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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2017-05-10, Page 44 Huron Expositor • Wednesday. May 10, 2017 Huron Expositor Relations with China pose risks for Canada PUBLISHED WEEKLY — EST. 1860 P.O. Box 39, 53 Albert Street Clinton, Ontario NOM 1L0 phone: 519-482-3443 www.seaforthhuronexpositor POSTMEDIA CURTIS ARMSTRONG Group Director of Media Sales 519-376-2250 ext 514301 a gnnstrong@postrnetiaoom SHAUN GREGORY Multimedia Journalist sgregory@postmedia.com 519-482-3443 Ext. 527305 NANCY DEGANS Media Sales Consultant ndegans@postmedia.com 519-482-3443 Ext. 527306 TERESA SMITH Front Office TSmit@postrnediacom 519-482-3443 ext 527301 SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 YEAR $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 2 YEAR $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) SENIORS 60WEEKS $50.00 (47.62+2.38 tis 1) 120 WEEKS $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) Publications Mail Agreement No. 40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT P.O. 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For more information or to file a complaint go to www. mediacouncit.ca or call toll free 1-844-877-1163. Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspaper Association. We acknowledge the Govrn support the anadual Government of Canada. is hardly the first time rela- tions between Canada and the United States have been tense. "There was, for instance, that time when folks north of the border burned down the White House. There was Lyn- don Johnson reportedly warn- ing a visiting Lester Pearson: "You don't come here to piss on my rug." Richard Nixon was caught on tape calling Pierre Elliott Trudeau "a son of a b--." Still, over time, the relationship flourished, and two-way trade in 2016 was more than $840 billion. Yet the disruption currently posed by the Trump adminis- tration is worrying -- not simply because of the potential unrav- elling of trade patterns if the U.S. president means what he says, but because of the path Canada may follow to insulate its citizens from the worst whims of a volatile president. A quick review of recent events: Trump has attacked Canada's supply -managed dairy industry as "a disgrace" and announced tariffs of up to 24 per cent on Canadian soft- wood lumber. I le has threat- ened to tear up the North Amer- ican free trade deal, then said he will in fact give renegotiation a shot. All of these actions affect our economy directly. Layoff notices have gone out at some Canadian softwood firms. The Canadian dollar has been hit. And Trump's plan to cut the top U.S. corporate tax rate to 15 per cent will put even more pres- sure on us. How much of Trump's bom- bast is just a negotiating strat- egy isn't a question Canada can gamble on. So the Trudeau gov- ernment has accelerated the search for what former cabinet minister Mitchell Sharp, way back in 1972, dubbed "the third option." Elliot Tepper, emeritus professor of political science at Carleton University, refers to this option in today's context as the "China always wins" scenario. Briefly, the Canadian government, knowing it cannot put all its economic eggs in one basket, has for decades tried to woo other partners, from Europe to Asia. There was the Trans -Pacific Partnership (now defunct thanks to Trump); there is the current free -trade deal with Europe; there may one day be such an accord with the United Kingdom. But right now, our economic romance is with China. This relationship is risky. Chi- na's government doesn't share Rent control tactics wrong for Ontario The rent, a famous New York gubernatorial candi- date once declared, is too damn high. Queen's Park apparently thinks that's also true in Ontario. As part of 16 sweeping measures meant to address home prices, the Liberal government is insti- tuting price controls on all rent- als, even those built after 1991, ending a policy once meant to get developers to build more rental housing. But who wants to build new properties, only to have rents - and therefore revenues - capped? That's why, until now, newer buildings were exempt from rent controls. The proposal to end that, announced last Thursday by Premier Kathleen Wynne, would likely cap rent increases at roughly the rate of inflation. Mayor Jim Watson says the change makes sense, even though he hasn't heard of wild spikes in rents in Ottawa. But "rent control helps to level the playing field," he told the Citizen. Except it doesn't work like that. Rent control, says a report earlier this month from CIBC focused on the GTA, "will mostly hurt the people it's trying to pro- tect." There's a historical record to support this view. Ontario has had rent control since 1975. In 1988, a University of Toronto study said its effects were "to reduce new construction, to accelerate deterioration and conversion of the existing rental stock, to generate a severe rental housing shortage," among other impacts. The controls were eased in 1992. Watson says the rental con- struction that 1991 loophole was supposed to bring never hap- pened. Yet in 2015, 46 per cent of new apartment starts were for rental -specific properties in Ottawa, according to the Can- ada Mortgage Housing Corpora- tion, levels unmatched since 2002. That doesn't mean perfect equilibrium: In Ottawa, 439 new rental units came available between October 2015 and 2016, but demand rose by 669 units, says CMHC. Which is to say, anything that's going to dis- courage supply - like rent con - SEAFORTH HURON EXPOSITOR/CLINTON NEWS RECORD P.O. Box 39.53 Albert St., Clinton ON NOM 1L0 MONDAY: 9:00-5:00 • TUESDAY: CLOSED • WEDNESDAY: 9:00-5:00 • THURSDAY: ADVERTISING DEADLINE: FRIDAYS AT 2:OOpm • PHONE: 519 www.seaforthhuronexpositor.com the democratic values Canadi- ans cherish, and its sense of corporate social responsibility is equally fungible. But it has emerged as the global counter- point to the United States, and it wants trade. Whether Trudeau's team can sort out an economic relation- ship with the Americans is a mystery. Where negotiations with China end up is equally murky. The Trump effect may be even worse than we thought. trol! - should be avoided. The average one -bedroom apartment in Ottawa, according to the most recent CMHC data, rents for $982. Two years previ- ous, it rented for $936. Overall, apartment rents increased by 4.8 per cent between October 2014 and October 2016. Com- pare that to Toronto, where the average was $1,132 in October 2016. Overall rents have gone up 5.7 per cent there. If rental prices are a problem, they're best categorized as a problem in Toronto, not Ottawa. It may be that, for some, the rent is too damn high. The trouble is that the govern- ment, hoping to somehow help, may do even more damage in the long run. HOURS OF OPERATION 9:00-5:00 • FRIDAY: 9:00-5:00 -482-3443