Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 24, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 Winnipeg May 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights City shoots self in foot City Council prevented redevelopment of the abandoned Canada packers site in Boni if councillors and the City departments advising them had been More Clear about the Public interest they Are supposed to the redevelop ment could be moving ahead after the City advertised the 170acre site for Sale in five prospective developers responded and the City pursued negotiations with a consortium led by a s it planned a nine Hole Golf course surrounded by single family a condominium a seniors Complex and Square feet of commercial and office when the City broke off Neotia it announced that the Developer was unreasonably demand ing that the City pay its part of sit Clearing costs before the developers had finished pay ing their City correspondence examined by a free press reporter provides a Fuller explanation of the the City refused to stipulate what parts of the site would be required for Munici pal purposes and what parts were available to the As a the Developer could not be sure where buildings could be put and How the site could be one City department had a Hal formed idea from decades ago that Grant Avenue might eventually be extended eastward from Pembina Highway across the Canadian National the red the Norwood Flats and the Seine River to Cross the Canada packers site and link up with Lagimodiere no part of that project has Ever figured in a City capital another department thought it might eventually like to put a City works Yard on another part of the the moment a Developer was asking to put the site to use was the moment for the City to make up its mind about the works Yard and the Grant Exten the City refused to make up its it required the Developer to buy and develop the site and accept the possibility that a traffic artery and a works Yard might later be thrust into its the City cannot reasonably ask for firm commit ments from a Developer if it will not make firm commitments of its a strip wide enough for a traffic artery could be withheld from the a parcel for a works Yard could also be withheld if the City really believed the Yard is a More suitable use than what the Developer had in because the City Council would not make up its the project is the Community is stuck with a derelict Industrial Winnipeg has shot itself in the sos Opportunity the Winnipeg symphony orchestra is losing its executive Howard who is leaving after three years in the Post to work with a Vancou ver theatre hangs announcement Fol lows that of charismatic so conductor Bramwell who has accepted a position with the Van Couver symphony the sos Board of directors now finds itself in search of both an administrative head and a artistic it is both an enormous Challenge and an Opportunity for the and for the entire there has never been a better time for the so to take Stock of its its Audi ence and its place in the Manitoba arts the Board has the Chance to seek out an arts administrator with Clear ideas about guiding the beleaguered orchestra out of debt and the leadership required to implement new while still build ing upon so such As the annual new music the so has an Opportunity to position itself for the coming to a new Market of Clas Sical music David author of bust and has observed that North american symphony orchestras Are about to be favoured with a surge in Well heeled audience num Bers As baby Boomers lose interest in pop music and attend More classical music the Board can either hire someone to manage the sos financial or it can actively search out a and a new who will Lead it out of that decline and attract those new get reel Manitoba should continue subsidizing film productions for another year or two before inviting the Industry to proceed under its own it should join a bidding War with other Canadian provinces to attract this province has enjoyed a Small movie making Boom in the three years since the former Filmon government established movie making subsidies in its 1997 it is not yet Clear if Manitoba infant film Industry is mature enough to grow with out subsidies to cover 35 per cent of labour costs paid to Manitoba it is that subsidies were enough to fertilize the producers of a proposed film about Manitoba mythical Lake have been talking to film officials in other provinces to gee what help they could line if they can do better Down the Manitoba should wish them every on no account should Manitoba enter into a bidding the Point is to nurture an infant not to Corner the tiny seeds of doubt Juan Isaita Imanil flt ii i i i i i i i David Walker England the acknowledgement that British Farmers have unwittingly been Plant ing very Small quantities of genetically modified oilseed rape for two years is no tragedy because there has been no proven Case against this and even if there the specifics of the British situation Are such that the Chance of any Adverse consequence in either an environmental or a Foo safety context is but Many British people Are suspicious of the technology and View no risk Worth so the incident has become a major publicity disaster for those working for acceptance of the techno the timing was also unfortunate on the Day the British food standards Agency made the announcement about the oilseed rape pub Lic sensitivities were being raised by comments against genetic modification from Prince the response of politicians and activists has been confusing and generally reminiscent of the mad cow disease epidemic 10 years this is largely because those who oppose the technology have taken advantage of the Opportunity to sow the seeds of the oilseed which also was planted in smaller quantities in France and Ger was imported from Canada and contained about one per cent of a rogue variety with a genetically modified the intended variety was a Cross Between a male sterile female line and a male Fertile line with a restorer this restorer Gene is necessary to make the intended variety because the genetically modified male Parent did not have the restorer the rogue variety is it will not produce pollen and of no consequence to the the Foo safety Issue is equally