Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 21, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 vol Neil Fhi i ill tin a Sim i m 2001 comment editor Terence moors my Ca editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Road safety and Speed the Winnipeg police service has asked the provincial government to Amend the Highway traffic act allowing for the use of photo radar technology to dissuade speeders and those who run red this technology cannot replace a police presence on the streets and the potential for using it As a Cash grabbing tool experience in other indicates that photo radar helps to reduce speeding and save such a project in Winnipeg ought to be based on evidence police know the areas where people drive at High contributing to a High rate of the project should then live or die on proof it has made risky roads photo radar is a Blunt instrument in that it does not directly identify a Dri but Only photographs a vehicle while documenting its a ticket which is a summons is issued to the vehicles registered similar technology is used to snap pictures of a vehicle driving through an intersection on a red these High tech shortcuts for Law enforcement mean that Drivers do not know immediately they Are being in some the Driver will not be the vehicles owner and this puts additional Burden of proof upon the recipient of the Winnipeg police have committed to mailing summonses within two collisions and excessive speeding dropped in British Columbia and in the australian state of Victoria after introduction of photo in the insurance of British Columbia reduced premiums for citing a drop in in part because of the use of photo radar the experience is along with Evi Dence from Australia and by the insurance Institute of Highway in the United to Back the use of photo in per cent fewer crashes took place and up to 20 per cent fewer deaths were recorded in the first year of its introduction in a significant drop was noted in the number of vehicles speeding Between 1996 and last in 30 per cent fewer deaths were recorded in the first year of the technology use and speeding has stayed Low Ever photo radar is subject to abuse As a Revenue Gen orator even without a safety it was dumped in Ontario in 1995 after about a year in use and also in British Columbia this year by new governments that made its removal part of their Campaign plat this indicates that the system can be abandoned and that police services cannot take Public support for the Winnipeg police service needs to show Winni Eggers evidence of specific places where excessive Speed contributed to Colli injuries and use of photo radar should be tied to regular production of statistics on collisions and fatalities so that the Public can judge the value of the the provincial government ought to prepare legislation that lays Down these conditions for the use of photo radar in Hospital turmoil hospitals in Nova Scotia and British Columbia were in turmoil the government in each province was enacting special legislation to compel nurses and other Hospital employees to abandon their protest actions and accept labour contract terms the governments patient care was severely curtailed in both Hospital workers were impatient for wage increases because staff shortages have increased their workloads and because Alberta nurses won a 17 per cent pay increase and other benefits when they brought their contract dispute to a head during the provincial election this healthcare professionals Are in Short Supply but provincial govern ments apart from Alberta Are not Able to pay what they the stakes Are High in each province because the provincial governments in the main employers of the health a dispute or a miscalculation affects whole even if patients would be willing to pay professionals bet they have no Opportunity to do so because the tax financed government health insurance scheme regulates the pay and rations the Roy the former Saskatchewan Premier who is reviewing medicare for the Federal govern commented yesterday that the Nova Scotia and British Columbia disputes were symptoms of major problems in the healthcare they May even be warnings that health care has grown beyond what some provinces Are willing and Politi Cally Able to pay Romanow should consider How provinces might Widen the Range of institutions and forms of payment so that patients can still find even when the government run institutions Are strike bound and the minister cannot pay Hospital might be better off if they could go and work outside the government run sector when More attractive opportunities Are labour disputes can affect employers of any govern ments would be so Quick to order employees Back to work if the system were less offer an Energy special Ottawa i dont want to take away the Beer just As the party is taking but huge new Energy sales to the United states could cause us the danger is that in the euphoria about sell ing Gas and electric Ity to the we will get locked into Lon term Supply contracts with our Neighbour that will prevent us from using our Energy for our development in the what our politicians must take into account Are the National treat ment provisions of the North american free Trade agreement these provisions simply that we cannot discriminate against and mexican businesses and Cus in important we must treat them the same As Domestic for we want to Cut Energy exports to the then we would probably have to Cut supplies to canadians by a commensurate Naftal turns around the Golden Rule what we do to we must do to wailing about the National treatment sections is not going to do us a lot of they reflect today state of if we sell customers massive amounts of they Are going to Start depending on arbitrarily slashing their Energy Supply is not considered and nations that Are not fair Are not going to get a lot of Trade and no one is lining up to do business with National