]Report from - Queen's Park By THE HON. GEORGE ASHE, MPP (PC - Durham West) Minister of Government Services Ontario Region accepts housing grant On September 25, my colleague, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, announced that a $5,000 provincial grant had been awarded to the Regional Municipality of Durham under Ontario's municipal non-profit housing program. In an attempt to encourage more municipalities to becomeinvolved In municipal non-profit housing, municipalities are being ailocated additional funds Io cover costs incurred at the preliminary andj 41evlopentstages. rThese graflts and loans, a.vailable on a, one-time- only basis, are meant to cover interim or short-termj money requirements that some municipalities face ,when tbey are at the initial stages ofdvlpn non-profit housing. fdvlpn The $5,000 grant will help the Region of Durham assess how its senior citizen housing reqwirements can be met under the municipal non-profit housing program, which involves both market rentaI and rent-geared-to-income apartments. Should the municipallty decide to get further involved in non- profit housing, this grant may be followed up by in- terest-free loans to municipal non-profit cor- porations, which could be used as interim financing for administrative and developmental costs. Additional interest-free loans may be available for tecbnical consultants' contracts. The ministry loans are scheduled for repayment at the time of the flrslt mortgage a dvance. Under the Minlstry of municipal Affairs and Housing program, a federal rent reduction grant from Canada Mortgage and Housig Corporation reduces the effective interest rate on boans from private lending institutions to. two par cent. Wben required, the Government of Ontario offers an ad- ditional rent reduction granit 0f up to 100 par cent of the federal assistance. These rent reduction grants are used to maintain overail rents at market levels and to subsidize rent- geared-to-income units. If additional funds were required, they would be shared on a 50:50 ratio bet- ween the federal and provincial governuments. Up to 50 per cent 0f the occupants in senior citizens buildings, and Up to 25 par cent of the oc- cupanteini famlly developments, pay rent based generaily on income. The remainder of the tenants pay market rente. I arn pleased to see the. regional municipality becoming more involved in municipal non-profit housing, and I am proud that the Government of On- tario bas also indicated its support for this initiative. This is an idication 0f what *can be done wben ail levels of government cooparate for the common good. WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAy', OCTOBER 10, 1984, PAGE 23 Growth o f Big Sisters gave need for community board The steady growth of Rev. John Peters, The aim of Big Sisters the Big Sisters Charles Morison, is to pr#-7ue a special Organization bas Sharon Young, Judy friend to young girls produced the need of an Murray, Charles who are in need of advisory board in the Marlowe and Lee Bar- stimulation,* en- Oshawa - Whitby - Newcastle area. During a recent meeting of community people, Joan Sanderson was named to head this advisory board. The board will be employed on a volunteer basis to prepare a constitution and set policies for the organization. Members of the working board are: Colette Losier, Lînda Lowery, Irene Reid, nes. Since its formation in 1972 under the name of the Friendship Club, Big Sisters bas seen a growing demand for its services. Presently, the organization bas 48 matches and several young girls left waiting. for a "Big Sister". The matches currently in progress are coristantly monitored by the Big Sister co-ordinator, Carol Rhodes. couragement or perhaps a healthy adult model. The focus 0f the program is the preven- tion 0f more serious social and emotional problems developing. A United Way Agen- cy, Big Sisters is housed at. Simcoe Hall Set- tlement House and operates under the um- brella 0f the Simcoe Hall Women's League. Speaking to You By SCOTT FENNELL, MP (PC - Ontario) Trade is key to recovery If there is one single key to economie recovery ini Canada, trade is it.' Two million Canadians, one in five of the labor à -!rimé work i areas directly or indirectly related to trade. Expo ia> :r"nent approximately a quar- ter of our GNP. Canada la more dependant on trade than any other country in the world. It bas been estimated that $58,000 in exports creates one job in Canada, and if we rebuild our share of world trade to the level that we held in 1970, we could create between 500,000 and 700,000 jobs. On the surface it appears that Canada bas been doing relatively well i trade. We have a surplus in our current account. However, our share of world trade feU from 5.74 per cent in 1968, to 4 per cent in 1982. Between 1970 and 1981, the'average annual growth rate 0f Canadian exports was 4.2-per cent - the lowest of any major industrialized nation. What 18 behid our declining trade performance? First, our exporte are essentially produets which are decreasing as a percentage of world trade, namely, agricultural products, raw materials and semi-manufactured commodities. It 18 bighly manufactured end-products wbich are increasing as a percentage of world trade and this is, unfor- tunately, not an area i which Canada 18 extremely competitive due to our low productivity levels. Second, we have concentrated our exportig efforts on the U.S., whlch 18 an area of relatively slow growth i the world economy. How do we improve our trade performance? Tir- st, we must take a bard-seing trade oriented view. We have Wo pursue every export opportunity, large or amail, traditional and new. Second, we must resist the global trends of .protectiomism. Canada survives by reachingoutward, and we cannot ex- pect to knock down barriers to our products abroad if we are erecting the same obstacles at home. Third, we must address our problem of low produc- tivity. Finally, we must bave a tai system which wil encourage the development of enterprise, Ini- novation, and exporte.