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The Citizen, 1988-09-21, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1988. Changes already late If you run a business and nobody is using the service you provide, you figure you’re doing something wrong and change the service so you’ll get more business. The provincial and federal governments were told loud and clear last year that changes must be made in the Crop Insurance program to make it effective but nothing was done and now both the government and farmers are in a mess. Evidence given at the review into the crop insurance program showed that farmers weren’t taking advantage of the crop insurance program for many crops. The costs were just too great for the benefit they could see getting from the program since it covered only 80 per cent of the average crop and if a farmer had two farms and lost the crop on one but not the other, the two farms were pooled to average the yield. But the reforms didn’t come, perhaps because of the difficulty of federal-provincial politics in this country. Whatever the reason, farmers shied away from the unreformed crop insurance program this year and now, after one of the worst droughts in history, are facing devastating losses. Many crops seem to be down 40 per cent from normal yields. Now both farmers and the governments find themselves in a bind. How can the government seem fair to farmers who aren’t insured, at the same time is it fair to farmers who bought crop insurance? If they give money to people who didn’t have crop insurance, will they undermine the whole insurance program, letting farmers think they’ll be bailed out by the government in time of disaster anyway so why bother with crop insurance at all? The answer would be so much simpler if the needed reforms had been done to the crop insurance program. As Roger . George, First Vice-president of the Ontario Federation of* Agriculture said at a meeting in Clinton last week, if the government had given farmers the crop insurance program they asked for and had been promised, farmers wouldn’t have had much justification for the claim this year that the government should come to their aid. But for whatever reason the governments failed to deliver on crop insurance reform. Given the already heavy load of farm debt in the province and the precariousness of the existence of many farms, the province may have little choice but to come to the aid of farmers to prevent many farmers having to get out of the business and driving land prices down further. Let’s hope at least though that all this mess is the kindling needed to light a fire under the provincial and federal governments to bring about real reform to the crop insurance program so that in future, farmers have little excuse for not being covered by crop insurance. How soon they forget Nobody has as short a memory as a poor person who has made good in the world of business. That fact was demonstrated again this week when Robert Campeau, the billionaire who rose from poverty in Sudbury to take over some of the largest retail chains in the U.S. called for drastic cuts in social programs in Canada to bring down the deficit. People like Mr. Campeau seem to start reading the propaganda of their own PR departments after a while and begin to think they really are self-made. They owe everything they have to theirown ability. Luck, connections, maybe evena little skullduggery, none of these things played any part in their rise from poverty to ridiculous wealth. What’s more, anybody couldhave, perhaps should have, donethesame. If they didn’t, it’s their own fault and others should be expected to help them out. ‘ ‘The system of private enterprise is not a system where you are to assist every Tom, Dick or Harry that can’t look after his business” he told reporters after a speech to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, a group of people who would no doubt feel the same way. ‘‘It’s brutal that way ... but it is the best system I know of.” So Mr. Campeau would have the federal government slash social programs that protect people who can’t make it in the good old free enterprise world, in much the same way Margaret Thatcher has slashed programs in Britain. This is much preferable to the harm that would be done to the economy by raising taxes, he said. Meanwhile down in the U.S., Mr. Campeau has embarked on some deficit reduction of his own. Faced with $5 billion in debts from the takeover of U.S. Federated Department Stores, he is laying off 30,000 employees. One wonders what they’d have to say if it were they, not Mr. Campeau who were making the speeches. Would they readily admit that it’s all their own fault they aren’t as rich as Mr. Campeau, that they weren’t smart enough to have the connections with the Canadian government that helped build an empire office building for civil servants to administer social welfare programs? The Harvest weather Mabel’s Grill There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel's Grill where the greatest minds in the town [if not in the country’] gat her for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Fili­ bustering Society. Since not just everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from lime to time. MONDAY: Billie Bean came up with a new scheme to get rich this morning. He says he’s going to take up writing books. Julia Flint was quick to point out that you don’t get rich writing books in Canada and besides, she didn’t even know Billie could write. Billie said he wasn’t sure he could either, but it didn’t matter. He figures on getting rich from the books he doesn’t write. Talking about all the fuss about the new bookaboutJohnTurner, “Reignof Error”, and the other books that are out on Brian Mulroney and Ed Broadbent, Billie said he figures there would be more money in having the politicians pay him not to write the book and drag their names through the mud than there would be in publishing the book. “Who really wants to read 300 pages about John Turner any­ way?” But, said Tim O’Grady, that is called blackmail. Yeh, said Billie but wouldn’t it be ironic justice. We would blackmail them for a change instead of them blackmail­ ing us: you vote for us or the other guys will ruin the country. TUESDAY: Hank Stokes was saying this morning that now we’ re really getting somewhere. The federal government isn’t fooling around with tax cuts or more day care, they’re going right to the heart of it. They want to make us happy. Seems the government is worried about the fact one in eight Canadians will suffer some kind of mental health problem and they want to know what will make us happy. “Don't tempt me,” Tim said. WEDNESDAY: Ward Black said he was sad to see in the newspaper this morning that the striking postal workers had agreed to go back to work. “Seems to me my mail’s been faster since they went on strike than it was before,” he said. “Now I guess I have to go back to poor service.” THURSDAY: It is truly the Cana­ dian way, Tim was saying this morning, about a story he read in yesterday’s newspaper. Seems there’s this big pile of garbage at the Toronto airport that comes off international flights. They can’t send it to landfill sites because they’re worried it might have germs in it that aren’t normally found in Canada so they’ve got to incinerate it. But we haven’t got an incinerator to do the job. So the latest plan is to truck the stuff to Niagara Falls, New York to an incinerator there. “We’ll pay Americans to do the job for us then they can let the smoke blow across the border and make more acid rain. It’s a true Canadian tradi­ tion.” Citizen. P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Phone 523-4792 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario, by North Huron Publishing Company Inc Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $17 00, yr ($38 00 Foreign) Advertising is acceptedon the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited Advertising Deadlines Monday, 2pm - Brussels; Monday, 4pm - Bly th We are not responsible for unsolicited newscriptsor photographs Contents of I he Citizen are © Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Editor & Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, DaveWilliams I Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968