Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 13, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba 1 a Winnipeg free press october 1995 storming the Tower t he University of Manitoba exists for one purpose to serve the educational needs of it does not exist to provide interesting work and comfortable salaries and benefits to members of the University faculty May want to keep that simple concept in mind As they negotiate a new collective agreement with the the like virtually every other Public institution in the is trying to find ways to Deal with shrinking revenues and the need to improve in for the University of Manitoba faces a shortfall of As much As Given that wages and benefits make up roughly 85 per cent of the universe Tys million attempts to Deal with the fiscal problem will affect one Way or Aneth University president Arnold Naimark hit the Nail on the head in a recent letter when he said the practical question we Are forced to grapple with is How much we on the one afford to allow wage rates to decline before we Are so noncompetitive that we cannot attract or retain High Cali Bre on the other How much we should allow staffing Levels to programs to be student Access to be reduced in order to protect or enhance salary the administration Hopes it can help strike a balance by obtaining some flexibility in its collective agreement with academic the seem to have a difficult time understanding that the world is changing and that they must change with they have walked at the administrations proposals and Are threatening to walk off the Job october 18 a move that would disrupt the lives of thou Sands of the administrations stated goal is to attract Good professors to teach courses that students actually but while that May seem like a simple enough concept to people living in the real faculty association members appear to have problems with the for the University administration wants to change a clause in the collective agreement that makes it impossible to Cut unpopular courses in Large depart ments unless the entire department is needless to say this provision does not make it easy for the administration to organize the University in a Way that is efficient or responsive to the needs of students after Are the reason for the University in the first but association members believe the existing clause is just Why should they lose their jobs just because nobody wants to take their courses or because they Are not necessarily the Best qualified teachers its a question one expects from a group of people who forget they Are there to serve the not Campaign madness hundreds of years of Legal precedent mean nothing when theres a Campaign to mayor Susan Thompsons idea to establish a Community court for those who deface Public property int it never saw the inside of an one can Only was it seen by anyone inside the City solicitors the problem that Thompsons plan seeks to solve is real and should be addressed by senior governments which have some jurisdiction Over the criminal Justice it does take too Long for Young offenders to face the charges brought against it would be Nice if those kids faced the music right away and not after months of the mayors is so full of holes and so transparently at Odds with fundamental principles of due process that it will never and should never see the Light of she wants to haul Graffiti artists into a magistrates office right after an arrest has been she wants the magistrate to Dis Pense a Little Justice on the perhaps so hours of Community the mayor says she is More concerned about Community rights than individual she should be concerned with what the plan ignores is every canadians right to a fair the right to Legal the right to hear the evidence brought against Thompsons Swift however efficient and however fails any imaginable test of due the cites chief executive officer would Only fall into such a trap during an election Campaign when there is no time for sober second thought and when responding to the challengers footsteps becomes More important than thinking through the consequences of what is being the Thompson Campaign has been slow off the the head Start of her chief Terry and the surprising showing from the Tough talking Peter Kaufmann have forced the mayor to play the announcement Aday style of campaigning is a recipe for the kind of trouble the mayor finds herself in this the sad thing is that too Many win nip Eggers will be so Happy that the vandals will be punished swiftly that How they get their punishment will be of Little concern As it was for the Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press esl 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy publisher Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Calvin Verne Kalichuk human resources Stephan Majorki operations Perry Nixdorf advertising Glenn Williams finance 1995 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 135s Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council vol 123 n03u9 Canada Post salts agreement no 563395 t editorials Uberty of religion Equality of civil rights Brian Cole 6977044 civic Agenda of the right councillor Glen Murray has been astounded at the num Ber of fort Rouge voters who intend to vote for him october 25 and for Peter Kaufmann As Murray is about As far ideologically removed from Kaufmann As its possible to get on this years but Murray is starting to come to the uncomfortable conclusion that Kauf Mann May very Well be mayor of Winnipeg by this time next voters Are telling Murray that they know what there getting with him and they May not like everything they but they like the Way there saying and they believe there telling the unadorned Kaufmann said in a recent interview that he wants to be win Nipges Mike this months ballot is heavy with angry men lashing out at the at at civil servants the same constituency that swept Harris into the premiers office in by says City workers who want to keep their jobs will have to bid against the private virtually every service but fire and transit will be contracted a significant portion of the electorate buys the argument that Public workers Are overpaid theres no shortage of stories about the four Guys in Blue safety helmets supervising the one Guy in a White Nick Martin helmet wielding a few candidates acknowledge that most of those workers Are dedicated Public servants our neighbors with roots in the who spend their salaries on the goods and services the business Community needs to every Job lost through attrition is one less Job that would keep our children from Leav ing Winnipeg to find that message int part