Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 1, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free december 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 Pawley starts Small Premier Howard Hawleys decision to Start his administration with a Small Cabinet is not based on the same theory that persuaded Sterling Lyon to do the same thing when he was elected in Lyon much to his that Manitoba needed More than 13 Cabinet ministers to run even his Brand of lean and efficient Premier Pawley suffers from no such he has begun with a Small executive that can keep the government moving while he takes the time necessary to put the right people into the right the vacant chairs at the Cabinet table have the advantage of keeping hopeful Mem Bers of caucus on Side during the selection reducing the size of Cabinet Means doubling up the a newcomer to the inner Vic has been Given what appears to be the impossible task of producing a budget under some of the toughest financial circumstances Ever to face the at the same handling the department of labor while one of Manitoba largest the is on strike at of All the new Schroeder is probably the most thankful that the present Small Cabinet is Likely to last Only a Short Lyon put a similar Load on the shoulders of Gerry in but left it so Long that the abilities of his capable minister were stretched paper the Premier has chosen experience by naming Larry Desjardins As minister of Len Evans As minister of natural Sam Yuskiw As minister of government services and highways and Bill Uruski As minister of although Wilson who takes Over the Energy and related portfolios previously held by Don is a new Cabinet he is no stranger to the Cabinet room because of his former role As a senior govern ment the appointment of Maureen Hemphill As minister of education and Muriel Smith As minister of economic development and tourism adds two Strong ministers to the Cabinet at the same time As it re copies the growing strength of women in Manitoba political Hemphill has been associated with education for Many the appointment of one of the party More committed to the economics portfolio May not bring a song to the heart of Manitoba business it indicates that the new Premier is not As worried about keeping the Goodwill of business As was de Schreyer in when he kept the Industry and Commerce portfolio for the premiers Choice of a relative Eugene to hold Down three portfolios is significant because All three Are closely associated with the new governments Promise to re Institute a form of rent control in some appointments had Little Surprise in these included Roland Penner As attorney general and Jay Cowan As minister of Northern affairs and the there was some Surprise that Pete Adam was Given the portfolio of municipal that appointment indicated the new governments need to recognize the support Given it in the near North Region of Dauphin and surrounding neither Al Mackling nor Russ both former will get to the Cabinet table in the first round James another member of the old is also left although there Are rumours that he will be offered the speakers the Job of Cabine building involves the consideration of More than Mere questions of regional and ethnic of gender and of political balance also come into along with the need for the new Premier to demonstrate that he can make Tough personnel decisions when the need Pawley has balanced those needs with some and the obvious temporary nature of some of the initial appointments should help ensure that those ambitious members of the caucus who were overlooked this time will be on their Best behaviour in Hope of advancement in the notto Distant lets try a the housing Challenge Ottawa Rabbit was lame Eugene newly appointed As Premier Howard Hawleys minister in charge of housing and Urban de will presumably have his hands full with rent control and mortgage interest Relief during his Early weeks in the new democrats promises in those Fields contributed to their election Victory and Pawley has or dered full steam ahead on but Kostyra responsibilities will oblige him to look beyond the party program and take account of the Many forces in play in the housing the opportunities that Are open to the government to improve housing conditions and the limitations on what can be achieved by a crude or simpleminded rent control his Post As minister of consumer and corporate affairs puts him in charge of rent control As minister responsible for the Manitoba housing and renewal he is in charge of building and operating new Public housing and of Public efforts to renovate existing As minister of Urban he will be in charge of the Provin Cial alongside the Federal government and the City of to the Core area he will also be in charge of the governments other dealings with Winnipeg City whose development strategy affects the production of new housing in the the Dps election promises oblige Kostyra to come up with something to ease the anxieties of tenants faced with Large rent increases and of homeowners threatened with Large increases in their monthly mortgage pay but in designing those new he must be careful not to hasten the deterioration of existing housing or to prejudice the prospects of improving and expanding the Central Winnipeg housing Stock and of regenerating so Industrial and commercial activity in Core area an abundant Supply of rental housing provides the Best possible discipline on rent so Long As hous ing is in Short Supply so that tenants do not have the option of moving landlords will find ways of raising the Price or devaluing the if the govern ment forbids a rent a landlord can Cut Back on service or a conscientious landlord who finds he cannot cover his with a government imposed rent scale can sell the building to another landlord who will find ways to Cut Corners or whose interest costs to finance the Purchase make an unassailable Case for rent in but if comparable housing is coming on the Market at moderate then landlords will be under pressure to hang onto their even if it Means absorbing the occasional financial some of the evils of landlord tenant relations result from a landlords ability to Deal separately with each intimidating some of concealing significant information from some of the evils of rent control result from the imposition of unrealistically Low rents which do not take account of the Quality of service or maintenance or of what the tenants would be willing to