Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 9, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba Focus a11 f7hkk Mam ii 2001 Days grief clearly for himself Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Days apology and minimal restitution for his defamation of a red Deer defence lawyer is much More than a Day no Pun intended late and a Dollar it further undermines his Lead it has major implications for the futile unite the right move and it poses some very awkward questions for Alberta Premier Ralph Klein Day has been on the National stage for less than a but his Politi Cal prospects Are the Law of diminishing returns set in for him months ago and now he Only Steps into the spotlight to further entrench his negatives with the mondays Effort at contrition and damage control inflicted particularly heavy both in tone and sub Days sorrow and grief were patently for no one but his scarcely concealed appeals for sympathy served Only to make his repentance sound insincere and i know that although sending of my lifes savings to the Alberta government will help pay the Legal it does not undo what has been Day fighting Back but it is a real and substantial indication of my and i Hope that the people of who i love and respect will receive that Cheque in the spirit that i Send As Leader of the official Day has a salary of a year plus a tax free yet he portrayed the mortgage he is taking out on his red Deer Home to repay the personal damages portion of the defamation suit As a hard ship and a sacrifice for a family of modest Means like his he thus managed to underscore the fact he still int still Doest know Why its wrong to tar a defence lawyer with the alleged crime of his client and still has it grasped that he is the author of his own Choice his Choice of words was the implication in his letter to the red Deer advocate that lome Goddard must accept child pornography because he defended someone charged with paedophilia want it was even if it was Only Unin Why did it take Day almost two years and Over in total Legal fees shouldered by Alberta taxpayers to say so Canada needs an alternative govern ing but any genuine alternative must reflect the country that be socially progressive and the Alliance is none of these it is a party of alienation and narrow belief whose Leader is now less popular in its Alberta base than the leaders of All the other nation Al there is a bigger ideological Gulf Between the Alliance and the fed eral conservatives than there is Between the tories and the governing True to its the Alliance is a populist party of social and theological this fact was underlined again this week by University of Calgary professor Tom in an article in the National Post concerning the current talks Between the two for Mer policy director of the Reform the alliances said in my merger would be hard to achieve and probably not even if it could somehow be negotiate like most Alliance i want to belong to a party that is clearly not one characterized by oxymoronic formulas such As progressive conservative or fiscally conservative but socially Rumps formal coalition would almost certainly Lead to one or More Rumps being canadians need not it is becoming obvious that the or a party virtually identical to under new leadership and finally cleansed of the Brian Mulroney will be elected the Winner of the rights Centre War by Canadian voters in the next every Day that Day remains As the Leader of the Alliance propels that the Alberta the principal author of Days Rise to the Alliance leadership last year and in the Middle of an election is frantically distancing himself from his hapless progeny political but albertan must be wondering where Klein was when his treasurers defamatory letter was published in Early More to the they must be wondering what questions if any Klein asked his Friend As the months dragged on and the Legal Bills being paid out of the provinces risk management fund climbed to postpone the lawsuit past the Federal Klein is As consummate a politician As Day is but the two share at least one there Only sorry when there feeling the t Alberta votes Power deregulation costly Edmonton at a recent meeting with the editorial Board of the Edmonton Jour Alberta Premier Ralph Klein was asked about his governments disastrous program to deregulate the electricity As he increasingly did not answer directly but started Shuf fling briefing papers and Reading he shrugged and said i have no idea what All this for regular folks As Klein Calls albertan who like Ralph As folks Call Klein it was another of those disarmingly candid moments that seem to endear the Premier to the Large majority of to critics of the which has sparked rate increases of about 250 per the remark was simply confirmation of what they were certain was the Case All along Klein and his government had no idea what they were getting into with or what the Impact would be for Consumers of especially industries until were pay ing cents a kilowatt they Are paying about 14 cents a kilo Watt hour after a cent govern ment rebate is Sharp increase the Sharp increase in Price has eliminated what had until deregulation been called the Alberta Adan turning Energy costs into a disadvantage compared to regulated British Saskatchewan and what happened in the Klein government announced that it was going to Dereg ulate the electricity a move that was to increase Supply and Choice while decreasing or that was the Albertas Market at the time was dominated by a few the largest of which and an electrical Utility owned by the City of and owned by the City of since Large utilities were already in place and with most of their costs sunk and Long ago paid by con new players were not Likely to enter the financing takeovers or new construction alone would make it difficult to compete with existing Low Cost so the which was not willing to Force privatization on existing decided to create a virtual it auctioned off the capacity of existing plants in a manner that required buyers to pay existing own ers their production costs with a Small margin for the amount paid to producers is estimated to be about cents a kilowatt the Adrian wild Canadian press Klein admits he Doest understand details of electricity buyers of the now retail were then free to charge what Ever the Market would Bear above it was thought that Competition among retailers would result in prices at or below the former cent prices ballooned so quickly that the government was forced to take Steps to setting Caps of 11 cents and cents a kilowatt hour for Domestic con Sumers and Industrial Consumers spot Market were ranging As High As 92 cents a kilowatt hour earlier this and As Low As cents at 4 so that was the result of the aug the opposite of the the was also a it failed to attract the anticipated hordes of in Large measure because it was unclear what they would do with capacity after they owned and because it was unclear How Many new players might enter the Market and change the value of the capacity being purchased in their two auctions were held at which about billion less than half the governments own estimate of the value was paid to secure production for the next 20 the billion raised from Selling capacity that was created Over is being used to finance rebates