Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 15, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 Frky 2001 comment editor Terence Moore 6977044 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Chomiak denies care Mark Godley has some reason to suspect health minister David Chomiak wants to thwart his plans to operate a viable private surgical Centre in a series of moves by the nip government have handicapped the Maples surgical to the Point where the British Columbia anaesthetist says he wants to sell his Busi Ness to the whether or not the govern ment buys the Chomiak efforts appear to have hobbled the latest example of private health care in the ministers do not help Manitoban waiting on Long lists for he has made them wait since the Maples Centre opened almost two months Chomiak has introduced legislation to prohibit All overnight stays and to Stop private clinics from Billing third parties such As the workers compensation Board for insured ser a request and negotiations for the clinic to contract with the govern ment to provide services paid by the province have led that Means the Centre Only can do no insured such As cosmetic plastic for it Means Manitoban on excessively Long waiting lists cannot use godless state theart facilities for orthopaedic or dental to name a they can continue to to the United states or another province for and More Godley says that patients from North Western Ontario will be coming to Winnipeg for insured surgeries paid by the Ontario while Manitoban wait months and months for care in Hospital operating rooms this is the univer accessible care that Chomiak Manitoba patients deserve the Canada health act does not support the idea that ontarian should come to Winnipeg for insured medical ser vices that Are denied to Manitoba this ridiculous situation is a product of Chomiak one that tells him private health care would undermine Canadas publicly administered this is there is no for that medicare in Manitoba was threat ened by the care provided by the pan am clinic before the doer government bought it the purpose of medicare is the provision of time universally accessible and publicly insured ser if or any other can operate an approved health care facility that offers the same services As hospitals or government owned it should be paid the same fee for those expanded service outside the exist ing hospitals can Cut the time some people live with improve their Quality of reduce Hospital waiting help to get others into Hospital operating rooms Chomiak need not buy godless he should let Godley serve his patients or else provide equivalent service without a net Stockwell Day yesterday began a major speech to save his leadership by discussing Tough times that he had experienced and overcome in the chief among these was the difficulty he had staving off bankruptcy when a warehouse he once owned burned Down and we did not have proper insure it is perhaps understandable that a Young Man starting out in life might neglect to get proper insurance and suffer the learning from mistakes the school of hard knocks is not the most propitious Way to learn but it is generally believed to be which is Why it is so difficult to comprehend what Day did yes Day yesterday made a complicated proposal excerpted on the Page opposite to unite the Cana Dian Alliance and progressive conservative parties after a 90day consultation period but before the next Federal which Day predicted would occur in the Spring of the last two elections were three and a half years Day the next will follow the for a merger to Alliance members would have to agree in a referendum to unite and the conserva Tive party would have to agree to adopt the Alliance but for this single party to the cooperation of the the progressive conservative party and its Leader Joe Clark is absolutely one might think that Day would have secured at least a hint of cooperation from those sources before he made the proposal that required such co he did not secure that proper insurance within hours of Days whom Day oddly and repeatedly denigrated in his dismissed the proposal As a flight of Alliance co chair Man Ken Klopsis expressed concern that Day was making up policy without consulting the party Klopsis characterized the idea floated by his Leader As a bit and a Back of a Napkin whether there is any Merit whatsoever to Days proposal May be of some interest to those Alliance members who still want to follow Days which to Date has been Down the Garden it would appear to have Little other practical Merit in the other than As a gauge of Days political who will speak for Canada who will speak for Canada former prime minister Pierre Trudeau asked in in prime minister Jean Chretien gave a reveal ing glimpse into his very different View of con federation and Federal provincial we can make a lot of arrangements with this he told the National Liberal Conven More Power for my government or another government is not my its which one can do the Job sometimes the Federal government can do something better than the provinces and other times the province can do something better than so lets sort it and you can do it without changing the sorting out has indeed but its All been one Federal Powers have flowed steadily to the to the municipalities of to the private not one service or responsibility has come Back the other to the one government that can speak for All the liberals made the process explicit in their 1995 speech from the although the Charlottetown Accord was massively rejected by canadians in the liberals promised to put its Radical decentralise into the throne speech pledged never again to use the Federal spending Power uni laterally to launch a program or policy in a Field of provincial it terminated Ottawa role in social it backed the Federal government out of manpower it opened the door to provincial initiatives in immigration and to 10 separate systems of provincial As part of the ongoing process of depart mental review begun by the Mulroney con the red Maple Leaf continued apace its disappearing act across the air ports and rail lines were downloaded onto local authorities and if they or accept sold to the highest Pri vate air traffic control was spun even Harbour Beds Are up for the results Are particularly in Canadas largest has become an Canada is now themly Western Industrial nation without a National housing although the vast major Ity of canadians dwell in Urban Ottawa has no