The Lucknow Sentinel, 1980-04-30, Page 6r y
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A SIGNAL .
PUBLICATiON
• 91y.m* boycott unfair.
a$,0 4-4u*Ov." Septinel, Wednesd,Y, Aprll 300980
The.
Report from Queen's Par
arroorsHmo$:teivott:_:.
Selloy Town" I Established 1,873
On the Floren-Broce Boundary Published WedneadaY .
Business and Editorial Office Telephone 528,2522 • Mailing Address P.O. Box 400, Lucknow,q400 2H0
Second 61,44 mat rmistration.inimbr -0547
lir CNA mgmi*R. SHARON J. PIETZ — iditOr •
MURRAYBY GAUNT ,
Extra tax, relief for pen-
sioners, ' special incentives
tor small business and major
increases in grants to, muni-
Cipalities and for health care
-..L.,--,4,:---services-Avere-annottnced-by
Ontario Treasurer Frank Mil-
ler this' week in the annual*
ProVincial budget.
Btr( "homeowners and
farmers will have to wait
until next 'month to learn
what "short-term assist-
ance" the government plans
to 1.10p' them meet soaring
interest rates, = -
Pensioners will get up to
500 'each year 'in direct
rehates on their Property
taxes, or up to 20 per, cent of
their annual rent in a new
system of property tax cred-
its. ,Now the credits will be
paid. directly Queen's
Park instead of through the
federal governMent.
The existing Systent 'of
sales tax .credits for pen-
skaters was 'scrapped in
favour 'of direct grants of $50
to.pensioners to Compensate
for the sales tax they pay on
all eommodites ,in the Prove
ince-That_grant will Jae paid
Tor the next two years,
Canadian cbritrolled mat
businesses will be eligible for
a new investment tax Credit
equal to 20 per cent of the
purchase .Cost of depreciable
assets for, Ilse in Ontario.
In a ritheto,Mtnote new
automobile teehnology and
rgdue, oii.eonsumPtion, the
fuel tax on all non-petroleum
based fuels used in vehicles,
haS been eliminated.
The budget also wipes out ,
the sales tax on licensed
vehicles using such'fuels,
including propaneltid meth-
ane, and en vehicles driven
by electricity.
It means, for example, that
ethanol or methanol , used'
alone or blended with gaso-
line in a velticle,will be totally'
exempt from provincial tax.
In other steps aimed at
energy conservation, the
budget exempts from sales
Taw to page 7.
automatically to everyone in
the province who. receives
Old Age Security pension.
About 260,000 low-incoMe
pensionerS .will get increases
in Quaranteecl Annual In-
come Systern, payrnents.
(GAINS) of $10 a month. for
single 'people, and $20 a
month for, couples.
• Small businesses with, a
taxable capital. of between
$100,000 and $i' million will
have to pa)/ a, flat capital tax
of. $100. Last year the' upper
limit was $200,000. Corpora-
tions with capital up to
$100;000, family farms and
family fishing .corporations
will all pay $50,
ANTHONY N. JOHNSTONE:, Advertising and
(omega
General Manager
PAT LIVINGSTON - Office Manager
MERLE ELLIOTT - Typesetter
MARY McMURRAY - Ad Composition
complete embargo on all Cana* imports
to 'the Soviet Union.' •
It is not fair that the Canadian athletes
should 'be the only ones to make a
sacrifice. If Canada will keep her athletes ,
hothe from the Moscow games, she
should sever all ties with . the. Soviets
including 'a trade embargo and ecotioniic
..The.Canadian government haS decided'
to support the Olympic boycott initiated
by President Jimmy Carter of-the United
States and the decision received -over-
whelming support by the Canadian
OlyMpic Association on the weekend.
More than 40 countries have, decided to
boycott the' Moscow summer games in
protest over the Soviet Union's invasion
of Afghanistan.
While an Olympic boycott is a sure way
of indicating to the people of Russia-that
the. world is dissatisfied with the Soviet
government, it is not fair to expect the
athletes of the world to be the only .ones
to make a sacrifice.
