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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-05-19, Page 5Q GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAYS MAYI9R ],877 ',PAGE 5 dave Sykes, '77 ri satook lmosp real Fep height aerobe ( froze esIdeni callei ir of it Ram for I and dit The Canadian Government is facing a major dilemma following a report from Mr. Justice Thomas Berger suggesting .that there be no pipeline across -the Northern Yukon at any time and no pipeline across the MacKenzie Valley for at least 10 years. Berger indicated that the decision is simply not about the construction of northern pipelines but rather is a decision about the protection of our unique nprthern environment and the future of the northern peoples. Northern busm,essmen favor a pipeline through the north while the native people oppose it vehemently. But for the one group it is a frontier to be explored and exploited and for the other group it is a homeland. Berger's report and its consequences mean little to most Canadians. Perhaps reduced to simple terms it represents a protection of a northern environment and its peoples, far removed from our bystting industrial communities, against the piping of rich oil and gas reserves which could lead to lower or stablized prices. Economics. For Canadians its` pure and simple economics and Berger put a cop on the well. The report has naturally met with 'More than mild disapproval from our neighbours to the south. The United State0 is in dire need of a pipeline to carry gas from Alaska to Southern states and any delay is just downright un-neipbour1y. • But that really should not scare politicians into a decision that does not first and foremost protect our own in- terests. Our industrial system will require the gas and oil of the Western Arctic and ultimately it will have to be piped down the MacKenzie Valley but Canada must also protect its northern environment and the legitimate land, self determination and aspirations of our native people living in the north. It istdifficult to be objective about the report when the land, its peoples and lifestyles are so remotely related to the rest of the country. Due to the immense geographic area of the north it is in- conceiveable that the construction of a pipeline could cause damage to the land,,, water or wildlife but Berger claims that certain areas of land and water are vital to the survival of numerous species of mammals and fish. But aside -from protecting the natural area and the life that it maintains specific concern about the change in the northern peoples lifestyle is evident. It is proven that the intrusion of industry into the wilderness of the north has con- tributed to an alarming rise in alcoholism, crime, violence, prostitution and welfare dependence especially in the last decade. Berger claims the social costs and implications of building the pipeline would be devastating. The native people of the North also wanta'settlement of their native claims before any pipeline is biuit'but they doh*t''' want a settlement that will extinguish their rights to the land. Rather they are looking for a settlement that will guarantee their native claims and preserve their right to self deter- mination as outlined in the constitution of Canada. When the Canadian gover- nment makes a decision it will be of paramount importance that the native people be allowed to make a choice about their own future. t, The problem is a complex one with far reaching implications for Western nations who now face exorbitant oil and gas prices and estimate the possibility of shortages within five years. Regardless of the decision on the part of the government -to most Canadians, bur- dened with inflationary prices, its just a matter of economics and not gieople. 1 ion campaigniag began to show f life in the Huron -Middlesex his week after the Liberals and inated candidates for the June 9 last week and the NDP selected ate Monday. Riddell,,Liberal MPP for Huron - ex will seek re-election for the e since he stole the riding in a by-election in 1973. The Liberal tion Tield their nomination Hensall last week. ing days of speculation and, us rumors the Conservatives ed Anson McKinley at their ion Meeting held in South Huron kindsol nirs on 01 these from Jimmy peon the ire pic ice ectul wet llama gobably there f Goo Tou could there 15e 'an election n without a little "bit of scandal the eyebrow. week Ontario Premier William et up a judical inquiry to in - e the circumstances surroun- $35,000 contribution to the Con- e Party to seek approval for site applications by a garbage oney was donated by Disposal Ltd, whose president Norman ad, was working as a r Campaign funds collector for les befere the last election. Services is a subsidiary of WEEK AFTER • INFORMATION, BACKGROUND AND OPINION HERE IN HURON Skoondary School, in Exeter last Thur- the NDP in the two previous federal sday. McKinley, ,a former4-warden of elections and is president of the Huron - !.Huron County, is the brother of Con -'Middlesex NDP association. servative MP Bob McKinley. Jim Huron -Middlesex Liberal MPP, Hayter of Goderich, who carried the Tori wa.s in the Gocierich-Clinton bannerjn the previous election was also area last Friday and predicted the nominated at the meeting but withdrew election would produce either a Con - the nomination and -threw his support servative or Liberal minority govern - behind McKinley, ment—He claimed the NDP rise to op - The New D6mocratic Party held their position statas in the last election was nomination meeting in Huron Centennial, simply a result of the television debate School in Brucefield Monday and farse between Davis and