Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 14, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 frit Jim 2001 comment editor Terence Moore 6q77fw Ca editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights its accept it Winnipeg councils property and develop ment committee and the executive policy committee wisely rejected the advice of historic building advocates who want to preserve the abandoned Eaton building on Portage the Council and the doer government should take the same View and permit demolition of the build Winnipeg has been listing historic buildings since 1977 to preserve them from alteration or Demoli anyone can nominate a building for in that More than 200 buildings including the car station on Higgins the belgian club on Provencher Boulevard and the ukrainian labour Temple on Pritchard Avenue have been the provincial govern ment has listed another 27 Sites in in All that the Eaton building was neither nominated nor the Eato ivs building is prominent and old but it is not among the 200 most interesting old buildings in Many of the largest heritage such As the Bank of Commerce and the Union Bank on main stand vacant because they Are extremely difficult to use and because the City is glutted with heritage Winnipeg need not uncritically preserve everything that is big and it can afford to be choosy because it in the Exchange a portfolio of heritage properties that make the District a film a a tourist attraction and a source of civic interesting suggestions have been offered show ing that senior citizens could be sent to live in the Eaton building or boutiques could be set if the Eaton building were in it would by now have been these Aire theoretical possibilities Only the building is not in Denver but in where the people already have More historic buildings than they know what to do no Developer has in fact come Forward asking to redevelop the building for the obvious reason that the Market is glutted and no one wants to occupy the building and pay a rent that would cover the the members of the True North wish to use the site for a new Arena and they have financial backing and for the build ing they would put the Arena will have a great Deal More life in it than the Eaton building has had for the last two since the department store if the building were it could not be in the weak state of demand for historic space outside the Exchange it would probably stand dark and silent for Many like the nearby Capitol and metropolitan until someone at last decided that the listing had been a mistake and it should be pulled historic building committees need Only inquire whether a nominated building is they need not ask whether anyone wishes to use it and is willing to pay the the City Council and the government have a wider they must consider the practical results of p reserving a build ing that no one is asking to use and of obstructing others who do have a use for the in another the Eaton building might be a in win it is it should not be blood sport the Canadian Alliance this week split into two rival Camps called grassroots for ithe faction sup porting party Leader Stockwell and grassroots for the Canadian the faction that wants to remove the Camps will spend the next few months trying to Rig next aprils party now that the two organizations sire at work on the some Alliance members Are worried that the party does not have enough rules to Stop the competing machines from pulling dirty the preferred targets of both sides will be inactive Riding associations where there Are no local Alliance members to stand in the Way of an aggressive takeover bid by one of the these Are not quite the High ideals the Alliance was formed to but it will at least be enter Taining for the Day care rates Day care operator Sylvia Bond Speaks for Home based operators when she complains about rising her complaint that the City is charging her for a licence is Home based Day cares should not be treated differently than other Home based special dispensations from Ordinary costs have brought Day care to its current position underfunded and forced always to seek a she comes closer to the source of the problem when she says that she does not have the Money to pay the City without cutting her toy budget because the Revenue she collects is she hits the Nail on the head when she blames family services minister Tim noting the minister sets rates to keep parents rather than to ensure Day cares Are adequately the Economy is real Incon ves Are climbing and tax loads Are being parents in these circumstances can and should pay is Bond knows that parents get what they pay Sale should know Why the company loves misery John who was part wrote that the Irish Are never too far from especially when they Are during Joyful the Demon that sits on the shoulders of irishmen Sticks its Fin Ger Down their throats As a purposeful reminder of what it Means to be mis novelists and poets have always understood the painful Beauty of but it seems that should have an appreciation for the earlier this a University of Alberta study indicated that in some sad employees Are actually better workers than the Happy the study found that melancholy whose moods were deliberately altered by researchers who exposed them to sad made half As Many mistakes in an Experiment involving the Assembly of circuit the although blessed with Posi Tive thoughts and Good did not build circuit boards As Well As the sad so much for new age sunny Art prints on the Walls and any other progressive attempts to make the workplace a warm and fuzzy i think what it says is that a belief in Mak ing people Happy All of the is not but making people Happy about what they Are doing might be Robert one of the told the Globe and a psychology and car Rie a former pad reason that Happy people dont invest As much Energy into their tasks in order to keep their spirits sad seem to View work As a distraction from the negative thoughts that plague them were we try that notion is a