Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 2, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba A16 Winnipeg free press Friday july 2, 2004 Freedom of Trade comment editor Terence Moore 697-7044 Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights editorials exit from dependency t he provincial government is talking to native leaders in Manitoba about the possibility of sharing taxes with Indian bands. The idea is to permit a band to impose a tax equivalent to the provincial sales or gasoline tax on certain goods sold on Reserve to anyone. Some bands in Canada impose their own versions of Federal and provincial taxes but it is relatively rare due to provisions in the Indian act that give tax free status to income earned and property of indians on Reserve. But it is an attractive idea and Manitoba bands should be encouraged to pursue imposing taxes to raise Rev Enue locally for investment that benefits the Community. A few first nations bands in Canada Are wealthy having the advantage of natural or other resources within Reserve territory. Most however Are not. Some Are dirt poor. They like Canadian municipalities struggle to pave roads improve water and sewer Infra Structure build houses open Community centres support sports teams and attract business. Federal transfers As High As they Are do not cover these costs nor should they. The future of a Community is secured Only by its sustainability the commitment of its residents to build that future. Canadians pay taxes to sustain their country and communities Reserve residents should too. Finance minister Greg Selinger in an interview earlier this week noted that the popularity of such a proposal will vary Reserve by Reserve depending largely upon the band memberships Faith in their chief and Council. Unlike the entrenched democratic processes at municipal and provincial Levels which guarantee citizens Access to information about Basic the business of government ? notices and minutes of Council meetings budget papers avenues of Appeal ? and the Means through regu Lar regulated elections to Register their discontent Many Reserve residents rely upon the Goodwill and Diligence of chief and Council to provide Good governance. An attempt by the Federal liberals to impose through amendments to the Indian act rules for regular elections and Good governance failed when prime minister Paul Martin killed the Bill last year under pressure from native leaders. This should be of critical interest to or. Selinger and to those now negotiating the launching of Pilot projects for tax sharing on Reserve. Or. Selinger ought to insist that tax sharing agreements include Strong provisions for accountability to the Reserve residents and to the provincial government giving the provincial auditor Powers to review and probe reporting of revenues and expenditures. Increased Reliance on local taxation can be a new source of Revenue for Indian bands too Many of which Are now entirely or overwhelmingly reliant upon Cash transfers from the Federal government to provide Basic services to residents. Like suffocating welfare rates on Reserve the Cash transfers symbolize the dependency that has a stranglehold on Many Indian people. None of the treaties signed during settlement years Between Indian chiefs and the Crown envisioned that dependency. And none of the treaties signed in Manitoba refer to tax immunity. Taxation with representation of and accountability to band members can help deliver reserves from dependency. Limited Powers the United states supreme court this week re asserted the Power of courts to review the . Government a use of its Power to detain people it thinks Are terrorists or irregular fighters. The courts have not yet ordered release of any of the Bush administration a detained persons but it has opened a door that could Lead to such release. The supreme courts ruling related directly to a . Citizen captured in Afghanistan where he was apparently fighting for the Taliban forces and a Sec Ond . Citizen arrested in Chicago where the authorities believed he was involved in a bomb plot. Both men have been held in a military prison As enemy combatants though no charge has been Laid against them. When lawyers asked courts to inter Vene on their behalf the government claimed unfettered Power to hold enemy combatants to protect National Security. The supreme court ruled this week that the governments Power is limited by the . Constitution so that the courts can review what has been done. The same applies the court found in two other cases to the governments detainees held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Courts May yet find that All these detainees were properly kept in custody though no charges have been Laid against them and they have been Given no Opportunity to Challenge the governments evidence before an impartial tribunal. Because of the supreme courts rulings however they May now be Able to require the government to Lay a charge pro Duce its evidence and release any accused who Are not found guilty. This should greatly strengthen the moral and political position of the United states in its International quest for support in its War against terrorism. Until now the Bush