Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 21, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 Winnipeg free january 1985 5 1 Winnipeg free pres 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 a member 61 the Manitoba press Council assessment squabbling the Cit province quarrel Over property assessments is not Ripe for solutions can readily be but neither mayor Norrie and his associates nor Munici pal affairs minister Andrue Anstett and his colleagues Are yet under pressure to find both sides Are laying the groundwork for a negotiation that will have to perhaps a year the City assessor is going to reassess every property in the City Over the next two that is the Law requires him to do so and he will do fairness requires him to do it because the 22yearold values now used to tax properties ensure that some property owners in Winnipeg Are paying far too much relative to Market value while others Are paying far too it is predictable also that when the new assessment Roll appears and Winni Eggers do a bit of arithmetic to find out How their taxes will there will be howls of those who find their taxes reduced or kept the same will stay very quiet and Hope no one notices those who find their taxes increased will announce destruction of the violation of the sacred values underlying democratic col lapse of Western civilization and other they will blame the politicians whom they believe responsible for their Norrie and Anstett have been hard at in their Public statements of recent trying to make the blame fall on the other Norrie is convinced that residential on the will wind up paying he proposes that the province should attenuate the effect of the reassess ment by scaling Back the share of tax Load borne by residential but that is too rough and ready a some residential especially older ones in the inner will be reassessed Down the More tax Load Norrie takes off the More he must put on the Corner grocery the shoe repair the restaurants and All the other Busin esses that employ and serve there is no magic about portioning which ensures greater Norries other solution is to let the reassessment happen but Block the resulting new assessment Roll from taking that solution would similarly deny Justice to All those property owners who Are now paying More than their fair share of City in the game of Norrie has at least appeared to be trying to mitigate the that appearance May be remembered when aggrieved prop Ert owners Start looking for someone to they May also remember that the Pawley governments municipal affairs minister was the hard Man who rejected the mayors solutions but offered none of his the right solution cannot be designed until the exact nature of the problem is once the City assessor has done his work and published a new the protest meetings will begin and the facts will be available for the authorities will then be under the of pressure that produces for the Benefit of the new democratic which will be facing not that this has anything to do with it the provincial government should be indicating a willingness to Atten uate injustices As soon As they the matter can coast for the time but the new minister of Urban As soon As Premier Pawley appoints should take a firm he should invite the cites officials to meet provincial officials and discuss possible solutions while the reassessment work he should guarantee Home owners against year year tax Bill increases Over a certain he should exude concern for the Long suffer ing Homeowner and for the injustices arising from the assessment he should plead with the mayor to join in protecting the cites Revenue base and to make the updating of assessments As painless As repeating past fresh evidence of deeply ingrained incompetence in the swollen Headquarters staff of the department of National defence in Ottawa is provided by the second rate thinking being applied there to a review of Canadas defence As an article on the Page opposite the drones on colonel by drive have Learned nothing from past they Are eager to repeat Over a decade the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau made the major policy error of cutting in half Canadas troop contribution to the defence of Western Trudeau unilateral repudiation of part of this country commitment to the North Atlantic treaty organization demonstrated his incapacity for strategic his failure to place defence issues the context of Canadas Overall National he and his close Ivan saw the military As a single wasting fulfilling no worthwhile peacetime keeping Canada involved in alliances they thought to be an easy target for decisive they was Canadas nato Canadas nato was Cut in that being As far As Trudeau dared his own preference was to abolish the commitment if it was not possible to go the whole Way of getting out of to his there was resistance in Canada to these he thought the resistance came solely from old fashioned serving or retired generals and this was a based on his Tunnel View of military forces As simply a tool to fight because he could not understand the place of a military organization in a country Economy and he misunderstood the breadth of the his troop Cut constituted a repudiation of a 20thcen Tury Canadian political tradition of favouring collective Security As a Means of sustaining International his ignorance of the significance of this tradition was equalled by his ignorance of the psychological importance to the europeans of an unwavering Canadian the europeans never thought that Cana Das alone would make the Kremlin Mammoth standing army quake in they did think that if Canada was prepared to continue demonstrating that it stood with the in peace preferably but in War if the soviets would keep taking seriously the deterrent value of natos collective european gratitude for that 20year gesture of Solidar Ity by a series of Canadian governments after natos 1949 founding was expressed in Many indirect including when Trudeau Cut Cana Das nato contingent he Cut european Confidence in Canadas commitment to collective he angered Many powerful european who Felt that