Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 5, 1989, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free june Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights published seven Days a week at 300 Cartton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by newspapers division of Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 a member of the Manitoba press Council Arthur Wood publisher John Dafoe editorial Pago editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 editorials crying Wolf at the Csc four years the Canadian broadcasting Corpora Tion and its employees launched a Campaign to foil the efforts of the Mulroney government to subject the corporation to the same fiscal restraints that were being applied to other areas of Csc president Pierre Juneau went on the Csc to warn that the corporation would disappear if its budget was not substantially increased Over the next few Csc broadcasters interviewed other Csc broadcasters about the threat posed by the proposed cuts in friends of Public broadcasting were invited onto the air to add their voices to the hardly anybody who thought that the Csc might just stand a Little Belt tightening was allowed so much As a four years the budget cuts have bitten contrary to the the Csc has not Csc managers and employees were put on their Mettle to do More with fewer the network no doubt found itself unable to do All the things it might have liked to the number of Csc employees declined signify most listeners and noticed very Little Csc radio continued to provide the stimulating and informative programming for which it had become Csc television continued with roughly the same degree of Success As before to pursue its mandate for Al Canadian information and entertain ment this finance minister Michael Wilson announced in his budget that the Csc Over the next five years will get a total of million less than the reaction from the corporation was Juneau announced that the Csc was slowly starving to death and within five years would be Csc broadcasters interviewed each other about the devastating effects of the cutbacks on Canadas cultural Csc accountants proved when taxes and unemployment insurance premiums were counted the cutbacks were really million or even about the Only voice on the other Side of the Issue allowed to be heard was that of Felix the Buffoon from who wanted commercials in Between movements of in there probably is More substance to Juneau fears this year than there was four years the Csc should be expected to Bear its share of government spending restraint but there does come a Point where budget cuts do damage to the fabric of the there is no evidence that canadians feel a deep need for the Csc to expand into some of the areas that have been proposed second an Al news satellite transmission and the there is no evidence that canadians want to see their Public network seriously so any damage done by budgetary restraint has not been government funding for the Csc Over the past 10 years has roughly kept Pace with this it will increase by million to next year the reductions Start to that gives Csc management some time to make a Case for reconsider that Case would be More convincing today if the network had not devoted All its resources to crying Wolf so loudly four years i less for More for or Ontario Liberal my Christine Stewart posed a question troubling Many when she asked Why the Canadian International development Agency is cutting food Aid while its administration spending is she put the question at a meeting of the House of commons external affairs committee examining Midas spending estimates for her legitimate concern was based on figures showing a million Cut for food Aid but a million increase for on the face of this is Cida is slashing programs including one that would have provided much needed Grain silos to Egypt while giving Manitoba Economy a shot in the if there Are less programs to Why will it Cost More for Cida to administer them the my did not get a satisfactory the million increase is reported to assign million to Public million for decentralization and for Cida bureaucrats to hold annual meetings with International financial spending More on Public relations is puzzling in a time of government austerity and at a time when Cida is telling the third world hungry to pull in their Why should it Cost More now for bureaucrats to be temporarily to fail to return Telephone to play passt Hearcel with responsibility when accidentally reached at their desks and to withhold information until the callers deadline has passed the allotment for decentralization is also Why does Cida need million for this when the department of external in the governments claims to need million for implementing decentralized management of the Aid which is the same thing the Point of these particular expenditures is supposed to be increased Canadas auditor general documented the costly nature of Cida decision making and suggested cutting its huge Headquarters it has taken Cida time to get moving but at last it is on the Way to establishing regional centres around the world that May be Able to make decisions More based on regional the Way in which Cida management has set its cutback priorities justifies the Ontario maps the Clumsy Way in which Cida is making exemplified by the killing of the egyptian silos also justifies closer continued monitoring of this Agency management coming to grips with inflation get on with the safety Board transport minister Benoit Bouchard should ignore the request from the Canadian air line pilots association to delay setting up a new air Accident investigation Board until the reports of the two special inquiries already established have been received the pilots argue that any recommendations coming from these inquiries would be difficult to implement if a new Board was in Bouchard should Tell the pilots that he is quite capable of implementing sensible recommendations without interfering with the work of his new Canadas first aviation safety Board got itself into serious difficulties when it could not agree on a report pinpointing the cause of