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I 6 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanvillc, Wednesday, September 1,1993 For 139 Years, Our First Concern Has Been Our Community Publisher - John M. James Assoc. Publisher - Richard A. James Plant Manager - Donald J. Bishop Ad. Manager - Brian G. Purdy Editor - Peter Parrott Production Rick Patterson, Julie Cashin-Oster, Ross Fisher, Laurens Kaldeway, Doug Lugtenburg, Sharon McMullen, Barb Patterson, Ralph Rozema, Jim Snoek, Vance Sutherland, Jim Tuuramo ccna/ Advertising ■ Laveme Morrison Editorial Brad Kelly, Lorraine Manfredo, Laura J. Richards Former Publishers ,w office Rev. W. R. Climie, 1854-1878 • M.A. James, 1878-1935 • George W. James, 1935-1957 Angela Luscher, Junia Hodge, Grace McGregor, Nancy Pleasance-Sturman, Marilyn Rutherford Produced weekly by James Publishing Company Limited p.o. Box 190,62 King St. W., Bowmanvillc, Ontario, L1C 3K9 416-623-3303 Fax 416-623-6161 Welfare vs. Workforce You can bet that there were very few workplaces last week in which the chitchat at coffee break didn't focus on the decision by a Toronto woman to quit her $41,500-a-year job and go on welfare. Her decision raises many questions which are at the heart of the Canadian economic quagmire. Many people were shocked at the mathematics of the scenario. Here was a single mother of two who, if she used all the welfare benefits to which she was entitled, could be just as far ahead financially as if she continued to work. Or, so it seemed at first. Then the number-crunchers went to work. And the final verdict was that the woman in question wouldn't be better off financially on welfare. She would have earned between $400 and $500 more per month working. And there were a few other catches to the decision to quit a job and apply for welfare. Nevertheless, the point had been made. The practical and philosophical questions flew furiously. Are welfare recipients paid too much? Is welfare too easy to get? Shouldn't citizens with skills and the ability to work be required to earn the welfare benefits they receive? These are some of the immediate questions which come to mind. One of the reasons why a person earning $41,500 with two dependants finds it difficult to make ends meet is the huge amount of taxes that are required of each Canadian. When you add up all the numbers, you'll find that about 50 per cent of what the typical Canadian earns goes towards taxes. And, one of the reasons why taxes are so high is (oddly enough) the number of dollars which are spent on welfare. It becomes a vicious circle. Some citizens can't make ends meet because of high taxation. So, they apply to the government for expensive social service benefits which will drive taxes higher and force more Canadians onto the welfare rolls. Some of those who followed last week's story also found themselves wondering whether this incident offers more proof of the fact that the Canadian middle class is rapidly disappearing. In the Durham Region, the average income for a male working full-time is $43,574 and for a female, $27,835. The woman in Toronto who quit her job to go on welfare was earning far more than the average female and very close to the average for males. And yet, it was closer than you might expect to the amount available from the welfare system. What is wrong with this country if an individual making an average salary cannot support his or her dependents? Why is it that a two-income family earning average salaries in a metropolitan city is not able to get ahead, but merely maintain the basics of food, clothing, transportation and shelter? The questions are disturbing ones. In the final analysis, however, welfare is not the answer. There is, indeed, a moral question involved in this whole process. : The fact of the matter is that citizens have a moral obligation to pay their own way. Welfare is part of the Canadian social safety net which exists only for emergencies. It should not be seen as an acceptable alternative to earning an independent living. That's because of the fact that welfare funds come from the taxes levied against citizens who arc attempting to pay their own way. Most of us don't mind paying taxes to support those who need government assistance and we understand that we could one day find ourselves in need. But most of us are angry over the possibility that people with jobs paying what is considered an average salary might throw in the towel and ask that the government support them. Anyone who takes this approach is really living off fellow-citizens who, although they may earn only average salaries, have opted to keep working and paying taxes. We arc gelling dangerously close to the day when governments routinely and automatically pay a sizable wage to absolutely everyone who doesn't have a job. In that system, whether or not one decides to work for a living would be based more on individual preference than necessity or the desire to get ahead or an underlying belief in the work ethic. Individual initiative will be dead. When that happens, the taxes levied against the dwindling labor force will go through the roof. The middle class will disappear. And the economic system, as we know it, will be in danger of total collapse. by Laura J. Richards ►in' 1 hi xz Ganaraska Weekend Adventure Tour Hits on Fool-Proof Method for Training Orono Fair Racing Pigs - Letters to the Editor Reader Critical of Inflation Proof Pension Plans Dear SirlMadam: All of a sudden, the leaders of the three major parties arc scrambling madly