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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1992-02-19, Page 4ilisstMdasssls, irebamiy 19, len `lam: JMaeeeMaut moan ions .fin selwillsr: Den Smith Dsb Lord tamir tlerw Uanagie..don *uI sr OQss r 40 sem 01100 0.) •igr wale W rma4MN►awrla sttdrwew.s *S0 }IM. *2.310 Y..T. O.MeM.40 sees feel...) at rift Wane spe rla.ddr.ea *00.00 Moe NOM unspun (MMI 11103+0) plea 04.30 6.$.T. • • • e 1.1)11;lj.i A message forOttawa erhaps it's a symptom of Free Trade and the GST. Both came as surprises from a fed- eral government which gave no warn- ing that such policies existed on -the drawing boards - the same federal gov- ernment which is insisting that it will continue to lobby the GATT talks to make sure Canada's food marketing boards and supply management sys- tems will stay intact. So its no surprise that- thousands of farmers will make the trek to Ottawa I this Friday in an effort to put some fac- es to the statistics that the government will be dealing with at the GATT table - a reminder that there are real people whose lives will be affected by the trade treaty. On the surface, supply management is a bad thing in a free market economy. Putting constraints on farmers as to what they can produce and what they can be paid for it does not seem fair. Huron MPP Paul Klopp said that he himself vehemently opposed marketing boards in 1973, but has since come to re- spect their wisdom. The producers sup- ply only what -is needed, and in turn are assured a price .to realize some profit. Cash crop farmers may have jeered the system while they were doing well in the 1970's, but the shoe is on the other foot today. There are flaws in the system, especial- ly as many younger farmers cannot get, or cannot afford to buy into the quota program, but the system evidently must work if so many are willing to take hours out of their week to fight for what they believe in. It is to be hoped the federal govern- ment will listen to the voice of their ru- ral populations on Friday, and not de- cide to .do for Canadian farming what Free Trade has done for Canadian indus- try. A.D.H. Help, I'm the father of a teenager, I need your help. Alexander has just had his 13th birthday�I don't think I'm ready to be th?` father of a 1990s teenager. Mind you, Alex has been act- -ing 'like a teenager for some bme. k_at_his_tvom, for ex- ample! It looks as if it had been hit by a Skud missile. But what is going to happen to our tranquil world over the next nine years? Stephanie and Dun- can -- oar sweet little twins -- will be teenagers in two years. Will Elizabeth and I survive? Give me your support! What can I do to brace my- self? One hears such horror sto- ries. I need the support and posi- tive reinforcement from parents (especially fathers) who have been there. Or, who are still hanging in there. How do you cope with them'' Are they as terrible as they are made out io be? Or are there some teenagers who fill their parents with pride day after day, .who,help them with chores and responsibilities, who smile a lot, who prove that they're maturing and growing and learning and developing? I hope. so. Because I'm not very good at handling difficult people. Confrontation and con- flict are not for me. I prefer har- mony, cooperation and mutual respect. Will I have to shelve my expectation for a decade? Will I have to build a bunker in the backyan i, where the parents can hide when their teenage kids go on a rampage? I'm having nightmares Other parents tell me such tales! I had a dream the other night. Elizabeth and I had been away for a while. When we came home, we found the house surrounded by riot police with helmets and plastic shields. They were firing tear gas_ grenades Peter's Point • Peter Hesse] through the windows. Alexander came out coughing, his hands up in the air. He was clad in skin- tight. shiny black leather. His head was shorn on one side, with long bright -green hair on the other. His face had stripes of ochre war paint. He was fol- lowed by several hundred hood- lums, straight from the set of A Clockwork Orange. "Where are Stephanie and DUttcan?" Elizabeth screamed.. "Sec if I care," Alexander mumbled, as he was handcuffed and loaded into the paddy wag- on. We put gas masks on and ran into the house. Everything was destroyed. I