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

the HERALD- Wednesday January 1992 Opinion NDP child care policy called into question At the expense of children the government is using socialist philosophy instead of common sen to implement its child care policy In an attempt to install a wide non profit child care system the province recently an nounced it would allocate million to support for non profit child care employees and to create new profit child care centres By providing financial support to profit child care centres and not showing similar support for privately run operations Ontarios New Democratic Party is indirectly eliminating much needed child care spaces According to a Regional Social Services staff report the govern initiative will significantly reduce at least in the short run the number of available child care spaces in by Ben Dummett The reason being the additional provincial funding will further widen the existing salary gap bet ween non profit and profit child care centre employees The Region quite rightly so is concerned child care workers wont work for pnvatelyrun centres because of the wage deferential When this happens its the paren ts and their children dependent on private child care services who ultimately suffer This hardship is exacerbated realizing the current tough economic times means many two and single parent families are only just surviving If any of these people have to give up their job due to a lack of day care spaces financial disaster will be the probable result The provincial government wants to implement a profit child care system because some research shows profit centres offer a higher standard of care than privatelyrun centres While this fact is acknowledged in the Regional Social Services report it is also noted that child care related legislation has a strong bearing on the quality of care of fered by either profit or profit centres In other words the stronger the legislation the greater chance both profit and non profit centres will of fer quality care In the report Region Social Ser vices Commissioner Bonnie points out Ontario has strong child care legislation However to her knowledge no study has been undertaken com paring the quality of care offered by profit and non profit centres while accounting for this legislation Instead of rushing ahead to im plement a provincewide non profit day care system the govern ment should first do a study to determine if private day care cen tres in Ontario are offering quality service If the results show quality care Isnt being offered it would make sense to eliminate pnvatelyrun day care operations However to take action before the study is done shows the provin ce to be interested in spending money only for the sake of spending money And in doing so the government hurts the very people it says it is most interested in helping lower and middle income families Staying on an even keel is cure for recession Tired of talking recession Lets talk recovery and more how to stay on an even keel after The only remarkable feature of our latest recession was its predictability While politicians and economists were huffing and puffing about the boom of the late 80s they were ignoring the fact that it was fools gold Back in the early many people had discovered the simple fact that the concept of economic growth was as dead as the dodo and that the economies of the West having satisfied the basic needs of their citizens were bound for a period of economic stability Put it simply our economies were moving from a hectic period of growth to a period of what could be called a replacement economy The reasons Rather obvious With all basic needs satisfied and with an insignificant demographic growth there is not much room for economic growth Add aging population less needs technological development less waste and en vironmental concerns less con and the picture is com plete no growth just replace Another View A fools dream The growth of the GDPGNP was 5 per cent during the 70 decade 6 per cent during the seventies 3 per cent in the eighties It is likely to average 2 per cent in the nineties Bad Not at all a mature economy has no need to grow to satisfy our needs it only needs to kick happily along After all we really do not wnat more than three or one house per fami ly The fact that some families do not have a house or three cars is not due to a shortage of houses or cars but to a misdistnbution of the same There is no shortage of houses to day there is a shortage of in come Again you do not believe if Alright look at Switzerland a mature economy with an average growth during the past 30 years of 2 per cent and none of our social problems Where did things go wrong In two areas speculation in the private sector and mismanage ment in the public one And here is where a new approach is badly needed Take wages During the good years we had wage set tlements of to to per cent Some fools even granted themselves wage increases of 30 percent Great five years later we have 1 million people on the dole Stock prices skyrocketed with no relation to the value of the issuer With the huge paper profits made people pushed real estate prices in the stratosphere Four years later a depressed real estate market a recession Surprised It would have been surprising if that kind of nonsense would have continued So what to do now that a recovery is just around the cor ner Government has to come to grips with reality understand the concept of a replacement economy and tell us the new rules Start with wage increases Nobody can afford wage in creases of more than a couple of percentage points Sure the op portunity will be there for higher increases and the unemploy ment office three five years later Mindless speculation stocks real estate must be curbed with taxes if needed Investment in productive ven lures encouraged not through grants but through tax credits The gambling factor eliminated from interest rates gambling is for the race track not the economic arena You see we are grown up we cannot continue to behave like kids We have all it takes to maintain a very good life and to include the poor in it After all we have managed to carry some one million unemployed trough a recession But we do not need to offer a good life at the cost of snatching it away again three or four years later Our economy will grow again slowly and modestly Our job is to avoid the ridiculous fiascos of any the previous