he wanted to keep drawing the political and economic benefits of being in the nato club but did not want to pay the full some of them doubted that he would stand by them in a military Trudeau and Canada paid in several ways for this Jolt to Europe there Are people in and Headquarters who propose that Canada should withdraw its land contingent from Europe and replace this tangible commitment with a paper Promise to Fly Back in time of this absurd which would finish the Job of destroying european Confidence in Canada so ably begun by is being canvassed As part of a defence discussion nothing better demonstrates the intellectual bankruptcy and Blank institutional memory of and Well Andrei a another another round of peace by Macrae special to the free press London there has been a fear that the second Thatcher govern ment Koukl lose its Radical conservative its own Back benches want it to do but its Chancellor of the exchequer does Between now and the British budget on March there will be a fight Between rebellious and rather foolish conservative backbench ers versus possibly too Clever Chancel Lor Nigel the Chancellor is determined to Cut government expenditure very and the backbench ers Are determined that he should journalist because Nigel Lawson was a Fel Low financial journalist in the 1950s i have Knower Well for 30 and have recently once More begun to Admire he was the sort of journalist who Good How can politicians waste their lives by doing so Little that Means anything it was there fore surprising to me when he decided to go into politics he had matrimonial troubles at the but also sufficient personal financial Security to be Able to afford to get away from the daily under Ted Heath he would have got but he was clearly the most intellectual Man apart from sir Keith Joseph in Margaret thatchers first and she likes righting so Nigel Lawson unexpectedly finds himself As Chancellor of the and he is the sort of Man who will want to use the Post to be doing something change in his first budget the something he decided on was totally to trans form company taxation in All his measures were probably in the right and they were More sweeping than anybody sex because i have never believed that taxation is the main thing wrong with British i was not myself wildly excited about target but this years target for Nigel is to remove what he thinks is the main reason for he is quite sure that the reason is not in the 10 years after monetary de Mand in Britain Rose by around 300 per prices Rose by 298 per cent and production Rose hardly at in the Chancellor is sure that Britain main problem is that Taxa Tion is too High on the lowest paid British social Security pay for the unemployed is Between 40 per cent and 70 per cent of the after tax take Home pay of British workers on average Nigel Lawson is confident that full employment can not be restored unless British work ers have an incentive to take a lot of the jobs that ought to be available at about half average since he dare not Cut unemployment his target is very nearly to abolish the income tax paid by any worker drawing a wage below average spending cuts to have enough Money to do he will have to Cut government expenditure very he started with a Small intended step in that direction in when he tried to Cut University Grants for Middle class tory Back saying this Hurt their own refused to allow him to do minister gov Lawsons instigation unveiled a plan further to Cut local government capital expend tory re saying that local government investment should instead be in creased at a time of High a employ if Thatcher makes conces Sions to this then the Hope of changing the British fiscal system will die for the rest of this Parlia perhaps most of the British press seems to be against Lawson on this i admit to being wholly on his not Progress we would urge minister of natural resources Al Mackling to overturn the City of Winnipeg Rivers and streams committees decision to allow the construction of a Large apartment Block straddling mands Creek North of Portage while we realize that new rental housing is desperately especially in the City surely we do not have to further deplete what Little untouched land we still have in the Pursuit of this the history of Winnipeg is riddled with examples of the misuse and Elimina Tion of streams and riverbanks in the name of have we not reached the Point at which this Type of activity is no longer called we should draw the line Here and let people know that unnecessary and irreversible destruction of our rapidly dwindling natural areas will no longer be the Ideal solution would be the mands Creek Park Extension of mands Creek Park As far North of Portage Avenue As is practically this it is to be preclude future confrontations with developers in this it would also give either the City or the province the Power to prevent the Stream Valley from be coming an open As it was described in newspaper Campbell Campbell Winnipeg Esprit de corps your editorial another and botch free january 8 seems to have been written by some one who has apparently not heard of Esprit de the Man who was instrumental in the unification of the armed and who produced one uniform for All three had no understanding of the above you can Arm military people with the finest of but if that powerful will that unites service men of the same Branch is All else is for i am a naval Veteran from the second world i also spent five years in the reserves after the the naval uniform has evolved through with each part of that uniform having a significant and useful for the Black silk worn under a sailors Collar was originally used to tie around the forehead in Battle in order to absorb and also to hide the blood of wounded these traditions cannot just be thrown out and replaced with a uniform that someone decided should do for All three if people think that it is Only veterans who want the old uniforms they should attend a reunion with old style uniforms worn by vet Erans and see the deep interest shown by our Young service person this year the runs 75th Anni we Are