Page 6, Whitby Free Press, Wednesday, May 26, 1993 The only Newspaper owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents! MEMBER OF: ONTARIO CANADIAN COMMUNITY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER *CNA NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION CANADIAN CIRCULATIONS CNA DIVISION AUDIT BOARD 25,500 COPIES DELIVERED WEEKLY Published every Wednesday by 677209 Ontario Inc. Box 206, 131 Brock St. N., Whitby, Ontario L1N 5S1 Phone: 668-6111 Toronto Line: 427-1834 Fax: 668-0594 Doug Anderson - Publisher Maurice Pifher - Editor Alexandra Martin - Production Manager Printed on newsprint with minimum 20% 1 recycled content using vegetable based inks. To the editor... 30,636 sold To the Editor: On behalf of Girl Guides of Canada, Ontario division, I would like to thank you for helping to make our annual cookie campaign a success. Girls and Guiders sold 30,636 boxes of cookies in Whitby and Brooklin. Our members are taking part in leadership training, camping, program activities and international oppportunities. Revenue from this year's cookie sales will help us to continue Guiding for today's girls and women. We appreciate your support and look forward to working with you again next year. Annette Cowan Division cookîe adviser Whitby so theeds or., Say no to NAFTA To the editor: Consumer advocate Ralph Nader was recently quoted as saying Canadians should reject NAFTA. He states that if we don't find out more about the deal and start opposing NAFTA then "... the tide will become less and less reversible toward Canada ceasing to be an independent nation." Already democracy in Canada resembles the 60-year dictatorship they call "democracy" in Mexico. Consider these facts: - NAFTA was created without any public participation or comment. Only political insiders and corporate representatives were permitted to participate. - There are no copies of the agreement at libraries, or anywhere else. And even if a copy of the deal should fall into the hands of the public, it is written in 'economic-legalspeak' to ensure we won't be able to understand it. - All opinion polis, from the very inception of NAFTA, show that the majority of Canadians are against it. Despite this welI-known fact, NAFTA is being rammed through Parliament. Are these the hallmarks of a free and democratic nation? It is not just people such as Ralph Nader who are worried about NAFTA. Andrew Reding, writing in the World Policy Journal (Summer 1992) states: "Under the cover of f ree trade, foreign governments and businesses are gaining an effective veto over national, state and provincial legislation that elevates human welfare." NAFTA isn't about free trade. It's about democracy and the kind of country we want to have. Nader says that NAFTA will mean Canada's ceasing to be an independent nation. We already seem to be a less democratic one. What NAFTA is really about is standing up for our democratic rights before they are bartered away. We have to face this challenge, become informed and tell our government that we want to continue as an independent country with a free democracy. That means we have to say no to NAFTA right now. Stephen Leahy Brooklin A lesson in sportsmanship The social contract By Drummond White Durham Centre MPP Many people have spoken to me of their uncertainty about the proposed social contract. Rumours have floated about wage cuts or layoffs. These drastic solutions are precisely what we wish to avoid through the social contract negotiations. The social contract is an essential part of taking charge of the provincial budget and taking responsibility for the finances of our province. We must take charge of finances now or we will be unable to offer to do much more than pay debt interest, as the federal government and several poorer provinces do. The deficits and rising public debt will eventually cripple our ability to maintain services just as they have done for the federal government. Although the recession may be waning, it will be some time before provincial revenues will match our current expenses. In the meantime, our deficit and debt would be mounting to unsustainable levels unless we t ake action now. We have the cards on the table. We must preserve a balance between essential costs and necessary savings to preserve services. Neither taxes nor the deficit can alone sustain our services. At the height of the recession, we maintained spending in order to protect the provincial economy. Now, with the recession ending and new jobs being created, we cannot continue with a high deficit. The provincial government is calling upon the workers and front-line agencies to assist us in finding the best way to deal with the tremendous challenges that we face. Over the last year, we have successfully held the line on cost increases, to its lowest since 1952. Many ministries, that have traditionally had huge increases, expanded at less than the rate of inflation. At the top, we folded several ministries together and have reduced the number of deputy ministers by one-third. Senior management and MPP salaries have already been frozen for the last two years. The recently announced spending reductions do not involve actual job losses. While the size of the public service will be smaller, the number of positions involved in the restructuring will be less than the natural change due to attrition. In order to prevent layoffs and avoid a huge tax increase, we need to look at the public payroll that comprises $43 billion. This is the first time that all involved parties have been so actively consulted. As a consequence, many representatives and leaders may feel on guard and rightly attempt to secure their base first. Many might prefer to have a solution laid upon them rather than engage in a difficult and creative problem-solving process. I welcome your suggestions as taxpayers and as both providers and recipients of essential services. To the EdItor: Recently, I got a lesson in sportsmanship from a 12-year-old from Mississauga. My wife and I were in Mississauga to watch and support our eldest child as .she competed in the provincial championships in roller skating. Friday was practice day for the competitors and, while it appeared relaxed, the egos battled furiously. Saturday was the first of two days of competition as the skaters, male and female, battled for the right to stand upon the highest step on the podium and proudly display their gold medal. My daughter was as combative as any of them. There is one nemesis for every athlete at every level of competitive soort: someone that you just have to beat but never have. My daughter's nemesis is Chrysta. The girls are friendly off the floor, while knowing that when the judges scrutinize their performance, the gloves are off. My daughter was more nervous than I have ever seen her, nervous to the point of being physically ill just as her number was called to go onto the floor. The organizers were kind enough to move her to the end of the group and carry on with the competition while she dealt with her personal crisis. My heart was breaking, as I could do nothing. When I saw my daughter after the event was over, she carried with her a pink carnation. Attached to it was a card that said. "Jennifer, show 'em what you got. Chrysta." This simple gesture helped to get a fellow athlete through a tough hour, and the small gift is loved as much as any of the three medals we came home with. While Jennifer is not going to Calgary to represent Ont ario in the national championships, Chrysta will be there. Amid the glitz and glimmer and over-inflated egos, we will have a furious competitor and a pure sportsman to represent To the Editor: The Ontario government has unveiled a plan to revise the health care system. The 'plan' is designed to create disincentives for family physicians from establishing or continuing a practice in much of the province of Ontario. The plan is yet another example of the government's haphazard and uninformed decision-making that creates more problems than it solves. The Ontario College of Family Physicians believes that family physicians deliver the highest quality medical care in the most cost-efficient manner. The United States obviously agrees -- they are recruiting these expert generalists whose education has been subsidized by the tax dollars of the citizens of the province. The government would like the issue to be perceived as a matter of simple economics. We don't agree. It is about patients' access to health care and the quality of that care. It is our patients and their loved ones, particulary the elderly, the ill, the poor, the women and the disadvantaged, who will disproportionately bear the burden of these short-sighted measures. our province in Calgary. We can be proud. Good luck, Chrysta. Bill Caukwell Whitby Gordon L. Dickle President Ontario College of Famlly Physicians Mississauga WHY K S? "Leaming to tie knots, like sheepshanks, bowlînes, and grannys, helped prove to my parents I really wasn't all fingers and thumbs! They began to respect me!" EiJfJJ Short-sighted