PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1980, WHITBY FREL PRESS whitby r Volco of the County Town Michael Ian Burgess, Publisher- Managing Editor The only Whitby newspaper independently owvned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitbv residents. Published everY Wednes da% Nby M.B.M. Publishing Sand 1hotography me. Phone 669-61 Il The F'ree Press Building. 1.11 Brock Street North. P.O. Box 206. Whitby, Ont. Michael J. Kooli Community Editor Menonsl A. Burgess Production Manager Karen Thompson Advertislng Manager Maling Permit No. 480 Member of the Whitby Chamber of Commerce Rtegional anci local councillors deserve decent pay for fuli time job Every time that politicians in power vote themselves a raise the public outcry is usually great but often unjustified. At their last regular meeting, members of Durham Regional Council voted to give theniselves a seven per cent raise effec- tive on January 1, 1981. However, this move must also be ratified by the incoming council that will be eiected in November. It is maintained here that these usualiy bard working and dedicated men and women from ail over this great regional municipality deserve a raise. Presently these people earn about $12,900 a year for their almost always full tume, work for the region. The seven per cent increase in stipend will bring their salary up by about $900. While it is adniitted that many (but not ail) of these people have a second income the taxpayers of this region should be paying their representatives a liveable salary. Paying councillors a good salary will attract many people to. run for public office. It will be possible that a good salary will attract more people to become involved with municipal af- fairs, because they would not have to worry about sacrificing a major portion of their income. If a man or woman runs for office and discovers that it is a full time job, which il is in this region, then they be paid accor- dingly. After ahl, business doesn't pay people to do a full time job on a part time salary. Freeing our elected representatives from a secondary job wiil allow them to spend ail of their energies on our business. These arguements can also be miade for those people who sit on local councils. For the amount of tume that local councillors spend on the job, they are not paid enough. After all, we expect them to be available to the taxpayers of the town at a moments notice, but if they have to work elsewhere to support their families because of their local salary, how can we expect them to be available? -Running a municipality is becoming a more tume consunuing job and needs those people who are willing to put their ail into their community. lion of the-population to give local govc-rment a better idea of what is going on. To get tbese people to run for office and subsequently be elected, we have to pay themn a salary t.hat wili allow themn to support their families and to serve the community on a fuli time basis. This is not to say that they should have t.he right to pay themselves eccessively. It is simply to say that they should be paid reasonable and equitable salaries. If their salary was tied into the Consumer Price Index, then the situation over their stipend would disappear because their salary would go up with the rate of inflation. Any businessman will agree that to get proper talent, it must be paid for. The same applies to local politicians. To get the right kind of people, the people with talent and dedication, we have to pay them a decent salary. A public outcry against a seven per cent increase for regional councillors is unjustifiable. An Urgent Message to Banks, B>' W. Roger Worth Canada's bankers, il seems, have difliculty understanding (lie importance of (lie smaller businesses (bat are creating a majority of (the new jobs in a country where unernploy ment approaches the one million mark. What's ironic is that loan interesi paid by independent bus-iew s people is one major reas.i (lie banks are able (o report ever-rising profits. Even wben (lie banks have an opportunity (o support thie sector ai virtually no cosi (o themselves, (bey are reluctant to rnove. Consider the case of Otta- wa's SmaIl Business Develop- ment Bond program, which Roger Worth is Direclor, Public ..ffairs, Canadian Federa lion of Independent Business. allows (lie country's smaller expanding Iirms to borrow mone% ai interest rates of five percentage points or more be- lo,. current market rates. Otta%ýa announced the scheme ibis spning. fullh ex- pecting quick and entliusiastic support from (lie nation's banks. lnstead. the bankers hiave balked. Amid justifiable complaints aboui foot-dragging by (lie federal bureaucracy, in provid- ing a complete set of rules and regulaiotis for the program, they have simpl) placed tlie scheme in a holding pattern. Stili, one financial institu- (ion, RoyNat Ltd., has over- corne thie complexities and re- strictions related to the bond prograrn and is offering money (o expanding smail firms at five percentage points or more below normal rates. But RoyNat only has 29 branches across the country, compared to about 8,000 for thie chartered banks. This means smaller busi- nesses in outiying areas will have a great deal of difficuity taking advantage of the plan. Tliat's why il is urgent (bat the banks gel involved. As the December 31, 1980, cutoîf date for the program cornes closer, many smaller firms may miss (lie boat on (his innovative job-creation scheme. Or they may simply shelve ex- pansion plans because interest rates are (00 high. Canada's small and me- dium-sized enterprises deserve better support from thie bankers who play such a crucial role in thie fate of independent busi- ness people. The nation's jobless should also be concerned because un- less smaller firrns expand they will undoubtedly be walking the bread lines for a longer peniod of time. Il doesn't matter mucli vwhether the federal bureau- cracy are at fault in the scenar- io. Wliat's important is that the differences sornehow got sorted out so tha thUe chartered banks can offer (lhe service go custorners nt ail of their 8,000 branches. DowntoWn mail was great Dear Sir: Yesterday, Saturday JuIy 26, we as a famlly spent many hours en- joying the various ac- tivities put on by the Downtown Merchants. The tiopen mail" concept was an ex- cellent idea and everyone seemed to en- joy themnselves. I would however, like to mention one specif ic event that was very popular namely, the face painting. Here were two students that spent many hours of their time in painting the faces of children creating many happy faces. To those two studen- ts may 1 say thank you for adding to the en- joymeflt of parents and childrefl alike. Yours truiy W. A. Jones 136 Calais St. Whitby, Ontario a