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a NE CAE LALO EE AER AA a il Ay ; 1 4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Wed. January 13, 1982 editoriol comments Beach Water Water quality testing at the Port Perry beach last summer turned up some disturbing results in levels of faecal-coliform bacteria. The Durham Health Unit, in a report to Scugog council, has recommended that council ask the Ministry of the Environment to carry out more detailed testing of the water this spring, prior to the start of the swimming season. Council has done this and rightly so. As any resident of this area knows, the beach at Palmer Park is a popular place during the summer months with many people, young and old swimming in the Lake Scugog water. If the water quality poses a hazard to health, people who use that beach should be informed. From the samples taken over a ten week period last summer by the Health Unit, the geometric mean Is 195 for faecal coliforms which is almost double the guidelines fo 100. It is disturbing to note that of all the tests done of lake Scugog water last summer, the highest samples were recorded at the Port Perry beach. Certainly the tests done by the health Unit last year would strongly suggest that more intense testing be carried out to determine exactly what is in that water and whether it is safe for swimming. Also, there should be some kind of testing to determine just what is causing the high levels of bacteria to be found in the water at the beach. The Health Unit report suggests that a storm sewer which discharges near the beach could be the problem as "it is quite possible that cross connections, i.e. sanitary sewer building drains connected to the storm sewers, may exist.' - The last intensive water quality study of Lake Scugog was carried out in 1972 by the Ministry of the Environment. It's time the same thing be done again this year. Interest Rates For the first time in more than four months, the Bank of Canada's interest rate moved upward last Thursday. The increase was small, hardly even noticeable, but there are some who fear it may be the start of a new interest rate spiral. There have been predictions that interest rates could be a staggering 25 per cent by the summer as the American and Canadian governments continue the policy of fighting inflation by driving money out of circulation. 'VYhen interest rates hit their peak this past summer, it . 2k a few months for the impact to be felt by the economy. And nobody has to be told what has 7 7 7 yr happened to the Canadian economy recently, especially in crucial manufacturing sectors where thousands of workers have lost their jobs. To think that today's interest rates are the bottom of the downward trend is frightening. But if the predic- tions come true and the rates take off to hit highs of 25 per cent in the next six months or so, the economy a year from now will be in a worse shambles than it is today. The trauma of plant closings and layoffs over the past year has been startling. Yet there is no indication the American or Canadian government is prepared to change the course of fighting inflation through loss of jobs, ruinous mortgage rates and other serious disruptions in the lives of ordinary people. Last summer, we witnessed the beginnings of mass anger and discontent caused by the record high interest rates. That anger appeared to subside as the rates fell a few paints in the latter months of the year. But the anger and frustration is still there, and it will bubble over this summer if rates go through the roof. . There are many who think the attempts to "cure " WHLL 7515 (METRIC 5707 NEVER END? THEY KILOGRAM) 19y MEAT - .. CELSIUS MY THERMOMETER . .. TAKE GALLONS OFF GAS PUMPS - .. MILES OFF ROAD S165. ... an' MOU, CENTS OFF My POSTAGE STAMPS!" inflation" in this manner are worse than the disease itself. Time will tell how the average citizen may react to another round of high interest rates, but if last summer's anger is any indication, the situation this year will be volatile in the extreme. CHEERS TO YOU ALL From all reports, 1982 is not going to be a good year, economically. In fact, it's going to be a disastrous year, for many Cana- dians. I don't think the Governor of the Bank of Canada, with his new salary of $104,000, will be compelled to exist on turnip soup. Nor will our members of parliament, with the hefty increase they voted themselves with great elan, be standing in breadlines. But one heck of a lot of ordinary Cané- bill smiley leaders and the stubborn of manage- ment. Native people will become more and more belligerent, and with the help of lawyers, will demand a return of all the Hudson Bay Company's lands, along with the vast empire handed over to the C.P.R. More power to them, if they get some trains back on the tracks. Quebec will continue to be a thorn in the side of not only the whole country, but of dians are either going to be plain. out of a job, or biting the bullet to make ends meet. It's a little frightening for us who remember the Depression of the Thirties to see factory after factory laying off employees, farmers unable to meet the mortgage payments, hamburg or worse becoming once again the entree for dinner. Finance Minister MacEachin's budget didn't help much. It was like throwing a cold, wet blanket over a dying man to keep him warm. It removed most of the incen- tives to invest in Canada. It penalized those who had worked hard to be comfortable in their old age. And it did sweet Fanny Adams to produce the equity the man talked about. The rich are still going to be rich, the poor still poor, and the middle class pinched until it's painful. However, let us not despair. We still live in a country where very few people go hungry or freeze to death, where there is a pretty fair social welfare system, here there is still freedom to tell your superiors to go peer up a rope. : I can still write in this column that our Prime Minister is an arrogant egg-head, and papers across the land will print it, many with gusto, not to mention relish. Not that I'd ever do such a thing, mind you. I believe in proper respect for our leaders. I merely think the P.M. is an addled egg. Not a coddled egg. An addled egg. Aside from the economic picture, the worst news for 1982,.is that Mr. Trudeau might be talked into running for office again, to fight the separatistes in Quebec. After he's licked them, he'll be persuaded to run again to fight the provincialists in the Northwest Territories. And then he'll be carted around the country in a wheelchair to fight anyone who doesn't think that the Liberal party is God's gift to Canada. Shades of Mackenzie King. But I mustn't talk like this. It's not beholden to a benevolent old chap, though younger than Mr. T., to criticise the man who has almost single-handedly wrestled inflation to the heights, presided over the worst unemployment situation in 40 years, and run up a national debt that will make our grandchildren curse us. Let us talk of more pleasant things for "1982. I'm not going to make any New Year's resolution. As I tell my wife, when you are practically perfect, there's no point in trying to improve. Her answer must not be printed in a family journal. But I do have some predictions for the new year. My arthritis is going to get worse. My children will continue to be in Financial Straits (that's one jump ahead of Dire Straits, which separate the sheep, them, from the goat, me). . It'll be a terrible year for the farmers. There'll be either a drought or too much rain, In the event that neither happens, that the weather is perfect for farming, there'll be complaints that 'the crops are taking too much out of the land." Despite it's new status as a Royal some- thing or other, the post office will break down sometime during the year. and Michael Warren, it's new boss, will develop an ulcer. There will be many strikes, most of which will settle nothing except the pride of union itself. The Anglos of that province will grow more pugnacious, which will make the Francophones more intransigent. And so on. The province of Ontario, after its smashing success in buying a quarter of an oil company, for no known reason, will attempt to buy Saudi Arabia, only to find that Alberta with its Heritage Fund has beaten them to the punch. The Ayatollah Khomaini of Iran will convert to the Jewish faith and dance ring-around-a-rosy with the other old bandit, Begin of Israel. , Newspapers across the land will stop rinting their headlines in gloomy black and start printing the joyous n of strikes, inflation, interest rates, and unemployment in purple. The federal government will print full page ads saying it was all a printer's error and that those Canada Savings Bonds, that were gobbled up last November were paying 9,5 per cent interest, not 19.25. Whatever, I hope you and yours have a wonderful year in 1982. We'll all stagger through somehow. a a eR