The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Page THE HERALD OUTLOOK Saturday August in the HERALD Outlook Yuppie refugees heading your way OUTLOOK is published each Saturday the IIUTON HILLS Home Newspaper of Hills A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited at Street Georgetown Ontario L7 lZfi Second Class Mail Registered Number 8778822 STAFF WKITKKS PUBLISHER David A Beattie EDITOR AD MANAGER Dan Taylor SHOUTS Colin Gibson ACCOUNTING TninnivSall Inan SNAFU by Bruce Beattie OUTLOOK is published each Saturday by the llUTON Home Newspaper of llalton Hills A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited at Street Georgetown Ontario L7G lZfi Second Class Mail Registered Number 8778822 STAFF WKITKKS PUBLISHER David A Beattie EDITOR AD MANAGER Dan Taylor SHOUTS Colin Gibson ACCOUNTING June Glendenning Tammy Sail loan SNAFU by Bruce Beattie We give them manicures just before their nails are long enough to reach Finance Minister faces an uphill battle Theyre heading north south east and west They could be heading your way this very mo ment And when they get there things may never be the same No they are not killer bees Theyre refugees from Toronto Theyre hitting the road in the BMWs Toyotas and Jeeps with their pockets stuffed full of inflated housing dollars looking for a bet ter life Until recently they were content to move a few miles outside of the city driving back and forth to work each day But the highways have become too congested And house prices within an hours drive of the city are high So people who are fed up with the crowding the noise and the stench of the city that people love to hate art moving away to Alberta British Columbia Nova Scotia to Peterborough and Belleville and Kingston to London and Kitchener and any other city large enough to oner employment but small enough to offer some peace ant quieL This is doim weird things to the housing market House pnces in Toronto and its bedroom com munities are under pressure to fall But the countrys second- tier cities are beginning to do relatively well Ten years from now the popula tion could be more evenly spread among a number of cities the way it is in the United States rather than so much of it being lumped in and around Canadas three major metropolitan centres Toronto Montreal and Vancouver PROBLEMS ARISE Used to be people in smaller towns could sit on the front porch and watch the flowers grow Now they sit and watch the housing developments go up The change has done wonders for house prices but it has made it more difficult for people to find a little peace and quiet When the people who are fed up with the city are journalists they write about their decision to leave Weve seen a lot of this lately The new refugees blame prices traffic and a growing feeling of uneasiness over tensions among people of different backgrounds Then there are the street gangs and the purse who turn the simple act of walking down the street into an adventure There is also the problem of the Americans The proximity to the US border has turned Canada into a nation of smugglers Canadians have always envied the Americans lower clothing and gasoline prices for example Late ly people have been slipping south of the border to buy food BUFFALO LOOKS GOOD The real estate prices south of the border are often a fraction of what they are in Canada does not help If the Americans dont watch out theyll have a stampede of Canadians rushing to buy houses in border towns commuting back to Canada each day to work All in all bigcity residents are growing discontented with their lot They are seeking solace elsewhere So if one day while youre sitting on the porch you see a caravan of young formerly ur ban professionals wending its way toward your town be kind to them Theyve had a hard time If youre feeling really generous you might sever a little piece of land from the corner your pro perty and offer it to them for or so Theyll thank you for your generosity But be warned these people tend to move in herds First you see one or two the scouts Then comes the stampede Next thing you know youll have crowded highways smelly air and high house prices You could pick up and move but to where The more one looks at the col ossal challenge facing Michael Wilson the more one wonders why anyone would agree to become minister of finance And to think that he doesnt earn a penny more than say the minister of verterans affairs If ever a federal minister faced an uphill battle it is Mr Wilson whose occupation and preoccupa tion right now is convincing Cana dians that they should learn to love the new ninepercent tax on most goods and services It would be a tough sell under the best of conditions that is if most influential groups in Canada were supportive But the finance minister starts his campaign in the face of opposition that borders on revolt Even some members of the Tory caucus are beginning to talk of rebelling and most of their con stituents havent yet had time to become familiar with all the pain ful details of the tax scheduled to come into effect Jan 1 1991 A majority of provinces have serious objections And as Mr Wilson prepares to unleash