Nixon. But he nominated election veteran Shirley was alsa quick to praise the work of a Weary of Goderich. Mrs. Weary, a high minority government claiming that school teacher at Central Huron several pieces of legislation that were . Secondary School in Clinton, has run for passed in the Legislature wouid have died under a majoritigovernment. Parties in the Huron -Bruce riding have also selected • their candidates following nomination meetings last Last Monday the Conservatives nominated 43 year-old Kincardine land developer Norman J. MacGregor as their candidate. MacGregor waS the only nomination put `forth at the . Huron -Bruce MPP Murray Gaunt will seek re-election for the Liberals folloWing their nomination meeting in incardine last Thursday. GaUnt has been a sitting memtbenin the Legislature for the Huron-Bruce'riding for almost 15 yea rs'since he was first elected in 1962; At the meeting. Gaunt said that the election was not a result of an ineffective Minority government or because op- pesition parties were stalling the business of the legislature but rather the' election was called for the. personal political gain of Premier William Davis. He added that the amendment to the rent review legislation that resulted in a nori- confidende motion was just an excuse to call an election, The Huron -Bruce NDP party selected 29 year-old Dave Zyluk as their can- didate in the election at their nomination PROVINCIAL POINTS WaSte Management Inc. of Oak Brooks Ill. who donated the money for political reasons as one of several precautionary steps designed to styengthen their chances to receive governmentapproval One permit was isstied to the company - a few months after the political con- tribution was made but the government still has to make a decision on the second permit. Both permits were for landfill sites at Maple. A memorandum from the Waste Management company said the money, among other things were part of a, program to ensure the viability of the project. Steven gergerson, general counsel for Waste Management, said the U.S. government's Securities and Exchange Commission has decided after an in- vestigation that there was nothing im- proper about the political contribution. Davis called the whole matter nonsense and decided to impose a judicial inquiry, rather than have the matter bacome a major issue in the election campaign. The Liberals justice critic, Albert RoY, said the judicial inquiry was not ac- ceptable and called for criminal charges to be laid. He urged the Solicitor and Attorney General to lay charges under sections of the Criminal Code. The inquiry under Mr. Justice Sam Hughes of the Ontario Supreme Coert is ex- pected to begin immediately and results may even be publjc,before the campaign has reachecithe final stages. The inquiry, under. .the Public Inquiries Act, will investigate according to the cabinet order any wrongdoing or impropriety on the part'of the company involved or its affiliates or any other individuals and any improper influence brought to bear on members Of the Ontario Government or the civil service. The government enforced limits on political contributions in 1975 just two Ind gov in a :ores, nritl pilaf en coo itO Ind akd high prices are no longer roblem of the poor. Canadians paying higher food. and gas s compared to a year ago and taggering $22 billion on cars, levisions, holidays and other r loans, an increase of 16 per - r one year. food prices in Canada rose by cent continuing a four month sharply rising food prices to e inflation rate to 7.6 percent. tion rate has now gone beyond mment target of six percent ,set up under Ahe anti-inflation ajor contributors to higher food atieS CANADA IN SEVEN costs were fresh vegetables, milk, butter, sugar and coffee. However the steep rise in these prices was partly offset by lower beef, pork and poultry prices. But even housing costs, elec- tricity and water rates rose sharply already this year and clothing, tobacce • and health care costs contributed to the rise in the price index, The price index is based on a selected basket of goods and services used by Statistics Canada to measure the in- crease. Last year the goods cost $146 and rose to $157.90 in one year. And if a federal government proposal to increase the price of domestic crude oil is accepted by the provinces then iv isto Canadians can expect to pay $1.25 forsa gallon of gas by 1981 and an additional 34 cents per gallon on home heating oil. The new pricing scheme would mean an immediate four cent hike in gasoline and would add about three cents to the price of a gallon of home heating oil. The pricing plan would boost the cost of Canadian domestic oil above that of the United States by the end of next Yt but President Carter's proposed in- crease's would parallel with Cbnada over the next-coupleof years. While prices climb, the personal debts of Canadians and the unemployment figutes are keeping pace. The Canadian Labor Congress claims that government failure to ease the unemployment problem will lead to tension, unrest and even violent disorder across the country. The Congress claims that nothing divides a country more than' unem- ployment and regional disparity resulting from the government:s lack of initiative and action on the unem- ployment problem. i• Allan MacEachen, -acting prime minister last week, said the government has .no intention of bringing in new measures to reduce unemployment. The unemployment figure in April was 8.3 percent meaning that 1 in 12 Canadians were out- of work. the highest level ever recorded in Canada. The prospects for meeting in Tiverton last Thur$day. Zyluk, born in Dublin, Ireland was not opposed at the meeting and