Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 25, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press april in deep crisis faces soviet Economy Washington yester Days Kremlin Confirma Tion of a decision to Back away from plans for sweep ing economic policy change completes an apocalyptic picture of a soviet Economy in deep crisis painted Here this week by top soviet one key element May have pushed soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev into at least temporary Retreat from his own april 9 Decla ration of intent to Speed up Reform by making the Ruble closing unproductive Industrial creating a rudimentary Stock Exchange and lifting Price it is what the economists portrayed As a collapsed consumer Market in which soviet citizens with an excess of rubles of dropping value cannot buy what they want at any bread and milk were said to be available but sugar Only with ration television vacuum furniture and shoes had vanished from the the including four deputies of the Peoples had just spent four Days with Central intelligence Agency analysts and academic specialists comparing the consumption Levels and military spending of the soviet and group members were brutally Frank about the so Viet in private and with critical shortages intelligence reports Here suggest imminent critical food shortages because of Grain Hoard ing due to the speedily devaluing Farmers holding Back Grain for higher prices cannot be countered quickly by Grain imports be cause the transport system cannot move the imports to the this problem and the associated spectre of possible food riots in so Viet cities May explain the sudden decision of politburo Secretary David Macdonald Washington editor Alexander longtime so Viet ambassador to to can cel an appointment to meet president George Bush in the Oval office one of Gorbachev closest and most trusted has been deeply involved in the past three weeks of top level debate on the economic cancelled visit last he cancelled his visit to discuss Lithuania and eco nomic no one would have known that he had been coming had not vice president Dan Quayle staff put the Yakovlev visit on the vice presidents monday the presidents staff had kept it last the Cia and the de Fence intelligence Agency Dia testified before the joint economic committee of Congress that rising consumer Region Al disturbances and widespread strikes could push the soviet econ omy into a 20 per cent output drop Over one or two years that could cause the visiting soviet economists agreed with that assessment but they were All critical of past Cia assessments of soviet economic output and military say ing that they had been too High for the too Low for defence Oleg one of the elected a member of the Academy of sciences and director of the Institute of economics of the world socialist said i know very Well that our Economy is experiencing a very deep crisis and the situation is b89 enter National copyright by Carto news by but ill have to put you on a stricter the output of Industrial product Ion has started decreasing and we have already during the first three months of this year issued new Money which surpassed the limits approved by the Congress of peo Ples so we need to under take some urgent measures in order to Stop these negative trends in our such measures Are under weak Points he did not agree with the Cia Dia description of the soviet econ omy As the he is suffering from Infra from corruption and there Are some other weak Points in our but i think the situation is serious but not Hope Viktor whose research specially is productive forces and natural said a new fac Tor is environmental pressure from the soviet which has led to the closure of several he said the deterioration of metallurgical equipment and of railway trans port is very High and we have to replace about railway Bridges built in czarist that will take enormous expenditures that will be taken away from Normal agricultural specialist Vladimir Tikhonov said that the most vulnerable part of the Economy is the consumer which is being partly because of the unsatisfactory Structure of the i dont think there will be any serious changes in the Struc Ture because there Are no resources for the situation in agriculture is the last year has shown that the stat owned system of Purchas ing and procurement of agricultural products is the losses of products Are the Trade network cannot Cope with the inflow of agricultural and food in other the crisis is developing and in the next couple of years i dont see anything positive in this Bogomolov said a main reason for the soviet economic decline is decreasing motivation of workers because of we continue to control prices and that Why our inflation manifests itself through disappearance of one Good after an other from the the con Sumer Market in our country is completely this Means the people will not work for empty the state pretends to pay wages and the peo ple pretend to this is the cause of Lack of Market collapse Vasily economic correspondent of Navy a monthly news said the collapse of the consumer Market is illustrated by the so called direct distribution phenomenon in which goods Are delivered directly to factories and not to the building containing his Magazine and a theatre recently had had a fire because of empty boxes left on the stairs after a typical direct distribution of radios and electronic equipment to building Belkin said a contributing Factor in the crisis is rising costs of exploiting natural Oil and Coal extraction have become More difficult and some resources can be produced Only by using the newest one very Rich Field of Oil could not be exploited using our own better measuring methods last year had shown that annually we Are losing half of our Industrial 40 per cent of agricultural Many enterprises Are Idle be cause there Are no supplies of raw material and equipment because the system of material and procurement have deteriorated great inter regional economic ties Are being with areas concentrating on self sufficiency due to something that increases an already existing tendency to re in some he you need a locally available business ticket to buy certain bitter sense of rejection fuels separatist feelings in Quebec Vears Thev in nov Thev dont need the Quebec Economy is coins Thorp the null show pro Pic Neft Montreal Quebec new francophone business class is parading a kind of nation Alist Confidence that Doest seem to be shared by the Quebec business who have traditionally been Strong Are now making declarations of nation if not Many would still vote no if another referendum on sovereignty association were but make it Clear they would be neither surprised nor greatly discomfited if the yes men like Bernard Lemaire of Cas Claude Beland of the move ment and Michel gaucher of supposedly representing the new Franco entrepreneurial spirit that has replaced the old Anglo one in have James Stewart in Quebec been hinting that Quebec can and May go it the reserved and respected for Mer Cabinet Claude Cas Tonguay of the Laurentian insurance has been on a crusade for the Meed Lake he warns that failure to solve Canadas constitutional problems will create economic and Force Quebec to reconsider its political business