treatment limits Canadian Sov we gave up that Independence to get the benefits of Freer and those benefits Are starting to about 85 per cent of our exports go to the and Energy in All its forms is our most valuable last it accounted for More than half the billion Merchan Dise Trade surplus we had with the in we sold the billion Worth of Oil and accounting for 15 per cent of that nations natural Gas requirements and nine per cent of its Oil electricity exports in that year hit but our politicians must be careful the Way they handle Taftas National treatment clauses so they do not hamper Canadas future and therein lies the predicting Energy supplies and demands is extremely on the Supply you have the vagaries of a truculent exploration native land interest corporate tax policies and so on the demand there Are such Uncertain ties As the conservation consumer trends and new Gas saving Ottawa has already realized How hard it is to forecast the it refuses to plan beyond two years much to the oppositions anger in its economic updates it any predictions beyond that Are unreasonable and it seems quite Content to sell off gobs of our Energy to the for the foreseeable Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has suggested one Way we can assert Canadas interests in the Energy negotiations with the strip Oil exports of ethane and other Gas byproducts and set them aside for the Benefit of our Petro chemical and heres another suggestion Tell the Well try to meet some of its Short term Energy needs outside the framework of we would sign a special agreement for two years the same period of time Ottawa says it can usefully predict Canadas economic after two we still have an Energy sur we might sign another would the which tends to be Pushy in Trade sign such an agreement who knows but because the thinks it badly needs More More bargaining chips Are on our Side of the table this time we be afraid to use with in the morning stillness one Day this i went fishing before for the past three the same Trio from this newspaper has entered the fish Winnipeg starting at the two years Paul Gord Preece and i finished in second place in the Catchmer surean release but More often than our team places near the Bottom of the Media weve Learned to Bear the shame with Good by 6 we Are on the water with our and its a Beautiful place to that when it int pour ing rain like last i look at the City in a different Way from the in it hardly seems like a City at in the we watch the tips of our waiting for signs of a Nib we talk about the fish we do and the ones we Arent catch for the past three i have caught More fish than the we All know its Down to but its still fun to in the afternoon a More civilized time of the Day the corporate Chal Lenge takes raising Money for the City of Winnipeg at risk Angling so kids have been Given an introduction to fishing that Many would never have had the Chance to each youth receives a Rod and on the Way to the parking i thought about the year i got my own first fish ing there is something about fish i that invites that my father ordered a big starter fishing kit for me and my to it seemed an overwhelming array of stuff Junior size rods and cheap weights and bobs and spinning lures and Small Plas tic tackle none of it was but it seemed that Way to me some of that gear is still having lasted about 25 there Are now occasions when i cant recall my own phone but i remember vividly the photo of me with the first fish i Ever caught with that i was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time growing up at the family cottage in the Kaw Arthas Region of Southern our cottage is on a landlocked so the fishing was not spec the possibility was always my Cousin took me fishing Early one a miser Able i dont think we caught but she is the one who taught me How to thread a worm on the Hook so that it wont fall off while a few doors another cottage and family Friend spent a lot of time fishing four mile Manitoba born Grant Sylvester was a successful author and business Man who co founded Money concepts Canada when he died in remembered a Man in a pal coloured sitting in an aluminium boat on the Lake for hours with his line in the Sylvester used to pay the kids along the Shore for catching a Nickel a Frog maybe it was More seemed like a pretty Good they were easy to catch and and my Neighbour was Happy to Exchange a handful of coins for Little if i thought too much about it made me sad for the so i tried not to think of them on the end of a at the Point when his Boathouse was nearly overrun with frogs getting Loose from big White Sylvester had to gently say that he had enough frogs for a As my Friend and i would sometimes go out on the water in the evenings with her older bringing along fishing rods and the tackle we spent More time giggling and manufacturing silly names and personalities for the much to her Brothers annoy it want really about fishing at but when i think about tackle and i remember those earlier this i interviewed a father and son who have made an innovative business by marketing North americ wide fishing they use the internet to Market the events and sign up but the Busi Ness was inspired by the Grandfather of the a Man who fostered a lifelong love of Angling in his children and their entrepreneurship is interesting but their passion for and their memories of family outings and were very just hearing them talk made me want to look in the basement for my own in really not an i dont know much about fish species or i can bait my own but have no desire to keep or clean any since my catches have mostly consisted of tiny Sunfish and Rock i have no proper fish i have some pretty Nice fish ing 0 Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 n0191 2001 Winnipeg free a division of or newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a Mimir of tit pm Council Rudy email Nicholas Hirst Patrick editor ;