Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 17, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free november 1981 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion published six Days a week at 300 Carlton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 Winnipeg free press 1872 Winnipeg Tribune 1890 Donald Nicol publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller bargaining with Quebec the current episode of the constitutional serial is shaping up As yet another Trudea Levesque the Federal prime minister and the Quebec Premier Are exchanging bargaining positions through press conferences and Quebec Assembly motions As though it rested with their two governments alone to revise the agreement struck Between the Federal government and the other nine prov but unless the other or most of accept any such the whole Deal would be in danger of falling it is not yet Clear whether revising the agreement in Pursuit of Levesques concurrence is Worth the he has outlined some items that would have to be included before he would but he has also said that his list is the Bare minimum he might add other conditions As the needs of the moment or the expediency of sustaining disagreement might he has said he wants the new Constitution to provide Quebec More latitude than is contemplated present agreement to restrict both migration into the province and Access to its English he wants either a Quebec veto on constitutional amendments or the mechanism previously agreed among premiers by which Quebec would get Cash instead of service from Ottawa in any Case where the other through constitutional would auth i Rize a new Federal program which Quebec wished to keep in its own if that really is the substance of what he is an agreement including the Federal government and All provinces ought to be but Levesque also in his Quebec Assembly that the Constitution should recognize Quebec As a distinct National it May be that what he seeks fundamentally is constitutional provisions for Quebec on school language mobility and compensation for opting out which would be different from those applying to other the Burden of his argument is that Quebec situation is essentially different from that of All other provinces since it is the Homeland and the defender of the country linguistic Quebec Liberal Leader Claude Ryan has also strenuously argued for Many years that As a special should have a special status in the that would be a More difficult proposition for the Federal government or the nine other provinces to worse it May turn out that Levesques most deeply held conviction is that Quebec must not agree to his concurrence in any constitutional package would certainly put him in hot water with that element of his party whose chief aim is to remove Quebec from Conedera that element showed its strength at the party Confer ence last weekend by committing the party to fight the next Quebec election on a program of it would also be difficult for a Premier who had signed a constitutional renewal agreement to go on telling the Quebec electorate that federalism is a rigid and obsolete system in which Quebec is always the Public opinion in Quebec is telling Trudeau and Levesque to resume Settle their differences and reach a constitutional Deal both can live is therefore prudent for both men to profess willingness to As they Are for it would be extremely useful to strengthen the present agreement by getting a tenth provincial signature beneath by outlining Points of concern to Quebec on which revisions might be Trudeau is making it increasingly difficult for Levesque to refuse further the Effort to bring Quebec aboard is Worth further delay in the process and further intellectual exertions by All the but no one should be astonished if the Effort proves goodbye to the trains pending further court in the Light of decisions already made seem the reduction of Canadas passenger rail service by 20 per cent is no longer a matter of it is an accomplished in order to concentrate the expenditures of via rail in the areas Between Quebec City and Many canadians living in the Eastern and Western regions of the country have lost their Only Access to rail the fact that the reduction has taken place does not it More nor More just than it was when it was first announced last summer by transport minister Jeanluc Pepin scored a tactical first by the reduction after members of parliament had gone Home and then by scheduling it to take place soon after was called Back into the decision to reduce passenger rail service in Canada was made without so much As a nod toward the Canadian the organization authorized by parliament to regulate the operation of railways in the Public in Many of the reductions that have taken place involved lines that the Etc had and had ordered kept in service in the Public because parliament was and because the Etc was the Public was also Only through the efforts of the Federal progressive conservative which held its own Public hearings on the did the Public have a Chance to say anything at despite their unofficial these hearings produced some interesting figures especially in the Case of the Atlantic the passenger train linking Halifax and weaken the governments economic argument for because of the tactics adopted by canadians will never know whether the4 minister had firm economic grounds for each Pepin has made his decision without the help of the elected representatives and without giving the people concerned the Opportunity to express his actions Are but the minister has ignored the conventions associated with changing the Canadian transportation and did you have to ask if Start making Finouse Calls budget gets a Bare pass More than world Price Many motorists who find themselves paying More and More to fill their gasoline tanks have the mistaken belief that the top limit they will be asked to hand Over will As the politicians so often an amount equal to 75 per cent of world the fact is that Canadian depending on where they Are already paying Between 88 per and 104 per cent of world Price As measured on the gasoline pumps in the United the most recent report states that motorists Are on the cents a converting the gallon to the Canadian metric