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Business Week PAGE 32 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY JUNE 7. 1989 "A heavier tax burden in Canada adds more to the cost of doing business here. Canadian businessmen find this hard to take in a context where the overvalued Canadian dollar is jeopardizing their competitive position." Finding the right tools is tough And while Fortien épproves of Michael Wilson‘s hard line approach to deficit reduction he urges a monetary policy that will give businesses the tools to be competitive under the _ The bottom line, says Fortien, is that Canadian businesses are getting contradictory signals from the government they thought was their ally. _ That policy includes lower interest rates â€" closer to U.S. levels â€" and a lower dollar, perhaps 5% to 10% lower over the next year ues He estimates that with the dollar‘s rise over the past three years, our businesses are now 20% less competitive against U.S. businesses than they were before 1985. Second, Canadian entrepreneurs are firééd by government to modernize, go highâ€"tech, restructure and specialize, all of which requires huge amounts of financing. Yet, the cost of borrowing in Canada is more than 20% higher than in the U.S. 4 Gus Carlson is the business editor of the Toronto Sun â€"First, the rising Canadian dollar is hurting their ability to compete in U.S. markets. Third, Canada‘s public sector deficit is 4.1% of national income, more than twice as big as in the U.S. where it is 1.7% of the GNP. Canada‘s tax burden is also far greater than in the U.S. We tax a whopping 41% of our national income, the U.S. taxes just 35%. Fortien said Canadian businesses have three main com plaints about the unhealthy domestic scene. "If matters do not improve quickly, we will see rising protectionism and a backlash against the FTA in Canada," Fortien told a group of leading world economists yesterday at a McGill University conference on Global Disequalibrium. "lT' The situation is so critical, says University of Quebec economist Pierre Fortien, the honeymoon between big business and the Tories may blow up in the government‘s face. But Canadian businesses, eager to do the job of competing under the Canadaâ€"U.S. free trade agreement, are finding the right tools tough to get, thanks to a high Canadian dollar, souring interest rates and crushing tax burden. MONTREAL â€" There‘s an old saying that to do the job tight, you have to have the right tools. Gus Carlson Canadian Business 8 THE ONLY WAY TO GO" The Centre is an acquisition service, providing books, compuâ€" ter records, and even catalogue cards to 161 public libraries throughout Ontario. Its customer base is expanding to Quebec, Nova Scotia, western Canada and the United States. Currently, 51 people are employed in Waterloo. The production of its catalogue cards produces scrap cardboard. The cards are cut from large sheets. While the ideal would be to have sheets that do not produce waste when cut, Zambusi said that alternative is not practical because the laser printer is inflexâ€" ible. Therefore, like the corrugated cardboard and computer paper waste, there was scrap being produced. ‘"We had encouragement (to recycle) from the staff," said Zambusi. "Quite often the staff expressed concerns about it. "When we looked at the garâ€" bage and see it‘s primarily cardâ€" board and wasted card stock and computer stock, we decided thereâ€" Zambusi found his answer when Triâ€"Tech Recycling began operations in Waterloo late last year as a purchaser of goods to be recycled. The Centre currently has onceâ€" weekly garbage pickup at a cost of $2,000 yearly. Faced with twiceâ€"weekly pickâ€"ups, Zambusi was open to alternatives. ‘"We don‘t have a lot in the way of waste materials But we do have enough to make it a concern for our staff," said Bill Zambusi, president of the company located on Dearborn Place in Waterloo. Faced with increased garbage pickâ€"up costs and staff interest in recycling, the company decided to recycle its computer paper, corruâ€" gated cardboard and waste from the production of library cataâ€" logue cards. â€" â€" The Ontario Library Services Centre is one local business doing its part in reducing garbage. lan Kirkby Chronicle Staff Ontario Library Centre does its bit for the environment ‘"We send a reasonable load every week and the driver comes back with eight or nine dollars. We‘re paying for half the cost of sending the driver and truck up there." "So we keep the material here and once a week we use our delivery vehicle to take it up to Triâ€"Tech. Still, he said, it‘s better than paying to have it hauled to a landfill site. At the plant, cardboard cartons are bundled and put into tempoâ€" rary storage by one of the comâ€" pany‘s receivers. For computer paper, cartons are placed beside the photocopier and in the compuâ€" ter room. Staff dump excess com:â€" puter paper â€" and there‘s a lot of The ideal solution would be to have Triâ€"Tech pick up recyclâ€" ables, but that turned out to not be feasible. Triâ€"Tech requires a loading dock, something the Cenâ€" tre does not have. s got to be something better you can do with that stuff." But asked if there‘s a down side to his company‘s recycling, he said, "Not that we‘ve detected so far â€" other than finding space to bundle and store it. But I don‘t view that as a down side. With the success to date, the company is now looking at impleâ€" menting fine paper recycling for the office by fall, he added. Zambusi warns that finding adequate storage space might be the biggest problem businesses will encounter in carrying out recylcing. â€" "The staff are very supportive of the whole thing. We‘ve certainâ€" ly heard nothing negative about 16." "The card cartons are our bigâ€" gest concern, because they‘re bulky and take up a lot of space," said Zambusi. Large 50 gallon bins are put in the area where the cards are cut. As they fill, they are rolled to the storage area. that â€" into the cartons, which are then taken to the storage area as they fill.