his sales force Quebec Premier Robert is preparing for his Sept election by campaign ing against the tax not only for fiscal reasons but on jurisdictional grounds Ontario Premier David Peterson has expressed serious concerns about the tax and so have senior officials in most other provinces British Columbia Finance Minister Mel Couvelier predicts Mr Wilson will be forced to back down If he is its probably the end of his political career Seldom has so much persona credibility been staked Tax- reform has been Mr Wilsons priority since he entered the cabinet in SUPPORT CRUMBLES Its his view and he profoundly hopes that a majority of Canadians will soon adopt it that the present federal sales tax imposed at the manufacturers level is nothing short of rotten And a vast majori ty of the Canadian business com munity would agree Its the remedy that causes the political problems There may be few doubts that the tax imposed at the retail level is basically more effective- And there is no doubt the system works reasonably well in other countries But Canada is not a country like most others We also have retail taxes imposed at the provincial level except in Alberts and Mr Wilson proposed to make Canada the only country in the world with two separate retail taxes For many of us who are not even aware of the present hidden tax its going to be a bit of a shock to see nine per cent added to our sales slips But then well still be hit with the provincial tax which will also be applied to the federal tax In other words our taxes will be tax ed I think its fair to say this is not something that easily sells itself Remember the tough time the government had selling free trade with the full support of the business community and a ma jority- of the provinces including Quebec That little initiative could be kids stuff compared with this sales campaign LITTLE WONDER Its not surprising that the pro vinces have deep reservations about the new tax since it will clearly limit their room for future increases Its one thing to raise the provincial retail sales tax to say nine per cent from eight but when consumers suddenly see themselves paying a 17percent tax it will take a very gutsy pro vincial finance minister to start adding to that Thats doubt why Mr Bourassa will be telling Quebec voters that Ottawa should keep its Continued on Page ADVERTISING SALES Valois Craig Teoler Roberts PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Dave Hastings Supt Annie Olsen Wilson CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT Marie Shadboll PRESSROOM FOREMAN PRESS ASSISTANT Todd Michael Wilson hopes for flag waving Finance Minister Michael Wilson hopes average Canucks will be so impressed by the potential benefits of his new sales tax that theyll wave the flag and be prepared to give up one in every hundred of their 1991 spending dollars Thats one of the downsides of his proposed Goods and Service Tax GST to be applied on everything from diapers to coffins and hair cuts to pedicures Wilson believes the GST is a necessary step to a healthier and wealthier economy His forecasters say itll mean new economic growth of about 9 billion and the creation of 35000 jobs in 1991 rising to 60000 in But first regretably there will be a onetime inflationary burst as the new tax comes in The latest Finance Department estimate is that the GST will bump up consumer prices per cent in the first year Thats in addition to any other inflation that may be working through economy But Wilson says hell take steps through increases in the refun dable sales tax credit indexation of pensions and other social benefits and a lowering of the tax rate for middleincome earners to offset that inflation for poorer households Nevertheless he admits the GST impact will rob average Cana dians of one per cent of their after tax spending power in High- income families will feel the bite even more But over time he in sists real buying power will in crease REQUESTS RESTRAINT This is where the finance minister makes a wish He hopes you folks wont ask for pay raises to make up for losses arising from GSTinspired infla tion Wilson warns excessive demands would delay the touted benefits of the new tax and could compel interest rates to rise Such appeals for moderation have historically fallen on deaf ears Its tough to convince wage- eamers when prices are rising all around them that they should bite the bullet and restrain demand Already organized labor is rejec ting the idea Recall that in thenfinance minister John Turner appealed for voluntary restraint That flopped only to be followed a year later by wageandprice controls Wilson denies the need for such controls but those of a suspicious mind might also remember Pierre Trudeau ridiculing the idea a year before he introduced them himself Anyway it is clear that Wilson wants to sell restraint We will take the message in a very public way he said For success to be within reach Wilson and colleagues will have to establish credibility always a pro blem in politics Take for exam ple the governments argument that consumers will save when the current manufacturers sales tax is removed at the end of Continued ort