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2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, September 22, 1976 Section Two EDITORIAL COMMENT Speech Radiates Optimism Recently, General Motors of Canada held a press preview of their 1977 vehicle models at Cherry Downs Golf & Country Club when Donald H. McPherson, President and General Manager, made a most interesting speech to open the annual event. We hear and read so many doom and gloom predictions these days that it was most enlightening to be on the receiving end of some optimism for a change . . . and he certainly provided just that, along with much information. Following three years of record breaking sales, GM expects the upward trend to continue for the balance of the 1976 year and Mr. McPherson also forecast that the 1977 models will sell at record breaking levels, because of their new product line and the general impr ovement in the economic cli- mate. They expect one million cars and trucks will be sold in Canada during 1977. He pointed out that the company now employs about 36,000 with the average weekly wage for hourly rated employees $7.79 an hour or $300.41 a week, not including the extensive GM benefit .programs. Those figures were 54.1 per cent or $105.49 higher than the average weekly wage of $194.93 reported in 1975 for all Canadian manufacturing employees. One has to wonder why Ford in the U.S. is on strike if those figures apply there too. One doesn't have to wonder why the price of cars continues to climb. Those are our comments not his. After mentioning those figures that must have left many newsmen scurrying to apply for GM jobs, Mr. MePherson supplied information on a dazzhing array of developments that the company has undertaken and an amazing amount of detail on the products they make in various plants. They have opened a 1,000,000 square foot National Parts Distri- bution Centre at Woodstock, plus an ultra modern battery assembly plant in Oshawa, added 57,000 square feet to the Ste. Therese plant to accommodate an increase in production of their sporty sub- compact cars . . . a move that has added 450 employees to the payroll. In 1977, General Motors expects to ship 57,000 cars and trucks overseas to such places as Venezuela, Iran, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, Chile, Zaire and the Phillippines as well as other countries. Some of GM's operations that don't receive much publicity were mentioned by Mr. McPherson. Such as the fabrication plant in Oshawa that will produce 1,700,000 wiring harnesses and the plastic depart- ment that turns out 25 million pieces of 139 different parts. Or the radiator department that builds 29 different models at a rate of 4,350 per day. And the heavy metal stamping section in the North Plant that produces 109 different assemblies totalling 35 million pieces expected during the 1977 model year. The lamp assembly department produces 33 different types of lamp assemblies for a total of 8.5 million pieces. 234,000 gas tanks along with 600,800 brake and clutch pedal assemblies and over 600,000 instru- ment cluster assemblies, all come out of these plants, to mention only a few. Naturally, at the conclusion of Mr. McPherson's speech he dealt with their new models, pointing out the many improvements, the reduced weight of the cars, the better mileage, without taking away from the handling or the comfort. And then, the guests were en- couraged to get behind the wheel of the new models and take them for a test ride. All in all it was an education. Sorry we were tied up here and couldn't make it. Bilingualism Not long ago, Prime Minister Trudeau said that Canadians still have a deep and underlying mistrust of bilingualism. He was speaking during the recent air controllers and pilots illegal strike over the use of French in Quebec air space. The Prime Minister, we suggest, should be commended for the moderation of his language. That issue - biingualism -has brought to the surface more open ignorance and bigotry than anything in recent memory. English-speaking Canadians at best seem neutral to a policy -- in fact a law under the Official Languages Act -- that may very well be the cernent that can keep this nation unified. Bilingualism in Canada does not mean that the residents of Come By Chance or Burnaby will have to speak French. Some will and do and their childreh are thankfully getting a chance to learn French at school so that some day, hopefully, most Canadians will be able to speak the two officiai languages of Canada. But bilingualism is not being forced down anyone's throat. All that is happening is that both The Function of As nearly everyone knows an executive has practically nothing to do except to decide what is to be done; to tell somebody to do it; to listen to reasons why it should not be done, why it shou'ld be done by someone else, or why it should be done in a different way; to follow up to see if the thing had been done; to discover that it has not; to enquire why; -to listen to excuses from the person who should have done it; to follow up again to see if the thing has been done, only to discover that it has been done incorrectly; to point out how it should have been