and even familiar everyone likes an in the same Way that Charlie Brown always believed hed feel better if he could just talk to the Little re haired girl or heroically kick that maybe sad workers throw themselves into their tasks in the Hope that they might be in in the u of a the disposition of the sad workers did improve after their assign ments were Happy on the other Are already cheery and delighted with happiness is its own and so work had no Impact on their but before employers consider playing videos of old yeller in the lunchroom or look ing for a mess of those Irish Killjoy demons to Perch atop they should know that being a bad Boss could the study was based on the dispositions people brought to not on bad feelings related to their work ing conditions or mean according to another the key to these tender shades of happiness and Sor Row might have nothing to do with the Long fingered Demon or Cool office furniture the answer could be closer to Home in the statistics Canada reported this week that Canadian women who Are satisfied with their lives spend More time at their place of employ ment and less time keeping it appears that women May be better off if they spent less time on housework and More on while the data clearly suggest men would be happier if they spent less time on the the Sta scan report men in the study who reported the most Hap piness were the ones who spent fewer hours on the Job and More time doing the ironing and swirling the mop about the Kitchen Odds Are that a woman Satis faction with the Workman family balance drops 10 per cent with each additional hour she spends lugging laundry and sweeping up dust there is a solution take the dishcloth out of her hand it to a Man and the world in one fell a better we come across natural win win situations so Seldom in based on these two one might con clude that happiness is less housework unless youre a and in that Happi Ness is a sinful of dirty if youre an happiness is sad if youre a sad you might be a Good but at least your House is As for the in not but i keep my Eye out for that Demon on my shoulder just the 3linda.rosborough@freepress.mb.ca you do it for the Money i phoned Gary Filmon to find out what had in prior to the Spring election that i had been assigned to write a profile of one of Manitoba most profiled not an easy task and i dont know that readers Learned much More from my but there was a Gem of a detail that gave me a peek at the Man behind the political he said he was think ing the 1995 election would be his and after he and his wife Janice would do development work overseas in a less privileged but Here he six years and two elections firmly rooted in last he signed on with Wellington West capital As a leading the brokerage firm in its plans to expand its had the executive life become that comfortable to Gary Filmon in Gary Filmon is not comfortable it the former Premier served 25 years in pub lie the first four As a City councillor and then an Leader of the opposition and final for the last 11 As Premier of he is now about two months Short of his 59th birthday by his a number of years away from affordable the pension he qualified for when he quit last year was about we still Haven changed our minds about wanting to do that overseas work and its really just a question of this is amid the controversy that has been raging about pay and Perks for elected last week Federal maps voted themselves a 20percent pay senators followed prime minister Jean Chretien gets 42 per cent an Engineer by training and a businessman in his life before Filmon finally reached in 1995 the same level of pay made in his last year in the private when he left politics in he left a Job that paid somewhat nearer it is a fair generality to say that we under value our people who choose a life of Public said the former but he quickly added that in not Jean Chretien now makes Premier Gary doer makes maps make and Manitoba ranked seventh among the provincial make there Are interesting differences Between the Way members of parliament and Legisla tors in Manitoba make their Money and save for running a country is a bigger responsibility than running a politicians at All Levels swear Days Are Long and expenses for those in Ottawa Are higher because they keep two pensions for Federal maps which Rose by 42 per cent when the Bill was passed last week Are determined by How much Money they make in their Best five earning whereas provincial pensions Are set according to the amount paid in and How Well investment in the fund has i cant afford to retire on what Ive said As make for an interesting con Manitoba Independent commission in 1994 recommended that la salaries be tied to an Index that measures the average wage of workers in the rising and falling in it appeared salaries were compared with those of with considerations for what politicians in other countries when Manitoba politicians adopted the recommendations of the Independent commission to raise the changes came into effect following the next in maps voted themselves increases retroactive to january Filmon had More to say about the level of pay for those in Public his words might better illustrate comparisons of the two Levels of you dont go into politics to make he Public service is a and an you make sacrifices some people will lose Money and while rewards Are Only a portion is if salaries Rise to the Point where the concept of financial sacrifice is people justifiably wonder what drives a person to political Gary Filmon can say the calling drove him to seek office and can Many others at the Manitoba those in Ottawa might say As but their action last week makes it seem the desire to not financial is what former Premier Gary Filmon says drove him to seek Public Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free pres est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol129n0184 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 Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas Flynn ;