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they are being set up to take the fall for three years of program cuts and property tax increases that are completely beyond their control. And, if they‘re really clever, they will check their calendar and find that Mike Harris will have to face the electorate before they do. At that time, the electorate should take the opportunity to punish the government that is actually to blame for creating the municipal mess. The experience of school boards in this regard is instructive. After pulling a billion dollars out of the education system, Harris has the unmitigated gall to attack the boards for the way in which they have responded to the cuts (mostly through small tax increases and big cuts to the classroom). "We think the decisions they have made over the last two years with a very, very minimal funding reduction have been abysmal," said Harris in February e & BB ol cce deiich while feiping , their tax cut for the rich, while keeping their commitment to balance the budâ€" get by the end of their term. In true Orwellian fashion, Harris and Leach are attempting to sell the downloading of services as a scheme to CUT property taxes. Most recently, Leach issued a press release arguing that property taxes could be cut by "as much as ten per cent by the turm of the century.. (if) municipalities find efficiencies amounting to two cents on the dollar in each of the next five years". In other words, the promised cut actually has nothing to do with the transfer of services. Besides the fact that cuts of that magnitude will be necessary simâ€" ply to keep tax increases in the single digits, the Tories are ignoring the fact that most local governments have already cut expenses to the bone and beyond. Moreover, it is always easy for a politician to say that other levels of government can cut spending, because they don‘t have to carry out the cuts. seniors homes into the laps of municipalities. Harris Minister of Municipal Alfairs, the aptlyâ€"named Mr. Leach, says that the main part of the download is actually just a little trade â€" fair exchange for the education expenses that the province is picking up. Anyone who believes him is in for a shock around municipal budget time next year (and every year thereafter). Municipalities have calculated that property tax increases of twenâ€" ty to thirty per cent could be necessary to offset the new areas of local responâ€" m sibility (all of which are likely to expand in cost as the province‘s popuâ€" m lation and its infrastructure age). They‘ve challenged the accuracy of Does What to Whom process, the Harris government has been dumping everything from provincial highways to social housing to This is a warning to anyone planning to seek office in this November‘s municipal election: if you are elected, expect to face three very difficult years of unavoidable property tax hikes, cutbacks to inevitable forecast stems (no surprise here) from the deliberate and sustained efforts of our beloved provincial government. Since it was elected in 1995, and more recently as part of its Who Waterloo Town Square 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Anomner VIEw N2J 1P2 Leach‘s numbers and he‘s been forced to admit that they might have a point. The resulting review of figures may lead to some minor tinkering, but don‘t expect any major changes in the overâ€" all direction. The Tories just can‘t afford to back away from dumping Pete Cudhea Tim Gardner Deborah Crandall Lynn Mitchell Bill Karges You have to credit the Harris government under whose ausâ€" pices the plants were probed, but you have to wonder about previous governments which took no action when the Aâ€" plants were going bad. Presumably they were operating the whole shebang on the failâ€"safe policy: that it‘s safe until the second it blows. The Big Chill: Now that berries are on the mountain ash, you can just about kiss summer goodbye. But, look on the bright side. You‘ll soon be saying goodbye to that nerveâ€"gratâ€" Best of all, the lights still went on when you flicked the switch. They‘re still going on, but no thanks to nuclear power because the plants are being shut and there‘s going to be a houseâ€"cleaning of honchos. Then came the time to augment it with nuclear power. The plants were built at fearful cost (thanks to some prodigious waste), but they were touted as the safest in the world. American nuclear plants? They were just flimâ€" sy, oversized teapots. When you‘re talking Canadian reactors, you‘ve really got something, kid Now young folks may not believe it, but there was a time when Ontario Hydro, the pride of the Great torrents of foamâ€"flecked water cascadâ€" ing into spillways. You get the picture: huge amounts of power from a pure source â€" cheap, his apprenticeship, such as it was, in handling the innards of a And it has to be obvious that the guy who goofed in changâ€" ing the fuse at Chernobyl learned his trade here, too. That‘s sort of evident from wowee discloâ€" 9 sures about the mismanagement of Ontario‘s m atomic plants. â€" fls You didn‘t think the summer would go by without a rise in gasoline prices, did you? Well, it‘s here. Gas prices are now so Our lights still go on, but at what cost? Gone Fission: So now you know where Homer Simpson did Jerry Fischer Evan Mitchell .... A CASE OF TRUTH DECAY... * 64 ‘the Witedoo Chfoniclet pablisiad by Â¥he Filireay Group, â€"â€" _ _...._ . @division of Sontham Inc. ___ _ _ ____ 75 King St S., Suite 201, Waterloo ON, N2J 1P2 886â€"2830 Thmmdwvcdmnsumlhi"p-jh‘* the views of the newspaper. | _ /. . _ [ <al Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by Oxce over LIGHTIY Weston‘s bought Dietrich‘s 40 years .‘lluw before hakztsgmthtmwtqwig months. 1 can remember when bread was enriched. Now i embalmed. > The Dietrich‘s bakery was on King Street, near Scott Street, with the baking operation in the building behind it. And, yes, Dietrich‘s kept their delivery horses in Weber‘s stables up Scott Street. 4 ue 200 The Fairway Group, Subscription rates A division of Southam Inc. $45 yearly in Canada. Jean Baptiste Society, that Quebec prefers to forget, "certain parts of our history that are less pertinent." uk:(thhinso(Abrh.p:t 1 f Dough Boy: 1 wonder how may realize that a Weston‘s brand of bread â€" it‘s sold at Zehrs â€" is a tribute to a longâ€"ago Kâ€" W bakery. The brand name is Dietrich‘s and its label bears the boast that it goes back to 1900. a It‘s on all the stations all the time. It‘s darn near impossible to avoid. That rinkyâ€"dink tune will drive you to distraction. Or somewhere else. TV commercials are those few brief moments when you pay attention to your wile and kidneys. f All for One: Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard has all the charm of a dentists drill, but thankfully he‘s finally getting more pressure on national unity. For that, you have to credit his fellow premiers (except Mike Why is it shortened. today? It‘s â€"because according to Jean Dorion, president of the St souviens," but Quebecers remember only the first part. The motto, proposed by architect Eugene Tache and officially adopted in 1883, reads, "I remember that born under the (French fleur de) lys, 1 grow under the English Prime Minister Chretien hasn‘t been much more active. It makes talk of his retirement much easier to take, Anyhow, it makes it imperative that other federalists get active. Most of us know the Quebec slogan, "Jc me Wonderland view of the law. Ontario premiers have always played a key role on Canadian unity, but Harris hasn‘t. And Harris) and federal Unity Minister Stephane Dion, who ticked off Bouchard for his Alice in Aogd $90 yearly outside Canada. +GS1L s Prudhomer and Coun and there is clitoris; that the truth! All of the Hess and men‘s) ously I:‘¢y| (or a man fact that Our frust