and adding 20 per cent to accommodate the difference in the value of currency in the two this works out to cents a a Survey by a major Canadian Oil company puts the average Price paid by canadians in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland at More than 43 cents a Toronto motorists pay an average of cents those on the with the exception of which has no provincial fuel pay Between cents and cents a litre and those in British Columbia Between and cents a when the Federal government Speaks of world of it is speaking of the wellhead Price of Oil and the division of Revenue that goes to the governments that own the Oil and the companies that develop Between this 80 per cent Price and what the average Motorist pays at the pump stands not Only the Industry return at the wholesale and retail but also the needs of governments have always taken the Lions share of the gasoline a situation that was tolerated for years because the Overall Price was so canadians overthrew one government that attempted to Tell the unvarnished truth about its plan to tap Energy As a major source of Public they might overthrow the government several times Over if they were told the truth that canadians Are expected to not 75 per cent of world Price for but perhaps the world Price multiplied by a Yetto redetermined Factor that represents the requirements of provincial and Federal by Leonard Shifrin special to the free press Ottawa it is certainly not a at most it rates about when i walked into thursdays where Advance copies of Allan Maii Machens budget were being Given to the the first person i encountered was a finance department n you Are going to love he the minister must read your col chances nil the chances of any budget living up to that Billing Are probably Maceachen did though in spots it came on the Federal provincial established programs financing agree he did exactly what i predicted last the Revenue guarantee provision is to be and no cuts will be made in Transfer payments for either health or pos secondary the provinces Are to be compensated for their Revenue guarantee losses by the closing of enough tax loopholes to generate an equivalent sum for their so they will have no grounds for trimming social pro i cannot claim to have predicted the loopholes Maceachen picked for but i certainly give him top Marks for his by and they were the executive specials from deductible income averaging annuities to nontaxable interest free Loans exotica completely outside the world of the Ordinary elsewhere in the income tax Ever since the Early Days of John Turners tenure As finance the Federal tax reduction provision has provided a minimum tax saving of per taxpayer increasing to High income despite being indefensible by any measure of that Bonus for the better off had sur Vived budget after budget until Maceachen felled it last thursday up to that the finance minister seemed on his Way to a perfect then he blew lower rates he applied the Money he had saved by his loophole plugging to lowering tax rates a Little bit for Middle income a lot for High income and not at All for those on the Bottom rungs of the tax he used most of the saved by ending the upper income Bonus in the tax reduction provision to create a new Bonus for married couples with Only one then he took the rest of the Money he had put it in his and sat the net result of the changes is a crazy quilt which defies any apparent the half of High income families with two for Are probably but the half with comparable incomes generated by one earner May not Middle income couples with one earner appear to be while those with two earners among Low income the one earner couples Are winners but not two earner couples with the same family in not winners one earner families that Are not meaning single Parent households Are not winners since they do not qualify for the new tax reduction and because the provision is All those poor enough to be below the tax threshold Are left out As in View of the Price hikes now com ing under the new Energy the statistics showing that without it earnings of Lowin come canadians fell More than five per cent behind inflation last and the Impact that the Reagan recession is already having on Canadian Unzem the Complete absence of any refundable tax provision in the Mac Eachen budget is it is hard to believe two years the same Allan Maceachen Casti gated the Clark government for the Inadequacy of a promised refundable Energy tax credit which would be pro Viding to a Low income family of four this for his Federal provincial moves and tax preference i give Maceachen All five available for what he did with the he rates Only Ocean Dahal of the other Dene nation claim Mil applauded i was disappointed in the article Norman Wells pipeline gets go the article indicated that certificate of Public convenience has been issued for the Benefit of the inter provincial pipe which endorses the earlier recommendation of the National Energy Board to proceed with the reason for the delay of construction is attributed to a failure on the native claims what the article does not indicate is any report on a solution in the the Federal government regards inter provincial pipelines and Imperi Al Oil limited participants in this proposed project As the primary movers in the but your article disregards the position of the Dene nation in the entire decision making it is to be hoped that the article is not indicative of a consolidation by the the corporations and the government to line up on one Side against the struggling Dene nation Menno Wiebe director native concerns mennonite Central committee Winnipeg laying pipe the Manitoba federation of labor must be applauded for the support it has Given Ken the assistant claims director who was recently suspended by the workers compensation Board for helping it is appalling that a government supposedly created to assist workers injured at their actually terrorizes its employees into working against Ken Carrol and other workers compensation Board officers who have the courage and integrity to resist their employers by helping workers get through the bureaucracy to obtain what they justly deserve should be Carrol is worthy of the support of All workers in this province