Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 5, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Winnipeg free March 2001 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Buzz off labour unions and company management exist for fundamentally the same reason to protect and Advance the interests of their workers on the one stockholders Oil the in the midst of a labour this truth is forgotten As unions and companies one seeking higher pay and better the other seeking higher profits and better both looking to government to tip the Scales on their Canadas Federal and provincial governments have usually tried to resist these pressures and in gone to great lengths through Law and regulation to ensure this inevitable combat can be a fair Canadian Auto workers Union president Buzz har Grove just Doest get Manitoba has in the last few months witnessed one of the most bitter strikes in recent work ers at the versatile trac Tor factory in fort Garry have been out for four the new owner of the Winnipeg businessman John has threatened to move the Plant to North the last we will see of him being the Wallet in his Back bulging with millions of dollars of tax subs if the Union does not come he Doest seem to get it Hargrove has suggested that Manitoba new democratic government should nationalize versa the nip needs to show what Side they Are he told the free an nip he should be about providing a counterbalance to corporate especially abuses of this i it is hard to see How the strike at versatile constitutes an abuse of Power by either that there is a bitter disagreement Between workers and management is even Wally the ultimate has been unable to bring the two sides that is something that some times happens in labour and even the government of Premier Gary which has proved itself an extraordinarily sympathetic Friend to organized labour in the last appears Able to under stand that and has refused to act on Hargroves recommendation nationalization is just not in the an assistant to doer remarked if the workers at versatile have lost the As appears to be the that is the fortunes of Hargrove May not like it clearly he does if that had been my would have been he said of Premier doers spokesman but nip or do not exist to enforce the wishes and desires of unsuccessful As Hargroves Caw has been in the ver Satile or of the role of government should Only be to ensure that the playing Field is As level As it can representing has not won himself Many admirers in the Way he has con ducted but on every Battlefield there is a Winner and a Hargrove May not like but Premier doer is right to ignore his whim Effort should now be concentrated instead on keeping versatile in but not at the expense of confiscatory no room for by it would be a Good thing by the time the next election comes Canadian conservatives could have United into an organization that would pose a credible threat to the Liberal in a functioning it is probably not healthy for any one government to enjoy More than two or three consecutive terms in in most functioning the voters take care of that they grow weary of one party and vote in an but for them to be Able to do there needs to a be a credible at the does not have its Best Hope of acquiring one is if the Canadian Alliance and the progressive conservative party can find common ground to merge into one political organization that could unite Canadian conserva Tives in a credible policy platform that would avoid the vote splitting that has so often in the last years benefited the liberals and crippled the tory Leader Joe Clark now seems amenable to this a dramatic change for but one that will give heart to conservatives across the it is not to produce a party that just stands against the liberals that party must stand for something an idea which Clark has yet to last he suggested that his party and the Alliance should include the bloc quebecois in their if Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien Ever got a greater political gift and he has had Many in the last twelve years it would be hard to identify Chretien has already been making Hay with the idea of Western separatism Quebec separatism apparently being dead or at least a Wester based conservative coalition Allied with Quebec separatists would make the liberals unde a new conservative Alliance should certainly reach out to conservatives in Quebec who May be weary of their separatist leaders and disillusioned with the but an Alliance with the bloc que which opposes the very existence of p out of the question if Clark can not under he should consider another Asare Sutof Ottawa inadequate other lucrative and Nore stable sources a message for the nip Penni Mitchell Laura has a mental like most her disability int her biggest prob on some her biggest problem is avoiding the drunks sprawled in the Back Alley behind the apartment Block where she on others its deciding what she can live with so that she can pay her Hydro Laura considers herself luckier than Many others in her Situ in allowed have a she Laura also has support Ive family members who can help out if she needs one of lauras biggest problems is that the social assistance shelter allowance for a single person on disability Hast increased in 10 her shelter allowance is a whopping per month including her rent is per plus for in theory rent controls Are sup posed to protect people like in Laura pays her landlord above her shelter i skip on she things like deodorant and bus fare quickly become she knows about food but sometimes the food they hand out is poor and she knows about Public where the waiting lists Are As High As 140 despite the often poor according to the Canadian mental health association Cha Manitoba the Cost of a Core area Bachelor at is despite rent if rent controls Are not creating affordable housing for people like then Why not get rid of them the professional property managers association says abolishing rent controls would revitalize the inner City by encouraging the creation and upgrading of downtown the City of Winnipeg says our poo Quality housing Stock ranks behind Mon and yet look what happened when Ontario lifted rent controls and let the Market deter mine fair rental Toronto homeless population not people living on fixed incomes cant afford the High end con Dos developers were keen to Many of those people have mental health in we dont have Toronto