Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 19, 1991, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press january 1991 Page 7 the we Noliea free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and the authors name will be used and letters Are subject to readers forum destructive stewardship of the farming Community Charles Mayers recent reported Call to Canadian Farmers to Boycott european made goods to avenge predatory dec Export pricing policies strikes me As a particularly Craven outpouring of it is meant purely to divert victims attention from his own governments abysmally destructive stewardship of the farming my wife and myself visited ten Western european countries in Many things we witnessed were eyeopener for but few More instruct ively so than How radically different an approach european society evidently takes to the questions of Farmer incomes and agricultural Good pricing than that generally espoused on this Side of the insofar As we could Europe still adheres staunchly to tradition Al farming methods perfected Over generations denounced As primitive Back although chemical pesticides and herbicides Are utilized organic fertilizers Are the Universal farmsteads Are family owned and operated and instead of Ove Specia living in one area Grain and Oil for crop selection is highly we had the Strong sense that each country farming sector strove to satisfy Domestic consumption needs through Domestic output to the Ful lest possible taste and appear the fruits and vegetables on european Market shelves made our supermarket fare seem pallid and synthetic by one surmises this must be so because their Consumers would instantly rebel at having anything adjudged subpar for that Over priced fobbed off on the most telling philosophical Dif arise Over income and pricing to All out Ward Farmers As a class occupy one of Western eur ropes higher income that they should be so handsomely compensated for their efforts of befitting of How vital the function they at the same it ensures that farm families have sufficient sufficiently steady financial resources to remain on the on the opposite Side of the retail prices to the consumer Are kept what this All reflects is the fact the Western european polity has effected a healthier ordering of its com Munal priorities than the Way we in North America have conceptualized if they choose to regard farm income subsidies As the single tech Nique that Best enables the institution of the family farm to be kept afloat As the Cornerstone of Rural it seems to me that applause and emulation rather than Deri Sion ought to be coming from our if government under written discounting is viewed As the most reliable Means by which to guarantee the availability of farm foodstuffs to the purchasing Public at reasonable prices and the free Market by contrast failing miserably to Supply primary producers with adequate income to remain viable business that an eminently defensible decision in the predicting Farmers incomes on an artificially induced Scarcity of Supply is in penalize pro particularly where peo Ples daily bread is potentially being held hostage in the Are not subsidies the less More moral and sensible alter native there is nothing particularly unique or taboo about after All our own agribusiness do minted delivery systems in Canada and the United states Are Rife with the difference lies in where they Are assessed at the Cash Register at tax collection Why cling to the fallacy of a workable free Market treatment when the inherent dynamics of Agri culture simply Render it not Amena ble to the Market Model if european nations through their communal investment policies wish to deploy Large chunks of their Gross National incomes into different aspects of their economic cultures than do we North that is their Sovereign they Are intent merely upon the preservation of cherished traditions of family farm livelihood traditions vanishing daily from the Cana Dian farming scene thanks largely to the Connivance of our own Leader Mayers posturing should accordingly be dismissed As just so much desperate instead of parroting the jaundiced pronouncements of the Power that Canadian Farmers ought to have been helping Man the barricades in the streets of Geneva alongside their Quebec who had a Correct understanding of what was truly at stake during the recent Gatt rather than with ill concealed jealousy viewing their european Brethren and Listren As the enemy they would do Wise to demand the same Deal for Jeff Lowe Winnipeg affirmative employment equity driven by two complementary motives my congratulations to Fred Clev Erley for his columns december 17 and in previous Cleverley has not been sympathetic to concepts such As employment in spite of Cleverley unchanged opposition to affirmative his own words suggest his perspectives appear to have personal histories similar to that of Beverley Larin Are latins White upbringing and unique personal characteristics Only serve to emphasize the roadblocks that must be overcome by those who do not meet mainstream expect affirmative action and employ ment equity programs have been introduced and driven by two complementary motives individuals who have been subject to the discrimination experienced by Larin Are no longer willing to be progressive employers recognize a diverse workforce strengthens their organizations and special measures Are sometimes necessary to meet that employment equity does not Sug Gest that Larin should be Given a Job because of her race but it most emphatically says that she must not be denied