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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1981-05-13, Page 4A Pogo 4 times Established 1873 mes - eummiammwation Times -Advocate, May 13, 1981 Advocate Established 1881 dvocate ':, ._ -Y.. e, SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND CWNA OW N.A CLASS 'A' AND ABC MEMBER ONTARIO PRESS COUNCIL Published by J W Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor --- Bill Batten Assistant Editor -- Ross Hough Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongkind Phone 235-1331 PCNA Amalgamated 1924 Published Each Wednesday Morning • at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $17.00 Per Year; USA $35.00 ,.ti\..t". MI:W T:M . ep AVVc V : Should be resolved There are some interesting things happening in a couple of local com- munities regarding communication between councils and the Public Utility Commissions. Councils in Grand Bend and Exeter are agitating for more information regarding the operation of the com- missions in the two municipalities. par- ticularly as it affects salaries and water budgets. Members of the councils are star- ting to read from the Public Utilities Act and the Municipal Act to find out what information they should be able to receive and what role they play in the operation of the commissions. Having embarked upon that program. the councils and commissions should continue in order to ascertain exactly what responsibilities each has to the other. and at the same time, what responsibilities they may have to the public in the matter of information. This newspaper attempted recently to have the Exeter PUC reveal the salaries of their employees, but to no avail. In answer to our written request, the response was "The Commission requested that information regarding wages and benefits are not to be divulged". That would appear to be informa- tion that should be available to the public. and if not, the commission should detail the law under which they decide not to divulge it. Grand Bend council, after some vain attempts, managed to get that in- formation and it was made public at their meeting last week. Perhaps Ex- eter council could follow the example? The matter of the water depart- ment budget and rates has become a contentious issue in Exeter and while there is a difference of opinion, it is questionable whether the auditor should be the one who is given the responsibility to resolve the matter. Why not ask the Ontario government ministry responsible for administering the various acts to provide the proper interpretation? What should be noted in the current discussion is the view held by some council members that not only do they have the right to certain information from the PUC. it is their responsibility to be involved in some of the deliberations on water department matters. That dictates the necessity for both groups to be better informed of their responsibilities to each other, not as a matter of meddling, but of fulfill- ing those responsibilities. The discussions should involve the elected members of the two bodies, so employees are not placed in the posi- tion of having to defend policies over which they have no control. Spiral continues It's the bottom line that counts! That is a frequent piece of reasoning used by those who work on financial statements. After all the tabulation with the inputs. outputs and other finan- cial jargon. the real test of a statement is the profit or loss recorded on the bot- tom line. In the case of budgets of public bodies. the bottom line is what the tax- payers are going to pay to meet the needs of those bodies. Some of the figures now being fac- ed are staggering. For instance, most taxpayers find it difficult to com- prehend a figue such as $28,630,287. That's what the 1981 budget is for the Huron board of education. However. while that is only 13.2 percent over last year's budget. Huron taxpayers actually face a 19.1 percent hike in what they must contribute as the provincial contribution has been decreased. Part of that is due to declin- ing enrolment If you want another percentage figure. the cost of instruc- tion per pupil will increase 17 percent this year One of the factors that must be considered in the face of escalating in- flation. is that percentages are often By SYS FL.ETCHER A youngster in my class got up to say his speech the other day Ile began talking about his experiences as a Wolf Cub. For 4 years he had belonged to that organization From the sounds of it he has had a whale of a time. what with outings. father and son ban- quets. crafts. and a whole list of badges toward which he has worked faithfully over the years As a youngster. for a variety of reasons. I never t I misleading. As the base budget in- creases annually, the increases become smaller in percentage terms although the actual amount is larger. A 10 per- cent increase on a $25.000,000 budget is $2,500,000. However. a similar 10 per- cent increase the following year on the $27,500.000 escalates to $2,750,000. Elected officials who think in terms of percentages are not keeping a close eye on the bottom line and are fooling themselves by suggesting they have held the line by maintaining the same percentage increase as the previous year. Those who are watching the bottom line in the education budget in Huron have to be alarmed as it