Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 23, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free january 1985 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Equality of civil rights Liberty of religion file Lyli 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 of the Manitoba press Council building in haste the hydroelectric potential of the Nelson River is Manitoba greatest unexploited Wise and prudent exploitation should bring the province wealth and new Industrial careless and imprudent As Manitoban have recently can be costly to the Consumers of electricity and to the province As a the projected Sale of Power to the Northern states Power of Minneapolis offers Manitoba some risks and some the provincial though not everyone estimates the profit from the Sale at whatever the potential the government has a in pursuing to take every step possible to minimize building Hydro stations in Advance of the demand for their output is a risky though a tempting the immediate benefits of jobs in the of the demand for supplies and and of the spinoff effects of massive amounts of Money poured into payrolls and manufacturing will become apparent the Long term Cost of premature construction will not be immediately visible but will eventually show up in the debt Load of the province and on the Power Bills of individual those risks Are present in the decision of Premier Howard Pawley to Call tenders immediately for construction of the Limestone generating the Premier says the immediate tender Call is necessary so that Limestone can go into service by 1990 order to permit the Export of firm Power to the United states in despite the fact that there is no obvious need to Start work on the Plant now in order to put it into operation by and no evident need to put it into operation in 1990 in order to make the Sale by the Premier has determined that the government must act in its haste is so in that the tenders Are being announced even before the National Energy Board has ruled that the Power can be it was Only last autumn that Energy minister Wilson Parasiuk was reacting with outrage to the suggestion that the government might try to preempt the Energy Board the timing of the tender Call can be expected to create some problems for the companies which will seek the Limestone since they will be required to invest Money in preparing tenders before the govern ment is fully committed to going ahead with the but tendering is a risky business at the Best of times no a Wink and a nudge from Parasiuk will be enough to convince them whatever the Legal everything is ready to the tendering companies might have a bigger problem complying with the governments determination to see that As Many As possible of the firms which Are subcontractors on Limestone Are Manitoba firms and that As Many As possible of the people who work on the project Are Northern that is a worthy spokesmen for Northern natives at the National Energy Board hearings complained that the governments haste in calling tenders would make it difficult for them to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the the trouble is however hard it the government is going to find it if not to preserve the integrity of the competitive bidding system while re serving the right to decide that one subcontractor should be replaced by another or that a supplier from Ontario should be replaced by one from at an attempt to apply that kind of arbitrary Power might Lead to a Legal at it is Likely to Cost Manitoba and the Manitoban who own More grasping government Manitoba agriculture Bill is Wise to Back away from his most recent Blunt warning to private lending institutions that they would have to lower farm loan interest rates to eight per cent or face legislation requiring them to do Uruski has apparently abandoned this position in favor of a farm debt adjust ment Board with some Teeth to Deal with the ten per cent of Farmers who Are in serious financial if Uruski goes ahead with his new and powerful he might direct it to look first at those Farmers who Are dealing with the provincial governments lend ing the Manitoba agricultural credit Corpora and who got notices raising the interest rates on their Loans the very Day Uruski was threatening to Force Down the rates being charged by other Uruski has described the timing of his and the arrival of the rat increase As ironic but says the new government rates Are part of agreements signed by the Farmers five years Uruski appears to be arguing that Loans negotiated with private accompanied by signed should be adjusted because they Are causing hardship while other made with proper documentation by the should stand because the agreements were signed five years the situation deserves the Manitoba agricultural credit corporation is exercising its right to adjust the rates on farm Loans every five when the Macc made the Loans in the prime rate being charged by Banks was 15 per the government loaned the Money at 11 per which was about the annual inflation the Banks Are charging 11 per inflation is Down to per cent and the Manitoba government is increasing its 11 per cent interest rate on Loans to Farmers to 13 per it is More than ironic that the Loans being revised by the provincial governments farm lending Agency fail every test Uruski proposes to apply to private instead of reducing the rate from 11 to eight per As Uruski asked private lenders to his own Agency is increasing the rate charged Farmers to 13 per a figure which is nearly eight per cent More than and is two percentage Points More than is being charged for Loans to Farmers by private Ruskis original proposal was unworkable be cause legislation can set interest rates but cannot persuade lenders to make Money available at those responsible members of the agricultural Community want nothing to do with interest rate