Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 10, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free january Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights published seven Days a week at 300 Carlton 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 Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 the wrong Man to mediate Ever since the Meech Lake constitutional Accord was signed two and on half years ago there has been reason to doubt that senator Lowell Murray was the Man to sell it to it became even More Clear last november that senator Murray was not the Man to save the process of constitutional Reform by finding a new federa Provin Cial consensus on the senator Murray chief problem is that he is so wedded to Meech Lake that he is Blind to the concerns of those who Flold some of its provisions threatening to Canadas when senator Murray was first assigned by prime minister Mulroney to Deal with the rising crop of it might have been thought that his Tunnel vision on the Issue was simply an expression of his the official government line was that Meech Lake was a seamless web which could not be altered in any part without falling apart and senator Murray Job was to Mouth that As time passes and the senator remains As obtuse As Ever in the face of it begins to seem that he really does believe the official like his colleague Norman he May really have persuaded himself that the Accord is such a finely tuned piece of constitutional machinery that it will fall apart if tampered with in the finest whatever his reason for holding senator Mur rays convictions about Meech Lake Are making him incapable of doing the Job he was Given at the Federal provincial first ministers conference last no that Job was to play the honest broker Confer with the provincial premiers on All sides of the Issue to determine whether enough common ground existed to justify their meeting instead of doing senator Murray has simply continued his old habits of trying to browbeat the dissident provinces into unquestioning support of Meech Lake As it rather than listen to the concerns of new Brunswick and senator Murray has gone out of his Way to misrepresent them and to use his consultation process As a Means of keeping up the pressure on the dissident even vague propos als for a so called parallel Accord seem More intended to Back them into a Comer than to find a Way there is no evidence that senator Murray has spent even a moment talking to the Quebec government about the Way the Meech Lake Accord might be amended to take account of the criticisms of other provinces without threatening the five principles pre Mier Bourassa insisted be recognized in the constitutional there has not been a hint that Canadas biggest and richest might play a role in bridging the Gap Between those who want Meech Lake untouched and those who recognize the need for in so in his search for senator Murray has made it Clear that All the movement must be on the Side of Meech lakes critics none on the Side of its that strategy is doomed to if there is not movement on both then Meech Lake will not be ratified by All ten provinces and it will die of neglect next until senator Murray is brought to understand that simple he will be incapable of doing the Job of consensus seeking he was the notion that Meech Lake is not open to change has nothing to do with the merits or defects of the it simply reflects the fact that Premier Bourassa would face severe political difficulties if he agreed to any even ones which would do no damage to his five like All senator Murray must be mindful of the real political problems which exist in he does not spare a thought for the concerns of other provinces and Terri tories As he will fail in his Job of some common sense for via an open policy on paper Plant the common sense and compassion that should be driving via rail Canada is stuck in a those who control the passenger rail service acted every bit like curmudgeons when they cancelled the Christmas Day train to some Cree in the Remote Reserve were isolated by about 150 Kilometres of dense Bush and people who wanted to be Home for Christmas had to make often difficult air travel now cottage owners on the Manitoba Ontario Border who have counted on the train for a Mere 79 years will be effectively stranded by still More passenger service cuts to take effect next via rail claims that the service which was once provided by the campers special is not in defence of that common sense runs off the this week a train does run from Winnipeg to Ontario and Back again three times a after january a transcontinental train will toot along the same track three times a on that basis via rail claims the service is not being Cut it is being the service which allows cottage owners to make use of their vacation spots has routinely departed from Winnipeg at 6 on a Friday night and conveniently returned the Happy campers to the City on sunday evening or monday evening on Holiday Long the transcontinental service will be exceedingly convenient for any cottage who wants to begin a weekend Retreat very late on a saturday night and is Content to return to the City monday will All two of them please Book their tickets the nonsense goes via rail maintains that the 43 stops Between Winnipeg and Capreol Many of them Flag stops on a lonely track will not be Only a passenger rail service keenly intent on self de Striction would permit 43 stops in a roughly 975mile Span of a transcontinental cottage owners with time and patience might use that bit of nonsense for an effective if they have no other it would make far More sense for via rail to sit Down with cottage owners and determine whether common sense might via rail has been losing Money on the by its own if the average passenger who took that train paid More per there would have been no shortfall in faced with the alternative of building a or several roads to make any use at All of their the campers May be very Happy to