PAGE 4. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14. 1985, WHlITBY FREE PRESS Published every Wednesday M L by MI.M. Publishing Community Editor and Phlotography Inc. Phone x-VALERIECOWEN lisJ The Free Press Building, 1:11 Brock Street North, Second lass Mail Voice of the County Town Michael lan Burgess, Publisher . Managing Editor :.O. Box 20 . Whitby Ont. Regisraion No.5351 The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby I2esidents for Whitby residents. Apartment vacancy rate clearly shows Controls killing new inv Whitby's lack of rental accommodation Is are essentially two major reasons why private en tProvnc reaching crisis proportions. terprise isn't building new apartment buildings in to rent cc The local branch of the Canada Mortgage and the town. The.first is hlgh interest rates. The cost keep the Housing Corporation recently released a report of borrowing money hasn't made this kind of In- the curren stating that Whitby's effective vacancy rate is 0.5 vestment attractive. If your per cent. However, over the course of the last few mon- don't affe In essence, that means that people looking for ths, Interest rates have been dropping to the point It shou an apartment In Whitby are not going to find one where Investors are again ready to look at this commode easlly. type of investment. taxpayers From what this newspaper has learned, there The only thing that appears to be holding them being US back now are rent controls. need govE Since May 2, rent increases in Ontario have recentlyc weeleY neanm OO aStary from been limited to four per cent a year and this makes taxpayer one oramads It difficult for landlords (who should be viewed as monthly. OUstandingnom new Jerenat s businessmen) to make a decent return on their in- This te vestment. whether vIn fact, the four per cent ceiling makes it dif- This new ficult for many landlords to recover their ask the t operational costs. For example, property taxes in afford toc Whitby went up 5.4 per cent this year. Water and Rent c sewer rates went up 5.6 per cent and hydro rates shy away jumped by about six per cent. But the landlord can the need only increase his cash flow by four per cent, so he met bec Is already losing money. Incidentally, the four per political cent hike he is allowed has to be phased in over market. 1 r1 ar Athe course of theyear when leases come up for Whie spent a morning at the Armed Forces Staff renewail, so the net lncrease he wll achieve ob- abolishe College in Toronto recently, talking with some vbously wile be much less than the "allowed" four be mode colleagues to a group of officers on course, about per cent. s n me the millitary and the media. In my own case at îeast,1 Loslng money on current operations doesn't in- ment.T wondered later If the answers i gave to some pretty spire the business community to expand or invest businesE tough questions were answers at ail, or rea tty justin new facilities. Businesses in the red don't grow. charge $ realizations. The older aget, thea ess certain j if a landlord's expenses are increasing faster than rent is $5 become about some of the generally accepted prac- his revenue, how can he be expected to stay in til he mo tices of Journalism. business much less built more units? Rentc In the 1980s, a democracy at war with a This lack of new rental accommodation createda totaltarian regime would appear to be at a disadvan- development is going to have a negative impact Contrc ttale.If tarlnoregtewoldppertboutathaedisaan-on the town's growth. Every community needs a have for tage. If you teli people the whole truth about the war, good mixture of housing, both to rent and to own. slack an as the American networks did n Vietnam, mass As Gordon Thompson, manager of the local will not ç revulsion Is Inevitable. The Second World War was a branch of CMHC told the Free Press in a recent in- The gc just war,ifthatisnotacontradictionhin terms. terview, this situation can only be solved in the accordin But i sometimes wonder what would have. hap- poiia arna . rentai ac pened If we had been told the truth about the Second Politica! arena. World War, and If the British and Hollywood propaganda machines had been shut down. If we had known how heavy our losses really were, if we had known about our own attrocities in addition to those of the enemy, if we had seen the suffering of o FORRENT, e 5LIRE innocent civilians, on both sides, if the intimate 1-0TELL 1fIEM-...-J P detail of death and destruction had been thrust on us every evening on television, would we have had the will to go on? Would we have accepted rationing, or would we have bought war saving stamps with our pennies? Would young men and women have volun- teered? The western world and its attitude towards war has changed drastically since 1945, and I doubt that a free society will ever fight a war as innocently again. The news business has changed as well, and a reporter's loyalty to this country no longer ensures loyalty to a government, its political figureheads, or a war effort. I was asked in Toronto whether it was reasonable to expect a free society to labour under the disadvantage of a free press against a totalitarian enemy. The answer, i suppose, is that I can't imagine doing it any differently. And since in Canada we have never been in a war with the kind of media that exists today, we'il just have to hope we never get the an- swer the hard way. i am convinced of one thing. Until the politicians and the people see the realities of war, unedited and undiluted' as a soldier sees them, there will alway- be those who think that war is a reasonable alter native to a quarrelsome peace. estment oial politiclans have ail sworn allegiance ontrols. Ail political parties say they will m. They are, therefore, responsible for it houslng crisis. e a home owner and think rent controls ct you read on. Ild be pointed out that the only rental ac- ations being built are those that enjoy subsidy. That means taxpayers' money is 3ed to house people who may not truly ernment subsidies to live. For example, a completed project In Whitby (and heavily subsidized) has rents starting at $465 tax money is ralsed f rom everyone, they rent their home or own their home. spaper doesn't believe It Is just or fair to axpayer to build homes for those who can carry their own weight. ontrols have forced the rental industry to iy from new Investment. This means that I for rental accommodation is not being ause the government insists, for purely reasons, to create an artificial rental we would concede that If controls were d tomorrowcthere would in time be a jump charges, however, these increases would erated over the long term by new invest- The market Is self-governing. If a sman builds a new building and wants to 700 a unit in an area where the average 500, his units are going to stand empty un- derates his charges. controls have not worked. They have an imbalance in ni marketplace. ols have scared away new investment and ced the general taxpayer to pick up the id so long as they are in place the situation let better. overnment must face these facts and act gly, or we are soon going to run out of commodation for those who truly need it.