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Queens Park Report! "A forest is the "most armais and for recreation. It moderates the climate and provides the capacity to collect, retain and purify water. The forest is an important base for both the service industries that provide provide recreational opportunities Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, September 22nd, 1976-5 for people and for the energy and more jobs. The manufacturing industries forest is also renewable. Can that process its products in we count on you to assist us in the urban centres. At the end maintaining this resource?" of its cycle the forest ecosys- We can no longer afford to tern will provide us with ignore .the implications of building materials, paper, wasteful management of one chemicals, food, clothing, of our most valuable resourc- ' es. ■ At the end of August all members of the Legislature were invited to, attend a two day session with the Ontario Proéssional Foresters Association, Association, in Thunder Bay. I, ed to remedy this tragedy. I would like to quote, if I may, from the, Foresters Association.: Association.: universal, versatile, efficient and productive ecosystem on earth, A forest converts solar energy to provide us with wood and the air we breathe. It provices an environment for fish, game and fur along with 26 other members, of the Ontario Legislature,' took part in the program and I * ' must say that those members , \yho did not attend missed a marvellous opportunity to become informed about one of the key industries of the - , province. I found the experience experience very worthwhile and I would like to share some of , the information with my constituents. The entire thrust of the Foresters presentation was based on the fact that while the woodlands of our province are part of a renewable resource they will not renew without management by man. During the course of the two I days we were presented with slides, talks, tapes and field , demonstrations to prove that if we want to maintain a forest industry for the next , 100 years we must take action now. This means that all of the jobs in the actual forest, the pulp and paper mills, saw mills and lumber yards will -adually be lost if we don't L >ke action within the next 3 crucial years. In the past wood process companies have been given grants to cut on crown land (the "crown" in Ontario is yon and I) and as seen as the merchantable wood was cut the company moved on to a new tract. In fact the company company was a tenant on land owned by all citizens and as such should have had stringent stringent controls placed on its actions to guarantee regener- ' ion. This was not done and '--aice the usable wood was cut the second growth is of low grade, often useless varieties. I found this amazing because because when I fly over or drive through Northern Ontario I have tjie impression that the I stock is endless. When it is drawn to one's attention that | 75 - 80 per cent of the trees I I see are next to worthless it gj reason to pause. Fifty- t\K years ago a royal commission in Ontario blunt-' 1 ly stated that forest stock was sadly depleted! Why has .nothing been done? There appears to be fotir reasons: 1. There is no firm policy statement on regeneration. regeneration. I 2. There are no forest pre- i serves set aside. 3. There is not adequate personnel 4. There is no move to integrate logging with ' regeneration. One of the foresters put bluntly: "The biological and, economic consequences of our present policies will bring the entire industry to its knees." ' ' / nee 20' of the 38 members NrAche N.D.P. caucus attended ' the sessions, you may rest assured we intend to lay out , before the government the ' problems and solutions need- Wages vs prices. What's happened in 1976. The anti-inf lotion program' is nearly one year old. The program was announced last October 14 and the, Anti-Inflation Act was passed by Parliament in December. The goal was to create a fair and stable economic climate for all of us. Guidelines were established for the control of prices, profits, incomes, dividends and professional fees. The federal government established a policy of spending restraint. The provinces are supporting the program and are applying guidelines in areas of provincial concern such as rents. The target of the first year of the anti-inflation program was to bring inflation down from a rate of 10.8% to 8% or less. This goal is going to be reached. Still, many Canadians are concerned about rising prices and may feel in fact that prices are rising faster than their family incomes. For most of us, this is not the case. The facts prove that since the start of the program most of us are better off than we were * before because salaries, on average, are keeping ahead of prices. -- £-- -- ---- Prices • Last year, sudden and frightening price increases were happening all too often. By October, 1975, Canadians had experienced 20 months of inflation of 10% or more. No one could be sure how far the dollar earned one day would stretchy the next. . The anti-inflation program was brought in to control the rise in ^prices, giving- Canadians a better chance to. plan and live within their family budgets. Price increases have slowed down. By August, the annual rate of increase in the Consumer Price Index had dropped to 6.2%. Although some price increases have to be expected this month and next, the 8% target will surely be met. Wages The anti-inflation program has also helped to restrain increases in wages, salaries and other incomes'. The Guidelines on compensation allow for a basic increase of 8%, plus 2% as a share- ' of national productivity growth. Another 2% can ; * Government of Canada Gouvernement- du Canada. be added or subtracted depending on whether a group had kept up with or fallen behind cost of living increases before the program began. More thdn half of thg agreements and settlements reported to'the Anti-Inflation Board have been within these arithmfetic guidelines. A gradual downward trend in wage increases has started and it should continue as more Canadians realize that bècause of declining inflation, settling for less won't hurt them. • Thenwifriiiwi Sind® the start of the anti-inflation program, the average Canadian has actually improved his or her buying power. This is because lower wage increases along with lower price increases have resulted in a gain in real incomes.. The real gain is forked opt by taking the actual increase in earnings and subtracting from it the effects of higher consumer prices. Real incomes are probably probably the best measure of how we're doing, of how we' can manage to pay our bills at home. By this spring/ real incomes were up 3.6% over last year.' Before First 9 months of 1975 compared to the same period in the previous year. GROWTH IN AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGSjs. (INDUSTRIAL COMPETE) After Most recent 3 month period for which earnings data available (Mar, May 76) compared to same period in the previous year. GROWTH IN AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS 143 % (INDUSTRIAL COMPOSITE) GROWTH IN REAL EARNINGS 12.9 % . , „ A 1 GROWTH IN REAL EARNINGS 3.0 % 3.6 % . Controls on both prices and incomes are part of the reason why the inflation rate is dropping. The co-operation arid hard work of most Canadians is the rest of the story. We will soon be moving into the second year of the' program, with a goal of lowerihg the inflation • rate to 6% ,or less. Working -together we can i reach this target too. 1 1 THE ANTI- r inelStion n PROGRAM AREVIEW YEAR ONE C