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BEST AVAILABLE COPY Grits rabid interventionists Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario DAVID A BEATTIE Publisher and General Manager BRIAN Editor Phone 8772201 DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager Page THE HERALD Wednesday July 12 Uncertain future Children entering the school system in the next few years face an uncertain future Here in Halton board of education director Bob Williams Toward 2000 program designed to give schools more independence and to provide more resource leaders for teachers is causing a stir among trustees an allparty committee on education has unanimously supported a report urging the government to move schools to an allyearround concept Both reforms could radically change the way we think of school While we support careful studies of our educational system there must be no change for the sake of change Summer employment has become a necessity for to days students and an allyearround concept would only students a maximum fiveweek break between semesters In Halton the Toward program could mean a substantial increase in expenditures possibly without a direct effect on the students As parents you might consider the summer a time to put school on the back burner But now more than ever its time to let your trustees know your feelings and your concerns about your own childrens future education Costly campaign Editors Notebook Brian MacLeod Is it expensive to run an campaign Even if its just a municipal elec tion You bet Especially if youre run ning In a heated race for mayors chair Municipal candidates expenses were released Monday as required by the Municipal Elections Act Every candidate who spent more than had to disclose money raised and money spent Sheldon challenged incum bent Russ Miller for mayor but the extra spent by Mrs Sheldon couldnt unseat Mayor Miller Mrs Sheldon spent according to her declaration sheet while Mayor Miller spent only Many other candidates spent under or were acclaimed to their seats Those who did run and spent under include Robert and Don McQueen who ran in Ward 2 against Alt Spence Councillors and were elected but Mr Spence spent race in Ward was only cost ly for Pat McCarthy He topped the polls in that ward but he files doing It The other t elected In Ward 3 Anne Currle spent less than Tom spent less than Ward race The race for the public school trustee position in Wards 3 and 4 cost the winner the most Dick Howitt was returned to the Halton Board of Education but the race against and Rod Taylor cost him 4776 Rod Taylor spent just over and spent less than 1000 No one spent more than in the hydro commissioners races Murt Allison defeated Don Munday in Ward 2 and Jim Fisher beat Ab TennantinWard3 Queens Park Derek Nelson Thornton Sorvkt Theres an assumption among many critics of the Liberals that the party is probusiness or business liberal or in the best Ontario tradition middle-of-the- road What that analysis is based upon is hard to say A few others myself for exam ple see the Gnts as a government of rabid interventionists They are in love with rule making for rulemakings sake a government that assumes the worst about business in all cir cumstances and prefers laws and rules to trust There is a lot of proof The most recent is Bill 149 which will amend the trespass act to make it more difiicult to throw un wanted people off commercial and other property commonly used by the public And theres the amendment to consumer protection legislation that forbids book companies from giving bonus books to people who bring in new customers probably among the most stupid laws ever But Liberals hostility to business goes back to their first days in power Consider the list the extension of rent control over the free sector of the rental accommodation market the seminationalization of car insurance the passage of pay equity legislation slowly being imposed on business at incredible expense and with considerable confusion the hiring of literally hundreds of inspectors to police business for occupational health and safety and environmental concerns expanding the mandate of the human rights commission to go snooping into the private sector to find unintentional discrimination new antibusiness taxes From the employer health levy to the special parking tax for the Metro area Add it all together and it implies a government with tin ideological obsession with business as its enemy Liberals deny it of course But their actions speak louder than words KEY TEST A good touchstone as to whether theyve genuinely become more flexible towards business will be the fate of Bill with its radical reduction of property rights It goes to committee hearings this summer The theory behind Bill is that shopping malls have changed the nature of private property and that anecdotal evidence suggests youths particularly nonwhites are discriminated against in using such property although not in the ministrys own words to any significant extent Such discrimination is already il legal under the Human Rights TUB SOUNDS Of Code of course You cant discriminate on the basis of color or age But Attorney General Ian Scotts ministry claims such