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Page THE HERALD OUTLOOK Saturday June 24 ins BEST AVAILABLE COPY the HERALD Outlook Give some thought to ethical investing OUTLOOK Is published each Saturday by the HILLS HERALD Home Newspaper of Halton Hills A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited at Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario L7G 3Z6 Second Class Mail Registered Number 8778822 STAFF WRITERS PUBLISHER David A Beattie EDITOR Brian MacLeod AD MANAGER Dan Taylor Your Business Diane Ntw China is still open for business says its aging leader Deng Xiaop ing Stung by a stalled economy Chinese officials have launched a desperate campaign to win back tourists and foreign investors In time they will succeed Business is divorced from politics a representative of Fiat the Italian car company explained lamely on Chinese television recently Fiat owns a car factory In Shanghai jointly with the Chinese government Understandably companies with plants in China are eager to get on with business as usual Estimates of how much the Beij ing massacre cost the Chinese economy vary but a figure of billion and rising is not out of line In response Chinese officials are scrambling to calm shellshocked foreigners In a thinly veiled economic threat Chinese officials have sent Telex messages to foreign com panies urging them to demonstrate their economic com mitment to their businesses in China In other words if the business people who fled do not come back quickly someone else will take their places Lately the Japanese have begun to trickle back striking fear in the hearts of their American and Euro pean competitors At the urging of the U S government American in vestors are taking a attitude NO PROBLEM In Beijing last week the army took foreign journalists on a tour of Tienanmen Square the sight of the bloody massacre Soldiers did not shoot hundreds perhaps thousands of protesters an army spokesman said There was no bloodshed in the square Some thugs threw bricks and stones but even after exercis ing high restraint our soldiers never fought back The troops never killed or wounded anyone on the spot Tourists have no need to worry vicepremier said Martial law in Beijing will not af feet the visits and nighttime enter of tourists he said wittingly invoking images of the murderous spectacle that tourists watched from their balconies a short while ago China is Canadas fourthlargest trading partner Twoway trade has been rising steadily totalling billion last year about half of it wheat exports from Canada Canadian companies are also in volved in the Chinese petrochemical and forestry in dustries Countries that sell to China have buy what they can in return in order to keep trade from going too far out of balance China also desperately needs foreign curren cy from export sales to continue to buy foreign goods TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY People disgusted with the Chinese regime will not want to buy goods made in China This will further limit the potential market for Chinesemade consumer goods in North America So far clothing and textiles are among the coun trys biggest consumer exports Berrys World by Arent you going to leave SOME rainforest for me to cut down Ben SPORTS WRITER Paul Svoboda At June loan Mam I lr I Timm SNAFU bv Bruce Beattie Lous neighbor has a unique barbecue technique Bleak outlook for oneparentfamilies Ottawa Vic Parsons One of the worst blemishes on Canadas social record is that 12 million of our children lived in poverty in 1986 Thats about 30 per cent of our poor according to a new fact book on poverty put out by the indepen dent research agency the Cana dian Council on Social Develop ment CCSD The council basing its findings on the latest available Statistics Canada data says the outlook is particularly bleak for oneparent families and the kids who are being raised by young poorlypaid workers What are the costs of being a poor child High school dropout rates are more than twice that of nonpoor kids and child mortality is twice as high Kids from poor families are about twice as likely to have psychiatric disorders per form poorly in school and behave destructively these are not just costs to the poor they affect all of society Its time the council concludes for an allout attack on poverty confron ting kids and their families Although the poverty rate has re mained stable at about per cent overall in the last decade and a half there have been some vic tories in recent years The great success has been in reducing poverty among the elderly chiefly through higher pensions SENIORS IMPROVE In about 57 per cent of Canadian households headed by persons over were below the CCSD poverty line By 1986 this had dropped to per cent Its too early to declare that poverty among seniors has been vanguish ed but there is substantial By contrast the situation among the younger poor is worsening Families headed by a person under were 8 2 per cent of the poor in 1986 up from per cent in 1973 Poor families headed by persons aged were 24 per cent of the total in 1986 an increase from 18 per cent in 1973 Unfortunately a fulltime job doesnt always keep the wolf from the door The council says 29 per cent of parents in poor families put in a full year of work but were unable to improve their lot For an increasing number of families only the fact that two adults are working keeps them above the poverty line Terrance Hunsley CCSD ex ecutive dicector says one way this might be alleviated is through an immediate increase in minimum wages by to 25 per cent The report says minimum wages have become the lost and neglected child of antipoverty policy in recent years In a fullyemployed minimum wage worker who supported a spouse and child in a large city could earn per cent of the Statistics Canada poverty line income By 1986 however this worker could earn only per cent of the poverty line income LEADERSHIP ABANDONED One reason this has happened is that the federal government has abandoned what it took in the 1970s to be a leadership role on the minimumwage front Currently the federal minimum wage Is an hour and stands at the bottom of the heap across the country Pro vincial minimums range from a low of 25 an hour in New foundland to a high of in On tano and Quebec which are both scheduled to raise their rates to hourly next Oct Based on a 40hour working week an employee earning the federal minimum wage would receive gross pay of annual ly Even at hourly pay would total merely a year Compare that with 1989 povertj lines established for a family four by Statistics Canada at and by the CCSD at 27600 and you see the problem ADVERTISING SALES Valois Craig Steele Roberts PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Dave Hastings Supt Annie Wilson CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT Mane PRESSROOM FOREMAN Brian PRESS ASSISTANT Todd Those high temperatures close beaches IAS ARMOUR Queens Park Itureau Thomson Newsservice IOROMO when vou it was warm enough to go inlo the water they won I let you I he same warm temperatures that hordes of to beaches summer spui illnesscausing but ten and algae to flourish in i In waler Most of the Contributing closure of Ontano beaches originate upstream in agricultural areas sewage plants or sewers In rural aieas runoff heavy rains manure fer tilizers and pesticides water ways that empty into lakes In areab the rains can cause sewers overflow and already si wage treatment plants to allow un treated water toflnwihrounh Illness causing fecal and algae whicti thrive in phosphateladen are par- icularly susceptible to growth dur the same periods I not r i drive bai Iter caches Swimming in en containing fecal and other types of polluiion an result in skin rashes ear and ye infections and Hie pnllutanis are swallowed an upset stomach Certain kinds of algae can also cause skin infections in the form of rashes Last summers dry weal her which resulted in less pollution runoff waterways is credited bv both government and alists with helping reduce the number beach closures Bui environmentalists warn wet and warm weather spells this coupled with out a I sewage systems and il water discharges could he losures In 1988 pollution ihi pro vince s medical officers health hi close I ion beaches In a combined lavs thai was a decrease the beaches closed foi a combined tot it of ID t a of tin impact dry weather the 19i figures cant be relit on In determine pollu tiou trends Henry a pollution specialist with Hie the En vuonme Still the dry weather although a blessing lor beach areas compounded ion problems in her areas such as the River mar where the latk of runoff prevented pollution being flushed from the river Moreover in that area at least he tact that water pollution continued even wi en sewage plants were not overburdened sug gests to local health officials that discharges were taking place Glen of the Hastings and Peterborough Regional nit Pollution at beaches this summer will depend on the amount ol water and on the wcathcrcondittotis Henry nmeni Minister Jim it is to predict pollution conditions he predicts an improve ment over a peiiod of time as with provincial assibiancc continue to undertake projects associated with improv ing beaches Were working in every municipality thai asks us for assistance provide that assistance and improve the beaches in thai area Ifradluy