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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-11-10, Page 5dave 1, There's plenty of talk in Ottawa about tax cuts, business concessions drops in provincial sales tax and, guaranteed incomes. Such stories frequently adorn the front pages of newspapers, enticing readers with paltry pay cheques. But nothing ever seems to materialize from the talk. They are not really promises but more of a political vehicle that goes around in circles. Stirring up hope and controversy and little else., But while our government suggests and the oppositions counter -suggest there is little stimuli generated for a bed ridden economy. Newly appointed Finance Minister Jean Chretien, who was heralded as a financial saviour, knew exactly what was ailing us but couldn't produce the curing elixir. Chretien pinpointed the problem to stingy Canadian spenders. The once free spending Canucks are now socking the dough into a growing lump in mat- tresses. And that's where the trouble lies. .. So the only alternative for Chretien was to offer Canadians token tax con- cessions in the hope that they would immediately race out to purchase new automobiles and a washer -spin dryer. w The government will supply $100 in tax concessions at the begginning of next year and all we have to do is have the audacity to go and blow it on something big and expensive. After all we would be doing it for our country. And it is a pressing obligation that would coefce any self-respecting patriot into unnecessary debt. As Remembrance Day approaches we must take into consideration that men gave their lives. for Canada and we are simply asked for our bankrolls and the ,sock full of money that has been tucked in the drawer for 20 ye.ars. v` Where has our sense of nationalism gone and why, when it is really needed, have Canadians turned against their, credit cards? It just shows the kind of stuff Canadians are made of. When the economy turns sour and our country desperately needs us, we turn our back and quit buying things with money we don't have. Its rarely been a deterrent before. But economics is more difficult to understand than people. Even Prime Minister Trudeau took a stab at a homespun remedy by bumping unem- ployed insurance premiums- to 1160 a. week or for those earning less than the maximum, two-thirds of their gross weekly pay. Now if a Canadian can earn $160 net, which could well be worth in excess of $200 gross per week, it's a wonder that t half of our .nation t avep.'t foresaken tb ' work ethic for UIC benefits, Lets .s face .it. If more people were unemployed and earning $160 per week they would have a lot more time to shop for thing they really didn't need. And they would have a whole- week at their disposal. The only thing that will turn our country around is if Canadian con- sumers start flaunting credit cards on more expensive domestic goods and ignore a Caribbean holiday for a two- week stint in the province of their choice. So' you see there is little choice in the matter. The country is calling on each Canadian to do his part. So go out and buy something you can't afford and have little use for. It will make Jean Chretien feel a whole lot better. E WEEK AFTER INFORMATION, BACKGROUND AND' -OPINION a to a4,>tiJ s:# County development officer; Cummings told a recent session ty Council that the county must tourism and industry if it wants e needed employment. Id county councillors that a new of monev is needed to com- the areas agriculture base that Huron County faces an c slump similar to that of the er of Canada. ings, indicated that 1,500 people ess resulting from the closure of sinesses and no new industries 84. HERE IN HURON locating in the area. He pointed out that Textral Fibres Ltd. Goderich, G and F Farm Machinery, Exeter and Huron Acoustics of Vanastra had closed recently and have yet to ,be replaced with new industry. Although the agriculture base and subsequent employment in the county were constant, there was a definite lack in industry to compliment agriculture. He cited industry and tourism as the two major sources for income and em- ployment. There are 1,500 people out of work in the county and Cummings explained that figure could rise with more people entering the work force withing the next year. Cummings added that although the development committee is working towards attracting new industry to Huron it has met with little success. Most companies are unable to think of expansion or relocations and are simply trying to make it threfugh the year. Three firms have plans to locate in Huron County but Cummings had no details on the number of jobs those firms would supply. But one of the major avenues the area should • explore, according to Cummings, is tourism. He claimed that tourism in Ontario is flourishing and employs approximately 165,000 people while turning an annual revenue of $2.6 billion. He estimated th"bt Huron County's share of that tourism revenue is substantial. Cummings said that a survey un- dertaken at the border city of Sarnia, Ontario indicated that travellers coming