Page 6, Whitby Free Press, Wednesday, April 21, 1993 The only Newspaper owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents! MEMBER OF: ONTARIO t COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION CANADIAN CIRCULATIONS CNA DIVISION AUDIT BOARD 25,500 COPIES DELIVERED WEEKLY Published every Wednesday by 677209 Ontario Inc. Box 206, 131 Brock St. N., Whitby, Ontario L1 N 5S1 Phone: 668-6111 Toronto Line: 427-1834 Fax: 668-0594 Doug Anderson - Pubisher Maurine Pifher - Editor Alexandra Martin - Production Manager Printed on newsprint with minimum 20% recycled content using vegetable based inks. More seniors' housing To the editor: Copy of a letter to Gord Mills, Durham East MPP , We were pleased with the recent commitment for funding for sewers for Brooklin. I am asking my son to write this letter to see if a program could be started to accommodate seniors within Brooklin. I know it is a challenge with spending these days, but frequently I run into senior citizens who would love to stay in the Brooklin area, but with no place to accommodate them. One initiative my son has offered would be to start planning now, along with the Town of Whitby, Region of Durham and community leaders, with the thought to advocate units oriented to seniors, so that they could be completed soon after the sewers are in the g round. Mrs. B. Emm Oshawa P.S.: The local church congregations do have 'Wheels to Meals' which is a real benefit to us seniors and gives us a boost once a month. A costly plan To the editor: The Ontario Legislature has begun a new session at Queen's Park but it has an old issue before it that is threatening to cost Ontario driversmore money. Bill 164 is the act that changes automobile insurance for the sixth lime in seven years. No system is perfect and there is always room for improvement, but the approach taken on this change goes too far too fast and won't serve the motoring public any better. The Insurance Bureau of Canada hears from hundreds of drivers each week looking for a better deal on auto insurance; the recession has hit Whitby drivers as hard as anyone. These are people who aren't looking for a fancy system, they just want reliability, good service and stable pricing. We have that under the Ontario Motorist Protection Plan (OMPP). OMPP is the semi-no-fault insurance system we've worked with in Ontario since 1990. It took the emphasis off of blame and put our resources into starting the healing process sooner and getting money into the hands of accident victims faster. The result was a more predictable system for insurers which led to stability in pricing for consumers. Iknow that calls to the l.B.C. Consumer Information Centre complaining that the costs of insurance have gone down dramatically and I know that price is a factor. Bill 164 would change that. The new legislation increases benefits to a point where they could only be supported by premiumhikes. It also increases the number of people who can sue, which will cost the system more money. However, it takes away the right to sue for economic loss (your future income). In short, Bill 164 creates a costly and complex insurance plan for Ontarians. The Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs met through the winter holding hearings across Ontario to find out what people think about the, government plan. The response was overwhelming Out of 72 people and groups who addressed the committee, 15 said they were either neutral or in faVour of the legislation, while 57 said they were opposed. That's 80 per cent. The way I do business, an 80 per cent rejection means I go back to the drawing board. We hope the Ontario government will do the same and withdraw Bill 164 until it comes up with a plan that more money. won't cost you Pierre Cadieux Whitby Back to school To the editor: Public sector union reps (civil service, teachers, etc.) say Bob Rae's social contract resulting in cutbacks in salaries and personnel wili mean lost tax revenues to his government. Heavens! Has no one ever tod these people that they %pay their taxes with tax dollars already existing from their fellow citizens in the private sector? Obviously, our educational system needs a review of its courses in basic economics. Louis S. Allore Whitby "Now let'sstart work on the next contract." !VewpoUint Let's talk taxes By The Canadian Taxpayers Federation In 1977, Jean Chretien was the Canadian Minister of Finance. That year, our federal government borrowed $10.8 billion, and it was one year prior, in 1976, that the Auditor General of Canada J.J. Macdonell stated, "I am deeply concerned that Parliament -- and indeed the (Trudeau) government -- has lost, or is close to losing, effective control of the public purse. One year after this statement by the federal Auditor, Jean Chretien had this to say about the $10.8 billion deficit: "We do not want to be the type of society Where everything comes from the state. Therefore there will not be any large new social programs nor greatly increased government spending." The following year, Mr. Chretien and his Liberal colleagues pushed the deficit from $10.8 billion to $13 billion. Four years later in 1981, again in a Liberal government presided over by Pierre Trudeau, Allan MacEachen was the Canadian Finance Minister. That year the federal deficit was $15.6 billion, and