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

Wednesday August the HERALD Opinion Our society is a prisoner of empty promises In a recent newsletter Walter McLean the MP for Waterloo and one of the few MPs who seem to have the use of his mind refers to a survey conducted by the University of which suggests that people have lost faith in our institutions According to this survey people have not only lost faith in the key institutions of our society religious educational and governmental they are positive ly outraged about some of them The findings of the University of are hardly surpris ing the scepticism of the public versus the institutions is almost touchable in everyday life The question to be answered is why have our institutions fallen into disrepute and what can be done to remedy the situation I would like to look at a non- political reason for the credibility crisis we are in Basically have lost faith in our institutions because they are no longer capable of delivering and they raise unfuHUlable ex pectations One example Government has provided all kinds of programs to protect and support the needy The idea is good the results tragically wrong Take a 20yearold single mother In the name of human rights individual freedom the girl has been encouraged to have her child to have her own place Welfare provides her with some not much money The trouble is that a young jobless lady who had a child is basically an irresponsible per son Often an abused one And to put it simply not one of the brightest Instead of helping her to avoid the situation she is in once the role of toe family and church she was encouraged to leave her family and given some money for shelter and food by a thoughtful government She lost the support of her family and on her own She had a job which she lost no fault of hers A part time job she was offered she declined because the money was less than what she gets from welfare She is in arrears with her rent but thanks to government protection she is not forced to leave Her landlady becomes her unwilling supporter The government keeps her there the bill is paid by somebody else The sting comes in the tail She is basically a good if not too bright girl Some people would like to help her with a badly paid job and some very inexpensive accommodation You know what They have been told to keep away from the girl as once she becomes their tenant they will have no way of controlling the use of the premises and even to collect the nominal rent should she choose to default Conclusion A basically good person has been in the name of all kind of rights been destroyed Her youth will he spent in near poverty her adult life in menial jobs abuse by some jock possibly drugs She was not educated she did not receive a simple clear set of values We failed her Worse we basically encouraged her in her way to selfdestruction The above is just one of a thou sand examples By concentrating on the rights of the individual and ignoring the duties we have created a world in which whims become essential needs escape from reality encouraged and even rewarded Naturally the many programs we have in place fail to deliver the happiness they promise and both users and onlookers become disenchanted We have become a society prisoner of many empty promises with no values Not surprisingly we are not happy with our institutions that is we are not happy with ourselves Political Forum Ottawa Report Turner defends operation of Canada Post A set of mail boxes in- Alton may be installed in the wrong place and my office gets bar rage of phone calls A longtime rural route con tractor in Terra Cotta does not win his tender from Canada Post and my office receives a long petition while I take several angry phone calls Hours of operation at several small post offices are changed to allow a lunchtime break and the results of a public mailin cam paign pour onto my desk in Ot tawa Canada Post starts packaging stamps in colorful booklets and I get letters decrying government waste In just about all of these cases people have come to me as the Member of Parliament because they want me to do something They want me to interfere in the decisions and operations of the post office Some of them believe that an MP has influence over Canada Post like in the old days when the outfit was losing over Others think by applying pressure on me that I will in turn put the squeeze on some postal of And there are several special interest groups around who tell people that only by bugg ing and cajoling MPs will Canada Post stop doing things like replac ing some post offices with retail postal outlets Well this column is a response to these people The post office is a freestanding crown corpora tion that operates as an indepen dent business and no more answers to individual Members of Parliament than does Petro- Canada or Canadian National And it is also my personal belief that its inappropriate meddling for an MP or any other elected official to try to in fluence the inner business work ings of that corporation Is it right for example for me to tell Canada Post how to tender a con- Garth Turner MP Peel Progressive Conservative Mi tract Or to whom I dont think didnt turn into that help deficit with its political favors ficials The post office an efficient opera- pay down the profits by doing for elected of- But while it is not my role to in terfere it is very much my job to make sure Canada Post knows and responds