oilseed rape is consumed As vegetable salad Oil and like with the residual meal being consumed by very much As soy bean products because the Oil is a refined it has next to no protein or genetic mate modified or the meal is valued for its protein which is thoroughly digested by the near hysteria Over this escape of genetically modified organisms seems totally out of of concern was the level of varietal reported to be about one per but because the seed production involved measures to prevent varietal impurity of other crops had already been the isolation the distance Between the crop and other oilseed rape was 800 about half a instead of the usual 100 metres required for convention Al seed production in the danger of the pollination of one variety by has for Many years been recognized in where the imported seed was it is seen there As a particular Chal Lenge to varietal purity for both commercial and seed oilseed rape the arises not As much from the spread of pollen from one Field to another As from Volunteer oilseed rape within a a single oilseed rape seed Plant typically produces in excess of 500 seeds and the seed pods Are very susceptible to shattering before care necessary the seed is very Small and round which makes it difficult to contain during and after relatively Large numbers of Are left on the ground after care is necessary to control the Volunteer plants that germinate from the seeds left on the the existence of Volunteer oilseed rape in the Canadian seed crop in if this was the should have been picked up during the process of Field inspection for seed this is notwithstanding the fact that out crossing with Volunteer oilseed rape in this instance of hybrid have created sterile seed and not been of any relevance to varietal it is also worthy of note that the crop was grown in at that concern Over genetically modified crops in Europe was about the delay in regulating their use rather than representing any significant there would have appeared to be Little harm in shipping a Small per cent of sterile genetically modified this does not excuse those but rather explains the occurrence of an event that would be considered a major Blunder at a later Date and Halfway around the most of this of difficult to get across in a report in the mass nor is it the kind of copy that Sells attention has been entered on More sensational will this result in the realization that a Britain free of genetic modification is an unrealistic or finally Nail Down the coffin for this biotechnology in Europe probably it has certainly Given breath to the tiring Campaign against genetic a More sober assessment of this technology is Proba Bly that it is not the Devil that Many portray it to the Hope is that every time the Issue of genetically modified crops hits the a Little understanding rubs off and eventually the truth is at least this was the experience with mad cow an Issue that is increasingly seen in Britain As a French but a big political Challenge May yet the British government has so far taken the High ground on the with its science based and robustly defended itself Over this recent devel it not been a popular As the labour party Lead in opinion polls slips and the next election the temptation to change course will David an agricultural lives on his family outside he recently served As senior economist in London for the Homegrown cereals authority and previously was executive director of the Alberta Grain commission in from the both cheap i was driving around Montreal Mont in fact when it occurred to me that one of Winnipeg great assets is also one of its Mont Royal is where the richest of Montreal Rich a Community of breathtakingly ostentatious mansions built on the Side of Mont Royal so that each mansion provides a spectacular View of the City in order to build on Mont the Side of the 200metre High Mountain had to be terraced with handsome Stone retaining Walls so As to create Flat places upon which to build the dream houses in their Par like and to create parking spaces for the Mercedes sums and Bow driving around contemplating the enormous Cost and Effort that went into creating Mont it occurred to me that if such a Mountain were in win it never would have been devel builders would have looked at the them to the costs of building on a limitless Prairie and that would have been the end of but in an land is not dirt cheap and so it is for the most to its highest possible you have to drive to the far reaches of the or to the North and South to find the kind of sprawl that defines lifeless Centre cheap land is a mixed in most everyone can afford a House and a but because most everyone can afford a House and a the City Centre is lifeless after s and big Box retailing on cheap land on the outskirts has taken Over to the apparent Benefit of Consumers and the obvious detriment of not so in where much of the population is compressed into downtown with the result that the streets teem with life Long after Midnight and where people still favour department stores and unlike our cannot afford to buy and then pave Over entire City blocks in order to pro vide free Winnipeg could it could see that sprawl explains both the Lack of downtown life and the High rates of taxation to support an unnecessarily vast but there Are few signs that it when push came to even mayor Glen a former Mon Trealer and a student of voted along with the rest of Council to approve big Box retail ing on vast tracts of vacant City More recently the City gave the go ahead for the creation of an Auto Park beyond the perimeter that might have been the right decision for the car dealers involved and it might have been the right decision for con but the creation of the Auto Park has left a string of empty showrooms and paved parking lots along and now we see that the City is allow ing 170 acres of land in Boniface to languish in ruin City coun cil just cant figure out what to do with in it seems that talk about redeveloping the heart of the like the land that surrounds is Gerald flood is a free press editorial his column appears on wednes Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 f vou28 2000 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x 3ft pm 6977000 a Simbir of Ibi cd Uwell Rudy email Nicholas ;