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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1996-09-04, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, September 4, 1996 Publisher & Editor: Jim Beckett The Exeter Times Advocate is a member of a family of community newspapers Business Manager: Don Smith 1 o"'m" ;7 404 providing news, advertising and information leadership Production Manager: Deb Lord Advertising; Barb Consitt, Chad Eedy News; Heather Mir, Chris Skalkos, Ross Haugh, Brenda Burke Production; Alma Ballantyne, Mary McMurray, Barb Robertson Brenda Hern, Joyce Weber, Laurel Miner Transportation: Al Flynn, Al Hodgert Front Office & Accounting; Elaine Pinder, Sue Rollings, Ruthanne Negrijn, Anita McDonald, Cassie Dalrymple • • Publications Mall Registration Number 0388 IWAMMEMILEAMI One year rata for Ontario Ndisqlbers - $35.00 + OST Two year rate for Ontario subscribers • $63.00 + GST CANADIAN ADDRESS OUTSIDE ONTARIQ injonOne year subscription . S63.00 + GST Two year subscription - $119.00 + OST OTHER RATES Outside Canada . 899.00 + GST 1:I)1 I'OIZi \I ti The $100,000+ Club f provincial cutbacks aren't forcing your blood pressure to rise, the disclosure of public sector employees that earn an annual salary of more than $100,000 is guaranteed to make your blood boil. Just the thought of a public television reporter who is earning more than the organization's president, and the chief of the Metro Toronto Housing Authori- ty, which houses people on social assis- tance, earning $176,618.06 is enough to drive one into joining a popular revolt. Outrageous is an understatement. While university students may be forced to give up higher education as a result of higher tuition fees and institu- tions are forced to close programs and departments to meet provincial cuts, university presidents are earning sala- ries ranging from $200,000 and up, and many professors far surpass the $100,000 mark. While the Hospital for Sick Children gears up for another massive fundrais- ing campaign to meet the costly de- mands for its facility, its president earns $535,041.54 in salary, bonuses and taxable benefits. If there is any reason to privatize the debt -ridden Ontario Hydro it's the 649 people who are paid more than Published Each Wednesday Morning at 424 Main St., Exeter, Ontario, NOM 156 by J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. Telephone 1-619.2361331 • Fax: 519.2354766 G.s.T. 18106210631 GO +1. JEAN BOYLE ACRON ROWE $100,000 a year each. Fifty-five per cern of these people are union members and make the Power Workers Union plea for Ontario Hydro's preservation sound like .Ontario whimpering of a political despot. It's time for the $100,000+ Club to wake up and smell the coffee. Such salaries are a detriment to the ef- forts of the Harris government and com- mon taxpayers to eliminate the provin- cial deficit. The institutions and boards which approve these salaries should be subjected to a public protest similar to the city-wide protests in Hamilton and London. The salary disclosures also show how messed up the operations and funding of Metro Toronto really is. Any municipal government that supports a $102,393 salary for a senior housing plumber has its head screwed on back- wards. Institutions are jumping to the defence of the university presidents, police chiefs and big city hospital CEO's stat- ing they have the experience and creden- tials to justify their $100,000 salaries. In lean and mean times like these, the justification is as ludicrous as Marie An- toinette's preference for cake during the French Revolution. From the Fergus Elora News Express Your Views Letters to the editor Support needed for 1997 Canada Day ... it would be a shame to see it go by the wayside... Dear Editor: The Canada Day celebrations committee would like to e, 1. nil our many thanks to all of those who supported us. As a group of eleven people (Kevin and Sandi Poole, Nick and Tibby Carter, Karen Kneale, Rob Waas, Tdm Lawson, Barry Clarke, Harry Young, Dennis Siren and Barry Davis), we have found 1996 to be one of the toughest years ever. At the end of July we were showing a substan- tial shortfall but thanks to John and Mary Wright of Wright's IGA Grand Bend, our commitments have been met. Thank you John and Mary. The evening of fireworks and the first Rusker Fest attracted people of all ages and from many other communities. This event is one of the most impor- tant events of our community and it would be a shame to see it go by the wayside. It is ourselves and only ourselves, the businesses, organizations and residents that can keep this event and events like this alive. We all know that there is a lot of competition to get that tourist dollar and it would be very easy for communities like London, Sarnia, Goderich and Port Stanley to take that away from us. So please find it in your heart to support the 1997 Canada Day celebration committee. Once again thank you to the many that supported us in 1996. Committee Chairman Kevin Poole • • • WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND? • • • The Times Advocate continues to welcome letters to the editor as a forum for open discussion of local issues, concerns, complaints and kudos. WE ASK THAT YOU KEEP YOUR LETTERS TO A MAXIMUM OF 300 WORDS, The Times Advocate reserves the right to edit letters for brevity. Please send your letters to P.O. Box 850, Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S6. Sign your letter with both name and address. Anonymous letters will not be published. A View From Queen's Park By Eric Dowd Moving from place to place, I've had the opportunity to meet many different types of neighbors along the way. As a kid on 7th Avenue in Owen Sound, neighbors' yards were welcoming yet forbidden. Five stitches in the left hand tells you never to go near Roger's wiener dog again while scratchy rose bushes indicate Mrs. Webb's garden is not the place to hide while playing nicky-nicky-nine-door. I remember spooky houses with strange cats and manicured brick homes where people never stepped on their own grass. Walking the dog as a kid in the 70's was a free -thinking