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

THE HERALD Wednesday March21 1990Page 17 Federal government is still Canadas biggest advertiser Horticultural society plans annual strawberry social 9 Walt Elliot LIBERAL feMi noted with interest the other day a newspaper article detailing the amount of money spent on advertising in Canada A company called Media Measurement looked at the advertising expenses of more than companies and governments This was done by ex- amining ads in daily newspapers about magazines billboards television radio and print supplements Ontarios government was suc cessful in cutting its spending on advertising by 18 per cent in 1989 This was part of a successful effort by the Provincial Treasurer Robert Nixon to cut the govern ments costs in areas that do not bring direct benefits The Federal Government has re tained its top spot as the countrys biggest advertiser in 1989 but has managed to cut its advertising bill by 17 per cent Ottawa made its biggest savings on Air Canada which it sold off during the year and Via Rail These figures were interesting because overall spending on adver tising went up by about eight per cent in the last year While Alberta followed the trend towards less government money for ads British Columbia increased its spending by more than 70 per cent and Quebec added about per cent to its budget for advertising The move to get better control of spending by Ontario Government ministries has not been directed at advertising budgets atone During the last year the provincial govern ment has succeeded in cutting million of spending This money came from programs that were no longer useful and from ad ministrative costs Each depart ment was asked to examine everything they were doing to see where they could save money and use what they had more efficiently In a related move the Provincial Health Insurance Branch will im plement a new computerized OHIP system The new system which is expected to be in opera tion by July will give each resident of Ontario a separate OHIP number The present system assigns numbers to families rather than to individuals Unfortunately this has allowed some people to cheat the system and obtain medical services without cost when they were not entitled to them This fraudulent use of OHIP cards by people who are from out of the province may have cost the taxpayers millions of dollars since was introduced in the 60s These few examples are just a small sign of the reality facing all levels of government As new pressures for services programs and capital spending are felt by government we must continually look for areas to save money and increase efficiency In order to preserve basic services govern ment must make better use of its present resources Each time a new request for money is received the benefits for the residents of On tario must be closely examined to see if they are worth the extra cost LOOK GOOD FEEL GREAT Male and Female Memberships Available mm Membership WORK THAT BODY 8770771 MAID SERVICE WHOS BEST For FREE Estimates call 65 By ELAINE VANDKRBURG Georgetown Horticultural Society The monthly meeting of the Georgetown Horticultural Society was held Feb A good turnout of members were present and new members who have joined the society were welcomed President Verna brought informa tion of events within and around the area Including the following The District annual meeting is being held in March The topic Great Gardens Natural ly Contact Vema if you wish to at tend The Canadian Ins Society will be meeting at the Royal Botanical Garden on April 18 The Georgetown Horticultural Society will be holding its next meeting March 8 pm at Knox Presbyterian Church Main St Georgetown This meeting is a presentation of Landscape and Design for the home owner given by Brian Spudgg of the Garden Centre of Sheridan Nurseries This meeting is open to the public and there is no admis sion fee Bring your questions The cookbook committee head ed by Madge Whitfield continues its work on the cookbook which is expected to be available for sale at the spring flower shows The flower show committee headed by met March 5 The theme for the flower shows have been decided and the booklets have gone to print The booklets should be available for the April meeting The guest speaker for the April meeting will be Zena of Wheel and Cullen Nurseries She will present a followup on Landscape and Design for the Homeowner May will be an active month with the annual shrub sale May from am to 12 noon and the regular meeting May 17 Dont forget this is the first flower show of the season June 16 the society will present the annual strawberry social and flower show The society thanks the guest speaker Mike fcr his informative talk on organic growing presented at the February meeting Mr is editor of the Country Side Magazine an fanner and gardener and director of the Ecological Farmers of Ontario He snared his ex periences in his transition from agriculture fanning to organic far ming a transition from farming and growing using chemicals and pesticides to one of not using these products Organic growing Is the growing of plants without the use of any artificial input The farm or garden must become a self- sustaining growing area In doing this the farmer helps nature to work with the environment not against it Mr Pembrey explained the use of compost and expressed the importance of rotation planting as well as illustrating a rotation plan for the society The meeting closed after a draw for door prizes plant sale and refreshments For information on the society contact Elaine Vanderburg at