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PAGE 6THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, JANUARY 31,2001 & Opinions FOR 147 YEARS, OUR FIRST CONCERN HAS BEEN OUR COMMUNITY Publisher - Tim Whittaker Editor-in-Chief- Joanne Burghardt Managing Editor - Judi Bobbitt Advertising Manager - Brian G. Purdy Advertising - Lavcrnc Morrison, Christian Ann Goulet Office - Junia Hodge, Nancy Pleasancc-Sturman Editorial - Brad Kelly, Jennifer Stone, Jacquic Mclnnes ®bc Canadian Statesman Former Publishers and Partners Rev. John M. Climic and W.R. Climie 1854-1878 M.A. James 1878-1935 • Norman S.B. James 1919-1929 G. Elena James, 1929-1947 • Dr. George W. James 1919-1957 John M. James, 1957-1999 Produced by Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. Also Publishers of CLAR1NGTON THIS WEEK P.O. Box 190, 62 King St. W., Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 TEL: 905-623-3303 FAX: 905-623-6161 HOURS: Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.M. E-mail: judi.bobbitt@durhamnews.net Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 EDITORIAL Ominous signs call out for action Lessons from the past must not be forgotten At least our federal and provincial governments have a blueprint for dealing with the recession which is all but upon us. Monday's announcement by Daimlcr-Chrysler to eliminate eliminate 26,000 jobs or 20 per cent of its worldwide workforce including some 3,000 jobs in Canada this year, is bad enough. But it comes along with word that Ford had an awful final quarter and miserable 2000 and that GM is laying laying off employees at plants across North America for some four weeks in the first quarter alone. Of course, Durham Region is hit hard by the Chrysler/GM announcements and there are other troubling signs out there too. Production and profits across the board in the U.S. were terrible in the final quarter of 2000 and don't promise to go up anytime soon. Trouble in the massive auto industry has a trickle down effect with suppliers at every level forced to lay off employees as parts demand dries up. We've been down this lousy road before of course. Think back to 1990-92 or 1980-82 or 1974-76: all deep recessions recessions that saw unemployment, interest rales and inflation inflation rise along with production and spending drop. What was the answer back then? Well, Pierre Trudeau tried wage and price controls which stalled our recovery and created animosity throughout Canada. Remember 1980-82 when unemployment was well into double-figures, interest rates were at about 20 per cent and inflation was out of control. Finance ministers simply spent money like water trying to finance programs on declining tax revenues. Big mistake since it only drastically increased our annual deficits and overall debt and left us in bigger trouble after we recovered and were faced with another recession in the early 1990s. More reckless government spending by both our federal and provincial governments left the Chretien and Harris governments no alternative but to slash jobs and spending in the mid-1990s. Which brings us to otir surplus-budget government's now. The only alternative to keep the economy going has to be to rein in spending, reducing the urge to try to spend otir way out of recession.'It just doesn't work. Governments have been following the proper course for the past halfdecade halfdecade and making sure citizens have money to spend through sticking with tax cuts is critical to keeping the economy moving-forward. There is a massive employment insurance surplus of soriie $30 billion available to help those hurt in this coming recession. As for the tough times ahead: don't worry there's always a rebound to better days. We welcome your opinion. Please E-Mail your comments on our opinions to judi.bobbitt@durhamnews.net. Submissions which include a first and last name, as well as the community community of residence, will be considered for publication. jwoour, NOW OIL WEMMIB „mmnm BE«E PLATE LOOKING BACK WITH THE STATESMAN 75 YEARS AGO Jan. 28,1926 The overcrowding of the rooms in both schools was the chief topic of discussion at the first meeting of the public school board. There arc 570 pupils in 12 rooms, and the board realized this important responsibility of providing more accommodation. 50 YEARS AGO Jan. 25,1951 Believed to have fallen asleep at the wheel, Constable Lloyd Ayres of the Bowmanville Police Force was the lone occupant of the police car which hit and severed two gas pumps from their cement base. Damage caused is estimated estimated at $2,180. 