through that point spend $19 million during the tourist season and 48 per cent of the tourists in Ontario are from the United States. Cummings could only encourage council to take advantage of the tourism dollars available and suggested establishing new facilities and in- creasing advertising. In other county news, council endorsed a senior citizens housing policy that would have the county pick up any operating deficits form senior residences to establish a county residency rule. The executive committee suggested that effective use of•senior units could he realized if a one year residency rule was adopted. Under the rule the county will assume any deficit responsibilities. Now each municipality in which a senior citizens complex is located is responsible for 7 1,2 per cent of any operating deficit. But by accepting the responsibility of the deficit a municipality is providing housing for any senior citizen without the one year residency rule. The executive committee believed that the one year residency rule Should be expanded to cover the county if council was to become responsible for any deficits. PROVINCIAL POINTS io Health Minister. Dennis hospitals mighthave to cut 4,000 em - indicated there will be hospital ployees and charge patients a $5 daily backs and layoffs of hospital fee because of the budget squeeze. He. 1 to meet budget constraints>said the government has no plan to r. implement the user . fee for hospital ell told the Legislature he hopes patients and provincial sanction would f reductions can be handled by be required for hospitals to levy such a but said he was unable to rule fee. ossibility of layoffs, Outside the But he did admit that the increase next. re he refused to speculate on the Year in provincial funds to hospitals will of beds or hospital workers that be less than the rate of inflation and he ut. added that adjustments will be ell was asked in the House for necessary to live- within those budget se to the .tatement from the constraints. HospitalAssociation that Timbrell called the Ontario Hospital or RCMP security officer ended that. Prime Minister or members of the cabinet be are of the contents of a letter ring a raid of a news agency in inspector J.H.C. Vermette Ottawa headquarters after the asking authorities to reveal the of the letter. The letter read: he fact that the content of this t implicates and interests few part from federal authorities, I nd that this information be put Association statement premature since his ministry is working on the allocations in the 1978 budget. He said that hospitals should receive details on their share early next month. While he said he will not close whole hospitals he did say there will be surplus or unnecessary active treatment beds cut in the province. He suggested that a number of hospitals across the province will be affected. He said the province will have 'to revise downward our standards for provision of hospital beds to meet the reality of the times and the money available. But he said the quality of care will bel government ran into problems when it maintained... tried to close hospitals in 1976. Timbrell elaborated saying that maintaining a hospital bed does not necessarily mean maintaining quality hospital care. He claimed that over the last five or six years quality has been maintained without hospital beds with such things as day surgery and various forms of ambulatory care. Timbrell remarked that a great deal of Timbrell said he hasn't received the that kind of care is going on and more of final report of the bed study covering it is going to have to go on. He said the Chesley. Durham and Clinton Hospitals. province has, cut about 2,000 hospital The report on Doctors' Hospital in beds in the last 18 months. But the Toronto was received last spring and the Four hospitals took the province to court over the closures and won their case. Before the governments' appeal of the court decision was heard the province changed its approach and asked for local bed studies to be carried out in the four hospital areas. CANADA IN SEVEN at the disposition of the Prime Minister and or the security council." His suggestion to Inspector John Walsh, head of the RCMP's security force in Ottawa, accompanied a nine page analysis of the letter. The letter was written by Jacques Cossette-Trudel, an exiled Front de Liberation du Quebec terrorist now exiled in Cuba, The Keable inquiry into police ac- tivities continues but no documents made public so far have confirmed whether Trudeau or other cabinet ministers in the security council were ever informed of the letter. Solicitor General Francis Fox is witholding documents from the Keable inquiry on national security grounds. The analysis of the Cosette-Trudel letter was written by Marie -Claire Dube and refers to the break-in, of the news agency only as the source. Testimony at the inquiry has shown that the letter dated August '4, 197'4, was sent to Louis Vandelac, an executive of the Agence du Presse Libre du Quebec, from the Trudels who fled to Cuba after their part in the FLQ during the October Crisis of 19;0. It has been suggested that the letter only be shown to the cabinet to protect the policemen who conducted the raid. While the Keable inquiry continues government ministers are refusing to say whether or not Prime Minister Trudeau would appear before a com mission into RCMP conduct. Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark asked whether the government is prepared to let the Prime Minister ac- cept a subpoena from the McDonald Royal Commission, named after Edmonton Judge David McDonald. if the judge found it necessary to call Trudeau as a witness, 'Trudeau did not attend the recent house sitting after just returning from a holiday in the Bahamas. Justice Minister Ron Basford said the royal commission into RCMP conduct had sufficiently wide powers to determine fact. The commission was ordered last summer following charges that the national police force had been involved in illegal break-ins and thefts. hospital was told by Timbrell •it would remain open. But while there will not be any user fee levied for hospital care, Timbrell said there may be changes in the future in the means of funding the public health system. He said that he had no par- ticular financing scheme in mind but that a number of suggestions had been made including one calling for a geared - to -income payroll tax He said the difference between federal grants and revenue from the premium plan and the actual cost is about $2 billion a year. Clark, unsatisfied with the answer, asked whether the government, as a matter of policy would allow the prime minister to act as a witness. And he asked if there could be any limits on the disclosures of Trudeau? One member of the House asked for the resignation of former solicitor general, Warren Allmand, now con- sumer affairs minister, for what was described as Allmand's failure to accept responsibility for alleged RCMP actions when he was the political head of the farce. 4 gyre -dawn flood raced through ection of Georgia Sunday killing 3' people and injuring several day rescuers slogged through of mudd ors of the worst iflood insearchin story, thdam that was holding back a ellen lake burst on Sunday n avalanche of red water on to °liege campus 800 feet below ing 3; people including 20 At least 45 others were injured loods and the death toll is WD.LDWEEK estimated to be even higher. "It sounded like 50 oceans roaring down the hill." said Leah Dees, 18, one of the 425 students at the Toccoa Falls Institute, the religious college where damage was estimated to he in the millions of dollars. Dees waited to collect her thoughts before informing family in Orlando Florida that her uncle and aunt were among the victims. She said she would accept it as God's will and try to learn from it, President Jimmy Carter's wife, Rosalynr„ flew from Washington to Toccoa to view the destruction and of- fered aid to her fellow Georgians. She told survivors in a hospital that it was a terrible tragedy and that all the affected would have the supportof her and her husband as they rebuild. Governor George Rushee called the flooding a 'terrible disaster' and declared a state of emergency, it was the worst U.S. dam disaster since 118 people died in the 1972 Buffalo Creek flood in West Virginia. Most of the flood victims were college students, staff and their children. Most of the 250 residents of a neaNby trailer park escaped after volunteer firemen pounded on their doors and yelled for the sleeping oc- cupants to evacuate because of the flood, The raging torrent of water demolished college residences, campus buildings and 25 mobile homes. Bridges were washed away and se were cars. Giant oak trees were uprooted like tooth- picks and bodies were recovered as far away as six miles downstream. Chuck Dowell, a senior from Akron, Ohio was on the first floor of the three- storey dormitory when the water rushed through the windows of the building. He swam to safety with fellow student Charles Ford who said that they could hear people hollering and screaming for help but there was little they could do. Never at any time was there any warning of danger or threat that the dam would burst. Now state officials have planned regular inspection of por- tenti.ally dangerous darns in Georgia to avert a similar situation. President Carter declared his native state of Georgia a disaster site which will open the way for federal funds for relief and recovery efforts. The dam burstwas triggered by three days of heavy rains hut on Monday during the cleanup operations the 'sun ,broke through alleviating further fears of possible flooding. Most students of the small bible college at the base of the Toccoa Falls Dam accepted the tragedy philosophically viewing it as a test of their faith in God. The dam burst shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday after a man-made lake over- flowed its hanks. Water from the dam cascaded through a 40 foot ravine and down the 200 foot high Toccoa Falls, a tourist attraction in northern Georgia. Most of the students, faculty members and their families were asleep at the time the flood waters hit the campus. {