Page 6. Whitby Free Press, Wednesday, August 4. 1993 The only Newspaper owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents! MEMBER OF: ONTARIO CANADIAN COMMUNITY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER *CNA NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION 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 L1N 5S1 Phone: 668-6111 Toronto Line: 427-1834 Fax: 668-0594 _ Doug·Anderson - Publisher Maurice Pifher - Editor Alexandra Martin - Production Manager Printed on newsprint with minimum 20% fIk recycled content using vegetable based inks. © All written material, illustrations and advertising contained herein is protected by copyright. Any reproduction by any means for commercial purposes without the express permission of the newspaper is prohibited and is a violation of Canadian copyright law. Reproduction for non-commercial distribution should bear a credit line to the Whitby Free Press. Free tradle is working By Ross Stevenson Durham riding MP Recently, we had further clear evidence of how effectively the Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement is working on our behaif. A free-trade disputes panel -- a majority of its five members were from the U.S. -- ruled strongly against a special U.S. duty imposed on softwood lumber from Canada. The duty totalled about $250 million, which will have to be refunded to Canadian suppliers. While exports of softwood lumber may not excite many Durham residents, in fact they're important to all Canadians. Last year we sold about $4 billion worth to U.S. buyers, principally for construction purposes. In an average year, forest products generally account for close to one-quarter of our total exports, so significant numbers of Canadians depend one way or another on these industries for employment. U.S. lumber companies had claimed our wood suppliers are charged unduly low royalties for cutting timber on Crown lands; therefore, they are being subsidized by Canadian governments and competing unfairly. The disputes panel disagreed, so what is essentially a protectionist duty will be removed. Ironically, though U.S. officials seem to have ignored this, the protective duty also adversely affected homebuilders and buyers in their country, because domesticý wood suppliers jacked up their own prices proportionately. Without the free-trade agreement's disputes panel, this is an argument Canada almost certainly would have lost. Our steel manufacturers won a somewhat similar battle, when the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Canadian expprts of hot and cold rolled steel, worth $455 million a year, were not being "dumped," sold at an unfairly low price. Again, this means removing a protective U.S. duty. The fact that the steel decision was made by a U.S. agency provides clear evidence that free trade is a reality, and having a strong impact on decision-makers in Washington. Traditionally, the view there has been that the U.S. is the world's only honest trader, thus' its industries need to be protected against unfair foreign competition. As one observer has commented, free trade gave us a weapon ta fight that protectionist attitude, and it's working in our favour. This raises a valid question for those who still advocate either tearing up or attempting ta renegotiate the free-trade agreement with the U.S. How would that help our forestry and steel warkers, as well as the many other Canadians who depend an those industries for employment? For without free trade, we wouldn't have had the process or the means for securing those binding decisions. We've encountered a lot of criticism of f ree trade since it began in 1989. It's been blamed unjustly for a great many industry and job losses that actually were caused by the world-wide recession and the accelerating trend towards a global economy. However, aur sales ta the U.S. -- which is still the world's largest market -- have grown impressively. In the first f ive months af this year, they went up 16.5 per cent ta a total of $72.5 billion, giving us a surplus ai $9.1 billion in cross-border trade with the U.S. That's hardly a situation in which anyane could rationally suggest changing an agreement that is working so advantageously for Canada. The Whitby Free Press welcomes letters to the editor on any subject of concem to our readers. Letters should be brief and to the point - rarely more than 300 words. All letters must be acompanied by the name, address and teephone number of the writer. However, on request. your name may be withheld fram publication if we agree there is a valid reason. The newspaper resers hie right to reject or edit all letters. Send to: The Editor, Whitby Free Press. Box 206. Whitby. Ont. LN 5S1, or drop through our mail slot at 131 BrockSt. N. To the Editor: Copy of letter of Durham Centre MPP Drummond White. Dear Mr. White: I am writing to inquire abput the Ministry of Transportation's plans for crosswalks in Ontario. Specifically, I am concerned about the one on Anderson Street at Bradley Drive in Whitby. Yesterday I witnessed two little To the Editor: Re: MPPs hope unions will change thinking on contract (The Free Press, July 14). The feud between the NDP and public unions is nothing more than a fight in the family, now that the golden goose of