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4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 28, 1987 Editorial Comments Insurance Woes Just what is the Ontario Liberal Party trying to do? With an election this year almost a dead certainty, the Liberal Government last week decided on a vote-grabbing bash against the insurance industry, more specifically the auto insurance industry. Most insurance rates for autos are now frozen at current levels -and for high risk drivers (those under. 25 and male) there will be a ten per cent roli-back in premium rates. And the Government also served notice that it intends to set up a permanent review board to monitor insurance rates, and set them as well. We all know what happened several years ago when a previous Government of a different colour decided Ontario needed rent con- trol legislation and in turn set up the Rent Review Board. This bureaucratic intrusion into the market place all but killed the construc- tion of new rental units in Ontario and there are strong arguments to be made that this led directly to the chronic shortage of rental units in many parts of Ontario today. And now the Government is taking on the insurance industry. Just as rent.control appealed to certain voters a decade ago, this new intrusion will do the same. The way car insurance premiums have sky-rocketed in the past few years, a lot of people may be ternpted to say the insurance companies deserve to have their toes tromped on, just like those greedy landlords deserved a stomping with rent controls. And one might also say just like those greedy doctors whom the government last year herded under the OHIP umbrella to become civil servants in the practise of medicine. ~ There are problems in car insurance to be sure, just as there were in the rental accommodation industry. And there were even abuses of the extra billing system. But surely these problems could be corrected and sorted out without a massive intervention on the part of the Government. What about the checks and balances of the market place? Has the Govern- ment decided that car insurance premiums are too high just because the companies want more profit? Has the Government failed to take a look at some of the court settlements in recent years? Has Monte Kwinter not taken the time to visit his local auto parts dealer where he will find the price of a bumper has jumped enormously? And what about labour rates in the shops where cars get patched up? These are some of the major reasons why insyrance premiums have climb- ed so high in the past five years. ; By setting up a review board whereby both drivers and insurance companies will be able to argue their cases for lower and higher rates, the Liberal Government has effectively set up one more gigantic layer of bureaucsgty which over the long haul will cost the tax-payers a bundle. It could also mean that the prudent purchaser of car insurance ~~ may not be able to shop around for batter rates. it may come as a surprise to some but in certain classifications, the premiums for the same coverage varied As much as 100 per cent from one company to another. 2 The free enterprise system is not without its warts, and the 'in- surance industry is not completely blameless in the premium spiral. They are, after-all, in the business of earning money for their shareholders. If there is evidence of gouging or price fixing, why doesn't the Government, take the companies to court and prove it. Instead, the Government has opted simply to jump in with regula- tions, arbitrary roll-backs and a new level of bureaucracy mas- querading as an insurance review board. The leaders of both Opposition Parties say they don't like the new proposed legislation (although for different reasons). We wonder if Bob Rae and Larry Grossman will have the guts to gang up on the - Liberals and defeat this legislation. , Not likely, because after all, it is an election year. And nobody. least of all the Liberals, New Democrats and Conservatives want to - allow a further government intrusion into private enterprise to get in the way of a few votes. Port Perry (0 STAR --- Fa - 235QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY. ONTARIO h Phone 985-7383 PO Box90 LOB INO J PETER HVIDSTEN Member of tre Publisher Canadian Community Newspaper Assocation i ' and Ontario Community Newspaper Associaton Advertising Manager Published every Tuesday by Ne JB. McCLELLAND Port Perry Star Co Ltd Port Perry Ontaro Editor Authorized as segond class mad by the Fos? . Ottice Department Oftawa and for cash CATHY OLLIFFE payment of postage n cash News & Features ANC *, an » a Ss tes asyQS Second Class Mad Registration Number 0265 "-- | MULRONEY WOULDN'T MIND IF WERE A TEENY BIT LATE wirH OUR TAX RETURN TO FIX UP | "Chon, Georee, 1 SURE MR. | = THE FRONT STEP! =A | | i: | ' i= rod : ' ad i 2 FJ | Chatte UP IN SMOKE "I really think the federal government has gone * too far this time. : ~ Health Minister Jake Epp's announcement to ban all tobacco advertising is the most ridiculous thing I've heard all year. And I agree wholeheartedly with Jean-Louis Mercier, chairman of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council, who says up to 2,500 Canadians will lose their jobs in the advertising industry, as a direct result of the ban. "Advertising never made anybody smoke," Mercier told reporters at a press conference Thursday. 