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Times-Advocate, 1986-12-31, Page 4• 1 Page 4 Times -Advocate, December 31, 1986 Imes dvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235-1331 IORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publkations Limited Crass commercialism The Christmas season generally brings forth some examples of contradic- tions and perhaps among the most noticeable this year was an album con- taining some sacred songs of the season. The particular album in question was produced by the Ontario Lottery Corporation. To many, the concept of lotteries and the story of the nativity are hardly, synonymous although the promoters ob- viously never miss a chance to say "come, all ye faithful". It's an example of crass commer- cialization at its worst! Surely it's enough that the Corpora- tion is already providing stiff competition for church bingo without stepping further into other facets of that domain. Meet the demand A recent advertisement for one of the large food chains mentioned the fact that we Canadians seldom get the highest grade of locally made cheddar cheese, simply because it is in such demand in Europe that little remains for the Cana- dian market. Several years ago George Kell, who at that time made frequent business trips to Europe each year, told us that in con- versation with the Canadian trade com- missioner in Vienna he had learned that Canadian cheese was so much in demand in Austria that our exports to that coun- try could be multiplied many times over - if adequate supplies of cheddar could be found. At the same time, over those years, many Ontario cheese factories were be- ing closed because, under the quota system, they could not purchase enough milk to keep their operations profitable. These closures continue. The Molesworth cheese factory, as one example, produc- ed excellent cheese, but its doors have now been permanently closed for months. With all we have heard about developing our off -shore markets and decreasing trade deficits, what in the world goes on here? We tap mak world-clags product; the market is there, waiting ,in vain, but "a quota system' prevents Canadians from doing business. It's time to stop crying about the loss of softwood exports and start concen- trating on a market we are' simply strangling right here in Canada. Wingham Advance Times Some touchy stuff Trying to uncover the real story behind this country's Unemployment In- surance system is like peeling an onion. The more layers you pare off, the greater the chance that you'll be crying: tears of frustration if you're committed to reducing the acknowledged abuse of the system; tears of fear if you're wor- ried that reformists will gut a necessary income safety valve; and tears of anger if your own private boon-doggle is put in jeopardy. Touchy stuff, this, because so many people are in legitimate need of income when they're out of work. Emotions run high. Which helps explain why six people, headed by Claude Forget, hired by Ot- tawa to probe the UI system could not come .to anything like a consensus. In the end, though, it is not just this dissent that will scuttle this study. It is the fact that there is very little memorable in the Forget report. To be sure, there are bits and pieces that seem practical and make good sense. Forget's majority report does recommend scrapping government -run makework projects. Tbese do nothing to retain workers so they can escape the ping-pong cycle of welfare and UI. But_there is not much new here. It's been said before, most notably in the Macdonald royal commission on the economy. Macdonald recognized, and Forget has echoed, that a system which pays more to people in some parts of the coun- try than in others is inherently unfair. Nor does it make sense to pay more to people to stay in high unemployment areas. People should not be forced to leave home to look for work, but there is something wrong with a system that ' makes it so attractive to stay where jobs 1 are scarce. • Macdonald recommended, and Forget has confirmed, that retraining must become an intregral part of the unemployment solution. This is eminently sensible when you consider that employers, even in the midst of high unemployment, have trou- ble finding qualified employees. The Canadian Federation of In- dependent Business reports that 35 per- cent of its members across the country have such problems. Even in British Col- umbia and Alberta, where the provincial economies are not exactly booming, 18 percent can't find qualified help. Where Forget.misses the point is in not recommending how a retraining scheme should be structured and in not separating, in a satisfactory way, the welfare component in the current UI from the income insurance aspect. Macdonald recommended, and most' small businesses agree, that industries which habitually lay off workers in a given season should pay higher Unemployment Insurance premiums. It's called experience rating and it's a bedrock for most insurance plans, in- cluding auto insurance where drivers who make a lot of insurance claims pay higher premiums. Even the government is refusing to enter the debate now, saying it will wait until May to respond to Forget. Cynics might say they're waiting till seasonal employment picks up again after the winter hiatus - and maybe the polls will perk up by then, too. Those of us who are more charitable would prefer to think that they will use the time to consider the entire issue dispassionately, insisting that good sense and reason replace emotion and vote - grabbing as the decisive factors. CFIB Feature Service "ALL YOURS, KID I" Canada's. century? There -are fourteen years left before the 20th century is over. (Yes, fourteen, not thirteen, because the 21st century begins on January 1, 2001. ) Many Canadians are familiar with what Sir Wilfrid Laurier, prime minister from 1896 to 1911, was supposed to have said: "The 20th century belongs to Canada." His actual words, part of an ad- dress to the Canadian Club of Ot- tawa on January 18, 1904, were: "The 19th century was the cen- tury of the United States. I think we can claim that' it is Canada . t $shall fill the 20th century." re wasto stop, Laurier from c aims that. The thought he express was ngt- even his own. He was echoing James W. Longley, attorney - general of Nova Scotia, who was quoted in the Toronto Globe