Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 28, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A16 i tin 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights let voters decide there they go the Chretien govern ment is on the Point of undoing some of their 1996 changes to unemployment insurance because they have a huge surplus to spend and political fences to mend in Atlantic they never Laid this before the Public in the last they Are making strategic spending choices in the late months of a term of they should Tell the Public their plans win and then carry out the the government was elected on a program of balancing the budget and carefully parcel Ling out the modest surpluses that might become Avail that was never permission to restore the former Levels of Federal funding for provincial healthcare costs or to bring regu Lar users Back into full benefits from employ ment prime minister Jean Chretien should disclose his whole fiscal Dis solve parliament and let the Public the government indicated yesterday that it was going to repeal the intensity a new Princi ple introduced into the unemployment insurance plan As it was then called in by that Princi benefits Are slightly reduced for repeat the More often you draw the less you this was intended to Start weaning the heaviest chronic users and their employers from dependency on the it has not yet done so but it did Lead to the defeat of 20 Liberal maps in the Atlantic that was enough to persuade the liberals that All working canadians should resume subsidizing chronic with each passing the House of commons becomes More unlike the one canadians elected in this new Democrat Rick Laliberte from Churchill River in Northern Saskatchewan joined the he added his name to the Long list of maps elected under one party Banner who now sit under another a conservatives David Diane Stjacques and Bill who Are now Egnew Democrat Angela Vau now a exr former Jake now an a conservative Andre now an and econ Serva Tive Jim now a member of the Canad an the remaining members of the Alliance caucus were elected As All these maps should go before their electors again to see if they still enjoy support after changing their party this list is so Long it Calls for a Gen eral at one it May have seemed unfair to Spring an election on Alliance Leader Stockwell Day when he had barely netted his feet in Federal says he is ready and eager for the Chretien should not delay on his Liberal who enjoy the privileges of office until the prime minister dissolves Parlia urge the prime minister should serve his country rather than his while the prime minister Winter a november election can be difficult when the weather turns an election in the Depths of Winter is not Chretien should make his move now put this parliament out of its Lay a coherent program before the Public and let the people decide what should be done with the Capitol idea in it was estimated that it would Cost million to restore the former Capitol a staggering amount that no not even City councillors who spend other Peoples was pre pared to Ante up to save the and City Council protected it from the it subsequently was found that the basement of the unheated Structure had filled with water that turned into the biggest ice cube this Side of the according to one and still City Council protected More it was found that the Ceil ing had collapsed to the the result of a roof that had ceased to keep rain there was talk of razing the building and other Cit owned eyesores to open a big chunk of prime real estate on Portage City Council dithered and interest most it was found that Asbestos contamination had become so bad that City workers Are banned from entering the mouldering wreck to perform maintenance that Cost about a despite you guessed some Council stalwarts insisted the 70 year old Hulk could be for what purpose was anyone a staff report is to go before property com Mittee recommending the Capitol be torn after 11 years of dithering and hand it seems that councillors have been cornered and will finally make the decision they should have made Long this is not a cause for a cause for Celebration would be some an that leadership on redevelopment issues will come from City that a building need not actually be a falling Down blight on the downtown before Deci Sions Are taken to do something about there Are too Many heritage buildings that have outlived their usefulness tying up space downtown that could be put to better it should not take another decade for Council to realize Helloco anybody Home people arguably Are the most interesting things we have they Are a marvellous species if one disregards their propensity to War and killing one another just to run the people Are visionaries and even Jour their creative and destructive abilities Are people do incredible things such As going Back billions of years to determine the age of the and what is considered More important than the introduction of White sliced bread is the ability to communicate by push people come in Many colours and sizes and share physio logical traits no matter what their place of Ori whether in the Arctic or the Jungles of the human race is United by a common and yet each individual is unique in the Cor rect use of the word As being Only one of a kind in that their distinctive Dan is theirs alone and the Only one of its if we Are so Why this insidious movement to Force us to communicate by machine i am speaking of automated phone i submit it has created a great disaffection amongst the feeling helpless and subjugated in the grasp of Pushbutton everyone has a Story of rage or disgust in the Battle with automated Are we building a society that encourages less Contact with people or Are we being taught to find some Humour in any no mat Ter How aggravating a Friend used the internet of the internal Revenue service of the for information on a tax he spent considerable time trying to connect with the the machine was obdurate no human Contact but he persevered and where did he find a human response an agent in puerto the evidence is so obvious the machines Are not designed to help the Public but promoted in the interests