legislation or moratoriums because they know that with such Legisla Tion their Access to credit it is curious that who appears to have gained a sudden Cotic Erh about the desperate Strait sin which some Farmers find would not know that his own Lender was in the process of raising interest rates at the same time As he was advocating a rate a rebellion of sorts by postal employees in Brandon against penalties being charged businesses in that City which do not use postal codes May As Canada Post Only a contract negotiation to As Canada Post is that the penalties Are a necessary part of the Public education process Falls a bit particularly in a Community where the equip ment needed to take advantage of coded mail has not been under postal but not i Dividu Are charged extra if they fail to include the postal code on their business the penalty for the Origina Tor of a code less business letter is five which is almost 16 per cent of the firs class letter the penalty for the should the Canada Post fail to catch the letter in time to assess the is double this in no postal machines Are available to read and sort letters according to mail for destinations outside Brandon is sorted in where machines Canada Post applies the penalties for omitting codes equally to letters that can be sorted by machine and to those that postal workers argue that charging penalties for omitting codes is the workers have asked for Public but have found that the Public is not As interested in the situation As they had if Canada Post used common sense in its the value of the complaint As a negotiating if that is what it would disappear Canada Post should reconsider its it is allowing an Issue to develop where none should the Only education program Canada Post should be supporting is one that encourages people to use codes because the machines will arrive some Day in the librarian to the world Margaret Clancy is a remark Able woman and so Are her far Flung students she has helped As a at the University of Mani that is the appraisal of Michael head of the universe Tys Elizabeth Dafoe and it is shared by people All Over the one Man working the far Northern Dew line sent her a bottle of stating he have made it without one woman enclosed a Tea bag in a letter and urged her to take a Well deserved Tea outreach award Clancy has just retired As the librarian for students taking correspondence courses and they Stem from every including such Points As Willow Saskatchewan and Happy in a she has cared for More than students with such interest and dedication that she has been awarded the University outreach award for exceptional service to the some students Are from such Dis Tant places As Lahr and Golan Heights and Nico for the University of Manitoba is the Only one that provides correspondence courses to the armed wrote Brenda from Ger Many Good Library services such As make the students re search work so much my Heartfelt thanks to All of a colleague tells of the time she slipped on the ice in 1983 and broke her that did not deter her from going to the various libraries on Campus there Are 11 to seek out requested a colleague went far beyond the Call of rather than wait for a damaged Book to be repaired she would do so herself to meet a students had Only about three weeks Between says Brenda who succeeds Clancy she would even go out of her Way and buy books out of her own she would also go to Book exchanges and sales of used Val Werier books to get a gentle person says of her work i fell into such a wonderful this depart ment of continuing education was a continuing education for its amazing How much material you can find if you look for most of her students were working towards degrees and they included natives in the social Young mounties and a Young female Miner in British co Lumbia taking an arts the correspondence students in clude those professors for of Campus teaching at such centres As the latest and1 approach is to deliver via1 a Telephone More courses when Clancy started on the Job 16 years Only 10 courses were compared to More than 20 she recalls 70 of her charges writing on la Verendrye in a history a number that taxed her resources but not her she met All thanks for wrote a Man from repulse Bay taking English now if you could just write an exam for Clancy is impressed by the human As evidenced in the great discipline and willpower required to master a course through particularly the one polio first con fined to an Iron lung and then a vibrating took courses in in literature and a Man who became a quadriplegic at the age of 20 As the result of a car was her first correspondent and he completed All available he was says mrs he typed with a contraption attached to a band on his Clancy can identify with the for one of her four sons is but she and her husband Don have regarded him As one of the Joys in life instead of he is a self fulfilling a sort of role Model for the her other three sons Are a journal Pilot and cheerful Clancy positive and cheer Ful disposition engender Happy re the Post office May be much maligned but she says most places in Manitoba get her despatches in a Day or our mail services seem to get special she says with a one student in Ellesmere Island in working at a weather was taking a course in Cana Dian a special method of was he would Call his girl Aham operator in and she would relay the request to during a mail she pressed professors teaching off Campus to take the books to different centres and despatched from there by obliging correspondence once looked Down Are regarded As firs class scholars and Are provided with the Best material the University can when they take an exam in Remote it is in the presence of some person of stature in the As at a school As one student in Africa Clancy was an elementary teacher before she started working at the she now has Many pursuits