representatives keep say ing that Quebec entrepreneurs Are world class that they have the the the knowhow and Confidence they did not have ten years they imply they dont need Canada or a Federal especially one As indebted As the pres ent it All sounds especially when big Banks and investment firms like Merril Lynch produce comforting re ports suggesting that an Independent Quebec would not unduly upset investment the trouble is it sounds too Good to be All this Brave talk barely conceals the fear Felt by most Busi Ness people that the constitutional impasse is bad for and by most of the population that a wrench ing separation might be even a thorough sore com poll done recently for a actuality Magazine exposed some of the profound con Cerns of the people of More than 71 per for think the Quebec Economy is going fifty one per cent think their Stan Dard of living would suffer in a Sovereign while 21 per cent think it would improve and 17 per cent think it would not pessimistic the Confidence the employer class is expressing is obviously not shared by the employee pessimism is the mood that came through strongly in this poll pessimism about the Economy and about the political future of the two thirds of the respondents said englis Canada was hostile to que that widespread feeling of being rejected and unwanted in can Ada probably accounts for much of the recent increase in the popularity of Independence or Sovereign Yasso even the poll showed rather surprising strength for the Federal some earlier polls had shown Large majorities for Sepa especially in the event of the failure of Lake this one showed a slight majority of 51 per cent opposed to but a still impressive figure of 47 per cent in favor of outright it seems Clear that the idea of sovereignty is Progress ing among and that More of them would prefer to pursue it under the leadership of the federalist Liberal Robert than under the separatist Leader of the parti Jacques Pari ten years ago the Flag of Independence was carried by teach poets and who burned with desire for their own now the pure flame of sovereignty Burns less but it is almost by a wider Range of Quebe cers in in the in popular entertain its almost As though Quebe cers Are its obvious that English Canada Doest like us and Doest want so we might As Well leave before were kicked if it were not for the pessimism about the and the fear that separatism would bring a reduced Standard of federalism would probably not rate As High As it still does in and if it were not for this pervasive and not entirely War ranted sense of being federalism might rate even canadians will pay High Cost for Meech Lake the one thing about the Meech Lake constitutional Accord is that it wont take bread off an Ottawa academic who is a close observer of the Quebec scene says that Why the ant Accord Jean Chretien has secured More than two thirds of Quebec support in the Liberal leadership the observer is right when he describes the silent Side of Quebec opinion on the Constitution and like their fellow citizens in other Are divided indifferent about Meech but because of the proc Cord political front by Quebec Federal and provincial government their views Are the observer is when he says prime minister Brian Mulroney pet constitutional project Doest take bread off anybody As two briefs to the special committee to study a proposed companion Resolution to the Meech Lake constitutional Accord the Mulroney proposals will take bread off every canadians in the committee heard from Brian attorney general from 1981 to now president of Canadian National Smith is reported to have won that position and its salary of Over annually As a Reward for delivering and maintaining Premier Bill Vander Palms support for Meech unlike other Accord was prepared to admit the tremendous Victory Meech Lake is for those canadians who not Only see Canada As a Community of com but who want to ensure that no new National social programs can Ever be creat Smith told the committee that the accords spending Power clause is one of the largest Frances Russell gains in Meech Lake that i can under the provinces will be Able to opt out of future National social programs and claim full Federal compensation if they create similar services compatible with the National this is How Smith described his enthusiasm in testimony Friday i think Meech Lake is Good for because of the changes to the spending it allows to decide on any new National social for a Pha Macare it gives provinces the ability to say were not going to do it Ottawa we want to do it our to do it we have a different we want to run our own program using Federal it would be a cooperative Way of meeting National allowing each province to do its own in Winnipeg University of Mani Toba Law professor Jack London confirmed Smiths analysis of Meech lakes threat to canadians daily Only from the oppo site ideological London was invited late sunday evening to appear before the he chose to focus his presentation on the dangers the spending Power clause poses to any sense of a Canadian London told maps that a Constitution is the foundation of a setting the tone of its future history and the Structure within which All activity takes the accords opting out provision will be assessed in the context of the whole which significantly enhances the Power of the provinces in a very much decentralized the in my could be a Balkans Zed exhibiting a Patchwork series of inadequate responses to important social and economic a specialist in taxation Law and the Legal system raised a new danger that Meech lakes wording could be used by provinces to Challenge Ottawa ability to undertake social spending of any even when not a cent of provincial Money was the wording of the Accord seems to imply the right of any province to opt out of a National program so completely that the initiative could not be undertaken by the Federal government at All in that even he London warned that canadians would pay dearly for the decentralization of Federal economic for it signals the end of nation building and the Promise of a National London said the opting out process would sap Ottawa political v Ottawa would not be Able to Galva Nize Public opinion by offering a Homogene Ous National it would be unable to show National it would know that despite providing 50 per cent of the it would get none of the political All of which would Shower on the and it would not be Able to enforce even the most minimum of National the Federal fiscal weakness envisaged by Meech Lake would Likely inhibit the develop ment of such programs within acceptable less Clear still is the effect the Accord will have on the portability of benefits and programs from province to three maps leaped to prove London the nip front Bencher lome Nystrom pro claimed that he didst want bureaucrats in Ottawa dictating National social programs for a town in Alberta tory my Arnold Malone challenged London Assumption that decentralization is inappropriate in a country like i think the and Winnipeg South tory my Dorothy who has said Universal social pro Grams turn everyone into a cripple through expressed Strong support for the spending Power doonesbury by Garry Trudeau know any newaip5 of course to you but i in 5o Tilep these ;