Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 7, 1987, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free january 1987 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights published seven Days a week at 300 Garlton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Donald Nicol publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller a member of the Manitoba press Council editorials muddying Hydro costs so far the Pawley government has defended a pro posed 11 per cent increase in Telephone a hike of Between nine and 30 per cent in automobile insurance and a five per cent increase for Hydro with the same that the resulting rates Are still the lowest in in the Case of Manitoba this argument does not hold water because the real costs to Manitoban Are hidden by a government subsidy to the in its last annual Manitoba Hydro said it had made a profit of million which it added to its the same report stated the prov Ince of Manitoba also confirmed that the net Cost outlay relating to the Hydro debt sustained by the province in the current year amounted to what this Means is that Hydro did not make million last but that it lost if the customers of Hydro had been required to carry the Utility entire Deb service the monthly Bill would not have averaged which Hydro lists As the lowest of ten selected cities in its rat increase but about the third highest on the in of they did pay the Manitoba Hydro customers were spared having the third most expensive electricity rates in Canada Only because they picked up the difference As the subsidy exists because of the Energy rate stabilization which came into Force in As part of the consumer rate freeze introduced by the conservative government of the when the nip government removed the rate it left in place the stabilization which requires the taxpayer to pick up the difference Between the actual borrowing costs of Hydro foreign and what the Cost would have been had the Money been borrowed in even when the subsidy is the increase in Hydro rates is More than the government Hydro chairman Marc Liesen told the Legislatures Public utilities committee that Hydro policy is to keep rate increases at or below the rate of the increase he has just announced is on half a percentage Point above the government is making it More difficult to deter mine what the actual Cost of Hydro and to determine How much of the Cost is not being recovered by the last Mays provincial budget increased government water rates to the Utility by 147 per the change will bring the government an estimated million in extra if the interest subsidy remains in the million and if the million is subtracted from the taxpayer subsidy to Hydro will drop to about per customer per the addition of even this modest Cost bumps Manitoba Hydro customers up the list of selected so that Hydro cannot claim the lowest rates in that position will go to Liesen maintains that the Hydro rate increase is necessary to rebuild reserves in Case of a not to pay for the new Limestone generating this statement should cause in the Manitoban have been told that regular at or below the rate of were necessary to Cushion the billion Cost of Limestone when it begins producing Power and when the Money borrowed to pay for it has to be transferred to the Hydro rate base and collected from now they Are told that they must pay an increase above the rate of inflation and that the increase does not even begin to pay for the new As the construction at Limestone and As the Day the Cost of the Plant will be reflected in their monthly Bills draws Manitoban need a clearer picture of what their real Hydro costs so far the government has simply added mud to the water and stirred it the blame for a Brawl the real blame for the hockey Brawl in Prague last sunday does not belong to the Canadian National Junior team which took part in the soviet team which started the referees who ignored the coaches who failed to Stop it or the International ice hockey federation which sponsored the blame belongs to All those involved with hockey As As officials or As fans who take it for granted that violence and fighting Are a Normal and acceptable part of the they Are not a Normal and acceptable part of most of the games played by most of the people in the fights occasionally break out in basketball or even Cricket has produced an occasional violent but Only in hockey until Only in hockey played by has beating up the opposing players been regarded As an acceptable strategy a strategy which has its costs in the form of penalties but not one which would put its perpetrators beyond the Pale in sporting tiny canadians learn that this is so from the moment they begin watching hockey on if they play the most of them Are taught implicitly or by their coaches and those who have professional ambitions know unless they have immense natural they must be ready to fight to get some know that the ability and willingness to fight will get them professional jobs even when their hockey talents Are severely All this taste for violence in Canadas most popular National sport fits oddly with Canadas National self canadians Are constantly being told that they Are More honorable and More peaceful than the people of other nations and especially than the we Are told unlike the Ramb besotted we understand the Virtues of reason and we forget that Canada gave the world both rambo and the Young men who went to Prague last week to fight for their country behaved honorable according to what they had been they beat up the american team before the puck was even dropped and went on to win that they allowed themselves to be enticed into a Brawl by the soviet and lost their Chance for a they came Home with their Heads High because they had done the Manly thing and stuck by their they deserve no but the nation which taught them those values ought to do some loss leaders in insurance in the last annual report published by the Manitoba Public insurance the then reported that the corporations general