Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 14, 1994, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press january editorials editor John 6977044 waiting for a budget a 1994 budget for the City of Winnipeg has been pub but it is not the budget mayor Susan Thomp son wants she does not yet know what Bud get she will but she is looking for unspecified cuts in spending or increases in Revenue that will keep the increase in the property tax rate below the per cent that is now with the great Power and abundant information at her mayor Thompson should be Able to do better than she should be Able to take a definite position and stick to she should be willing to Tell Winnipeg Gers what tax rate they can legitimately be asked to pay and what services they can expect in she is asking the councils Community committees and standing committees to study the budget and make recommendations about but they must do so with no guidance from the mayor about the new revenues she has in mind or the further cuts she is if cuts should be made that Are not proposed in the let the mayor identify them and show what savings can be if new revenues besides the property tax Are let the mayor disclose them now and show How they can be then councillors and citizens can comment with some Confidence that they have the real choices in front of the mayor knows of no other spending cuts that she favors and no other revenues that she would sup then let her recommend this budget for adoption by the Council and defend the choices that Are contained in it is a difficult budget for her to in return for a Rise in the Mill she offers erosion of Public health services and the Library Book reduced fire and police less Mosquito less paving and maintenance of the this absurd position arises partly from the fictional sys tem used in last years which dumped costs into the 1994 budget by deliberately overestimating 1993 revenues and underestimating it arises partly from the new Cost the City is now paying to help cover the operating losses of the Winnipeg jets hockey to defend this Thompson would have to show Why we should impoverish the Public libraries so As to buy Christmas gifts of Luggage for the hockey she would have to explain Why she led the Council last year into adopting a budget everybody knew was for want of mayoral the budget debate will slither around in its usual Way until the statutory deadline arrives and then the Council will adopt Winnipeg deserves a political problem talking about ethics in government is a surefire method of inviting intense scrutiny of your that is Why Revenue minister David Andersons lawsuit against the Federal government attracted so much Andersons withdrawal of the lawsuit should put an end to the Anderson was appointed to the immigration Appeal Board in 1984 by the Trudeau government for a 10year the Board was scrapped by the tories five years later and who refused a two year appoint ment to the new immigration and refugee sued for lost wages and More than in travel the Federal court said no last the Federal court of Appeal will still hear the Case put Forward by Ander sons former there Are two issues the first is whether or not Anderson was entitled to any of the unpaid salary whether governments can rescind ordering Council appointments without liability for lost in most the government has All the Freedom it needs to appoint its own people to boards and commis in Andersons it was less Clear because legislation which set up the immigration a peal Board in 1966 said that members can Only be Dis missed for it was for the courts to decide if the spirit of that legislation was violated when Anderson and his colleagues were paid less than what was promised when the appointments were the other question is whether Anderson was in a conflict of interest because he was suing a government of which he is a since there Are no circumstances under which Anderson could have used his position in Cabinet to influence the Appeal there was no con real or if he had been exercising influence on anyone let alone his he would have been compelled to this Issue is not about ethics or conflict of it was a political problem for Anderson and a political Opportunity for the debating ethics a few Days before a throne speech trumpets a new age of honesty and integrity was enough to Back the Rookie minister Call it political Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune is 1890 Maurice Switzer publisher Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor John Dafoe editorial Page editor directors Joi in Bardawil marketing Craig Barnard de Belhumeur human resources Bill Brian Cottom finance Stephan Majorki production Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson newspapers company limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council r when cold touches the brain Winni Eggers Are most apologetic about their weath in the company of Community new they behave As if they Bear personal responsibility for your stalled car or your Frozen As one who spent a dozen Winters in Northern i find myself assuaging guilt by trying to recall instances where i have experienced colder wind or deeper Snow than i have found in this part of the since october will Comfort Winnipeg has been dusted by a Mere 50 centimetres of i personally shovelled 60 centimetres of scattered flurries from a Timmins driveway on one december weekend in and i snort when i see that Sylvia person who does the Channel 5 weather give a Little shiver when she talks about a wind chill Doest she realize Shes talking to somebody who had a camera seize up after 30 seconds in the Teeth of a 60 wind in Resolute Bay it might just be Small Comfort to most Manitoban to know that our cur rent run of 24hour 20s represents a veritable hot spell in provincial meteorological at the height of the last ice some years Manitoba was covered by a Glacier metres there we rent Likely Many people around to complain publisher Maurice Switzer about the temperature in those i have noticed that some Manitoban exhibit rather bizarre behaviour As the Mercury whatever havoc extreme cold May wreak on other bodily i am convinced it destroys human brain an inordinate number of the afflicted seem to frequent the Sherbrook area in route to the office the other i passed a person astride a i say it was a person without any Means of since it was wrapped in either swaddling a mexican or a combination it had no discernible Means of telling where it was since its face was completely covered by a a and a it was possessed of an angular with joints and limbs appearing to pro Trude in All including two Knees Bent in the act of rotating the bicycles my