Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 22, 1991, Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 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 Bruce l Rudd publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor David Lee managing editor Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 editorials gloom from manness finance minister Clayton manness said yesterday morning that he was trying to take a nonpartisan approach in the lecture he offered opposition members and the Public about the substantial increase in the provincial deficit which will take place this it was impossible to listen to manness and believe he was not talking for the Benefit of Manitoba nurses on the picket lines or voicing a warning to other Public employees who May be thinking of joining the finance minister did not need to preach doom and his figures did that for gone was any pretence that the government might Hope to come within shooting distance of even the substantial deficit manness had forecast when he presented his last manness said that under its present was about to reenter the Era of annual deficits Well in excess of half a billion while manness spoke in Ballpark it was Clear what he was trying to his message was a simple the current recession had reduced Provin Cial previously forecast to grow at a modest to where there would be no growth at this coming manness would see a deficit close to million even if a one per cent Rise could be found for revenues and if expenditures did not climb More than three per cent above their present the bad manness would extend beyond the coming year Given various combinations of Revenue and expenditure could result in a 19921993 deficit even one figure mentioned was in excess of All this was to set the stage for manness to say How he proposed to Deal with the Only one of his three methods has much restructuring expenditure estimates to the familiar Federal funding and internal government reforms will prod uce but not of the magnitude manness his real target is Public sector wage Public including those paid directly by the government and its Crown those paid indirectly to provide health and pos secondary Educa Tion and those paid through municipalities and Public school boards account for billion a apart from the payment of interest on Lon term which represents the third highest single expenditure of these wages appear to manness to offer the Only Hope of getting government spending under the kind of control he his objectives Are Clear but he is fooling himself if he believes that his political opponents will agree that there is anything nonpartisan about imposing wage restraint on Public no heroic please for a fourth time the cites most costly recycling Effort has declared itself a heartbeat away from if not yet having an out of body Only heroic measures can save the resource recovery it would need a place to operate when its lease expires this it would need to Tell some of its two dozen workers who have received Many false Pink slips to wait around a while just in it would need to Tell residents in Wolseley and fort Garry who have bought their Blue bags and saved up Good trash again the recyclers didst mean to shout most of All the resource recovery Institute would need City taxpayers Money of it not to do what its first plan suggested curbside recycling of All sorts of clean trash from City households but to gather from Many times More great quantities of milk Cartons and it is a Good idea to have someone binding up old papers and cardboard for City Council should not Rush to the that it must be the Institute or no it should resist the compulsion to apply lifesaving measures one More Many people who believe keenly in curbside recycling and gave the Institute their Lively support May feel with some at the Way a few City councillors on executive policy committee smoothly removed the in from the nonprofit another infusion of a referral to full City a courageous rejection these might have been prefer Able to deferring the institutes request to another committee one that can make no decision until it is too that was not a Nice Way to pull the Many people who keenly believe in recycling and took a close look at the its audit and its business Are of the firm View that to let it die is where have the Good markets developed for the trash that recyclers pile up will Telephone books and too Many other warehoused goods now be sent to the cites dump Why is civic support of this recycling plan More crucial than consideration of other plans to divert waste from Landfill the resource recovery Institute did a very Good Job of meeting its it showed that Given a a very High percentage of householders would sort their trash and carry some of it to the the hidden Agenda to have the Pilot project become a wedge to Force curbside collection citywide was unexamined and no More straightforward than the opposing councillors the institutes life and death traumas have Given More Winni Eggers More cause to reflect on recycling than chances to do they thankfully Haven blunted As the first year Success of the Christmas tree program it is time to let this gasping incarnation go no doubt there will soon be toeing the party line on War new name but the old game along with changing its Winnipeg natural Gas Utility should review its customer in announcing its new name Centra Gas the firm also announced a renewed commitment to its resident commercial and Industrial the details of the renewed commitment were not spelled the old commitment included a determination to Cut off the Supply of Gas arbitrarily to customers who Are too slow in paying their Gas the company lost the Opportunity to Cut off customers in when the Manitoba court of Appeal found that the drastic action of withholding in a climate As severe As needed legislative which had never been Energy minister Harold on behalf of the Manitoba pro poses to give the company the Lockoff Power it Centra formerly ice utilities