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Page HALTON HILLS OUTLOOK Saturday Jane 1KR Halton Hills OUTLOOK published each Saturday by the TON 1111 lit Home Newspaper Hills A Division Canadian Newspapers ompanvlJmlled Georgetown Ontotlo 1 Second lass Mall NumW 2201 PUBLISHER MINI II nit Pauline Miller 1 1 rtlAKKtTlNI NTATIVhS Sharon I lolling worth a thy Met PitlHll 111- I NT UI1 Their Outlook Selling the free trade Twos a Crowd By BILL BUTTLE Ottawa Report Stewart MacLeod Thornton Newt Service Perhaps 1 ve got it wrong here but It strikes me as somewhat of an in suit to Parliament that the Mulroney government has to spend close to million of taxpayers money to sell Canadians on ree trade It was bad enough when some IS months ago the government blew dose to million on this project with much of the money being wasted because information was so frequently overtaken by event Some of that glossy literature we were supposed to pick up at super market checkout counters along with National Enquirer was simply out of date Now a new campaign costing up to million Is beginning And naturally well be inundated with literature and radio and television ads about the vast virtues of free trade According to Deputy Prime Minister Don M Minkowski it s alt designed help Canadians take ad vantage of the deal According to lust about every llv tag Liberal in the land it s designed to help the Tone win the next dec With the possible exception of the Lake accord no single issue is more important to the government of the funds that issue Should the taxpayers Canada be expected to finance a Conservative government campaign to sell Canadians on a freetrade deal with the United States The taxpayers arc certainly not giving direct help to the and New Democrats such as a taxpayer financed campaign to ex plain why they oppose the deal OPPOSITION Strikes me that the proper forum for settling this argument is on the floor the Commons with help from MPs who are constantly speak outside Ottawa I mean il Conservative MPs who represent Just about every walk of life con sell Canadians on the alleged value of free trade should we really be spending more millions in tax payers money on professional sales What arc we supposed to think for instance when Trade Minister John gives his former political adviser John Laschinger for three months work on this pro ject With aU due renpeel to Mr there must be some MP qualified to undertake a little pro paganda chore like this The deputy prime minister tries to put the Mat light on events by ex plaining that much the money will be spent on seminars etc for trade commissioners and Canadian business people and investors But surely a more logical lime for this would be after the freetrade agree ment becomes law Anyway any Canadian business affected by the deal must now be aware of its implications As for Mr he Is typical difficult to pin down on this issue Instead he asks a government be driven out for dereliction of duty negligence malfeasance misfeasance and general idiocy if it dldn spend any more money or time in frying to outline the advantages of a agreement Good point If only the agreement Were in place instead of being the main foundation of a party political platform Libera Leader John Turner to the surprise of no one says the ex ot taxpayers money on a freetrade pitch is disgusting SOUDSrAMllAH The criticism has a faintly familiar ring because back in 1962 when the government was telling us about the virtues of new Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms the shoe was the other toot However the feet are not quite the same though taxpayers paid for those let hear it for the Constitution ads remember the r TV quite the partisan issue free trade has become And it was not a plank in any for Incoming election campaign Hut there is no question about tree trade being partisan The Tones Geese flying screens it wasnt quite it up One of the more recent polls sn ed that per cent of Canadians favored tree trade while per cent remain opposed All things equal in politics it invariably the party with the most money that wins the most arguments And if that holds true in this case It no contest Not only do Tories have full control of public purse and obviously intend using it the Liberals can t even lord to pay their own office staff It a pliv the issue to Parliament There at least we d eventually bear all sides of the argument assuming we could stay The facts not myth Teacher Federations and the Ilka of Mel ore trying to convince Canadians that the CanadaU S Free Trade Agreement TA will lead to domination of our lion system and thus our cultural values because It will eliminate Canadian content in textbooks and software packages that will flood In from the Nothing of this sort will happen It is a figment of some people vivid Imaginations There re a number of protections built in- IheFTA to ensure It wont hap- First services by governments are not covered by The Agreement and this includes education Second publishing a cultural in Is included from FT A coverage The government Is committed to ensuring a viable Canadian publishing industry and the FT A will have no Impact on that commitment Thirdly procurement Is not covered All these measures ensure that authorities will continue i be able to give preference to tex or software produced in Canada to set Canadian content re quirements for such materials These are the facts not myths that we see and hear from the opponents to Free Trade Sincerely