Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 19, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Winnipeg Macii 2001 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights a useful affront pity the Forks North Portage the owned by three Levels of government and answerable to citizens at All three is responsible for making successes of both the struggling North Portage developments and the Forks Winnipeg emerging jewel at the historic Junction of the red and Assiniboine the task of fulfilling its mandates to make total successes of both in ways that Are acceptable to its various owners and has never been in it becomes More difficult Over especially at the where As space slowly options Are that the Forks North Portage chairman Bill Norrie and chief executive officer Jim both veterans of Down town should expect few to embrace their latest development plan unveiled on the most ambitious proposal the new plan envisages a finished with every path and building accounted the totality of the plan is at once a useful starting Point for discussions and an affront to the vast majority of Winni Eggers who care deeply about the the proposal is useful in that full development of the Forks site is even As the debate on such issues As the appropriate mix of Gree space and retail space such developments As the new Provencher Street Bridge and its elegant pedestrian Walkway Are going both of which will serve to further preclude the possibility of maintaining an empty Canvas upon which anything can be the new proposal is a reminder that much of the landscape has already been filled in ways that logically prevent some it seems log for that the pedestrian Walkway Lead into As the new plan rather than commercial in other one thing leads to it is an for the corporation to presume to know what is Best for each and every scrap of land at the to presume there should be exactly this much Park and that much retail and to place them like pieces on a monopoly it further is an affront that the proposal once again envisages residential development in not but three despite repeated rejection of residential development by the people of Winnipeg who oppose the idea of using a Public amenity to create exclusive the proposed residential components have been brought Forward in a manner More sensitive than was attempted a year ago when a 120unit Condo was All but unanimously this time the plan Calls for residential construction near the in rail which is More acceptable than the Central location unveiled last but the More modest residential plan this time is part of a pack age to add More residential along the Why the which makes so much of its efforts to consult the refuses to listen when the Public rejects residential development is difficult to these larger should not be allowed to obscure what is actually before Winnipeg at this As grand As the big picture May the fact is that All the corporation actually has on the table is a plan to build a hotel at the Forks and a parking garage for 800 both of these developments seem and neither forces Winnipeg hand on the larger and longer term such As residential development and full development of the the corporation should focus on gaining Confidence for these modest Steps and leave the big Pic Ture on the Bac Burner for the immediate it drunk on Power the Folly of regulating prices for drinks served in Manitoba bars was Clear from the Day it was first proposed to the Manitoba liquor control commis that did not Stop the commission from using its Powers to implement a minimum charge for booze last the free press reported that Young people surveyed at bars were out in the usual drinking the usual amounts and declaring the Price difference had made no differ ence whatsoever to their intention to which until the minimum was introduced used Low prices to attract responded As had been predicted they simply changed the inducements they wiping out cover charges and offering other what the minimum Price has achieved in terms of changing drinking behaviour seems Clear Noth its Only dubious Success would appear to be a larger Transfer of Cash from bar patrons to bar own and the creation of a sop to woolly headed Macc Board members who think that punishing everyone with increased prices absolves the Board of the lax manner in which it had enforced oversee vice regulations for the commission has taken Steps to end oversee it should concentrate on making a Success of those measures and As experts that Public education is the most effective Way to change As for it should admit its mistake now before it is compounded by the need to create a minimum Price review an Appeal mechanism and All the other hoops required to enforce unnecessary Price business hotshots at City Hall As a nothing makes me More nervous than when awash in bureaucratic Tell me they Are going to invest read spend my Money to get into Busi Ness in order to make me gobs More that Why i am not As enthusiastic As John Angus about the City getting into the Sand and gravel i sincerely Hope that he is right when he says that the move will make the City an additional Mil lion during the next four years and perhaps As much As million More before the cites Birds Hill gravel pit is the move in a commendable baby step toward privatization of Public unions generally have to be dragged kicking and screaming into any such Deal but they Are supporting this in still because most politicians and far too Many bureaucrats who have never been businessmen Are convinced that anyone can and that All businesses have Money Trees in their perhaps Chris the president of the Manitoba heavy construction is exaggerating when he warns that the cites move will swamp other gravel businesses because it will not pay taxes and will have a monopoly on the cites Sand and gravel maintenance the cites operating Agassiz Sand and will have a monopoly on the cites maintenance requirements for three years and is getting a Startup loan of million of tax this Means that for three years we wont really know whether the idea is working or we Are told that City Council decided against leasing the pit to a private operator because to do so would put far too much Power in the hands of that who might strip the pit too the same councillors dont have any worries about the Power of an untried