of a Mike Harris Council has reduced City Hall management by about 25 per through Early and in the last few weve lost medical officer of health Richard against whose loss the impending departure of Keith Tkachuk pales Linda a lawyer who gave councillors the no nonsense straight advice they needed to keep their Heads on straight and Don whose planning Candor to Riel Community committee has played a Pivotal role in maintaining the Quality of life in vital and nor Many candidates cant wait to see More such people pack their consider a few of the issues that Arent being barely a mention of Winnipeg a under funded service which is largely used by those people who cannot afford the City let its race relations com missioner go last giving Harold Rampersad two weeks notice that his contract would not be and somehow blending his duties in elsewhere in the adminis no one has suggested replacing perhaps Winnipeg has no racial employment equity coordinator Sandra seconded from returned to the feds this summer and Hast been no ones pushing to hire a it goes without women enjoy Complete Equality in Safe City coordinator Chris Balicki was on a month month contract until finally getting a oneyear Deal recently that expires december establishing her office permanently is apparently not As High a priority for men outraged at the nightly threats to their Elmwood candidates de Mullis and Mike Keating Are both calling for the creation of municipal Boot Terry Halligan in fort Rouge wants re jacketed citizen patrols on his Daniel Mclntyre candidate Gordon Halushka chuckles that when he encounters punks hanging around his he invites them out on the Street to even Don Mitchelson in North Kil Donan says he recently spotted an unfamiliar car pass by several he pulled them Over and demanded to know what they were up turns out they were House Hunting so they could buy in his but Mitchelson believes More people should be More assertive about Community Mitchelson and River Heights Garth Steek Are among Many who trim the civic Steek wants to reopen the five year agreement Council signed last january with its largest Halligan and others would put welfare recipients to work in return for their they owe says but they look positively moderate next to mayoral candidate Michael who says welfare payments should be reduced for teenage and there should be no additional social assistance based on having More than one Nick Martin is a City Hall reporter of the free his column appears on alternate devious and destructive policies the four week emergency doctors strike at Winnipeg Community hospitals brings into Sharp focus the Filmon tories philosophy of a philos Ophy that wins in the Short term of politics but loses in the Long run of Manitoba living the philosophy is to do nothing and wait for circumstances to Force your your original plan of action can be finessed past the pub Lic As inevitable or beyond the governments no matter How unpalatable it May there is no As the neoconservatives or As comedy Star flip Wilsons great Laughline put it the Devil made me do Premier Gary Filmon disclosed his formula for staying out of the Vot ers face at the face of those voters who see themselves As pay ing not government in the Dean of this legislature Agri culture minister Harry Enns often has said that the people Are most at risk when the government is because governments tend to want to intervene in their lives and pass Laws and regulations that always take Power away from the people and put it into the hands of the government and its Filmon having government intrusion in Peoples having government intervention in All things and imposing governments will and judgment on All situations is not necessarily the Best thing for the people of this or any other virtually the Only area of Public policy where this government initiates is in As Filmon said in the same the budget is the most important instrument of pub Lic policy the thing from which All government priorities the tries have used their budgets to implement their trickle Down the Ory of economic growth tax cuts to business and the Wel Todo to impose a balanced budget t Frances Russell debt reduction regime on the province that will Force annual com pounding decreases in Public ser on the spending particularly in social and environmental the government is it cultivates the image of activism while pulling the fiscal noose Ever tighter to see what if the people within the system can be forced to Cope with diminishing As in family services and most areas of Fine if they cannot or As in the instance of the emergency then they use their usually unpopular outcries to target them As special interests and make cuts that would never have been possible any other the emergency doctors obliged the government by asking for a 15 per cent pay increase when All other health workers were accepting a two per cent pay knowing the Public would focus its anger on greedy doctors rather than the the tories have got at least with the most extreme of All the options presented to them in the two reports on Winnipeg emergency Hospital services that they have been sitting on for Well Over a the most chaired by Moe Lerner and released in proposed the nighttime clo sure of the emergency wards at Misericordia and seven Oaks at the health minister Jim Mccrae rejected the where would you go at 3 if you had an emergency in your Home he a Little Over a year Mccrae has found the answer to his at least to his Public Satis a heart attack victims Best Friend int a closer emergency but a Well trained ambulance he tells the All the government has done since the strike is to add one More the first Day of the fall when the doctors strike was just Over a week nip Leader Gary doer charged that the government had seized on the work stoppage As an Experiment to find out just How tightly it could draw the string on emergency the Premier heatedly denied the we Are not embarked on any Experiment Filmon whether or not we learn any thing from this work obviously we will by virtue of the manner in which we have had to cover for the but that is a matter for another that another time turned out to be the Day the doctors settled for the two per cent pay and Mccrae kept his own care Bear image intact by letting the opposition and the Public learn about the Blanket night closure of Community Hospital emergencies his Deputy minister informed the Hospi decision making by omission ducks the political heat by ducking political its in the its Frances Russell covers politics for the free her column appears wednesdays and the governments plan to close emergency rooms has hit v ;