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

( Orono Weekly Times. Wednesday. February 9. 2000 - 13 Staying in Touch by John O'Toole, MPP This past week, i was assigned to the Ontario Legislature's. Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. Committee hearings began on February 1st with Finance Minister Ernie Eves giving an account of the year in review. The all party committee sits daily from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and will be travelling to several cities and regions throughout Ontario. The committee is gathering input from all sectors of the province to compile a report for the Minister of Finance in preparation for the provincial spring budget. have the experts and leaders from all parts of our economy appear before the committee, detailing how they see our Deputy ministers, bank presidents, union presidents, university professors, social activists and concerned Ontarians are appearing before the committee in an attempt to influence committee committee members to their way of thinking. We are seeing the same performance in Ottawa trying to pressure our federal government prior to their spring budget. The old tactics of it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, or those who yell the loudest get the most attention, are applied to try and influence the govern-, ment. It is an interesting process. It is worth noting that Canada has the highest per- sonafincome taxes of the G-7 nations. The federal government government now takes over 60 percent percent of all the. Personal Income Tax and as of January 2000, you are paying more in taxes than last year, indeed Ontario workers and employers employers are paying Ottawa $560 million more in payroll taxes Jhan in 1999. Low income Canadians are further penalized penalized by the failure of the fed- > eral government to address the issue of "bracket creep" in tax rates. This is where an individual's income might go up with inflation but the tax bracket categories are not adjusted for inflation and consequently, consequently, the individual pays more tax. Many economists believe that every $1 billion in payroll taxes costs our economy 40,000 jobs. Ontario, however, has had 99 tax reductions, including a 30 percent cut in Provincial Income Tax. The message from Ontario and most of the provinces is clear - Ottawa must restore the $6.2 billion it cut from their annual Canada Health and Social Transfer payments. The federal government has savaged health care and they must be held accountable. Currently, the federal government government pays only 11 cents out of every dollar spent in health care. Remember this was originally a 50 - 50 shared agreement between the federal federal and provincial government's. government's. Finance Minister Ernie Eves hinted that Ontario will move to a "tax on income" system. Ontario's Personal Income Taxes will no longer be linked to federal tax and subjected to hidden tax increases in the federal system. system. Ontario will not move to a duplicate collection system, instead the change will allow the province to control tax brackets, rates and credits. Our policy is premised on the theory that tax cuts create jobs and increase revenue. An examination of Ontario's financial statement reveals that revenue is up after reducing reducing taxes. We are on track to balance our budget in 2000- 2001 as promised. In addition, addition, there have been 642,000 new jobs created since 1995 and 468,000 individuals have left welfare. • Ontario's economy is leading leading Canada in growth and job creation. The forecast is for a 3.7 percent growth in GDP in 2000. Clarington Fire Calls The Clarington Fire Department responded to the following calls during the period of January 31 to February 6: 8 property fires; 5 false fire calls; 4 public hazard calls; 11 rescues and 8 medical/ resuscitator calls. by: Myno Van Dyke Back in the early 196G's,,in Ontario, you had to obtain a Chauffeur's Licence if you were going to earn money driving a vehicle for someone else. 1 think the chauffeur's driving test was identical to the "operator's" test except it was easier to fail (or harder to pass). When I was 16,1 decided decided to try for the ultimate licence. Since 1 was raised on a farm, I had been operating motor vehicles of all sizes and descriptions since I was 6 or 7 years old. My first driving experience was with an old Ford tractor that my father asked me to park in the driving driving shed. I did this with a great level of expertise except I didn't know how to stop and ended up knocking all of the boards off the west wall of the shed. I was well trained in tractors, tractors, and enjoyed the occasional occasional trip to the local General Store in our well worn '52 Ford pickup, but no "city driving".. Our "good car" was a nice, clean, green and white low mileage '54 Plymouth SUBSCRIBE TO THE ORONO WEEKLY TIMES $25.00 a year. FRUIT MARKET Highway 35/115, South of Orono Telephone 983-5628 C.A. McIntosh & Spartan on Sale Anjou Pears All Varieties of Apples Apple Cider - No Preservatives - Pressed on Site Fred's Own Royal Gala, Jonna Gold, Spy, Russets and numerous extra fancy grade, un waxed apples with minimum pesticides used. FREE SQUASH with $5.00 Purchase. Belvedere. I took the test in this car. The examiner was a gruff, extremely tall and overweight man, well known to all the local applicants as "The Guy Who Fails Everyone". I was very nervous at the start and got more apprehensive apprehensive when he said the words "Parallel park here!". "What is a parallel park?" I innocently innocently asked. "Pull up beside and back in between these two cars," he said looking at me like I was a complete idiot. I explained that the car was far too long to park in that little spot and why couldn't I just park up ahead where there was more space? He insisted. I backed in and promptly hit the bumper of the .rear vehicle. vehicle. After finding no significant significant damage, the test was over. I was a failure. My parents insisted I get some training on parallel parking. We went to the local driving school and I got one lesson in a green '57 Chev four door. He taught me how to parallel park. Shortly after, 1 went back for my retest. I got. the same examiner. My parallel parking was perfect. My method of driving from one way to two way streets was not and neither was the way I stopped at a red light. Failure again... . A few weeks later I went back again with the '54 Plymouth and this time I had a different examiner. He was friendly and 1 passed with flying flying colours. A few years later I started employment with the Bel! Telephone Company of Canada. I was pleased to already have my Chauffeur's Licence. One of my co-workers, co-workers, John Krasinski, was not quite as fortunate and he had to go in for his test. "Don't get that big guy!" I warned. "He fails everyone." Since we knew of only. 3 examiners, we accurately determined that the odds were very high that John would also get that same examiner. We came up with a plan. John had a very small car, a 1960 Renault Dauphine. We moved the passenger seat up as far ahead as it would go and with some heavy wire and a pair of pliers ensured that it was permanently permanently affixed in that position. position. The big guy would never fit in the car and consequently one of the ' other examiners would have to go along for the test. John arrived at the Driver Testing Centre and sure enough, he got the big guy who fails everyone. As. planned, the examiner couldn't couldn't move the seat back or get his legs behind the dash. "What's wrong with this seat"? he barked. "Don't know" said John, "it's always been like that". "Well, go get it fixed or get another car," he replied. John asked why he couldn't get another examiner and just received a blank stare. John came back to work, borrowed my car and returned immediately. He got the same examiner. He also failed the test. It was the parallel parking... parking... Call me to buy or sell... Orono and area's real estate representative... Krystyna Jones 983-6013 Aeoltu-Net ASSOCIATES * (DURHAM)lnc. 1060 Simcoe St. N., #103, Oshawa TEL: (905) 721-21.12 Ü K * New Listing... Brick bungalow on deep lot, 3 bedrooms, gas heat, new rec room... $135,500.