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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1976-11-25, Page 11, According to a Signal -Star . telephone poll only two per cent of the Goderich voters know who make up their town council, only six per cent have ever set foot inside the council chambers and 15 per cent don't even know. who the mayor is. Not surprising you say? No in fact it really isn't, but as retiring councillor Jim Peters points out those figures in- dicate that half the voters who went to polls in December of 1974 do not have any idea for whom they voted. Dr. Peters also says he just cannot conceive :of any voter.' in Goderich not - knowing' who 60 to 80 per cent of the council members are. The best showing was made by Elsa Haydon with 38 per, cent of those contacted naming her as a councillor. Wnen asked about that, Mr.' Peters •merely -observed that "Elsa gets the ink." • Former councillor Peters also said that the survey was significant and showed. "people are negligent in their civic respopsihilities." Reeve Bill_Clifford (who's name only came up in 14 per cent of -the interviews) said he was "totally shocked" and that he "didn't know what to think". 4 said the 14 per cent showing would not have surprised him four years ago when be was running for office for the first time but, while he did not "attempt a high profile", he had spoken on many issues and was very surprised at his own percentage. "Maybe. there's a message," he observed. Leroy Harrison, who .was known in 18 per cent of the cases, said the results didn't worry him, that he didn't believe in polls and that recognition was not necessarily the same thing as popularity. "Some people don't have all day to compose letters," he noted in vyhat might be regarded as ,a shot at Counor H CouncillorcillHaydon said she was "of course pleased" to have topped the results with 38 per cent but wondered "where are the other 62 per cent". She • GODE.RICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, NOVEM] said she was not surprised because she had worked at it, not for the sake of her own name but because she believed in "doing public business in a public fashion". Dave Gower said .he was surprised at his own 2,3 per cent figure. He said it. didn't add up after eight years on town. council whencombined with the amount of exposure• the local council received in the press. Healso noted that such figures didn't tally with results at the poll on election day. Mr. Gower admitted that it was difficult to draw conclusions -from the survey. ' Deputy Reeve 'Stan Profit• saidthe results reflected ``reporting by the Signal Star" and that he did not believe that only 17 per cent of the local miters knew he was on town council. It is interesting to note: that Mr. Gower, Mr. Profit and Mr. Harrison all made reference to news coverage when asked about the survey results. Gower said he was surprised at the results R 25,1976.FAGE being`so low becauseof all the coverage'': the local press had given council. Profit' • simply referred to "reporting by the' Signal Star". Harrison suggested "people don't read the Signal". Perhaps all the gentlemen are on to something there. I personally don't believe that "people don't • read the Signal" but I doubt they read everything in it. No one has ever suggested other- wise. What is unsettling •is . that . ap , ' parently what they are not reading is the: council news. They either do not read it, or" they do not understand it, or maybe' they just" don't care, Certainly they don't'gettheir information from personal attendance at council... only six per cent have ever attended, and they apparently don't make use of the information provided them through the press. • Few are surprised that the pubic is poorly informed, only the magnitude of that Ignorance. - Is anyone reading this? INFORMATION, BACKGROUND AND OPINION The board'. of the Wingham sand District Hospital has approved a new family centred maternity care concept. Family centered maternity care is a flexible .conceptof individual care. It permits the parents to share the child bearing experience and to have their baby during' the, post partum periodto the extent they desire. rt makes it .; .possible for both parents to get to know• their baby during the hospital 'stayand to begin. functioning • as a family unit under the guidance of nursing personnel. Each mother is madeto feel free to have her baby cared for in the nursery," or to have her baby at her bedside, as little or as much as she wishes, except HERE during 'regular visiting hours at which time all babies must return to the nur- sery. Except for fathers no one under 16 will be allowed to visit.a patient in maternity care. The new concept will come into effect the first of December this year. One of the most conventional ex- pressions of objection to a "rooming in program" is that there is too little flexibility and too often it is merely an exchange of one set of rigid rules for another. .' ' It is obvious that in' a program which offers only a case for rooming in, more IN:_H�JRON rooming out. falls short of providing individualized patient centred care. Family centre post partum care avoid these objections by allowing the mother complete flexibility each day in deciding how long she would like5tospend with her baby at her 'bedside ih 'that particular day. It should be emphasized that in a family centred program parents are not pressured :to take advantage of the service offered. The couple may choose not -to be to ether duringlabor and birth, and the mother may prefer that the baby remain in the nursery: ' Family• centred maternity care is patient centred' care, pure and simple. It is a flexible program, which meets the emotional as well as physical needs of mother, father and babyThis care can be offered to all patients in various • accommodations, not justprivate rooms or new units especially designed for rooming in. Although it IS recommended that 80 square'feet of floor space be provided for each mother .baby couple,'. experience indicates that excellent family centred care can be.,provided in slightly smaller accommodations. Others, whose rooms fall slightly. below •the recommendation should not be deprived of keeping their , babies at their bedsides. Family centred' hospital maternity care ,should include • pre -natal classes in order to prepare and educate couples for the responsibility of parenthood. .The conventional concept of maternity care was develoPed. 