HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance Times, 1995-12-20, Page 5WEDNES Y, DECEMBER 241885
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ark together to create
a better nation united
Dear Editor:
On October 30, we almost lost
Canada.
Today, we can choose to do
nothing and run the risk of losing
our Canada, sometime in the future
by default, or we can choose to em-
bark on a people crusade to make
Canada work for all Canadians.
"The 20th Century belongs to
Canada” was a popular dream
shared by Canadians 100 years ago.
Today the United Nations de -
'dares Canada the number one
country in the world — and on Octo-
ber 30, our Canada was preserved
by a mere 50,000 votes, or approxi-
mately one per cent of Quebec vot-
ers.
We are grandparents, a nurse and
a farmer and former sales' rep., and
we live on a gravel road in Morris
Township, Huron County, Ont., We
have a family of five, and they and
their spouses have blessed us with
eight grandchildren.
Two days before the vote, thou-
sands of everyday Canadians from
across this land, joined with every-
day citizens of Quebec in a last
minute effort to save Canada — who
knows for sure — but that "everyday
people rally" may have saved Can-
ada.
Everyday people, meeting, talk-
ing, singing and cheering everyday
people, we believe can make Cana-
da work for all Canadians.
Will Rogers is quoted as saying
"He never met a man he didn't like
— I've never met a person that I got
to know that I didn't appreciate.
What if:
Service clubs, towns, cities,
churches, businesses, farmers, indi-
viduals, etc. organized exchanges
of their members with similar
groups in Quebec, with translaters
to facilitate communication at com-
bined events like meetings, picnics,
barbecues, etc., etc.
During my sales career, and to-
day with our farm customers, we
have people who at times are not
satisfied with our products and ser-
vices, or in plain words, have com-
plaints.
To resolve complaints, the first
rule is to listen carefully while the
problem is clearly stated, and ask
the dissatisfied party to suggest so-
lutions
•
Reforms not thought
through to save money
Dear Editor:.
UI, EI, OH MY!
Better late than never. But is it?
After two years of humming and
hawing, Human Resources Devel-
opment Minister Lloyd Axworthy
has finally unveiled his proposals
..to reform Canada's unemployment
insurance system.
The question is, was it worth the
wait? The good news is that the
federal government says the re-
forms will save about $2 billion in
benefit costs by the year 2002. Ax-
worthy also claims that the changes
will create up to 150,000 jobs a
year through a number of govern-
ment programs. The bad news is
that this may not be enough.
The $2 billion savings only rep-
resents a 6% reduction in pay -outs -
hardly the stuff of serious fiscal re-
straint. And the 150,000 jobs creat-
ed by government intervention are
likely to be more than off -set by
the disastrous effects U1 premiums
have on employment (The Bank of
Canada estimates that 130,000 jobs
were lost between 1989-93 because
of high payroll taxes). The centre-
piece of the reform package in-
cludes a watered-down two-tiered
system:
People who collect U( (to be re-
named El for Employment Insu-
rance ) repeatedly will pay a penal-
ty. Every time workers use the
program over a 5 year period, their
benefits will drop by one percent-
age point. But there's a catch. Re-
peat users would only face a maxi-
mum reduction of 5% of what they
previously received. That's not
much of a disincentive to chronic
UI abusers,
Does anyone seriously think that
those milking the system will he
dissuaded by a measly 5% reduc-
tion in their benefits'? Another ma-
jor change involves basing benefits
on the number of hours worked by
an individual. Currently, benefits
are calculated on a weekly basis.
The hourly system will help to raise
the period of time needed to qualify
for UI, thus making for lower pay-
ments in some cases. In other cas-
es, however, workers will actually
receive higher pay -outs.
Forestry workers, for example,
who on average already receive
$6.17 in UI benefits per dollar con-
tributed (compared to finance
workers who receive only 58 cents
per dollar), will likely collect even
more. Moving to an hourly system
might actually compound the prob-
lem of an inter -industry transfer of
wealth.
As part of his effort to get people
off UI and into jobs Mr. Axworthy
is reverting back to the old Liberal
tradition of make-work projects.
Like the infrastructure program be-
fore it, a new community job crea-
tion slush fund will be created to
provide low-paying, short-term em -
4
ployment.
While no one would argue that
it's better to have people .working
than sitting around on the dole,
these type of schemes don't pro-
duce lasting employment. They do,
however, add to the national debt.
And what about turning UI (or EI,
or` whatever you want to call it) into
a true insurance plan where the pre-
miums an individual pays reflect
the risk that that person has of be-
coming unemployed? Forget about
that.