growth cycles the human cost is too high Peoples Forum Landfill site could devastate the escarpment Editors note The following letter was filed with the Herald for publication Dear Mrs I am writing to you in reference to the RSI application to operate a landfill site at the Acton Quarry I must oppose this ven- J Sincere appreciation Dear Sir Acton Christmas Hamper Committee consisting of The Salvation Army St Vincent Paul Lakeside Chapter 1 0 D and Rotary Club wish to express lux sincere appreciation to the schools churches community groups and individuals who will ingly donated cash food toys clothing and a variety of other useful items to help us complish the task of serving needy families at Christmas Again as in previous years the response from the community was tremendous enabling us to make Christmas a little bit brighter for many families The generosity of the citizens of Hills speaks volumes to us of their concern and goodwill towards those need A big Thank you is also in order for the Good Neighbours of Georgetown and the Lioness for giving oversight to the effort in their respective towns Our combined efforts resulted in approximately families being served in the Halton Hills area We salute the people of Hills for allowing us to serve others in this way Sincerely Wade Captain Corps Officer The Salvation Army ture for several reasons I have been involved with the Bruce Trail Association as a volunteer member for the last teen years I hiked the Trail end to end in to measure it and record comments on the Trail condition and best route I fell in love with the Niagara Escarp ment that summer because I became so intimately acquainted with it The Trail passes many active quarries along its route and in several cases traverses old quarries slowly regenerating back the landscape Humans have had an inevitable impact on the Escarpment limestone literally supports us in most of daily activities A quarry once it has fulfilled its economic role can become a haven for wildlife and a source of recrea tion for people in a rapidly expan ding urban area filling such an important potential Wildlife and recreational resource with gar bage is not acceptable I have been a resident of Georgetown for even longer than my association with the Trail find a sense of community here that does not exist in other tres where I have lived The water we drink in Georgetown is drawn from wells dotting the Escarpment to the north and west of town A hydrological analysis shows that the flow of the water in our aquifer is down hill from you guessed it Ac ton I dont care what assurances the RSI proponents give even tually there will be contamma tion to the aquifer if a landfill develops in the Acton Quarry have seen and heard too many horror stones not to believe this I am an environmental science teacher and keep an eye open for the latest failures of supposedly perfect diposal techniques The Credit River east of Georgetown is being polluted by chemicals leaching from the old town dump Do we have to further abuse our water shed Please consider my concerns when you are evaluating the RSI proposal and plea remember that the fragile Niagara Escarp ment a World Biosphere Reserve needs all the that we can give it so that our children will be able to enjoy it too Yours sincerely Chris Walker Trail Development Coordinator Toronto Bruce Trail Club Sabres supported Thank you Garth Editors Note The following letter was released to the Hills Herald for publication Dear Garth Thank you for your HaltonPeel Constituency Survey Would you be so kind as to complete my Halton Peel MP Survey by answering the following ques tions with Yes No this is a pro blem of the publics perception or this indicates a need to educate the public A Should constituents have the right to recall MPs who do not represent them B Should the electorate have the right to initiate referenda bin ding on the government Should Parliament be restored to its position of supremacy over the Supreme Court of Canada D Are you glad you voted for the GST and do you really believe it should be extended to cover food E Do you agree that now the only growth in Canada is in unemployment bankruptcy crime government debt the need for welfare and food banks child poverty phony refugees and taxation F Do you agree that you are a member of the first government in Canadian history that is in competent corrupt and unrepresentative of the people all at the same time When completed would you please include this Survey in your long awaited Canada Book Yours truly Ray Kathwaroon PS I hope that In future your supporters will identify themselves when they make their abusive calls To the Editor With reference to your article Does Acton want a Junior Hockey Team in the Herald Wednesday Jan The answer to the tnvial pursuit is YES affirmative The Sabres won 40 vs Bradford Bulls on Fri day Jan with a great shutout for Greg Powell who must have been one happy camper as well as his team bud dies whose strategy paid off Great stuff guys Sure Acton needs more en thusiastic fans with spirit to cheer the Sabres on because upon observing their practices everyone works hard with their motivational skills and skating drills These young adults show enthusiasm in practice work hard and deserve recognition from the Acton residents who can support in response to our Junior hockey team Go ahead- make their day To coin a Its worth the skate to Acton Go for it Acton Junior C Sabres Good luck for the present and future games on your schedule ASabreHockeyFan and Ace Cheerleader Virginia Christmas Toy Drive To the Editor Now that the holidays are behind us I can reflect back on the preChnstmas Toy Drive Whenever I think about this pro ject I am reminded of all of the people who contributed generous ly to make it all possible As a direct result of these donations children in this community received Christmas packages The Toy Drive project involved many people and organizations Some were involved with collec ting funds or toys some par ticipated in the preparation of the packages and others assisted in distribution and delivery In no particular order they include Norma Firth and the Lioness Club Finn Poulstrup and Johnson And Associates Neil Cotton and the at G H S Melvin and Hallmark Cards Knox Ladies Auxiliary Millie Adams Elliott Custom Brokers The Georgetown Firefighters The Salvation Army The Centennial School The Men and Women of Kin Kinsmen Toy Drive Chairman