opportunities because of her skin gender or disability everyone agrees hiring and other employment decisions must be fair and awarded based largely on the problem is those terms Are relative and often defined by those least interested in sharing the rewards of the labor what is fair or meritorious to one person will be unjust to employment equity defines those terms such that individuals or groups experience equal not an equal application of the sometimes special measures Are needed in order to level the playing education is a big player in this at the same time supplementary training need not always be delivered by Public if an employer provides training in order to give a candidate the skills to succeed in a new i Hope Cleverley would recognize the train ing program meets valid social and corporate Cleverley finds it Odd he had not received More Calls in response to his first from those who promote fair employment practices at the organizations he quite possibly those individuals might not have called because they had not read his Cleverley columns rarely support any Public policy i suspect or Cleverley has largely lost the audience of people who held views opposite to for my i read the column because i consider Cleverley to be a bellwether for those views most hostile and least receptive to my own similar complaints come from employers because they never hear from nontraditional this is a perfectly rational response from those if nontraditional candidates have experienced virtually no employment Success at an one should expect that the numbers of applications from those individuals would gradually dry readers who never find themes in Cleverley columns consistent with their own beliefs can be expected to gradually turn away from Reading that systemic discrimination is a pro Cess built on remedies will take some time to make their presence if employment equity and affirmative action do take White Able bodied males such As myself will have a More difficult we will have to compete on even terms with a much wider Pool of the free ride will be the evidence tells us we Are still a Long Way from that Happy Day now that Cleverley is on maybe we Are actually making some Gordon Orlikov employment equity coordinator Cargill limited after making a technician installs the meter in a Winnipeg changes to taxi meters in the article headlined cabbies giving break until meters changed free press january taxi owner Manny Dhillon wrongly alleges taxi operators had to change their meters twice in two months because of a Blunder by the taxicab the two increases in taxi meter rates resulted from two separate initiatives 1 an application by Industry representatives based on increased costs of operation since the previous fare increase and 2 implementation of the goods and services tax by the Federal govern in order to protect the Industry financial position at a time of rapidly rising fuel the Board heard and determined the fare increase application As expeditiously As the earliest an increase to cover in creased costs of operation could be effective was late just Over a month prior to the proposed implementation Date for the in recognition of the Cost to operators of two meter changes in a relatively Short period of the Board considered three options 1 adding the tax to the Cost justified fare to be effective in november 2 deferring the Cost justified fare increase until january 1 and implementing it in conjunction with an increase to cover the tax or 3 implementing the Cost justified fare increase immediately exclusive of the notwithstanding the likelihood two meter changes May be with regard to option the Board determined it would not be appropriate to require taxi users to pay an amount in respect of a tax which had yet to become and therefore declined to include the tax in the november Cost Justi fied fare with regard to option the Board was advised that the Cost of converting a meter would be Reco Vered by full time cab operators in three from the additional profits of operation at the in creased deferring the Cost justified fare increase until Jan uary 1 would thus deprive opera tors of a full month of increased Revenue to which they were justly option which Al Lowed operators to charge the higher fare for the entire month of was clearly in the interests of the Industry particularly inasmuch As demand for taxis is very High in that notwithstanding the fact an additional meter change might be instituted to cover the in As of late november there was doubt As to whether or not the tax would even become and substantial doubt As to whether or not the Board had the Legal authority to include the tax in the these doubts were not resolved by the Federal parliament until it would not have been in the interests of the try to defer the Cost fare for what May have been an indefinite in order to allow operators to avoid the Cost of changing meters to include the Dhillon is a of Duffy taxi on the Board advisory per haps if he had chosen to attend the meeting of the committee on Cember at which the Issue get included fares was in he would have been in a better position to understand the complexities of the Dillons continual contemptuous defamation of the taxi cab Board in the news impairs the boards ability to maintain a constructive working relationship with taxi and respect for boards legitimate statutory authority to regulate and supervise the Dillons con duct thereby undermines the effective fulfilment of the boards delegated directly to the f Board by the to the citizens of Winnipeg receive adequate and