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The Times Advocate, 2008-10-08, Page 66 Times–Advocate Wednesday, October 8, 2008 Opinion Forum News Economic storm clouds force Canadian needed response Public meeting Dear Editor: The shock of economic downturn is bridging the disconnect between our recent casino economy and the stark new Letters, realities. The good news is Ai• to the the realization at last, the economy is broken Editor because now serious reme- dies can be implemented. Canadians must know real hopeful solutions are home- grown and your vote on Tuesday allows alternatives. Please exercise your vote. The illusion of endless overflowing wealth where "the fundamentals are strong" in an unregulated free market are truly exposed now. The grand irony is that free- wheeling capitalists are now needing bailouts from the public taxpayer - over -leveraged bankers, insurers, bro- kers, mortgagors from Bay and Wall St. are victims of greed, fraud and their own daring. Global markets shudder, intertangled by bad debt and cash shortages. For Canada, this revelation came with clearly gathered storm clouds. So how do prudent Canadians proceed? Accountability begins when voters demand government serve them first and the corporate world is reined in for the common good of this greatest of nations. Here's the specific list to re -seize Canada for us and our families. 1) Return the "fractional reserve system" (banned '93 Mulroney) to control money supply in chartered banks to speed or slow the economy (to limit inflation) on govern- ment order. 2. Save billions yearly by using Bank of Canada credit at one per cent rate (we are its shareholders constitu- tionally), freeing up tens of billions now going to unnec- essarily enrich our private chartered banks that Canada borrows from. 3. Re -regulate Canadian pension funds to add incen- tives for reputation to stimulate jobs and research here. Add security too by barring pension investments in high- ly volatile derivatives. 4. Enforce due diligence of CEOs and CFOs personally. 5. Glue tax incentives for the real manufacturing, transportation energy sectors considering national inter- ests and future needs. 6. Co-ordinate security regulations across 10 provinces to stabilize trade and risk factors for investors. 7. Enhance Asian and European trade to make us less harmonized with the USA, thus less vulnerable. 8. Legislate chartered banks to limit loans to day - traders who by leverage, destabilize our dollar too often. 9. Beware of inflated real estate markets where prices are out of line with the cost/price index. 10. Immediately regulate the $60 billion derivative market especially "over the counter" ones, not even on the books but able to ruin sectors or nations overnight. 11. Replace "firewalls" imposed post 1929, to separate once again, banks, insurers, mortgagors and broker- ages. Relaxed recent rules allow the M2 moneybase to overexpand with mergers and acquisitions. 12. Money supply must be government controlled by banking legislation so recessions and overexpansion are inflation-proofed centrally. 13. Only sound government can provide a climate for business investment. Cash shortages of lenders and unwillingness to borrow in volatile markets are primari- ly government's role to address ie. illiquidity in U.S. spreading to the world. 14. Regulate huge hedge funds of private secretive investors who don't have to report publicly. A perfect storm has gathered as investments falter, commodities yo-yo, energy spikes, cash is short, war threatens and an anxious mood prevails. Public debate over public or private or mixed control of our way of life is lacking. Oh how Canada needs a statesman with a new vision for the greatest blessed nation on Earth. The politician we elect next Tuesday deserves our prayers and thankfulness. God's plan for clear family roles, communities who share, care and love one anoth- er, based on volunteers who practise the ethic of co- operation, is today pitted against the modern world of selfish competition expressed daily in its socio/economic Darwinism. That first choice was and is free. The last choice was and is unaffordable. Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge." At its meeting on Aug. 5, South Huron council ordered staff to produce a new water rate bylaw. They were very specific on its format - it was to be structured on a per living unit basis. When you consider that the previ- ous proposed water rate bylaw was also constructed on a per living milt basis, and it created so much flack that it was abandoned, such a directive did not make much sense. But council did it any- way. Over the following few weeks, I spoke to sever- al councilors and staff. I said there has to be a public meeting on the new bylaw. Each indicat- ed that since there had been a public meeting on the previous proposed bylaw, they did not feel one was needed for this one. I spoke to council at the Sept. 2 meeting, stressing the need for a public meeting on the matter. Coun. David Frayne agreed. The rest were silent. So you can imagine my consternation when I read in the Oct. 1 T -A that CAO Roy Hardy had indicated to the the T -A that council would discuss the bylaw and then adopt it at the Oct. 20 meeting, without holding a public meeting. This in spite of the fact that the Watson (con- sultant) report said there should be one (page 10, Next steps, "receive input from public and council"). It appears council has chosen to reject the only rec- ommendation in the report that makes sense. While the dollar figures have changed, the basic fact remains: if you copy flawed methodology to produce a new bylaw, you produce a flawed bylaw. This becomes obvious when calculations reveal that I, an apartment dweller, am to be charged $10.26 a cubic metre for water and sewage treatment, while the single family home on the next lot will be charged $4.27 a cubic metre (based on my actual consumption from last bill and reasonable esti- mate). Council, staff and its consultant seem to have diffi- culty seeing the inequality in this. I wonder if they would have the same opinion if they were to go into a gas bar, put 10 litres in their compact car, paying $1.25 a litre for the privilege, and then discover that the guy at the next pump put 50 litres in his Hummer at 50 cents per litre. I have said in the past that I do not object to pay- ing for the water I use. But I am more than slightly peeved that this bylaw says I have to pay 2.4 times as much per cubic metre than my neighbour when he uses five