capitalism has stopped laying its eggs. One can only marvel at the public service sector captains expecting to go unscathed, when everyone else is suffering under the NDP's ideological bends, not to speak total mismanagement. They lack the courage to attack the politically correct but economically indefensible actions by this government. Instead, they threaten "discomfort and inconvenience" through reduced services, regardiess of massive payroll costs. In all of this, they show callous disdain and contempt for Ontario's taxpayers. If i were a member, I would take To the Editor: Newspaper readers all over Durham Region have been hearing about regional chair Gary Herrema and his criticisms of environmentalists for supposedly blocking new development in the region. As tempting as it might be to debate some of his views, I'm writing instead with a suggestion that could help politicians, environmentalists and other members of our communities work together in a constructive fashion. Why not set up a local Round Table on Environment and Economy and get down to work trying to attract some of the new kinds of 'green business' springing up everywhere these days? For people not familiar with the round table concept, the idea is to get government representatives to sit down at the same table with business . ople, local citizens, boys, perhaps aged 7 or 8, narrowly escape being killed. They pushed the button the moment they arrived at the intersection, glanced both ways, then proceeded across Anderson. A car travelling at what appeared to be approximately the speed limit jammed on its brakes and managed to stop, with barely a metre to spare. It was a terrifying scene to watch. After waiting a minute.for a close look at union leaders and executives à la Sid Ryan. An anachronistic lot, they confront at any price. Public union members - would do well to consider the long-term damage to their cause and the economy as a whole, that looks to be the inevitable outcome. Private sector unions are now reaping heavy unemployment and atrophy through business bankruptcies and relocations, due to overly selfish negotiations in the past. With taxes exceeding 50 per cent of most incomes and average public sector incomes (overhead) exceeding those of the private sector (production), the burden has shifted much too far. No business survives such an imbalance for any length of time, so how could or why should the public sector? W. Graffmann Ajax people from the environmental community and so on, to find ways of doing business and creating jobs that will not wind up causing more probems than they solve. Rather than reaching decisions behind closed doors, the whole idea is to encourage openness and community involvement. I think the round table concept has real potential, and that this would be a perfect time to try it out here. We could encourage a whole series of round tables to spring up -- a regional one, as well as one in each of our eight municipalities. I have mailed a copy of a guideline on how to set up a local round table to our regional council. Others who are interested can cali Ontario's Round Table office at (416) 327-2032 and request a copy. Janet Banting Greenbank an opportunity to drive across the intersection myself, I stopped the car and called to fhe boys to say that they must be more careful, that they must wait for traffic to stop before they start to cross. My own children are teenagers, and I have certainly done my best to teach them the necessary precautions when using ' the crosswalk. My 13-year-old tells me that she frequently waits while six or seven vehicles drive through the flashing lights before someone stops, and even then they often hurry to drive off the moment her body has cleared the vehicle. There has already been a fatality at a crosswalk in Oshawa. How many more do we need SEE PAGE 20 They want out To the Editor: In April of this year, we predicted that the only winners in the NDP budget were the moving companies. Now, a new Environics poll commissioned by Ontarians for Responsible Government (ORG) shows that a shocking 49 per cent of Ontarians would seriously consider leaving the province if they could afford it. When ORG asked the same question just before the budget, 41 per cent said they wanted out. It's no coincidence that the number of Ontarians who want to leave increased by 20 per cent after the tax-grabbing budget of NDP Premier Rae. People have had enough of high taxes. Even more troubling, the poll revealed that 61 per cent of Ontarians aged 18 to 24 want to flee the province. These young people are the future of Ontario, but they seem to have lost faith in it. The ever-increasing tax burden is likely one reason why so many Ontarians want to leave -- and why so many want the ability to say no to higher taxes. Another Environics/ORG poll question revealed that 70 per cent of Ontarians want any tax increase submitted to a province-wide referendum for approval. Rae's response in the past to such a referendum has been "we don't need on." Ontario taxpayers are telling him that we do -- and it's high time that Premier Rae started listening to us. Colin Brown President Ontarians for Reaponalble Government To the editor... Make crosswalks noticeable. Contempt for taxpayers Set up a Round Table