on April 12, 1902 a's follows: "Canada is here to stay. The beginning of this century marks an epoch of phenomenal progress in British North America. The 19th century was the • century of the United States. ' The 20th century is Canada's century." What Longley said and Laurier echoed, sounded brave and very prophetic at the time. Unfor= tunately, like so many other political prophesies, it did not quite come true. It was based on wishful thinking. What Canada got instead was World War 1 and the Great Depression. I don't know what F.W. Burton meant when he wrote in an article for the Cana- dian Journal of Economics and Political Science, in November 1936: "The 20th century was once supposed to belong to Canada, but it seems more and more like- ly that.only the first quarter of the century was really ours." It is very debatable whether even the first 25 years of this century belonged to Canada. But clearly, the 21st century on China. something had gone wrong. I don't think we're going to Pierre Elliott Trudeau said in 1968: "The future really belongs to those who will build it. The future can be promised to no one." And Herman Kahn, famous American futurologist, predicted in 1970: "The twenty-first century belongs to Japan, "while Earle move any mountains in the re- maining fourteen years of this century, do you? Our population is growing very slowly. Immigra- tion is• barely making up for Canadians leaving the country - mostly to the U.S. Our dollar re- mains weak, our interest rates and unemployment figures re- main high. Even our political stability is not what it used to be, and hardly anyone depends on our resources these days. And we can't give away our manutac- .1.twed eine-;l�# �a gok I I cliiiiiit*Inlifieis all that bad. But it jusLisn't the stuff that dreams and visions are made of. We'll manage to hang in there, by hook or by crook. We'll survive from overdraft to over- draft, from one company shut- down to another, frm one government bailout to other. And we'll survive in spit of - not because of - our politicians who with all their bungling and graft and narrow-minded partisan tac- tics never quite succeed in ruin- ing the country altogether. I don't know about you. But on this last day of 1986, I am very, very content about living in Canada, as a Canadian. Let the "great powers" have their glory, let them have the rest of this cen- tury in which they came close to ruining us all. I'll take this country with all its gaws and foibles, It'll suit me just fine to sit on the sidelines and watch world history being made as far away as possible. When the movers andhakers survey the rubble of yet nother "earthshak- ing event", nada will be there to welcome the weary and ex- hausted refugees. As far as I'm concerned, you can have this century, and the next, and the next... Birney, "Dean of Canadian Poets", said: "The 20th century belongs to the Moon." What hap- pened to the Canadian dream? O.K., we've made some wor- thwhile contributions in the world. We've supplied NASA with the Canadarm. We've had five Nobel Prize winners, from Ban - ting and Macleod to Pearson and Herzberg, to Polanyi (three of them were foreign -born) . Cana- dian Realist painters like 'Col- ville, Danby and Pratt are moderately well known abroad, as are some of our writers like At - woo and Davies. For a country with a population of 25 million we haven't done at all badly. But if you'd ask people around the would whose century this might be, they'd hardly come up with the name Canada. We're still only a moderately important' country. The 20th century belongs very much to the United States, the Soviet Union, Western Europe and Japan. We are still an also-ran. And as far as I'm concerned, I'd place my bets for Proud to be a part We have some friends who live in one of the suburbs of Detroit. They often cominent to us about the sad state of schools in their area. Overcrowded classrooms, outdated textbooks and 'equip- ment are all too common. There are frequent strikes by teachers who are leaving the profession in droves because of poor working conditions. Part of the problem is the way in which their schools are financ- ed. Any increases in board of education expenditures must be voted on directly by the people at election time. Faced with all of today's financial pressures and a question on their ballot such as "Do you wish to increase the millage rate this year?" most people quite understandably vote negatively each time, especially if they don't happen to have tcdren in the school system. Another problem they have is lof support for the educa- tional system from the state as opposed to the considerable grant structure which exists here in On- tario to help local boards with their costs. Education is probably the best bargain your tax dollar gets for you whether you have children in the system or not. In. Ontario the , average homeowner pays about $800.00 per year for education taxes, that is, about sixteen dollars per week. It matters not whether you By the Way by Syd Fletcher have one child or six. Let's com- pare that cost to'babysittingor daycare costs. If you've been paying either of these you're cer- tainly happy when the kiddies get on into the public school system. Ask yourself how much a fami- ly puts out for hockey or figure skating or piano lessons or general entertainment in a year. The expenses for these activities can easily approach the above figure yet if one were to set a priority surely a good education would be worth more in dollars than any of them. It is important to point out to all members of society that theytoo are receiving benefits fom education even though they are now senior citizens or may have been childless. Through educa- tion all kinds of services are sup- plied. We use lawyers, plumbers, mechanics, nurses and electri- cians. We all watch or listen to the radio and TV announcers. These people and many others had to be schooled and trained in order to bring us their services. A good comparison for this would be in the taxes which we pay for our fire department. Hopefully in my life time I will never have to call on them but I surely do not begrudge the dollars which my township pays to keep them on call. Our Ontario educational system is one of the best in the world, and cost -wise, we're get- ting tremendous value for our tax dollars. I'm proud to be a part of it.