25 YEARS AGO Jan. 28,1976 Mayor Garnet Rickard introduced concern at council with respect to enforcement and what legal action .should be taken against residents who do not purchase dog tags as required required under the town's bylaw. Mayor Rickard did not scent anxious to have those who refused to pay charged, but Councillors Kirk Entwisle and Ken Lyall had a differing view, believing that dog owners who don't pay should be charged with being in arrears. Information taken from tlw archives of The Canadian Statesman msm emm member (F HELLS AN&ELS... ...you m KTUEDBrs mm Lessons to *e-(M LETTERS TO THE EDITOR GTSB should be eliminated To the editor: Your editorial of'Jah.' 10,' J Make a call pii'theGTSB'This- "es some pertinent questions,-especially questions,-especially in light of pending changes threatened by the Harris Harris Administration. In my opinion the GTSB is an illegitimate being, whose parent refuses to either acknowledge acknowledge or support it. There ought to be a law! The reason the GTSB is being neglected is that its purpose, purpose, its hidden agenda, has been exposed. That agenda was to make the old Metro Toronto Area ungovernable ungovernable by denying it the tax base to support the downloaded downloaded housing and welfare ser- j vices', '"'.y 'Tiiose"' were?seryi'ces : 'mat 1 ' were : more ! 'properly carried' by the broad based progressive income income tax rather than the narrow-based narrow-based residential real estate-property estate-property tax. I recall in the early 1970s when regional government was put in place cities were bursting at the seams. They did not have a sufficient large tax base upon which to base the borrowing needed to install the services subdivisions required. By incorporating incorporating regions and using the rich farmlands as a tax base, . it provided the collateral for the necessary loans. To give the GTSB taxation powers, qr even a percentage of tile residential property tax, without direct election of its members would be a corruption of democracy. Additionally, the electors would have as much control of the GTSB as our elected members now have over the WTO, IMF, UN or any other international body. We need to support our Roger Anderson, our regional chairman fully on this issue. Ed Gocrtzen With a little help from his friends Helping out buddies second nature to Mike Harris Mike Harris insists his government government does not give favour to his friends, but he would have to . agree their fortunes have improved improved miraculously since he became became premier. The Progressive Conservative premier made his latest denial, one of many over the years, after Peter Minogue, his closest buddy since school days, was revealed to have benefited when the Province reduced planning restrictions restrictions on a lakeshore subdivision subdivision he was building so it became much more lucrative. Mr. Harris said claims he helped in some way were ridiculous, ridiculous, because he made it policy not to be involved at any stage and being the premier's friend might even have hampered Mr. Minogue. This latter claim sounds like Jane Fonda complaining, as she has, she was handicapped getting into movies because her father was Henry, or Michael Douglas lamenting he was held back because because he is Kirk's son, which most will disbelieve because people people with die right connections find many willing to help. Some at rare times have been barred from gelling normal treatment treatment because they were close to politicians. Hydro workers wanting wanting better access to lines cut down an attractive row of trees preserving privacy of a lodge owned by Frank Miller, Tory premier premier briefly in the 1980s. Mis family explained I hey could not object, as others would, because it might seem to be a politician pulling strings. But there also is a tradition of Mr. Harris's friends doing well out of government. Tom Long, who helped Mr. Harris win an election as campaign chairman in 1995 and had never previously been noted for his literary prowess, suddenly found it Harris government agency wanting to Eric Dowd At Queens Park pay him $650-an-hour for writing speeches, which might have been _ more per word than the author of Harry Potter. Mr. Long was also paid $250,000 to find a new head for the agency. Mr. Long has not been reported living off provincial provincial money again since he lost an attempt to become leader of the federal Canadian Alliance last year, but information on such matters has to be dug out by applying applying under freedom of information information rales - tite government never volunteers it - and takes months to obtain. Leslie Noble was enthusiastic but struggling on the lower rungs of tiie public relations ladder before before she latched on to Mr. Harris as his crunpaign manager and since has had payments from the public purse as high as $91,000 merely for oral advice - is David Lettcrman as highly paid? Businesses now queue to ply her with money because she can introduce them to key figures in Mr. Harris's government and explain explain what they think and she was last seen driving off in a $75,000 BMW. Paul Rhodes was a former legislative legislative reporter, making an ordinary ordinary living in public relations, when he joined Mr. Harris as media adviser and his financial fortunes have improved so he now gets