done; to conclude that as long as it has been done, it may as well be left where it is; to wonder if it is not time to get rid of a person who cannot do a thing right; to reflect that he probably has *CNA JOHN M. JAMES Editor-Publisher English and French-speaking Can- adians are being put in the position of being able to deal with the federa) government - and some provincial governments - in the officiai language of their choice. This means that a considerable number of civil servants must learn a second language. Even thal modest aim will take a number of years to achieve but it is a smal price to pay for Canadian unity. No doubt some of the bilingualism programs in Canada have no worked or have been implemented in a bungling bureaucratic fashion but that must not be the centra issue. The issue for English-speak ing Canadians is simple -- do w support bilingualism as a nationa policy and are we prepared t support it as a way to broaden our nation's unity and to support thos people in Quebec who are fighting Separatism? It is time for the many English- speaking Canadians who support unity to speak out on the issue of bilingualism and not allow the bigots to monopolize air time and letters to-the-editor. an Executive a wife and a large family, and that certainly any successor would be just as bad, and maybe worse; to consider how much simpler and better the thing would have been done if one had done it oneself in the first place; to reflect sadly that one could have done it right in twenty minutes, and, as things turned out one had to spend two days to find out why it has taken three weeks for somebody else to do it wrong. The men in the locker room stared in amazement at the club's newest member who had just put on two pairs of golfing pants. Finally he noticed the stares and explained "When I golf I always wear two pairs of pants just in case I get a hole in nne.' Durham County's Great Family Journa! Established 122 years ago in 1854 Also lncorporating The Bowmanville News The Newcastle Independent TheOrono News Second class mail registration number 1561 Produced every Wednesday by ~HE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 62 66 King St. W , Bowmanville, Ontario LiC 3K9 GEO. P. MORRIS Business Mgr. BRIAN PURDY Advertising Mgr. DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr. "Copyright and-or property rights subsist in the image appearing on this proof. Permission to reproduce in whole or in part and in any form whatsoever, particularly by photographic or offset precess in a publication, must be obtained from the publisher and the printer. Any unauthorized reproduction will be subject to recourse in law." si0.00 a year - 6 months $5.50 strictly in advance Foreign - $21.00a year Although every precaution will be taken to avoid error, The Canadian Statesman dccepts advertising in its columns on the understanding that it will not be liable for any error n th( advertiserent published hereunder unless a proof of such advertisement is requested in writinq, by the advertiser and returned to The Canadian Statesman business office duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted in writing thereon, and in that case if any error so noted is not corrected by The Canadian Statesman its liability shall not exceed such a portion of the entire cost of such advertisement as the space occupied by the noted error bears to the whole sne occupied by such advertisement. Letter 1 Dear Editor: * Concerning the angry let- ters on the subject of the great increases locaily on land taxes that appeared in the papers *last week. 1 can say - - - speaking as a person close to the action, that the ire was warranted for today's taxes are murder. As we are all well aware, home taxes as well as other land taxes are imposed by tbree authorities - - the Town Council, the Regional Council and the Scbool Board. The taxing record of each one of these three powers that be during the iast three years is deplorable. Who is to blame for the situation? No one else except the candidates who were elected by the voting populace or received acclamations to administer Town Hall, Re- gional Government or School t Board activity. Who are these people? f Your municipal council is L comi-posed of- Councillors Don Allin, Ann Cowman, Kirk Entwisle, Ivan Hobbs, Ken- neth Lyall, Bruce Tink and Garnet Rickard. jThe school board trustees are Sid Worden and Aflan îWerry from Darlington. Re- presen1ting Bowmanville are Maurice Prout and Andrew e Tbompson. Ward Three trus- J tees - - Orono, Clarke and the 0 former Village of Newcastle, Bihl Carman and George r' Cameron. e These are the publicly g elected representatives who, as a small group or part of a larger collective group, decid- S ed how many of your tax t dollars would be needed to f supphy local services and how the money would be spent during this past couple of years. 