both sets of evils would be mitigated if a landlord bargained collectively with All his not Only about rents but about All the terms of their both sides facing the risks of arbitration if they failed to reach coming As he does from a Trade Union Kostyra should consider How far the principles of free collective bargain ing May be applicable to landlord tenant but Over the Long the greatest favor Kostyra and the government can do for renters and Home buyers alike is to Speed the production of More housing of All the sizes and Price ranges that the private Market has difficulty the Federal government and the City Are already in preparing to Foster housing construction and renovation under the Core area Kostyra and his colleagues will want to review the provincial commit ments to that program which they have inherited from the Lyon by giving top priority to those elements of the initiative that contribute to the production of the new government will do More for the housing Market than rent controls can Ever by Leonard Shufrin special to the free press Ottawa Are there warranties on rabbits the one Allan Maceachen pulled out of his hat on budget night has turned out to be a Little bit according to the finance minister that he could Cut million from Federal payments to the prov inces next year under the established programs financing Elf arrange ment without making the provinces any the because provincial tax systems Are a percentage of the Federal by using his budget Wand to wipe out a raft of tax he would create an extra billion of provincial tax not quite but it seems he did not some one in the finance believe it or made an error in arithmetic when the budget measures were being the Rabbit which popped up in provincial treasuries turns out to be Worth Only five years when Elf was it had three components health pos secondary Edu cation and a Revenue guarantee to compensate provinces for their losses from the Early 1970s tax it is this last measure which Maceachen proposes to end in the current renegotiation of Elf for a further five in there is no connection Between that million provision and the health and pos secondary Educa Tion programs for which the other billion of Elf outlays is Only three months the communique from the annual pre Miers conference reiterated that the Revenue guarantee portion of Elf should not be regarded As a contribution to health or pos secondary Educa if the provinces lost million of Federal some programs would be bound to and the feds would certainly be that is Why it is unfortunate that Maceachen Rabbit has proven slightly sometime Between now and the end of March the present version of Elf expires and its Succes Sor is born i assume he will offer a Little something extra to those prov inces whose newfound tax revenues fall Short of their lost Elf first instalment but this time the negotiating process wont end with the new Elf that is Only the first instal because Ottawa also wants to change the conditions governing its contributions to health and pos Sec Mondary apart from indications that an end to extra Billing by doctors under medi care May be among the Trudeau government has yet to indicate what new conditions it will but it has suggested a deadline of 1983 for these program the obvious question is Why Ottawa thinks the provinces would be willing to agree to tougher program demands after it has surrendered its bargaining card by making a five year funding and the i is in the tables which appeared on budget falling behind it was Only in the first year of the new arrangement that provincial gains from Maceachen loophole plug Ging were to match their losses from the elimination of the Revenue Guaran in each of the succeeding they would fall further and further under the finance ministers propos a year from now the provinces will be facing the Prospect of a shortfall in year 2 of the new in such circumstances the makings for a Deal Are nothing helps provinces see the wis Dom of Federal program proposals quite like the Prospect of Federal Money to get them off a financial and coming up with that extra Money need not even require Ottawa to put a further Dent in its it could just involve the plugging of a few More tax loopholes in next years Bud after according to the finance departments tax expenditure a even after this years there Are still tens of billions of dollars Worth of loopholes regressive step fair taxation the Federal in its attempts to close tax loopholes for the has threatened the financial Security of millions of Ordinary canadians like the Federal government has come Down far too hard on those people who Are trying to provide for their own and their families financial in reference to the proposed tax on life insurance it should be noted that almost 80 per cent of All individual life insurance policies purchased last year were bought by people with in comes under per with respect to dental most plans Are in fact insurance for which the beneficiary pays a and not outright gifts to the employees in the the proposal to tax health and dental benefits is a regressive step that hits Ordinary workers and could eliminate Many hard won benefits that unions and employees have fought for Over the Rod Neufeld Winnipeg Allan Maceachen finance minister Allan Maceachen in his recent budget pointed to some of the unfairness that exists in our income tax system because of so called Loop our finance minister has Over looked one important area in our tax i refer to the manner in which deductions and exemptions Are handled in our tax under the present a taxpayer with a High income receives a greater financial Benefit from identical deductions and exemptions than a tax payer with a Low for let us compare the position of two Jones and both Are married and have two aged 10 and Jones earns a year and Smith earns a their total family exemption is exactly the it is on family exemption Jones because of his higher in come and consequently higher tax bracket saves at least 15 per cent More in taxes than this amounts to when one considers the Many deductions available it is Safe to predict that Jones will gain a further in tax it does not seem fair that the same exemptions and deductions produce almost of extra tax savings to Jones in comparison to surely identical exemptions and deductions should produce identical savings to every income tax should be assessed on Gross and then reduced by a specific ratio of All applicable exemptions