The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Page 6, Whitby Free Press, Wednesday. June 2, 1993 7227 The only Newspaper owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents! MEMBER OF: ONTARIO CANADIAN COMMUNITY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER CNANEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION CANADIAN CIRCULATIONS CNA DIVISION AUDIT BOARD 25,500 COPIES DELIVERED WEEKLY Published every Wednesday by 677209 Ontario Inc. Box 206, 131 Brock St. N., Whitby, Ontario L1N 5S1 Phone: 668-6111 Toronto Line: 427-1834 Fax: 668-0594 Doug Anderson - Publisher Maurice Pifher - Editor Alexandra Martin - Production Manager Printed on newsprint with minimum 20% recycled content using vegetable based inks. To the editor... Take back our country To the Editor: After the recent budget announcement, I feel compelled to write and express my opinions and suggestions. I am a Canadian by birth, and proud of it. But the politicians of our country are out of control and we, as Canadians, must stand up and be counted, and fight back. The politicians repeatedly ignore input from the workers/ Start small To the EdItor: I would like to respond to the letter ('Nurture local economy,' May 19, The Free Press) concerning who speaks for small business in Whitby. After nine years of Progressive Conservative economic policy, entrepreneurial capitalism in this country has been ignored in favour of large corporate sector interest. Despite the fact that small business empîoys the majority of Canadians, creates most of the new jobs and remains the sole outlet for Canada's best and brightest to shine, the Conservative government is bent on passing the NAFTA without popular consent. While Canadian-owned and operated small businesses struggle with high interest rates, poor consumer confidence an endless tax admnistration, the Tories are ramming through legislation designed strictly for multinational interests with trans-border ambitions. Even the Americans recognize the priority at this time must be the health and strength of their domestic economy, and they are steering away f rom the NAFTA. Now is the time ta focus on trade within Canada. Let's encourage small starts as an answer to unemployment. You can't compete globally until you are viable in your own backyard. There is little doubt that Price Club and Aikenhead's will have an adverse effect on an unprepared local business community. With a background rooted in small business, I would work with local business through the Chamber of Commerce, the DBIA and directly with proprietors. Leadership is required at this juncture if we are every going to manage real recovery. Dan McTeague Fedoral Liberal candidate Ontario riding taxpayers/citizens of the country, believing they know best; they are not running the country, they are ruining it. The politicians are constantly saying that they want to reduce the enormous deficit and create work, but they are not serious about it, as ail they do is attack the very people who pay their extravagant wages and who are this country. Canadians, we need to stand together and take back our country from these parasites. My suggestions to help alleviate the burden on our people: • politicians should also be expected to take a pay cut. • politicians should pay taxes on ail their income, just like everyone else, not on half their income. • politicians should be paid their expenses, but receipts and documentation should be required; expenses should be proved to be necessary. • politicians should be forced to give up their free-bee pension and made to buy their pension just like the rest of us. • politicians should be accountable to us, not to other politicians. • politicians should stop giving our money away to foreign countries, as we can't afford it, and the money is needed here. • politicians should bring our troops home as we taxpayers cannot afford to pay for police forces for other countries. • school boards should be reduced by at least 75 per cent as they are a needless expense. • school trustees (ha) should be eliminated altogether. • the Senate should be eliminated altogether. • at least three levels of government should be eliminated; ail this government for a total population of 27 million people? • OHIP should be arranged so that each eligible person is allowed a set number of doctor's visits per year, excluding emergencies. • immigrants should not be allowed into the country unless they have a job and sponsor, instead of living at our expense on weltare with ail the trimmings. • if manufacturers won't build a product in Canada, then that product shouldn't be sold here. Buy Canadian, but manufacturers and government should strive to keep prices reasonable. There are lots more suggestions, but I will close for now. Earl W. Aston Brooklin Viewpoint First, create wealth By Troy Lanîgan The Canadian Taxpayers Federation The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recently - brought together nine political economists to produce a report called 'Bleeding the Patient: The Deficit/Debt Hoax Exposed.' The report states that the cause of rising public debt is not excessive government spending but high interest rates, failure to make wealthy individuals and corporations pay their 'fair' share of taxes and the drain on government revenues caused by high unemployment. Let me start with corporations. In 1991, provincial and federal governments collected $15 billion from corporations, 6.2 per cent of all government takings. Most studies indicate that corporations collect that amount rather than pay it. Businesses work taxes into the price of their good or service. So really you and I pay the lion's share of that $15 billion, as a hidden tax, when we go to buy our clothes, purchase a new vehicle, etc. Many groups advocating the rich should pay more, use an annual income of $60,000 as a dividing line. A recent income tax study using British Columbia as a case study indicated that 7.3 per cent of taxpayers earned above $60,000 and paid 34 per cent of all income tax. In addition, income taxes account for less than 45 per cent of all taxes collected by government. There's property taxes, excise and customs taxes, sales tax and GST, hidden taxes such as gasoline and liquor that represent more than 50 per cent of the price you pay; there's also health and social insurance levies in addition to a myriad of other taxes. Sure, there may be some inequities -- but our overaîl direction should be to take less out of people's pockets not more. Governments may find as a result a healthier economy that returns more, not less, in revenues. The alternative centre's study also contends that there is a drain on government revenues because of high unemployment. One of the economists suggests a "stimulus package" after all government employees somehow fund their activity through the taxes they pay. If this were the case, the government could simply give everyone a job. The truth is, wealth has to be created before it can be consumed. The ability of governments to provide consumption services relies on a healthy economy producing more goods and services. In other words, people can only afford to pay for so much government. If we can't afford to pay for the amount of government we have already, it doesn't seem to make sense to pay for more. Each analysis of the alternative centre's study contends that the debt is "hysteria," yet across the country, reputable, common-sense people maintain that the debt is one of the most detrimental aspects to the economy and hurts low-income earners and poor people the most. Only upper-income earners can afford to buy Canada's debt (Canada Savings bonds). Purchasers benefit when they cash in their bonds, at the expense of everyone. Some people can buy bonds but all taxpayers pay when they come due. The alternative centre calling this "hysteria' actually hurts the very people they're trying to help. Interest rates follow a similar path. Everyone recognizes lower interest rates would help a recovery, but as long as $250 billion of our bonds are held abroad and growing, the Bank of Canada won't change a thing. Lower interest rates would hurt our ability to borrow internationally. So until we get our debts and deficits under control, the policy will likely continue. What got us into this mess has nothing to do with the fact we're not taxed enough. Just during the Mulroney years since 1984, revenues available to the government have climbed by just shy of 100 per cent. Most people would have little problem operating their personal finances in this framework. SEE PAGE 17