'The big losers will be the people who get the advertising dollar." | He added that advertising merely helps smokers decide what brands to buy. Canadian,tobacco makers spent $70 million for ads in newspa and magazines last year, - and another $10 million in sponsorships of sport and cultural events. So what happens to magazines that are already struggling to keep their heads above water? Tobacco ads, those glossy full-pagers seen in many Canadian magazines, pay big bucks. Often, they're one of the biggest contributors to many magazines. Without that important revenue, some publications will enevitably be in for trouble. Some might even fold. And what will happen to major tobacco- sponsored sports events? : A prospective multi-year sponsorship renewal for Canada's two major tennis tournaments has been put on hold by the federal government's anti- tobacco stance. Jake Epp also proposed legislation that would ban sponsorships using fobacco brand names by January 1, 1989. So what happens to Player's, major sponsor of two Canadian Opens since 1979? And what hap- pens to the tennis players themselves? "Maybe nothing, if the proposed legislation doesn't get passed. And maybe nothing will hap- pen if it does. Whatever the outcome, for now, everything is in limbo. But aside from the sponsorship and advertis- ing angles, I'm against Jake the Snake's legisla- tion for purely personal reasons. [I really am sick and tired of being treated as a second class citizen, just because I smoke. I mean, give it a break, the way this health- crazy world is going, smokers will soon be lynch- ed in public hangings. - The same people who smoked their brains out 15 years ago are now righteous holy-rollers, on a witch hunt against the weed. I- cannot bear these people. I can not stand their suffocating rhetoric and their pink-cheeked. rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth crusade to make peo- ple everywhere butt out. - I really wish they'd take their abundant rbox by Cathy Olliffe ' energy and point it in another direction. Cigarettes, after all, are still legal. As long as I don't smoke in-a government building, a subway, a bus, a restaurant or a hair- dressing salon, I'm legal." And I will continue to smoke in the few places still allotted-like my of- fice. I simply DARE any of these rabid anti- smokers to tell me I can't smoke here, or in my own home. Anyways, back to the "other direction" point. Why can't these health friends direct their energy into more serious problems, like alcoholism, drug abuse, starving Ethiopians, im- paired driving? And speaking of impaired driving and alcoholism, why on earth is cigarette advertising banned when beer and wine commercials populate our television airwaves like reproducing rabbits? Not to mention the massive amount of - beer, wine AND liquor advertising in magazines and newspapers. $y Surely, more damage is done by those glossy beer commercials than anything else. - Tobacco hasn't been advertised on TV or radio for years, while booze commercials continue to flourish and grow. It just makes me sick. Especially when I think about the faltering tobacco industry, and those poor tobacco farmers, many of whom have already lost their farms and their livelihood. The federal government is attempting to replace tobacco crops with other cash crops, but because of the nature of the business, nothing else is working. Soil used in tobacco farming tends to be sandy, and really isn't good enough for any other kind of crop. . The feds have tried peanuts, which haven't worked out, and are now contemplating rubber plants. Rubber plants? Well, farmers in the United States have already tried the plants and have sent up reams of literature saying why they won't grow in Canada. 'Basically, our growing season is too short, our spring and fall too cold and unreliable. Really, the feds haven't come up with an alternative to tobacco yet, so farmers are still starving, and will continue to do so. : In one small Ontario town, where the local economy is based on tobacco, citizens are taking a stand against the rising tide against smoking. While communities everywhere else in Canada celebrated Non-Smoking Week, this town tally ignored it And while a local Cancer Society some credible fundraising in the town, it knows better than to organize a Non-Smoking Week, or a Weedless Wednesday. These people depend on tobac- co for their living, and aren't about to take any non-smoking crud from anybody. I HII NI TE TI VE I I TH I EH TH HT NN CH I HE "A= AE OE TW Ee i i i