automobile was slithering along on the Snow packed Street even wearing a fur coat inside my i could feel the chill of the 8 this creature navigating its bicycle through three Lane traffic was either the most intrepid travel Ler since Ferdinand Magellan or the stupidest living creature who Ever fogged a i opted for the latter mainly because it was a although i decided to award equal Points for the cumbersome Choice of now i understand that cycling is a Touchy subject in a City which can truly Lay claim to having an environmentalist behind every a 1993 transportation study estimated that cyclists ply City some of them including my Sherbrook Street creature using two wheeled transit to commute to work or the which Cost was used by Winnipeg planners to justify in last years Street renewal budget for paths and lanes to accommodate that study also recommended establishing education programs for cyclists and in creased enforcement of traffic Laws As they apply to Bike riders who Are involved annually in several Hundred traffic As recently As some 400 Bike accidents were reported to City and seven cyclists lost their lives on Winnipeg if police Are looking for a place to Start the education they might set up a Booth right near the Sherbrook Cumberland Avenue inter they could Stock it with pamphlets pointing out the relative Wisdom of trying to slalom a bicycle through three lanes of traffic at the Best of let alone when the Road surface is ridged with ice and packed cyclists stopping to use the information Booth might drop an entry into a lottery drum offering prizes such As monthly bus passes or head rays up the Street at the health sciences Cen the evening of the Day i had witnessed the cycling creature of Sherbrook i was hunkered Down in a cosy living room to watch some educational on came this documentary about an expedition that made a startling Dis covery several years ago of an ancient body Frozen in the ice of the italian it was an ice age features in remarkably Good literally mummified by years of deep free i started in my the mummified form had an angular with joints and limbs awkwardly protruding in All i would they come across his bicycle lets stick with potluck babies i was born in a fact which is of no interest to anyone except me and the police and which is mentioned Here Only because it offers an Opportunity for the modest revela Tion that i was a spectacularly Beautiful As babies most women think most babies Are most men find that Beauty hard to spot and cannot distinguish even their own children from others of the same size and colouring until Sev eral years have passed and the kids have developed their personal Pat terns of there no dispute about me i was undeniably Beauty so in when i was unveiled to friends of the an elderly icelandic woman with particularly High standards gazed in rap Ture before turning to look Down her nose at my father and sniff Well at least you can do something a couple of months the family fled the corrupting climate of Vancouver for where the Rigours of the Winters and the Summers Are enough to ensure that even the women grow up so Tough that they can Chew nails and spit it was Here that i grew to remaining Beautiful for a few before slip Ping a notch to where i remained through most of my after which i became a moderately attractive Young astute readers will have noticed the declining intensity of the adjectives through the succeeding stages of my life today in Middle i am desperately trying to hold on to sort Faver but years of excess and the Pas Sage of time Are taking their my wife journey through time has been the she As a a bit of a so homely that her parents did not even want to take pictures of then she grew into a pretty a Beautiful Young woman and she is getting better looking with each year that 1 know should the trend continue for another ten Tom Oleson people will look at us in Public and wonder Why such an attractive woman would drag around with her a mummified the truly astonishing thing about both of us As was that our parents were Able to produce us All by there was no genetic supermarket in which to shop us a Gene for Brown one for a roman nose and one for obedience make that two for no team of genetic engineers standing by to ensure they got exactly what they hoped they had to Supply their own test tubes and equipment and do the splicing of the Dan which More fun anyway than the Prospect of what the scientists researching reproductive technology Are now promising reproductive technology has come a Long Way since the first test tube babies were giving Hope to infertile couples that they could have children of their that was and remains a controversial and complicated with some people regarding it As interference in the natural course of it seems a bit niggardly for people with children to want to deny children to couples who cant have any in the Normal no matter How enthusiastically they in it seems unnatural in because it is human the Beauty of newborns is in the Eye of the beholder nature to feel if i have to suffer through years of raising Why should you be Able to go out and enjoy yourself by All have your kids any Way you now we can go even there Are clinics that Promise couples the Opportunity to pick the sex of their people have been trying to do this for of through different Folk methods such As standing on their Heads or having both sets of feet Point i never tried these be cause i have never been athletic enough to stand on my head and have a poor sense of so i cant vouch for but the scientific methods apparently do we Are also promised designer a techniques that will allow you to pick the features you want your Chil Dren to and babies that have no real mothers and no real fathers except for Jiffy genetic Laboratory these Are intriguing and Complex concepts and will be the subject of much impassioned debate and argue science offers us Many but it does not always serve the inter ests of society or the individuals who make up on an Issue that touches so profoundly and could have such an Impact on our very can we Trust the scientists or even our selves to really know what is right we have rarely done Well at it before when we have entered these none of us Here today was ordered from a menu we Are just a re cent cartoon depicted a baby in a High chair screaming and hollering and throwing food All Over the a Haggard Mother is Reading a newspaper with the headline designer babies now and thinking 1 wonder if we can most parents have had similar thoughts at one time or but when you look at a playground or a skating rink or a schoolyard and you see what potluck can bring you have to wonder if it is really that bad a ;