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_______ I. PAGE 4. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1974, WHITBY FREE PRESS CANADA PERMANENT CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW OFFICE HOURS BEGINNING JANUARY 18th Monday thru Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. CANADA PERMANENT TRUST COMPANY 22 KING STREET WEST, OSHAWA Which Safety Tips From OSL The snowmobile is a mot- orized vehicle designed to travel on snow. It is unique, the only one of its kind. In its natural habitat with even a modicum of common sense on the part of the operator, it has proven to be a safe and efficient means of travel. Take the snowmobile a- way from snow to the high hazards of hard-packed, icy roads and the proximity of motor vehicle traffic, ice cov- ered lakes and streams or a railroad right of way and the picture changes drastically. Ontario Safety League stat- istics prove this statement. To the League's know- ledge, SIXTEEN fatal snow- mobile accidents occured in Ontario during November & DeQember of the current sea- son. TEN snowmobilers met their death on public thor- oughfares in collision with motor vehicles or fixed ob- jects such as trees and rocks when their machines went out of control. FIVE snow-- mobilers drowned when they broke through the unsafe ice on lakes and streams. The SIXTEENTH snowmobiler w- as unable to stop in time to avoid smashing into the side of a moving train. Ihirteen of these fatal accidents occured during the hours of darkness. In the opinion of the Ont- ario Safety League, not one of the sixteen accidents was legitimate, not one of them occured on snow, the safe and natural habitat of the snowmobile. Safe snowmobiling depe- There is only today between you and tomorrow is why Canada Pension Plan benefits will be increased today and will be kept in line with the cost increases of tomorrow What this means to you as a beneficiary From January 1st 1974, Canada Pension Plan benefit payments will be adjusted to reach .. . then maintain a level in line with the actual cost of living. If you are receiving monthly benefits that began during the period 1967 to 1973, your benefits have been recalculated so that the amount you receive in 1974 is related to the actual increase in the cost of living over the years your benefits have been paid. When you receive your January 1974 benefit cheque, you will see that it has been increased. The increase in your payment will vary from 8% to 20% and will depend on the year in which your benefit first became payable. In future years, if living costs continue to rise, you can expect further increases in your benefits based on current cost of living data. What this means to you as a contributor As a contributor to the Canada Pension Plan, you are building -a basic and portable retirement plan for the future and at the same time providing current protection for yourself and your dependents against the possibility of severe disability or early death. In order to protect the value of your eventual benefits, the Canadian Parliament has passed legislation which ensures that the contributions you make today will give benefits that maintain the purchasing power of today's wages twenty, thirty or even fifty years from now. . . when you need it! To achieve this, the Government plans to have the earnings ceiling - the maximum amount on which contributions are paid and on which benefits are calculated - increased each year so that it will reach, and then keep even with the average earnings of Canadian industrial workers. This ceiling will be raised from $5,600.00 in 1973,- to $6,600.00 in 1974 and $7,400.00 in 1975. This new earnings ceiling means that the year's basic exemp- tion - the initial amount on which you do not pay contributions - is changed from $600.00 in 1973 to $700.00 for 1974. These changes also mean that the maximum employee con- tributions will increase from $90.00 a year in 1973 to $106.20 in 1974. Your contribution is matched by your employer. In the case of self-employed persons, the maximum annual contribution is increased to $212.40 for 1974 as against $180.00 last year. For earnings of less than $5,700.00, there will be no increase in contributions. The.change in the earnings ceiling means that the maximum retirement pension wilI rise from $90.71 for pensions effective in December 1973 to $134.97 for those whose pensions will begin in December 1975. As the maximum earnings levels for the years after 1975 continue to rise, so will the maximum retirement pensions in those years. There will also be increases in the maximum values each year for disability and survivors' benefits. If you have any questions or would like further informa- tion, please write: Canada Pension Plan, Department of National Health and Welfare, Place Vanier, Tower "A", Ottawa, Ontario, K1A OL1. Your contributions today ensure your protection tomorrow. Department of National Health and Welfare Ministère de la Santé nationale et du Bien-être social Marc Lalonde, Minister. I * g g-g ~ gg **,g *'~~g.*,g~- *-g~g~gtg. b~i g. g.gg.g.,~ >p~p* nds upon the operator's k»o- wledge of how and whefé to use his machine with a min- imum of accident risk. For example, most of the fatal snowmobile accidents in On- tario occur' on public thor- oughfares and ice covered lakes and ri-vers. Then there is the import- ant matter of a snowmobiler's legal responsibilities, a know- ledge of provincial and mun- icipal laws and requiring in- surance coverage. A snowmobile, just like an automobile, must be in good mechanical condition, for safe operation. These are a few of the important facts about snow- mobiling which are presented and discussed at the Ontario Snowmobile Distributors Ass- ociation Pro-Driver Snowmo- bile Clinics currently being conducted in communities throughout Ontario. The Ontario Safety League strongly recommends that all snowmobilers should attend these clinics when they come to your neighborhood. Whe- ther you are a seasoned vet- eran or a beginner, you will learn something which will make your snowmobiling mo- re enjoyable and safer. There is no substitute for caution in winter driving, states the Ontario Safety Le- ague. The Ontario Safety League warns motorists against over- confidence on becoming a- ware that slippery ,surfaces have been sanded. While sand is very effective in increasing traction on ice and hard pack- ed snow at temperatures in the freezing point range, it, too, loses effectiveness if ap- plied to slippery surfaces as temperature approaches zero. Tests have shown that the performance of some of the "mudsnow" and "winterized" types of tires show definite improvement under some con- ditions over the conventional types of tires. Their over-all improvement, however, is not great enough to warrent less care or precaution when driv- ing on slippery surfaces. For example, the stopping dis- tance of the best-specialized tire tested on glare ice is more than twice the normal stopping distance on dry con- crete at 20 M.P.H. Ruts and railroad tracks are pitfalls of many an in- experienced driver, especially in winter. When crossing them, first slow down, then steer across them as squarely as possible. If caughit in tracks or ruts, decrease speed before turning out of them. When pulling a trailer on slippery pavement, be sure to have chains on the trailer. The Ontario Safety League says that this will help pre- vent sideslips. 8411A fr Ir r bbti,%IA pt'IN IL W7*,Mift% 'doqe,