in mind taking a beginners course in car operation and maintenance calligraphy upholstering a biking tour through the Gulf is she looks Back at her librarian Days As a Heady one of great in that she has Given Manitoba the image of a place with a personal real costs i object to your editorial Cattiny compensation free january the emphasis of the that individual workers need to be motivated and coached Back to work in order to reduce compensation is ill the problem is not malingering rather it is the unsafe and unhealthy work places which cause occupational ill Nesses and the editorial is incorrect in stating that the system ultimately depends on the workers own assessment of his sic capabilities it is open to almost endless abuse the web employs a Large including its own to assess workers actual Dis Abili although As you pickets for compensation pointed the government has gone some Way to make compensation benefits More we still have a Long Way to i see Many workers compensation claim ants in my work and i have helped Many with compensation the major problem is not too Gener Ous a compensation system but rather one which does not recognize Many occupational illnesses and in we All pay for occupational ill Nesses and we pay through the medicare through Wel fare unemployment insurance and cup disability benefits for those who cannot collect workers through lost tax reve lost and the Ter Rible human Cost of the physical and emotional pain which those victims of occupational illnesses and injuries employers pay a Small por Tion of this social Cost through their compensation reducing or restrict ing the amount of their does not eliminate the additional it simply reallocates it from the employers who Are responsible for working and who profit from the labor of their now ill or injured and shifts it onto All of us who Are the victims and the taxpaying perhaps if employers had to pay the real Cost of occupational illnesses and we might see safer and healthier Lissa Donner executive director occupational health Centre Winnipeg the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to rehabilitation the injured workers association of Manitoba agrees with a num Ber of statements made in your editorial costly compensation free january d no one wants to see a worker and his family reduced to poverty because an Accident on the Job made him unable to d the majority of workers would rather earn their workplace safety and better rehabilitation techniques should Lead to fewer in juries and Shorter lapses of time from the Accident to the return to those Are the most important and also the most socially beneficial comments you we suggest that you have not entirely explained Why costs Are going they Are going up also in other industrialized seemingly More than and Many of the claims now being processed in Manitoba Date from years and even decades ago numerous irregularities and injustices were uncovered in the remarkable report of chief ramp inspector Cleve Cooper in and the present workers compensation Board and the present government cannot be held totally responsible for the costs resulting from those problems from the As you wisely rehabilitation is getting More attention than Ever but in its Early rehabilitation adds to Cost before the workers it helps Are put Back into useful employment where they can live with dignity and pay maybe enough taxes to return All such costs Backoo compensation is still cheap insurance for it is cheaper in Manitoba than in Many other but it would be helpful if the Small number of employers who have expressed dismay at possible rate in creases would accept the free press advice the Way to keep rates Low is not to deny compensation to workers who Are but to put pressure on those industries that cause the most accidents and to rehabilitate workers so they need less or Zero compensation even after an John Huta executive director injured workers of Manitoba Winnipeg facts twisted on behalf of the Board sinners of the workers compensation i would like to provide you with what the facts Are in rela Tion to certain portions of your Edito rial costly compensation free january although members of the Board of commissioners Are appointed by the government of the Day through the lieutenant governor in As a corporate body the Board does not belong to any political it inaccurate to Label the Board As new democratic at a certain Point in time As it is to Label it conservative at another it is totally inaccurate and irresponsible to state that the current Board is much More generous in payment of claims and that it tilts the system More in the claimants this implies that the provision of benefits As provided for by the work ers compensation act can be tampered with by the Board at any time it so which would be Tanta mount to the Board breaking the nowhere in the provincial Audi tors report did he Point out that the workers compensation Board is not actually supposed to distribute Bene fits More than it collects in premi this is not founded on fact and makes one wonder whether the editorial is a deliberate attempt to in respect of Fuller information to claimants about workers compensation Board rules and your editorial conveniently neglects to mention that the same is equally provided to Sonny Arrojado chairperson workers compensation Board of Manitoba Winnipeg grits to blame if the Liberal party is to get past the has been some serious rethinking must be acted upon by those so called Liberal jokers who Call themselves the liberals lost the election chiefly by their own actions and have no one to blame but them it is time for the liberals to change their attitude or they will cease to exist As a political it will be interesting to see if or How John Turner will Lead a sick party Back to an election Douglas Sinclair Winnipeg of course youre not interrupting come on ;