rushed upstairs into Duncan's room. It had been turned into a bar. 1 climbed over crates of beer to get into Stepha- nie's room. It looked like a whorehouse in New Orleans. "Stephanie!" I screamed. When I woke up from this night- mare, I was so disturbed, 1 went and checked the kids. Everybody was safe and warm and sound asleep. I looked at their angelic faces. "How long will it be?" 1 wondered. Take away my anxieties, somebody! Should Elizabeth and I develop some defence mecha- nism? What preventive measures should we a take? Or is it already too late? Are we in fact doomed'' We've all been there I try to look on the positive side. We've all been teenagers once, although our kids can't im- agine it. "Was it on another plan- et, Dad?" I remember setting out on my own long joumey of discovery. First and foremost I had to find myself -- an arduous Odyssey in- deed. When I finally had estab- lished a firm footing, I found that 1 wasn't alone in the world. It wasn't just ME any more. To my great surprise there were oth- ers who began to matter. Our kids, too, will overcome the ME age. No doubt the .vast majority of the ME generation will tum into loving, caring, con- cerned adults. When they have Children of their own. Who will one day become teenagers... Maybc what Alexander and all other teenagers need desperately is our understanding. Realizing that we've all been there our- selves is the first step. But the world is a different place today. The kids need us, whether they admit it or not. Without us, they're lost. And the more lost they are, the more difficult they will be to cope with. Hey, this is all sounding too serious. This is supposed to,be a funny column. So I'm determined to keep my sense of humour. I've always found it more productive than worrying. HAVE AN OPINION? The Times Advocate welcomes letters to the -editor. They must be signed and should be accompanied by a telephone number.and address should we need to clarify any informs ' . The newspaper also. reserves the.rhiht,to edit letters. Lietters an be dropped off.at the Times Advocate t .or ni0ljed to: £,tete. Tomes hell ise & Sex SW, Otheier, alftfhrio 1 "Men ate never -so •may. to settle a questionty as when they dltss otit freely." Theme Maeatiley w Vienne/Ma�t all` 'Bei.. ext* tuotviteae Letters to Editor Commercial taxes too high!!! Some , Questions for Huron County Council: 1. Why has the assessment on my business jumped by 1239f when the residential assessment in Bayfield only went up 54%. 2. Why did rural taxes drop by over $400.00 and residential taxes increase by over $200.00: espe- cially when rural tax payers get up to 759 of their taxes rebated? 3. Why did Huron County un- load an extra 22% of the taxes on the business community in 1988 and another 20 - 30% this time in 1992. My taxes jumped by 100% in 1988, 20% in 1989, 15% in 1990, 10% in 1991 and will jump by an- other 100% in 1992. Will they eventually put } the full load- of the I taxes on The busi- ness community in the future. They wonder why business are closing or moving south of the bor- der? Because you choose to be in business for yourself it does not au- tomatically make you wealthy and able to carry most of the tax burden for -the county. Businesses are pay- ing the new employer health tax, workmens compensation, unem- ployment insurance, Canada Pen- sion plan in some cases group insu- rance plans for their employees; not to mention a mortgage or a hy- dro bill that has risen 2796 in the last 14 months. The result being that anyone punching a clock is making more than people in busi- ness. I say to you Htuon County coun- cillors if you continue to increase my taxes 145% every 4 years my time in business is limited: I am sad to say. This goes for every business in Huron County. Tax payers of Huron County wake up before it -is too late! Doug Sinnamon Sinnamons Village Market Main Street, P.O. Box 209 Bayfield. Ont. NOM 100 Support Supply Management Dear Sir: All this talk about GATT and ar- ticle 11 must be confusing to most people that arc not following -the GATT talks in Geneva.Article 11, simply put, is the backbone of our supply managed marketing sys- tem. Article 11 keeps American eggs from flooding our markets and destroying our system. To many consumers the weaken- ing or removal of Article 11 sounds great because