John McDcrmld M Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister fori Internationa Trade I t m Housing hokum THERES A FARMER AT THE DOOR WANTS TO KNOW IF HE CAN BALE THE LAWN Borrowers could be left holding bag Your Business NMSlIM Homeowners loans ore doing it As interest rales climb they are rushing to lock themselves in to long term loans more people to pay the more they want to pay It seems Trouble is borrowers will end holding the bag If and when rates fall Most lenders an charging 11 per cent for fiveyear money com pared with 10 per cent for one year Six month loans are even cheaper Over course a year payments on a loan spread over years would be about more for a fiveyear term than a oneyear one Chances are the borrower would be off taking cheaper in teres rate and using the saving to pay down the principal OUTLOOK FOGGY When It comes to short term loans though the situation Is less clear big lender Royal Trust la vising its clients not to take six month loans Playing the short term game is playing with fire says Jacques the company vicepresident of lending Asked to explain his company a position Philip Armstrong president of personal credit pointed out that Royal Trust had been recommending terms of more than one year for some time now Mortgage rates are the cost of rcn ting money Mr Armstrong said you rent an apartment if were a chance that in six your rent would rise significantly and you d have to move out he Hoy believes interest rates six months from now will be higher than they are today Choosing a six month mortgage term could be dangerous for new homeowners who hive stretched their budget to Established homeowners with a comfortable financial cushion have less to fear HANK CUTS Meanwhile the Bank of Montreal surprised everyone this week by cut ting some rotes while Its com petitory were busy raising rates Hoping to lure people Into longer term loans the bank slashed Its ir rate by half a percentage point Is charging per cent lor three four or fiveyear terms The bank believes interest rates are at their peak Tl Is begs the question If In fact rates are peaking why on earth would borrowers want to lock themselves up for the long term No one can see the future but evidence points to lower interest rates In North America The American dollar no longer needs higher rates to prop It up because US exports are strong In Canada Interest rates are higher than they should be for no ap parent reason The wide spread bet ween Canadian and American in teres rates Is propelling the Cana dian dollar into dangerously high territory leaving it vulnerable to a fail Any damage Inflation might do in future has already been taken Into account by financial markets In teres t rates after subtracting lnfla tion are higher than they have been Consider too that the expansion is well Into Its sixth year or later growth will slow When that happens Interest rates will fall barring some unforeseen disaster For it Just another round In the desperate game of mortgagerate roulette Comment Halton Non Profit Housing Cor failed Its first test recently The corporation was given ap proval by the Ministry of Housing to develop a unit project at the intersection of Highway and Highway 5 In Burlington on the edge of the Forest Com After approval for was given by the province the corporation led by Councillor Walter Mulkewich attempted to buy the land But The price of the land was miles out of reach of what corporation could afford Recently a press release explain cd the situation this way On behalf of the Board of Directors of ihe Profit Housing Corpora lion Councillor Walter Mulkewich announced today the Corporation continued search or a nonprofit housing site in the City of Burl Talk about smoothing things over How about colling a spade a spade and announcing that the highly political organization which was formed with much pomp and late lost year got hit over the head with a sledgehammer call reality Vacancy rates throughout verge on Their press release says While loss the Forest Road site due to costing constraints is very unfortunate the Profit Housing Corporation is very optimistic in able to develop an alternate site and address the need for affordable housing in Burl I like to see the data which leads Mr Mulkewich to be very op timistic Jack when the organization was formed bureaucrats warned it would be difficult to get started because of the high price of land So where ore the indicators those prices ore coming down Too bad the deal tell through before the municipal election Now they ve got to start all over again ana chances are the corporation will still be political lip service come November There no doubt the Intentions of the councillors who sit on the cor board of directors are ge nuine But why hype up possible ven lures which are simply going to run Into the same problem whlcn halted the first one Tenants who are being milked by landlords in Halton need more nous ing not more promises may be the best way to describe one incident at town council June IS Coun Pun Sheldon colleagues for not showing up at public meetings including some held especially for politicians con cemlng Region urban structure review They have made every effort to hold meetings and councillors showing up said Coun Sheldon But Actons Norm Elliott replied Some councillors around this tabic still have that ugly little word that holds responsibility called a Job Dead silence LI Hot I wants the meetings at night so those with Jobs can attend