accepted the noadnation without reservation. He has bffn a resident of Canada for 10 yearS and is the principal of St. Joseph's Separate School in Kingsbridge. All'parties in the two ridings have now_., nominated their candidates for ,Affe election and there are just three short weeks of campaign,ing before the June 9 election date, Voters should make certain that their name has been in- clUded in the voters list, cbe years' after Davis ordered a special turn with some degree of regularity and commission to report on party and he may be wondering when they will campaign financing following the stop. There is no evidence that such controversy over a $50,000 donation to the Con.servative Party by the Fidinam contributions have actually bought Corporation. Fidinam was later granted something clincrete from the govern - a contract to build new Toronto rnent. headquarters for the Workmen's Compensation Board. In 1971, after an election, Ross Now the gift is history and it would be Shouldice made some frank statements difficult to establish a link between the about putting the arm on companies that donation and the benefit. It was Davis received government ' business. himself who changed the rules to Shouldice was bounced but 'it may lead to eliminate hanky panky after the the conclusion that there are still some Fidinam affair. Unfortunately for Davis, favors left in the government vault that these' surprising little. affairs seem to have already been paid for. the remainder of the year in terms of growth and employment are discouraging and the labor force will have to absorb an additional 200,000 people who will be entering the labor force. With-- today's credit systems Canadians have also got themselves in hock for $22 billion to a variety 01 creditors on an easy pay later scheme. A report from the Metro Toronto Credit Counselling Service. said, that the average dehtor seeking advice earns an average income of approximatelY $15,000 a year. From that average in- come they owe just over $7,000 to 5.6 , different creditors including banks, s a little adventurous gambling ost everyone but few would be rely en gambling for their That is of course unless yeur ppens to be Texas Dilly or s have been made and lives n ruined at the roulette wheel, Jack table and the horse races afflicted with the gambling Last 'week in Las Vegas al gamblers battled for the ker championship for three for total prize money of hamiiionship has become WORLDWEEK something of an institution among the the rules of the contest, each player puts elite of professional gamblers a'nd the up $10,000 on the table and they were not ante is only $10,000. This year an old allowed to put up any more money nor poker hand, Doyle (Texas Dolly). take partial winnings away, Brunson outlasted 32 other contestants Th s p ayed Hold Em, a to win the poker title for the second variety of seven card stud, .until 33 straight year. Ironically he claimed the players went broke one, by one and the $340,000 prize money with an identical lone survivor collected the $340,000 prize hand that won the title last year, a full money. The final hands were a faceoff house of three tens and two deeces. Even between Brunson and Gary (Bones) the suits were the same. Berland, a Los Angeles native The championship was played over nicknamed Bones because he is so three days in the Horseshoe Casino in skinny. Las Vegas and the contestants played in Bones Berland lost the final hand to ten hour shifts with eight -hours dff until Texas Doll ft e is entire pile of 32 players had been eliminated. Under $60,000 on a pair of eights and a pair of fives. Dolly produced the full house and the championship was over after three days of play. , 13erland represented a new breed of professional gamblers at Ihe tour- nament by almost upsetting the supremacy of Texans in the charn- pienship. Another surprise to the old poker hands was a retired restaurateur Nita) South Dakota who managed to win $98,000 before fading in the late going Of the • tournament. The only experience Milo Jacobsen carried into the cham- pionship ,was the weekly games he played in at the Elks Club in Sioux Falls *Ind he admitted that he often lost in finance companies.' department stores, airlines, credit card issuers and 'oil Canadian debts have usually resulted from illness to the wage earner or loss of work or overtime that was counted on to pay for the 'purchase. Credit has now been tightened and there is considerably more checking being done to prevent debt problems, The toughest creditor of all is the federal government who can order an employer to turn over an employees total earnings to meet overdue income tax those contests Jacobsen plans to make a return trip to the tournament next year complete with a bus load of fans from home. The annual poker championship caters to a rare breed of men who make their living by the cards, a mysteriously intriguing style of life that many have possibly dreamed of but could ill afford to chance. And the names of the elite prefegsional gamblers are as intriguing as their profession as the card table lures such men as Jack (Treetop) Strauss of Houston, Sailor 'Roberts of Texas, Amarillo Slim of Texas and The poker championship just represents one of the the top rungs of the gambling profession. Gambling is a part of most peoples liyes ranging from church bingo games to hockey pefols and horse races, and a f new Canadian magazine hit the market last week that caters to gamblers who chance a lottery ticket or two. Billions of dollars are won and lost each year on all sbrts of gambling ventures but there is some adventure in wagering a few dollars on a longshot. hikkey team.