insurance although influenced by the same Nega Tive trends which have affected the property and casualty insurance gained greater Public acceptance during the As the number of new policies increased by per what Laufer did not say was that the main reason Pic sold so much More general insurance was that its prices were significantly lower than those of its private included in these attractive prices were discounts of up to 20 per cent for older the minister responsible for John buckles now says the corporation is looking at an increase in while the minister mentions no specific Pic president John Silver has suggested that the increase will be Between 10 and 20 per in Pic is considering cutting the seniors Dis count by on top of the new higher the reason Given by the minister is that the corporation is losing while no figures have been published for last years in the past two years that have been reported pics general insurance division lost the last year the division made any Money was in when it showed a profit of since getting into the general insurance business in the government has Only hinted at any social development reasons for its there have few references to providing insurance to people who would otherwise be unable to buy and the seniors discount has been mentioned As an assistance program of sorts for the Pic has not been talking too much about these things for several simply because the division has been accumulating losses if not made up through future rate will eventually become the responsibility of the the Manitoba society of seniors has predicted that the reduction in the Pic discounts will Force people to shop around for their pics policy of undercut Ting private company rates through the accumulation of deficits has reduced its Manitoba is not a particularly attractive insurance since no com petition at All is allowed in the automobile insurance Pic with its los leaders has persuaded some of its general insurance competitors that this is Mimi stir fish Story hoaxes scientists Jasper the puckish Sor of physics with a Jolly View of naturally Doest to throw barbs at the August institution of science when he feels it is recently in his comments As a regular on Peter Gzowski stimulating program Morningside on he recounted a hoax on which he had an inside it was such an alluring that i called a professor at the University of to get More it is about an outlandish proposition dreamed up by a scientist to expose those who play fast and Loose with it turned out that his practical joke was based on some years a colleague of head of a University physics was critical of the Way some of the general science journals allowed dubious observations to be he came to the re Calls that there were two criteria to assure one was that whatever you were at first glance would appear scientifically possible and be discarded out of the second was that the person who wrote it had to be a figure beyond someone of status and one to be the who Mckee prefers to keep Anonymous to save him any decided to show once and for the fallacy of relying on such he wrote a letter to the journal giving an account of holidaying on an Island in the Atlantic Ocean when a severe storm to and mixed with the rain falling on the Island were fresh water this was indeed a strange phenom Val Werier Lake fish descending from the sky in an Island surrounded by Salt had such extraordinary events Ever been recorded before he asked the he signed his name rear Admiral retired from the such a title assumed a person of some standing and one with Powers of observation beyond that of the Ordinary just As says the letter was he was delighted and had a bit of a party to then he intended to write a letter to the editor admonishing him that such nonsense should be published without proper but he got caught his in the the editor wrote him stating that his letter had generated a great Deal of interest and that he was publishing two of the one was from an established Biolo Gist who had experienced the phenomenon in the another was from a geographer who several years earlier had predicted that cer Tain weather conditions would create such up currents of air As to suck Freshwater fish near the surface and carry them into the the professor never did write to the journal to Here were known scientists not Only confirming his trumped up observations but explaining in the end he began to wonder what he had observed i do believe that this occurrence has been reported on other Occa says of practical jokes Are often found a professor of the University of Tongue in had written about a Claude Emile Jeanbaptiste he was to have lived in the Early part of the 18th Century and was a chemist and precision bottle he was reported to have supplied marked off in units of to the Royal society of England in two years ear at the age of he had written a major work Etudes which contributed to the units of volume in the metric and so his name came to denote the a Quick examination of a dictionary would have revealed that the word came from the greek a unit of the Arti Cle appeared in the Lith Issue of the International newsletters of chem ical in chemistry a new chemical journal was Stab it picked up the piece and published it in condensed it was quickly repudiated by Mcglashan of University it is almost unbelievable that so Many otherwise reputable scientists should be so Gullible As to Swallow such an wrote the editor As for the fish it was one of those tall tales that turned out to be True and Mckee insists the Story of the hoax is no overcrowding i would like to add my voice to those who have expressed concern Over the overcrowding problem at the Misericordia i am neighbor to the lady who spent eight Days in the hallway of the emergency department of that Hospital and i was responsible for summoning the ambulance which took her i cannot sufficiently express my Shock when i saw How this very private while suffering from the effects of a had to lie for so Long on an inadequate bed in what