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PAGE 6 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, Second Class Mail Registration Number 5540 When the provincial government passed a housing legislation amendment late last year restricting landlords to a four per cent increase, it was viewed by many as tossing more fuel on a fire raging out of conâ€" trol. C1R With vacancy rates in many Ontario municipalities already at the crisis stage, the legislation, retroactive to August 1, 1985, dealt yet another crushing blow to longâ€"term planning and landlord investmentâ€"all in the _ name of protecting tenants for the short term. Well, it will and it won‘t. Because any financial reprieve tenants receive from the rollback to four per cent will surely be lost in terms of reduced mainteâ€" nance and general facility care on the part of landlords who are not in the business for the good of their health, tlliespite what our government would have them beâ€" eve. While many landlords in the Twin Cities and beyond do not exactly qualify for soupâ€"line status, the legislation all but removes any incentive for further development of new sites and restoration and repair of existing buildings. Therefore, tenants will see a deterioration in their current housing, and vacancy rates will decrease even furtherâ€"â€"if that‘s possible around these parts. Now comes the news that many local landlords, grudgingly rebating tenants after the new ceiling became law, openly state that as a result, services such as snow plowing, gardening, paving, suite painting, carpet cleaning and so on will either be reduced, eliminated, or dropped in the lap of tenants. With the costs of many services these days, it simply doesn‘t pay to invest a great deal of money to keep up servicesâ€"unless somehow the books are balanced, which they aren‘t with a four per cent rent ceiling. And what about the smallâ€"time landlord, barely scraping by with a minimal profit margin prior to the new legislation? A few unexpected repairs could put such an ‘‘investor‘‘ in the poorâ€"house, without even considâ€" ering the extra services tenants have come to expect in the past: No, in this day and age, a four per cent solution is simply not a fair solution to the problems of rental housingâ€"â€"even for the many of us who do rent and are reaping an extremely shortâ€"term benefit from the ceiling. Because if everyone suffers in the long run, and that is what appears will be the case, then it is no solution at all. The landlordâ€"tenant relationship historically has been a sensitive one at best. This latest move cannot help but breed further animosity, and ironically neither side is directly to blame. Here‘s hoping that before things get out of hand, mutual discontent can be channeled in the right directionâ€"at our provincial government, perpetrators of this senseless piece of legâ€" islation. Right now, the government is only hearing the crying from one side. How long will it be, however, before both barrels are firing? And do any of us really want to find out? Some solution published every Wednesday by Fairway Press, a division of Knc_rlener-Walerloo Record Ltg., owner 5i 225 Fairway Rd. S , Kitchener, Ont. address correspondence to Waterioo off 15 Kb Si. F, Waterioo, Ont. N2J JL7. telephone 886 Waterloo Chronicle oftice is located in the Haney. Wtute Law O Buiding (rear entrance. uppef fioor). Parking at.the reas ot DUNHS AETL M Ghalts Enday 800 a m to 5:00 pim * buiding 0;;:« “Aot:d.;; to Frday 9. 00 a m Publisher: Paul Winkler Manager: Bill Karges Editor Rick Campbell JANUARY 15, 1986 established 1854 Whute Law Office . Ont office LOOKING back at 1985 is a particularly negative action. Don‘t do it, unless you want to remind yourself that human life is pretty cheap in the eyes of the gods or whoever is running the joint. India took some heavy lumps. First, the mess at Bhopal, where a carbide company took a leak (no pun intended), and thousands were killed or made gravely ill. Then the mysterious crash of Air India off the coast of Ireland. No survivors. Just ordinary people, going home to visit relatives. Can you imagine the terror as they plunged toward the sea? Screaming, clutching babies. To no avail. The brutal cold of the North Atlantic gave up almost nothing â€" a few bits of flotsam and