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THE HERALD OdkberM MM- Paget Columnists Community benefits when council takes second look In rejecting an almost unanimously supported town general committee recommenda tion to impose a twoyear freeze on all commercial and resieden tial development in the Georgetown and Acton urban areas last Monday town council may have appeared to some as easily pushed around On the con I would argue the turn around shows council is in touch with its constituents in a respon sible way Before going on any further readers should know the general committee is comprised of the town councillors Except for a few councillors all seemed to agree with Hills Mayor Miller during the general committee meeting that the development freeze was necessary in order that the town establish a long term commercial and residential plan At the time the committee recommended that the freeze be imposed until the towns Urban Area Review Study was com and implemented would be doing an injustice if it approved a lot of development before the study was completed argued the mayor during that meeting But the mayor and most of the other councillors who supported the freeze reversed their decision during the following council meeting after local contractor David of Con appeared before council arguing the freeze didnt made economic sense Mr McNally likened the effect of a development freeze in the town during a recession to the Bens Banter By Ben Dummett feet the closing down of a major company would have on a com munity He explained businesses would suffer from slow working condi tions are a time when the economy is already slow The mayor said it was this presentation and several calls from local business people oppos ing the development freeze bet ween the committee and council meeting that convinced htm to change his mmd He speculated it was also the reason why other councillors also followed suit We wanted to be part of the solu tion and not part of the problem with respect to improving the local economic situation said the mayor Some may assume the tur naround at the request of the business community is proof the council has no backbone This argument might seem more con vincing since a majority in supported the freeze and only two weeks later switched their As well some might argue the councillors showed a lack of vi sion concerning the longterm future planning of the town by not implementing the freeze But further examination of the decision shows that town council was not just Interested In appeas ing the business community As part of its decision council instructed staff to submit quarterly reports on the progress of the urban planning review to help it decide on any develop ment proposals that go before council between now and when the study is implemented In this way hopefully any development it does approve will fit in with ihe results of the study This allround fairer decision also proves that the towns system of considering a policy twice before a final decision is made works best for the entire community Ontario refusal to piggyback on the GST makes sense By VIC PARSONS Ottawa Bureau Thomson Newsservice OTTAWA Sometimes there are rewards in refusing to co operate A case in point is the goods and services tax GST There were warm greetings by authorities for Quebecs decision several weeks ago to harmonize its provincial sales tax with the proposed GST Quebec would lower its retail tax to seven per cent by from the current nine per cent and broaden the list of items on which taxes are charged However the Quebec tax will piggyback on top of the seven percent GST thus making the combined levy on purchases 15 per cent next year and per cent by 1992 This was lauded as a model for other provinces In theory lts sound Administrative costs for business would be reduced and complexities eliminated with a national sales tax that applies to the same items clear across Canada But provincial governments would be well advised to think twice about the notion of pig Its largely a matter of timing Thats because of a worm in the rosy apple recession Nearly all economists agree were into it now and some are saying the downturn could be much worse than expected Meanwhile critics ranging from Ontario Premier Bob a social democrat to British Col umbia Finance Mel a Social Crediter are condemning the GST Poor tim ing is one of their complaints BAD TIMING Simply put recessions are bad times for governments to be squeezing the pocketbooks of con- Vic Parsons Ottawa Bureau Remember that con spending accounts for about per cent of the countrys production of goods and services To illustrate lets look at one shortterm impact of the GST in Canadas two largest provinces Ontarios new NDP govern ment recently declared it would not piggyback its eight retail tax on top of the GST The two taxes would be charged separately That means on of purchases beginning Jan 1 assuming the GST passes On- tanans will pay federal and 8 provincial tax a total of News reports made much of the idea that in refusing the pig gyback option the cost to On tarios treasury would be million in the first three months of 1991 and million in the fiscal year But lets turn that notion around By refusing to piggyback the