discrimina tion in say shopping malls is hard to prove Hence in their eyes the need for Bill 149 Under the bill anyone on proper ty normally frequented by the public is there by right and can be removed only for specific cause This will supposedly prevent discrimination against nonwhite youth Mind you it would make more sense to get the human rights police richer by millions of dollars from the Liberals and much more concerned nowadays with going out and finding discrimination to check it out than to pass effect what is a whole new law It seems strange to say that because one law is said to be hard to enforce although not tried another law should be amended So what then other than an ideological desire to write rules for others is the reason for this law Its true there may be Charter problems with the existing trespass act on private property picketing for example but theyll exist whether there is a new law or not No It is formula think ing we have a perceived problem lets pass a law and beat up on business An article in the Wall Street Journal during the Liberals early days in power was headlined Peo ples Republic of Ontario Maybe that headline was right Faint praise for Forestry Canada Councillors- rallied together around the round table in- the new civic centre for the first time on Monday The meeting was a snort one but our reporter Ben Dum- who covered the inaugural meeting in the new chambers says councillors will have to start soun ding off pardon the pun if they want to get heard Press seats are located at the very front of the public gallery and Beta said hear ing councillors is very difficult If those in the front cant hear youll really have to strain to hear from the back Perhaps the microphone system may be needed after all Theres no sense having a public gallery if The public cant hear While the new council chambers Is a much needed improvement over the Trafalgar Road room its still a bit small A quick count ear ly in the afternoon showed 37 chairs for the public Theres room for more but I remember counting and sometimes 70 people show ing up at some council meetings in Road offices By RENNIE MacKENZlE Ottawa Bureau Thomson News Service Theres a new federal depart ment and fresh legislation to direct the countrys forest industry but praise for the governments efforts has been faint A new department was promised in the election to give the forest industry which had long been in the shadow and under the direction of other ministries its own higher profile Forestry Canada was finally created by cabinet order last September but the legislation giv ing it the fopnal status of a full department was not presented to Parliament until June The new bill which has a long way to go before passage is not all that critics and industry had hoped As expected opposition spokesmen quickly condemned the bill It created a toothless depart ment a paper tiger whose minister Frank Oberle will have no clout they said But the Canadian Institute of Forestry an organization of 2400 forest Industry professionals who have waited five years for the bill expressed disappointment and renewed concern over the govern ments commitment Its essentially a minor piece of legislation an amendment of the Forestry Development Research Act which goes back to 1960 says institute executivedirector JH Cayford The draft bill dropped into the Commons the week before parliamentarians fled the capital for a threemonth adjournment appears to Cayford as nothing more than a minimum step that raises more questions about inten tions in the forestry sector The government is making substantial cuts in spending on forest development in the current fiscal yeaf Cayford admits figures vary but his organization claims million and personyears are being trimmed from forest allocations These reductions are being made at the same time as they an nounce the intention to provide leadership in forestry he says CONFUSING SIGNALS Cayford also says six of the federalprovincial forest develop ment agreements have been allow ed to expire and the federal government Is sending out con fusing signals on their renewal Were really concerned with the federal government commit ment to the forestry sector With billion in annual revenues from the forest industry the federal government should be assuming more responsibility and a stronger role especially in the areas of forest products research and trade Cayford argues The legislation he says makes no reference to a national forest sector strategy to deal with the deterioration and depletion of forest stocks and makes no men tion of the broader aspects of multiple use of woodlands Theres nothing on recreation wildlife wilderness or water We think it should be broadened to en compass these other resources he says And while Cayford says he doesnt agree with all the dooms day scenarios that see an end to many forest products industries he feels there is a need for better management and welcomes a pro vision of the bill that requires an annual statement on the condition of the nations forest resources The legislation will require the minister to provide Parliament with an annual account of the con dition of forests and their contribu tion to the national economy