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From Parliam ent Hill Alex Shepherd M.P. Durham The baby boom generation (that's me and probably most of you readiug this) is getting older. Although we really thought we'd be building more order and certainty into our lives, and chosen careers, as we rnatured, It seems that just the reverse is happening. To look at it another way it's about 1000 days to the 21st century and the ground swell of our society's popula- tion are concerned about their future in an évolvng economy. Now 'm flot talking about unemployment as It stands rlght nowbut about jobs that presently exist whichi may disappear i the future. If we look back a century the thinkers of that time worked very hard inventing machines to do away wth the drudgery iu people's lives. The steam engine and the wash- iug machine are the inven- tions that come immediately to -mv rnund. Now if we fast-forward, it appears the thinkers did the job too well. The machines not only replaced the dru dgery of work but replaced the worker. Some employers like the machine because they don't take coffee breaks, vacations, or orga- nized work stoppages. The sad irony is that these are th~e very improvements the labour force worked and sacrificed so very hard to obtain. At the opposite end of the spectrum retirernent pen- sions and other underpin- nlngs of the social-safety net, may not be adequate enough to allow people the kind of retirement they might like. Middle income and middle- aged workers are caught at the centre of this dilemma. Most~ of the modem tech- uology we use now has been imported from Japan. They had to develop it because labour, iu that country is scarce.- The resuit of technological importation iu Canada has been to speed up the retire- ment process unaccompani ed bv a corresponding increase mu of Is no it were, has to occur with more certainty. Job sharing has got to play a greater role in the work enviroument. Creating disincentives for working inordinate amounts of overtime would be another way of sharlng decreasing work hours. We must insist that gov- ernments at ail levels give our chiùldren the hlghest level of education possible to ensure that our future workforce is competitive in a world econo- My. This means that as parents and teachers we- hav, more responsibulityf ing children itito p ondary progranîs the career paths vTitha and not acadeaffic]p which are not mi-arke The federal gov( recognizes the need high technology. 'y very hard in Durhar to see that we get our *the moneys allocated Durham's youths bc fnrced lout of our was Toas t-he ne "WTat's New" ocus chosen by r Wounacott for I lst. 1997 ýr meeting. a variety of tonstra- itech- how to third a ition at Access to information on federal pro grams and services is vital to al Canadians. The Government of Canada is working hard to ensure that rural residents, whether they ive in Trinity, Nfld., Radvile, Sask., or Smithers, B. C., have access to the information they need... Iged in,.hooked up... ust a phone cali dwd!J 3 The Community Access Program, developed by hndustry Canada, wil help provide up to 5,000 rural communities with affordable access sites to the Internet by the year 2000 - inking rural Canada from coast to coast to coast. Plugged into the world wide web, rural residents will have the ability to communicate rapidly with one another, sharing information and conducting business. For more information call 1-800-268-6608 or look on the Internet at comaccess@ic.gcca or http://cnet.unb.ca M Businesses - no matter where they're located- need useful, up-to-theý-inute infor- mationi. That's exactly what Stmategis, lndustry Canada's business web site, provides. With more than 750,000 pages of information, rearus of statistical data and hundreds of links to other business sites, Strategis gives you direct access to information on local and foreign markets, commodities, compamies, smnall business support, economnic outlooks and more. Look it up on theIntemnet at http://strategis.ic.gc.ca. For help eall 1-800- 328-6189 or on-uine athlotlie.service@ic.gc.ca M Thec Canadian Rural Information Service (CRIS) is a one-stop shopping centre for infor- mation, designed specially for rural Canianjs. Among many other things, you can access information on govemnment programs and services, rural tourisin opportunities and upcoming conferences and workshops. For more information cal 1-888-757-8725' or check out CRIS on the Internet at http://www.agt.ca/policy/cris M Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Electronic Information Service (ACEIS) makes it easy foi anyone to be plugged into the latest agribusiness ilata. You can send e-mail to subject experts, get information on research, trade and more. Visit us on the Internet at http://wvww.agr.ca or cal our voice and fax-on-demand service at