Page HILLS OUTLOOK Saturday November Halton Hills Outlook Is publlihrd each Saturday by The Hilton Hills home newspaper Dillon Hills a division Canadian Newspaper Limited Street Georgetown Ontario L7 Second Mali Number Tbeir Outlook PUBLISHER Don Brander ADVERTISING MANAGER Carl Sinke EDITOR Dave Rowney KKT1M Trrrv oiler Mary I ASSISTANT ROOM Brian ASSISTANT Ontarios Kwinter stirs trade emotions Queens Park The Ontario governments Com mittee To Peddle Free Trade Propaganda began Us hearings this wee And from the beginning it lived up to its reputation Ind Trade and Technology Minister Monte who chairs the panel of six cabinet ministers led off by reading from on editorial In an American newspaper It was by William Randolph Hearst Jr who called the deal gratifying because it was a move towards uniting the two countries economically And this was something his father would have liked film fans who saw Citizen Kane know it refers to the elder Hearts For more than a decade he had urged that the United States annex Canada By reading the clipping was as another observer here put it stirring the nationalist juices of the audience And thai of course Is the purpose of the committee It really has nothing to do with Information It Is a propaganda forum for op ponents of free trade And because it Is a committee of cabinet ministers rather than a legislative committee there is no one who sits on it wholl pay the lightest attention to freer trade arguments Supporters may not even get the chance to speak Thatll be up to the committee UNDERMINE But if they do the angle of ques tions will be determined by how best to undermine a trade deal For example own depu ty at rrr Patrick one of the first to testify suggested On jobs could be vulnerable under free trade However no one asked the ob vious which is how many of those Jobs are threatened anyway regardless of free trade It has been suggested for In stance that jobs in the auto ports sector alone are doomed without a free- trade deal And that the only way to provide work to replace whose inevitably lost Jobs Is by expansion of Ibe small firms who today face trouble penetrating the US market The freer trade deal should help them But that kind of balance and detailed analysis is unlikely be paraded before this committee The cob met ministers know their mandate As said We do not eel is a good deal for On and by extension a good deal for Canadians All they have to do now is prove It Note incidentally the usual whats good for southern Ontario Is good for the country thinking that so makes this province disliked elsewhere in Canada But nothing illustrates the tactics better than quoting from the Hearst editorial DISTURBED We are very disturbed by some of the reactions we have seen in the United States Hearst in effect says this Is the way lo annex Canada That disturbs us Kwinter said Leaving aside for now the question why a single S editorial wnlw should disturb him so much the point surely Is why chose this particular editorial He could Instead have picked the following front page news comments from the Wall Street Journal Freer trade with Canada raises questions as the new treaty faces scrutiny Interest groups and lawmakers question key provisions The chant marine Industry launches its opposition fearing lost repair and other business The US uranium and meat In dustries could face greater Michigan Rep Levin will demand of auto provisions he sees loopholes allowing Canada to lure Asian parts plants at ex Senate Majority Leader warns the White House he will focus on whether the pact sets a bad prece dent by allowing challenges to U S rulings and even new laws before ar bitration A different newspaper different views and ones you wont hear repeated by the chairman or members of this committee HELP KEEP RED CROSS READY Japans eerie stability Your Business The excitement of watching the bear market passing from New York to Tokyo to London and back again Is keeping us on the edge of our chairs Each night the CBC radio news tells us whether the Tokyo stock market is up or down In early trading In the we hear how It closed London picks up where Tokyo left off and New York follows But as the bear lumbers around the clock the Tokyo market is tak ing on an eerie stability It has fallen only half as much as New York Big Japanese financial Institutions arc not selling If anything Tokyo should have fallen more Stock prices on the Tokyo exchange are nearly times companys earnings In New York they are roughly IS times Japanese officials say their market la stronger because their economy Is stronger Thats nonsense When American growth slows and the trade deficit falls It will be at the expense of Japan among others The real reason is that the big players are afraid to sell They con trot per cent of the market and they saw what happened in New York The mere thought of selling would send slock prices into a As one broker put it They know that If they sell now the rope tightens around tnelrneck OFFICIAL PROD Mind you Japanese financial In stilutlons get a little prodding from their Government Last week when