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vol4 no 46 i wednesday november it 1992 20page soceiits can ex tracy kibble staff reporter york region homeowners can expect a tax hike next year it would be unrealistic to- think otherwise chairman eldred king told reporters thursday york has many projects that are unfolding in 1993 projects that have already been held off for several years due to incom pleteness or budget restraints senior staff say they will need 70 new employees next year to keep their departments running smoothly and to meet the demands of yorks fast- growing population but king said its highly unlikely that council would approve 70 new positions unless department heads con sider tradeoffs in other words senior staff would be expected to slash programs or trim unnecessary fat from their departmemvto offset the num ber of new positions they want king said it would be absolutely unrealistic to think there would be no increase over 1 992 eldred king but its hot additional staff positions that are the problem king added yorks more than 700 employ ees will be moving to its new 65miilion headquarters a transition period that wont be without clinches and costs not to mention last minute tieups with its new architect and builders the regions 911 emergency system is expected to be online next year and that means a new regionwide computer system the hiring of 11 operators and a whole lot of organization king said york has 16000 new residents this year f a sign of the times and the beginning of thousands more to come dur ing the next 2q years- and one person daily signs on for welfare nearly 8500 york region residents received welfare cheques during the month of september a 50 per cent jump from the same periodlast year although the numbers are slowing down substantially from last years surging month- bymonth figures a steady rise continues this year for instance 8454 people collected welfare in september a hike from 8427 in august that 27case increase works out to about one resident each day applying for social assis tance latest records show regional taxpay ers coughed up 7 million this year to aid their jobless neighbors up from 54 million in 1991 figures show three per cent of yorks 504000 residents cashed welfare cheques in september to feed their families and pay their rent here are the top five reasons given from 8454 cases as to why welfare assistance was needed during the month september cant find a job 3936 single parent 1398 temporary illness 762 uic exhausted 560 uic benefits pending 480 here are the top five reasons of 945 cases why the region terminated benefits during the month of september not pursuing eligibility 561 not resident in municipality 215 eligible to receive family benefit assis tance 97 voluntary withdrawal 67 income higher than eligibility 56 during a council meeting last week com munity services commissioner peter creighton told council he projects a 17 per cent social assistance increase for 1993 a downward projection from his original fore cast of more than double that while many of these residents are contributing- ratepayers they all expect topnotch well- run services passable safe roads and adequate police and fire protection he said york also has to think of its future longterm waste afford- ability and demands not to mention its ongoing fight with the interim waste authority iwa to keep metro torontos trash out of the region theres the growing social assistance costs which are plaguing the region york- will dish out- more than 7 million in welfare costs this year to residents who cannot find work it would be absolutely unre alistic to think there would be no increase over 1992 king said he defended the nearly- finished administrative build ing costs saying that efficien- cy cannot possibly be mea sured king said once yorks staff and police are under one roof taxpayers will own a more effi cient smootherrun and fine- tuned operation he chastised reporters for balking at yorks need for new senior staff posi tions in times when other cor porations are paring off unnec essary whitecollar jobs york region is a service industry and its not the same as a manufacturing industry it takes people to manage people and thats very different from a private sector business making a product king said and finally king defended a probable tax hike stating that york has often been too frugal and light when it comes to spending money but we alwaystry to operate efficiently he concluded how about that if parents want their chil dren to be successful in one of canadas emerging industries they should be encouragedto select one of the following fields accord ing to dr sherry cooper one of the countrys top economists canadas emerging industries funeral services health services business machines telecommunications gold mines pipelines financialinsurance ser vices computer services entertainment