jetsam, a few bodies. And other air crashes, not so spectacular, but just as deadly for those who died. And the ghastly shootâ€"out at Malta, where nobody seemed to know, or care, whether the rescuers were shooting terrorists or passengers. And the hijacking of an entire cruise ship in the Mediterranean. But even these events paled when compared to the grotesque tragedy of the earthquakes in Mexico and Colombia. Not only about 40,000 dead, but thousands of others with their lives overâ€"turned, their crops destroyed, their homes lost. And we worry because the price of Christmas trees has gone up again. Things haven‘t been much sweeter at home, even though Canadians live in the best country in the world, and seem to be immune from great disasters, except for the danged winter. Rancid tuna, tainted buffalo meat (who eats buffalo anyway?), crumbling banks, and a governâ€" ment that can‘t seem to put one foot in front of the other, without putting the first one in its mouth. Mr. Mulroney‘s gang, without his personal public relations facade, makes you start thinking rather longingly for Pierre Trudeau, who at least depised the media and made no attempt to conceal it. However, we mustn‘t be morbid. We must look up, not back. I saw a black squirrel yesterday looking up at his home in one of my oaks, and calculating whether he had time to sock away another five hundred acorns for the coming months, when all the squirrels do is have sex, sleep, and eat. Xn:i-i saw a solid citizen, looking up at the sky and saying, "Jeez, more snow _coming." Th;gz-;;é the 'p;s-iâ€"t_i;e‘ attitudes we must adopt if we are to emerge next spring, pallid, but survivors. Looking up â€"It is written "I haven‘t found a word to describe it yet. it was exciting and thrilling. It was depressing; it was emotional. I probably cried more in those three weeks than I have in the past year." BARBARA SAUNDERS, as a delegateflof the F7A Chin up Bill Smiley Syndicated columnist I‘ve painted a rather dark picture of 1985. Forget it, and look up. And if you get some freezing rain in your eyes, don‘t blame me. Just go to the liquor store and buy some wine with the antiâ€"freeze in it. That‘il clear your eyes, though it may not do much for your liver. Personally, things have gone well with me. I‘ve only been waiting for a hospital bed since Thanksgiving and will probably be tucked in, waiting for some of those unspeakable "tests", by April. npl 47. None of my old friends has died recently, and I hope they can say the same for me. i NT lt D C ib To en i ces s d IIVF\' beininhst Bs on oidcs. Alboii tne on n I‘ve lost one hubâ€"cap this winter trying to get into my garage. I‘ve pretty well mastered the art â€" and it is an art â€" of cooking for one. I sit down at the crack of noon and figure out my-n\enu for the day. Man does not live by bread alone. He needs peanut butter, as well. While I‘m working on my menu, I have bread and peanut butter and a banana. Lots of protein. Then I write some notes to myself. It‘s unhealthy to think about food all the time. Memo: Get that teaâ€"pot, the only one in the house fit for guests, back from Hugh, who "borrowed" it last weekend; call Kim and see if she‘s still out of a job; stop smoking; stop drinking anything stronger than barely water; get windshield wiper fixed; pay 1983 income tax. And so on. They certainly take my mind off food. By that time, I‘m pretty exhausted, so I have a little "Zizz," or, as the bourgeois call it, *‘*snooze."‘ This takes a lot of energy out of me, because I dream of not having paid the utilities bill, the phone bill, and the gas bill. I wake up in a nervous sweat. International March America. â€" SEE PAGE 1. At this moment, it‘s time to think about dinner. So I plod through snow to the garage, go downtown, buy a paper, cigarettes and booze, and drop in at the delicatessen where L order a takeâ€"out of their delicious hot goulash. That takes care of dinner. Sometimes 1 strike it rich. Turkey dinner, wonderful with all fixings, with some old friends. Talked the lady into half an apple pie. Unfortunâ€" ately, my son came home that weekend. He likes pies. Mustn‘t go on like this. 1985 was great, if you*re still alive. 1986 is going to be a fine, fine year. That is, if you keep looking up. But keep an eye for seaâ€" gulls. | for Peace in Central