the market plunged government of flcials called them In for a chat Next day the market rose Experts say the Government would not permit a collapse Others say Japanese pension funds and life Insurance companies have a history of holding stocks Tor the long In doing so they are protecting the public Interest They arc also afraid of being blamed for the markets nil that If they lived In North America wouldnt have to about such things They could blame Ronald If Reagan were still President wouldnt happened one said of crash suddenly discovered how big the budget deficit was and It scared them half to death They could say the computers did it selling like fiends before living traders could slop them The truth is big pension funds and life Insurance companies did It Big Industrial companies had to bail them out All over North America companies are propping up their stock price by buying bade their slock IBM for example has spent billion This leaves com panies with more debt and less money to run their business The comparison with Japan raises an obvious question How free should a free market be Some changes will be made to the marketplace no doubt Program trading Is a problem But a deeper problem Is at work here than the functioning of the stock market TOO SHORTSIGHTED North American fund managers could never get away with silting out a market crash They have to ac count for their performance quarter ly If it doesnt measure up theyre out the door To outdo other fund managers they switch from stock to stock try to I guess the market This puts tremendous pressure on companies to produce a steadily riling stream of profits and dividends Companies that should be minding their business have to mind their stock price Instead Its too soon to say whether the Japanese way Is better Japanese of fice workers dont work SO hours a week because they like It They do it because theyre afraid that If they dont theyll come In one day and find their desks gone And its doubtful that Japanese In dilutions hold their stocks because theyre confident profits will rise More likely theyre afraid of losing money of incurring the wrath of the people and the Government Here they Just pass the buck Next turn heir despairing that the m ill has lost confidence in the market remember that the big lost con faience If dont haw faith it on should wc BRIAN When Finn appeared before council Monday with some pretty embarrassing questions he had every reason to be there as a taxpayer Councillors had hired Stephen appraise IS lots on Princess Anne Drive At a Municipal Owned Property Committee meeting Mr was hired to help the Town sell the lots privately Instead or going through the Brampton Real Estate Board Selling the lots through the Real Estate Board would have encourag ed competition amongst buyers and realtors said Mr Poulstrup He wanted to know why that pro cess had been abandoned While that Is a fair question coun is free to use any process it feels will get the beat price The real faux pas was committed by council when the motion to hire Mr Saxe was passed in confidential minutes that were never made public Theres no doubt about it coun cillors set themselves up for this Mayor Muss Miller said the Town was just trying to get the best deal for the services Who ctxUd argue with a deal that has the best Interests or the tax payers in mind But as Mr pointed out how could council possibly know if got the best deal when they got no com pel live quotes fur the ser vices Mayor Miller said using Mr as a consultant and selling the land themselves allowed the Town to pay only per cent of the proceeds in stead of five or six per cent usually charged by real estate companies But Mr cannot legally supp ly many of the services supplied by a real estate company According to the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act all Mr Saxe Is allowed to do is offer information packages bold and deliver tendered offers and provide appraisals said Mr If a real estate company had to provide only these services they might be able to lower their fees said Mr That makes sense And that per cent being paid to Mr sounds suspiciously like a commission which according to Mr Poulstrup Is Illegal Throughout all this both tides hove made one thing clear the in or Mr who was out of town when Mr Poulstrup blew the lid off councils move is not in ques tion Some councillors said Mr Saxc refused to give Information which went beyond his legal powers during the confidential meeting Towns own bylaw The only provision for not tender Ing is In an emergency situation in this case no emergency existed or by specific approval of council That approval was given con Whats puzzling Is how no one on council realized that when Mr Saxe was hired It doesnt take a legal expert or a real estate agent to res lit the deal should have been made public There ore some experienced peo ple on council who should have known better Some councillors said was an oversight thai some confidential resolutions arc released If council Kris il got Hie deal llure should be nothing to be afraid of They should rropi the I