administration has been leading a fight for Freedom but has at the same time denied fundamental rights to the people it accuses of fighting on the other Side. This has weakened or. Bush a and americas claim to be the Champion of Freedom. The supreme court has corrected that weakness in the american argument. Six Sigma Saviour of the sick the Buzz about 6 Sigma has grown to a Roar in corporate America As More and More Compa Nies adopt the program to improve their products and reduce their costs. Companies that have hired 6 Sigma training consultants toss off the term As though the rest of us Are sup posed to know Why it matters. Remember Tom that was a management fad of the 1980s ? total Quality manage ment. Remember continuous improvement that was around the same time if memory serves. Well if your total Quality has already been managed and your improvement is already continuous you May be ready for 6 Sigma. Someone at Motorola is said to have invented it. Caterpillar and Gen eral electric have been talking about it for years. Ford motor and Sony say they do it. You Don to see much discussion about firms that went bankrupt while practising 6 Sigma. Dead men Tell no tales. Six Sigma its proponents explain on their websites is originally a mathematical expression used by Industrial process engineers to quantify a rate of variability from a Norm. If a production line is functioning at 4 Sigma As far As i understand the expression that Means it is producing 6,200 duds in every million items. To produce at 6 Sigma it has to reduce the number of duds to 3.4 in every million. An item is a Dud if it is too Small or too Large or too rough or too smooth compared to the specifications and tolerances Laid Down by the Engi neers. The Cost advantage in fewer Dud items arises because you cannot sell the duds. They Cost As much to produce As the Good ones and you get no Revenue for them. It costs something to reduce the number of defective products because you have to train people better and supervise them better and provide More efficient tools and a More agreeable working environment but it pays off in the end the theory says. The significance of 6 Sigma is sometimes expressed by saying that 4 Sigma usual in manufacturing plants corresponds with 99 per cent perfect while 6 Sigma corresponds with 99.9997 per cent perfect. Health care professionals Are taking an increasing interest in the problem of medical error. Some proportion of the people who receive Hospital care Are Given the wrong drug or the wrong dose. In some patients they Cut off the wrong leg or bypass the wrong artery. Leaving surgical equipment inside the patient is one of the More common errors. Procedures have been adopted in All hospitals to forestall these errors but they still happen. The . Governments Agency for health research and Quality relying on research by others Esti mates that medical errors Are responsible for injury in As Many As one out of every 25 hos Pital patients in the United states. A smaller number die from errors in hospitals. A larger number Are the subject of an error such As discourteous treatment or inedible food that produces no injury. The ratio of one in 25 interests me. The Best . Manufacturers Are trying to get the num Ber of Dud products Down to 3.4 in a million from the prevailing Standard of 6,200 in a Mil lion. The hospitals Are worried because they injure four per cent of their patients. I am glad that they Are worried. I would be still More glad if i thought that Manitoba hospitals had a system to protect patient safety As carefully As Ford ensures the Quality of its cars. Ford has the advantage that it knows How Many duds it produces. Manitoba hospitals As far As i can Tell make no attempt to count their medical errors. Their performance May be improving or it May be deteriorating but the hospitals do not know and do not wish to know. Treating a sick person is obviously different from manufacturing a car and some of the differences matter for the purposes of this Dis Cussion. The defective car will not sue the Auto worker who failed to install a Gasket correctly. The patient who was Given the wrong medi Cine May never know the difference or May not recognize that the drug error caused the ensuing symptoms. The Ford explorers come Down the production line with uniform size and shape while patients come in a variety of shapes and sizes with different diagnoses and different social situations. So let us not imag Ine that the methods of an automobile Assembly Plant Are applicable to a Hospital. But the Standard May be instructive. If it were left to me i would order each Hospital to prove that it is achieving a 6 Sigma Standard in every Type of procedure it performs ? injuring no More than 3.4 patients in a million. If it Falls Short of the Standard it ceases offering the procedure and patients Are sent at provincial expense to the nearest Hospital that does meet that Standard. If that Means we shut Down most departments of most hospitals in Manitoba the level of population health May be improved As a result. old Canada still rules the Roost election 2004 was a contest Between old Canada and new Canada. Reform party Leader Preston Manning s con descending depiction of the