Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 2, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free May Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights published 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 Bruce Fiudo publisher jc3hn Dafoe editorial Page editor Davtd Lee managing editor Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 evading environmental Laws Hie Federal governments failure to uphold its own Law on environmental assessment has brought about a prac tical construction is moving along on two dans in Western the Rafferty in Saskatchewan and the Oldman in Long before anyone charged with reviewing either and guided by the Law to Issue Early warnings of environmental can do that the dams will be virtually the Federal court judges who ruled that both dams must be reviewed did not bring a Stop to construction of either nor has environment minister Lucien Bouchard said firmly enough that construction must it is time that he Bouchard silence puts his reviewers in an untenable his silence also undercuts the Federal environmental assessment re View process As effectively As the governments failure to keep the Law once by this weeks thought he had an agreement with the government of Saskatchewan to bring an end to construction of the Rafferty he agreed to pay million for the now he is discovering just How determined the Saskatchewan government is to build the dam the Way it wants to build no matter what any court no matter what anyone thinks about the spirit of the the announcement last week by Saskatchewan Cabin it minister George Mcleod that construction will continue until the dam is 80 per cent completed should have come As no Surprise to an official of his department had an Early warning of Saskatchewan position More than a month to justify construct the dam developers turn to engineers who say that much More construction is needed if Saskatchewan wants to protect its Hal built dam against the sort of flood which occurs once every 50 opponents of the project note that Only a Little thought was Given to removing any portion of the dam which was put in place outside the Federal they also know that the Souris River rages Only in years when snowfall is the truth of the matter is that Saskatchewan needs to begin holding Back water with the Rafferty dam to Cool its Shand Power a Coa fired generating station which is part of the government the to and fro Between the courts and the Federal government with respect to the Oldman dam is equally Bouchard has been reluctant to Force a halt to construction of that now nearly 70 per cent despite a court ruling which quashed the Federal licence under which it is being he wanted a judge in Calgary first to consider a bid by Oldman dam opponents for an injunction that would bring work to a the judge simply delayed his ruling until late this he was reluctant to Rule on the work stoppage which he believed was a matter to be decided by the Federal government has ignored its own dithered about enforcing it and done a Deal which turns out to offer very Little environmental in a particularly offensive one Federal official has expressed the View that the Western Canada projects Are merely transitional the real test of the Law will come in Quebec where the Hydro Utility wants to build its dam in the James Bay Bouchard should be reminded that the Law has been affirmed in court because environmentalists in Western Canada had the courage to take it there and Allied with canadians across the he should halt construction of both if he fails to do anyone appointed to review them should resign in protest from their absurd a referee cant be a payer a sudden Brilliant blossoming Etta Matt aka Una Vine Aro Ira Norn Rahnn Wall Jim Annoh to in Cru Allf the Feltl Chantl of the Manitoba Home builders association has accurately diagnosed the problem Winnipeg City coun cil cannot be both a suburban Developer and a disinterested regulator of suburban in the Case now before the it cannot make a trustworthy decision about rezoning at Linden Ridge while it is also joint Developer with Gen Star in Linden Bruce chairman of the associations govern ment relations offers a curious solution to the the he should continue to operate As a land a new Agency should be created to decide on zoning the new Agency would need a staff of professional planners to advise it would need a master develop ment plan to relate the zoning of specific parcels of land to a rational the persons making the rezoning decisions would have to be democratically accountable to the Winnipeg Public through some device such As periodic the Agency would need a capacity to enforce its decisions through an inspections it would look quite a lot like a municipal As it Winnipeg already has a municipal corporation Well equipped to carry out the function of allocating land use and regulating land it has worked reasonably Well in the it is called the City of Winnipeg also has a Well organized Industry of skilful and experienced land Many of whom Are members of the Home builders they Are Good at what they no important Public purpose is served when the municipal corporation sets up in business As a land Developer alongside the associations the cites participation As Gen stars partner in Linden Woods can distort the councils judgment in at least two to maximize its own the Council has an interest in denying municipal service to other at the same their own role As developers May tend to make councillors unduly sympathetic to the developers Point of View so that other wider interests Are less clearly Winnipeg is not Short of it Only one Agency to be its regulator of the Council should Stop shooting the puck and go Back to blowing the catching Forest fires Early the decision to allocate an additional million to the Early detection and containment of Forest fires in Manitoba this year should help prevent a repeat of the disastrous events of last help of equal value arrived in the form of a ten Inch snowfall across