here's what MacEachen had to say about borrowing and spending: "i believe we must reduce our deficit and our borrowing requirements substantially -- even more than I proposed a year. ago ... I have set myself the task of cutting back the deficit in the next two fiscal years." Unfortunately for Canadians, instead of doinci what they said they'd do, the Liberals put the deficit through the roof in the next two fiscal years, laying the foundation for a financial situation that today is quickly becoming ver difficult to manage. he year after MacEachen promised he'd cut the deficit, the deficit almost doubled, from $15.6 billion to $29 billion, and for the following year, 1983, it jumped again to nearly $33 billion. Effectively, the federal government had lost control of both borrowing and spending. For the fiscal year 1983-84, the Liberals tabled a budget in the spring of 83 but Brian Mulroney took over that fall, half- way through Ottawa's fiscal year. Under the combined financial management of Trudeau and Mulroney, the deficit hit a record of $385 5 billion. The federal government was borrowing over $3 billion a month. What's tragic about this whole thing, is that just 14 years previous, in 1970, the total accumulated national debt of Canada, piled up over 103 years and two wars, was onîy $17 billion. Yet, in the spring of '84, the Trudeau administration set in motion abudgetathat caled for borrowing more than twice that amount in one year. In the first full year that Mulroney was in office, he cut the deficit by slightlvemore than 10 per cent. In 1986 he reduced it to $30.7 billion, and in 1987 it dropped to $28.2 billion. 1988 and 1989 saw the deficit at $29 billion each year, and since 1990 it has fluctuated between $30 billion and $35 billion. This year, our interest payment on ail this borrowing will be in the area of $40 billion. We're also going to borrow about $34 billion more 'cause we can't afford the interest on all this cash we've already borrowed. Canadians are on a merry-go- round with armonster. And, if Ottawa does not move quickly to put an end to the fiscal disaster that we as a nation are headed for, this growing debt is not just going to eat up our nations social programs, it's going to eat a few people, too. Job Bank service By Ross Stevenson Durham riding MP Last week I had on opportunity to witness one of those modern technological marvels that must be immenseîy helpful in our community and for most other Canadians. The Canada Employment Centre in Oshawa officialy launched its new computerized Job Bank service. This provides job seekers with much faster and more accurate information about employment opportunities, locally as weil as in the surrounding area and across Canada. And it's a quantum leap ahead of the old system, under which those seeking work would go to the Employment Centre, scrutinize bulletin boards on which individual cards were posted listing available jobs, and then go ask for further information. Anyone who used that system will know that the bulletin boards could get out of date very quickly, especially when jobs were scarce. Job Bank is a user-friendly computer, using technology virtually anyone can understand. Inside kiosks, there's a sl-diget keypad with which people can scan over job openings and select those in which they're interested. Listings are updated at frequent intervals throughout the day. A printer then provides a slip of paper with information and instructions about how and where to apply. Many employers prefer to have interested job seekers contact them directly. Or, alternatively, a referral can be provided through the Employment Centre. So Job Bank provides speedier service, while also reducing the lineups. That allows Employment Centre staff to spend more time on those who require other forms of assistance or information. The program wasn't designed to reduce staff. Its aim is to help people, faster and more efficiently. Oshawa's is the first of a number of Job Banks that wilI be in operation by the end of next month at Canada Employment Centres in Pickering, Whitby, Port Hope and Cobourg. As wef there are three other local satellite operations -- in the Agricultural Employment Service offices at Port Perry and Bowmanville, and in the Harwood Mail at Ajax. For those who claim that public servants aren't capable of original thought, it should be noted that Job Bank was an original brainchild of staff at the Employment Centre in St. Catharines, Ont. When first tried out there, it proved so successful that it's now being instalied throughout the country. I'm told employers like the program, because it's quite flexible, and allows them to offer a detailed description of a job and their requirements, so applicants can match these with their own personal qualifications and experience. t also saves a lot of time for job seekers. They can zero right in on the specific occupations they're seeking and for which they're qualified, and the geographic areas where they'd prefer to work. As the recession eases, these are factors that will make Job Bank increasingly valuable. Seeing this in operation, one has to be impressed that itfs a large step forward in modernizing an important government service, making it more helpful and accessible -- which translates into better value for our tax dollars. CCNA