they think it would mean lower food prices in Canada. Such is not the case and.I wilt try to explain why., Most _con- sumers think that our supply man- aged system keep our egg prices artificially high. 1f this is the case why have egg prices to the.consu- mer only increased by 18.3 per- cent between 1980 and 1990? Tell me why a box of corn flakes in- creased .in price by 94.5 percent beiween 1980 and 1990? Fanners are receiving less than $3.00 for. a bushel of corn in today's market. This is a commodity that•doesn't have supply management and most of these farmers are being subsidized with such�as tas DRIP and NISA. In s government is dipping into your them fanners wohelpp�th subsidize thou cost of production. It bodes my mind to try and understand our Caaad jan governments thinking. Ow amply managed egg industry is ant besag subsidized by the soveraatent be- cause farrows pay a key to re- move surplus eggs from ;the mar- ket. Supply maaatgement bas prniect- e d the familyfawn. tiro kceiss- 11 in .,GATT .w,>1lt allY &cad 10 -known as factmyc�• the small fatally will .aro Inapt be able W cste •twiih * *an '�bec4 fiver wt. not compete with the At 001111 cause - e oast- are . ' «fQf everything we ,buy. T will put a strangle hold on Canadi an farming and soon put us out o business. The Europeans realize how important farming is because they have come through two Wor Wars so they know what starvation feels like. The Europeans subsidize their farmers heavily. 1 have heard figures as high as over $1,000.00 per acre for crops such as barley We as fanners do not want the tax man to dig deeper into your pocks to keep our farms viable. La us keep our supply manage - meet system and we will not have to be subsi- dized by you the taxpayer and con- sumer. The average net farm income be ewer 1980 and 1989 increased 32.7 percent frau $11,584.00 to $17219.00 per year. In comparison ibe average Wanly income in Cana da increased 45 ;argent from $22.572.00 to $41,08300 per year. I remember die hard times before marketing boards. In 1971 for ex- ample wf were receiving 19 cents a dozen for Air eggs and our cost of prodtact► n was .arauad 26 cents a and word( Inge 'aloha with egss agg pr into a tarl- apc .. io tubes wards the farmer ran the- ayoe;ial inhere of the chain more. with.tbe wolves at ow doors, ,farmers argaaised and along with the .watts .ot die late Honourable Mil .�� alad the Holaourable "'�= meat was imm. This a law easy production age as 2:1140101iAti sittespre.io be e n l Af',,q wa �e`,tlgit0. awe tt vette 11.5 isoame is so bad, why has it worked so f well in Canada? You may say American eggs are sometimes cheaper. That is probably true but !d they don't bother to tell you that more than 500 American egg pro- ducers went out of business during the last major price swing several years ago. Many American egg producers are envious of our sup- - ply managed marketing system. is Critics will tell you that supply managed farms become inefficient and not competitive. If this is true why has our productivity in the dairy industry increased by 73.5 percent in Canada since' supply management came in? This com- pares to only 46 percent increase in productivity in the united States during the same period without - supply management. Our supply managed marketing system is the envy of many coun- tries around the world. Why dis- mantle a system that is working so well for you the consumer and is not being subsidized by the taxpay- er? Our Canadian government that once promised to uphold and strengthen article 11 in the GATT are now sending mixed signals to our supply management comntodi flier 110 be a mar Catiallitas PIM spot A411e+va ,vr slay sia4be.a Id.Jfatsplyntstbaolmo1 ty groups. It is estimated that an- other 18,000 Canadian jobs will be lost if article 11 is not upheld by ow Canadian government negotia- tors at the GATT talks. The supply management u m- modity groups are organizing a bugs litotes. It is estin*ied that 250000 farmers will march oo Otta- wa on February 21, 1992. The family farm is a Canadian uadition. Don't let our Canadian government 8,11 us gown the drain to Wife Aweri can corporate farms. Your job on jt. 'Wel* y leaving ea Itry , 1992 so please con- tract yaw fornmodity group for de- tails. 'flask e- i la.'I`baak you for • A t Cden RR 6, Strathroy "