Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 8, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba A6 Winnipeg free press August 1995 editorials Brian Cole 6977044 Ottawa new focus since coming to Power nearly two years the Chretien government has done an admirable Job of getting the country financial House in the while not necessarily under certainly appears to be headed in the right Ottawa has pretty much held the line on taxes and has continued to look for efficiencies in it is now time the government turned its attention to what is clearly becoming the most important Issue facing canadians or the Lack of the latest statistics show Canada is now creating jobs at a rate of about a compared with a month last it is not during the Depths of the recession in the Early part of this politicians and economists held out the Hope that unemployment Levels would drop when the econ powered by increased exports and an upsurge in Domestic consumer the Economy has recon but the jobs did not materialize in the Way Many had Mani to bans can take some Solace in the fact that the provincial unemployment rate of per cent is relatively Good when com pared to other but that has As much to do with a Mobile population As it does with local Job Cre the National unemployment rate for the first six months of this year has sat at about per Down dramatically from in but still a lot higher than the per cent recorded in the unemployment rate for the years 1986 to 1990 averaged about per the average unemployment rate for the last five taking into account a rate of for is about per in human resources minister Lloyd Axworthy recently noted that roughly million canadians about 20 per cent of Canadas total labor Market receive unemployment insurance or some other form of social program much of the reason for stubbornly High unemployment rates and higher welfare rates can be attributed to the fact that like virtually every other industrialized country in the is undergoing a dramatic economic the old jobs Are disappearing faster than the Economy can produce new compounding the problem is that Many canadians Arent qualified for the new jobs in the information and technology last for Ottawa approved for eign work permits for companies that had but find a Canadian skilled enough to fill while the problems Are the solutions Are less Ottawa cant afford to spend billions of dollars on Job creation and it cant afford not to get its own fiscal House in for believes the key to tackling the growing human deficit begins with revamping Canadas unemployment insurance converting it from a passive program into an Active program that helps canadians make the necessary transitions in a changing he acknowledges it is not the whole answer to Canadas employment but believes at the very Ottawa must invest in helping people become better at adapting to the new the minister is set to table his proposals in the lets Hope they Are Worth waiting turning up the heat Liberal members of parliament Are starting to feel the its about a petition signed by Manito bans Calls upon the Chretien government to change its burdensome head tax on immigration minister Sergio Marchi is not Likely to heed the Good advice he is get Ting from this since the Ontario Liberal caucus is still Riding the anti immigrant the Manitoba ethnic coalition should keep the Faith and keep up the Marchi has ignored the Liberal red Book promises of increased quotas for immigrants and he has in fact reduced those he has imposed a head tax on All payable at the time immigration applications Are he has hinted at requiring families of immigrants to Post Bonds in Case those newly arrived family members cant support taken the rights Landing fee and the surety estimated by some Federal sources to be As much As if it is implemented this would be an impossible Burden for most canadians looking to reunite with family members still in the old Liberal my Rey Pagtakhan Winnipeg North has shown considerable courage by publicly criticizing Marchis Pagtakhan knows the policy is unfair and contrary to traditional Liberal he also knows that the thousands of recent immigrants and their families who live in his constituency will not be those signatures prove the the Liberal immigration scheme has been crafted by Ontario politicians and civil servants who Are responding to local political there Are other political the kind those Manitoban have begun to apply to local they should circulate those petitions they should turn up the Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Calvin James circulation Verne Kalichuk human resources Stephan Majorki operations Perry Nixdorf advertising Glenn Williams finance 1995 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 dollars for the Rich Parizeau invents a plot Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau gave me a Good chuckle the other Day when he talked of a dark plot in which the Federal government would persuade the other nine provincial premiers to gang up on Quebec during this months annual premiers conference in the clearest lesson i Learned at the More than 15 such conferences i attended was that Ottawa cannot per Suade the premiers to do nor is it Likely to try during this years annual gathering of a time when Ottawa is definitely included except for the Chance of a bit of ritualistic fed clearly Premier Parizeau is Well rested after his vacation in the South of France and anxious to turn up the heat under the referendum vote he intends to hold sometime later this Alberta Premier Ralph Klein gave him an Opportunity when he gave some offt Decuff answers to questions asking what the rest of Canada would do if Quebec does approve a separation Premier Klein said Only what a lot of Western canadians Are that if Quebec wants to go it had better but it should not think it can carry on As if it had decided to these and some Federal government working papers smuggled out of Ottawa hatched Parizeau conspiracy in which Ottawa would orchestrate the ultimatum he so badly needs to gather yes votes and have it voiced by the examine the and it Falls apart at every Premier Parizeau suggests that the Federal referendum minis Ter Lucienne Robillard asked Mani Toba Premier Gary Filmon to Lead a common front against the Federal minister denies this and pre Mier Filmon says he knows nothing at All about no Premier Parizeau knows that Quebe cers have Only a vague idea of How Premier Fil Mon thinks