Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 19, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Q Winnipeg free june 1997 Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom of Yade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Canad air on a Roll Manitoban have a special interest in the Suc Cess Ranadhir of Montreal is achieving in sales of its regional Jet aircraft the Federal government built up that company by robbing Mani the company should see to it that Manitoba collects a now that the profits Are rolling from the modest challenger executive Canad air moved up to the 50passenger regional Jet aircraft and this year started Selling a still larger 70passenger regional the 50passenger Model became a Winner in Janu Ary when Atlan abased Atlantic Southeast airlines ordered 30 of them and bought options on a further sales have continued american Eagle of fort ordered 25 of the 70seat Model this week at the Paris air show and took options on a further these orders will keep the Canad air Plant in Montreal suburbs Busy for years to the firm is a division of bom one of Quebec most successful a maker of rail transit equip ment and the Power toboggans that made the firms name famous in the snowy Manitoban got to know Canad air in when the conservative government of Brian Mulroney chose the firm ahead of Bristol aerospace of Winnipeg to maintain the Canadian forces Fleet of of 18 fighter Bristol Price was lower and its competence was arguably the Mulroney government that As a manufacturer of aircraft Canad air could make better use of the technical knowledge it would gain through main Taining cf18 the Manitoba government of Howard Pawley believed at the time that Canad air had won because of powerful political lobbying by the Quebec govern ment of Robert it is far from Clear that Canad air Learned to design and build regional jets by maintaining As the Mulroney government but at least the company is the cf18 award helped drive a wedge Between the Western and Quebec components of the conservative party and helped reduce the party to the minor role it still plays on the National the award also helped bulk up Canad air into the big builder of Middle sized planes that now struts at the Paris air Selling aircraft left and if Cana Dairs Success strengthens the Quebec Economy and anchors Quebec More firmly in Cana All canadians will indirectly Manito still imagine this province could be a major player in aircraft manufacture if technical Merit were the deciding Bombardier should make sure the Success of the regional Jet directly benefits the Manitoban on whose backs it was this guns for hire Mike Oshaughnessy eagerness to implement a plan to fight crime in Winnipeg inspires no Confidence that he knows what he is doing or chairman of the civic Protection is said to be a big supporter of a plan to have the Manitoba Public insurance pay the City to have six police officers assigned to the Auto theft unit in Hopes that increasing manpower to eight from two will curb Auto which have increased since 1991 by 217 per cent to last the plan might be a Good investment for the six new officers need Only reduce the number of thefts by 250 for the corporation to break Oshaughnessy explains his unbridled enthusiasm for the plan this Way we have budgetary real by Oshaughnessy Means he has been unable to manage the Cost of policing and so is looking for an easy out More that is not a Good reason for accepting pics to begin Oshaughnessy notes the new Money will help alleviate an Overe Pendi Ture by the police this he should manage that problem rather than turn officers into he has forgotten there is Only one taxpayer it makes no economic difference to most Drivers if they pay for policing through increased aut Opac or paying by is he has also forgotten that it is the cites responsibility to provide adequate that is not now the Case for Auto accepting pics Money sets the precedent that adequate policing is Only available to the highest this is a kind of blackmail and raises the spectre of the Slippery slope to a commercialized service where Protection is showered on property but not on City Council votes on the Issue next that should be enough time for even Oshaughnessy to Frame a Good reason to support his Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Redekop publisher email Nicholas editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Ian Laurie advertising Verne resources Glenn Williams finance and administration 1997 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council vol 125 no 165 Nice wrong place there will be Many Post Mort Ems on the flood of the Century and i offer one that has its beginning in the car had decided that the Best route to take West was through but Winnipeg offered concessions on such a lavish scale that it persuaded the car to come through the City so Winnipeg became the big Centre in Manitoba instead of Selkirk because the railway set the path of it is entirely possible that today the populations of Selkirk and Winnipeg would be and if this the City would not have faced the huge costs of fighting the Selkirk is a much safer place than Winnipeg in times of flood Only Low lying areas by the River were Selkirk was 15 feet above the 1997 flood level of the red Winnipeg was five feet above the level at James Street there is another important fac the red River at Selkirk has far More capacity to carry the notes Larry Man Ager of water resources with the if Winnipeg were at Whitney it have been flooded this Val Werier it is instructive to examine How the car decision was in what was the biggest Giveaway in the cites it was promoted by property owners and real estate interests who profited property values escalated along the path of the railway in the whole event was the population was mostly but Only ratepayers were qualified to yet Only a Small proportion of ratepayers in All cast their ballots with Only one against the pro and