pay a Good Deal More for passenger service an unsubsidized a real service which charges what the Market will a service which cares about its customers and operates via common Tilting the property tax Rural development minister Jack Penner this week invited the legislature to tilt the property tax Law for some property owners and against that is the wrong Way to go about writing tax Large Penner told a legislature could reduce their realty taxes if the grounds for appealing assessment were enlarged to the degree that the opposition liberals and new democrats his remark was a sly rhetorical dig especially at the new who love to rail against Large corporations but it also brought an irrelevancy into the governments tax an owner of property should be taxed on the value of the whether that owner is big or Domestic or Nice or Penner should not tailor his properly tax Law either to Benefit or to punish big he should write sound principles into the Law and then apply those principles to All the he should not ask first who owns what land and who will be bitten harder by one principle or greater vagueness in the Law leaves More Opportunity to All taxpayers to reduce their taxes on greater precision in the Law lengthens the Odds for those who hire a lawyer and go before the Board of those with the most land and the Best Legal advice come Best armed to the Board of to that great corporations stand to Benefit most from an imprecise property assessment the Best will result from finding a fair stating it clearly and applying it indiscriminately to All if that turns out to Benefit some then those taxpayers Are entitled to the if those winners turn out to be an unpopular group or people of whom Penner or another member of the legislature that is neither Here nor the Public should have ample Opportunity to keep an Eye on the operations of Recap enterprises at the Pas when it converts the Plant to produce bleached pulp the product used to manufacture High Quali to the Manitoba clean environment mindful of a common theme in the hearings on the has recommended comprehensive monitoring of the it should be agrees to this open Early warning the commission says the Monitor ing of emissions from the Plant and ecological studies must provide an Early warning on the detection of any possible trend of unacceptable to the it is the Job of the environment grossly to supervise the the com Mission also recommends the appointment of an environment officer at the Pas to Monitor Recap opera if the officer is to be he must have sufficient stature and clout to act in an Independent Man also recommended As suggested by Many is a citizens advisory group to watch the Standard of monitoring and to ensure Recap lives up to its it would also act As a Liaison with local the company and the government on social and economic the commission says the commit tee should be established now and that Recap be required to provide it with including Environ mental monitoring the committee could discuss local and native workplace safety and other the composition of the committee and the Independence of its opera Val Werier tons is critical to its it could be just another bureaucratic Endeavor unless it acts with Vigi Lance and Independence in its role As a environmental groups justifiably argue there should be More representation from province wide Organ rather than concentrating on local people As recommended by the the forests belong to All the people of if the government is going to give More than lip service to the establishment of an advisory it must provide funds to enable it to operate in an effective in if the government is Earnest in its dedication to the it must provide More staff to enforce the the commission also advocates extensive and strict ecosystem monitoring to confirm predictions made by Recap it acknowledges a Point made by environmental groups that there is a need to gather Baseline data on land and water to assess the impacts by Recap in the period of Grace the time period originally allocated to examine what is up North before Recap went into operation was totally there will be a period of Grace now that Recap has decided to delay its program until All Forest management studies have been the commission Calls for a strict regime in the preparation of base line Date with required periods for reporting and consultation with the advisory the greatest concern is in the management of the for Recap will be Given rights Over on fifth of the land mass of Manito Forest management will be the subject of a separate environment assessment but the commission makes some pertinent observations in its report which bodes Well when it deals with the it makes it Clear that there must be a detailed evaluation of the Forest resource in terms of the principles of sustain Able ecological entity a Forest is not simply Trees to be harvested when says the but is an ecological entity that requires consideration from a number of social and ecological Points of besides commercial for ests Are necessary for the production of oxygen and the consumption of Carbon and for the Protection of the diversity of plants and the report goes on to Point out the value of forests As the source and Reservoir of our water it states that areas must be set aside for wildlife recce heritage conservation and other there must be effective supervision Over Forest in the same manner that extensive Moni Toring is proposed on the operations of the pulp there must also be a system of periodic reviews to inform the Public and enable it to express its until recently Forest management and agreements made with Industry have been a closed they must be wide open from now assault sound i find it interesting that the troops used music As a weapon in Many people have Long suspected that some of the hysterical sounds coming out of the Industry Are nothing More than amplified it Hast got much to do with it is assault with snare Drums imitating machine and electronic systems i believe that