New tory leader may add spice Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited 45 Guelph Street Georgetown L7G Ontario K ROBERT MALCOLMSON Publisher and General Manager BRIAN Editor Phone DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager Page THE HERALD Wednesday May 1990 Spaces needed Child care is fast becoming an issue which govern ments will no longer be able to ignore The waiting list for child care spaces in Walton Hills shpws it is becom ing an issue here too Hal tons coordinator of child care development Mary Beth Jonz says theres 88 people on the waiting list for child care spaces now and 56 of these people are in need of immediate access to a child care facility Those numbers may not seem outrageously high but Gillian Burns the supervisor of Georgetowns Maple Avenue Child Care Centre says the 60 people on the waiting list at the centre is the most there has ever been on a waiting list at the centre And that number is bound to increase once Halton Hills is affected by the growth in the coming years in Georgetown south and Acton Child care can be one of the most productive areas for a government or private enterprise for that matter to spend its money Single women who are able to get their children into a child care centre can get off unemploy ment or welfare and become a productive part of the workforce That return is far more than the investment in a child care centre It also allows families to pursue productive careers increasing their income and allowing them to improve their standard of living There will always be those mothers who refuse to put their children into the care of others Thats fine But for those who want to choose the other route the opportuni ty should be there for them In the coming years with tight budget restrictions in place politicians will have to keep that in mind Skylights Brian MacLeod Editors Notebook BangORama certainly lived up to its name Monday night The weekend rain had put a damper on some events at the fairgrounds but Optimists put on a dazzling display of lights over the skies of Georgetown for the weekend finale So spectacular was the show that three different times I prepared to pack up my camera believing we had just seen the big finish And the huge crowd on hand was appreciative of the show with ap plause and whistles throughout Hats off to the Optimists for giv ing Georgetown a reason to stay away from Ontario Place and Mississaugas Square One on the Victoria Day weekend I cant believe Bouchard was allowed to resign He should have been fired a week ago Two Tory members vote against the Goods and Services Tax a few weeks ago and theyre thrown out the Progressive Conservative caucus and told by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney theyll never run again as Conservatives Bouchard Canadas en vironment minister sends a telegram to the Parti clearly showing his continued com mitment to breaking up the coun try and the prime minister simply waits until his friend says hes had enough This is the same person who last month said Canada may have to choose which province Quebec or Newfoundland it wants to keep in confederation Where is the leadership when its needed the mosf Our page story in he Halton Hills Herald Outlook noted that Regional Chairman Pete said the has yet to decide whether or not it is part of the Greater Toronto Area initiative on solid waste disposal The GTA is a fiveRegion commit tee set up to decide how to cope with waste disposal in the Toronto area over the long term However it also has a short term solution to deal with the waste disposal problems in the area In order for each Region to join the committee it must put up a con tingency site for all Regions to use in case of an emergency Halton was considering naming its new Milton site but it has backed off Its been two years since this proposal got off the ground At the time Chairman Pomeroy began attending the meetings and declaring that Halton is merely keeping up with going on and is not a fullyfledged participant Mean while councillors didnt tell the chairman not to go to the meetings No formal decision on whether or not Halton should join the GTA was ever made So at the request of the citizens group POWER Halton is finally going to decide whether or not it should participate in the GTA In June Halton will hold a public meeting to listen to input on tbe GTA Then it will make a decision Dont hold your breath will formalize its partnership in the and Its not farfetched to say that Torontos garbage trucks will at some point be rolling into new Milton site TORONTO New Progressive Conservative Leader Mike Har riss debut in the legislature wasnt a thing of beauty He was overly wordy and on television he revealed an irritating habit of bouncing up and down as he talked But the good news was he didnt repudiate the issues he had cam paigned upon It could mean in teresting debates ahead at Queens Park While Harriss views have received fairly negative media and political coverage it has usually been in a shorthand manner For example Premier David Peterson told reporters- He has some views that I dont share on taxing food taxing people that are ill and removing protection from renters taking away tenants rights While that understandably isnt exactly a fair description of Har riss position it is true