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Page 18- THE HERALD Wednesday April lim- MP says interest rates are too high now The economic news has not been great the last few days Interest rates are up again the stock market has been falling mor tgages and loans are more costly inflation wont go away and more economists are talking about recession I guess if I were still writing a daily newspaper column for a liv ing Id be using dark headlines It wouldnt be too tough to sensa tionalize the current situation But Im not Im a politician and a part of a government which some people want to blame for all this stuff As such a guy however Im not going to offer you up a sunny defence of the feds Instead I would like to outline a few of the facts and let you make up your own minds First interest rates They are too damn high But the problem is bringing them down is also somewhat dangerous If the Bank of Canada eases back then the value of the dollar will fall along with the rates While thats temporary good news for ex porters its bad news for inflation because all we import gets more expensive This is what happened just about year ago The feds eased on rates inflation roared up to 12 and eventually interest rates had to hit 22 to cool out the system That of course on the miseryladen recession of If we can avoid that again then we must Keeping rates stiff today is supposed to keep us out of trou ble I hope the plan works Of course high rates are the enemy of the stock market because investment bucks are lured away from Bay Street by the high interest paid on things like Treasury bills So the market falls by about 200 points last week But stocks have another enemy and thats political Foreign investors particularly tend to avoid spending their money in places which are plagued with uncertainty Right now Canada is getting that label A big German bank last week told its investors to dump Canadian government bonds partly because of Lake If the deal fails then all this talk about Quebec separating could have a real economic bite And this is another reason for high rates With a big deficit to finance Canada needs high rates to attract money to this country Our domestic savings along cant handle the load So is this due to Tory mismanagement of the economy You make up your own mind The national debt was 170 million in Today its billion Why have we let that hap pen Because as a country we havent had enough money to pay the interest on that debt for the past six years As a result almost all the increase in the national debt is due to interest on that billion Six years ago Ottawa was spen ding billion a year more on pro grams than it got in taxes Today weve got a billion surplus But that isnt good enough its not enough to cover the billion in in terest on the debt this year alone So we end up running a deficit and borrowing more Its a bad situation After years of budget cuts and tax increases were still in trouble And when interest rates around the world start to increase as they Good service good coverage good price Thats State Farm insurance Guelph St Georgetown 8731833 Like a good neighbor State Farm is there STATE FARM INSURANCE are now then we realize how little skating room Canada has There is little reason to expect a quick drop in interest rates for all the reasons I just talked about At the same time theres an obvious need for all levels of government to keep on cutting spending And until we can bring the deficit down to zero the national debt will keep on going up In this situation the finance minister Michael Wilson has to be some kind of magician On one side as the economy slows down hes asked for more cash to bail out Saskatchewan farmers or east coast fish plant workers And on the other are demands from middleclass taxpayers to slash more federal spending rather than relying on any more tax increases- All the while higher interest rates make the deficit worse It took our country about years to get into this mess I know that a lot of you are impatient to get out A lot of people think the Tories should have turned this country around over the past 60 months Well it didnt happen And it wont happen over the next 60 mon ths We may get the deficit under THE CORPORATION OF THE Town of Hills I Drive O Box 128 HILLS Georgetown Ontario PROCLAMATION THAT the corresponden ce from the Kiwanis Club of Georgetown dated 02 02 be received AND FURTHER that the Council for the Town of Hills hereby proclaims April 1990 as Club Duck Race Day within the Town of Halton Hills in accordan ce with Councils policy Russell Miller Mayor E is April I WO Ils a lime locus on our planet and what eat us an do to preserve and enhance it In honour of Earth Day the Halton Board has declared the week April EARTH WEEK Throughout our region schools will have very special activities that will demonstrate what todays students are doing tor the environment These happenings are a part of our Education Week activities The theme is The School And The Community OUR FUTURE IS TOGETHER Working in partnership the school and community can better prepare our tor the challenges ot the next century you can drop by your local school and help celebrate Earth Week and Education Week Your participation could make a world difference St control and start paying back some of the debt the plan is to begin in 1994 but we will still be suffering spending cuts and tax hikes Whether the next government is Tory or Liberal doesnt much mat ter As Canadians we have no choice not if we want this place to avoid being Argentina North where the middle class has been wiped out These problems can be solved and the feds will have little to go to voters with next time if they are I spent last week covering a great deal of ground in our riding from Burlington to Bolton and back again heard people unhap py about high rates and the GST which was no surprise But I also heard people tell me they cared more about the future People know what the situation is They have a great deal more in telligence that most politicians give them credit for They dont want handouts They want solu tions And they must get them makes you feel good inside STELLAR high efficiency AIR CONDITIONING is the hean of your York dealers Total Comfort System Efficient summer Quality construction Very quiet operation A YORK Kendale Mechanical Ltd GeorgetownMilton 8736684 Mississauga 8972555 EDUCATION LETS TALK Ic smith fruition 133 Wyndham St Downtown Guelph 821 7490