Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 11, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Wir wipe 6 free july Cole i 697704 editorials la fairy of religion Equality of civil flights full count negotiating a Deal can be trying enough when it is a simple one and there Are few parties when it is a big when there Are Many and when the result must satisfy not just the negotiators but every shareholder in the proposed difficulties can be after Long frustrations can mount and minds can fits of pique can Lead to careless words that undermine even the most promising Ven bringing them Down in an so that nothing is accomplished and no one is this unhappy scenario does not yet apply to the negotiations Between the City and promoter Sam who wants to build a million baseball stadium on City land North of the but it could if Cool Heads fail to talks have in part because the flood diverted Atten mistakes and mis understandings have caused some erosion of both sides have tried to cast the Best possible Light on their leading to exaggeration of both the risks and the causing lines prematurely to be drawn in the and time is running Short and so it is this is unfortunate by All a Deal that would see us get a stadium and youth Centre is within there Are at this Point two major stumbling blocks amusement tax concessions and the million Cost of rerouting Pioneer Katz wants the City to give him a Blanket exemption from amusement taxes for All 150 events he Hopes to mount each year not just an exemption for Gold eyes an exemption extended to other professional sports in he argues without the the events the City wishes to tax would not but without the his plan could fail and the City could end up without both the taxes and the he argues the City should take the stadium and forgo the Katz forgets the City is not a it operates according to policy and and there is neither policy nor precedent to allow one businessman a unique tax Holiday not enjoyed by if the integrity of the cites tax policies is to be the Blanket tax Holiday would appear to be a City should look closely at the Cost of rerouting City planners indicate Pioneer May need to be reconstructed within the next decade in any is it fair to Katz to carry the Cost of reconstruction work that will have to be done anyway City councillors should keep their minds a stadium Deal May not be but it should not be lost for the wrong Loose lips when the great gather behind closed doors to determine the Fate of most journalists would give anything to be a Fly on the this week in they got pretty close to that through a Brief Opportunity to hear what Lead ers say to each other about each other when they Are gossiping behind each others while the leaders of nato were waiting for president Bill Clinton to show up for a signing Cere some private gossip Between prime minister Jean Chretien and belgian prime minister Jeanluc Dehaene was inadvertently recorded by a Micro phone in the Chretien indulged in some Frank criticism of the the careful arrangements of checks and balances that americans Are so proud of in their political system were seen by Chretien As an invitation to in Canada or it was politicians would be in jail because they sell their in advancing Legisla Clinton was seen As hostage to the horse traders in the conversation gave an interesting insight into Chretien View of the United but it is As interesting for what it revealed of Chretien him he is glad that the checks and balances that limit a presidents Power do not constrain a prime a majority he can deliver what he promises no matter How fierce the opposition and he likes he Doest need to buy votes in party discipline of the system Means he can buy his votes even he is not above trying to buy popularity through which he thinks appeals to canadians when it is done gossip is always dangerous and often has a Way of the americans will certainly listen to this conversation and use it to adjust the checks and balances they use in their relations with Chretien canadians May find it equally useful in the same Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free Prew get w7i Winnipeg Tribune eel to Rudy email Ca Nicholas editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Laurie Verne Kalichuk human resources Glenn Williams finance and administration a mag free i division of newspapers you scratch my Manitoba taxpayers didst know but they made a donation of unknown size to the pc Manitoba the provincial tories War Manitoba capital fund management oversees the million Manitoba capital it and the million vision capital fund provide debt financing and seed Money for each fund obtains All but million of its capital either directly from the government or from civil service and Crown corporation pension Kcf managements name appears As one of the corporate sponsors of the june 24 dinner for former Premier Duff the tribute to the Man who built the red River flood Way was actually just another tory party the dinner program reads like a who who of Manitoba Busi Ness and most of the names do a lot of business with this govern there were three Levels of the dinner Spon were Shl the new owner of the privatized Manitoba data services and the recipient of a recent million plus contract to provide person Al computer support to the government the govern ments Favourite management consulting firm and Wellington West a local brokerage Frances Russell House involved in the privatization of the Manitoba Telephone next in line were major corporate including rec Dominion one of the Lead brokers in the its Sale the newly privatized its itself and Isoford enterprises the recipient of a million Provin Cial loan and unspecified further financing from the Kcf management came in at the corporate along with Bieber Securi ties another its Palliser furniture Kildonan personal care Domo gasoline corporation and Cargill a pc party spokesperson refused