The Canadian athletes have been asked
to give up a,lifetime goal,. something'they
have worked towards for perhaps most of
their lives. Many have spent theJast year
in, gruelling training working' for the'
chance to compete at the world games.
Yet, the Canadian professional hockey
teams, will play hockey against the
Russians this, fall in the Canada Cup;...
series and there have been only token
trade embargoes on Canadian imports 'to
the Soviet Union.
' Just this past week, federal agriculture
minister Eugene -Whelan,-who has long
been a primary advocate of increased
marketing of agriculture imports to Other
countries, said he would like to see a
, The 1980 boycott of the summer
Olynipics in Moscow will change the
Makeup of the games- if it does not
destroy the Olympic spirit entirely. It will'
certainly crush the spirit of all those
athletes who trained to' compete this
summer in Moscow and may affect the
spirit of those athletes who' night have
trained to compete in the future,
The Olyinpics should not be associated
with politics, but from the beginning the
political influence has played a role. Since
Israeli athletes were murdered while
competing at the 1972 Olympics in
Munich, the political overtones at the
games have become even more. evident.
"And this year politiCal influences threaten_ ,
the very existence of the Olympic
movement.
Whatever the outcome in Afghanistan,'
the athletes of the world have been asked
to pay the price for.world peace this time
and they are doing it alone. ,
The art of inefficiency
Spokesmen for the Public Service
Alliance of Canada are hopping mad.
They believe that members of their
union, the federal civil service employ-
ees, have been insulted by the auditor-
general's report to Parliament. J. J.
Macdonnell, whose department studies
and comments on the way our govern-
ment handles the money paid 'by the
taxpayers, says that the efficiency
quotient for the public service is, only 60.8
per cent, compared with 87,7 per cent in
the private business sector.
According to the auditor-general's
figures (and they must be right or he'd
lose his job) the civil service is overstaf-
fed by about 27 per cent. Thus, out of a
total of some 350,000 people on the public
payroll, 94,500 could be laid off if the rest
of them produced on the same scale as
workers in the normal business world.
Supposing the average salary in the civil
service is $12,000 a year (and it's
prObably a lot more than that) the annual
bill for unnecessary help comes to
something over a billion dollars, got to
mention office space, business machines,
heat, light and water for their working
areas, plus lord knows how much in
fringe benefits like unemployment insur-
ance, pension payments and on and on.
If any, business out there in the hard ,
world of free competition operated on
such a lavish scale it, would have been
bankrupt years ago. Only government
sL can survive such total inefficiency.
HoWever the atitlitor-general's report
made it clear that the culprits are not the
workers. It is not their fault that it take%
four people to accomplish what would be
normal for three. The fault lies with
management: Inefficient procedures
right from the top down create this
nightmare. And there are obvious
reasons why the cure is difficult. In brief
it's called "empire building". Each
cabinet minister, each deputy minsiter,
'each department head, each office
manager and branch director continually
seeks to add to his staff, in the belief that
his or her own importance wilt be
measured .by the size of the work force
under his ,;or her command.
Another contributing factor is created
by the unions themselves. Promotion by
seniority rather than on merit alone
means that even the dullards eventually
move up to poSitions of leadership if they
stick around long enough. The post office
provides the prime- example of just such
mismanagement.
However, don't hold your breath until
the government starts to act on the
recommendations of the MacclOnnel re-
port. The auditor-general must have the
most frustrating job in the world. Year
after year his depattment points out in
detail the myriad ways in which public
money is wasted and year after year most
of the recommendations are ignored.
When we finally get around to electing a
government which promises to reduce the
civil servant force 'by 60,000 we give them
a scant six months it office, •
That statement does not mean this
newspaper is blatantly Conservative. It
simply means that we believe in common
sense.
—Wingham Advance-Times
Trout season 's o
4-- by Cook Wooden
. •
•