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the HER Money status triggers teachers war Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario DAVID A BE Publisher and General Manager BRIAN Editor Phone 8772201 DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager Mall RrRblrml Page THE HERALD Wedne April 1Z 1989 An expensive ride As taxpayers our are getting hit from all sides this year But dont look for a reprieve 1989 is just the beginning of what will likely be a steady climb in the municipal tax bill in the coming years And the theme that runs through all the excuses given for higher tax increases is growth Here in Halton Hills the budget jumped 11 per cent to 3 million this year At Region which has kept increases below the rate of inflation in recent years the tax bill has jumped from a meagre 3 per cent increase in 1988 to a 1 per cent increase in Councillors bickered over the 5 million police budget containing an 11 2 per cent increase last week but police chief James Harding put it all in perspective when he said the force needs more officers to cope with growth If councillors dont want the force to grow stop the community from growing he said Local councillors have always been fond of a catch- phrase that says new residents will pay for growth But thats not happening With the province tightening its belt on grants and with new and increasing expenses municipalities must endure because of growth were all or it Growth cant be stopped People need shelter and steady growth benefits everybody But the days of the single digit budget increases are quickly passing Haltons budget director Dave Birkett told us last week that the Region is having to finance larger and larger portions of growth And if provincial transfer payments hold still next year Haltons budget could go up by more than per cent according to Haltons finance commissioner Joe Halton will grow in the 1990s But hold onto your wallets its going to be an expensive ride Clouding your day Money is at the root of most political controversy Status is much of the rest Status if by far the one more liable to arouse emotions That distinction should be kept in mind when reading about the growing war between Premier David Petersons Liberal govern and the various teacher federations Both cash and status are involved Perhaps 20000 people a majon ty of them teachers turned out at the weekends Liberal convention in Hamilton to denounce the Grits A money issue was the trigger specifically the attempt by the Liberals to get the teachers to pay a little more annually towards preventing the inflation protection part of their pension plan from go ing broke in On average it might cost the teachers another a year out of their to salaries That upsets them but what seems to anger them even more is that the Liberal government doesnt appear to take them seriously Their selfesteem is hurting Peterson himself set the tone when besieged recently in Peter borough by a group of teachers demonstrating over the pension matter This isnt worth fighting about You re being silly about it the premier told them The fact that his statement is probably is irrelevant Even though being silly about something and being a silly person Editors Notebook Brian MacLeod Herald Editor Statistics Canada has published an excellent set of figures which demonstrate the proper way to fudge numbers Ill give you a run down on what Statistics Canada calls your average day if youre a Canadian over the age of In the last hours you spent 11 hours sleeping or involved in per sonal activities Also in the last day you devoted hours to leisure activities rights you spent four hours and 20 minutes working or in school huh What happened to the other three hours and minutes you spent three hours on domestic chores minding the kids or shopping Now none of that sounds like my last hours or any hours for that matter But wait theres more On any given day in an average week an adult Canadian spends 4 hours alone excluding time spent asleep or on other personal Both sexes spend an average of 2 hours a day with friends males over are least likely to spend time with friends Men aged 35 to 44 are most likely to be found in a car Women over 65yearsold are least likely to drive The per cent of you who admit to watching television spend an average 1 hours a day in front of the tube Now if you were to fit all this in to an average day you probably would need a 36hourday In fact you probably dont fit all this into 48 hours Thats because those numbers become relatively useless when you lump in weekend days with days which is what Statistics Canada has done Despite the threat of snow on the weekend the annual Crazy Boat Race went off without a hitch The race is obviously as popular as ever with some regular and some not soregular entries The Refugee II the viking boat which you first saw when you first picked up your copy of the Herald this week contained an innovative catapult to douse spectators with water balloons You had to like that Elvis floating bus complete with coffin but my personal favorite was a somewhat undistinguished