1 To begin witb, your Town of Newcastle Council is' respon- sible for some good things and has aiso taken some very t irresponsible actions. The good items include the fact that the New Council did >take the old Newcastle Vil- lage, Orono P'lice Village plus the Townships of Carke and Darlington and meld those former organizations into a workable, viable overal New Town of Newcastle. The job was ordered done t under the edict of Premier Bill r Davis and Bihl 162 of the Conservative Government - - and it was done. Despite all the very ap- parent fauits of Regionalism, 1 the New Town of Newcastle is S one Regional facet that is a success. As far as 1 can see, it is the oniy facet of Regional- ism that willi be successful. Under, the old system, the D former Village of Newcastle e the Police Village of Orono, Clarke and Darlington Town- sbips and the former Town of Bowmanville were too smal te operate effectively. The former communities had many problems. The New Town of Newcastle witb 30,000 population and lots of area ta build a broad tax base on, will work - -- in time. Now the bad news.' The first Council of the New Town of Newcastle after the election and acclamations of 1973 made the mistake of mounting their desks and riding off in ahl directions without long termi financial planning. At the first meeting of the New Town Council one of the first motions passed was one te create a $2,000,000 line of credit at the banks. This lack of financial fore- sight resulted in the New Town miii rate jumping from 137.17 milis in 1974- - the first year of operation te 178.32 f ii ntetîd ya l mutn e iIrt t nraeo 9prcn nTw tad uigte eueo h n is oucl s to the Editor Included in this tax jump was the scandalous waste of tax dollars through the Town of Newcastle planning pro- cess. Through the cost of New- castle's Ontario Housing Action Program planning, the Newcastle Interim Official Plan plus the cost of operating the Town's Hampton Planning Department and the Town's 13 per cent levy that paid its contribution to the Region of Durham Planning Depart- ment, the Town of Newcastle has spent in the neighbour- hood of $630,000 in tax dollars for planning in the past three years - - with little or no useful results. As a matter of record, the planning process of the Town of Newcastle - - - the whole $630,000 worth of it - - is considered to be a very bad joke by outside planning officials and corporations waiting to develop their land holdings in this Town. To show up the folly of Newcastle planning, the 1975 budget for the planning de- partment was set at $139,970. This budget was overspent to the amount of $282,169 re- sulting in a deficit of $142,179. To be sure, Council had to authorize the spending of this money but the authorization was given only after the recommendations of the Town's Planning Advisory Committee - - a non-elected body chaired by Councillor Kirk Entwisle. To add to this scandalous waste of money - - tax dollars, Council at this moment is heavily committed to spend yet another $20,000 to $30,000 for yet another series of planning studies,. "a skeleton plan" as described by Council- lor Entwisle - - for the former Village of Newcastle, Bow- manville and Courtice. Your Regional Council has also been wasteful of your tax dollars. That Council wasted $180,000 building a second well for the former Village of Newcastle on North Street despite being warned by the Ministry of Health that the Nitrate potential was too great in the area where the well was to be drilled. Despite the warning, the well was drilled and the $185,000 paid out with the result that the Health Depart- ment condemned the well as a health hazard owing to Nitrate content. Now the well stands, un- used, as a monument to Regional stupidity. The Northumberland and Newcastle Board of Education and their tax bite? Just too much of everything plus a $36,000,000 budget for 1976. During my term of office as a former school trustee re- presenting Newcastle, Orono and Clark on the Old Northum- berland and Durham Board just prior to Regional Govern- ment, I found many avenues where moneyîwas being spent needlessly. However, at this point I believe that something should be said in defence of teachers' salaries as teachers' salaries have been blamed for the present unacceptable level of school taxes. Personally, I do not believe that the school teachers are the villains of the tax situa- tion. For too long our teachers were getting below average pay in comparison to other workers doing a similar job with similar responsibilities. The formidable pay raise that the teachers did get was a "catch-up" and even now, the teachers in our area are neither the highest paid or the lowest paid in our province. The area teachers are receiving only an average teacher's salary speaking in provincial terms. For my analysis, our school tax rate is increasing rapidly through the action of the school board pursuing the policy of building ever larger schools. Larger schools mean a concentration of ever more pupils entailing more trans- portation to bring these pupils further to school, which re- sults in more tax dollars being spent for bus transportation. Another factor resulting in higher costs stemming from larger schools is that work loads develop, requiring more staff. As school staff become responsible for more pupils, more staff is required as administration time for running that large school must be added to the time devoted to educating these pupils. For instance, is it realized by the taxpayers