to community sen timent Thats why I arranged for postal officials to meet people in Alton Its why I am now making sure the many voices from Terra are being heard at postal headquarters in Ottawa And its why Ive spelled out ex actly what I expect out of this cor poration Move the mail efficiently Dont lesson any existing levels of service Treat people fairly Respond to public sentiment Dont be a burden on the tax payers For the most part those condi tions are being met There have been a few lapses such as the loss of postal service in Limehouse And I have had to send some steamy letters on the behalf of postal users But frankly Canada Post is a far better institution than the old post office used to be It no longer costs taxpayers money to run and its hatched a new line of pro ducts and services Still things could be better The report on Canada Post pro duced by the Parliamentary com mittee I chaired recommended two major changes First Canada Post like Air Canada and PetroCanada should be privatized by selling shares to its employees and individual Cana dian investors Second Canada Post should be regulated by a watchdog agency with the power to order the cor poration around That would give individuals communities and groups an opportunity to appeal Canada Post decisions Right now there is no real accountabili ty and I think that can lead to abuse or perhaps insensitivity to local needs and concerns The government did not accept these recommendations at least not yet I will keep on bringing them up The systems a lot better than it used to be But like you and me it is not perfect Well at least me Queens Park Report Health care spending by NDP being scrutinized Last week I was telling you about some of the activities undertaken during the past legislative session and I would like to mention a few more of them to you in this report Recognizing the massive amount of provincial dollars spent on health care our govern ment has been looking for ways to reduce those costs without sacrificing the quality of service that we deserve and expect One of those ways was to imple ment controls on spending for health care while still preserving access to such services where required Many of you were horrified for example at the costs associated with some drug treat ment programs in the United States We also managed to achieve a sixyear agreement with physicians that for the first time will reduce and control the annual growth of health care spending and provide for joint governmentphysician manage ment of our provinces health care system And we have tried to sort out the outdated and pat chwork legislation associated with the various health care pro fessions In April I worte about the in troduction of the Regulated Health Professions Act and com panion legislation Bills and mentioned to you that public hearings would be scheduled to allow consumers and practi tioners an opportunity to com ment on the bills Some of you are meeting with me this week to discuss the changes but I would also like to let those interested know that the Standing Commit tee on Social Development has set out its schedule for August If you want to appear before the committee you should contact the clerk Lynn at I would also like to again outline our rent control legisla tion Bill which received se cond reading on June 26th The bill replaces the Residential Rent Regulation Act 1986 Under the new system annual rent in creases will be based on an index that reflects the inflationary costs of running a rental proper ty Nonprofit housing units finan cially supported by the federal and provincial governments are exempt from the controls and so are newly built residential com plexes for five years The respon sibility for holding hearings on Bill lies with the Standing Noel Duignan North MPP New Democratic Party Committee on General Govern ment Six legislative committees in all will be holding hearings to review various issues including Sunday shopping the provincial budget wage protection and the Constitution As youve heard Bob Rae decided to make some changes to the cabinet on July Karen member for Perth and a former teacher and school trustee was sworn in as Minister of Culture and Com munications Tony Silipo a lawyer who represents the Toron to riding of Dovercourt now chairs the Management Board of Cabinet Will Ferguson parliamentary assistant to municipal affairs and a former Kitchener alderman becomes Minister of Energy Were pleas ed to see Evelyn Gigantes return to cabinet as Minister of Housing Dave Cooke retains his Municipal Affairs portfolio and takes on the role of Government House Leader Shelley Martel stays on as Minister of Northern Development and also becomes the new Minister of Mines Gilles becomes Transportation Minister and retains his rep- sonsiblity for Francophone Af fairs Ed Philip moves to Industry Trade and Technology replacing Allan who becomes Minister of Correctional Services and Solicitor General And Health Minister Frances now also has responsiblity for the antidrug secretariat If you would like to write to any of the new Ministers please call my Milton office at Tues day through Friday for more in- formation Write us a letter The Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opinion you want to express or a com ment to make send us a letter or drop by the office Our address is Street Georgetown Ontario All- letters must be signed Please include your address and telephone number for