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Page THE HERALD Saturday May 13 19M Political Forum ITurner admits to foulup on proposed GST Well I ve managed to get myself in the middle of another mess Last Monday the committee that I chair in Ottawa the House of Commons Consumer and Cor porate Affairs Committee started to hold hearings into what the GST is going to do to consumer This is happening because from the start I ve had concerns about this new tax terms of consumer protection When the GST replaces the ex isting federal sales tax of per cent on manufactured goods there should be a reduction in some pnees like for cars and furniture and electronic stuff and ap phances But almost nobody believes it They think the manufacturers and retailers will just pocket the difference keeping pnees higher and sticking it to con sumers This of course should not hap pen Because if it does then inflation will increase along with interest rates and everyone including the government will suffer So it struck me that a good way of en the savings are passed on was to haul business leaders before the committee and get a commit from them Now at this point let me repeat again that the GST is not perfect or wonderful or without flaws It s better than the invisible tax it replaces but it could be better still The provinces should be part of this for example so we have just one level of tax which is simple to understand and easy for businesses to collect But maybe that can still happen after we all get used to the change As a single MP I can t do it But as chairman of this committee what I can do is try to ensure the GST is fair And fair means this Those prices that should drop must drop The tax should not make interest rates go higher II must not trigger an nflationary spiral And this is where my troubles seem to be beginning The committee decided who we should hear as witnesses everyone from car manufacturers to economists to retailers to the Bank of Canada department stores and labour leaders And almost all were operative ex the leaders of the Canadian Labour Congress and Canada biggest union CUPE We wanted them to come and reveal why when the feds and most economists say the GST will add just 25 per cent to prices they are asking for wage increases of about 9 per cent based on the feet of the tax Because if wages zoom ahead so will pnees And so will interest rates Then we all have problems problems it seems to me we can avoid now Peel PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE So I got a bit tough Last Thurs day afternoon the committee summons demanding these labour leaders appear as witnesses found out later is almost never done Because although the committee has the same powers as a court of law MPs are reluctant to flex those muscles Of course you can imagine the reaction of the New Democrats They have more or less declared war on me for forcing national labour leaders to testify and to de fend their actions There seems to be a belief that while it okay to muscle big business big labour on the other hand is above the law The Liberals on the committee agreed with me that any witness who refuses to appear should be forced and I appreciate that sup port But with the NDP declara Canada a steppingstone By TOM MITCHELL Communications Division Statistics Canada OTTAWA How many migrants to Canada use this coun try as a stepping stone a way sta tion on their journey to some other destination There is no exact tally Neither Statistics Canada nor any other government agency counts people who leave the country But calcula lions based on the best information available show that from to 22 of all immigrants who arrived here in the five years just before the Census left the country not long after gaining admission This assessmnt is made by look at immigration numbers for the years through and checking against the number of immigrants identified the 1986 Census Over such a short span of time the effect of mortality is con sidered negligible For example there were somx 128 GOO immigrants in 1981 and about of them were den tifjed in the 1986 Census a discrepancy or gap of about This same gap stood at for the immigrants for the im migrants of both 1983 and 1984 and 14 for those of 1985 Where these immigrants went is of course a matter of conjecture Migration studies have shown that a certain number return to their country of origin perhaps because they are unwilling or unable to complete the cultural uprooting that immigration en tails Others continue their trek to yet another country For im migrants to Canada the nearby United States provides a ready destination for continued on A new spirit of giving VIDEO RANCH BETA NINTENDO VICTORIA DAY WECKIND SPECIAL May 5 MOVIES for 19 95 Hot W to MACHINE RENTALS KBr 8730700 mm mini GEORGETOWN OPTICAL NO ONE EVER REGRETTED BUYING QUALITY MARKET PLACE PLAZA 8773562 HOURS Tues 0 day 00 WERE YOUR INSURANCE BROKERS WE UNDERSTAND PAUL CARMSTRONG INSURANCE BROKERS ITD MILL ST Dntirto PHILIPS Dictation Users FREE TAPES Nelson Business Machines Limited the 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enough to convince This week we hear from manufacturers directly For ex ample if you re reading this on Wednesday then today executives of Ford and Chrysler and the automob le dealers association will speak And what we 11 be ask ing them is they intend on passing on the tax savings to their customers After the GSTs in place the price of a car should drop by about And if you buy that car to use in a business then the real cost will be about less than today So the change in the tax system is not all bad news despite what you constantly read and hear Everybody gets very nervous when you start talking taxes which is why this committee is obsessed right now with consumer protection We want to make sure those prices fall and some of them don that the feds have ways of forcing the issue Right now Ottawa proposes to have a watchdog agency set up to tell us what should fall and which should rise next year It will inform consumers investigate complaints monitor pnees and try to publicly embarrass those businesses who pocket money which they This may be enough government intervention Maybe not Maybe it even too much These are the things we re trying to discover over the next five weeks of hearings It a lot of work but it s also worth it Anybody who uses a change in the tax system for personal gam whether it s big business or big labour is an enemy of the people The last time I looked the coun try was bigger than both of them YELLOW CAB HALTON HILLS HOUR SERVICE Airport Sorvfce Parcel 8732527 8732931 Co Trafalgar FINANCING Doors and Doors GRAND PRIX M VANS REGAL FULL SIZE TEMPEST TRUCKS GREAT SELECTION TO CHOOSE FROM Peter Del Ho BUICK CADILLAC QrfaMt QUEEN ST E BRAMPTON 8779803 1C O M P U T E SALES and SERVICE St