cultural Gulf Between the West chiefly Alberta and the rest of Canada must cause him deep Chagrin today. Old Canada is More durable than Ever. New Canada will have to put a lot More water in its socially conservative wine before voters will Ever Trust it with Power. New Canada finds its reflection in Only one of Canada s four political parties. Worse for Stephen Harper s conservatives they fare poorly in the nation s major metropolitan Cen tres where 80 per cent of canadians live. After More metamorphoses than most canadians recall this new conservative party still Falls far Short of the votes garnered by its for Mer two halves put together. And it tumbles even further Short of the electoral support its famous forebear consistently enjoyed and periodically expanded into Victory. Canadians kicked the tires of the new conservative party hoping to find it the vehicle to drive the liberals out of office. Thanks to a steady Stream of Ever More immoderate views from conservative candidates they concluded it was nothing More than another re Brand of the Reform Canadian Alliance parties. They soundly rejected it in every Region of the coun try but one. The conservative party s conscious decision to drop the word progressive from its name said it All and stunted its electoral prospects in All but the country s three westernmost provinces ? the Home of the original .republican-style Reform party. Meanwhile the old Canada ? the socially progressive and caring Canada the Canada of French and English of Many minorities of the charter of rights and freedoms of Strong fences making Good Neighbours with the americans ? that Canada resonates in the values of the liberals the new democrats and the separatist bloc sub Cois. Viewed in this Light the parliament canadians elected monday night is not a minority parliament at All. The old Canada has 209 ? nearly 68 per cent ? of the 308 seats leaving the new Canada with just 32 per cent ? a Mere 99. And there is ample evidence that monday night could Post the new conservative party s High water Mark a Glass ceiling it cannot even their debates. The pre debate Martin crack until it cracks out of its was dithering unfocused rat own narrow and bigoted Val White hot fury led a seemingly old and tired us rigid moralist and com Leader who bore no reset passionless ideology. At the liberals Blance to the self assured and Only three times before in internationally respected could t compel recent Canadian history ? in finance minister canadians 1958, 1984 and 1993 ? has the remembered. Canadians to electorate been so determined the Post debate Martin was to throw the rascals out. The endorse the passionate driven articulate rage against the liberals went warm ? and looking a decade beyond the sponsorship scan Harper Brand of younger. Having passed dal which served merely As through the near death expert the proverbial final Straw. Into conservatism ence of his and his father s eral nip minority government. Quebecois wanted a Liberal bloc minority. Both got their wishes. The Days of the old Liberal bait and switch ? campaigning on the left and governing on the right ? Are at an end. Canadians demand mod Erate compassionate and progressive govern ment and they have fashioned a parliament to Force the players to give it to them. One of the most intriguing aspects of the Campaign was that it profiled two Paul mar tins. The personality change occurred after the leaders its mix came a perfect storm of hostile portents ? the fierce desire for change the usually fatal presence of wildly unpopular provincial cousins and the prime minister s crippling loss of self Confidence and purpose. But this time the outcome was different. Even their White hot fury at the liberals could a t compel the vast majority of canadians to endorse the Harper Brand of conservatism. One polling number hardly changed through out the whole Campaign and spoke graphically to the Why behind monday s outcome almost 50 per cent of canadians considered or. Harper too extreme to be prime minister. If that number was the handwriting on the Wall for or. Harper another number was equally telling for or. Martin. A Clear majority of canadians outside Quebec wanted a lib dream he emerged changed apparently re energized and committed to the social policies he had previously just mouthed. Yesterday Canada celebrated its 137th birth Day. Old Canada is too old too established too settled in its values and institutions to submit to a total makeover by a Clear minority even one masquerading As new Canada. Canada also is sufficiently sophisticated to find More than one Way to discipline its Politi Cal leadership. Canadians used the awesome Power of the democratic franchise to very Good effect Mon Day night. They humbled the liberals. And they warned the conservatives to moderate or face permanent opposition status. ? 2004 Winnipeg free press a division of up Canadian Rudy Redekop newspapers limited partnership president up Canadian newspapers limited partnership published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue Murdoch Davis / publisher Winnipeg free press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Winnipeg Manitoba r2x 3b6, pm 697-7000 Nicholas Hirst / editor ;