Laud Able ventures into the business world As Saunders King Choy foods and a publishing company whose name has All but disappeared but whose performance in spending so much Money without publishing a single Book stakes out its claim to a place in Manitoba the nominating committee usually awards this trophy on the of the Money that is Pawley must Fred Cleverley thought he was a sure Winner when he added million to create 300 jobs at Manfor and million to clean up a Small town main Street or he came close to when health minister Bud Sherman dropped Complete with a million Price to provide Universal Denti the committee was forced to seek other Pawley cinched the prize by his Promise of million to solve the interest rate problems in the it was not so much the Money that impressed the but the fact that Pawley was willing to drop the universality approach to social assistance that has been a Plank in his party platform since Tommy Douglas delivered his first fiery Pawley gets the most promising award not Only for promising but for promis ing to before handing out the just who was and who was a greedy Homeowner who had speculated on his House and deserved to be thrown to the moneylenders and the mortgage the Loose lip which went last election to none other than Sterling for his suggestion that the Best thing that could happen to flyer Indus tries would be for one of its buses to run Over de was won much ear Lier in this it will go to Harry whose Early entry in this category showed so clearly his intention Down a Campaign Oscar that others were immediately Harry even had to apolo Gize for marking one of the few times in his Long political career that he has apologized for anything he thereby convincing the awards com Mittee that he was indeed deter mined to and was not benefiting by the Progress in profanity which has gone begging for so Many finally has a it is Premier Sterling who introduced the word Damn and gave it respectability when he called the nip the no Damn Progress the committee concedes it is a Small step towards the objective of making profanity part of the election and the com Mittee suspects the Premier was coached by his St vital John the commit tee notes that a similar breakthrough was achieved by Gable in gone with the the committee respectfully suggests that proper respect be Given the Premier for this achieve Points out that the Progress made in the movies if duplicated on the election will guarantee that it will take More than a few damns Here and there to be in the running for the trophy in the the Best Riddle award goes to the Portage la Prairie How do you make Lloyd Hyde you ask him the biggest award is always saved for the the most tasteless election gimmick usually flits from party to this year there is a Clear win Wilson the nip Candi Date in the Transcona doonesbury not Only did Parasiuk produce two wheelchair witnesses to his charges against the level of private a provided health care in he cinched the award by admitting to a reporter that he knew of the situation but chose to let his witnesses continue to suffer the injustices he described because he Felt that it was better to bring the matter up during an election the awards committee has refused to consider anyone and even has bypassed the usual three envelope Rou Tine to ensure that Wilson Parasiuk the most coveted award of the the committee is aware that its refusal to nominate anyone else for the top award May open the door to critic some believed Harry Enns should get two but the com Mittee is prepared to defend its and has prepared a statement in Case the criticism gets too the statement reads anyone who thinks Wilson Parasiuk does not de serve the tasteless award in this Campaign need think Only of the Odds he he would have lost in an instant had health minister Bud with greater Access to the Handi produced not two wheelchair but a dozen to attest to the Quality of health care in the prov Calth i i thought Mph leu topic Tefft Ltd be Happy unto i i i ;