times as much. There are other inequities and downright faults in this proposed bylaw - too many, taking too long for a letter to the editor. Everyone on the South Huron Water Supply System will get shafted by one or more parts of this bylaw. I urge everyone on the system to contact council by letter, in person, or in chambers, to force a public meeting. Then compel council to create a new water rate bylaw - this time using common sense and "basic barnyard arith- metic," not PHD math and fantasy theories. The result will be a rate that treats all customers equal- ly. Respectfully and Patriotically, DAVID HERN, Woodham ROBERT DRUMMOND, Exeter Our vote is clear With less than one week left to go in the federal campaign, the pressure is on for all candidates to convince us of which person to vote for. We admit, the national campaign is not our priority. We believe like many do, that our choice is based on our local candidate. After all, he is the one that will take our views to Ottawa and will fight for our local concerns. Here in Huron -Bruce, six men are vying for this job. And no doubt, our choice is clear. Only one candidate has been visible for the past two years and has been involved in community support for over 15 years. The most disconcerting to us is the absence in campaigning of the Conservative candidate. Where has he been? While relaying to our electorate that we need to support his party, we are still left won- dering what he stands for. But let's get down to brass tacks. What is each one promising to do? We have not seen anything substantive as to what would each candidate do on a local platform, except the Liberal candidate. We have not seen any real policies relevant to our community on the candi- date's websites except for the Liberal one. When push comes to shove, who will be listening to us and our community? Without hesitation, our choice is clear. We will be voting for the candidate that has been listening to us from even before the campaign. We will be voting for Greg McClinchey. GEORDIE AND OLGA PALMER, Bayfield Arts cuts "short-sighted" I feel compelled to write and call attention to the myopic nature of Stephen Harper's $44 million cuts to Arts and Culture. The impact of these cuts will, without any doubt, result in the closure of a signifi- cant number of not -for profit arts organizations across the nation and substantial unemployment throughout this industry. As a professional artist and resident of Huron -Bruce, I feel it is my respon- sibility to speak to the impact these cuts will have, and to some extent address the intent with which they are being administered. According to StatsCan, from their published data on the Economic Contribution of Culture in Canada, our national arts and culture industry directly employs over 750,000 people. This is more than forestry, oil, fishing, mining and agriculture combined. This industry generates over $40 billion annually for the Canadian economy, approximately 4.5 per cent of our total GDP. Where is the fiscal prudence of cutting crucial funding to not -for -profits that generate this kind of national wealth and employment? This $44 million cut results in a per year savings to each tax payer of $1.30, or roughly a dime per month — at what cost? Consider the very real local case of the Blyth Centre for the Arts (the Blyth Festival), an organiza- tion many of you have come to know me through. These kinds of cuts directly impact the livelihood of hundreds of professional arts workers who prac- tice their craft here. Ask the business owners in the village of Blyth what the impact of having the the- atre in town is. Ask the homeowners who rent out rooms to visiting artists. Ask local hoteliers, B&B owners and campgrounds. Further still, ask any urban planner about the impact arts and culture play in rural revitalization projects. What about our Art Gallery, our Orchestra, our Festival singers? Stephen Harper has been quoted in the national media saying that Arts workers live in `Ivory tow- ers' and waste public dollars attending 'rich galas' — but is this a reality? According to StatsCan, the average artist's wage in Canada is $23,000, (well below the poverty line). In order to arrive at this average, consider that for every wealthy artist you have ever heard about, hundreds are living in deep poverty. What Stephen Harper also fails to mention is that he himself has attended dozens and dozens of galas with heads of business and heads of state, and all of those events fully funded by Canadian Taxpayers. I will confess that we hold a biannual gala auction at the Blyth Festival. It's true. When we do, we rent the community hall from the township, hire service groups like the Legion Ladies Auxiliary to provide dinner and the Lions Club to run the bar, and buy all of our decorations locally. I'll even admit that I have more than once snuck down into our costume department to find a nice enough suit to wear. To propose that these are evenings spent in ivory tow- ers is absurd. On the contrary, we are quite point- edly and specifically reaching out to the community at large in these moments, bringing them together around our common cause. And what is this common cause? What are the arts for anyway? Why should they be subsidized at all in the first place? I can tell you precisely what art is for: fellowship, pure and simple. As human beings, we profoundly need to be with others and to have them listen and understand us. This is precise- ly what every artist, the world over, is attempting to do: to bring us together in fellowship. This is our obligation as artists, to reach out and bring human- ity together to consider what we are, why we are, where we have been and where we are going. Ask any arts organization if they could survive with public or private philanthropy and you will uniform- ly here a resounding no. If you have a twenty dollar bill in your wallet I would urge you to take it out right now, flip it over and read the back of the bill. On it, you will find a quote from one of our nation's great writers, Gabriel Roy. The quote Reads, "Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?" Every time you pull out a twenty from now until this election, and beyond I urge you to consider the question posed here. I don't know if Stephen Harper has read the back of any of his twenty dollar bills, but I wish he had. This kind of short-sighted, unconsidered policy- making is unconscionable. It completely lacks fiscal prudence, and undervalues all of us as Canadians. Gu, GARRATT Goderich