contracts from government government paying him $295 an hour, more than 40 times the minimum wage in Mr. Harris's Ontario, Mis most recent was to try to improve the government's image after the tragedy at Walkerton, where seven people died from drinking tainted water, which provides no benefit to taxpayers. So did Mr. Harris's being premier premier help Mr. Minogue get the restrictions eased? Senior civil servants in both the natural resources resources and municipal affairs ministries wanted them kept and one in natural resources wrote, that the persistent Mr. Minogue, instead of taking the normal route of appealing .to the Ontario Municipal Municipal Board, was 'complaining at political levels.' Soon after, to the disgust of staff in both ministries, municipal affairs dropped its opposition and its then minister, A1 Leach, says Mr. Minogue may have discussed his application with him, but he was not sure. Mr. Leach was not very forthcoming, forthcoming, understandably because he was busy in a new job Mr. Harris gave him on the Toronto police services board after he prudently did not seek re-election in 1999 because lie offended constituents constituents by such acts as promising promising in writing never to bring in property taxation by market value, which hurts them, but introducing introducing exactly the same thing under a different name. Mr. Leach's latest appointment was just another example of Mr. Harris Harris doing what he docs well, looking looking after friends. Mr. Harris also is fuily aware his election team members could never get their lucrative contracts with government unless they arc known to be his friends and the contracts pay far too much and often arc make-work and he has ixiwcr to prevent them, so he has played a large role in helping his friends get rich. The lesson for outsiders is forget forget the stock market - the surest way to make money is to be the premier's budtly. Jacquie- Mclnnes Staff Writer Ontario appears to be poised at the sharpest end of the point of no return on deregulation of its electricity market. With dire tales coming out of California California on a regular basis, it's difficult not to become more than a little concerned how bright our future, and that of our economy, might be as this province heads toward the same end. But some states are calling their journey ihto the deregulation of the electricity market a success and at least one says there are some lessons to be learned to ensure- Ontario doesn't end up like California. While it's really tod early into the trip to make any final calls on any of the North American experiences, there do seem to be some stark contrasts between states like Pennsylvania, which is trying ■ very hard to disassociate itself with its southern sister state. 'The Pennsylvanian approach has as much in common with California's as apples and oranges," says John Hanger, one of the architects of the Pennsylvanian Pennsylvanian model of deregulation: 'They're both fruits but they're really different fruits." The first suggestion our provincial representatives should heed, suggests Mr. Hanger, is to procèëd slowly. "In Pennsylvania we began the transition in 1996 and it will not be completed until 2005, and in some parts of the state, 2010," he says. 1 " - ; The second recommendation he makes is to truly commit, full héartedly to a competitive marketplace both in thé generation and retail sector. "The Pennsylvanian Pennsylvanian approach put a real premium on making retail competition work. It can only work if : consumers have real choices and new suppliers. You can't have competition if the local utility effectively effectively controls the competition." While consumers may initially bé lulled by low prices, Mr. Hanger warns there is a real price to pay in the longterm longterm if the government allows the previously previously government-owned utility (the companies formed out of Ontario Hydro in this case) to set a default rate ,artificially ,artificially low coming into.the free market. "If it's set artificially low it makes it undesirable to compete arid investors will take their business elsewhere. Ultimately, Ultimately, the loser is the constituer," says Mr. Hanger. The default price point in Pennsylvania was twice as high as California, California, yet now consumers in his state are either paying equal to or less than they did under closed market conditions, conditions, he contends. Consumers in California California didn't benefit for long when the noncompetitive pricing led to the predictable predictable conclusion of sending investment investment elsewhere resulting in the current power shortage. ,, , - , The debate is still raging over the long-term wisdom of a deregulated market market anywhere. But if the provincial-gov-- emment takes the time to learn this bit-, of American history, there's a chance if can at least begin the journey with the' right shoes. 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