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Page 4, News, Tuesday, July 16, 1991 EE e Editor Tel.: 825-3747 : The Terrace Bay - Schreiber News is published every Tuesday by Laurentian Publishing Limited, Box 579, 13 Simcoe Plaza, Terrace Bay, Ont., POT 2W0 Tel.: 807-825-3747. Second class mailing permit 2264. Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Tourist Information Centre Stopping the traffic Tourists -they travel by horseback, canoe, campers and bicycles and they are stopping in Terrace Bay now that there is a place for them to gather information and receive a friendly welcome. In its first six weeks of operation (between May 27 and July 7) the Tourist Information Centre had 1,053 visitors (this does not include local visitors). This figure only takes on a real meaning when compared to statistics from previous years. In 1988 the total visitor count between June and September was 1,176. In 1989 the count for one month, June, was 350 and in 1990, during June and July, the count was 204. The tourists are coming from all over the world including places like Australia, Guam, Switzerland, Luxembourg, France, West Germany, Scotland, England and Sweden. The majority of American visitors have came from Great Lake States of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin but there have been visitors from many more states. Travelers from every Canadian province have also stopped in at the Centre. So it seems that the Centre is doing what is was designed to do -to get travelers to stop and to provide them with information about the area. Armed with this information the tourist, it is hoped, will stay in the area and make use of the local facilities. The Tourist Information Centre can and is making a good first impression. The comments in the guest book tell the story. "We enjoyed our stay in Terrace Bay. The friendly capable staff was a big asset." Elliot Lake. "Lovely spot and helpful too." Halifax, Nova Scotia "Best Info-centre in Canada - lovely people." Edmonton, Alberta This is important stuff because the best way to promote anything is by word of mouth. The flashiest brochure cannot relay the message as well one person relating his or her personal experiences to another person. Every visitor, on leaving Terrace Bay, becomes an ambassador for the town. Making sure visitors enjoy their stay in this area and want to return is the responsibility of every business, organization and person - even if they don't consider tourists important to their operation. The Tourist Information Centre is stopping the traffic and offering the traveller choices on where to go and what to do. The staff are creating that all important first impression. Getting them to stay, to talk to their friends and fellow travelers about the area and to return, is up to the rest of us. Robert A. Cotton Support for tobacco tax Dear Editor; - The Canadian Medical Association recommended and supports tax increases on tobacco as an excellent way to prevent nicotine addiction, disease, disability and death. The Government of Canada and the nine provincial governments that have increased taxes on tobacco in 1991 have our complete support. While we respect the democratic right of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers Council and smokers to protest the tax increases, we believe that that protest should be rejected. Smoking is a major cause of cancer, heart disease, emphysema and host of other diseases. Smoking is responsible for the premature death of over 35,000 Canadians every year.Tax increases have proven to be an effective way to reduce tobacco consumption, to encourage smokers to stop smoking and most importantly, to prevent young people from starting to smoke. Canada is a world leader in efforts to reduce smoking. Tax increases have played an important part in that success. Efforts to reduce smoking are of the highest priority in Canada's health promotion program. Carole Guzman,M.D. President-elect, The Canadian Medical Association Publigher.....-<5-...s000sc-ses1 Sandy Harbinson Cae coecripton rates: Advertising Mgf.........- Linda Harbinson Q&*CNA $18 per year/seniors $12 ECUtOM.............:ceseeeceeseeeesneeeees Robert Cotton fom) (local); $29 per year (outof Sales Representative.............. Lisa LeClair cn AD mije radius) $38 In US," Aint: ASE acciacasnnes-ccssees Gayle Fournier = Add GST to yearly subs. Production Asst................ Cheryl Kostecki "My orders are to go forth into the land of fury an' sniff out what's bugging them ! " A bargain in Canada I don't watch The Journal any more. I can't stand any more shots of Toyotaloads of Canucks funneling through U.S. border checkpoints, practically salivating on the upholstery because they've got a chance to spend their money in American shopping malls. My TV also shows long daisy chains of the same cars coming back into Canada, laden to the rocker panels with everything from frozen turkeys to laptop computers; from cartons of Marlboros to Maytag washer/dryers. But it's not the border crossing that depresses me. It's not even the mounds of junk the shoppers bring back. It's the rationalizations they come out with. They talk about how they're "fed up" with the high cost of living in Canada. They growl that they're "damned sore" and they're "not gonna take it any more." They tell Barbara on The Journal that this is their way of "screwing Mulroney for the GST and all those other taxes". To hear them tell it, you'd think cross-border shoppers were some ~ kind of credit-card Cavalry, leading the charge towards a brighter, bargain-festooned future. It is to guffaw. A cursory glance at the despicable government this country's endured for the past seven years tells anyone with eyes to see that The Grand Muldoon does not lose sleep over who's buying their flame-retardant living room drapes at a Buffalo discount mall. Cross-border shopping doesn't hurt The Boys On The Hill. They've got a regular pay cheque -- at least until next election. Eee No, the people who are hurt by cross-border shopping are folks like Ed, over at the Pro Hardware store and Sylvia who runs the variety and smoke shop. Not to mention everybody at the supermarket, Eaton's and The Bay, and all those folks manning all those downtown cash registers. You want to know who gets kneed in the groin by.crossborder shopping? Go to the local baseball game, or the next meeting of the Lions/Kiw- Arthur Black anis/Rotary/Knights of Columbus. Take a look around. You know these people. You vote in the same polling booth. You see them in lineups at the barber shop and the bank machine. Your kids go to school with their kids. You used to do all your shopping at their stores. But that was before Free Trade of course, and all those fabulous Stateside bargains. O Canada. Are we destined to become the first ; se Nation in history to commit uicide by shopping? It's not just Canadian dollars we're shoveling over he border. We're sending flesh and blood, too. I can think of four people who gave up on Canada this past year. They've chucked their passports, buried their Canadian heritage down by ; I heard one of these eager 7 emigres on Peter Gzowski's Morningside radio program not long ago. He talked about the entrepreneurial spirit and how there was more free enterprise in the U.S. What he meant was he could make better money down there and he could keep more of it for himself. When the man finished talking, there was a long, painful silence and then Gzowski said, very quietly: "Canada is about more than money." Damn right. Not that money isn't important. Ask the Washington couple who were in court recently for failure to pay their medical bills. They have a daughter with a rare bone disease. She's had dozens of operations and needs more. Trouble is, their medical insurance ran out. All $2 million worth of it. We don't let that happen to people up here -- which is one reason life is more expensive in Canada. Sure, it costs more to be Canadian. Isn't it worth it? Isn't it at least worth more than a carton of Luckies, a tankful of cheap gas and a set of flame- retardant drapes? 8