the dc8 crash in Newfoundland in 1985 which killed 256 mostly half the Board wanted to put the blame on Wing the other was persuaded that the crash could have resulted from terrorist activity which could have blown the aircraft out of the As a result of the confusion Over this recommendations concerning closer inspections for Wing ice were air which lost a Jet at the Dryden Airport last was not advised of the safety boards recommendation until after the Bouchard set up separate judicial inquiries to look into these two Bouchard also announced that he would replace the Canadian aviation safety a Wise move since the first Board was unable to agree on the interpretation of reports from its own i Vestiga it is difficult to understand Why the pilots want to see the establishment of a new Board the judicial inquiries already put in place will remove the new Board from the possibility of getting itself involved in the problems of its Bouchard is free to put into place any sensible recommendations to improve future air safety that May come from either judicial inquiry without reference to the new delaying the establishment of a new investigatory body simply pushes into the future the time when Canada will have an reliable and respected organization to investigate air crashes and to make whatever changes Are required to improve air by Wilson special to the free press Ottawa two recent papers by a respected business economist direct overdue attention onto the Way in which the governments two most powerful economic tools have been working at Cross adding substantially to the nations Finan the competing tools of monetary and fiscal policies that Money Supply and interest rates on one hand and spending and tax policies on the to be really effective they need to work in con Junction with each other rather than in ways which Lead to one negating the economic adviser the economist in Doug Las is a senior Vic president and the chief economist of the Toron to Dominion Bank and at been an economic adviser to the Federal he places responsibility for the policy impasse in part on the Bank of Canada for a single minded focus on Price stability and in part on the Way in which the finance department has restructured the country rapidly mount ing accumulation of Peters analysis is unquestionably a though provoking examination of the Way in which the most important economic policies under government control have been con ducted during the last two or More valuable As it his discussion seems to me to be seriously weakened by a failure to come to grips with the common mythology that inflation running chronically at to five per cent is acceptably this is a comfortable and Nowa Days a very widespread View but the reality is that inflation maintained at this rate or higher year after year for nearly two decades erodes the value of the currency so rapidly that it should be regarded As both very High and very i do not see How any analysis of monetary and fiscal policy can be fully valid if it merely brushes aside this uncomfortable fact of contemporary Cana Dian Peters ques Tion More tellingly than anyone else i have read lately the Validity of the Bank of Canadas approaches most criticism of them is facile and not in the same category As this in recent years there has been not Only a great increase in the coun try accumulated Federal debt but also in the proportion of it in Short term mainly trea sury rather than medium to Lon term this debt Structure reduces interest costs whenever Short term rates Are lower than Lon term ones but it makes the Cost of the debt singularly sensitive to upward changes in interest debt Cost rises thus when the Bank of Canada raises interest As it has done sharply during the last couple of it immediately increases the Cost of the governments Short term Peters estimates that a one per cent Rise in interest rates increases charges on the Short term debt by billion this does More than increase the governments deficit it also raises incomes by the same amount which increases demand and largely off sets the economic effect of the jump in interest rising interest rates also tend to raise the value of the Canadian Dollar on Exchange to pre vent it from getting too High the Bank has bought hard paying in Canadian funds an operation that tends to depress the dollars Money borrowed the Canadian Money used of be foreign Exchange operations work the other Way around when the Bank is sup porting the dollars producing then an influx of Canadian currency and reducing the governments need to Peters argues that the Bank of Canada should moderate its primary giving up its focus on Price stability and that the government should gradually restructure its accumulated getting far More of it Back into medium and Lon term securities which would not have the same sensitivity to interest rate he argues that this would not increase the rate of even if it is True that a policy reversal would not increase Infra there is nothing in the Peters proposals which would reduce it from existing Levels he appears to accept the political mythology that current rates Are ignoring the damage that they other countries of done very much better than Canada on this rail equipment you published a letter to the editor rail Monitor free May 1 which suggested that via rail received antique equipment from the that the railways gouge via for maintenance and charge via exorbitant the following information May be of the equipment that via obtained from up rail in Early in the consisted of the stainless steel train sets and Scenic dome cars that had been purchased new during the mid1950s for operation on the trans Continental and other Long haul and the self propelled stain less steel rail diesel cars that had also been acquired new at that time for the Shorter haul the description antique cannot be applied to equipment that was in Good mechanical and Only 20 years old when it was Pur chased by via equipment tent with respect to the alleged gouging for ongoing the Only location at which maintenance is being done on up rail is at and it is confined to two charges for this work Are based on accurate