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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-12-14, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1988. Editorials NTA favours railways Business leaders were pleased to see the government of Brian Mulroney returned to office for more than just the Free Trade issue. There is the feeling that the Progressive Conservatives have turned the country around to being more business oriented. Local experience in the closing of the CP Rail line would appear to prove the point. When the new NationalTransportation Act was passed in 1987 few people in rural areas realized just how much it had changed the whole ball game for things such as railway service. The process used in the closing of the CP Rail line from Guelph to Goderich shows that the emphasis under the NTA has been turned from public service to serving the railways. The onus, under the NTA is not on the railways to prove that a rail line can’t be profitable, the onus is on the users of the line to prove they'll make the line profitable. The onus is not on the railway line to prove that closing the line won't hurt the communities served by the line,communities thatoften subsidized the building of the railway in thefirstplace. Infact publicgood isn’t included in the new formula at all. The public, in the cast of the CP Rail closing, wasn’t even informed the railway was in danger of being closed. Despite the fact nearly everyone along the railways agrees that CP (andCN inthecaseoftheListowel toWingham line) hasn’t made any real effort to make the lines profitable, the officials at the National Transportation Agency aren’t allowed toeven take that lack of effort into the equation. At the Agency hearings in Wingham over the CN application to close the Listowel to Wingham line, CN spent most of its time maligning the customers who have used the line, trying to prove they hadn’t been good customers all the time and that any claims they had that they would increase their use of the line weren’t true. Instead of a company being glad to get more business, CN lawyers demonstrated the last thing in the world they wanted was to be put in a position where they could make a profit. The railways w ant out of the railway business. There’s more profit to be made in real estate in downtown Toronto and other large urban areas. No doubt the railway executives are quite pleased with the terms of the National Transport Act brought in by Mr. Mulroney’s government but what about all the small towns businesses across the country that will suffer because of this bowing to the wishes of big business: Free trade for all? While there was plenty of squabbling about the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement during the election campaign, no one questioned the concept of free trade itself, only the details of this deal. Will free trade become such a motherhood issue, however, when Third World countries come knocking at our doors. If we really believe all the rhetoric about free trade, what was said about the benefits of free trade with the U.S. should apply even more with third world countries. Consumers would benefit greatly if they had free access to items such as clothing from countries where workers get paid only pennies a day. If, as free trade proponents said, competing in the U.S. would make our companies more competitive, just think how lean and mean Canadian business should be if it had to freely compete with the sweatshops of the Third World. On the other side of the coin, if we really believe in the free enterprise system rather than socialistic handouts through foreign aid, what would be a better way of helping the Third World out of its crisis than throwing our borders open to unrestricted imports from Third World countries. If all North American clothing items, for instance, were made by people in third world countries, the balance of payments of many of those countries could be improved greatly overnight. But when it comes to free trade, we don’t practise what we preach when it comes to the Third World. Last week’s talks in Montreal of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for instance, spent plenty oftime talking about the problems of Europe and North America, but little attention was paid to freeing up trade from Third World countries into the rich countries. While the rich countries worried about more free trade in services and protecting their patents in poorer countries, nobody seemed to spend much time thinking about the fact imports of Third World textiles and clothing a re regulated under a voluntary quota system called the Multifibre Arrangement in most industrialized countries. Nor was there much at tention paid to the fact that those items that a re imported a re subject to heavy tariffs. In Canada for instance, w e have agreements with 18 different countries to limit clothing and textile imports and we have tariffs of 17 per cent on outerwear and 25 per cent on shirts. If our government really put into practice the theory it has preached over free trade, the cost in Canada would be devastating in some industries, but the benefits to Third World development would be to help the economics of the poor countries to get turned around. .jc gK - Mabel’s Grill There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel 's Grill where the greatest minds in the town [if not in the country] gather for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Filibustering So­ ciety. MONDAY: Hank Stokes was saying this morning that he was feeling kind of guilty on Saturday because he took the wife shopping in a shopping mall in the city. “Kind of felt bad I didn’t keep my money at home,’’ he said, even though with what we farmers have to spend, it wouldn’t make a drop in the bucket in the local economy.’’ Ah, said Ward Black, the way farmers like Hank are always crying the blues it’s a wonder they couldn’t have had enough tears to irrigate their crops this year and get a bumper crop. Well, Hank said, he didn’t feel so bad when he got down to the big mall and the first person he ran into was the wife of one of the local merchants. “I can’t wait to see if she reports me for not shopping at home,’’ Hank said. WEDNESDAY: Billie Bean was telling Ward Black that town council really missed the boaton this one. He was pointing to the article in the newspaper that Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos had bought a condominium in Montreal. “We could have turned this town com­ pletely around if we could have got them to move here,’’ Billie was saying. “Yes,’’ said Julia Flint, “it would have been like getting a major industry to get them here. First of all they’d havesomany servants the town’s population would soar. Then we could suddenly have our own tourist industry from all the people coming to see where they lived.’’ And, Billie said, we could have the best shopping area in 100 miles with Imelda to keep it going. Billie said he’d take dibs on operating the shoe store. THURSDAY: That report that insur­ ance rates might go up 35 or 40 per cent certainly had people talking around the table this morning. Julia was upset because she figured her insurance was going to go up but Tim O’Grady said the women were to blamefor all this. Julia asked how he could possibly come to that conclu­ sion. Tim said it was true, that women had been making so much fuss about not discriminating on the basis of sex that men were bound to get mad and when young men found out they were paying more in insurance than young women they thought it was unfair and the government agreed and so now everybody else has to pay more because the young men, who had more accidents than anybody else, had to pay less. “Makes discrimination look pret­ ty darned good doesn’t it,’’ Hank Stokes said. Draw winners named Mary McGlynn of Wingham was the winner of a baby’s afghan when the draws were made at the St. Ambrose Church bazaar and bake sale in Brussels December 3. Marg Vanderburgh of Listowel won a $50 bag of groceries while Hope Prior of Brussels won a tote bag. Other prize winners were: Rita Deitner, Helen Albers, Sandra Bridge, Mrs. Harold Thomas, Rita Deitner, Mrs. McGlynn, Alice Bro­ thers, Mary Davidson, Pam Nolan, Kathy Oil, Isobelle Craig, Karen Bowles, Mary McGlynn, Melissa Blake, Isobel Alcock, Cathy Bridge, Lara Parker, Irene Blake, Mrs. Hetherington, Clara Haig, Freda Pipe, Verna Tunney, Karen Parker, Lara Parker, Alice McArter, Vera Hastings, Noreen Eder, Melissa Blake, Angela Nicholson, Irene Blake. Alice Brothers, Bessie Mil­ ler, Helen Albers, Rita Deitner, Alice McArter, Veronica Golerink and Lisa Parker. The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels. Ontario, by North Huron Publishing Company Inc Subscriptions are pavable in advance at a rate of $17 C>0 vr ($38 CX) Foreign) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited Advertising Deadlines Monday 2pm - Brussels. Monday 4pm - Blvth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscriptsor photographs Contentsof The Citizen are ! Copyright Serving Brussels. Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave. Ethel.a Londesborough. Walton and surrounding townships Editor & Publisher. Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, DaveWilliams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968