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

Page If THE HERALD Mirch27ini Editorial Municipal concerns A study looking into finan cial links between municipalities and the provincial government released its findings and recommenda tions last week and of the 39 suggestions one in par ticular if adopted would relieve municipalities of a major financial burden The commission headed by London Ont councillor Grant Hopcroft and the report issued to Municipal Af fairs Minister David Cooke was basically attempting to untangle the wondrous web of confusion that has been woven involving municipal and provincial financial obligations The report noted The current system is confusing and relies too heavily on property taxes The main thrust of the report centres on the welfare system and recommends that as early as 1992 the pro vince accept complete responsibility for welfare Costs The committee also recommends the province and municipalities redefine which service each government provides and then assume its cost relative to respon sibility Common sense should have dictated that a commis sion such as this should have been convened years ago to ascertain and identify specific municipal and provin cial responsibilities and the cost factors involved to allow for discussion and if necessary a realignment of fiscal and moral responsibilities Common sense also dictates that even now there should be some sort of similar ongoing commission deal ing solely with municipal and provincial concerns visa vis responsibility in certain public sectors Common sense however as we are all aware does not always prevail when politicians and appointed bureaucrats get together to discuss items pertaining to the common good Some other recommendations from the committee in cluded that municipalities tax the gross receipts of public utilities and impose a telecommunications tax on cable companies and a special levy on hotels that municipalities should be allowed to levy special charges against developers to help pay for schools and public transit that full marketvalue reassessment be put in place in Ontario with fonryear updates that the province develop a tax system for the elderly that would put taxes off until a property is sold This would provide a substantial benefit to seniors who are property rich but money poor that each level of government have clear fields of taxation and that also municipalities would have no ac cess to income poll or sales taxes and that the province would not tax property that the province return revenue from the commer cial concentration tax on municipalities For example provincial tax on pay for parking lots in the Greater Toronto Area that the province help lowincome people with an enriched and more sensitive tax credit system based solely on need that municipalities be given power to implement user fees for municipal services such as garbage collec tion and roads The committees recommendations will be put before school boards and municipal councils for input Also some of the recommendations will be put to the Fair Tax Commission set up by the new provincial government This commission as the NDP claims was created to look into ways of implementing a minimum tax on cor porate income and as well to set up criteria for a wealth tax Some of the recommendations might be considered radical in some quarters Such should not be the case At a grassroots level municipal governments are more aware and more concerned about issues directly affecting citizens because those involved in municipal government face the people in more oneonone confron tations than do provincial or federal elected represen tatives In that sense this report represents the voice of the people and their concerns must be addressed 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 Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario L7G 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 The Hills HERALD Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established 1866 A Division of Canadian Newspaper Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario 3Z6 K ROBERT Publisher and General Manager 8772201 couNoissoN rob risk Managing Editor Sport Editor Still Writer CLASSIFIED Joan Minrwll ACCOUNTING MnntertepichuluMccounlinlanllriojaShter rates SUgla Copy fin I MkOOsbifiMM I RaollterHNaOM4 Tha HmU copyright on D origin and advarttttog material craalad a and In Toronto Ontario or St Tha agraa that ma puManar than not ba arising out tinted by trial portion which arroi lo Iha nagllganca it Hull no lor nan ol any id mount paid lor Peoples Forum PCs policies are questioned Editors Note The following letter was released to The Halton Hills Herald for publication Dear Mr Turner So Michael Wilson says amongst other things what were trying to do is break a cycle of wage and salary settlements that are 2 per cent per cent sometimes more higher than in flation we simply cant afford that as Government or as a coun try I am not in your constituency but a neighboring one and I read your columns in local newspapers From the I believe that you have the ear of our Minister of Finance and you do indeed appear to understand and care about the many frustrations and resentments felt by the public Perhaps knowing the man as you do you can explain to me how Mr Wilson can reconcile the above quoted idea with the 11 per cent raise in pay and benefits to Federal MPs just a few short weeks before the budget was brought down He must already have come to the conclusion that restraint was imperative or did it come him in a flash just before the budget Perhaps you can explain the thumping increase to Mr Crow and his staff I thought he was in the know No He didnt yet know that restraint was the order of the day This is Leadership Mr Wilson and Mr Crow showing us the way out of our financial morass Follow us and all will be well And perhaps you can clear my mind on one more point I keep reading that the dollar must not be allowed to fall because should it do so imports would become more costly causing more infla tion If imports were more costly is it not possible that we Canadians might be encouraged to seek out local products thus boosting Canadian industry I hope you can reassure me that I am quite wrong to be amongst the per cent of people thoroughly dissatisfied with the way your government is taking us Yours truly Gillian Baker Erin Jews for Jesus a cause for concern Dear Sir In your paper early in March you earned an article on the visit to a local church of represen tatives of an organization called Jews for Jesus Jews for Jesus is an organization which causes con for many Jews and Chris bans most notably The Cana dian Council of Churches the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Canadian Jewish Congress Jews for Jesus is an aggressive group which tries to convert Jews to Christianity Yet one of the fundamental tenets of JewishChristian dialogue in our time is the renunciation of pro- in any form by Chris tians of Jews The journal Ecumenical Review Volume 1 page II contains the following statement on proselytism embraces whatever violates the right of the human person Chris ban or Christian to be free from external coercion In religious matters In a World Council of Churches document entitled Ecumenical Con siderations on JewishChristian dialogue Geneva 1983 Sections and 3 it is stated that Chris Hans have often distorted their witness for coercive Christians should advocate respect for the integrity and tity of all persons and alt com munities of faith particularly Jewish people Furthermore if a Jew converts to Christianity the person is then no longer a Jew but a Chris tian Dennis writes in the Miami Jewish Tribune March 28 1990 that Jews for Jesus are probably the only people in the world who take on the beliefs of another religion yet deny that they have converted to that religion It is commendable that Chris tians learn about their Jewish roots and recognize the values and traditions they hold in com mon with Jewish people for ex ample the Ten Commandments It is imperative that Christians respect the integrity of the Jewish faith Christian Jewish in the present and future must be based on mutual understanding and respect and must be different from the tragic past Yours truly Thomas M S Kingston Rector St Georges Anglican Church Georgetown