Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 23, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Brian Cole 6977044 focus Winnipeg free press october legislation holds potential for dismantling services balance budget Bill irresponsible by Errol Black finance minister Eric Stefan sons defence of the governments balance budget legislation con firms the fact that Bill 2 is what its critics claim bad Stefanson tries to justify the legislation on the grounds that there Are individuals and organizations in Manitoba and else where who support this is the Manitoba taxpayers the Chambers of com have publicly lauded the As have the Canada West foundation and the financial this list alone should be cause for con think about it for a minute All of these groups and organizations share a common Core of ideas and among other they favor significant cuts to the Public sector cuts to income taxes for the Rich and corporations and greater Reliance on regressive taxes to fund a reduced Public sector proliferation of user fees privatization commercialization of vital services provided by the Public sector the resurrection of workfare programs for people forced to seek social Assis Tance and cuts to unemployment insure the reason they Are so enthusiastic about Bill 2 is that they recognize its potential contribution to dismantling pub Lic sector redistributing income and wealth in favor of the Rich and pow Erful in and cutting services to the unemployed and the As for the rest of i rather doubt that they share the enthusiasm of these groups for Bill on the they Are More concerned about the level of child poverty in about unemployment and about the rapid deterioration in health care and and so than they Are about achieving annual balanced Stefanson goes on to argue or imply that 1 existing debt and debt servicing costs Are becoming unmanageable 2 the so called taxpayer Protection pro vision of Bill 2 will protect citizens against paying higher taxes 3 balancing the budget will eliminate economic instability 4 balancing the budget and eliminating the debt will enhance the legacy we leave to future generations and 5 tax rate increases outweigh All other considerations and that is Why the govern ment intends to preclude tax rate increases except by All of these claims and suggestions Are either false or 1 the finance ministers own numbers the 1995 Manitoba budget indicate that debt and debt servicing costs As a pro portion of Gap have been relatively Sta ble Over the last the recent surges in debt and Debaser Viking costs were the result of a deep recession in the Canadian Economy and the High interest rate policy of the Bank of More the fiscal problems of provinces have been accentuated by fed eral government offloading of fiscal in any the Point is that it is not the absolute size of the debt or debt repayments that but rather their size in relation to the Capac Ity of the province to manage the debt and debt repayment in exactly the same Way it is for families and Corpora there is no evidence in the num Bers that Manitoba has or is losing the capacity to manage these 2 Bill 2 does not protect citizens against paying higher the Legisla Tion requires re Ferenda for approval of tax rate but it does not prevent the government from expanding the bases against which Given rates Are applied As it has done previously with the retail sales and personal income taxes and proliferating user nor does it protect citizens against increases in user fees and property taxes necessitated by provincial government offload ing of responsibilities on lower Levels of the healthcare universities and 3 balancing the budget will not Only not eliminate instability but could very Well make the Economy More for the Manitoba govern ment had responded to declining revenues in the Early 1990s by attempting to balance the the result would have been a deeper recession in Manitoba and More Manitoban out of 4 the legacy we bequeath to future generations depends on the relationship Between the assets and liabilities that we pass on to the assets take the form of physical and social infrastructure and Stefanson defends our capacity to generate decent jobs and decent if we Compromise these assets to eliminate the debt and interest the legacy we leave could Well be a Public sector in a backlog of Public sector needs and a moribund econ in the legacy we leave by focusing exclusively on eliminating the debt is Likely to be much worse than the debt 5 if were going to have re Ferenda on tax rate increases because it or so Ste Fanson would have us in some sense More then Why dont we really open things up and have refer Enda on All fiscal adjustments on changes to tax on tax cuts usually for corporations and the Rich As Well As tax on cuts to spending on social the of is that in a parliamentary system it is vital that our elected governments have the flexibility and capacity to respond to changing conditions in the Economy and in this is As True of tax rate increases As it is for any other fiscal in i believe the free press was Correct in stating in an editorial that Bill 2 is if the government believes that a balanced budget is warranted in the present Cir or in any and All Circum then it should balance the it Doest require legislation to do Bill 2 should be in its and we should get Back to debating the serious problems that confront Errol Black teaches at the University of letters to the editor talk about tax grabs regarding the premiers comment that photo radar May constitute a hidden tax grab on Winnipeg the tax grab term should also be used in reference to provincially sponsored the difference Between the two situations lies in the intent and the effect of the photo radars intent is safety through Accident those vulnerable to fines for speeding could avoid this radar tax grab by simply curbing their urge to if this penchant for speeding is proven to be an Addic Tive appropriate govern men supported counselling could be the intent of gambling is solely Revenue creation for the the availability of tax supported counselling for gamblers indicates the govern ments awareness of gambling this addiction keeps people subjected to this tax their Only Means of avoidance is with addiction