Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 20, 1996, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Winnipeg free press March 1996 editorials Brian Cole 6977044 frosts big Gamble its a wonder Susan Thompson bothers to show up for work in the Winnipeg mayor continues to be blindsided by her senior with the depressing result of a seemingly unstoppable Drain on the municipal Treasury and Public Confidence in City Hall As just As Council was debating the details of an inquiry into a problem in the assessment the mayor Learned that an million computer system will not be ready in time for the reassessment of property values due in the reason Given is that too much staff time has been devoted to defending the City against appeals lodged by residential and commercial property owners who Are fighting earlier the department is too Busy defending past mistakes to prevent future the new computer sys tem is said to be a vast improvement Over the cur rent manual the mayor says she was caught by she says she is not confident using the old chief City commissioner Rick Frost is less he says the computer system is Only one we can do assessments without the consequence of delaying the 1997 reassess ment is to freeze injustices for another which can Only increase the number of successful appeals later on add to the cites mounting while most of the attention has been devoted to those whose properties have been there Are reportedly under assessed properties As meaning thousands of taxpayers will enjoy the benefits of another year of free Riding at the expense of if All that int it has come tonight that three major commercial appeals have yet to make their Way through the the combined potential liability is at least not a Penny of which has been budgeted by the Frost claims there is nothing to worry about because the City won the cases at the Board of but since it is the municipal Board that has the final word on the and since no evidence was presented at the Board of revision Frost could be celebrating too soon and the City Treasury could be hit with yet another Nasty the mayor has been Given the authority to appoint a commission of inquiry into the assessment she would be Wise to make sure whoever is asked to sort out the mess is Given the scope and resources needed to do a proper if she wants to Stop the bleeding and restore some Confidence in City that process needs to be open and careers depend on reforms rednecks Reform my Art Hanger has discovered he Doest have to go All the Way to Singapore to learn about the pros and cons of he can find out All he needs to know about the Issue just by visiting the office of Preston the Calgary my said monday he was postponing his trip indefinitely because of concerns it would detract from the party Overall message on an assortment of issues ranging from criminal Justice Reform to National and he insisted that the decision was exclusively his yet it is foolish to believe even More foolish to ask anyone to believe that hangers sudden change of heart didst have something to do with a visit to the leaders we will never know whether Hanger was beaten with a slapped on the rapped on the Knuckles or just Given a Good old fashioned Tongue but one thing is Clear the Man some have Nick named Hanger will Likely be smarting for the next couple of As will the Reform party the caning controversy is a Symbol of a much larger problem within the Reform a problem of identity and two other Calgary maps Jan Brown and Jim Silye made it Clear last week they believe the party must tone Down its extremist some Call it redneck image if it is to be successful in the next reforms Rise to Power was based on cultivating that of giving voice to those on the right who had become disillusioned with a conservative party that had moved towards the mannings Success is due to his ability to articulate the sentiments and frustrations of people like a Man who Hast seen a Complex prob Lem that be fixed with a simple the trick for Manning is to curb the extremism without abandoning the extremists or leaving them with the impression that the reformers Are about to become another progressive conservative if he succeeds and so far he has the party will continue to be a significant Force in Canadian if he chances Are reformers will be in for a Good of fashioned political spanking by the time the next election Rolls Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1672 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy email Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Laurie Calvin Verne Kalichuk human resources Stephan Majorki Glenn 1996 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers u division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council k vol 124 n0100 Naftal threatens medicare the Federal and provincial governments have Only two weeks to decide whether Canada needs to shield medicare from the North american free Trade agree ment As there immobilized by the bickering and immobility could Cost canadians their most cherished social according to a lengthy Legal opinion from University of Manitoba constitutional Law professor Bryan Schwartz warns governments that the Naftal Protection for medicare is particularly in Light of the provinces privatization and relisting of health he urges Ottawa to negotiate a letter of understanding with the and Mexico on the meaning of what he Calls the Grey health and social ser vices he also proposes the provinces protect their health and social programs from Naftal by listing them in an Annex to the social programs Are shielded from Naftal if they Are provided for a Public the vagueness of this definition has sparked two Dia metrically opposed one is that any listing whatever would endanger the universality of the the other is that Only specified items will be secure after this a proponent of free was asked by the Canadian Frances Russell health the Canadian Union of Public employees and some social welfare groups to look at the Legal he found it obscure under Taftas Canada has Only until March 31 to table its list of specific exemptions to the Federal health minister David Ding Wall says that from my interpretation of this particular there is nothing to worry senior officials in the International Trade department have publicly differed from this optimistic and at least two and Are expected to table some exemptions and an interpretive clause to protect health care ser Manitoba has decided not to because a list itself can become something to a health department official this disagreement is a potential minefield for it has become Public in no less a journal than the prestigious inside Naftal news let Schwartz warns these