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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-06-09, Page 4Cowering in the doorway Letters MPP has his say THE EDITOR, I am writing in response to Mr. Roulston's editorial of May 26, 1993, headed "Choosing Sides". In his capacity as a journalist and businessman he has certain options that I, as a farmer and politician, unfortunately do not share- foremost among these is the option to ignore the facts if they do not suit his conclusions. Apparently, while paying no attention to anything I have said or written with regards to Centralia College, he has chosen to question my loyalty. My loyalty to the citizens of Huron County and its heritage has not wavered. There are no longer any painless choices for any of us. In this province, in these times, we no longer have the luxury of being able to spend our way out of difficult political decisions. Some of the best times of my life were spent at Centralia College and if Mr. Roulston chooses to believe that I did not resist the closing of the College because of my proclivity to toe the party's line then he neither understands me or the issues. The simple facts are: the agriculture college system in Ontario is underutilized by almost 50 per cent of capacity. He and I know perfectly well that every student at Centralia or New Liskeard will be able to pursue their studies at another College in the province. I have already publicly said that we believe we can retain the research capacity at the college, and likewise I have said that we are willing to look at all feasible ways to continue to provide some or all of the Vet Lab services. Mr. Roulston's failure to include any of this information in his comments is not what I would have expected from a professional, objective observer. Decades of unchecked government spending in this province delivered us to this point in the 90s, and while I profoundly regret that part of the solution has to cut so close to the bone for me, I believe we all have to rise to the occasion if there is to be a secure future for our children. Mr. Roulston is simply wrong., My choice was not between my county and my college, or my party. My choice was between more of the same irresponsible spending, or sacrifices now to secure to the future stability of this province. Paul Klopp, MPP Huron. THE EDITOR, In several editorials Keith Roulston has stated that many jobs were lost because of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). In doing so he simply repeats the rhetoric of the Photo by Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot NDP and the labour unions. No doubt some manufacturers have moved to the USA to consolidate their production. The opposite has also taken place but never have I seen any comments on that positive aspect of the FTA. For instance, Chrysler built a complete factory in Ontario since the implementation of the FTA. The statement from FTA supporters, that the large increase in the monetary value of exports to the USA shows that the FTA works, is a valid one. What these supporters omit is that the export value of US exports to Canada has increased in proportion. In neither case has that led to an increase in employment. The high unemployment rate, not just in Canada but all over the world, is, I believe, caused more by industry restructuring (i.e. replace- ment of ever more expensive labour with robot driven machines) necessitated by global competition and the recession. One has only to look at TV commercials of the auto industry to see the extent of robotization. Or, for that matter, visit the office of The Citizen. Until recently I could only, like Mr. Roulston, judge from reports in the daily press, but now, finally, a scholarly group of economists in Washington, the congressional research service of the Library of Congress, has given the FTA an independent report. It found that the FTA has not done much for either of the two countries. It has Continued on page 5 PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1993. C The North Huron itizen eN A P.O. Box 429, P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont BRUSSELS, Ont NOM tHO NOG IHO Phone 523-4792 Phone 887.9114 FAX 523.9140 FAX 887.9021 Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Sales Representatives, Jeannette McNeil and Julie Mitchell vmminso =mut-Aram The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable In advance at a rats of $20.50/year ($19.16 plus $1.34 G.S.T.) for local; $31.03/year ($29.00 plus $2.03 G.S.T.) for local letter carrier In Goderich, Hanover, Listowel, etc. and out-of-area (40 miles from Brussels); $60.00/year for U.S.A. and 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, 2 p.m.. Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscrIpts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are (111 Copyright. Publications Mall Registration No. 6968 Who's abandoning whom? While leaders of Ontario's union movement is claiming the NDP government has abandoned them, Premier Bob Rae must feel lonely himself. When union leaders walked away from "social contract" talks late last week they proved they too can play politics. In fact the leaders may have been scared stiff the government would make them an offer they couldn't refuse. They may have backed out of the talks before they got manoeuvred into a position where they actually had to accept something. Union leaders had a lot more to lose by winning a settlement than they had to win. An agreement would have meant the leaders accepted the need to reduce the government payroll in an attempt to bring the provincial deficit under control. Union leaders don't get elected to accept reality, however. They get elected to deliver pie from the sky. They are supposed to always get more for union members, not negotiate people getting less. By walking away from the talks the union leaders can stay good guys with their membership. They can spout speeches about betrayal of the workers by "their" party and threaten dire consequences come next election, putting all blame on the employer, just as if they were fighting the battles of old to get decent treatment for impoverished, abused workers. When the inevitable layoffs come, it will fit right in with the mythology of the union movement about the downtrodden masses. But there has also been a mythology among union members, and socialist politicians, that there should be a better way. If only the employer was more reasonable there needn't be so much confrontation, they said. Yet faced with a problem Premier Rae had tried to play that game. There must be $2 billion cut from the provincial payroll, he said, but union leaders could help decide how that amount would be allocated. The unions could have moved to share the pain, with everyone taking pay cuts so that few would lose their jobs. That, however, would have left the leaders vulnerable to criticism from within their unions. Instead they've made Premier Rae the bad guy. It remains to be seen if Premier Rae will now make the hard choice and legislate pay cuts or simply pass on the problem to municipalities, school boards and hospital boards. Such a cop-out would be impossible to implement. While the province has the power to legislate workers back to work should they strike, lower levels of government have no way to control their unionized employees. Chaos would be the only possible result unless the government bites the bullet and gets on with the dirty deed.—KR Change the stupid law An incident at the Huron County Archives, discussed at last week's Huron County Council meeting shows that it's time to throw out the silly Freedom of Information and Right to Privacy Act. Archives are set up to preserve valuable documents that can help people in the future research the history of an area, or a family. For that reason, old school records have been stored in the climate-controlled vaults of the archives, safe from deterioration and protected from fire. But can anybody read them? That remains to be seen. Under the Freedom of Information part of the Act, people are supposed to be able to get access to government documents. Under the Right to privacy portion, however, information about individuals is supposed to be kept private. So while one part of the Act says we should have the right to see things, the other forbids it. A researcher wanting to use the archives to help in the writing of a township history has been denied access until the Freedom of Information panel rules on whether the records can be open. The Huron County School Board says they can but county officials are worried that it's their neck that's on the line if somebody complains that someone has been allowed to see their old school records. Certainly we all want the right not to have people pawing around in our private lives but this law has taken things to the ridiculous extreme. It has created a bureaucratic nightmare in which ordinary people have to apply to a panel to decide if they have the right to see records. It has put huge pressure on civil servants as to what information can be released and what can't. It uses up time and energy that might be better used elsewhere. More dangerously, the law is often used as an excuse to hide public information that politicians or civil servants want to keep from prying eyes. It is often impossible, for instance, for you to find out how much public servants make, even if they are overpaid (or underpaid). It's past time to end this silliness. Repeal the law. — KR