of the code word for so people Are put on hold and driven through confusing menu is a Gross it does not sustain it thwarts and discombobulated it is easy to understand Why automatic machines Appeal to businesses and Organiza for they dont become they dont demand overtime sick dental no Coffee Breaks omit the human element and the system becomes More effective and so the argument think of the end result is that there is no one to answer the that is called a Friend told me it was easier to go to the Airport and Book a ticket with air Canada than trying to do it by in Onrush hours it is a 12minute car ride to the Airport from her and payment for but she said it was quicker and much less aggravating than trying to reach the airline by she says she waited 19 minutes on hold on a previous occasion trying to Book a i do believe that the aim of a number of those who program the menus in automated phone systems is to give callers a giant Stom Ach i have a suspicion that some of the programmers never read them Back to see How they so errors continue but who cares its the Public time that is being one i tried recently first thanked me for Call ing the organization and then promptly set about to confuse and demoralize did i know what Extension i wanted did i want the company directory did i want employ ment assistance in told to wait for a moment and that my Call is then the message is repeated with new if i dont know the Extension use the first three letters of the name of the person but what if i dont know the persons Only the department who is this Genius who devised this system we need such a personage to embark on a new project a set of guidelines on How to decipher the menus in five easy with no human Val Werier is a Winnipeg his column appears on species still in danger by new Law Ottawa a Law that is supposed to save endangered wildlife is looking More like a defence of the Federal governments efforts to make the territories and special interest groups discussed at the environment and sustain Able committee on its Way to debate in the com Bill the species at risk is called balanced Legisla Tion by officials and flawed by mainly environmental the govern led by Environ ment minister David has been advised by pulp and paper and farming and heard the views of provincial and territorial but he has also received criticism from parliamentarians and such groups As the Canad an endangered species the Sierra club and the Canadian Branch of the International fund for animal welfare All have condemned the Law As they face a determined environment minis who warned the commons committee he will not consider amendments that will destabilize the Bill to save a risk Birds and without giving More Anderson did hint the Law would be useless if it is not accepted by the provinces that have Juris diction Over land use and he has argued for months that High fines spelled out in the Bill should discourage destruction of the habitats of endangered there would be stiff penalties for harming or capturing species in Dan Ger of disappearing million for companies and jail terms up to five years for their officials for an individual and five years imprisonment a major Point of disagreement is Over the process to designate endangered As the unamended Bill scientists of the committee on the status of endangered wildlife in Canada Kosewic Yould list the species threatened with extinction but provincial and territorial politicians would then have the final say about the ones deserving there Are currently 354 species on the endangered environmentalists Point out that the minister Doest have to accept the advice of the Scien they see this As a loophole that will allow politicians do avoid supporting a Kosewic recommendation if it goes against the wishes of private that potential political government officials note a special com Mittee of Cabinet will periodically review the endangered species list to judge if Protection meets regulations that will be established once the Bill passes into Anderson says the draft Law reflects an agreement he negotiated with various inter ested he made the Deal More attractive by setting aside a a big chunk to go to landowners whose property is confiscated to protect a if a province Doest act on a complaint that a species is under the Federal Cabinet could step in and buy land to save a Why Cabinet made its decision will remain conf As is Normal even before the Bill is groups Are asking for the inuit want to continue Hunting the Bowhead whale and the Peary Caribou native Hunters in the South want to shoot migratory Birds to sell commercially rather than Only for private consumption in the the government gives a nod to people committed to ecological a por Tion of the endangered species fund will go to what environment Canada Calls stewardship from Volunteer work of monitoring and conserving the places where wildlife species live to protecting arid improving the Quality of the in the Kosewic will be reassess ing its list for a quantitative accounting How Many Are left of species rather than the one that was done by gut feeling in the according to a government that could either mean a widening of annual As in sealing off the East or severe after an the usual practice has been to allow for massive whether of wolves or Canada on the unproven belief that wildlife cannot find a natural level of sur Vival if left the species is then thinned an approach that is too often an excuse for Holiday Hunters to blast away to their hearts while this blood sport is a great majority of canadians still think its urgent that the country endangered species be the pollsters end ironic reported in August that 82 per cent agree that biodiversity protecting plants and animals in their own territories is if Andeson continues to argue the Bill is a Compromise that cannot be he is backing a Deal that May satisfy Only a minor Ity of Gerald Mcduffins an editor with the issues Winnipeg free press Winnipeg frae press est187 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 128 no 281 2000 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 tithe Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas Patrick ;