now Public doubts about the extent and imperviousness of the Naftal social services exemption could be held against Canada in subsequent Trade if a country has previously con ceded that a treaty Only provides x amount of it will be difficult for that country to turn around and argue that the treaty actually provides x that Canada finds itself in this muddle is a further illustration of How Canadian sovereignty has been abridged by Naftal and How our trading interests were much better protected under worldwide trading the world Trade organizations agreement on Trade in services requires countries to give National treatment to foreigners Only in such sectors each country specifically chooses to Naftal turns that upside imposing National treatment across the Board except in sectors specifically exempted by each and National treatment under Naftal Means just what it Canada must extend the Best treatment it gives a Canadian provider to any or mexican Canada and its provinces cannot require a or mexican provider to maintain a local such As an to service its Canadian oper Canada cannot require that a provider Purchase a certain percentage of its supplies from Canad an producers or share some of its technology with local participants or include a certain number of Canad an nationals on its senior manage ment Federal Trade representative Mickey cantors office has already Given a very narrow interpretation to the Public purpose it ceases the moment a government allows private providers to offer similar services on a commercial at its Schwartz the user position is that if one part of health care is operated on a com Mercial the even the government would be subject to the full Force of the existence of Grey areas will Likely encourage providers and their Federal government to put Polit ical and economic pressure on Canada to open up Large areas of the health care Schwartz Canada May win some cases and lose As the soft Wood lumber Saga even winning cases does not always relieve the pressure from the Schwartz says the exemption probably protects Basic physician but even that could be open for Challenge once doctors Are allowed to extra Bill or to operate outside Frances Russell covers politics for the free her column appears wednesdays and come on cough up the right to the i want my in a letter to the free press on March Toronto area Liberal my Tom Wappel took Issue with a column in which i wrote that it was a Liberal red Book Promise to Amend the Canadian human rights act Char to protect homosexuals from to the liberals have failed to act on this the purpose of Cappels Cor Respondence was to undermine his own governments initiative by Point ing out the red Book contains no such if Lett can show me the red Book statement where we promised to Amend the Canadian human rights code to include Protection for Homo i will give Lett wrote a vehement opponent of the Char anytime a journalist is accused of factual you can Trust there will be a Swift after a solid week of research i am pleased to hereby submit my Case for the it is True the red Book does not specifically refer to the Char As the method by which homosexuals would be protected from Dis Crimi but it does specifically Promise Protection for especially from hate Equality for All canadians includes Freedom from hatred and the red Book states on Page we have witnessed an increase in the number of crimes motivated by hatred based on or sexual Orienta places of schools run by various and Gay communities have All become such expressions of hate should have no place in Canadian according to spokesmen for the prime ministers office and Justice minister Allan these state ments directly infer the Jura this is by liberals who worked on the Gotual text of the red who verified in interviews they very much intended these promises to infer changes to the these officials can confidently claim this inference was there Between the lines because it has been Liberal party policy for 17 years to extend legislative Protection to in an internal memo to Liberal maps and senators in october Rock stated that party members passed a Resolution in 1978 support ing specific Protection for homosexuals in a revised in an Al party committee of parliament recommended Amend ments to the Char to protect Homo a recommendation supported by Liberal in the Promise was again explicitly Laid out in Chretien response to a questionnaire from Egale Equality for Gays and lesbians everywhere in the weeks just before the Federal elec Tion was yes to amending the Chretien liberals have Long agreed that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation should be Egale distributed copies of the questionnaire responses during the in january in his response to the first Liberal speech from the Rock made specific reference to a Char amendment As a principal manner by which Protection would be extended to Homo sex it has become the Stock in Trade of politicians such As Wappel and others in the Liberal caucus to ignore All this evidence and claim that when they decided to carry the Liberal col ors in the 1993 Federal they Wappel insists on his version of a act red Book says about Gay had no idea these kind of legislative initiatives were in the this is a fascinating but entirely intellectually dishonest this Promise is longstanding Liber Al it has been publicly expressed by the Leader of his confirmed As part of the liberals 1993 election platform and Reaf firmed by the rank and file of the party at policy despite this in an inter Wappel stuck firmly to his guns on the Wappel con ceded that while the Promise was indeed Liberal party policy for nearly two decades and that the prime minister had explicitly uttered it Dur ing the election Campaign his government never made the liter Al Promise until after it was Wappel said the Liberal Hier Archy wanted to encode the Promise so that it would not turn off the wider audience that would read the red while this is a con it in no Way diminishes the sincerity and the timing of the Wappel has asked that the debate on the Char amendment Fea Ture fact and not and i could not be More in that is after looking at All the evidence proving this indeed was the intention of the Liberal red it is my Hope that Wappel will admit he knew All along of his party commitment to the amendments to Honor his make out a Cheque for to a worthy Chari i would suggest giving the Money to Egale to help them continue their fight to have the Char Amend ment in the House of it May be convenient to attack this pledge with but Wappel must know it does not take away from its importance and and it does not make for better Dan Lett is the free press nations his column appears every l ;