and previously greater Winnipeg is campaigning vigorously for Lockoff it argues that because it cannot deny Gas to nonpaying More customers Are neglecting to recent Gas Bill mailings include a notice saying that the company is applying for a rate increase to raise its annual Revenue by million of which is needed As a direct result of unpaid the firms claims of the amount of arrears will be examined at the the company previously told the pub that its arrears Rose to at the end of 1989 after it lost Lockoff Power from at the end of 1986 when it was Locking off nonpaying now it says it needs a increase in annual Revenue to take care of unpaid it is asking for a rate increase to wipe out in one year most of its accumulated the Manitoba pub is unlikely to allow such a if the province gives the Utility Lockoff it should be More carefully controlled than what the company if the pub is going to consider an increase related to it should recall that the company has always had arrears and that the arrears eventually Are paid in while the company is preparing its renewed commitment to it should decide to rely More on the collections methods others it should not rely so heavily on the extreme measure of making a building by Stewart Macleod Thomson news service Ottawa if Ever there was a Good argument for a free vote in it was the Gulf War de had there been Freedom for maps to vote with their with out consideration for party there be so Many liberals angry with former Leader John turn or or tories upset with the views of Bob the my from Fraser Valley particularly galling both of these men disagreed with their parties stands and said the reaction to Turners split with the somewhat woolly position earlier staked out by Leader Jean Chretien was particularly galling to his col he had not warned caucus As some maps were Quick to remind when firmly demanded party loyalty when he was drumming up support for the Meech Lake whether he should have discussed his defection with caucus is an argument Well leave for if prime minister Brian Mulroney had released the party whips and let maps vote As its unlikely there would be such stiff reaction to or anyone else who has disagreed with his or her its customary for free votes to occur following debates on moral such As capital punishment or and what greater moral Issue is there than going to War its nothing Short of ludicrous that maps should have to risk the Wrath of their own parties to take a counter position on such a monumental and a Goin Towar Resolution this one came in the form of sup porting the United nations deadline is not something that frequently interrupts the last one was 40 years but Mulroney obviously didst want to risk losing support from his own instead of freeing maps to do their own he said they had a moral duty to support the that automatically made it a partisan All parties would have to try for unanimity and avoid being embarrassed by it meant the debate would take on a different Hue instead of concentrating solely on the main Issue of the Gulf crisis and Canadas role in there would be the inevitable cheap shots at other party it nip Leader Audrey Mclaughlin made an eloquent plea for a free without had there been it would have saved Chretien the trouble of cobbling to Gether position that his caucus could enforcing blockade what he proposed was that Cana Dian forces in the Gulf confine their role to enforcing the economic blockade and not go to after hostilities he said it was the duty of All canadians to stand United in these circumstances and support Canadian personnel in the Mclaughlin also joined in the but said troops should not be used in any Type of there Are undoubtedly maps other than Turner and Wenman who disagree with party positions in varying but there was no encouragement for them to it obviously required courage for Wenman to even consider breaking particularly since he used to be parliamentary Secre tary to the minister of he he did not want to commit his son to a forgotten traditional support Turner clearly Felt strongly on the making a Point of saying his party position against combat involvement is a repudiation of traditional Liberal support for the at the very moment when the United nations has moved itself to take a collective stand against a brutal Daggres Canad should not break Soli Darity with the nations who Are standing unitedly against he it would be very surprising if there we rent some others in the 80mem Ber Liberal caucus who hold similar views just As there must be other tories who support in one of the most important resolutions that could possibly come before the surely it want asking too much that maps be allowed to Tell us exactly How they they have had to worry about toeing the party if capital punishment is too important an Issue for its hard to figure Why War Doest qualify Canada at War Canada is now officially at the Romili tary stance of the Mulroney govern ment is no longer in Cana Das reputation As a responsible and fair nation can be counted among the undetermined iraqi our International efforts of peacekeeping have been sullied by this unfounded and borrowed foreign policy of destruction Over since Canadas armed forces have been involved in nearly every peacekeeping operation and More Canadian soldiers have worn the United nations Blue berets than any other since 1948 while Many other countries warred peacekeeping had become the emphasis of Canadian military in the last year the Mili tary has been used to suppress natives in Oka and Chateauguay and now As support in this insane War with the emphasis on peace that Canada has Practised for the Canadian Soldier at past 42 years has been to boast of ourselves now As a nation of peacekeepers would be How ironic that at this time the National capital commission and department of National defence Are undertaking the construction in Ottawa of a million Monument to Canadian peacekeeping it Doest seem to make sense to Hon or segments of our military for