proper taxicab ser vice at reasonable it is time Dhillon dered whether his continual Slang Der of the taxicab Board is truly the interests of those he purports to Donald the taxicab an embarrassing silence in defence of the Csc a free press article on 5 regarding the Csc cutbacks reveals nothing of the embarrassing silence of our senior my for Jake Why is he not defending Csc regional programming at the the network is protecting itself by imposing the pain of cutting onto the network programming at the Csc benefits Central Canadas Why is Epp not defending Manitoba in this and Why is Felix the tories ant cultural Czar of not defending the interests of Mani Toba does he really believe that the private to networks will give us a Christmas at the breakaway and abundant coverage of the Voyageur festival Why is our Csc Board member staying on the Board of directors if he refuses to defend Manitoba interests the conservatives seem to prefer to appoint anti Csc citizens to the Csc Transcona car dealer Bob Khz Minski showed his deep hostility for the Csc in a recent if he hates the Csc up Why does he stay on its Board to destroy it what is his hidden Agenda who lives in a mansion in must find it difficult represent Ordinary Manitoban on the Board of the Peoples Cox Winnipeg society of elbows will blast its Way into world Trade Washington this is a society of Georgetown University professor of government Eusebio Muj Alleon told a group of european and Canadian Trade specialists and journalists Here this a native of says Trade policy is an expression of an highly individualistic and utterly ruthless the As a nation of immigrants is held together through its exaggerated Patriot he it is obsessed with efficiency and Pragman americans Are open to new their society is the approach is often called social it is a society of some people move others fall Muja leons remarks were a prophetic opening to a week of exploring Trade policy formulation at the top Levels of the from the the departments of Treasury and Commerce and the message was the the is going to blast its Way into world it is determined to make the world Trade this Means maximum Freedom for capital and business and minimum government even if that disregards social of americans dont see it that they take it As natural Law that social Progress conies Only from economic their version of free Market it is classic some Call it the trickle Down if enough incentive is provided at the those at the Bottom will a Case in Point is the current free Trade if they will inaugurate the most asymmetrical Trade agreement since the great european pm Frances Russell Pires imposed mercantilist regimes on their colonies in the 16th and 17th the Industrial wage disparity Between the two countries ranges anywhere from 57 cents to one Dollar an hour in Mexico versus to an hour in the not even the democrats in while conceding some concern about american seem prepared to consider anything like the euro Pean economic Community interest free Loans to its poorer members to raise Stan Dards or the secs social charter setting floors for social services and labor and environmental Paul an International Trade specialist in commences Mexico notes Mexico poor social and human rights rec Ord Only in they Are Side he it would be counterproductive to bring human rights issues into an Dasher How do you equate issues of goods and services with issues of voting and human rights an agreement with Mexico would comple ment the existing Deal with he taken a North Ameri can free Trade area would be larger in population and in Gross Domestic product than the Commerce officials confidently asked what the out of Dasher talks about a Market of 85 million Consumers and Pri respect for intellectual openness to investment and services and Access to the same objectives the had and largely achieved in the free Trade Canadas status at the american officials is Likely to be resolved within a As for the Canadian it is Seldom mentioned by officials unless ques they see it As a done Deal and working with Only Loose ends left to James director of International Trade for says he has seen nothing about subsidies although unrestricted Access to the Market was the Promise Canada got in return for its upfront Concession of control Over its says Waller weve found the fat to be very the dispute settlement mechanism has turned out reasonably William commences director of the Canada echoes the same opt the first two years have been very the fat is proceeding according to plan and there Are no major business Confidence is High and the Dollar is the business Community on both sides of the Border is people Are pleased with the Way the panels Are fun Cavitt refuses direct comment on the fact polls show close to 70 per cent of canadians now oppose the cancelling he would be very nor would he comment on the loss of manufacturing jobs in that just the labor unions making that similar data has been supplied by statistics Canada and the Canadian manufacturers continues Cavitt the Canadian govern ment looks at the total number of jobs and those have been Paula former Trade com missioner under Ronald explains the aggressive the is now the worlds largest debtor and it has to Export its Way out of its either we can Stop importing or increase we want to take the High its not for nothing that the Trade representatives boardroom has a Large photograph of president George Bush giving ambassador Carla Hills a the inscription reads dear i know you will use this with finesse and doonesbury by Garry Trudeau i fhnauy60rsomt ;