50 to 60 years age• when statistics indicated the need for hospital confinement. Today 90 percent of mothers Who give birth in .hospitals deliver without complications so there is no reason to impose conventional practices which were established -for the ill, not the healthymaternitypatients carrying out a' normal physiological function. The conventional father's waiting room is often a man's first encounterr, • with a hospital, since he had his •tonsils' out: Yet this might frequently be more injurious to a hospital's image than any other. In a lot of hospitals, when he Is about to become a father, he is treated like a bothersome child rather than an individual. This is the man who in a few years will be. asked to contribute to the hospital building fund. What` sort of response can be expected? Today's trend is for a young couple to take the time to select a' hospital ac- -cording to the type of maternity care and. then „choose a doctor from the staff of that hospital, rather than first choosing a doctor and having to.go,to the hospital where he practices:: - Bette Stephenson Minister of Labor, has released a discussion paper on equal pay for work of equal value. "The equal pay for work of equaLvalue concept, is extremely, complex and its adoption would result in fundaincntal changes in the basis of wage deter- mination in the • free market," Stephenson said.'" "T1,renefore, the Discussion Paper does. not recommend policy on this matter. Rather, . it seeks 'to stimulate public discussion. The paper points out that the concept of equal pay for equal value is different from equal pay for equal work,now part ,55 PROVINCIAL of the . Ministry's Employment Stan dards Act. Ontario's equal pay for equal work legislation provides that an employer may not pay female and male employees at different rates for "substantially the same work performed in the same establishment, the performance of which requires substantially the same skill, effort and responsibility and which is performed under similar working conditions." This legislation ensures . that two clerks, one male, one female, Ncloing substantially the same job for the same The Minister of Industry told the Canadian Textile Institute that he would like "to develop a policy in the next weeks to make -this -industry -stable:" But he warned that he did not intend to pamper the industry. Textile manufacturers, he said, had to be aggressive and imaginative in, , marketing their products to .remain competitive. Mr. Chretien, took up his portfolio after the September cabinet shuffleand. suggested that his audience, Made up of government and union officials as well as producers, wereprobablywondering 11/111/167 Few Canadians, especiallythose in the business sector, need 'to be reminded that what happens south of the forty- ninth parallel, especially in terms of economic policy, affects this country in a powerful way. With that in mind the speeches and interviews of president-elect Jimmy Carter are bein allowed. with great interest, leadin :considerable speculation on a its of his up- coming presidency. If Carter puts into, practice , the theories and policies ' he presented during the election campaign, and if he follows the general platform of the Democratic party, the western economies and particularly Canada may employer and at the same location°would receive the same wages. Equal pay for work of 'equal value would require that salariesbe based, not only on comparisons between jobs where the same or similar work is, done, but also between jobs in which the work is dissimilar but at the same value. The concept seeks to rank jobs on the basis of . their value, 'as measured . in terms' of skill, effort, responsibility and other.. facts, and to provide equal pay where: themeasurement process in- dicates that the jobs are of equal value. It might be found for instance, that the work of a male laborer anda female A:NADA why he was named minister of industry, trade and commerce. - "I have a suit with a vest," he joked. Minister of Industry, Jean Chretien, recently told domestic textile producers-�; that he has set a priority for the troubled industry' of preserving the 200,000, jobs that it provides. Even if Mr. Chretien's proposal is a success, it comes too • late to save 30 textile related jobs which were lost at Goderich last month' when the local division of'Textral Fibres Limited folded. IN The textile industry has been lobbying actively for protection- from cheaper imperts .which'. hold 30 percent of, the market, -he -told the meeting, adding -that :he wanted to help the industry. In announcing. the closure of: the Goderich plant, J.F. Burgess, president of Textral Fibres Limited, said the continuing . "deterioration of the Canadian market for textured polyester yarns has -forced this decision upon.us." He blamedin particular the competition in the market place from offshore (especially American) yarns. • Since becoming minister, Chretien WORLDWEE be in for a strongly expansionist four years. • With theremoval of a Republican veto in the White House the Democratic majorities in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives calf push ahead withthe party's full employment program. Some political' observers feel that the Carter administration• may -make some attempts at restraining