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

THE WEEKEND OUTLOOK Friday February 15 1991 Page 1 Peoples Forum- Councillor explains reasons for opposing Acton arena Hie Editor It would seem that a great deal of misinformation and emotional feelings have distorted the Acton communitys understanding of the position of the Budget Com mute on the subject of the Acton Arena In response to some current ar ticles and letters to the editor I will attempt to convey my reasons for not supporting this project in our current 1991 capital program In a time when fiscal restraints are the most important issue that currently face the Town and our citizens of Hills I cannot support a single project that would increase current taxes by 73 This would be the cost add ed to each and every household and business to cover the cost to debenture the Acton Arena for a 10 year period Im sure there is not a single person or business who can af ford this irresponsible commit ment of taxpayers dollars We are faced with an uncertain future and when we have not decided where the arena will go or own land that will be suitable for it If ways can be found to main tain the current facility for five years we will be able to take on new debt load because our ex isting debentures will be eliminated in There has been much discus sion about the Provincial funding for this project This is also your money and comes out of your left pocket instead of your right As one who has a son that plays hockey and daughters that enjoy public skating I can understand the frustration of not having a facility that meets the Acton communities needs We must weigh all the issues before we commit the Municipality and the taxpayer to the burden of double digit tax increases in a time when the forecasts for inflation are for the coming years Even is going to be a burden for a lot of people Yours truly Joe Hewitt Ward 2 Regional Councillor Write us a letter The Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opi nion you want to express or a comment to make send us a letter or drop by the office Our address is 45 Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario 3Z6 All letters must be signed Please include your ad dress and telephone number for verification The Herald reserves the right to edit letters due to space limitations Rule of 72 To the Editor Regarding Mr Hydes rebuttal of Feb 8 Paul col umns compared investment choices and he has his bias and encourages people to save so that they can achieve financial in dependence Financial writers in cluding Paul advise in vestors to reinvest or compound earnings to build wealth The Rule of is a simple guideline to approximate the time It takes for a compounded investment to double nothing more D day or valuation day for publicly traded shares and securities was December 22 Should we call it the Rule of Mr Hyde There are two types of interest simple and compound The basic formula for compound interest is A P plus ln where A Is the compound amount P is the prin ciple i is the interest rate and is the number of periods There are published tables for 1 plus in or can be calculated using logarithms The formula for sim ple interest is i P and where R is rate is time ex pressed in years Given any three values the fourth can be deter mined By the way Mr Hydes original elegant lemma is in correct if used to calculate the compound rate of return of money and the price of a bouse is money isnt it The correct rate of return compounded annually for Justice Sopinka and his house is per year rather than and 1365 per year rather than Since Mr Hyde and his finan cial acquaintances are un familiar with the Financial Hand book edited by Jules I Bogen first published in with many revisions since I suggest they draw straws to see who is first in line at the Georgetown Library to check it out They have only one copy There are however many other books on the subject My copy is 35 years old my daughter a recent graduate in mathematics from the University of Waterloo where it is a reference text has the current edition The interest formulas therein which are used by all financial institutions have not changed Pete Georgetown Opinion Food costs expected to rise this year OTTAWA Food purchases will be taking a bigger more painful bite out of the family budget this year say federal agriculture analysts Agriculture Canadas food markets analysis office is expec ting retail food prices to edge up four to six per cent over the year as the food industry copes with rising costs and the new goods and services tax is tacked on to restaurant tabs Food price hikes have been ab sorbed relatively easily by con sumers in other years but the Conference Board of Canada one of the countrys leading research institutes glumly predicts take- home incomes will not increase at all this year Eric of the food markets analysis branch expects many will feel the pinch The effect of inflation on food prices and recessionary pressures on incomes will pro duce a double on consumers he said The price hikes were cushioned by disposable income increases of 19 per cent last year and 1 per cent in Johannsens office is expecting grocery prices to creep up two to four per cent over the year and restaurant prices to jump bet ween eight and 10 per cent GOOD RECORD The food markets analysis branch has a record of accurate forecasts It had predicted a food price increase of three to give per cent last year The final figure was per cent But says there are two factors that could tilt the 1991 forecast the exchange rate on the dollar and the GST With the unsteady economy exporters are saying the Cana dian dollar is overvalued explained His office has based its predictions on an cents US dollar If however the average exchange rate for the year dips below that figure food prices will rise he said Analysts can calculate with some precision the effect