and should be reinstated to his i know i would certainly feel much better know ing that someone who actually fights for us rather than against us is employed at the Leslie sp1llett Winnipeg not anti Union in response to the article Mil tie with free octo ber i do not know where Dick president of the Manitoba federation of obtained his information about Renaissance but his source is seriously in need of re the article states that mar tin said Renaissance Manitoba has started to express publicly its anti Union we Are not anti we Are pro right to our stand on the Issue is Renaissance is supportive of the concept of the right to closed shops deny that right to those who want to work in spite of Union most if not All government services represented by a Union Are closed they should be opened All essential services should be handled by binding John Dyck chairman Renaissance Manitoba Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to who benefits Oil language dead wrong it is unfortunate that Fred Clever Leys recent behind the Power has not drawn some comment from More knowledgeable people in the one can Only assume that either he has few that those who do read his offerings have Long since Given up All Hope of finding accurate material or logical conclusions in his Cleverley Basic premise that the so called agreement on the Western Power Grid has been sufficient to Start bringing the Limestone construction out of the Moth balls and to put wheels in motion to resume building the Plant As quickly As Crews can be is dead Sundance Village is being reactivated to accommodate Long scheduled work at the nearby henday con Verter contrary to what Cleverley and some others would have us there have been no tenders no contracts let and no Crews assembled As a result of this so called Manitoba Hydro weekly employee says that the Manitoba government asked Hydro to prepare schedules to permit construction to begin on Limestone generating station and associated facilities at the earliest this would mean that the Only work authorized at pres ent is the preparation of this should not be difficult because engineering and Field studies for Lime Stone have been going on for the phoney announcement appears to be just one More ploy to use Manitoba Hydro As political the Tritschler report had much to say about the desirability of More formal communications Between the provincial government and with this in one wonders How the government request was did Premier Sterling Lyon write to the minister responsible for or did he just Send an Interoffice memo one would Hope that a decision that could ultimately involve Hydro in a Multi million Dollar project would warrant some discussion at a Manitoba Hydro Board of All the errors in the Cleverley Cost calculation has to be the most he concludes that the Western Power Grid will be a Good Deal for Manitoban simply by Assum ing that Limestone will Cost about the free press carried a statement by the minister responsible for Hydro on the preceding Day that the project will Cost Cleverley claim that Manito Bas electrical Supply is dependent on a single and aging transmission line from the North is also there Are actually two lines from the Nelson River plants which Supply the bulk of Manitoba in ser vice for More than ten they Are far from aging and Are still in the process of being Cleverley has expressed concern Many times about the interest Compo nent in Manitoba Hydro expense Dol he May have noticed that it has climbed from 47 per cent in 19791980 to 52 per cent in he might wish to speculate on the Impact on Hydro finances of perhaps billion borrowed at something like 15 per Public discussion of projects such As the proposed Power Grid is Well Worth and i commend Cleverley for his persistence in writing about Energy it would be helpful if the free press would Label his offerings As opinions lest some Gullible readers confuse them with Earl Mills Winnipeg on november attended a session of the Manitoba court of the Crown had appealed a sentence which the accused had received after being convicted of dangerous the Crown was seeking incarceration for the which had hospitalized and nearly killed three the accused had driven red smashed into two motorcycles and kept on the defence lawyer managed to get some of the charges leaving Only the one of dangerous he then went on to say that the Crown had made a Promise once no a peal would be based on this the three Appeal judges threw the Case out of court and let the sentence stand a Fine of from listening to this Case i made the following observations the Crown has no business striking deals with anyone a crime involving an Automo bile should be treated no differently than a crime involving the use of a gun both Are deadly when who benefits from a Fine levied on a convicted offender the victim the court Treasury Timothy Smith Winnipeg humor the Point this is in rebuttal to the letter of Len Kaminski of november in which he condemns the comic strips redeye and tumbleweeds on the grounds of racial racial discrimination is a serious and we should do All in our Means to Stop or prevent but who is going to look at the comic strips and Analyse them for racial discrimination and other Adverse sociological aspects if one were to look closely discriminates against Middle class office workers and Hou Dennis the menace discriminates against tumbleweeds was one of the few hilarious comic is not humor the objective of the comic Page David Kroeker Winnipeg the editorial specs doves prevail free october 31 states due to a substantial oversupply of Oil in the it was possible for saudi Arabia to win its Battle for Price the fact is that saudi Arabia raised its Oil Price by a this was done immediately following Confirma Tion by the United states Senate of the Sale of Azacs and billions of dollars Worth of sophisticated weaponry to the the moderate saudis maintained opposition to the Camp David accords following the Sale of american f16s to saudi Arabia about two years saudi the worlds wealthiest can afford a powerful Oil lobby to disseminate its in the belief that the language of Oil talks louder than truth and is heard above All Elizabeth Cam Winnipeg so youve seen the Back of tru satisfied1 i ;