the speeding tax affects those with the Means to drive an Auto the gambling tax affects All income with the greatest Impact on those in financial Dis Tress or in the lowest poverty income brackets most Likely without the Means to drive an Auto i am in favor of the photo radar tax grab deterrent to dangerous but am against the Gam ing tax grab from the addicted and Greenberg Winnipeg diversity in education this is in response to the woman who wrote to complain that her son did not get accepted into the Sci ence faculty at the u of although i go Par time to the other University and do not know about the requirements at the u of since i transferred out Many years i agree that her son was treated shabbily by not having been Given More notice of his rejection in the science 1 am insulted at her attitude towards the faculty of anyone who thinks that the Only thing the world needs is science grads and technology is sadly mis where would we be without the graduates from the social work and teaching programs the psychology programs the English majors who write our stories and poetry and and copy and All that other stuff the anthropologists and archaeologists the business majors All the people in religious studies and conflict studies und stud How to reach us the free press welcomes letters from letters must be signed and should include a clearly printed address and Telephone names will be published but not All letters May be edited or style and Short letters Are less Likely to be please address letters to letters to the Winnipeg free 1355 Mountain Winnipeg r2x letters can be sent to our fax number letters May be submitted through the internet at letters letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be but must include Home address and Telephone ies the people who do All that wonderful design work and All the other areas included under the arts Label even those theatre and music and Fine arts folks who give us such pleasure and Challenge our boxed in minds sometimes Winnipeg barricades a necessary evil Val Weiers 5 take Down the argued for the return of a Pedes Trian crossing at Portage and i believe there is a fundamental flaw in his As somebody who works one Block from that Cor i see every Day what a logjam that intersection is for traffic going in and out of it is one of the worst bottlenecks for Rush hour adding pedestrians to the mix would simply make the situation Werier makes the familiar Appeal that people Are More important than what he fails to understand is that most of the pedestrians in the area had to get to their workplace by car or 1 am sometimes annoyed by the fact that i have to either bypass that Corner or go underground when i am walking around that hut i would be even More annoyed if every Day my bus was late because traffic was being backed up at Portage and main even worse than it is people in cars and buses Are just As important As people on and few of us live close enough to downtown to walk to the barricades Are the lesser Ken Wolfe Winnipeg kill the death penalty Graeme Voyer 13 Wil be pleased to learn that More provincially run whatever its stated is labelled As nothing More than a tax than half the countries in the world by his just and they would execute serial killers along with other among the most admirable Are most islamic Funda mentalist of the United amnesty inter National reports the United in shares with just four nations saudi Arabia and Yemen the distinction of having recently executed Young countries that Haven yet regained their integrity by rein stating the death penalty include most of new zealand and As Voyer Points valid arguments for capital punishment have Long been undermined by relativist one flagrant example of the latter he should examine is a Short Memoir called a written in 1931 by Eric a meal mouthed obscurantist later known As George Ted Wakefield Winnipeg doonesbury bring on the Cal Scott in his 7 column Pride plays role in finale suggests there Are two ways to approach the hockey sea one Way is to be bitter and Boycott the the other is to see it As one last concert tour by the greatest hockey league in the something is very wrong despite the millions raised in the grassroots save the jets Winnipeg cant manage to keep its nil in my whats wrong is the greed of the nil and its play who needs million to live on if this is what the greatest hockey league in the world is were in Taylor reminds politicians that in 1991 they chickened out on the Arena Why is it that Calgary got a new Arena As recently As and yet had to renovate it Only six or seven years later to help keep their nil franchise viable if a new Arena was built Here in would a lot More tax Money be required in a few years from now to again bring it up to nil standards i got a refund on my jets mini pack and dont plan to buy any nil or no la i dont recommend getting bitter and twisted Over this but if the nil and its players dont sup port Why should Winnipeg support them Sam to his gave Winnipeg excellent sports entertain ment at affordable family i look Forward to seeing a Canad an hockey league franchise in win Henry Shorr Winnipeg making choices in Norbert i am writing to express my anger at one of the candidates in nor Bert Ward in the upcoming municipal it recently came to my attention that Roy in addition to running in Norbert Ward for City is also a trustee candidate in Ward 3 of Assiniboine South school Anders has yet to decide whether he would like to serve the Public in the capacity of a school trustee or a City since no one that i have spoken with in Norbert Ward has received any literature from it will be reasonable to assume that he is leaning the other it appears that Anders has or had no intention of campaigning in perhaps he is hoping that voters will confuse Anders with fat Chance Anders should make his intentions what shall it be school trustee or councillor quite As a resident of Norbert and a keen supporter of i am offended by his it goes without saying that the voters in Assiniboine South Ward 3 and Norbert Ward will let him know loud and Clear How they perhaps his Only vote will be his Gerry Sankar Winnipeg by Garry Trudeau thi5i5mik5 7hi5 15 import Mas in Achi Stab Uzep 8ut just a iaja5 ;