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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1992-04-08, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8,1992. Entangled in disentanglement The size and complexity of Ontario is being shown again in the efforts to simplify the tax system, a process that has become known as disentanglement On the surface it makes good sense to clearly set lines about which level of government pays for which service. Currently jurisdiction and costs are both shared in many areas with resulting duplication of administration. For instance, municipalities look after roads, whether village streets, township concessions or county highways and bridges but the province provides a large portion of the money to do that. Municipalities are responsible for social assistance costs for things like welfare but the provincial government sets the rules under which programs will work. Municipalities provide only 20 per cent of the costs but have virtually no say for that 20 per cent. The problem is disentanglement can be a very tangled process. Cunent proposals, contained in a study on the situation, would make a swap of things like roads and welfare. The province would take over all welfare costs and municipalities would pick up the total costs for things like roads. This solution seems a good one to the cities of the province who, as far as Queens Park is concerned, represent municipal thinking. The study shows that larger cities, where social assistance is a major burden but roads are a smaller part of the tax bill, would gain hundreds of millions of dollars. For counties and smaller towns, villages and townships, the cost would be the other way. It's estimated these municipalities would be $99 million losers. The county of Huron, Morris Reeve Doug Fraser pointed out recently, spent $7 million on roads last year but only $2 million on welfare. Towns and villages would be hurt too with having to pay the full cost of building and maintaining streets but the biggest losers would be rural townships. Many townships have as many miles of roads to maintain as some cities, and while the level of maintenance may not be as high, neither is the number of taxpayers to support those roads. There is also little industry to help pay the bills in the countryside. In townships like Grey, Morris and East and West Wawanosh where large river systems go through, rebuilding a single bridge could be more than the ratepayers could afford without provincial help. Property tax alone is not enough to pay for such services. If the province wants to download these services, it will also- have to give municipalities more ways to collect the needed revenue. If the province, with its sales tax, its provincial income tax and its fees and licences, can't collect enough money to pay the costs, how can municipalities with only the property tax to rely on. The danger for rural Ontarians is that the province may listen to the pleased sounds from urban mayors and ignore the real problems current plans for disentanglement mean for rural taxpayers. We must get the message through that current proposals are not acceptable.—KR Sounds good Prime Minister Mulroney says he's taking off the gloves and coming out swinging against separatists in Quebec and if he means it, Canadians can only say "it's about time". For most of his time in office, the Prime Minister has tried to straddle both sides of the political spectrum in Quebec: playing to nationalists and federalists both. He lured many nationalists, including many who supported separation from Canada in the 1980 referendum, to run for the Conservatives in the 1984 and 1988 elections, promising them a new deal for Quebec within Canada. He was burned by several of these "friends" when they deserted him and the party following the Meech Lake fiasco, to form the separatist Bloc Quebecois. Ordinary Canadians have found it hard to figure if there was really anybody speaking for Canada in the current debate. Supposedly Premier Robert Bourassa represents the federalist side in Quebec but it's hard to figure out whether he really supports continued ties, or is more interested in figuring out how, if Quebec separates, he'll be able to take credit and be the Prime Minister of the new country. Jean Chretien spoke for a strong Canada but was vilified by the elite of Quebec after Meech Lake, blamed personally for the failure because he dared to suggest Quebec couldn't be given too much power without weakening Canada. In fact there is a frightening unanimity of opinion among the nationalistic elite of Quebec, an elite that portrayed Pierre Trudeau as an ogre for his attempts to integrate Quebec into Canada rather than isolate it into a closed little empire. Mulroney's view of Canada is different than Trudeau's but it's good someone's fighting back.-XT? Looking Back Through the Years ONE YEAR AGO April 10,1991 East Wawanosh council approved a grant in the amount of $5,Q00. towards the East Wawanosh 125th Anniversary in 1992, to be included on the 1991 budget. Auburn's oldest resident, Mary Rollinson, died at the Seaforth Manor. She was 102 years old. Three local farmers won All­ Canadian awards at the annual meeting of the Jersey Cattle Asso­ ciation of Canada in Ottawa. Proud owners were Paul and Lorraine Franken, RR 1 Auburn, Jack and Fred Armstrong, RR 2 Auburn, and Jim and Tammy Sparling of RR 1 Varna. THREE YEARS AGO April 5,1989 Two Wingham teenagers discov­ ered the body of a missing Morris man along the west embankment of the Maitland River Bridge on High­ way 4. Thirty-year-old Murray David McKinley James had last been seen December 3, in Wing­ ham. The Huron County Board of Edu­ cation approved the appointment of two principals to area elementary schools. Al Sygrove was hired as administrator of Blyth Public School, and Wayne Tessier as the new principal of Grey Central. Blyth Atoms captured the WO A A Group Championship. Blyth Novice "A" team won the "B" championship at the Blyth Lit­ tle Lions tournament. Alexandra Marine Hospital in Goderich received provincial fund­ ing of $68,500. to establish its Alzheimer's Support Program in Huron County. FIVE YEARS AGO April 8, 1987 Two Seaforth-area men and one young offender were charged with several counts of theft and posses­ sion of stolen property resulting Continued on page 6 CitizenTheNorthHuron P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 FAX 887-9021 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. 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