and Abe brass Winnipeg Coronation Street the Csc cannot afford Coronation and so its faithful viewers will have to Settle for maybe we can have a whip around for the Csc because it is one of the few programs i would pay to Palles Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to linguists Benefit the judiciary misadventures suffered by Claude Aubin free september 4 in his arduous Campaign for French trials on prompt As a former member of the Quebec bar now living in to convey some personal impressions to the Legal profession of this let us look at the facts on the one no Jurist will seriously Dis Pute the straightforward fact that French trials Are a constitutional right of on the other not even the fiercest French rights activist would deny that in due to a combination of lowered share of total population and linguistic corruption plus a measure of though quite mild by world Franco Manitoban status has greatly slipped Over the years and it now hovers somewhere Between that of the English majority and that of the so called ethnic both statements have a definite unacceptable Quality to in my their accuracy does not help i submit that if the mechanical forces of history Are left to run their Blind without human intervention As it one Short term effect will be the accelerated reduction of the French canadians of Manitoba to the status of a Fate whose subjective cruelty of enhanced Twenty fold in the Case of a people whose ancestors were in great part a Cross Between native indians and the first european but it is equally apparent that the advantages of preventing this from happening Are overwhelming and would accrue to the whole in we have an advantage Over our Southern the United because of the unique role it must play in the world As the greatest economic and military Power Ever to exist on the could not afford the luxury of cultural but we can we cannot afford not to retain for our very identity rests on assimilation of our cultural variants Means our own assimilation to the american any linguist or multilingual individual will confirm that knowing another language is much More than just being Able to say the same things it brings about a net expansion of the i would above All Appeal to fellow also for a variety of hold a great part of our future in their they Are often overworked in their daily professional but loyalty to clients should not completely overshadow responsibility to society As a the same preoccupation with culture that prompts them to adorn their offices with works of Art and Daumier prints should be reflected in their social out there is now talk of training Law students in French to ensure that Legal services will become available in that language at All this is another Lon term but More in attitudes Are of Paramount we must evolve towards a situation where the Prospect of an Al French trial in Thompson will cease to be so terrifying Many had dreamed of Canada As an harmonious synthesis of the old and new worlds offering literally the Best of and the idea is in no Way repugnant to either history or the pres ent All efforts compatible with that Ideal will be greatly Reward Francois Perusse Vic president society de education Francaise hours do Quebec Winnipeg birthday John Manitoba born december poor puff with the gun in your hand did you not have anything better to do on a sunday did you get a kick out of shooting my sons pet did it make you feel Superior How do i explain to my son that a human being could be so cruel As to end the life of his warm and Fluffy puff How do i Stop his tears As he tells me that she is dead i wish you could have been in our Garden As he Knelt at her and listened As he said a prayer for june Ladobruk Winnipeg Justice system our Justice system seems to have lost its sense of balance in that emphasis is being wrongly placed to the detriment of in human especially the fundamental Freedom of the individual to Security of the person and enjoyment of and the right not to be deprived thereof except by due process of the Are held sacred by the if the fundamental right to life is apparently of such Paramount importance to Why is its denial taken lightly by the Justice system Why does a person seem to be capable of killing another person without being harshly reprimanded viewing those what does it say of a country which was settled through much sweat and when a someone who has robbed another of what he prizes so is allowed to be placed under Short term psychiatric care while the victims rela Tives and society wonder How Long it will be until he is Back on the from the results of current cases not too during the past few years three incidents the Sturgeon Creek secondary school the murder of a woman and her child in most the killing of a 64year old Man in Winnipeg have proven this two of these criminals were put under psychiatric care and Nave already been out on Day passes and the third got a two year sentence for Man it is time that the governments came to grips with this pressing it is time that instead of fighting Between themselves for Power and Money that they Stop and take a Long look at Canadas system of miss Hillier Winnipeg lost marbles Dalton Camp May be a Fine Colum nist and he is generally an astute observer of the political life of but in a recent column he makes a statement which makes me wonder if he is losing his Camp says that the conservative party could very Likely take Over the government if it were to dump Joe Clark and replace him with Premier William Premier Richard hat Premier Peter Lougheed or Brian he further suggests that it would not matter which of these gentlemen were to Lead the that they could probably toss a Coin for that it is not too hard to agree with three quarters of that but How in heavens name does he think Bryan outside of the fact that he comes from would excite the people of Canada he is suggesting As prime minister a Man who has never Field who is really an unknown to most canadians and particularly to Western canadians who has absolutely no experience in politics or in Mulron yes Only claim to Fame was an Abor Tive attempt to win the conservative leadership a few years surely some experience is necessary before a Man May become prime Coutts Winnipeg protects guilty As an Accident victim since i find that aut Opac protects the but the innocent have to suffer in order to Settle a claim for which one pays for Protection and service when in Bernard Tesluk Winnipeg ;