to show who is the biggest and best reformer of the gold-plated Mps" pcnsionplan! fZ$ Recently, Prime Minister Kim Campbell announced that she will change the plan so that MPs would have to wait until age 55 before they can collect benefits. At present there is no age requirement. She also pledged to end the obnoxious obnoxious practice of "doubledipping", "doubledipping", which allows MPs to collect collect pension payments even if they have another government job. Not to be outdone, opposition leaders Jean Chretien of the Liberals and Audrey McLaughlin of the NDP stated that they not only support such reforms but want Parliament recalled before an election to implement them. Before Canadians rush to congratulate congratulate these politicians, however, they should realize that the pension changes changes proposed by them arc a very modest modest first step indeed in pension reform. reform. None of these leaders has proposed proposed amending what is the most outrageous outrageous feature of the pension plan, namely that MPs' pensions have unlimited unlimited protection against inflation. • It's this blank cheque inflation protection feature which makes the pension plan so lavish. It places retired retired MPs into an elite category. Who in the private sector could afford such an inflation proof plan? Despite what the politicians say, any proposed pension reform which fails to scrap the unlimited protection against inflation feature is little more than posturing. In the coming election, voters should demand that candidates pledge to reform the MPs "cash for life" pension plan. When we voters sec that they're serious about putting their own affairs in order, we can have more confidence that they will do the same for our country's affairs. Yours truly, David Somerville, President. Thanks from Cancer Society % by William Thomas Every community has a kid like Kelly Beck. Kelly is seven years old with long, blonde hair, shy hazel eyes and this kid could sell exercise bikes to the recently recently deceased. Kelly is the neighbourhood sales person. While other children are trading trading baseball cards and Barbie clothes, Kelly is going door-to-door along Sunset Bay sending her prospective customers scurrying for crawl spaces with handfuls of Extra Strength Tylenol. Tylenol. It's not so much what she's selling, selling, because quite often Kelly's not really sure. In fad, for a while Kelly had an older girl working with her door-to-door. This was before Kelly could talk. When Kelly was old enough to talk she told me the older girl's name was District Sales Manager Manager and she had had her fired. Kelly now affectionately refers to her house as The Home Office, her brothers and sisters as Account Executives Executives and the yellow school bus as the Company Car. Kelly's so .smooth she doesn't even bring the product around with Iter anymore. She carried an order form headed 'Ja Want Sum? 1 and a pen. That's it. A great sales person, as Kelly says, doesn't need product ■ "Thell the Thlzzlc, not the tlmteukl" I know I'm Iter best customer. Even if I were Iter only customer, Kelly Beck would have made more in commissions last year than the guy with exclusive sales rights to cur phones In Mississauga, (I know as soon as her mother reads this to hut, I'll be sorry for mentioning car phones). Kelly Beck is the princess of pitch. Her weak, almost inaudible knock at the door says: "I'm embarrassed embarrassed to be livre and I'm sorry to bother your, but two slathering Rottweilers Rottweilers and a hailstorm aren't going to move me away from this door so gel out here I don't have all day!" Once the door is opened, you're done. Kelly shifts from one fool to the other, locks those prcliy-plcase eyes on you, thrusts the pen and paper toward you and without mentioning mentioning what she's selling, site says: "Ja want sum!" The choice is clear: sign or lie guilty of cruelly to second graders working their way through Wainficct South Elementary School. It's easier to say "no" to Revenue Canada than to Kelly Beck, the Mary Kay of Sunset Bay. You sigh, you surrender, you sign. I've got jars full of Girl Guide cookies, a fridge lull of cheese and enough tiekeis of chance to warrant a gaming license. I've sponsored Kelly Beck in so many Walk-A-Thons, Swim-A-Thons, Bowl-A-TItons, Bikc-A-Tlions, Stand A Thons, Slecp-Ovcr-A-Thons and Whistle- Whlle-You-Work-A-Thons, she ought to legally have her name changed to 'The Bionic Beck'. Last week she was hack. Kelly did the sales shuffle, locked In the eyes, pushed the pen and paper at me and said: "Ja want sum?" I signed. But being tut eduenicd consumer, I forced myself to ask: What did I just buy?" "Macramé," site said with the smile of success and baiting eyes to bool. Great. An afghan or a wall hanging. Either way, I'd give it to my mom for Christmas. When U.P.S. delivered the micro- wave with three-stage memory and automatic thanw I was steamed. When Kelly showed up at my door llte next day I was still livid. 