that the large schools have principals and vice-principals? The principals are in charge overall and attend to the administrative side of running the school while thie vice--ý principals attend to the day to day educational striving of the pupils. This is ail a waste of tax dollars paying tribute to the "Bigness must be better" syndrome. Another thought about school taxes. Schools could be built in a less costly manner. I have yet to visit a school that failed to have great, costly, high corridors and other space and heat wasting features costing many dollars per square fbot. Another tribute to the "Bigness must be better" syndrome. Schools could be designed to be built more economically and there- by release some pressure on the taxpayer's pocketbook. A couple of other things that I noticed in my day as a school trustee that entails needless expenditure of school tax dollars. In earlier days schools used the facilities of the National Film Board for educational film Brequire- ments. This bas now diminish- ed as the Board now uses its own audio-visual section with resulting personnel costs. To me this is only empire building at the taxpayer's expense. Another item that costs school tax dollars. It always bothers me to realize that each school princi- pal does bis own supply ordering, buying the books, pencils, chalk and paper from wherever he wishes at the best price the principal can obtain. This should be halted and a system put into force wben the schooipurchasing department (yep, they have one) could purchase these needed sup- plies for all the schools in the system and have each school draw from a central board warehouse. This would save a lot of tax dollars. Our school board inflicts on the taxpayer the biggest tax bite. The school board bas a $32,000,000 dollar budget - - there are ways and means that this bite can be cut down - - and it must be cut down. In conclusion, I would like to say that the Globe and Mail in a recent editorial stated "1976 is the election year when voters must support candi- dates wbo will spend tax dollars very cautiously." This is the best of advice. For taxpayers can write alI the angry letters they wish to write to newspapers com- plaining of taxes but the ever increasing home tax load will only ease off when voters choose a Mayor, Councillors and School Trustees who car) 25 Years Ago Thursday, September 13, 1951 Among the fine displays of farm machinery at Orono Fair, on Saturday was the one of W.H. Mick Brown who had a bright Case tractor on display and small replicas of Case tractors and farm wa- gons. The committee in charge of re-building Orono United Church include Percy Chap- man, William Irwin, Carl Billings, M.H. Staples, and Carlos Tamblyn. Long Sault school re-opened on Tuesday, September 4th. Popular teacher Miss Ruth Payne is with us again. Customs duty collected in Bowmanville amounted to $3,124.79 in August-a consider- able decrease from the $7,377.15 collected in July. On Monday, J.W. Robinson, Brown Street, was digging in his garden and came across a coin dated 1848, United States of America. Miss Mabel Jewell was the lucky winner of a summer cottage and lot at Kirkfield on the Trent Canal. Barring frost the Durham Tobacco Growers predict a $1,250,000 crop. Miss Judith Stenger, Ennisr killen has been awarded a $400 scholarship by University of Toronto. equal one vote cast for a cautious candidate on this day. The public can not do anything about their current tax bill except to pay it --- the pubhie can do something about In the Dim and istant Past 49 Years Ago Thursday, September 22, 1927 In the tennis tournament to be held on Saturday, Agnes Vanstone and Dorothy James, will play Florence and Alice Werry in the finals. The Darch barn at B.T.S. is undergoing extensive repairs with the stables being entirely remodelled and the floor cemeted throughout. Mr. and Mrs. Alf. Darch visited his father John Darch on the weekend and attended Bowmanville Fair. Alf. is on the printing staff of the Mail and Empire, Toronto. Ed Bradburn, Janetville won the field crop competition of Cartwright Agricultural Society in potatoes. 2nd was George Nesbitt, Nestleton, followed by Stanley Malcolm, and Reg. Nesbitt, Nestleton, Wilson Heaslip, Janetville, Frank Malcolm, Nestleton, Osmond Wright, Blackstock. The judge was George Pearce, Prince Edward County. On Monday evening in Orono at the Harvest Home, Festival, following a hot meal, a program was given by Mrs. Alex Colville, Bowmanville, Miss Evelyn Trick, Oshawa, Mr. A. Knox, Orono, which was enjoyed by all. The 136th Overseas Batta- lion will hold its fifth annual reunion on Saturday in town. future tax bills by looking over the list of candidates and then voting for a person who can say, "No" loudly to municipal money matters if need be. Sincerely, Kenneth Lyall Suga and Spice By Bill Smiley The Fruits of Summer End of summer, and it's piggy time in most of Canada. You know what I mean. Don't tell me you haven't laid a cob of corn, slathered in butter, across your face recently. For most of the year, in this northern clime, we must content ourselves with produce grown either in greenhouses or in the States, and it's about as tasty as an