activity. Stooping and scooping were only for those at war with dandilions. And back then, it seemed like neighborhood kids played together more. Huge hordes of us would meet on the hill by the giant willow tree and trek across lawns in a game of hide-and-seek or kick -the -can while dusk covered the summer streets and bugs buzzed in our ears. The neighbors never complained about footprints in IT WASN'T ME„, ITWASN'T ME,,, 41frA. Distributed by Miller Features Shd,c to Simple. Cruelties Brenda Burke Neighbors the gardens or screams that shook the glass panels of front doors. At university my neighbors were of a different sort. The shuffling, television stoned, beer belching, half -closed -eyes sort that stayed up until 6 a.m. blowing funny smoke through holes in the wall and playing guitar with a mega amplifier. And, lest I ever forget, the deep, dark roommate who slept with the dresser anchored in front of her bed, claiming invisible people watched her slumber. And of course, the blessed landlady who, despite the cost of $350 per month board, would allow no food in the room, no use of the kitchen facilities and no parking on site. There were worse. Like the man who stumbled into our Toronto apartment while playing an inebriated game of cards with the folks upstairs. Or the nosey landlord who stooped to peek in our basement apartment windows and occasionally let herself in to steal bananas. On the other hand, some neighbors are kind. Like those who put plastic bags full of garden goodies on your outside doorknob. Or better yet, those who cut your grass for you or throw you a huge 'Welcome to the Neighborhood!' party that lasts nearly all night long with blaring music, riding lawn mowers, flaming stereo speakers, a scavenger hunt that requires a man dressed in drag, dancing the Macarena in the street, hordes of chocolates and of course, the contents of a box of Minute Rice poured in your bed. My father always warned me to get a place in country where I wouldn't have to worry about what the neighbors thought or how thick my window blinds were or how vocal my dog was or what my cat was doing all night long. "It's peaceful," he'd say. "No neighbors to bug you and tell you what to do. Besides, you don't have to feel pressured to keep up with the Joneses." So far the Joneses have been pretty interesting. TORONTO - The most intriguing question in Ontario politics does not involve politicians, but whether the teachers' unions will be able to mod- erate the tone of the country's most right-wing newspaper. Five teachers' unions through their pension plan have agreed to invest $70 million in a man- agement -led buyout of the company which owns the unusually partisan Toronto Sun and other pa- pers. An investment of this size would normally enti- tle those making it to have some say in the way the company operates and the teachers say they would like the Sun to be more pro -union and less supportive of right-wing Progressive Conserva- tive Premier Mike Harris. The teachers are worried particularly about Harris's spending cuts, which have cost some their jobs, and warning he is considering with- drawing their right to strike, and say it is 'impor- tant for teachers' voices to be heard.' The Sun traditionally has been highly critical of teachers and their unions. They must have been distressed recently when the paper said that while others in the public sector have be- gun to accept reality and the need for cuts, 'the teachers' unions start whining about any threat to their cushy salaries and perks.' Teachers, the paper says, 'have amassed a costly collection of benefits largely through the strong-arm tactics of their union leaders,' which include a 'remarkably generous, fully in- dexed pension plan...a black hole for tax dol- lars' and 'absurdly generous cash -outs of sick days upon retirement' (which many can accu- mulate and be paid for even if they were not sick.) The Sun scoffs that teachers 'work for 38 weeks a year' and will never 'give up their summers off' and suggested 'why not trim their two-month summer holiday by a week or two?' It says teachers' unions also 'obstinately try to protect everything that was won in another time and reality. It's time they woke up, like ,rs; Teachers buy in everyone else in the public service has had to, and faced the financial facts.' The Sun also devotes a lot of space to attack- ing unions generally. When unionists including teachers demonstrated against Hams' cuts, the Sun complained unions merely 'drag out the tiresome, old confrontational rhetoric of the left. Threatening and bullying seem to be all that unionists have left. They have no real solu- tions to offer.' The paper complains constantly about 'union bosses', rarely conceding that any were elected ?nd have members' support, 'union jackboots trampling rights' and 'union bully boys' and 'cossetted and spoiled union brats' and 'self- absorbed and self-centred union whiners.' The Sun also has a devotion to Harris which it is not going to be pried from easily. Almost its only criticisms are that occasionally he moves too slowly for its liking. In the 1995 election, it told readers 'your mis- sion is clear - you must vote rot Mike Harris' A and 'have courage - there is nothing scary about what Mike Harris is saying' and 'uncork the champagne bottles. Mike Harris will be swept to power.' The Sun has now said the teachers' unions can have members on its board, but its owners have never dictated its editorial policy. This probably was said tongue in cheek, be- cause the paper was founded mainly with devel- opers' money and started as pro -developer and right-wing and its writers do not need to be di- rected: they can see what appears in the paper. At one time half its columnists ran in elections for the Tories. Unions and other narrow interest groups should not beencouraged to buy into normal newspa- pers to Pito influence their views and the Sun's are too deeply ingrained to be changed easily. But there is a delicious irony in that some of its most battered targets will get a chance to chal- lenge them in its boardroom and this should make for an uneasy alliance.