looking craft carrying two burnt out hockey players dubbed the Toron to Whos The boat carried a sign saying We put as much effort in this boat as the Toronto Maple Leafs did all year Queens Park Derek Nelson Thornton Servict are not the same thing the teachers seem to have convinced themselves that one means the same as the other Teacher hats and buttons at Hamilton repeated variations of the insult NDP Leader Bob drew a huge cheer at the rally when he castigated the word Even teachers willing to accept as reasonable a 83per cent in crease in their pension contnbu taxpayers will be kicking in another S3 per cent plus a flat billion to cover past shortfalls were irritated by the condescen ding nature of Peterson rejection of their unions arguments Theres a long term danger in this for the Grits Many teachers are involved in politics and are door todoor activists during tions They have the time and are also knowledgable and dedicated Thus making teachers angry can hurt a political party at that grass roots level as ironically the Liberals of 1977 found out when they made a campaign pledge to ban teacher strikes Their teacher workers evaporated that year But even if Peterson had been somewhat diplomatic avoided puncturing teacher status there would still be the money issue Here the governments arguments win handsdown which may be why the teacher unions are relying so heavily upon slogans like we pay we want a say to sway the general public Silly slogans anyone Not only have taxpayers forked over 60 per cent of the teachers pension fund money so far com pared to 50 per cent by employers in most plans but among pension plans only the teachers and civil servants are fully pro tected against inflation The trouble is that they dont pay enough money the inflation protection portion of their fund to match what will eventually have to be pa id out of it What makes the teacher resistance even harder to swallow is that Treasurer Bob Nixon has actually offered them a couple of fair choices They can reduce inflation pro tection to per cent without any increase in contnbu Or they can take over the pen fund and run it themselves which would end the government s guarantee of its soundness The unions reject both of those options of course with ing arguments that the govern really doesnt mean it They should say yes then Other wise it looks simply as though teacher unions are simply looking for a further free ride on the tax paver LETTERS Is CBC bowing to pressure from nuclear industry Dear Sir For the first time in its 29year history a scheduled Nature of Things episode on nuclear power was cancelled at the last minute on Feb One wonders after reading an article in the Feb Globe and Mail whether the den postponement of this rerun without proper explanation to viewers was made solely to ac commodate nuclear industry public relations personnel In February 1988 for example CBC President Pierre Juneau hosted an unprecedented editorial board session on nuclear issues at which time in dustry spokespersons including the president of the Canadian Nuclear Association and a past vice president of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited met with senior personnel The nuclear establishment used the meeting as a forum to attack David Suzukis nuclear power coverage Why were no nuclear industry critics in vited to this meeting It is outrageous to think that the whose function is to serve the Canadian public could be so subservient to nuclear or any other ihdustry pressure Twenty million dollars from the public purse is already earmarked so the atomic establishment can tell us misleading half truths through glossy magazine and TV ads and saturate the public school system with their self serving tional materials If the atomic industry has nothing to hide why are they so desperate for a monopoly on nuclear issues coverage Interestingly prior to the pro grams first airing in November 1987 a CBC review found it neither unbalanced nor unacceptable Those who are as eager as we are for an explanation of this mysterious decision at the CBC should write Pierre Juneau CBC Chairman Head Office P O Box Ottawa K1G 3J5 David Suzuki who has long been a sup porter of environmental and anti nuclear causes can be reached at Station A Toronto M5W 1E6 To see what all the fuss is about watch The Nature of Things on April 12 Yours truly Irene Kock Anne Hansen Nuclear Awareness Project Thanks to volunteers Dear Sir As this is Volunteer Week a week to honor the commitment and dedication of special people our volunteers I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to a great team of special people within our branch It takes many volunteers to make the different programs and services work and because of these people we are celebrating our 50th year of helping people We are always in need of more volunteers as our community grows and if you know of a person who would like to join our Bed Cross team please invite them to join us My sincere thanks to all of you for your canng and hard work Sincerely Cathy President Georgetown and District Red Cross Branch