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THE HERALD Wednesday January Page Political Forum Ottawa Report Turner goes home to raise Canadian flag I am writing this column on Friday afternoon as I prepare to drive back to the riding from Ot tawa I say that because by the time you read this events may have changed dramatically In fact I am sure they will Last night missiles hit Israel proving that Saddam Hussein is beyond belief Today the govern ment MPs met briefly and decid ed to keep the House of Commons in session until things look a bit clearer Apparently diplomatic efforts to turn down the tension knob are going allout Again by the time you read this we may have returned and voted on a resolution to back the United Nations and our troops who are part of the UN force try ing to get Saddam out of the coun try he invaded I very much want to cast my vote in favor of that resolution even though it is an endorsement of war No MP likes having to do that War is the ultimate failure of politics On a television panel I did the other night with opposi tion MPs Dawn Black turn ed to me and said events in the Persian Gulf proved we had all failed She was right we did But the debate in Ottawa has been what we should do about dealing with aggression The war didnt really start after the Jan 15th UN deadline Instead it started in August when Kuwait was taken over Not Canadas war I dont agree with that argu- Queens Park Report Pay Equity In last weeks report about the various initiatives put forward by our provincial government I mentioned improvements to the pay equity legislation this week I would like to explain these amendments more fully Labour Minister Bob Mackenzie has stated that he will introduce a bill in the spring to amend the Pay Equity Act The purpose of the Pay Equity Act is to correct the under valuation of work traditionally performed by women The cen tral principle behind the Act is that female and male jobs of equal or comparable value to the employer should be paid equally The value of the work is calculated by using a job evalua tion system that measures skill effort responsibility and work ing conditions The present comparison ap proach of the Ontario law is a direct jobtojob method When the legislation was adopted it was acknowledged that the achievement of pay equity would not be possible using this ap proach for female job classes where there were no or only a few male job classes of com parable or equal value Rather than delay passage of the law the Pay Equity office was required to conduct studies and make recom mendations about how this pro gram could be resolved The new bill will obligate employers and their bargaining agents if any to use two addi tional approaches for making the job comparisons which are basic to the pay equity process The proportional comparison will ap ply to both private and public sec tor organizations while the proxy comparison will apply to the public sector only These two ad ditional methods will benefit about Ontario working women not previously served by the Act The proportional value method permits relative comparisons to be made for all female job classes in an establishment to the male job classes in the same establishment even when there are only a few male job classes on which to base the comparisons Some workplace parties have already chosen to use this new proportional value method in their pay equity plans In the public sector organiza tions where neither jobtojob nor proportional comparisons are ef fective where there are no male job classes that can be used for comparisons the Act will provide for crossestablishment com parisons called proxy com parisons This method will allow female job classes to be com pared with similar classes in other public sector organizations We aware of the situation of child care workers and others in predominantly female establishments who are recogniz ed as being underpaid for the im portant work they do Without proxy comparison it is not possi ble for these workers to par ticipate in pay equity Information papers describing these amendments in greater detail are expected to be released this month by the Ministry of Labour Mr Mackenzie indicated that funds would be available to assist public sector employers having difficulty meeting their pay equity obligations He flso announced financing of to start a Pay Equity Clinic The clinic will provide ad vice and advocacy primarily for nonunionized women to assist them in asserting their pay equi ty rights This government upholds equity for women as a right we are determined to de fend in conscience and in law stated the Minister If you require more informa tion about the two additional ap proaches to pay equity please contact my Milton office at 8781729 and my staff will provide you with the details as they become available MAIN ST S DOWNTOWN GEORGETOWN John 8774313 est Jewellers Garth Turner MP ment Canada wants peace and freedom and will stand up to de fend both and not just selfishly for ourselves If this world is ever to stop having world wars then the world has to cooperate If the Gulf War makes the United Na tions the global cop then its a war worth fighting The Cana dian troops there are profes- dedicated and brave They fight for many things this country has always stood for And they fight proud A man whom I respect for his integrity Liberal MP Ron Mac- Donald from Nova Scotia said in the House during the debate that we are now above partisan politics There is a time to argue politics and agendas he said and a time to support those willing to do battle to protect our very rights This in no way lessens the work we must do for peace But the best longterm option we have for peace is a strong United Nations which cowitries around the world respect and dont want to mess with MPs this past week were very much aware of the effort that Canada has put into making the UN work Former prime minister and Liberal leader John Turner walked into the House of Com mons and argued passionately that this was no time for us to turn our backs on the best brightest hope the world has Canadians have always believed in the UN he said So how in the shadows of war could any of us walkaway now I listened carefully in the House and made my own state ment If there were a vote in the House of Commons on supporting the UN I said Saddam Hussein would want MPs to vote against it He would welcome a signal from Canada that we do not stand with our allies that we would retreat from conflict and that we would not let our sailors and pilots do the jobs they volunteered and trained for So it has not been an easy time The tension is thick Decisions are taken with a sad determina tion We all know the conse quences But this is a fight for peace and a fight which could lead to the end of the last tinpot dictators ability to terrorize innocent people Im proud of Canada right now The flag removed for the winter goes back up on my house when I get home tonight Its the least I can do Try the NutriSystem 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