and unproved City i have a problem understanding just How this Agency will make so much it is already asking private Industry to Tell it More about Industry investments and business do the bureaucrats really believe that Ford shares such information with general motors Angus told me that he expects Money to be made because the Agency who will still be City employees and still belong to the same will become so enthusiastic about competing in the real business world that they will become much More the employees will not get performance bonuses and benefits that exist in private Industry because this would be politically Unac they will become More Angus for the sheer satisfaction of the City had four choices about Sand and gravel it could have sold the pit out an option that was it could have continued to operate the pit As it has since As part of the City government and have concentrated on increasing it could have leased the pit to a private oper Ator for a guaranteed return of million in new City Council has set up a Crown corporation to operate the in other the City decided to use the Power of political office and the availability of tax Money to get into the business Angus quotes a Eloitte and touche report which has determined that the Agency is projected to operate As a self contained Busi Ness without undue support of subsidy from the City at this is pretty thin sup the accountants say Only that the Agency is projected to be not that it will and that there May be tax subsidies but that they should not too the Council Shirley Peter John Garth Steek and Mike Oshaughnessy disagreed with the Council As a we City taxpayers Are now Busi Ness entrepreneurs if we believe 11 councillors and the Well make a pile of As Manitoba Many of us will remember our provincial taxes being shovelled into those potential Gold mines called flyer Saunders aircraft and that chinese food All of which turned out to be Money lets Hope Agassiz Sand and gravel lives up to expectations and proves that politicians and bureaucrats can be successful in five years the Agency will have to face real the question is if it cannot will councillors have the will to kill or will they want More of our Money to prove that they Are businessmen after All ups and Downs of child Day care Penni Mitchell i was the month that Manitoba passed its new daycare legislation june 1982 was also the month i became by the time my daughter was she was spending her Days at the provincial employees daycare co in the care of daycare workers As they were called then who knew More about child Hood development than i Ever i liked the fact that it was a nonprofit there were no rules dont drop by unannounced in the Middle of the one of the alarm Bells i encountered at private Day care where parents we rent Welcome past the Back door of the operators i said that i was a More accurate description would be that i was a civil servant who could afford a month for Day after a decade of the province is finally moving towards making improve ments to the Patchwork of funding and Licens ing criteria known As childcare increases in operating Grants and Parent fees announced by family services minister Tim Sale in May mean that the average Early child Hood educators wage rises to the daycare budget increased by 16 per to with the additional funding covering the government portion of 364 additional licensed spaces and 500 partial the increase is Welcome however As Susan author of the recent report on child Day care in a decade in Points provincial funding actually dropped 14 per cent from 1989 to child care advocates Are pleased that Day care has been hauled out of the deep the next step is to bring the Issue of Public child care Back to Public the million question seems to How fast will it happen according to Manitoba does not have the fiscal capacity to introduce a univer Sal childcare program without the Federal governments significant these words Are in the closing paragraph of the cover letter with a new a vision for child care and development in the three Page document was produced by a 24member child Day care regulatory review it talks about universality being part of the provinces vision and recommends a min overhaul of the child care system that will raise licensing improve training and increase spaces Over the next five it recommends some Long overdue improve such As requiring family childcare Home providers to have professional childcare workers Are required to have two to four years pos secondary training in Early childhood Sale tells Manito bans not to expect much in the Way of better child care unless Ottawa ponies Only then will the province be Able to make incremental changes in line with our financial sounds like a Pat director of the Manitoba child care association and a member of the committee that drafted the vision says that now is the time for the Public to Tell the minister How child Day care should be improved in the and that includes the experience and ideas of parents not currently using licensed the province is giving us until May 1 to Tell it want we you can download the vision document from the departments web site at and put your response in or leave a message at the child care coalition of Manitoba has already prepared a five year plan for the redesign of Manitoba childcare Rich in it Calls for a provincially admin estered system right now it is a nonprofit focus there Are fewer infractions in nonprofit much lower Parent fees and More in the Long Day care would be a Public like Public Educa according to is prentices published by the Canadian Centre of policy publicly funded Day care promotes school helps reduce Cre ates facilitates economic contributes to the lifelong Good health of Chil recent studies suggest that of social benefits flow from every invested in child my own social engineering Experiment turns 18 and i am still grateful that her life was enriched by the influence of caring professionals and a High Standard of lets Hope for Strong leadership to make Quality child care More available before the next generation of toddlers is old enough to Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vom29n0102 2001 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 of the Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas Patrick Deputy editor ;