to release the Price of each sponsor saying the information was personal to the business we try to keep things As confidential As we the spokesperson sources have confirmed that individual tickets started at last the pc Manitoba fund returned a its Cheque sponsoring a Hole in the tories annual Golf tournament after Crown corporation coun cil president Doug Sherwood questioned the propriety of a Crow i corporation making a political asked about the Kcf Sherwood said it was not in the Best of discretion but it was in a greyer area than the its Golf by business Organiza Tion has to have some mar Sherwood everyone needs some visibility and Roblin has transcended political there May be some Merit in raising aware Ness that the Kcf Sherwood agreed he regarded the donation with a Little bit of its some thing you would want to think about before doing its Debat its not debatable As far As nip Industry critic Tim Sale cres cent Wood is under no for whatever should taxpayers dollars or publicly supported funds be donated to political Par Sale said in an inter the nip Industry critic raised the Issue with Industry minister Jim Downey in the the Deputy Premier insisted there has been nothing people Are free to provide to sponsor if they there is no pressure to do it can absolutely be done of their own the Kcf dinner donation was preferable to the nip using legislation to Force hardworking men and women to participate in political parties through Check Downey the society in which we live provides the Opportunity for individuals to support political Par ties not under pressure like the controlled by the american Union Bosses out of the Sale believes the govern ment shows a similar inability to understand the difference Between Public and private Money in its refusal to release the names of the companies that have Loans from Kcf and vision i dont have a problem with the government investing and supporting Sale but theres in excess of million Worth of Public Money in these two funds and the Public has a right to know where it has there should be some As the dinner list what Manitoban hear is the sound of one hand washing comments on politics for the free her column appears wednesdays and Jet skiing is not a human right 4 of the a Litetia fms soul eur vol 125 n0 185 Ottawa concerned canadians should be pre pared to debate Meech Lake a second this historic body of water must be catapulted into the National returned to the head lines once again but fellow exhausted for the same old Meech Lake has a new claim to been invaded by Jet i discovered this sad fact on a hot Summers Day after paying dollars to Park my car at the Public i waded into the famous Waters hoping to Cool off and relax while soaking up a sense of an avid i Lay on my kicked Ray feet gently and stared up at the cloudless Blue sky fringed by the tops of dark Green coniferous Trees when suddenly a chilling Buzzsaw like sound broke the i lurched up to look feel ing very vulnerable a Small human speck on the surface of the Broad something was heading my Way at full As the noise i headed for the safety of the Seren Ity had been destroyed by a you know what not the topic of Jet skis was a popular one during a Canada Day cocktail party i we All had horror Sto Ries we wanted to Many based on the tragic accidents and deaths we had read about in the i described my Caribbean Winter vacation where male tourists almost always used the Heads of swimmers to Mark out their Jet ski slalom course near the these fun seeking terrorists were paying for is minutes to get their but the person who dominated the Canada Day conversation was a Sinai in her seven Kathleen Ohara she seemed especially up on the subject of Jet skis and offered us one spellbinding tale after in for a Man went after some particularly obnoxious Jet skiers with a Shotgun but when the police tried to Lay the local Community Rose up in his sup not to be our elderly informant told us of her own anti Jet ski exploits at her after several Days of being buzzed by a Young she finally marched to the end of her Dock and threatened to throw rocks at him unless he and his noisy machine cleared out for when the youth told his parents of this supposedly anti social his Mother called to thank the woman for what she had asked this senior activist at our Canada Day Why didst the parents do something first very Good while were at Why int society doing something in other our governments could it be that harassing and endangering others oneself is being held up at the end of the 20th Century As some kind of modern Day Symbol of Frontier like Freedom and democratic rights have we arrived at such a lowly and simpleminded determinant is it really the Case that toys Are us in this increasingly Complex and crowded the Issue of whose Freedom whose rights seems to be gaining a citizens Freedom or right to travel at dangerous speeds across the surface of the water on a vehicle making noise and polluting the air infringes on my right to a Safe swim in a Calm Lake without ear plugs and the overwhelming smell of someone else right to Bear arms and play Cowboy or Brave Hunter interferes with my right to walk through the Woods with out fearing stray on a larger the rights granted to logging companies to Cut Down old growth forests com petes with the rights of others to protect and even worship those the political right of corporations to demand and get International Trade deals which homogenize National Laws and policies threat ens the right and Freedom of oth ers to maintain their distinct culture and Way of this is the new Meeth Lake based on a growing divergence of what kind of world Are we trying to create and How Are we going accommodate the Patio la desires and visions on this increasingly tiny planet we cant leave the solutions to gentle like my Canada Day Friend people should be to quietly enjoy a Kathleen a Jeffs is m editor with the issues ;