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~Scugog Citizen -- Tuesday, February 2, 1993 -- 9 <= VIEWPOINT by John B. McClelland LETTERS TO EDITOR 3 I see that the Ontario New Democrat govern- ment is contem- plating a move to have some people work for their welfare cheques. The suggestion was made in an "internal government" paper that examines a lot of things about the welfare system in this province, a system that just about everyone agrees is in drastic need of a complete overhaul. Having people "work for their welfare" is hardly a new idea. It has been bandied about for years. There is nothing more maddening than the thought of able-bodied people who refuse to work when they can draw a welfare cheque. " As nice at it sounds, this "work for welfare" idea is simplistic. First of all, what kind of "work"are they going to do? Who is going to supervise, and make sure they are on the job every morning? And what about things like Workmans Comp and so on? It would be a bureaucratic nightmare to administer and probably would end up costing the tax-payers more money. Perhaps the way to handle this problem is to tighten up the regulations to prevent able-bodied people from getting Welfare in the Ist place. - Jobs are tough to find these days, no question about that. But I'm convinced that just about anybody with a will to work will find work of some kind. It may not be the the "job of a lifetime" with great career potential, but better than no job at all. Findlly, the system has to change so tha even low-paying kinds of jobs are far better economically than being on welfare. One often hears people say "why work when you can get almost as much every week for sitting at home." This is the very heart of the problem Human nature being what it is, is there any incentive for somebody to get up early in the morning, work hard, and at the end of the week have just a few dollars more than the welfare cheque pays? I also understand that there has been a suggestion that the government might "abolish school boards." This is nonsense. School boards have been under the gun in recent weeks, mainly by the folly of a couple of boards in Toronto where truste s voted themselves huge pay raises, and by one board which planned to send some trustees to southern California for a convention. Pay hike for trustees (no matter how obscene they may be) and conventions in the sunny south are not what is pushing the cost of education through the roof in this province. Salaries, wages and benefits of all the people who work for school boards account for about 85 per cent of the money school boards spend each year. Also pushing up the costs is that education in Ontario has tried to become "all things for all people," a noble intent to be sure, but hardly realistic and certainly not affordable. Doing away with boards of trustees would hardly put a minor dent in the cost of education. That's not to say there isn't a huge amount of bureaucratic fat that can't be trimmed from education both at the Board level and at the Ministry level in Toronto. And of course, when talking about overall education costs in Ontario, one should not forget that there are two publicly funded schools boards running side-by-side. The duplication in everything from transportation to administration is staggering. By all means, let us look for ways to cut (or at least control) the cost of educating children. Abolishing boards of trustees is not one of them. IN CLOSING: Scugog residents Liz Gorr and Debbie Broomer are trying to set up a local chapter of the Special Olympics. Last summer, Liz and Debbie coached 'a baseball team for the developmentally challenged and now want to expand through the Special Olympics to provide the opportunity for these special people to enjoy and compete in other sports like soccer, bowling, floor hockey, track and field, even weight lifting. Liz and Debbie held a volunteer organization meeting a week ago. After sending out dozens of invitations they were a bit disappointed when just a handful of people showed up. But they are not giving up on the idea. However, they need help in such things as administration, organization, fund- raising, even driving people to games and competitions. Liz and Debbie told me last week realistically, they want to continue with the baseball team this summer and perhaps add one more sport like soccer. Setting up a Port Perry chapter of the Special Olympics is a huge task. Two people can't do it alone. Can you help? Can you make a commitment to help bring sports and competition to a group of people who otherwise mighf®never have the oppor- tunities? Give Liz a call at 986-5247. Hearing promises, waiting for solutions To the Editor: The economic situation in Canada is becoming a crisis. We citizens look around and ask "where are all our leaders and problem solvers?" Bigger government that taxes and spends more is not the angwer. We need quality, not quantity government, and representatives who listen and then act on the majority view. As ascandidate for the Liberal nofnination in the federal riding of . Durham, I believe the focus of the next federal government must be: VEfTective leadership that will get our economy working again to create jobs. The free trade agreement must be changed to a fair trade agreement and our economic focus changed to benefit Canadians. 2/ Hope must be restored for Canadians by moving to a smaller, more efficient government that taxes less, is responsive to citizen concerns and administers programs that work well without delays. 3/Our social safety net programs must be adjusted to fit the 90's in a way that achieve their objectives but are still affordable. People today are tired of hearing promises by politicians and waiting instead for solutions. 1 have been tempered by the "heat of politics," and enjoy being in the public eye. I believe that politics of concensus where the prevailing constituency view is the proper view for an MP to represent on issues in our democratic society. Glenn Malcolm, Nestleton, Ont. Apology To the Editor: You printed a letter I wrote in the January 26 edition of the Scugog Citizen. I fired a few low blows at the Durham Regional Police in that letter. Whatever my personal feelings on any issue may be, attacking a whole organization and all its members is out of line, and for that I extend my apologies to our Policé Force. John Langley, RR 1, Nestleton, Ont. Fan support needed To the Editor: Now that the Port Perry MoJacks are going into the playoffs against Uxbridge Bruins, it would be nice to see plenty of fan support at the Scugog Arena. Lots of fans making lots of noise for the team would give the players on the ice a real boost. I'll be there to help get the noise l¢vels up and I hope the fans get behind me on this. The team has a lot of rookies and new players this season and they were under a lot of pressure during the season. But they had a good season to finish in third place just a few points out of first. You can't be disappointed with this as the League was so close this season, any of the top five teams could have finished in first. And in the playoffs, the team that works the hardest is going to win the championship for the Central Junior C League. I think that head coach Ken Harman and assistant Brad Menzies did an excellent job behind the bench for the team when Ken took over the duties partway through the season. The first game in the series is right here in Port Perry on Thursday night at_ 8:30 PM, so let's see some fan support for a bunch of guys who have worked very hard to get to this point and have improved a lot over the last few months. I'll be more than happy to keep the fans up to date on information about the other playoff series.' See you at the game. Pierre Leduc, Port Perry. UNBOLVED MYsTER YI! [ - i ad Sorry, we don't have a Don't all babies just love playing hampers or boxes? This little one sure looks happy. name with this picture QUEEN STREET, PORT PERRY, ONTARIO Old home town. What Year? Looking towards the lake, on Queen Street, Port Perry many years ago. Parked on the north side in front of Peel Hardware, is Ivan Gray's truck. --