1 lit into her...Bui then site handed me Madame Benoit's 'Illustrated Encyclopedia Encyclopedia of Microwave Cooking, 1 "It's free...with the macramé," she said. Then she started to shift Iter feet. Gawd no, not the sales shift,...not die eyes, not the pen, here it comes: "Ja want sum?" "Okay," I said signing, "but this better not be a household appliance or a Walk-A-Thon along the Great Wall of China." "It's not," she replied, "It's a blayther." Ilumnimm...A blazer. Looks like I got off easy litis time. She was two doors down when it dawned on me. "How do you know the right size?" 1 yelled, "It's a four by four Chevrolet Blayther...fully loaded with cruili contwol," she yelled back, while knocking on the Tiyfiak's door. I watched us John and Diane jumped oat of their bedroom window ami tie- gait running down the beach toward Morgan's Point, I know tills kill litis got to lv slopped, but I couldn't help but wonder: wonder: does "fully loaded" Include a cassette player with automatic rewind rewind or what? Dear Editor: Mav I start bv extending thank yous to the staff of this newspaper especially especially the advertising section for the coverage you have given tire Bowmanvillc and District Unit 108 of the Canadian Cancer Society. Also a big thank you to all the executive, captains, canvassers, businesses, employees employees groups, special names and anyone else who helped in any way during this past year. I would like to thank all the drivers who transported the patients to numerous hospitals for titcir treatments. These people arc the backbone of what patients services is all about, bar none. What a terrific job they do. Our 1992-93 fundraising campaign, campaign, I would say, was a moderate success even though we won't meet our objective. Since we drew up that budget we lost the Ponlypool Area and South Manvcrs Twp. to Lindsay with restnteturing. We felt the population population in our area had increased enough and with proper canvasser coverage wc would still make it. Wc will come up a bit short. If anyone in the Bowmanvillc and District was missed during our April campaign, please feel free to make your donation donation anytime. Our fiscal year ends on September 30, 1993, and any donations donations received after that date will be credited to the 1993-94 campaign. Starling the first of October, Bowmanvillc Bowmanvillc and District Unit 108 will no longer exist. On that date wc will be known as the Clarington Branch of the Canadian Cancer Society, reporting reporting to Oshawa instead of Toronto. Toronto. Wc will still be in the East Central District. Our executive and personnel personnel will remain the same. The only thing that really changes is the name. So, you see you .only have the month of September to donate to old Unit 108. Just mail your donation to Box 42 Bowmanvillc L1C 3K8. I know a lot of homes were not canvassed in April. Yours truly, Ernest R. Eves Treasurer and Past Pres. Unit 10S Tuck money for Inmates When 1 was sent to camp, my mom and dad would always give me some extra money for the canteen. i never was given a lot of money because candy didn't cost as much as it docs today. The thing is that my parents supplied supplied the money spent at the canteen. No one else. The province of Ontario, however, is going to be giving $10-a-weck canteen canteen allowances to prisoners awaiting trial. So says a story in the local daily newspaper. Why should that be allowed? Why should the province's taxpayers taxpayers pay prisoners' canteen money and why arc taxpayers doing it now anyway? anyway? After all, prison is not a summer camp or a spa! If the prisoners want money, shouldn't the next-of-kin be supplying the money rather than the taxpayer? I disagree with a system that gives a criminal money -- isn't that like praising the cat after it has peed all over the carpet? Michael Jackson Michael Jackson received a lot of media attention last week as he was accused of having sexually abused a child. During the week the story came together: together: it seems a child who accused Jackson was caught in the middle of a battle between his two parents. As the information increased, many folks did wonder if Jackson really did do something inappropriate. Others wondered if he was being used. I did not know what to think, so I waited for more information. From the sounds of the information now being presented to the media and to you, it looks like Jackson was being duped. The police have not found any evidence evidence of wrongdoing on Jackson's part. One of the youngsters I brow in this area, said she was astonished to hear about the allegations. She was in shock. Jackson also cancelled two concerts concerts in his "Dangerous Tour" after suffering from dehydration caused by the heat and humidity in Bangkok. However, smart-alec publicists with the Coca-Cola company decided to capitalize on Jackson's link with the Pcpsi-Cola Company. Coke took out ads in the city's English language newspapers that said: Dehydrated? There's always Coke. Those kind of punches, leave a bad taste in my mouth. Pay as you waste Paying for the garbage you produce produce and leave at the curb side could be a way of the future. Right now, it is the way of the present in a number of communities across Ontario. In Kincardine, Ontario residents pay to have the municipality take their garbage away. It costs them two bucks for each bag they put out. Folks who try to get away with putting extra garbage at their neighbor's neighbor's curbside get a shocker. The garbage collectors go through bags that arc unidentified to look for information on the owners and then do some door-knocking. According to an article in a daily, Continued on Pago 7 We Asked... - When should Prime Minister Kim Campbell call the next federal election? .. .And You Said M. Stewart Tillson Jessie Tink Anita Theriault Lisa Hamilton Bowmanvillc Wilniol Creek Bowmanvillc Bowmanvillc "I don't know." "I Imagine In tlu> fall." "Soon, I guess." "I have no Idea. I'm sure site doesn't either." either." i|iii'stum Wh.it does Labor Day mv.m to you?