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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1996-10-02, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, October 2, 1996 Publisher & Editor: Jim Beckett The Exeter Times Advocate is a member of a family of community newspapers Business Manager: Don Smith ►»•"'" :� providing news, advertising and information leadership Production Manager: Deb Lord Advertising: ertising: 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 Traesnortation: Al Flynn, Al Hodgen front Office & Accounting; Elaine Pinder, Sue Rollings, Ruthann NegriJn, Anita McDonald, Cassie Dalrymple • • ccw Publications Mall Registration Number 0386 IIssCRtPTION RATES; One year rate to Ontario subscribers - $35.00 + GST Two year rate tor Ontario subscribers - $63.00 + GST CANADIAN ADDRESSES OUTSIDE ONTARIO pinion One year subscription - $63.00 + GST Two year subscription - $119.00 + GST OTHER RAM Canada - $99.00 + GST Published Each Wednesday Morning at 424 Main St., Exeter, Ontario, NOM 156 by J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. Telephone 1419-23543n • Fax: 519-2350766 Balsa alines: ,coli e.1.7.1R105210835 Don't compromise quality of education 0 ver the years, some people have become increasingly annoyed about paying education taxes when they have no children in school. Some are older people, whose own children (educated with public tax mon- ey, of course) have grown up and left home. One might think these people would have a vested interest in the edu- cation of the doctors who treat their ill- nesses, for example. Apparently this is not the case. Other objections to paying educa- tion taxes come from those who control industries. These people, too, should feel a strong sense of ownership in the education system which produces the type of well-trained engineers, comput- er operators and managers they need. They do not. Efforts to provide this sense of ownership through community advisory committees have come much too late. Now Education Minister John Sno- belen is hinting at a new system for funding education in a more equitable manner. It sounds good. After all, local schools have suffered because of ineq- uities in the present system. As it stands, the province funds only a por- tion of education; the remainder comes from municipal taxation, giving a dis- tinct advantage to those municipalities iy„fit11,4tuise ii dµstrial tax -base. A level playing field should help local schools. Will removing education funding • from property taxes accomplish what it is supposed to? Perhaps. After all, health care funds come from general revenues, not property taxes. One thing it will accomplish is freeing industries from something they have long regarded as a financial thorn in the side. Those cynics who have ac- cused industry of avoiding paying their fair share of taxes will have a field day with this one. They will haul out their lists of ma- jor industries which pay no income tax- es, or considerably less tax than they should. The accuracy and validity of those lists is another story, but the lists themselves exist. There will be state- ments that the "little guy" will once again get hit with the lion's share of new costs. And there will be accusations that the education minister and his entire government are selling out to business interests. Here's hoping the critics don't lose track of one simple fact. The present system isn't working. Some municipalities have become so frustrated at the requirement to col- lect education taxes that they have an- nounced their intention to stop doing this. The portion of municipal taxes that actually goes to the municipality is rela- tively small. About half goes to educa- tion. Then the county gets its portion. The municipality gets what's left. But when people complain about high prop- erty taxes, they blame the municipality. And the municipality pays even if it can't collect the tax from certain resi- dents. It appears that Snobelen's promise to change the way education is funded comes as a direct response to pressure from municipal governments across the province. In reality, all the money comes from the taxpayer's pocket, and it really doesn't mattdr whether it is the right pocket or the left. Shuffle the cards as much as you want, but the dealer still hands out the same number to each player. We have a good education system and compromising its quality is false economy. If, as some fear, the new sys- tem will result in substantially less mon- ey for education after all the dust settles and the numbers are tabulated, it does not matter how fairly that money is dis- tributed. The students of today are the teachers, doctors, farmers, bankers, elec- tricians, pharmacists and computer oper- ators of tomorrow. They are our future, and if they suffer, we all lose. AmolisaiMMINS tion • • • WHAT'S ON YOUR. MIND? • • • The Times Advocate continues to welcome letters to the editor as a forum for open discussion of local issues, concems, complaints and kudos. WE ASS THAT YOU KEEP YOUR LETTERS TO A MAXIMUM OF 300 WORD& 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. 