the drum tradition ally represented the heartbeat which kept the rhythm of music moving in a variety of originally a form of worship and Joyful music expressed the wonderful energies of i wonder if the confusion of these fearful military Safe ups might simply be resolved with a Little con Nie Tom or even Fred Penner on the tape Gray Winnipeg letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used end letters Are subject to unlawful action speech pathology Connie Kaldor the invasion and occupation of Panama is a blatant example of american interventionism in latin in carrying out the inva the government has seriously called into question its profession that All countries have the right to a Strong Case can be made for the condemnation of the but the american people seem to strongly support the unlawful action of their the american Media seem to be almost utterly uncritical of the what amazes me i is that the Canadian Media have so blindly followed the Lead of their american Why so few questioned the truth of what the Ameri can government is saying about their own motives i find this curious omission Mysti perhaps the free press could break new ground and live up to its name by asking a few serious ques Randall Brandt Winnipeg perplexed on the one in absolutely alarmed by the exodus of Manito bans seeking employment else on in positively perplexed that Premier Filmon hired As his principal Secretary a person from outside the were there no qualified Manito bans available Robin Gibson Winnipeg i was again disappointed to read an article about speech pathology speech therapy waiting list free press 21 that neglected the situation As it relates to there Are Only approximately 15 speech language pathologists in Manitoba working with persons 18 years and Over who suffer from communication and swallowing these disorders Are often subsequent to head Parkinson spinal Cord in multiple Hunting tons Laryn Geal or Oral Cleft lip and palate As Well As voice abnormal Dys fluency stuttering the article indicated that health minister Don Orchard Felt the prob Lem was due to a nationwide Short age of speech language this certainly contributes to the problem and a local training pro Gram would help to remedy the the reality at present is that qualified speech language pathologists who Are experienced and trained to work with communication disorders affecting the adult Popula Tion will have a very difficult time finding suitable this is especially True if a position in Rural Manitoba is quoting a National shortage of professionals can not explain the existing Lack of Ade quate services available for the communicatively impaired adult population in the sad fact is that it appears that the government of Manitoba does not consider rehabilitation of communicatively impaired adults in if it there would be More existing speech language pathologist positions in the specifically designated for the adult cousins speech language pathologist Winnipeg pay for service it is certainly ironic that Council Lor Wade has recently railed against City councils decision to raise sewer and water rates and apply these revenues to the cites general in his criticism of this Wade mentioned that homeowners should pay Only for what they use and that Light users of these services should pay while heavy users should pay in other taxpayers should pay proportionally for services which they the people of heading Ley have been trying to convince the City of this approach for Over two years having been paying the same sewer and water rates As the rest of the but certainly not in proportion to our use we do not have sewer and water if mayor Nome should Ever de cide to actually listen to his elected the taxpayers of Winnipeg May end up with a rational residential tax rate based upon current assessment values and in proportion to services Gary Glavin heading Ley taxpayers association clarification in an article by Frances Russell in the free press december there were certain references made to the Canadian manufacturers association which bears clarification and certain comments attributed to the Canadian federation of Independent business which requires a first of the Canadian manufacturers association was inc prior rated by an act of parliament in 1902 and has served As the representative group of Canadian manufacturers Ever the Cha is governed by a National Board of directors with Cross Ana a representation boasting David chairman of Northern Tele As its current Cha is administered by a National presi Laurent a senior and eight Vic Epresi dents located across the association maintains staffed offices in each Canadian province with each province having its own autonomous Board of each provincial group is broken into various committees who study and Analyse various bodies in All matters pertaining to the Canadian manufacturers association represents Over 80 per cent of the manufactured goods across Canada and about 75 per cent of the manufactured goods in the claim by the Canadian federa Tion of Independent business that they represent More manufacturers than Cha is somewhat depending on what you Call a Manu cribs interpretation of a manufacturer is anyone who makes a hamburger or Trench Fry and pays i have to admit that Cha is some what More selective in its even though the top French Mccain Are excellent corporate members of another difference Between crib and Cha is the membership con As explained Cha oper ates across Canada on the commit tee system with individual members being in constant As Well As monthly networking crib is a Coupon organization that has Little or no Contact with its members once they have but merely mails out Coupon ballets on a preconceived the which could be completed by the Are then sent to the crib head office in and preached by their National John As gospel and a True expression of their thank you for the Opportunity of making this George Provost Cha Pant and beg All you youre not getting the car keys and that ;