the enthusiasm of Congress, but during his election campaign Carter did commit himself to the basic policies of his party. Carter's top" economic adviser, Lawrence Klein, is urging the new president to stimulate the economy after taking office in January. He recorn- mends a quick tax cut, tax rebate or increases in federal spending to get a deteriorating economy on the move again. Time istoo short to prepare : n- tirely new budget but even during the election campaign Carter staff was. studying ways to- modify the 1977-78 budget that has been drafted by the Ford administration. Promises emphasized by Carter in- elude public job -creation programs, more federal welfare spending, a national health . insurance system, guaranteed incomes for the poor and elderly and tying the minimum wage to POINTS secretary are -of equal value on the basis of evaluation and therefore, would be paid equally. - "Ontario has taken a, leading role in protecting ...women's rights in em- ployment" Dr. Stephenson said. "We are the first province to provide equal pay for equal work legislation in 1951 and have taken a leading role An stimulating public debate on the equal pay for work of equal valise concept." • "I wouldencourageany person who is genuinely concerned, with creating ,a society in which there is equality bet- ween -the sexes to advise to Ministry of their views on the equal pay for work of BEVEN reminded the textile conference he had imposed a quota on double-knit fabrics and had limited outerwear imports to 2,000,000 units: `He has als'o'`addedim- porcontrts oof list. worsted. fabrics to the, import In September, he set' up for the in- dustry a 16 member advisory council composed . of manufacturers, . govern- ment and union officials. Industry protection will mean that Canadians will have to pay more for clothing, he said, In return the industry wouldefficient.have to be more productive and the co.t o' v'ing. . he was 'governor of Georgia, Carte managed to avoid deficit spen- ding 3 nd he contends that such a goal can , e realized on the national scale-arid- st' provide the wide range of social• egislation he proposes. Carter feels the economic stimulation of such programs will raise the additional tax revenue needed to finance them. Whether these Democratic economic policies result.°in severe inflation or healthy expansion they will have, an impact op the Western economies that are tied in varying degrees to the' American economy ... and few are tied closer than Canada's. Despite the president-elect's corm ;. equal value concept:" • , In a statement of purpose for the discussion paper, the Ministry of labor notes that equalay for work of equal value is a concept which has' recently generated much, discussion and con- troversy. concepts in mind." ` "Thepurpose of this report has been to provide a more thorough analysis of the ' concept of equal pay for work and equal value in order to improve the quality of the public debate. This report has not attempted to formulate specific public policy alternatives because in our view -there is :at .present . insufficient. "However, the --current public debate knowledge and empirical evidence on has been hampered by the lack of any many' important matters related to thorough analysis of the concept of equal equal value to warrant doing so." value or the implications of applying •it.to "The report has attempted to identify the labor market. In fact, in many cases 'the principal •deficiencies in the it would appear that proponents and knowledge base Which inhibit policy: opponents of .the plan have different development." Mr. Chretien .criticized the . industry for a lack of planning in the past, adding that in future he intended to give it more direction. An example wasthe limit he placed on outerwear imports 'Which let the in- dustry know what its share of the market would be, the minister said. However, he cautioned manufacturers not to "sock: it to the consumer." As to future protection for the in- dustry, Mr. Chretien said the federal government was prepared at any time to take urgent action. mitment to expansion there are many sectors of the United States business community who have reservations. I-jis proposed tax overhaul would eliminate many deductions and he has criticized what Democrats regard as developing corporate monopolies in energy and other fields. . Foreign. leaders feel a little better about it all though as Carter .his in- dicated his intention to improve con- sultation with traditional allies of the United States. Before the election a Carter aide said such advance consultation would apply to Canada and that a Carter ad- ministration would deal sympathetitally with its northern neighbor in trying to �Z a The government will give the textile industry the same protection accorded American and European matlutac= timers, he said. He repeated-, however, that Canadian textiles would have. to remain competitive in price with those from other industrial countries Some - imports from developing countries would continue, and Mean- while, "We have to find the proper mix." Prdfits and wages in the domestic industry have .net . been excessive; he said., While the industry was not a high- growth one, it was an industry he wished to make stable. iron out trade problems between the two countries which are each others largest trading partners. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau seems well enough aware of the •n'iajor in. fluence the U.S. economy has in Canada. He sent a congratulatory telegram to Carter which also expressed his desire, for an early meeting with the new president. Carter aides admit that Carter has not yet been briefed ' on 'U.S. - Canadian issues, but say it will be done before he takes office: We can only hope this is the case and that Carter is well briefed. Relations between Ottawa and the Nixon -Ford administration left Much to be desired.