1 Toronto -- Reporters have asked Ontario pre- miers many questions over the past century, but until recently never asked a premier to stop swearing at them. This landmark of dubious distinction was reached when the media were invited to ob- serve and photograph Premier Mike Harris and his caucus at work. A TV cameraman unfortunately aimed his camera at briefing papers Harris had in front of him and the premier warned him succinctly to bugger off,' adding the career advice 'use your fucking head.' The press gallery representing reporters and photographers wrote to the premier explaining that cameramen routinely focus on white paper to obtain appropriate light settings and in any case the camera was not switched on. It pointed out also the photographers were in- vited in to take pictures, so the onus was on those who invited them to make sure they did not leave confidential material lying around. The gallery, which has to sit through the daily debates in the legislature and has absorbed some of their language, said the premier's com- ments were 'abusive and beneath the dignity of your office.' It warned darkly that 'Queen's Park journalists are not accustomed to, nor prepared to accept, being verbally abused by premiers during the routine performance of their jobs.' This was by far the most strongly -worded let- ter ever sent to a premier by the gallery, whose missives over the years have been few and more mundane. It asked, mote typically, Tory premier William Davis in 1980 to hold more sit-down press con- ferences instead of the rabble -like scrums he preferred (as does Harris) at which he could ac- cept only questions he wanted to answer. Davis promised regular press cdnferences, but they never materialized. The gallery wrote to Liberal premier David Peterson complaining he failed to notify it he was having a meeting with Quebec premier Robert Bourns*. Peterson explained it was not important, merely about the Meech Lake Ac- cord. Theioutilleits wrote a similar protest when imple Cruelties Brenda Burke Housework: the seventh wonder Of all life's little cruelties mankind must suffer through, the worst has got to be household chores. Yup - all work having to do with caring for the home including the time-consuming tasks of cleaning those round things under stove elements and gathering up dust balls from under the couch. And pets that shed only add to the workload. Now that we live in a bigger house with hardwood and linoleum floors, I can actually see every bit of dirt that hangs around, unlike before when it would magically disappear into the thick shagginess of the carpet. The cruel thing about all this work that we probably spend at least a total year of our lives on, is that once it's accomplished, the benefits are only temporary. Shine those bathroom taps, scrub that floor until you see the reflection of the glowing lights above it, cut the grass until it's half an inch tall and stuff all the clean laundry into welcoming closets. Work your butt off but every chore you've completed will, more often sooner than later, become aggravatingly...undone. Worse yet, there doesn't seem to be a way around this problem. Dirt and disarray always have and always will be around to plague us, torture us and make us rip our hair out strand by strand. At the risk of being politically incorrect or sexist or overgeneralizing or something like that, I'll admit it generally seems like, more often than not, that women tend to, most of the time, get stuck with possibly most of this work. I've seen many women accept their fate as it comes. Even the most workaholic and independent types seem to end up doing the cooking, cleaning and toilet scrubbing. Some claim they actually like doing housework. It gives them a sense of efficiency as they rhythmically whip everything in shape just in time for the arrival of company. For some it's a form of exercise and/or a chance to let their mind wander. Being a visual person and somewhat of a perfectionist, housework bothers me because even if the house is clean (or at least tidy) it seems some little thing is always out of place. A dirty glass will clutter the freshly Windexed counter top, my husband's shirt will be wrapped up in a ball beside the microwave, the old flowered sheets will peek out from under the new striped comforter on the bed or the bathroom mirror will have fuzzies on it from wiping shower steam off with a damp towel. On other days however, I couldn't care Tess if the ceiling was caving in or if I had to wade through cat and dog hair up to my knees. Most of the time, I'm lucky if the dishwasher is working right and yisitors get a spotless plate without a trace of pet hair, dust or soap. But actually that's my own fault since those dishes, like the stairs, are black. However, I'd still like to believe I've come a long way since 1 lived at university in a co-ed existence and was surrounded by someone else's crud -crusted sinks and beer-stenched orange carpets. Premier needs to show more res train t Peterson restored a minister who left under a cloud, Ken Keyes, back to his cabinet in an un- precedented secret ceremony away from Toron- to, like exhuming a body in the dead of night. Harris, it could be argued, merely used lan- guage that many others including cameramen use. Much the same words were heard at least a dozen times in a so-called action movie on prime -time TV a night or two later. At least that had a perfunctory warning: 'Viewer discretion advised: some scenes con- tain coarse language', which still does not ex- cuse it. Harris also is supposed to set a better exam- ple. His government preaches constantly about promoting family values and high moral stan- dards, but he used language that would be of- fensive in the vast majority of homes and he should know whatever he says in public is like- ly to be reported. Previous premiers never used such language, at least where anyone who would report it could hear. Davis, the longest serving premier in re- cent years, was never heard to say even 'damn' in public. Frank Miller, who succeeded Davis, and Pe- terson were equally circumspect. New Demo- crat premier Bob Rae, Harris's predecessor, once let slip what most would consider a swear word but not in the same category as Harris' mouthful. Harris may be allowing resentment of news media to get to him, because he has complained of bias, although he gets much friendlier cover- age than Rae, who daily faced newspaper head- lines like 'If we love Ontario, we must stop the NDP,"Ontario is not a place to grow,' 'The Communist threat in Ontario's NDP' and and 'Say goodbye to Rae and his Reds.' Rae once commented bitterly: 'If I taught my dog to walk on water, the media would report 'Rae's dog can't swim." It was also Rae who when asked what a pre- mier's greatest need is replied 'patience' -- most Ontarians would expect their premier to show more restraint. - tp 4