Urban affairs department it was abolished a Quarter Century ago nor any interest in creating intergovernmental affairs min ister Stephane Dion told mayors from across Canada recently that you know full Well that the Constitution clearly establishes that municipal affairs Are under provincial jurisdiction and that the provinces Are determined to keep it that As one municipal Leader recently mourned we have a 19th Century agrarian Constitution trying to solve the problems of a 21st Century Urban Industrial frightened Over the apparent sudden crisis in the safety of drinking water and alarmed by the provinces apparent Lack of will Abil Ity to do anything about canadians Are demanding mandatory National water Quality environment minister David Ander son replies he wants to work cooperatively with the Anderson is Ever respectful of provincial sensibilities in another area As environmentalists despair of Canada Ever passing endangered species legislation with Teeth once Ottawa wants to work cooperatively with the although polls now show that 98 per cent of canadians think Ottawa should take the leadership role in there is not the remotest Prospect of any Federal initiative in that Ark of the covenant of provincial this canadians Learned Continental Energy policy is being set by the Premier Ralph Klein met with Vic president Dick Cheney in the first Ever get together Between a Canadian Premier and a an official in Cheney office explains we want to work with him to facilitate moving Energy across the we consider Alberta a so who making Canadian Energy policy asks time Magazine in its june 11 the Magazine gets its answer from University of Calgary political scientist David who says that since free Trade regional Zed the North american the provinces have occupied the Drivers seat in setting what canadians will pay for their own whats so perplexing is As Chretien said in the Canadian Constitution is a flex Ible capable of flowing Power either in the Canadian Constitution gives All the residual Powers to Ottawa the Power to the Power to legislate for order and Good the Power Over Trade and the Power to Ottawa could act in every from social housing and urbanization to water and from Energy and the environment to if it wanted Why Given rising Public is the political will missing who will speak for indeed cultures clash in fort Worth Treyve got a really neat tourist attraction in fort where they celebrate the cites past As a cattle terminal and meatpacking twice a cowboys in by clothing drive a Herd of cattle Down Exchange Avenue in a declining City District they Call the the first of it kind tourist attraction generated worldwide interest and news Media coverage when it was launched in june in the two years the show has been some glitches have the main one is that cow boys Are not such appealing romantic characters up close As they Are in the the usual Way to mount a historical pageant for the edification of visitors is you hire University undergraduates or people about that put them in period teach them a line of period Patter and make sure they know to be really polite to the fort went about it the other to drive a Herd of cattle Down the main Street of a you need actual not College students dressed up like the City of fort Worth succeeded in hiring the cowboys it needed but it has not after two years of turned them into the usual sort of City the City personnel department has a thick file of some of the cowboys use coarse language As they drive the oth ers make ethnic remarks in loud the fort Worth newspaper that dug up this Story did not detail either the coarse language or the ethnic readers Are invited to guess what the cowboys shout at each other in their Cloud of dust and cattle droppings As they move the animals through the the Walt Disney organization would have known another Way to do the Public needs cowboys to sit by campfires strumming a Gui tar and singing Mournful every now and two cowboys should shoot each other on the Street while the onlookers cower behind the tavern doors and peek out to see the excite All of this can be staged using under graduates from the music or drama no tourist will run a risk of hearing ethnic Allu Sions or coarse but fort Worth was not about to take that easy Way they were determined to use authentic cowboys driving authentic what they got was an authentic clash Between the cattle culture and City fort Worth for a City policy on humane treatment of dont bother trying to teach that to the they know How to drive cattle and it does not involve cuddling the City veterinarian had definite ideas about How to Deal with a horse that had something stuck in its the Cowboy Fig ured the horse was in no pain and no danger and ignored the vets More paper in the some of the cow boys have been disciplined for turning up drunk for work and for inappropriate sexual touching of fellow the fort Worth Parks which is responsible for the cattle herding has not Given up on subduing the undisciplined Spir its of the the twice daily cattle drive has been a huge commercial drawing crowds such As the stockyards District has not seen for the Appeal is in the which is hard on City personnel policy but delightful for the crowds of people do get tired of the sanitized they appreciate something that feels Winnipeg should be Able to match this City is above All a Centre of Public adm Nistra insurance and real these Are the leading employment sectors of Winnipeg As they have been for Many that is Why our leading historic monuments Are the old greatest life buildings and the legislative it seems to me we could stage a thrilling spectacle twice a Day at quitting time when the civil servants and insurance administrators pour out into the City streets in period costume and line up at the Street car stops swapping news and gossip about the exciting Early Days of settlement in the Canadian now there Are two ways to do you could get real civil servants and real but the difficult experience of fort Worth suggests this could be a too much authenticity can Shock the if they spoke and acted the Way Bankers and civil servants really speak and the spectators might recoil in horror and the City would have to discipline i advise hiring students to dress up As Bankers and civil it May not be quite As but Well avoid a lot of Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 128 n0185 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 Council Rudy email Nicholas Patrick ;