maintaining peace in Cyprus while others Aid in the Aerial bombard ment of this Monument May very Well stand As a testament to the hypocrisy of Canadas new foreign our reputation As International peacekeepers and peace seekers has been seriously compromised and we must begin immediately to make amends by withdrawing from the Gulf until our expertise of facilitating real peace is Jack Kobayashi Winnipeg summer Homes i would like to comment on a letter from Fontaine free press he said that the unemployment rate on Indian reserves is 80 to 90 per those figures would Indi Cate that a Reserve is not the place to i think that the native people would be better off if they All looked for jobs in mainstream Canada and used the reserves for summer some of the reserves located in buildup areas such As Sechelt and Salmon Arm in Are doing but those located in Remote areas have Little to recommend especially in the Winter i am reminded of the article by a Young native girl on completing High was urged by family and relatives to return to the re but she saying life on a Reserve for an adult is endless i want no part of i intend to go to University and try to get a Good Tom Barnes letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and names will be used and letters Are subject to mismanagement when we lose medicare it will not be because the nurses Are paid too much but because of government mismanagement of the medicare and the abuse of medi care by taxpayers and the people of this it is certainly not fair to ask the nurses to subsidize which they have been doing for i have had major surgery three times in the last 20 years and the question i ask should a nurse be paid less than a Post office worker who does not need an education to sort the mail or a cashier at Safe Way is a nurse Worth less Money than a school teacher who works 9 months a year i believe a nurse should be paid at least As much As a High school i am a Farmer and i say nurses deserve More respect than they Are getting from the minister of Kelher misinformation i just want to say that in fed up with All the misinformation about the nurses and what Moti Vates the average in an orderly at Boniface general Hospital and work Side by Side with i know what Moti Vates and it sure int nurses Are highly highly vitally skilled they also happen to make less Money per hour than a lot of my labor friends who have Only a diploma meter readers for postal in to name a nurses Are in charge of expensive equipment and Peoples but every Day i see people who Haven a clue As to what working in a Hospital is All yet they squawk the loudest at a time like some Days the Hospital Ward is like a War zone with us working As a team to get All the patients Given taken for while putting our backs and our lives on the line Ive had the scare of a dirty Needle puncture at along with Many Ive worked on just about every Ward in and i cant stress enough How caring and self less nurses i applaud them for finally standing up for their Liveli and if some people Are inconvenienced in the dont blame the give them a fair there Worth every take this from a Guy who knows Billy Smith Winnipeg Back to work As a former i am to tally disgusted that a nurses strike is allowed to never mind continuing for More than two certainly working conditions Short staffing Are an ongoing prob Lem but my fellow Peers were any thing but United on the its every Man for nurses work hard but so do Many other nurses Are paid Well for what they do Money was not the reason i left the nursing it is time the government stepped in and ordered the nurses Back to nursing is an essential service and the menu should not be promoting this Joan Roberts Winnipeg fir staid a recent report in the free press concerned a woman who treated a person for a diabetic she indicated that she did what she had seen on while i commend her for caring and being willing to help a fellow being in May i caution your readers that before performing any first Aid one should have completed a training course in such if we do not understand Why and when to provide emergency care while waiting for medical Assis we could do More harm than John will teach first Aid care for injuries and medical emergencies to learn these the student of first Aid will also learn the rationale for performing these i Hope that the woman in your who obviously and others will take advantage of first Aid training Michael Keenan director of training John Manitoba aghast at poll once again the free press has aptly demonstrated the poor journalistic standards prevalent in today the Survey shows nurses strike has healthy support in City free 3 is a perfect example of this i am aghast As to Why such an inane article would be it is my opinion that the Media is caught up in the Vogue age of information and the application of the godlike practice of spewing out numbers and analysis explaining our so called Public Deci Sions and conclusions onto an Al ready saturated i was taught that the Media have a fiduciary duty to the citizenry to transmit a Clear picture of society to the citizens in use it to make decisions and form after the citizens Are the final decision the Media Are to be a forum of debate a Channel of news and dialogue to Foster and promote this article does nothing to uphold these the writers even contradict them selves in their message that the City supports the strike even though an Angus Reid representative says the phoning of 25 people at random to gauge the of the City is statistically so Why ignore the vital rules of statistical Validity and in bold claim there is a healthy support for the nurses strike prove it there is a dangerous Assumption that the citizenry Are merely some kind of Bio computer that thrive on anything saying it is a do not blur information As Conlu this processing is bordering on re member the first lesson in statistics there Are Damn lies and then there Are Brian Light Winnipeg Hes gentle and affectionate and the Man with him is my i ;