High but the piddly housing allowance paid put by welfare Means that people with disabilities living on welfare dont have Access to decent rent controls have a limited the province likes rent after they help keep the provinces welfare costs from increasing every the socialists on Broad Way have even been heard to mutter that Low shelter allowances Are keeping Money out of the hands of someone should Tell Laura that every month when she Forks Over to her landlord out of her grocery Shes paying a Price for those lofty nip its the same Price she paid under the the Issue is More complicated than saying yes or to rent Access to affordable housing is a mental health Cha Manitoba division executive director Yvonne Block explains if youre a person recovering from a mental youre often you May not have a you dont have a bus pass to get to Access social if you have to eat Kraft dinner every night to pay your its not exactly going to contribute to your sometimes Laura is Well enough to since she has been diagnosed with Schiz affective theres a Good Chance she will continue to depend on welfare to meet her Basic for too Many rent controls have been a sorry excuse for a full fledged Public housing if the province Doest plan on creat ing the affordable Public housing that people like Laura it should put its Cracker Jack policy analysts to work to figure out a Way to provide incentives to the municipal and private sectors to do the Canadian Centre for policy alternatives suggests higher Caps on rent controls combined with higher shelter Why not provide social assistance recipients with bus passes on the condition that the City invest a chunk of the Revenue in Lawrent hous ing the Lon term Laura is a Tri level funding agreement on housing involving All three Levels of in the mean shelter allowances must increase imme if not for the Sake of the physical and mental health of social assistance then to protect the Dps reputation As Cham Pion of society most vulnerable the Cha has asked finance minister Greg Selinger to increase shelter allowances in the upcoming provincial for lauras Sake and thousands of others like lets Hope he an army that really needs help foreign affairs minister John Manley decision to refuse new in peacekeeping mis Sions was the minister because this country already has All the peacekeeping it can it is to be hoped that More than Money is while it is possible that the government has finally begun to realize the toll its overextended and politically driven peacekeeping initiative is taking on Canadas underfunded and stress filled armed the real plight of Canadas soldiers is not helped by a military leadership which appears to be driven More by personal career goals than by either the defence of the country or the welfare of those in the the eagerness with which the government has embraced every Call for world peace keeping in the past has eroded not Only the country ability to mount any realistic but has turned Force morale into the equivalent of Swiss the latest decision not to accept new peace keeping assignments will help avoid the additional damage such assignments would impose on but by itself will do Little to fix what is already wrong with Canadas armed Manley has said that the defence budget is not one of the governments top Canadas forces will continue with the peace keeping assignments they now assign ments that require the average regular Soldier to endure a six month separation from his fam ily every two it is widely acknowledged that such in should not occur More frequently than once every five our generals say they have no Choice but to accept government when was the last time a Canadian senior officer put his Job on the line rather than unnecessarily risk the welfare of his troops a commander of the air borne regiment argued that the unit was not ready to work in that officer was quickly replaced with one who agreed to take the airborne to we All know what Hap the Good name of Canadas army was dragged through a mud of torture and killing that at times was almost we were treated to a bizarre episode of blame shifting that went right to the top of the Canadian Mil the airborne regiment is but the systemic failures in our military Structure and wont be fixed just by refusing new peacekeeping retired major general Lewis Mackenzie maintains that budget cuts have already weakened Cana Das armed forces to the Point where they can no longer mount an effective fighting our army can not be deployed nor fight in a meaningful Way alongside our and our air Force and which were tiny to begin Are now the Gen eral while Canadian troops have always proven that they Are better at doing More with less than any others in the limits have already been on the basis of population we have fewer in the regular Force today than we had prior to the second world the difference is that then we had reservists while today we have fewer than Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 no 89 2001 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at Mountain Manitoba 6977000 a member Manitoba Preti Council we have announced plans to Mothball half our air have ships tied up at docks because we cannot Man them if we Are we May be Able to make two Aerial patrols of the Arctic this this at a time when our number two Ray warns that global warming is open ing up Arctic water no one was More surprised than defence Headquarters when a chinese government research vessel arrived without warning at no one knew it was anywhere in the it was never seen by our main Arctic defence the inuit militia rangers who ride Snow mobiles and carry first world War we have raised service but we dont know if this will allow our troops to avoid food Banks or help them make ends meet when they Are stationed in High Cost More than 70 per cent of those in our forces dont think they would be Able to fight a War and some of our potential recruits Are Actu ally seeking assurances that a military career wont expose them to any refusing new peace keeping tasks will at least avoid increasing the pressure of too Many jobs for too few peo its a it will take much More to change Ottawa mindset about our perhaps we could begin by setting out Clear objectives for our men and women in and Start Tai Loring their training and equipment to those instead of pre tending that we have a real Rudy email rudy.redekop@freepr8ss.mb.ca in Chews ;