the Northern part of the province this the ability to contain and control Forest fires is limited by the stage at which the fire is the most effective firefighting can be carried out in the first few hours of any the decision to put More Money into the fire control program Early is an indication of lessons Learned last when the province was forced to rely mainly on lighting fires Long after they were Well fighting a fire that is already Well on its Way to becoming a major conflagration is much More expensive than catching one once a fire there Are additional costs of moving people out of its Way and looking after them until the fire is brought under Early detection and control is not Only it is the least expensive Way to fight Manitoba sought the advice of fire control officers from Saskatchewan and Ontario following the fires of last the report produced by these experts told the province that its firefighting Organiza Tion was that its personnel lacked Good training programs and there was a shortage of Money available for both firefighters and the extra Money this year will be aimed at the right Early detection and the province will use Bir dog which Are faster than water to get to the Sites of fires and to coordinate the efforts made to contain additional Money can do Only so Manitoba firefighters will also need the same kind of cooperation from nature that has Given them the snowfall at the beginning of the fire wonderful things can happen in a i have an Aloe a succulent which brought summer into my household Long before the it began to Blossom in March in a manner which can Only be described As a solitary stalk emerged from the Rosette of leaves to grow almost like those nature films in which the sequence is concentrated in time to show plants bursting from the Earth and rising instantaneously with buds and to explain this extraordinary Cir i must go Back in this particular Plant has been in my household for at least 30 its lineage is much older for it came from a shoot from my late Mother inlays it is rather or so it became with Long familiarity and a disposition to remain it is about 10 inches in Gawky in an ugly duckling in my House hold the leaves Are pea Long slender and Flat with scattered subdued White i never really noticed it for it became part of the a Plant inoperative and of no pretend we ignored at one time it sat on the Edge of a Marble Coffee table to screen a break inflicted by a that was its function a perilous Perch the Edge of the Coffee table was a perilous Perch for the Aloe and it was knocked Over on a few the potting soil and the Aloe tumbled on to the exposing its not to we simply stuck it Back into the tamped the soil and restored it Val Werier to the Coffee after several the Aloe was placed among a dozen assorted plants on a stand in the Corner of the living room flanked by windows facing South and there it undistinguished among the other plants until a few weeks a slim stalk about an eighth of an Inch in Rose from the Centre of a Rosette of leaves displaying a miniature head similar to that of an delicate Pink the head turned out to be a Cluster of buds which separated and formed into blossoms with the growth of the the blossoms Are a delicate hanging like i believe it could Rise so rapidly so i measured the growth by calculating the distance from the end of the stalk to the window it was shooting up at the rate of at least one Inch a Day i was witness ing something special the mysterious process of other plants May act in this Awe some but this was my growing in a spectacular Way with out special attention or years ago my son Jonathon report Ted it after a fall from the i checked into the antecedents of the the Century Plant is a but on a Gigantic it reaches maturity and blooms Only after 10 to 50 years of by which time it is usually several feet in tampering with nature can prod uce results As eerie As some of the horror like Are Philip in his Book cacti and tells the Story of austra Lia importing the prickly ear Ottun a they were not to be cultivated for their but to nourish female cochineal bugs which produce natural Scarlet Dye when dried and the Dye was to be used to color the famed redcoats of the British colonial soldiers but the scheme turned out to be Penny Wise and Pound with no natural the of Tunis spread so madly that by 1925 they covered on third of they would not yield to flame or finally a biological control was found in a Moth imported from it Laid eggs in the opt Unia spines and the larvae burrowed into the causing them to col i look at my Aloe and do believe that under the right conditions it could emulate the hundreds of seeds there must be hundreds of seeds in the 30odd concentrated in last 10 inches of the Here the stalk is a Lovely Pink a transformation from the Olive Green it is now a few inches Short of three feet i wonder when the Aloe will Blossom another 30 years perhaps it will be handed Down in my family As a living association with the past and a revela Tion of the wonder of admirable Job i suspect that the Doc tors need a better free april 23 was prompted by a misunderstanding of the Manitoba medical associations organization Al Lloyd is spokesman for the Board of the elected governing body which establishes Mma policies on behalf of More than Bartlett has done an Admira ble Job of representing the Organiza Tion in its opposition to the Filmon governments scheme to ration med ical there is no better proof of this than the More than 500 letters Deli Vered last week to Premier written by concerned Manitoban who want medicare made not the editorial writers concern about the possibility of a doctors Bartlett t strike is no More than our binding arbitration is a mechanism which ensures a reasonable Resolution to contract disputes with no disruption of essential Bartlett has championed the Mas belief that impartial binding arbitration is the Only demo cratic and nonpolitical Means of settling contract disputes Between doctors and the the free press and most