continues to in- crease while enrolment actually decreases.The cost per pupil becomes more significant and obviousl.t•is one of the key figures with whichTJ,hp board must contend. This year's increase of 17 percent in the cost per pupil is beyond in- flationary factors alone and unfor- tunately there is no evidence to indicate that the instruction received has im- proved to the same extent. Are we pricing ourselves out of the education business? Perspectives belonged to Cubs or Scouts but I must say that as an in- terested observer. that one of the characteristics that the organization is trying to instil in young men is a sense of responsibility. Even the motto which they are asked to say at each meeting, to the effect that we should respect "God. Queen and Country' is a good beginning towards a sense of com- munity with the rest of the world. One of the excellent pro- jects that Scouts and Cubs have taken on since 1974 is their Tree Planting Program. Since that year, over 20,000.000 trees have been planted across Canada, 13,000 in one county nearby alone. In these days when the tendency is to clear-cut the land, leaving nothing to hold onto the soil. causing even deeper gullies. even drier dust -bowls. decreases in life- giving oxygen. I surely praise the people who are planning this program. Personally I get a great deal of satisfaction from seeing trees that 1 have planted, grow up to maturi- ty. My Dad has pointed out an area of Hamilton called the King's Forest. huge beautiful pine trees now, that were all planted when he was a lad. Hopefully. our boy scouts and cubs will continue to gain the satisfaction many years from now of saying, "1 helped plant that forest." • "I think my mistake was digging up the part of the lawn that was crab grass." th the editor It was total involvement Remember the instructions the music teacher gave to the boys in thee back row of the school choir? "Just '. mouth the words. don't let any noise come out...please." In any given group. there are those who have few stage talents, whether it be for singing or acting. That's just the way nature made us. Some were born to be on the stage and others were designed to be the audience. Well, you have to give full marks to the junior division teachers at Exeter Public School who arranged the cast for the recent production of Goofus and the Golden Goose. Not only did they find some talented people to perform, they ended up with every member of the grades four. five and six classes in the production. Those who weren't performing on the stage were either in the accompanying choir or acting as stage hands. It was total involvement and the results were noteworthy. However, what impressed many in the audience more than the talent was the fact all the kids appeared to be.en- joying themselves in whatever role they were performing. There was no such thing as stage fright, just big smiles that indicated the kids were in- volved and pleased with themselves. There was so much talent from which to choose. that two casts were used, one for each performance given by the students. Unlike some productions, where a few of the "extras" are work- ed into a second showing, the main characters were switched in the EPS play. It is unfortunate that so few oppor- tunities exist for the students to con- tinue to hone their musical and stage abilities as they move into secondary school and beyond. Obviously there is a great deal of latent talent in our midst that will probably wither and die and join the ranks of the audience. That is regrettable in view of the fact that the youngsters on stage appeared to be enjoying themselves as much, or even more in many instances, than those in the audience. A recent column on the difficulties associated with the English language touched off some response from readers. Mayor Bruce Shaw added the word cleave to the list of those with double meanings. It can be used. according to Webster, to indicated something to adhere closely or to stick. while at the same time it means to part or divide. From our cohort. Jim Fitzgerald at the Clinton News -Record comes this poem: • Beneath the spreadingchestnutbough Stands a boy with hacking cough. His mother feeds him lumps of dough Until he's had enough. Jim also included arhymed comment on learning the English language com- plied by a young African student in a Nairobi school. We'll start with a box --the plural is boxes, But the plural of ox should never be oxes. One fowl is a goose and the plural is geese, But the plural of mouse should never be meese. On the contrary, the plural of mouse is mice, But never assume that for house the plural is hice. , As the plural for man is always men, Why shouldn't the plural of pan be pen? Sugar and Spice Dispensed by Smiley The issue for old guys Once again. I must confront that spectre that looms before quite a few old guys like me. To retire and live on beans and dog food, or to step once more into the breach, dear friends, and not become an old dog, licking its wounds and less savorable parts, waiting for the final stiffening into ex- tinction. Well, that was a fairly literary first paragraph, anyway, with a reference to a spectre. Henry V, and old dogs, perhaps loved, but increasingly useless, and ready for a shot thtough the head. I could get the last-named, at times, from my wife. if we kept a gun in the house. That's one reason we don't. Another is that 1 decided, some years ago, after shooting a black squirrel while thinking it was a black bear, that I wasn't cut out to be a hunter and bring home the game, unless it happened to be chess, or dominoes, or Scrabble. Secondly, I am not an old dog, though I would love to be. I always wanted to be a devilish old dog, twitching my moustaches at the ladies, pouring a sherry for a fascinating widow in a suave flat overlooking Kensington Gardens at the age of 82, sipping an aperitif in the great square in decaying Venice when I was 88. 