Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 28, 1987, Winnipeg, Manitoba Business Winnipeg free press june Page 18 stupid socialist9 finds conservative Faith in Fine print by Stephen Ostock it took 17 but the lady who read Joanne Thibault Tarot cards 12 years Back has finally been prov i see you in a tall building run Ning your own she told a Saskatoon schoolgirl at the it made sense to even though she was telling my friends they be Good mothers and so recalled recently in an i knew i could never be Happy at Home so Thibault books and volumes store is actually in the basement of a tall building Bard place mall under the Westin it would have been a bit much expecting the seer to add but the card Reader really could have impressed had she accurately forecast that Thibault would spend years As a labor organizer and negotiator before jumping across the table to become a business owner with two Book stores the other is in Southwood mall and Gross sales reaching by now that especially when you consider that the Story leading up to it began rather unceremoniously in the Day Thi Bault was asked to leave the University of for flunking the first year of a science tricks of Success her entrepreneurial adventure is summed up in some of the titles on her stores business Section but skip past Why Small Busin esses fail the 10minute entrepreneur the tricks of her Success Are More Likely to appear in what they dont teach you at Harvard business school combined with a healthy dose of Ripley believe it or she has gone from a self de scribed Union organizing 500 University of Manitoba Library employees in to running for the conservatives in the next provincial election the party she denies having a Riding in mind saying its common knowl Edge that in going to i was Only a socialist when i was Young and she but there can be no doubt she took her politics after Volunteer ing for the u of m Library negotiating she ended up As a full time staff rep for the Canadian Union of Public employees from i was a she says of her 18 months spent working for the Library 1 was deeply committed to obtaining the Best possible Deal for the employees regardless of the consequences for the the turning she came when a supervisor she respected because he ran a really Good ship told her she had terrorized every Dave free press Joanne Thibault at her Lombard place location i thought i needed to learn about the economic business spirit al making things happen one at the i Felt really had been a sleepy Little Community and All of a sudden we had taken it by storm filing holding meetings and organizing a joint bargaining committee for the i thought id been working for the employees but All of a sudden i realized How narrow my vision had she denies inherit ing her Tough Outlook from her late a powerful United steelworkers of America organizer in he went on to become president of the Manitoba federation of labor after the family moved to Winnipeg in her upbringing As the youngest of four children she Calls exception ally of love and i didst know anything about unions when i graduated from High she but she certainly knew about she gleefully tells about the time Walter Murray collegiate news the free which she helped was kicked off the school grounds in Saskatoon for being full of revolutionary i was one of those hot shot students they were glad to get rid she not your traditional sleepy that putting it any Stu Dent that skipped Grade 5 and graduated from High school at Fin Ishing it in three years must have had something on the two year stint she was certainly a ill Tell you recalls Ernest Thibault Grade 11 math shed always argue and was never willing to accept any thing at face Thibault is precisely Why the University of Saskatchewan dumped her after one year in which the Only course she managed to pass was everything had come so easily in High school i didst have to work at University was a different world at i just put in All my time talking and started hanging out with people in the three years after moving to Thibault began a two year stint As staff representative for 29 cupe locals in Western Man her disenchantment with labors View that the Federal government was pushing its Antii Fla Tion program at workers expense encouraged her to enrol in economics at the University of Winnipeg in i thought i needed to learn about the economic she hoped to pay some Bills by taking a Par time Job at the Story boo volume 2 store in Southwood she was still one credit Short of her degree when the a family offered to sell it to her parents in August i had no but when i asked to buy it they secured the Bank the first two she were absolute talk about knew nothing about what i was working Par time at the store had taught me How to put invoices in so 1 did it took a 14hour meeting just to explain the mess when she finally hired an accountant 18 months even with her Mother working in the store full time and her retired father helping Thibault lost in her first she also Learned a few when interest rates went through the roof and Book prices jumped about 30 per cent in the Spring of 1981 i took the whole front of the store and switched it Over to stuffed personalized shoe laces and Racks of terrorized everyone at university3 i owe my living to Stinky stick they became 20 per cent of my enough to make up for the Book Price books remain 80 per cent of her sales but now calendars account for 15 and novelties and cards Are at the end of her second with her parents paying off the she recorded a my perseverance came from the for someone Ive never been very Good at recalling a tax payment after her fifth year in she time to get a second store the Lombard place Loca Tion opened when classic Book the previous agreed to throw in the i saved at least she smiling at her now with three full time employ including a manager at each Thibault has an offer in for a third although she refuses to say when youre battling to go from Small to big youre battling against those who Are al ready its difficult to get your foot in the but id do it All Over the most important Quality you need to run your own business is conf that unfaltering belief you can do whatever you set out to when somebody says you your first thought their prob lem1 oilman gets bouquets and brickbats by Helen Branswell Calgary up Bob Blair smiles As he admits his leadership style has put him on the firing line More than once since he took Over the Nova Empire 17 years in the company lofty offices overlooking the winding Bow the soft spoken chairman confesses he has a bit of a vulnerability when it comes to placing Lon term