this is what they gave the car in return for establishing a station and stockyards in Winnipeg the car would be exempt from taxation a Cash gift from the City and prop erty for the railway the car was the largest Enterprise in the City but didst have to pay a cent in the agreement made certain it would never it said the car shall forever be exempt from municipal levies and assessments of every nature and the City soon realized its Hor Rible mistake and several times fought the Case unsuccessfully to the highest Over the the car decided to pay a Grant in lieu of taxes for the new Royal Alexandra hotel and for other the matter of flooding was not considered in the switch to Only after the disastrous 1950 when on eighth of Winnipeg was under was there any comprehensive examination of How development affects we know after this flood that new roads channelled the water in directions not contemplated when the roads were drainage of wetlands to Agri culture contributed to flooding As it increases the Speed of water leaving the natural Fea Tures which absorb or hold Back the water have been for act As sponges and wetlands As Reposi it has far reaching an example is Valley one of Many streams emptying into Dauphin in the Valley River watershed of Square wetlands had been reduced by 68 per cent and Wood lands by 44 per cent in the period from 1948 to the impacts were Felt in areas Remote from these actions and with grave injury to the in Winnipeg despite his torys Assurance of future flood there was no effective prohibition against building on the the Rivers and streams authority was a it made certain that the stability of the Banks and the flow of the River was not impeded by con but engineering permitted building right to the Edge of the obviously we need a new act that will keep building off the which Are now a great Cost to the City in times of to think that All this would have been avoided had the car gone through it was Only in 1989 that the car finally paid full municipal and school taxes in for 108 years it was subsidized by the City in a Clas sic Case of municipal Val Werier is a Winnipeg his column appears on close encounter with alien goop the Odds on our making Contact with other forms of intelligent life from plan ets elsewhere in the universe have shortened dramatically although the govern ment authorities that run the Legal gambling business in Canada have somehow overlooked this Opportunity to milk even More Money from the More sophisticated system in Britain has Book makers will take bets on any Only a few months the Odds on making Contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life before were since then they have been growing William a London lowered them first to 100tol and just this slashed them to there Are horses that pay off at longer Odds than perhaps this is just because the extraordinary fashion for Crea Tures from outer space in television and film these Days has moved Many people to put their Money where their imaginations but anyone who has not placed a bet May want to do so quickly because if Hill were Ever to hear the strange Story of Alma Arthurs of new All bets might be Arthurs and her husband were enjoying a quiet time at Home on Friday the 13th when a Blob of Reddis Brown goop fell out of the once Friendly skies and attacked their it went All Over the window and the i stepped outside and i looked and the whole Side of the building was just completely Cov ered clean to the says the who believes that the goop is made up of human waste that was dropped by a passing aviation say there was no commercial air plane in the Vicinity of her House at the in any the air lines Long ago found even More Tom Oleson eloquent ways than this to express their contempt for the general As anyone who flies with them there is another explanation and had and Arthurs been regular viewers of television series such As the files or the or rented videos of such films As Independence Day or the they might have More readily identified the hostile Blob of goop for what it most probably is space poop from a passing flying this is not the kind of first con tact anticipated in song and but there is a certain irony to it is strongly believed by More people than one likes to think that our planet is regularly visited by creatures from outer these aliens spy on us assume human form and infiltrate our government the government agents who examine the goop on Arthurs House Are file agents Scully and Mulder were sure to deny its extraterrestrial being hostile undercover aliens or at in the manner of bureaucrats acting As if they some aliens build underground bases in Mexico or Northern Canada from which they plot to either enslave or destroy the human such creatures would stoop to do almost there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence to support All in All across in ufos sightings Are reported although the most dramatic stories come from Why does this Surprise no one British where the Reform party is also the belief is common enough that it has become almost nightly fare on our Invar the aliens portrayed Are brilliantly malevolent and the human heroes Brave but mostly the behaviour of our defenders on the for can Lead us Only to the conclusion that when we speak of other forms of intelligent we Are flattering and we Are but Why should this be Why should the aliens be malevolent is it just in our Lack of we Are projecting Pur own nature on to our imag ined seeing them As our selves writ just like us but unfettered by our few faltering Virtues if that there May be a human explanation for the strange events in new after it would not be the first time that people have dropped unpleasant globs of goop and other things on each maybe real aliens would have More respect for the planet and More care for their neigh Bours than we the Odds on seem pretty turn Oleson is a free press editorial his column appears 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