Zurich Citizens News, 1973-05-31, Page 12PAGE 12 ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS
THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1973
fro
Queens Park
A three day Federal -Provin-
cial conference was held in
Ottawa this week with Ontario's
Premier Davis and Treasurer
John White in attendance along
with the first Ministers from the
other nine provinces and the
Federal Government. The conf-
erence was called to discuss the
Federal contribution to shared -
cost programs among other
issues such as inflation and ec-
onomic policies. The Federal.
Government now pays about half
the operating costs of such shar-
ed cost programs as medicare,
hospital insurance and post sec-
ondary education, while the
Provinces pay the other half and
administer the programs which
fall under Provincial jurisdiction,
The Federal contribution in
1973-74 is $1.5 billion for hosp-
ital insurance, $710 million for
medicare and $1.02 billion for
post secondary education. The
only other major shared -cost
program at present is the Canada
Assistance Plan, whereby the
Federal Government pays the
Provinces currently $905.3
million to meet about half of
their welfare costs. The Federal
share of these four programs is
now $4,137, 300, 000 or 22,5
per cent of the Federal budget
of $16.4 billion.
Ontario's proposal was to rem-
ove the Federal Government fron
shared -cost programs and to
have the Government turn over
to the provinces a share of the
income tax which it now rec-
eives. The Federal Government
receives about 71 per cent of all
personal income tax collected
in Canada.
The provinces rejected unan-
imously proposed Federal change
in the financing of post second-
ary education, but were a little
more receptive to Federal pr op-
osals to change the financing
arrangements for shared -cost
health programs. But the confer-
ence broke up without any firm
commitments by either side to
implement the proposed changes
Hearings continued all week
by the select committee of the
Legislature into Ontario Hydro's
dealings with Canada Square
Corporation for construction of
a $45 million head office build-
ing. Hydro chairman, George
Gathercole, was on the hot seat
most of the time and pleaded
ignorance when confronted with
a series of memoranda from sen -1
for Hydro officials dealing with
the plans for the new building
which is now being constructed
on a leaseback arrangement by
Canada Square Corporation,
headed by Gerhard Moog, a
close friend of Premier Davis.
A confidential memorandum
received by Gathercole in Nov-
ember, 1971, recommended
that the job of building the new
head office go to "the developer
in whom we have complete
confidence." It did not name
the developer but under stiff
questioning Mr. Gathercole
finally agreed that anyone who
read the memo would have to
conclude that the reference was
to Canada Square.
The memorandum was written
three months after Canada
Square was supplied with draw-
ings of a shelved design for the
project and well before an invit-
ation went out to four other
developers to submit competing
proposals.
Gathercole's inability to recol
lett important matters leading
up to the contract being finally
given to Canada Square Corpor-
ation frustrated the committee
members into asking who decide,
on policy at Hydro. James Bul-
lbrook (L. Sarnia) said it would
appear that decisions are made
by management staff and then
rubber-stamped by the power
commission.
Transportation Minister, Gord-
on Carton, announced a $317.6
million capital construction
program which will involve
work on 632 miles of highway
and the construction of 95 bridge
Much of the expenditure will be
in the Toronto, Ottawa, Niagara
Falls and Sudbury areas.
Responding to a question by
Albert Roy (L. Ottawa East), whc
charged in the Legislature that
one company, Imperial Optical,
controlled the Board of Ophthal-
mic Dispensers, Health Minister,
Richard Potter, said his ministry
is investigating to ensure there
is no conflict of interest.
A question concerning the
protection of rental tenants from
building defects was raised by
Elie Martel (N. D. P., Sudbury
East), at a Legislature commit-
tee meeting. The Minister of
Consumer and Commercial
Relations informed the commit-
tee that the question of comp-
ensation and repair of such
defects was up to the individual
and was not the responsibility
of the municipality.
Labour Minister, Fern Guin-
don. gave ground to pressure by
municipalities opposed to relin-
quishing their control over con-
struction safety inspection and
will introduce a compromise
bill permitting regional munic-
ipalities and those with more
than 100, 000 residents to conduc
their own inspections. The orig-
inal bill would have turned over
all construction safety inspectior
to the province. The new bill
will establish a maximum fine
of $10, 000 with an additional
$500 a day for failure to obey
an inspector's order, and terms
of imprisonment of up to 12
months.
A report tabled in the Legis-
lature by Health Minister, Dr.
Richard Potter, proposed tight
controls on health costs that
would directly affect medical
care to Ontario residents. Pat -
Obituary
MISS DOROTHY ERB
A life-long resident of this
area, Miss Dorothy Erb passed
away in Goderich Alexandra
Hospital on Saturday, May 26,
in her 53rd year. She was born
in Stanley Township on May 12,
1921, a daughter of the late Mr.
and Mrs. Aaron Erb.
Surviving are three brothers,
Gordon, R.R.2, Zurich; Leroy,
R. R.1, Zurich; and Harold, of
G oderich.
Funeral service was held at
the Westlake funeral home,
Zurich, on Tuesday, May 29,
at 2 p.m., with interment in
the Blake Mennonite Church.
Rev. C. Kuepfer officiated.
MRS. WESLEY WOLFE
A Dashwood resident, Mrs.
Wesley Wolfe passed away at
South Huron Hospital, Exeter,
on Monday, May 28 in her 86th
year. She was the former Sylv-
ia Pfaff. Her husband pre -dec-
eased her some years ago.
Surviving are three sons,
Stewart, of Dashwood; Murray,
of Montreal; and George, of
Toronto. There are also seven
grandchildren and two great
grandchildren.
The funeral service was held
at the T. Harry Hoffman funer-
al home, Dashwood, on Wednes•
day, May 30, at 2 p.m., with
interment in the Dashwood Unit-
ed Church Cemetery, Goshen
Line, Rev. B. Guy officiated.
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ients and doctors abusing the
medical insurance plan will be
reviewed and penalized. The
report also recommends the
establishment of studies of other
ways of paying doctors than by
fee for service.
Several cabinet ministers met
the Legislatures Public Accounts
Committee in its investigation
of possible abuses of the use of
Government aircraft. Darcy
McKeough, one of the top three
aircraft users, refused to apolog-
ize for the use of the aircraft
by his wife and friends. He
maintained that cabinet minist-
ers should have virtually unres-
tricted use of aircraft. An anal-
ysis of $87, 000 paid for travel-
ling expenses to members of
parliament is to be ready for
the committee next week. Al-
most $11, 000 of it was paid to
Leo Bernier, Minister of Natural
who said about $7, 000 of it was
for commercial airline travel
to his Northern Ontario riding.
The Commission on the Leg-
islature tabled its report at the
end of the week, proposing that
the basic indemnity of a private
member be increased to $15, 000
and that the tax free allowance
be increased to $7500. It abol-
ishes the per diem payments to
members serving on select com-
mittees, and establishes new
means to permit these members
to be fairly reimbursed for exp-
enses actually incurred. It woulc
discontinue the practice of ap-
pointing MPP's to permanent
boards and commissions.
Ontario is challenging Ottawa'
control over telecommunications
Gord Carton, Minister of Trans-
portation and Communication.
announced in the Legislature
that the Ontario Government is
looking to an era of shared resp-
onsibilities with Ottawa over
telecommunications control and
eventual total control of cable
system licencing. The tele-
communication field covers
radio, television, cable telev-
ision and telephone.
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