The new changes will actually
move El farther away from real in-
surance. Higher income earners, for
instance, will be penalized - they'll
be paying their usually high premi-
ums while having their benefits
taxed back starting at $48,750.
So what's the final verdict? Giv-
en all of this, one can only con-
clude that the government is not
really serious about UI reform.
The failure to create a true insu-
rance plan and to cut payroll taxes
means that economic growth will
suffer and fewer jobs will be creat-
ed.
Chalk it up to another wasted op-
portunity.
Paul Pagnuelo
Ontario Taxpayers Federation,
Ajax, Ont.
Clearly the 49.4 per cent of Que-
bec voters who voted yes to start
proceedings to leave Canada have
serious complaints.
Let's then listen carefully with
an open mind to those sincere Yes
and No Quebec voters and have
them clearly state their complaints
with Canada, and the solutions they
suggest to make Canada work for
all Canadians.
Any organization I belong to —
Canadian Shorthorn Association,
my Church, etc. — allows a 50 per
cent plus one vote to decide operat-
ing decisions. But to alter the major
direction of the group requires a
majority of usually of about 60 per
cent.
On Oct. 30 the Quebec referen-
dum was conducted virtually in iso-
lation to Canada, with no agreed
upon rules. No one knew in the
event of Quebec leaving Canada,
what Canada's position was on
many crucial matters: what per cent
of national debt to be assumed by
the Country of Quebec, what about
passports, currency, federal proper-
ty in Quebec, geography and sup-
port or abandonment of our aborigi-
nal citizens if they choose to
separate from Quebec.
Without many of these issues be-
ing resolved before another vote is
held how can voters make an in-
formed decision. The separatists
are reported to be saying that the
ball is in the federalists court and
are waiting for them to respond.
Surely since Canada is at stake,
Canadians must give top priority to
the rules of the game, should Que-
bec or any other province or territo-
ry decide to secede.
According to the polls taken
since the referendum, up to 70 per
cent of yes voters want to negotiate
a deal that would keep them in
Canada.
With a combination of "get to
know exchanges", a positive reso-
lution•of complaints and an honest
effort to establish rules of secession
for all Canadians, we everyday Ca-
n;dians can help ourselves and our
elected leaders enter the 21st Cen-
tury full of promise for our future.
Let's start today to make Canada
work better for all Canadians.
WHAT ARE WE DOING
We are arranging an exchange of
our village service club and a vil-
lage club in Quebec.
We are pressing our government
reps to establish the rules of seces-
sion, listen carefully to complaints
of our citizens and develop a plan
to make Canada work better for all
Canadians, all done in open ses-
sions.
We love Canada and want to pre-
serve and improve it for our grand-
children and all grandchildren
across this great land.
If you like our plan, feel free to
use it.
If you have better ideas, please •
share them, let's build now and let
us not lose our Canada by default.
Ross and Mary Procter,
Brussels
Time for better
economic ideas
Ffirst off, I know it's been a
while. It must be that time
of year again, it seems at
Christmas time our inter-
ests are pulled in lots of different
directions.
Anyway, enough of the idle
chatter. I don't know if it's me or
not but it really seems that our
government (which by the way is
supposed to be on our side) has
completely forgotten who it's
friends and foes are.
I understand that our provincial
and federal governments are in
debt up to their snowbanks. But,
why do our leaders always move
ahead and think later? I agree that
we have to make cuts, huge cuts.
Mike Hams promised us tax cuts
and in my opinion he should have
started there.
Once we knew that we would
have more liquid cash on hand be-
cause of the tax cuts I think we
would have loosened our wallets
and started spending more money.
When that happens, the economy
would improve and more jobs
would be created along with more
small businesses opening up.
I also feel that any cuts made,
must be felt by all the people in
the province, not just a select
In
My
Opinion'
Bruce MORGAN
group. We are all here as people
from this province and we should
all feel the pain of any action that
our government makes.
It was made very clear to us in
the early fall that our highways
wouldn't be cleared of snow as
fast this winter. making that deci-
sion will cost a Targe number of
people their lives over the next
few months. Is that a really smart
decision to make? I don't think
so. We can come up with better
ideas that will save our province
money and will share the burden
of the cutbacks equally amongst
all of us.
With Christmas and the holi-
days just around the corner all my
family would like to wish you and
your's a very Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year.
Bruce can be heard weekend
mornings on 96.7 CHYM-FM in
Kitchener.
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Dave, Don, Mitch, Paul, Mike, Dave,
Honey with Jillian, Mark (absent)
"From Our 5fome 7o yours ...
Wishing you a Warm and Safe Holiday season"
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