having a big re Union in Winnipeg i for will be wearing my old blues flock t Winnipeg birthday Bertha Manitoba born Manito january arbitration Coles article arbitration offer doctors group says free january 12 cred its Derek president of the Manitoba medical with saying that the Canada health act does not contain any provisions that would Force the province to arbitrate with Section of that act clearly states that the health care insurance plan of the province must provide reasonable compensation for All insured health services rendered by medical practitioners or Section states that in any province in which extra Billing is not that paragraph shall be deemed to be complied with if the province has chosen to enter and Lias entered an with the medical practitioners and dentists of the province that pro Vides for the settlement of disputes relating to compensation at the option of the appropriate Provin Cial organizations provincial organizations that represent practising medical practitioners or dentists in the conciliation or bind ing arbitration by a panel that is equally representative of the Provin Cial organizations and the province and that has an Independent chair the provisions for binding arbitration Are clearly present in a piece of legislation that was duly passed by the government of Cana one would think that it would be reasonable to expect that govern ments would abide by the fewer should make up his mind As to whether or not govern ments can be if he feels that they can be then we have no need for the proposed Manitoba gov Ernie Numma agreement because better provisions for arbitration Al ready exist in the Canada health act and government would be expected to Honor if governments cannot be then certainly the proposed govern ment of Manito Bamma agreement is especially since it con the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to gains a clause that allows the government to cancel the agreement at any time on 30 Days notice and since it is filled with vague qualifiers referring to governments ability to pay that could be manipulated in such a Way As to influence the size of the final Manitoba doctors have already had experience in dealing with our present government Over issues re lating to binding government employed physicians had a contract with the provincial govern ment allowing them to refer disputes to they turned to arbitration on just one occasion and the government responded by dismantling the arbitration in the current referendum dealing with the proposed these same government employed physicians Are being denied a if fewer is Correct in saying that the provincial government will pass legislation to end extra Billing in the next session of the then they will do so in full knowledge that Section of the Canada health act will be called into Force and that this provision will automatically provide the doctors of Manitoba with binding arbitration that is free of faced with that the provincial government might Well decide not to ban extra As it has already stated that it is not a problem in this my Winnipeg Willits pred As i threaded through the free i right on the front soviets tred softly free january my heart heavy As is this a three should it go to my hed and will it Speed journalism is not my butter and and i dred to work in your but i would rather be ded than caught with a mistake like what is the moral when you cannot make up your own words inst Pallai Winnipeg joke City Many cities have such As Toronto the i propose one for Winnipeg and think that it has been Well Why not Call it joke City after our chief mag Istrate has certainly come up with the King of All he has refused to sit in with Alan Artinise because he claims that Artinise is supposedly in a conflict of interest coming from mayor Bill is the most hilarious thing i have Ever if Artinise is in conflict of interest May i is the position of City Council who voted themselves the largest pension Ever or the school trustees who have claimed the same salaries As councillors Jim Iverson Winnipeg conservatism i can Only shake my head in sadness after Reading the rebuttals to my recent letter dealing with some very legitimate criticisms of the Winnipeg symphony these carping Canadian often strangers in their own have to Cope with an audience that feels that Quality and International standards Are Only to be found beyond our one wonders How such writers As Mitchell or Margaret Lawrence were Ever published in the face of such so Little Canadian or Manitoban serious music is performed and widely disseminated that it is understandable such bigoted attitudes the Manitoba theatre Centre and the warehouse reap the successes of such plays As Billy Bishop goes to War and quiet in the the most important Issue that these letters raise is the incredible conservatism present in the concert going no contemporary com Poser would wish to see great euro Pean symphonic masterpieces eliminated from so Only that Fine works by Manitoba Many of whom do have an International take their rightful place William Pura Winnipeg rate reduced in the letter not justified free december 20 the writer states the Manitoba Telephone system calling card is a Quick and convenient service and certainly warrants a nominal but i suggest that the amount of operator time involved does not justify the wide Gap in rates Between customer dialled and operator handled for Calls within which make up More than 70 per cent of All Long distance the Standard sur charge for operator assisted Calls is 75 regardless of the length of although the verification process requires As much operator time As an operator dialled the sur charge for calling card Calls was reduced to 50 cents on november this reduction reflects the decrease in toll fraud Revenue losses resulting from increased calling card we Are pleased that increasing numbers of its customers Are enjoying the convenience of calling card service and that it has been possible to reduce the surcharge Barry Deakin director of marketing Manitoba Telephone system Winnipeg cuts or no in ordering you to put Down ;