old rubber boot. Oh, it looks great on the supermarket stands. Sock the sprinkler to it several times a day, and the junk looks crisp and fresh. But the celery tastes much like the lettuce, the turnips much like the potatoes, the oranges, picked green, much like the grapefruit. And those pale pink tomatoes, in their neat cellophane packages, taste like nothing at all. But for one glorious, short burst, Canadians can live like gourmets, gourmands, or gluttons, as they choose. First come those slim green onions, fresh out of the soil. They are so crisp and zingy they don't even seem to be distant relatives of the limp bunches we buy in the winter. Then the trickle turns to a stream as the baby potatoes appear, and the fat, juicy strawberries, and the mouthwatering raspberries a bit later, and right along, the crunchy green and yellow beans, fresh-pick- ed. And then, perhaps the greatest treasure of them all, real tomatoes, plump and firm and sun-kissed, with a flavor surely designed by the gods themselves. They are no more like that imported trash than a sexy kiss is like a pat on the back. Had I the talent, I would write an ode to the lowly tomato. A friend of ours who has a small farm brought a basket of his beauties around the other day. I put them in the kitchen, went out to his truck to chat for a minute. Came back in and caught my wife leaning over- the kitchen sink, slobbering as she wolfed them down, a tomato in one hand, salt shaker in the other. I had to lock her in the basement for a while, or she'd have cleaned up the whole basket. And then, of course, there are the cucumbers, so fresh they almost snap back at you when you bite into a slice. Into August and the piece de resistance - ear-to-ear sweet corn. It must be fresh-picked, and not boiled too long. Lather it with butter, get your head down, nose out of the way, and go to it. My heart goes out to those þeople whose teeth are so worn down or so insecure that they can't eat corn off the cob. The only thing worse would be to be impotent. Some of my most treasured memories are connected with corn. When I was a kid, we used to steal it. Over the fence into somebody's garden, stuff the shirts with corn, and back over the fence, hearts pounding, waiting for the shout or' the shotgun. Then off to the sand-pit, build a fire, and gorge. We didn't use a knife to spread the butter on. One of the gang would have filched a pound of butter from the family fridge. Put the butter in an empty can, melt it over the fire, then just stick the whole cob into the can. Another memory is of swiping corn from our own gardens, an - taking it down to the "jungle" by the railway tracks, where the hobos lived in summer. Then a royal feast, lying back afterwards and choking over the hand-rolled smokes the unemployed rail-riders would give us kids. As a skinny 13-year-old, I set ' family record by going through L cobs of corn at a single sitting. In those days, you didn't fool around with corn, using it as a side-dish, along with cold meat, potato salad and other nonsense. If you had corn for supper, you had corn - until it was coming out your ears. The only thing that interfered with the eating was having to come up for air once in a while. Before this column gets too corny, ha-ha, let's get back to that cornucopia of succulence the aver- age Canadian can slurp through for a couple of ineffably delirious months of gluttony. Right along with the corn come the peaches. I just had three for reakfast, peeled, sliced, sugared and covered with cream. My wife worked as a peach-picker when she was a student, and she has an eagle eye for the best, firm, ripe, juice-spirting. And what is more delectable than a fresh, ripe pear? You need a bib to eat them, and I say "them" advisably. Anyone who eats only one pear at a time is not a true Canadian. Plums. Buttered beets. Boiled new potatoes. Butternut squash. If you see a few stains on the paper as you read this, don't be alarmed. It is just drool. You can take your grapes and squash them. You can take your bananas and stuff them. Who needs meat? Just set me down at a table, preferably the picnic table in the backyard, with the sun slanting in from the west. Then set before me plate of new potatoes, boiled in th6 skins, and half a dozen cobs of just-shucked corn, and a pound of butter. On a side plate, one ripe tomato, cut in thick slices, half a young cucumber, cut in thin slices, six c eight slim green onions, the wholk- resting on a bed of that dark-green lettuce fresh from the garden. Salt and pepper and a little vinegar within reach. Then stand well back. Or better still, don your sou'wester. There is going to be a lot of juice flying. Show me a dinner of ,Canada's finest produce about the end of August, and I wouldn't trade it for the most exotic meal in the most elegant restaurant in Paris. Even the mind slobbers a little, in retrospect. say "No" loudly and vote "No" on proposals requiring the expenditure of increased amounts of tax dollars. The taxpayer who is hurting from the tax bill must remember that Monday, December 6th is election day and all the letters to the editor that one can write will not u.., vu. ý..x -.tý - ..Ut -.. - E, --,