is perhaps the most Public part of the Hospital and to have her very private needs cared for without even the Benefit of a i would like to know if this Inadequacy is Peculiar to the Misericordia in corridor9 or if it is general throughout our if it is the latter then the citizens of this City should be demanding because some Day each of us could experience a like on the other the problem is Peculiar to the mis then there Are other in we need to look at How our ambulance and emergency services i would like to know How ambulance Drivers decide which Hospital to go to in an do they take stroke victims to one cardiac arrests to and so on Are they in radio Contact with hospitals or with some Central Agency so they can ascertain whether or not a particular Hospital can accept their emergency i have the in perhaps a wrong that they go to the nearest Hospital and that it is a matter of Luck whether facilities there Are overcrowded or if this is the some simple organizing and collaboration among our hospitals and ambulance ser vices could easily improve the Situa Tion and save much anguish for both patients and Hospital the lat Ter certainly cannot find such work ing conditions professionally accept this is not a criticism of the ambulance personnel but of the sys i found these people to be superbly competent and profession we also need to look at the Miseri Cordia if overcrowding is a problem we need to know there surely cannot be a Lack of a Large parking facility has just been built at this Hospital and there is something wrong when we can accommodate cars but not peo Hugh Swan Del Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters irom writers Mutt give their name and name will be used and letters Are subject to churches taxed your article tax excused if build ing used for religious role free december 28 has some inac one glaring one is your reference to Church residences As being tax of is not municipal and school taxes Are paid on the assessed value of these buildings whether they Are free standing or a part of a for Here at John Bre Beuf we built a new administrative Centre in the first floor of this the Church offices and the two top floors Are the residence for our this portion of the building is taxed like any other res and we paid just under in taxes in we pay the per cent pay Roll tax on All salaries paid to Jani priests and teach ers which in 1986 Cost the Parish an additional this tax is not assessed to the Public school teach one thing your article does not mention is that an Active Parish Church and school Are a pretty Good shot in the Arm to the Community in an economic in our our budget is approximately 000 a year for the operation of the Church and school and this Money goes to pay All the operating expenses such As lighting Telephone probably about 95 per cent of these expenses Are paid to local All of this save the government school Grant of has to be raised from the pockets of our i parishioners and we do this without professional to come out even is our great nope every most people do Alize the need within themselves to they do not Only to support the budget cited but also for Many other charities which our Church such As missions in Canada and Seminary students and local causes like the Christmas cheer Coutts member of finance Marie House John Bre Beuf Parish Winnipeg dial Erebus the dial Tel bus information is for the it is nothing More than an easy Way to get the regular bus i am still standing in the cold every one Day my daughter went to the bus Stop on following in formation Given by dial Tel bus and the bus was stalled one Block Down the the Only time the information changed was when the buses stopped Kathleen Elliott Winnipeg mixed up regarding the greetings for the new year free december Premier Howard Hawleys new years message was obviously published in error under conservative leaders Gary Hilmons picture and not you say ill be darned Fred Debrecen Winnipeg truce to violence this is the special time of year when we look at what we have done and what we can do a time for personal i have a new year wish to i wish that the menfolk of Winnipeg and would declare a unilateral truce in the ongoing War Between ourselves and the women and Chil Dren around propose a one week truce on on beating physically and mentally and on raping other i am not pro posing the just seven Days when will unilaterally ease the terror we inflict every year after unilateral Means that we will not use our habitual rationale for continuing the such As she made i was drunk she was asking for aside from the tremendous gift that one violence free week would be to the children and the it could also turn out that a guilt free week would be a gift to Here Are some alternatives to our male heritage of Loving to death those around us who Are More vulnerable than we d if your usual Way of communicating is through beating their mind or then even abandon ment is a better d say i feel my cruel rage building up so i am going out to smash or beat up a Man i do not or jog ski it off or d say i have not raped you or beaten you or threatened to kill you for two and the pressure is making me i am going out to get help from my Friend or a minis Ter or a social get we All know one or two men who do not rape or beat or otherwise abuse the human beings around your nearest human resource Centre will assist you and Only you can find the courage to ask for whatever your age or Are not most of us were abused to some degree by our parents or Many of us were so consistently abused that we can not break the Cycle of abuse beget Ting abuse and by our we raise another generation of boys who will pay lip service to Equality while keeping brute Force As a final negotiating we men Are big boys now and we can declare a truce and show our children that we can control ourselves for one whole at the end of the week we May read the headline local abuse clinic staff catches up on paperwork and Gary Thomlison Winnipeg t so weve taken our first now what ;