and Fred Cleversey Premier Parizeau says he has persuaded this years pre Miers Premier Clyde Wells of to add inter provincial Trade to the Only if the subject had been left off would it have been every year the premiers talk about inter provincial and they usually Issue a com Munique on the subject that has far More style than i suspect that deep Down Parizeau would like nothing better than to have the other nine premiers gang up on he could then pull a favorite trick of Rene Levesque at such when Levesque was Premier of Quebec he would regularly find something about the annual premiers Confer ence that irritated usually on the Day before the conference was scheduled to he would Call his own news get a on Day Start and the Lions share of the publicity coming the meeting and taking most of the Quebec reporters with him on his govern ment leave in a High Parizeau is laying the ground work should such an Opportunity pre sent itself by pointing out that the rest of Canada Sells so much to que Bec that the other provinces cannot think about denying a Sovereign que Bec the same Access to Canadian Parizeau has too much Faith in Ottawa persuasive markets that As a already you can hear already the referendum Campaign speeches on the Parizeau conveniently forgets that the other premiers will be particularly careful saying or doing any thing that can be interpreted As taking a position on Quebec sover they tried it once in and got themselves badly burned in the it is certain that the premiers will not make the mistake they did in 1986 when they discussed then Quebec Premier Robert Bouras Sas simplified formula for getting his signature on the at that after a pleasant the premiers quickly agreed to a two paragraph draft of this formula pre pared by Bourassa and then Alberta Premier Don it is pos sible that the main reason the pre Miers agreed to the draft was that they didst want to be objectionable about anything at what was a social that to their grew into the Meech Lake Accord and All the trouble it simply these premiers meet Ings Are As social As they Ever the meetings Are no place for the kind of conspiracy Parizeau says he expects and if he had Ever attended one As a participant he would know just How foolish his suggestion about a conspiracy of course Parizeau would like an offer on the table from the rest of that would take the pres sure off him and put it on the rest of us during the referendum he would not object to an offer that was basically what Premier Klein said it should go if you want but dont expect things to be the same after you would the Federal government like to see the premiers take a stand on Quebec sovereignty that would help the no Side of the debate of course it can it manufacture such a stand of course it companies exploit workers by Bob Herbert new York times news service readers have been asking what they can do about Amer ican companies that sell cloth ing made by exploited Many of them in the maquiladora factories of Central America and the a woman from i simply cannot sit Back and watch my two children frolic in their vacation surf knowing that other children suffer to enable my kids to have cute bathing a woman from it makes me want to do but what a Man from said for the Jast 20 years or i have watched the made in Label grow scarcer and scarcer in the clothing departments of retail Over that entire time i have made a commitment to Pur Chase american made apparel excl up to a few years ago this merely resulted in some minor inconveniences slightly longer shop Ping trips and increased catalogue More and More it is turn ing into a grueling Many readers asked if there were a list of Good companies and bad some kind of guide that they could the questions raised were Good sensible and and filled with compassion and a sense of most people do not want to buy clothing made by work ers who Are treated like and they find the exploitation of children especially but the Issue is and the answers at the moment Are not very in per cent of All apparel purchased in the United states was made today the breakdown is about with the balance about to be tipped in favor of some items for exam ple Are hardly made in the United states at As Consumers have it is very difficult to Sim ply buy a made in the Label is not a guarantee that the product was made by workers who Are treated there is a tremendous proliferation of illegal sweatshops right Here in the United said Charles executive director of the National labor we can document hundreds of sweatshops in new san on officials raided a garment sweatshop Complex in Al according to nearly 70 thai Immi Grants had been held in virtual slav the Complex was surrounded by barbed wire and spiked i never would have believed a situation like this could exist in the United and i Hope i never see it said californian labor com Victoria Bradshaw the Best thing Consumers can do is let american companies know that they do not want to buy goods made by child or by workers of any age who Are speak to retail clerks and store write to company ask if garments were manufactured under humane Condi if the Consumers would engage the companies on this if they would just enter the it would be a tremendous said Consumers should ask company executives to respond with a letter certifying that none of their products Are made in factories in which abusive practices Are employed consumer and labor organizations can be contacted for the names of newsletters and groups that track employment practices and it is important also for Consumers to write their representatives in con alerting them to their con Cerns about this Tom Harkin of Iowa has introduced a Bill that would Block the importation of goods produced by children under the age of a similar Bill has been offered in the according to As Many As 46 million children around the Globe make goods for the United states Many apparel companies in the have adopted codes of conduct that Are supposed to insure that the workers who make their products Are not but the Pri Marily Public relations Are widely ignored by the Independent contractors who run the said As it stands no worker in Central America or the Caribbean has Ever heard of a code of in the headlong Rush to dismantle the barriers to enormous efforts Are made to protect the rights and the property of the businesses but the the human beings who make the prod Are not in the inter National corridors of they Are less than an ;