tax Ontario is leaving the money in the pockets of con The result Is a potential stimulus to the provincial economy when it needs it most during recession of roughly to300 per household Most of that nearly million is likely to be spent boosting de mand for goods and services in Ontario and helping build the way back to recovery HIGHER TAXES Over to Quebec In the January toMarch period of Quebec consumption taxes will extract an additional million from consumers In 199192 that extra levy will rip 250 million more from taxpayer wallets Thats largely because on the 100 of purchases in Quebec in Year One of GST consumers will pay combined taxes of 56 a little over half a buck more than Ontarians The payoff for Quebecers from harmonization comes in the 199293 fiscal year when con sumption taxes will fall by million according to Quebec figures That extra money will no doubt be welcome but could nudge up inflation because by then well presumably be pulling out of hard times Successor to Mulroney lurks in the shadows By STEWART Ottawa Bureau Thomson News Service OTTAWA Considering the fact theres so much speculation about the future of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney will he or wont he lead the Tories into another election theres sur prisingly little talk about the next logical question Who will suc ceed him Perhaps its because no one has the slightest idea Down through the years when a prime minister or any party leader had five or six years of service under his belt the list of likely successors was quite ob vious to political watchers Quite often the prime minister would bring along his chosen successor with higher profile assignments or other acknowledgements of worthiness For instance Mackenzie King virtually anointed Louis St Laurent who in turn was almost a godfather to Lester Pearson Mr Pearson while careful not to officially endorse anyone was an unabashed fan of Pierre Trudeau who as justice minister sat at his right hand particularly during televised conferences And if Mr Trudeau had not win the leadership in 1968 there were a halfdozen other contestants who would not have been the least bit out of place in the prime ministers office Such veterans as Paul Martin Robert Wintere Allan MacEachen and John Turner were all serious con tenders NO SHORTAGE And there was no shortage of candidates to replace John a year earlier even though he certainly didnt try to upgrade any potential suc cessors That was because he was still a candidate for the job himself That 1967 Tory leadership cam paign was a wingding affair with the likes of to name a few Davie Fulton George Duff and the winner Robert Stanfield When Tommy Douglas the first leader of the New Democratic Party stepped down everyone seemed to feel that David Lewis was a natural successor And when Mr Lewis resigned there were several ob vious replacements the most notable being Ed Broadbent John Turner was the favorite to succeed Mr Trudeau years before there was an open ing And Jean Chretien was an equally obvious choice to follow Mr Turner But when you look at who might follow the present prime minister nothing is obvious If you were to ask any six people to name a likely successor you might well get six different names And one reason is that Mr Mulroney perhaps more than any other prime minister has personalized government in his own image None of his ministers has maintained a consistent per sonal profile Ever notice how often we now embellish the oncepopular word Its invariably the Mulroney government and given the current state of affairs in Canada its not always uttered with unbridled affection NO STARS There are probably many reasons why after six years in of fice there have been no steadily rising stars around the prime minister At various times for various periods weve had glimpses of apparent prime are easing down rather than up If I were forced at gunpoint to pick Mr most likely successor from the present cabinet it would almost certainly be Employment Minister Bar bara who has yet to make a major gaffe and who Is fast becoming bilingual In se cond spot and coming up fast would be Justice Minister Kim Campbell who along with her many other helpful qualities is already bilingual But if a bet is required Id want to keep it at the penny level ministenal material but never on a continuing basis In the Parliament for in stance Don was almost as prominent as Mr as he filled a variety of portfolios including that of depu- ty minister But now with his duties pretty well confined to agriculture and still umlingual no one talks about him becoming prime minister There is more talk of him leaving federal politics Finance Minister Michael Wilson is certainly in the news but not in a way a budding prime minister would like it We can strike him off the list For a time one heard a lot about former prime minister Joe Clark making a comeback But as time goes on there is increas ing chatter about another yesterday Jean was seen as a possible darkhorse until he phoned a judge ami lost his cabinet job He could make a comeback but hiB odds have lengthened Health Minister Pernn is assumed to be interested in the job but seems to attract Little serious attention Former can didates such as John Berrys World 1990 by