'Twas was not to be. I am just a youngish old dog, to whom no widow under the age of 59 (her ver- sion) would give a second look. Unless she were really broke. In the third case, I am not young King Hal of Tudor times, looking for breaches to go into once more. I have been in too many breaches (note to proof-reader; that is not britches) already. The next breach I leap into will be the last one: that hole in the ground. And in the fourth place, I ain't afraid of no spectres. That's what Scrooge said, and you know what happened to him. This retirement gig is not that sim- ple. First of all, that inflation has you by the short and curly. All my friends who are retired cry: "Don't do it!" as though I were a 17 -year-old about to take my first drink or something even more sinful, according to the society in which we grew up. They claim that they can eat steak only once a week, that they haven't even the money for one of Freddy Laker's trips to England in the off season, that they're going to have to sell their fine middle-class homes and move into some fine middle-class apartment where they don't even have any lawn to cut or snow to shovel. It's a horrible prospect. Most of these old friends are in a pitiable state. They have decaying dis- cs, heart problems, high blood pressure, the gout, the curd, or some other debilitating nightmare. Yet they're all in their early sixties. My father-in-law, 89, would call them „boys„ Well, I don't think I'll be one of the boys, at least not for another year. I am a mere sixty years old. I am as sound in wind and limb as a man of thirty. Forty years' ago. 1 limp a bit with the gout. But that is M The plural for button, of course, but- tons, Then shouldn't the plural of mutton be muttons? The masculine pronouns are he, his and him, But imagine the feminine --she, shis and shim! So English. I fancy, you all will agree, -Is the strangest language you ever did see. • In the current debate between the Exeter PUC and council, it should be noted that while the press does cover both groups and should therefore serve as a type of communication between them, it should not be suggested that the newspaper be the only link of com- munication. During his comments last week, PUC manager Hugh Davis noted that we do cover the PUC meetings and the budget information is availabletocouncil and the public through the media. - However, later on, he noted there was a lack of communication last year in the matter of some road work being planned by council of which the PUC had either not been informed or the in- formation went astray. The list of road projects was also recorded in the press, and if Davis is suggesting that council get budget details through the newspaper, it should follow that the PUC has infor- mation from council via the same source. Obviously, the newspaper should not be expected to serve that complete role fnr either group. merely a sign of good living, and I limp rather proudly. I scarcely need glasses, except to tie my tie, or hit an ash -tray. I can't hear much of what the students say, but my lip-reading is excellent, and I don't want to hear what they say, anyway. They've been giving the wrong answer for years. I have a partial plath, but I lithp through in only when we have ham- burger in the cafeteria and it gets a bit clogged — no more than three or four days a week. All in all, a fine specimen of homo mithancropus, whatever that means. I wouldn't want to translate_it, because some 89 -year-old •Latin te3elter (we don't teach Latin any more) would jump on me and tell me I was either a depressed ape or a melancholy man. That I don't need. 1 feel like either, at given times. But then my conscience assails me. I think of all those young fellows of 40 or 45, whom I am keeping out of a depart- ment head's job, and I pretty nearly break down. Until 1 recall the fact that their wives are working, they have just bought a new van or boat, and they are making more money than 1. Then I decide to stay another year, and I break up, chuckling at the grinding of teeth, the silent curses in the night, the visions of their child having to work during his/her summer vacation to make it 'through college. "Why doesn't the old nit quit? He can't teach anymore. His department • Mainstream Canada A taxing matter By W. Roger Worth East Coast fishermen are not at all happy these days, and It's only a matter of time before they are Joined by their counterparts in Quebec and on the West Coast. The reason for the uneas- iness: Revenue Canada is in the midst of a special invest- igation to determine whether the fishermen have been pay- ing their fair share of income tax. Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Judging by early results from Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton, N.S., fisher- men will end up paying mil- lions of dollars to the federal government. In Prince Edward Island, for example, the average fisherman will be forced to pay an additional $2,000 or so, and some have been billed for as much as 517,000. The basic problem is that fishermen are notoriously bad record keepers, and the tax collectors are refusing a lot of deductions where individuals have failed to get or keep ex- pense receipts. r There's nothing new about the special audit, of course. Every year or two Revenue Canada tackles one sector or another. While many fishermen agree they probably owe signi- ficant amounts of money, there is a great deal of concern about the reported heavy- handed methods used by Revenue Canada to collect the shortfall. And judging by a continu- ing series of complaints from smaller firms across the coun- try, the, contention that Revenue Canada is using "overkill" may be legitimate. Soon, the special audits will be starting in Quebec, British Columbia and the re- mainder of Atlantic Canada. "The nice people from the tax department claimed they were going to do a general audit," says one fisherman. "Rut when they were through, they treated me like a criminal." Perhaps it's time the powerful Revenue Canada auditors became a little more polite. After all, their "customers" are paying at least part of federal govern- ment salaries. Savings also require inflation protection By Frank Kaplan Inflation to most people is a painful matter of reaching deeper into the pocket on shopping day while walking away with lighter grocery bags. Or, it is the irritation of the mounting cost of filling up the gas tank. Most people tend to think, of inflation as raising the prices of things they buy and -try to protect themselves by changing buying habits. Other people attempt to insulate themselves from inflation by increasing their income - some work harder, others change jobs for higher wages, housewives work so there can be two incomes, and ?Mtn. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to overlook the effect of inflation on our savings. Certainly people living on pensions or other forms of savings accumulated years ago are uncomfortably aware of how the value of their savings and investments is deteriorating. But for most people, savings still are left -overs to be tucked away safely in a bank account or in Canada Savings Bonds. But just saving money isn't enough in this inflationary era. Those savings have to be employed in such a way that their value keeps pace with the inflation erosion. Keith Douglas, president of The Investment Funds Institute of Canada, recently pointed out: "To keep up with inflation, *1,000 invested five years ago would have had to grow to *1,534 today." That's a fairly substantial rise in value and yet it's just to stay even. Surely savings should earn a little something extra. Unknowingly, people can take substantial risks even when they put their savings into places traditionally con- sidered to be completely safe, such as a bank savings deposit. After allowing for inflation and taxes, the chances are that the amount saved in such a "risk-free" manner will be worth considerably less in purchasing power when the money is needed - and that's a risk we can't afford. It wasn't too long ago that 10% guaranteed certificates were considered attractive. How many people still have those certificates today when inflation is in the 12% range? Unfortunately, those people are behind 2% each year - and that's before they pay income taxes on the 10% interest they do earn. As Mr. Douglas observed: "More and more Canadians recognize the destructive impact of inflation and seek to invest their savings in something which has the prospect of growing in value." One recent piece of evidence of our developing wisdom on the effect of inflation on savings was the massive cash• ing-in of Canada Savings Bonds that forced the govern- ment to raise the interest rate. If it's necessary for the Bank of Canada to recognize what inflation does to savings, then the obvious action for individuals is to seek higher return on their: investments. That's what the professionals who manage investment funds do every day. ••• This column is prepared by Frank Kaplan, a prominent writer on Canadian business and finance, in association with the staff and information facilities of The Investment Funds Institute of Canada. Information on Investment Funds is available by writing to the Institute at Suite 219. 8 King St. East, Toronto, Ontario MSC 1B5. is the worst n in the province. He has no idea how to organize hi, udget. He doesn't know what a budget is. He's not sure w ether it's fall term or spring term. And what is really ma ening, he doesn't care." And they're right, or partially so. Well, I've decided. I11 stay until at least Christmas. I'll quit then. suddenly. and leave somebody else to sort out the mess. I have keys to locks that don't work. I have filing - cases full of material taught in 1914, that have never been opened, because the keys are lost. And if my wife doesn't stop spending money on decorating, 1'11 re -run this column in '88. Why doesn't Trudeau solve it by appointing me to the Senate? Beautify your neighbourhood. Get out on the street. Take a walk. 41111 paRTicipacrion the 01WWWtm tttetwtsnt to lsrsettr aM.e..