to electricity con Sumers and will be completely exhausted this in other deregulation has transferred ownership of capacity to retailers in return for enough Money to hold Down electricity prices for one an additional billion is being spent on rebates to Consumers of Nat ural Gas and the prices of which have shot up As a result of demand for Gas in the United forcing albertan to pay a fuelled Premium for their own these rebates Are being financed using royalties collected on Albertas Oil and natural in other Alberta finds itself Selling Gas and Oil in order to be Able to afford to buy but that just the beginning of the anomalies that have resulted from new tax regime when the auctions were Epcot and Enax bid for their own capacity and emerged with Guaran tees that their production costs would be As had occurred under while the amount they could now charge was whatever the Market would As a utilities owned by municipal govern ments in imposing a whole new tax regime in a province that is busily cutting in Addi it is leading to hard feelings Between the cities and Rural Alber tans forced to pay High rates to City leading to a shift of wealth from Rural to Urban a Host of smaller players found themselves in the same situation As the City very prices were bid driven not Only by which was growing at a rate of about three per cent a but also by skyrocketing prices for which fuels about 20 per cent of generation and by equipment failures which took about 10 per cent of Albertas capacity out of at the same new capacity was not coming on to the Market due to uncertainty about deregulation and the Kyoto which made the future of Coa fired generation when full deregulation occurred on 1 this Supply and demand were about with the result that any Small reduction in Supply sets off Price which explains Why spot prices literal from minute to fluctuate from As Little As 14 cents at 8 to 50 cents at and at John Vic president of Leth Bridge ironworks a 102yearold family business that is facing failure due to vast increases in Energy is the leading critic of deregulation in inelastic he says the problem with Peregu especially at a time when sup ply is is that demand for electricity is inelastic it does not Rise or fall in response to Price changes because Consumers have no alternative to you he use steam to operate an electrical appliance or Light a so when production cuts cause prices to there is no alter a especially for to do anything but pay the its not illegal to reduce product he it May be but its not he says the Klein government seemed to be operating on the Assumption that when retailers got control of they would charge minimum prices for it out the Good Ness of their our free Enterprise government failed to realize that business is not Davis agrees with the Alberta lib eral party which proposes the government buy Back the capacity that was sold and encourage Competition Only for new generating As Good As that plan May and As bad As the Klein plan is it does not seem to be catching fire among polls released last weekend indicate that support for the tories was growing even As Energy prices when i first met Klein on the Campaign Trail in Edmonton last he asked so what brings the free press to Edmonton i said i was perplexed that a government could become More popular with voters As a result of programs that have required his government to squander billion on Why do you think that is i in a style that might come As no Surprise to the editorial Board of the Edmonton he replied Why i have no tomorrow what albertan want flip Piffl Tali the free press letters from they must include the authors address and Telephone Sam i letters May be letters to the 1355 Mountain r2x fax email Len upgrade planned years ago inaccuracies in the letter act now to keep experienced nurses 22 from Carmel Barnes need the number of nurses slated to retire at yearned is unpredictable and i question How the number of t slated to retire was arrived to total number of Active practising licensed practical nurses is under in the Board of directors of the Manitoba association of licensed practical nurses did pass a motion that by the year 2002 All practising lpns must have completed a course in phys ical injection and Uri nary Catheter nation in order to be eligible for Active practising registry this was not an overnight Deci Sion it was based on years of commissioned studies and employers Survey results that began in prior to the boards in the fall of 1996 and with government the delivery of a new 14 month practical nursing educational program began at Assiniboine Community College with changes to reflect what competencies employers would like the lpns to have and that included a greater component of physical is Barnes is incorrect in stating that members who take the physical assessment course have to spend months in a classroom when in fact the course is 40 hours in the Opportunity to Challenge the course always been an option open to All lpns who Are confident in their assessment to extend the requirement another five years As is Barnes when lpns were Given Well Over five is not an it is unfortunate that continuing Edu cation for nurses is not perceived As necessary in the eve changing health care when we would not accept that from other professionals like Doc Helen Len president Malin Winnipeg lost versatile jobs huge Cost i am writing this letter in response to the Well written article fort Garry standoff 28 by Martin the editorial failure at versatile March 1 and also to make comment on a letter in the March 1 editorial Page by Bill Telford Union role Uncertain in versa tile in my articulates the War that is going on in fort Garry with incredible this fight is about owner John butlers ideological commitment to attack these workers and their contained in butlers proposals to the Union is the insistence that the Benefit package be gutted to reflect what he offers to his other under compensated How else could one characterize a proposal that is determined to take prescription dental and health coverage away from your spouses and children that Are covered by the existing collective agreement the suggestion of the editorial seems to level a Well aimed Finger at our former Liberal Lloyd a Wor if the suggestions were True that he championed butlers cause for Purchase of the then his legacy May be one of less stature than May previously have been Telford seems to Point his Finger at the Union with respect to the Issue of Job he should be aware that the versatile facility originally was a Plant for the longest in addition to Assembly of the final most of the parts for the tractors were made there almost All of the sub assemblies Are contracted out and Only the Core Assembly of the tractors is done in the Union had successfully negotiated language that did not totally Stop the continued contract ing out of jobs at the but enforced Protection that no further jobs would be lost As a result of this that is High Praise for any Union in my As the workforce at the Plant has gone from in 1979 to the current what is the negative effect on our local Economy when Good paying manufacturing jobs Are lost Thomas Henderson Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau mhatit5 tohav5 Man constantly 7h5y can to gosh ;