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Page 4, Terrace Bay-Schreiber News, Wednesday, May 6, 1987 . 4 Verrace Bay The Terrace Bay-Schrelber News Is published every Wednesday by: Laurentian Publishing Single copies 35 cents Schreiber Co. Ltd., Box 578, Terrace Bay, Ontario, POT 2W0. Telephone: (807) 825-3747. Subscription rates per year Second Class Mailing Permit Number 0867 in town $14.00 CO a te Ba a we, ee Ken Lusk __ out of town $18.00 -- | fo Ses Me ice ic ae en a eae et Betty St. Amand Member of Ontario Community PCRSMIGH ee eects. a ee ee ee Gayle Fournier Newpopers Association and The Canadian Community Newspapers Association All can share benefits May 3-9 is National Forest Week. Various groups and individuals across Canada will be observing it. Tree plantings. Mill tours. Walks in the forest. Exhibits and displays. Special publications. Buttons. Posters. It is a big job to reach all Ontario citizens with a forestry message. Too bad, too, for we all share in the forest benefits. We do not all realize it. Most of us do not do enough to help our forests continue their useful activities. Many people share the forest physically. Hikers, campers, loggers, outfitters, trappers, hunters, naturalists, teachers, students, and skiers are to be found out there. © Many share in other ways. The newspaper publisher (or editor!), the house builder, the forest land owner and the office secretary have an interest- whether they recognize it or not- in green, healthy, productive forests and the products we get from them. And that is not likely to change. In spite of all the new inventions we still have a great dependence upon our forests. Our dependence is likely to grow. We are lucky in Ontario to have such a rich forest heritage. It has changed through the years. We have used our forests a lot and not always wisely. As the demands upon the forests grow, we need to Letters to the editor National Forest Week May 4-10 pay more attention to their care and wise use. Tomorrow's forests are today's challenge. That is what National Forest Week is all about. The Ontario Forestry Association sees it as a time to think about forests. To take stock of their importance. To be sure our plans for tomorrow's forests are appropriate. Forests. ..a shared resource...by all of us. Everyone's responsibility. Make it yours. Quote of the Week "*Perfect freedom is reserved for the man Who lives by his own work and in that work does What he wants to do". -R.G.-COLLINGWOOD Arthur Black Toronto- The following statement has been issued by Ian D. Bird, president, Ontario Forest In- dustries Association, to recognize National Forest Week May 4-10, 1987: "'Canada's forests are the most important of our many valuable resources in that they provide employment for one of every 10 Canadian workers. "'Here in Ontario, the forest in- dustry provides direct employment to 71,000 people for $1.9 billion in annual wages, producing goods valued at $8.6 billion. "'It is therefore appropriate that we recognize the importance of our forests during National Forest Week, May 4 to May 10. "The theme of this year's Na- tional Forest Week 'Forests- A Shared Resource', is also. ap- propriate at this time of increasing pressure on the resource from a variety of users. "'Our forests must be soundly managed to continue providing fish and game habitat, recreational op- portunities and watershed protec- tion as well as commercial timber for a host of consumer products. '*The forest industry is commit- ted to sound forest management providing prompt forest renewal following harvest. The intensified forest pratices resulting will benefit all users of the forest. Communities receive grants Gilles Pouliot, MPP for Lake Nipigon, announced supplemen- tary funds for the Municipalities of Dorion, Marathon, Nakina and Nipigon townships. Mr. Pouliot made the announce- ment of behalf of the minister of Transportation and Communications. **These funds represent a signifi- cant contribution to the transporta- tion system in these communities," Pouliot said. The funds are in ad- see communities page 12 BLACK: Toronto and the real estate madness Okay. Let's try to examine the thing logically. Why would anyone want to move to Toronto? Sports? To watch the Argos? The Blizzard? To support an NHL franchise that finished 18th out of 21 and hasn't seen the Stanley Cup for the past five Prime Ministers? Sure, the Blue Jays are a good baseball team, but you have to watch 'em in Exhibition Stadium, a creaky, narrow, uncomfortable wind tunnel on the chilly shores of Lake Ontario -- plus you need a periscope to find out who's on first. No, you don't move to Toronto for spectator sports. How about the active kind then -- skiing? Are you kidding? Twiggy's got more hills than Toronto. The slopes are 90 miles away -- and 60 miles of that is the lineup for the ski tow. Fishing then? Hoo boy. You want to try fishing in the Humber or the Don River? You want to dip a line along Toronto's lakeshore? Good luck. Don't forget to wear asbestos gloves and a radiation suit. You can probably sell anything you catch to Steven Speilberg. He can use them as extras in his next extra- terrestrial horror flick. What about scenery? Maybe people move to Toronto for the magnificent vistas and pastoral panoramas? Sois serieux, cheri. On a clear day from the top of the CN Tower you can just make out the smokestacks of Hamilton. That's if you can get to the Tower through the tour buses from Buffalo. Hey, maybe that's why people go to Toronto -- to gawk at all its architectural treasures and cultural Meccas. Well, there is the CN Tower, Casa Loma, art galleries, museums, the Metro Zoo, Honest Ed's. The catch is getting to them. Toronto is networked by a system of superhighways, highways, bi- ways, roads and back alleys that may well be the envy of the Western world. Maybe -- we'll never know because at any given time 60 per cent of them are closed for sewer installation, re-surfacing, widening, narrowing or simple pothole repair. This leaves the other 40 per cent with the burden of carrying the 13 trillion cars trucks and motorbikes that start their engines every morning. You don't drive in Toronto, you just park and idle for hours at a time. Mind you, Toronto has discovered a brand new transportation concept -- terminal gridlock. Well, that would seem to settle it. Nobody in their right mind would move to Toronto to watch sports, play sports, take in the sights or bask in the cultural am- bience. It only leaves one tiny question.... Why is everybody. moving to Toronto? They are, you know. They must be. Somebody's buying all those houses: The real estate market in down- town Hogtown is absolutely, totally take-all-your-clothes-off-and-hang- from-the-chandliers nuts. Toronto- nians who put their house on the market at ridiculously inflated prices get hysterical phone calls from people besseching them to please take more. . I know a guy who owns a house in the West End, five miles from downtown. It sits cheek by jowl with a dozen or so other houses just like it. Postage stamp lawn. no driveway, two bedrooms. The house is... well, I have to say "'modest" because the guy's a friend of mind, but between you and me, the place is adump. Two weeks ago, my friend -- happily married, good job -- decided to list his house to see what it would bring. He asked for $250,000 -- just to make sure he wouldn't be © * tempted. He's retiring early and moving to Halifax next month. Right after the sale of his house goes through -- for $310,000. What's even more amazing is that my friend's story isn't even special. Tell it to a Toronto real estate agent and he or she wil nod impatiently, then relate a tale that makes it sound like small potatoes. You want to know how crazy the Toronto real estate market is? House prices in Toronto have gone up by 35 per cent in the last year alone. Thirty-five per cent! The price of an average house -- average house, mind, that takes in all the tumbledown shacks and sag- ging flophouses as well as normal domiciles you might actually con- sider trying to play house in -- is $175.000. press. By the time you read this it'll probably be higher. By the time you turn to the next page it'll be higher still. That means that real estate agents who usually collect a commission of 6 per cent on a house sale, are pulling in something like 10,500 bucks for every "average" house they sell. Hey. I think I just solved the problem. I know who's moving to Toronto. Real estate agents. Toronto's being taken over by an army of real estate agents. Black's Hot Tip of the Week: sell all your stocks. Put every cent van've ont in nlaid enartc iacrbkatc