HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-11-19, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1986.
Pride program
offers opportunities
The provincial government has put the Ontario Neighbour
hood Improvement Program (ONIP) to bed and replaced it with
a new “Pride” program (such things help keep the printing
industry in Toronto profitable).
ONIPhas been very beneficial to local communities, helping
with new waterlines and improvements to Memorial Hall, in
Blyth for instance and helping pay the cost of new sewers to the
Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre in Brussels as
well as making it possible to build the new BMG pool.
Still, the changes in the Pride program are probably
beneficial to communities. ONIP money often got siphoned off
a little bit here and a little bit there, doing a lot of good but not
forcing the municipality to take a real look at the community.
The ground rules for Pride, apparently, are going to insist
that the municipality take a look at a specific area of town and
devote all of the program to upgrading that part of the
municipality. It would, for instance, mean the grant could be
spent to put in new waterlines, new sidewalks, new street lights
and new landscaping in a portion of a municipality.
While this may be unfair to the part of the community that
doesn’t benefit from the improvements, it can stimulate local
governments to take a critical look at the community and
re-evaluate where things are headed.
For instance, perhaps it is time to take a look at the main
streets of Blyth and Brussels and take a look at how far ahead
some of the other communities in the county are in terms of
main street appearance.
Clinton and Exeter, for instance, were once non-descript
communities which several years ago got involved in main
street renewal. Now they are two of the more attractive,
progressive looking communities in the county. Seaforth
merchants are getting involved in the Main Street Canada
program looking to upgrade the appearance of the main street
there.
If there is one area of town where spending can benefit
everyone it is on the main street. When main street of a small
town looks good, it makes the whole town look good. New
businesses are more likely to locate there and existing
businesses are more likely to become more active in promoting
themselves. The Main Street program has shown that sprucing
up main street makes the whole town feel better about itself.
Brussels has one of the best Victorian streetscapes around.
Blyth has become an unlikely, but very successful tourist centre
with the mills and the theatre. Both communities have much to
gain by getting into main street renewal. Hopefully both
councils will look at the possibilities when it comes to shift gears
from theONIPtothe Pride program. Hopefully the members of
the public will be thinking about the best use of the program in
the weeks and months leading up to public meetings to discuss
Pride priorities.
Canada's economic
imperialists
It’s tempting to feel either a twinge of pride or a little delight
of revenge when a Canadian company goes across the border
and buys out an American giant.
It’s been happening a lol lately and it happened again this
month when Robert Campeau, the Canadian developer,
completed the takeover of a major U.S. conglomerate. In fact,
Canadians such as the Reichmann family, have been acquiring
more and more American business and real estate to the point
where some Americans are starting to worry about too much
foreign control of their economy. While there is a temptation to
chuckle that the shoe is on the other foot, it doesn’t really make
foreign-investment any more healthy just because it’s
Canadians who are doing the controlling.
Investment across borders, at least controlling investment,
is like any absentee ownership, destructive in the long term.
Out of sight, out of mind may not be a true image of an absentee
business owner but there is more truth in it than one would
wish. No matter how smart the boss, no matter how much
he/she tries, someone making decisions from afar cannot make
as good decisions. What may be a smart business move for one
factory and its workers, for instance may not be a good move for
the conglomerate. What may be a good decision for the
company in one country, may be against the interests of the
employees, consumers and management of a factory or
business in another.
Rather than be free enterprise, absentee ownership limits
free enterprise and competition. In doing so, we all lose,
whether it’s Americans owning Canadian business of vice
versa.
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Cluttered beauty Photo by Lisa Boonstoppel.
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The International Scene
Auto industry changing
BY RAYMOND CANON
Earlier this fall it was officially
announced that Ingersoll had been
chosen to be the site of a joint
venture by General Motors and
Suzuki to build an automatic plant
in that town which, when complet
ed, will turn out about 200,000 cars
and trucks a year. 1 have it on good
authority that the industrial com-
missioncrof Ingersoll is now taking
Japanese lessons so that he can
given directions to any honourable
visitors in their own language.
Actually, as you probably know,
Ingersoll is not the first place to be
chosen for a new plant; there have
been two others. However, it is the
first to boast of a joint venture. This
is significant in that it is a sign of
things to come in the world of car
manufacturersand, in view of that,
1 would like to give you a few things
to think about as you contemplate
buying your cars of the future.
The Japanese made their mark
selling cars in North America that
were popular for both their quality
and their price. However, they are
now being forced to do two things.
Thefirstisthat they are moving
into higher-priced cars and at the
same time setting up shop in
foreign countries such as they have
in Canada as well as the United
States. This has come about mainly
because of the higher value of their
currency, the yen. although there
has been admittedly some pres
sure from both the Canadian and
the American governments. For
this reason look for other countries
such as Korea to take up the lower
end of the market which has been
vacated by the Japanese.
I am one who has never regretted
the Japanese entry into North
America since there is no doubt in
mv mind that the results have been
far more beneficial than negative.
Continued on page 5
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