accounting records which Are annually audited by the National transportation Agency and Are approved by the minister of via is free to carry out the maintenance itself or contract it to other parties if it considers that the charges Are too regarding the Billings to via re lating to its operations on pm of up rail these amount to less than one per cent of Vias total operating Vias treasurer affirmed the relative insignificance of these charges in his testimony at the Hull session on the National transportation Agency inquiry into Vias pricing policies by confirming that via payments to the railways no longer constitute a major Factor in Vias the Bills presented to via con form to strict costing regulations that Are approved by the they Are verified by audit and approved by the minister of transport for Moule general manager passenger service Crail Quebec appreciation i am writing on behalf of the Manitoba advisory Council on the status of women to express our appreciation for your papers cover age and commentary on our report the Manitoba lotteries foundation Are women in the we look Forward to continuing recognition of the importance of issues affecting women in the free Ruth Blaser acting chairperson Manitoba advisory Council on the status of women letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to inadequate we Are writing regarding the inadequate rental allowances provided by the provincial social assistance As Staffin an inner City school we Are concerned about the effect i Grancy has on a Childs students move from school to school As their families move from one slum condition to another in an Effort to find accommodations which fall within the social assistance rent Al there is a Large Gap Between rents charged in the private housing mar Ket and the amount of rent allowance provided by the social assistance for for a on bedroom the average rent in Winnipeg is social assistance provides for a two bedroom at social assistance provides for a three bedroom at social assistance provides Chc apartment vacancy Winni we support in principle the strategy being proposed by the social assistance coalition of Manitoba to address this the coalition is advocating that social assistance recipients should be made eligible for rent assistance programs available to Low income families who earn less than a in the social assistance allowance for a family of three was these rental assistance programs include the shelter Al Lowance for family renters and per child child related income support program present government policy excludes social assistance recipients from the benefits of these we urge Charlotte minis Ter of employment services and economic to change this government policy and make these programs available to regard less of their source of social assistance Barry Berger King Edward Community school staff meaningless some months ago an article appeared in the free press headlined boredom cited in youths reign of it was about problems on a particular Indian Reserve in North Ern in a different in a different it is called the most spectacular example of which was the rape and beating of a woman Jogger in new Yorks Central we Are inclined to criticize and condemn the perpetrators of All this without listening to and refusing to understand the reasons that Lead to these not that the individuals involved be prosecuted to the full extent of the but we do nothing to sever the roots of this infestation of mindless we Are raising another generation whose Youthful energies Are not being allowed to find who Are not being shown or worse Are being shown what direction to head but Are being hobbled when they try by economic Lack of Educa Tion and ignorance by the older generations of the realities of living in the late youth is the and we Are strangling our youth by offering them a meaningless this is the stuff that wars Are made and we Are bringing it on our Weatherill Winnipeg productive on behalf of the Winnipeg Cham Ber of Commerce i would like to congratulate Premier Gary Filmon and the government of the province of Manitoba for sponsoring the con the environment and the held in Winnipeg May the conference itself was Well managed i very it was an extremely important conference for Manitoba and for Canada and much of the it introduced the concept of sustain Able development to including business and launched an other phase in what should be a critical program for Manitoba Busi Ness to we have a Small but distinct Lead in advancing this concept and it must be far too often the government Only hears about the the com plaints and the negative aspects of its it is time to com mend them when they take a Posi Tive and dynamic role in an important Herb Middlestead president Winnipeg chamber of Commerce free press for coverage of this Topi Cal there was on Csc radios ethics and Reli Gion program open House on May 13 a report was made on the recent detention of the political Active William at the Border while he was trying to travel to Ottawa to attend a meeting about a forthcoming weapons exhibition in Ottawa armed after six Berrigan was released following the intervention of a member of did the free press give this exciting Story a few inches of cover age on a Back Page it apparently did readers expect the free press to reflect the instead the paper feeds us popular articles from american syndicates for sex a Hal Page item Book re Veals troubled life of Jackie Onas Sis from the Chicago May when will the free press give Winnipeg readers substance and value Derek Wilson Winnipeg timely the articles by free press ombudsman Barry Mullin Are always though provoking and encouraging if they Are taken to heart by the papers management and his readers expect paper to reflect television news free May 19 were particularly Many readers May wonder what news is important to the editors of the for on Csc radio news on May 13 and again later that reports were made on a conference on ethical investment in the conference concluded by the establishment of a National organization for ethical throughout that week i closely scrutinized the business pages in the in Home ;