of the exchange rate on but pro jecting the impact of the GST on Ottawa Bureau by Ttiamson News Service food has proven to be an inexact science according to Johannsen It has been estimated that the old manufacturers sales tax which was dropped with the in troduction of the GST- con tributed up to two per cent to the cost of basic groceries The cancellation of the sales tax could lower some costs carried until this year by farmers processors wholesalers and retailers But the sevenpercent GST is expected to account for a three- togivepercent increase in restaurant prices The analysts knew the restaurateurs would add the tax to menu prices but said they may absorb some other cost increases Overall the GST is likely to have only a slight effect on food prices but admits if the estimates applied to restaurants are wrong it could skew the total forecast There is more certainty about other factors The food marketing cost index which in cludes labor energy packaging promotion and transportation costs is expected to advance four or five per cent Labor costs account for per cent of the index and a number of large union agreements are under negotiation In the closing months of 1990 wage settlements were running at annual averages of 45 per cent in the food- processing industry and per cent in the retail sector COMMODITY PRICES If there is any good news in the departments forecast it is in the area of commodity prices which amount to a third of total retail prices Only slight increases are anticipated in most of the food groups Meats including poultry are expected to increase 15 to 3 5 per cent at the retail level led by chicken and beef Fresh pork and turkey prices may even slip a percentage point Dairy products and fats and oils will gam three to five per cent while fresh fruit and fruit preparations edge up two to five per cent Bakery and cereal pro duct increases will not likely amount to more than two to four per cent Prices for fresh vegetables and their prepara tions will gain by no more than two per cent and may actually decline Eggs coffees and teas if they increase at all in price will ad vance by no more than two per cent while sugar product price increases are expected to settle in the range Star Wars back on US defence agenda The flashes over Israel and Saudi Arabia from Patriot missiles knocking out incoming Scud missiles have lit up more than the Mideast sky Theyve put Star Wars back on the US defence agenda which also in the long run means the question of Canadian participa tion will again resurface Star Wars is the name the media gave the antiballistic missile program officially called the Strategic Defence Initiative launched by former S presi dent Ronald Reagan It was his hope an antimissile defence could be created to protect North Americas civilian population from ballistic missile attack For several years the Democraticcontrolled Congress has dragged its heels on funding the program preferring MADness to defence MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction is the theory that no nucleartipped ballistic missile will be used in a war because both sides know they would be destroyed in a nuclear exchange It has worked so far because there are essentially only two positions in the game The heavi ly armed Soviet Union has its missiles facing around the world The remaining ballistic missile powers US UK China all target the Soviet Union MORE AND MORE But many analysts expect in creasing numbers of countries to develop and deploy intermediate and longrange ballistic missiles within the next decade Saudi Arabia India and Israel already have such missiles and Iraq might have had before the initial Allied air strikes What is scary is that ballistic missiles really have no function other than as terror weapons Even the shorterrange versions like the Scuds dont make any military sense Yet as terror weapons they are an failure as Iraq demonstrates almost daily unless they are armed with nuclear warheads Does anyone doubt Iraqi Presi dent Saddam Husseins will ingness to drop an atomic bomb World Affairs by Derek Nelson Thornton Service on Tel Aviv or Washington for that matter if he could In a world of mad dogs the real madness is not to protect oneself against the rabid Hence the most important part of US President George Bushs state of the union address is where he addressed the ballistic missile threat Now with remarkable technological advances like the Patriot missile we can defend against ballistic missile attacks aimed at innocent civilians Looking forward I have directed that the SDI program be refocused on providing protection from limited ballistic missile strikes whatever their source Let us pursue an SDI program that can deal with any future threat to the United States to our forces overseas and to our friends and allies he said VIABLE The technical name for the pro gram is GPALS for Global Pro tection Against Limited Strikes SDI director Henry Cooper told a science group in December that Star Wars is a technically viable program that could lead to real capabilities in the future It would involve Patriot cousins the current test rocket called Eris which would be fired from ground level and spacebased in terceptors using brilliant peb bles technology The dual defence would likely be able to handle up to 100 missiles at a time which would be more than enough to protect North America in the forseeable future from a deliberate strike by anyone ex cept the Soviet Union and from an accidental launch from anywhere Critics will wail about such defences contravening the anti- ballistic missile treaty of 1963 which it wouldnt now but which it eventually might And CanadVs MADmen will bring their antiAmericanism to aboil Personally Ill remember Sad dam Husseins promise to rum Tel Aviv into a crematorium for its Jews and fervently pray for the deployment of antimissile defences