goals Over Short term concerns like quarterly share Ive probably too much he in a voice that carries traces of a scottish too much Confidence in the Long term and too much inclined to build in the Short term for the which is not always the Best Way to make Money and impress one of the phases of the last year or two has been dont talk so much about the whats your earn Ings per share this Quarter building is Blairs but it May also be his Achilles the 57yearold businessman admits Nova a conglomerate with interests As diverse As heavy trucks and petrochemicals has had its share of failures mixed with its when Nova makes the right Blairs futuristic approach is called but when world Oil prices dragging the Alberta Economy Down with some of the bouquets were replaced by like the rest of Western Nova has experienced some hard times in the part few in it posted a loss the first last the Price of its Stock bottomed out around on a slide from a High of in Nova had a number of costly misses the Alaska Highway Gas the can Star Oil Sands a project to move natural Gas out of the Artie Blair we rent so much bad investments As badly timed sometimes if youre but youre right 10 years that As bad As being weve been far from perfect in some of our invest ment he risk taking is what an expanding business is All when you take the bolder you end up with some misses As Well As a Bunch of one or two Good hits cover themselves and a lot of smaller to probably too much nerve critics thought for a while that Nova had a big miss in its Petro chemicals the highly cyclical which the company entered in took a Sharp downturn about two years we had to write Down some of our he we took Large operating losses in some of out production for a Nova and Blair suffered through the and those who Lam basted the move Are changing their As the petrochemical Market swings this All the analysts Are saying its the future of the Compa cause its so Blair says with a As Novas prospects have Stock prices have now resting around Long known and sometimes scorned As a economic Blair has also take flak Over Novas decision to sell of a hefty chunk of husky Oil to Union Faith of Hong Kong and its i under the i and his a naturalized bought 52 per cent while the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce of which i is the largest individual shareholder got five per Novas 56 per cent dropped to 24 per but Blair insists conditions of the Sale mean Nova retains joint control Over Blair knows his reputation Ive been called a Canadian economic nationalist considerably and usually its not complimentary and knows that on the the Deal seems a Tad the husky situation was a Compro he freely i dont carry my convictions to the Point of we should have All of every thing All of the some might say that was a step backward in respect of Canadian economic i think what weve really done is strengthened a Canadian company by bringing in some additional capital behind Novas Canadian enough that i dont have to look Over my shoulder about having a foreign he says we dont need to apologize to anybody for working with International capital in one of our with the Union Faith Blair thinks the medium sized husky can enter the league currently reserved for the multinationals and husky going nowhere but big Ger but it takes a lot of he i thought we had a better Chance of getting up into the full size if we had someone else with a lot of capital standing behind As Well As he says Nova will continue to Back husky and to expand in the Field of tax Reform keeps specialists in business Blair risk taking the company will also push Nova Tel a joint venture with Alberta govern ment telephones into the cellular Mobile Telephone but what does stargazing reveal for Bob Blair that Nova probably look for a new chairman for i really like he says with a i think the Opportunity to build is so important that it should Only be occupied by people who really want to so ill keep on building Here As Long As i think that in doing it As Well As any alternative i could think but in not possessive about by Mario Possamai Toronto up if you thought tax Reform would make filling out your income tax forms the experts say youd better think the lawyers and accountants that specialize in income tax have got their futures said Gor Don a tax partner at the Toronto based chartered accountants Eloitte Haskins and its still very complicate according to Revenue million tax returns were prepared with professional help in the latest year for which figures Are up from the 1978 total of and h and r the country biggest tax preparers with about million returns completed this expects tax Reform to boost business in the next two years As canadians try to grapple with a new set of tax rules and a new income tax it depends on How simple it gets and whether any fur ther complications get thrown said Arthur director of Finan Cial services at h and r he afterwards is a Long Way when finance minister Michael Wilson announced his guidelines for tax Reform last he said the Overall result will be a fairer and More efficient tax sys but on the simplification the recently released tax Reform propos als fell Short of the say tax i guess the whole question of simplification got left on the cutting room said Bill Strain of de Lovitte Haskins and finance department officials argue that the new system will be simpler because it will have fewer tax brackets and a smaller number of tax which will replace a slew of tax deductions and exempt but Bill Lawlor of the Toronto based chartered accountants Ernst and Whinney Dis missed that saying there int one person in a thou Sand who could have told you How Many tax brackets there were be and when the taxpayers sit Down to file a tax 1 dont believe there going to perceive much Dif the Reform proposals May appear at first glance to be Arnott but on studying it is in fact More complicated in several he said the switch from tax deductions to credits is an some Are straightforward credits with a fixed but others Are there an amount that will change depending on the level of that will complicate the tax form Farmers will have a particularly hard said the whole basis on which Treyve been accounting for farm income for the past years has just been changed from what is a fairly simple basis of accounting for your Cash receipts and your Cash disburse he there now going to be forced to account on the so called simplified accrual method which Means they have to bring in accounts receivable and accounts payable and prepaid expenses and value their inventories on an annual what Treyve done to the poor Farmer is a ;