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- -I 12-Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, May 9, 1990 Letter to the Editor Dear Roy, Its quite a while since 1 have writ- ten to you about the "small" Reid/ Rle-n-aert 1-4 estate residential -hou-s- ing application for an amendment to the Durham Officai Plan. 1 put ."small" in quotes because the significance of this application is frighteningly large. In fact as many of your readers will already know - this is a proposai which has been.of exceptional controversy almost from the first day the application was made. And things are still heating up. Consider just these two recent actions at Durham region. First - we have just witnessed the shameful turnaround vote this past week by Durham Counicil, (19 to 10) wKi c h allowed the Reid/Reynaert amendment applica- tion to be approved. (Our mayor Hubbard and Councillor Hooper voted against; Hamre and Hanna voted for.> And second - it is the greater shame that this saine Reid/Reynaert amendment applica- tion was denied unanimously by the regional Planning Committee just one week before this Council's fateful turnaround. (A single dissenting vote at Planning was cast by the regional Chairman Mr. Her- rema.) One wonders when, if ever, a unanimous Planning decision has been turned down one week later, with no visible change in the situa- tion. This controversial application was, 1 had said 18 months ago - and IS . - a precedent setting and dangerous enterprise simply because it opens, the doors - guaranteed - to an unmnanageable, damaging flood of developers sweeping into the headwater areas of the priceless, relatively untouch- ed Ganaraska River basin; (a basin which provides our dlean water sup- plies and wells, south of the Forest, from Kirby to Bewdieyj ôh yes __ there will be delays to the next developers getting in, but if the precedent is set and put into mo- tion, the floodgates will be opened, and this entire community, regional and the world could become the poorer for it. It is ironic that this vote feIl on the eve of the first global Earth Day, when over 220 million people around the world demonstrated against world-wide environmental damage, and billions of people par- ticipated in the celebration of an Earth Day dedicated to a new and larger vision of global environmen- taI responsîbility. It is a shame, that any such vision was absent from this regional decision. And it is a great shame that the Newcastle council decision, against the Reid/Reynaert application, and their- concernis about any develop- ment in the Ganaraska headwaters until studies and guidelines were in place, have been ignored. It is also a great. shame that the urgent findings of the Environmen- tai Assessment Advisory Commit- tee in their Byer report, did not carry some weight in the final amendment decision. It appeared to this writer, unseemly and unwise to push the Reid/Reynaert application any fur-ther when the final M.0.E. report from thesefindings was not yet in. The FAAC's work in general fully supported the protection and preservation of the Ganaraska headwaters and the Oak ridges Moraine, and offered a broad and sturdy platform for dealing with the complex issues. The tragedy is there has not been the will- nor the mechanisms available in. either of our Councils, to even take the steps to preserve and protect this great natural heritage. And finally - it is also a shame that two other major initiatives con- cerning the "greening of the Greater Toronto Area - waterfronts -. river 'valleys and headwaters" (Crombie's Royal Commission, and Kanter's Greenlands Strategy, working in close co-operation) will flot have been allowed to bring their significant contributions to the Reid/Reynaert ameodment deci- sion. There are still other concerns Roy, but 1 will leave you with this one. Wîth so much pressure on to get the Reid/Reynaert proposai ap- proved, there is likely much more at stake than just this one "small" ap- plication. Julian Rowan Letter (o the Editor Dear Sir: 1 have just returned home from a gathering around the corner at Utica Farm Equipment. No doubt your paper will be reporting on this meeting between quite a few local farmers and Michael Wilson. Mr. Wilson, Rene Soetens and Ross Stevenson had an opportunity to make their case. There was a chance for some of the audience to ask questions although it was suggested that people shouldn't make a speech, ie., perhaps suggest some alternatives. It's too bad Mr. Wilson didn't have as much chance to hear the views of those there as they had a chance to hear his. 1 was interested to note that quite a bit of time was spent telling the far mers about aIl the possible ex- emptions they might be getting under the GST, for example, that large farm machinery might be ex- empted. 1 think farmers realize that they are like everyone else - they go shopping, they use services. 0f course, maybe some of them will qualify for soffie of the tax credits because their family income is less than $30,000.00. But even getting that tax credit, may flot help. According to a study done by an Ottawa based consulting firm, Global Economics, a family that Wilson dlaims would benefit would actually lose between $8 and $1 17, even afier receiving the tax credits. An underlying assumption at the gathering was that businesses would pass on aIl their savings from the removal of the manufacturers sales tax - an assumption that 1 find a lit- tde difficuit to swallow. Have firms dropped their prices when tariffs were removed under the free trade deal? There's certainly nothing in the GST legislation to force themn to pass on the lower costs to their customers. Then there's the stuff about the deficit and cutting government ex- penditures. New Zealand with a population of 13.3 million had to hire 5,500 more officials to ad- minister their similar t ax. I've h eard a figure of at least 10,000 mention- ed for Canada. On a per capita basis governimenit expeniditures in Canada (as a percent- of the GNP) are lower than they are in-almost aIl other industrialized countries. The deficit is the produet of the government's high interest policy, its refusai to make the rich shoulder their fair share of the tax burden, and its failure to adopt policies that would reduce our inexcusably high unemployment rate. What we need is a fair tax system, a systemn that gets at the estimated $80 billion annually in corporate profits that are now going comn- pletely untaxed, that applies a cor- porate tax - such as the one already being imposed in the U.S. - which would swell the federal coffers by $16 billion a year. How about the $40 billion in deferred taxes that corporationis are often permitted to delay paying indefinitely. We need a system that taxes people on their in- corne, flot one f1at-aoesn~t colléct a GST on investments, stocks and bonds. 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