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: This is our ment to you. ctoria St. N. ‘at the lights) 3413 anytime eh‘s FINEST MEMORIALS YÂ¥ OWnED Ground , consider vice & Price. FLOUR d, Unbleached, ry, Swans Down No Loowies AND PAINT lb CUSTOMERâ€"FRIENDLY PARKING * OVER: 300 QuaALiTY STtoREs & SERrvices WELCoME You TO UPTOWN WaTERLOO Several times lately, it has been suggested that the Canadian banks do not pay enough in corporate taxes. Instead of asking the banks to pay more corporate taxes, we could consider asking them to make loans equal to some small percentage of their capital (say five percent) to venture capital companies or young startâ€"up corpoâ€" rations. That would be more helpful to the growth of the Canadian economy than would any amount collected in taxes. It would reduce the complaints of small businesses who believe that if they could get funding, they could provide jobs. While there are costs to having a branch banking system which is so heavily concentrated, Canadians should be proud of the stability of our system. The costs include significant oligopolisitic power. For the doubter, there is a great book entitled Towers of Gold, Feet of Clay by Walter Stewart which brilliantly describes the control banks have over the Senate Finance Committee and over many corâ€" porations. Another cost to the strong oligopolistic banks is the lack of venture capital for smaller untried commercial ideas. While there appears to be lots of money around to help the Reichmans finance takeovers, there is little for the young untried man who has the entrepreneurial spirit to start something new and innovative. Bankers would argue that safety and stability are more important. In a unit banking system, a collapse in the value of property in one geographical area will make a bank collapse if it does not have the support of other geographical areas where the property values are rising. When the oil boom ended in Texas, many firms had diffiâ€" culty paying loans and many homeowners were simply unable to pay mortgages. Sometimes, the mortgages ended up being higher in value than the property itself as property values fell, which led to abandonment (the bank would foreclose but own something less than the book value of the loan). Isn‘t it interesting that the only bank failures in Canada have been the two Alberta banks which collapsed in 1985 due mainly to the same phenomenon? In some ways, banks are like insurance. There is a pooling of riskâ€" taking in making loans. Thus, the banks which are most widely disâ€" persed through different economic conditions probably can survive the risks. In the last eighteen months, I have sat on two doctoral dissertation committees which examined banking in the United States. One dealt with the collapse of the Texas banking system. The U.S. State legislatures are beginning to recognize that there is this basic need to disperse risk geographically and thus we will be seeing many banks consolidating across state lines. For instance, the National Bank of Detroit (NBD) has recently bought out Indiâ€" ana National Bank which itself had branches all around that state. It has also bought several banks in Ohio and a couple of branches in Florida. . â€" _ Bowl Z&u' iw afew..\g In a previous column, I wrote about the envy that people in the U.S. have for our health system. Americans also envy the stability of our banking system. j The Savings and Loan debacle in the United States left the averâ€" age American feeling that there is something significantly wrong with their banking system. Historically, Alexander Hamilton wanted to make the banks national whereas many of the politicians in the immediately post constitiutional era wanted to have small private banks which could compete with each other. They frankly disliked the fact that a strong national bank could control the ability of consumers to get access to services such as loans. They feared oliâ€" gopoly and they feared having too much control at the federal level. The result was a unit banking system where most banks, if they had any branches at all, would be in one small geographical area. Canadian banks on the other hand, developed as national banks and the branch banking system prevailed. When a Canadian bank had too little money in Indian Head Saskatchewan, for instance, it was feasible to switch it from a larger branch in Regina in little time and thus the bank itself was not affected. (4 D B U % § o T \ 4 g g f ? § | g g * C e * L * gor We Sn n AMe 5. 7 hB J U.S. Envy Again @; "It is called The Quiet Hobby," Beaupre said. "Each stamp tells a story and teachers are using them in class. Each stamp is a piece of art depicting butterâ€" flies, birds, trains, space, Disney ... you name a subâ€" ject, and there‘s a stamp for it." The movie business has also been a big part of the world of stamps, Beaupre said. Stamps with Judy Garland from the Wizard of 0z, Marilyn Monroe from Stage Coach and Clark Gable from Gone With The Wind, are a few of the movie stamps that have been issued. The music business has also gotten in on the act with Elvis and Michael Jackson stamps. "You find all kinds of walks of life coming in here. Some people have as much enjoyment in collecting penny stamps as they do in the real expensive ones. But we don‘t have too many real expensive types of stamps here." Some might think that, because he turns 75 next month, Beaupre should stop work, close his Beaupre Stamps store, and enjoy life. But in his world of stamps, Beaupre is enjoying life by doing what he loves to do most. Peter Cudhea Chronicle Staff Harold Beaupre‘s business career in Uptown Waterâ€" loo has been as colorful as some of the stamps he sells. mmmmwmm(mmmmummmv)mmemw« Uptown‘s Beaupre Stamps has set up shop ... again WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22. 1993 â€" PAGE 11 Not only did people volunteer to help, but he was also given a truck from Stevens Motors to help move what wasn‘t destroyed in the fire, and was given storâ€" age space from Carter Brothers "There were a lot of businesses across the street from me. After the fire the people volunteered their time to help clean up. The fire was the first real visiâ€" ble change to the Uptown area and 1 think it shook a few people up," Beaupre said Yet, moving from one Uptown location to another isn‘t something new to Beaupre and his wife Mar garet, Beaupre opened his first business. a paint and wallpaper store, in 1946 at King and Princess Streets Five years later, in 1951, he moved to 112 King St followed by a move right next door to 110 King St in May 1957, which is the current location of The Carâ€" penter Shop. However, six weeks later the store burned down and Beaupre was on the move again Through the fire, though, Beaupre found th adversity brings out the best in people Three weeks ago, Beaupre moved his business to 22 King St., about four doors down from his old shop located at 44 King St. Although the old Beaupre Stamp sign remains, the papered windows and a small sign on the door telling of the move are all that remain *Rate as of Sept 22093. Rates Do it all in . .. Triple Your Money By 2007 Government Guaranteed Ideal For RRSPs & RRIFs WALWYN (s19) s76â€"3391 subject to change & (Continued on page 13) availability at