that for a change his ideas if pursued will make for some light in the smothering political consensus that normally envelops Queens Park Underlying Harriss approach is a belief that there are limits to how much in taxes can be extracted from the middle class iwthout it having negative sideeffects on both the economy and social life In consequence he advocates target- ting government spending to those individuals who need it rather than subsidizing everyone Hence the controversial pos- tions hes adopted that Peterson described sort of above HOSTILITY And what are those views that have some commentators and politicians almost foaming at the mouth in hostility Item a tax freeze Harris wants to restrict increases in government spending by holding it to the rate of inflation Under the Liberals spen ding increases have averaged more than double that each year which is also why theyve required tax increases at twice rate of even Ottawa While Harris hasnt been specific about the details pegging budget growth alone to the rate of inflation would mean no new taxes as long as economic growth held up And since he has also promised to reduce the size of the civil service which has grown by bodies under the Liberals he even has some leeway in terms of spending Item a combined provincial- federal GST Harris argues that in stead of eight per cent provincial tax levied on some items and not others and a seven per cent federal tax that does the same a combined seven per cent tax per cent each levied on everything including groceries which is the source of Petersons comment would being in the same revenue Why is a meal under exempt from tax but one over that amount taxable Harris asks Item scrap private sector pay equity laws Theoretically design ed to help women in lowpaying pink ghetto jobs Harris notes that it is the one excluded from the existing law Instead it deeply and expensively invovled government setting of privatesector wage rates a sheer recipe for longterm economic disaster and why no other North American jurisdiction including the former governments in this country ever implemented such a law Item medical user fees What Harris calls some kind of co- payment system for those who can afford to pay woujd have a two fold effect It would return some accountability to a system people treat as free and it would add a little cash to a system that does re quire more money TRY IT SIDEWAYS GST by any other name Vic Parsons OTTAWA Budget willies in the United States appear to be leading to renewed talk down Washington way of a new national valueadded tax VAT A VAT is another name for a multistage consumption tax Or as Canadians have come to know it fondly a goods and services tax GST If the debate gets going in the we Canucks will have front- row seats and be able to nod know ingly as familiar arguments are thrashed out in Congress Its interesting to a Canadian watching the current GST im broglio that the US considered a similar tax in the mid1980s The administration of thenpresident Ronald Reagan spumed the idea for reasons that would trip easily from the lips of Canadian Liberals and New Democrats A VAT the Reaganites com plaint would be regressive hit ting t poor harder than the rich There be a risk of inflation And th sudden inflow of revenues to go ernment would spawn growth in the bureaucracy and rash ending These ideas ring bells with Canadians At any rate the idea was dumped So when Finance Minister Michael Wilson says other countries now have taxes like our GST hes not including the US the trade partner accounting for about 70 per cent of our foreign business Lately however President George Bush and On have seen S deficit projections grow at an unsettling rate And one Republican senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming has tabbed a VAT as a possible revenue source to help trim mammoth cash shortfalls PROS AND CONS Meanwhile the US General Ac counting Office has kept on top of the issue Last September it pro duced a paper for Con gresss joint committee on taxa tion outlining pros and cons of a federal sales tax The study says a VAT has tremendous potential for raising tax revenues An allinclusive fivepercent national tax could br ing billion US into Washingtons coffers in If food housing and medical care were exempted it would still net billion The study notes many countries introduced their tax on a revenue basis later transform ing it through rate or base in creases to produce additional revenue Thats an intriguing echo of one of the criticisms made of our GST Lets look at a few other items covered in the GAO report First is the idea a sales tax hurts the poor more than the rich The GAO paper accepts this but sug gests the harm can be offset Ex emptions or lower tax rates for necessities tax credits for low- income people and increased transfer payments are possibilities Canada is using exemptions and refundable tax credit ostensibly to reduce the impact on the poor But critics note the first three per cent of the inflation each will be eroded from the credits over time lowincome earners will lose ground Second the money machine argument In Europe the GAO says revenue shortfalls have been covered by VAT hikes This could create a temptation to increase public expenditures the GAO adds Similar complaints are made by GST critics here