other Media commentators have consistently endorsed the Mas Call for binding the opposition liberals stand with the majority of Manitoban who support binding a but the Filmon govern ment refuses to there by leaving the Mma with no other option but withdrawal of services to break negotiation doctors dont need a better they need a provincial government that is committed to the preservation of medicare through impartial binding in addition to Bartlett High profile As he has been a major player in lobbying for health care Reform and health he is among Canadas leading anti tobacco and he played a key role in introducing mandatory Seatbelt and motorcycle helmet legislation in in 1984 he received the distinguished service the Mas highest for his Many contributions to health and his accomplishments continue to stuck Bartlett term of office ended on april his Walter a Winkler family will take Over the task of speaking for the Board of directors and general Manitoban can expect Strong advocacy from him and the Mma for More and better health not John Laplume executive director Manitoba medical association 1 letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to editing chemical ban the Federal government has or dered any products containing r 11 illegal for one of the Best known products in this category is off the reason behind the ban is that preliminary tests in the indicate chronic health problems in Labora tory animals directly related to use of this chemical has been used for More than 30 years and has not been proven to cause health prob lems in if the Tox terrorists continue to have More and More products banned using Flimsy we will soon have no ammunition left to fight the constant War against Don Poulin Poulin Winnipeg decentralization the provincial government has recently announced its plan for decent this is a concept that has particularly in the area of agricultural the Manitoba correspondence Branch does not fit the decentralization committees two criteria of Public sector services that can be delivered equally effectively from locations outside of Winnipeg or to move the program closer to the client group being institutional programs is a provincially funded education service with teachers in several institutional settings in our setting is Villa a maternity Home which serves clients from All of it is comprised of a residential maternity postnatal residence and Day school we rely heavily on correspondence courses for the flexibility needed for a school population which May Register with us any school Day of the year on an ongoing basis and leave in the same we use the counter service at the Branch office almost daily and make several weekly phone this move will profoundly affect the school Progress of the Over 100 students we serve in one the institutional pro Gram at Villa Rosa is Only a Small part of the user group for the correspondence according to the correspondence Al most 60 per cent of users live in Winnipeg or in school divisions Adja cent to the a significant number live within driving Dis Tance Selkirk and use the overt counter additional costs for shipping and Tollfree Telephone lines Are serious but the greatest problem will be the time Factor in according to Canada with the exception of the Brandon All mail delivery to anywhere in Mani Toba is sent to Winnipeg for sort in both the Quality of service and the proximity of the service to the majority of the Clien Tele will be greatly this move does not meet either of the decentralization committees stated As teachers who Are fre quent users of the Manitoba correspondence Branch we strongly recommend that the Branch remain in Gale Timlick Diane Gerhard Glenna Murra institutional programs Villa Rosa classroom problem drinking your april 20 a clue against alcoholism effectively relays information about creative medical discoveries but does Little to further constructive thinking re Garding substance focus on problem drinking rather than simply on warped thinking about How to Deal with life has caused More problem drinking than unusual genes have caused the focus on the disease concept fits in neatly with a culture which idolizes human research and we find it easier to talk about the injection which will cure alcoholism than to reject the societal values which encourage drink we jump at studies which propose a but cringe from necessary moralistic judgments about lifestyles and research or when divorced from will cure very few and for a very Short time a very Wise Man once of making Many books there is no and much study wearied the now All has been heard Here is the conclusion of the matter maintain a Loving reverence for god above and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of Harry Lehotsky Winnipeg trilogy of heroes that indefatigable White wine so Allen continues to re Gale his pantheon of heroes in the Book review Section of the free battered readers May recall his deification of Tommy Douglas As a Man of unalloyed goodness and of that braying de Broadbent now gone to his idealistic six figure As embody ing such homely Virtues As depend ability and the per Fessor now feels its time to pay homage to you guessed it David in a review of a recent biography of the Lewis family free april apparently Lewis has an already Lustrous reputation or so Mills gushes and his family May Well become our most important political Dynas our hero is a natural product of his fathers gentle idealism and socialist move ments he none of professor Mills reservations about the Structure of the Book can obscure his adulation for and excitement Over the Man and his will this hysterical trilogy now be conscientiously balanced by favor Able reviews of the biographies of Richard Friedrich Hayek and Barbara Amiel the unwashed perhaps our relentless cheerleader would consider putting All his hymns to objectivity together in one when the saints go March ing in might make a Nice working Francis Trueman Winnipeg do you have anything made from pieces of the Berlin Wall ;