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Comment 6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, September 18, 1990 EDITORIAL The Port Perry Star Publisher - J. Peter Hvidsten Editor - John B, McClelland BUSINESS OFFICE Office Manager - Gayle Stapley Accounting - Judy Ashby @e- @ 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO News/Features - Julia Ashton Billing Department - Louise Hope PHONE 985-7383 FAX 985-3703 News/Features - Kelly Story Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Lynda Ruhl, Tracy O'Neil hh e The Port Perry Star is authorized as second class mail by the - Post Office Department, Ottawa, for cash payment of a PRODUCTION ADVERTISING Canadian Sri Newspaper Pssoslion Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Annabell Harrison Advertising Co-ordinator - Valerie Ellis Published every Tuesday by the Subscription Rate: In Canada $20.00 per year Trudy Empringham Advertising Sales Representative - Anna Gouldbum Port Perry Star Co, Lid. Port Perry, Ontario Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50¢ Darlene Hlozan Editorial BRACE YOURSELF Brace yourself, Ontario, the good times are about to come to a screeching halt. It seems our provincial treasury is headed for a deficit this year of some $700 million. That's what the financial folks told out-going treasurer Robert Nixon last week, just a few days after the Liberal Party of which he is an important cog went down to a stunning de- feat at the polls. Funny thing, but all during the election campaign, Nixon had been running around Ontario crowing that the treasury (under his command) was in such rosy shape that it was pro- jected to actually show a surplus of $23 million this fiscal year. Premier elect Bob Rae first got wind that all is not roses in the kingdom of Ontario a few days after his victory when he first met with treasury officials. As for Robert Nixon, he said his surplus predictions were "Ox Now, EVERYBODY, GRAB HOLD OF THE PARTY LINE | AND Follow Uncle Pos ! wa QUEEN'S PARK 72. SN WNW . WW Sew 1559 NN EN NN LL Ira RSISt | : § Bs | ! 3 i i } i i based on June 30 numbers. Asked why he didn't know about the $700 million deficit projection until after the Sebianty 6 election, he said he was too busy campaigning for his political skin in his own riding. Fair enough. The last thing in the world he'd want to hear in the middle of an election is that the figures "jumped" more than $700 million in three short months. But it makes you wonder how or who is counting the beans in the old treasury of the richest province in Canada. Seems the projected numbers changed so radically be- cause of two main reasons: the pending recession is much - more serious that anticipated, which means longer lines at the welfare offices this coming winter; and the economic downturn is causing people with money to hold off on "big ticket" pur- chases, which in turn reduces the number of beans collected on the provincial sales tax. All of which has put Mr. Rae into the first testy little quand- of his new mandate: how to juggle a projected $700 million deficit and come up with the money for a host of new pro- grams he wants to see initiated. Yes. that's a testy litle quand- ry indeed. If Ontario winds up $700 million in the red come next April 1, and Mr. Rae pushed ahead with some of his spending initia- tives, the deficit quite easily could balloon to a couple of billion dollars in a single year. And Mr. Rae, as late as last Thursday, was saying to the media, he's not going to back away from his election promis- es. So, brace yourself, Ontario. The red ink looks like it's about to start to flow. And we all know what happens when governments start to spend more than they take in: the bubble has to burst sooner or later, one need only look at what hap- pened up there in Ottawa when the vaults were left open for: several years, and the national debt went right through the roof. Today, the federal government is taxing the hell out of Ca- nadians, cutting services all over the place (like VIA Rail) sell- ing Crown Corporations left and right, just to control the debt level, never mind bringing it down. Taxes was one of the under-lying issues of the Septem- ber 6 provincial election: taxes at all levels in this country which are just too darn high. The average parson must now work well into July each year just to pay the taxes. Mr. Rae had best keep this in mind as he goes through the difficult job of setting his first budget. The pecple of this province know there are tough times ahead. They know the welfare lines are going to stretch long in the cruel winter months. They know the provincial treasury will not be gulping in huge amounts of sales tax, and they know that Mr. Rae has a tough row to hoe. A $700 million deficit is bad enough. If he starts adding to it, watch out for a backlash. And finally, just who the heck is counting the beans in this province. One day a $23 million surplus, the next day a $700 million deficit. Time for new batteries in the adding machine. Random PARKING it was good to see the Port Perry Downtown BIA get involved with the nagging problem of lack of downtown parking at last week's council meeting. The BIA proposes to lease, and create about 30 more parking spaces on private land behind Brock's Department Store by levelling the land, removing fences and an old garage. It's interesting that this proposal came be- fore council last week, the same day that-the Township's consulting firm presented a commis- sioned report to council about the commercial ar- eas of Port Perry. One of the recommendations, by Totten, Sims, Hubicki, suggests the Township "improve established parking areas and encourage their use by use of meters on the main streets and 'no arking' signs on residential streets near .the Main entral Area." While | agree whole-heartedly with the im- provement of parking in the downtown area, | feel strongly that metered parking would not be a good idea. Metered parking is the same as 'paid park- ing' and | just don't feel that the public should be asked to pay for the priviledge of parking on any of the downtown streets. While the idea of 'no parking' signs on resi- dential streets in the central area is a good one, until more Off-street parking is developed either by the Township, or jointly with the BIA, this would create an even worse problem with park- ing than now exists. As a member of the Downtown BIA parking committee a couple of years ago, our group looked at a number of parking lots in the central core of the town. We measured existing spaces, calculated the number of parking spaces availa- ble, suggostad ways to improve and expand the lots, and obtained prices to do a minimal job. | can't remember now how many additional spaces we felt could be realized, but expansions of the old arena handy lot, the municipal lot on Perry Street, making the old lawn bowling green into a parking area, and the area behind Brock's were all taken into account. | hope the BIA gets the backing from the Township it needs to undertake the work behind > 2 5 = ngs vids of i i Brock's store. A $15,000 re-payable loan to the BIA now, could get the work completed before winter sets in, and would be a step in the right direction. - But it's also time that the Township take a look at some of their own public parking lots and start on a program to expand and improve these areas. While some councillors may disa- gree with spending taxpayers money to provide parking (because the merchants may benefit), it is their responsibility to provide adequate park- ing for the citizens of this community who wish to come here for whatever reason. » Council has just spent a considerable sum -of money to do a study of the commercial area, and our consultants have tome to the conclu- sion - "Parking is an obvious. probiem in the Town." They suggest this can be lessened by improving the 'public' parking lots and getting vehicles off the street. Most residents of this community already know this, but now that our consultants have put it in writing, why not do something about it? WHAT A LIFE" A humerous item came across my desk re- cently which | thought our readers may enjoy. The piece is entitied "Old Folks", but the author is unknown. "Remember old folks are worth a fortune, with silver in their hair, gold in their teeth, stones in their kidneys, lead in their feet and gas in their stomachs. | have become a little older since the last time | saw you, and a few changes have come into my life since then. Frankly, | have become quite a frivolous old gal. I'm seeing five gentlemen every day. As soon as | wake up, 'WILL POWER' helps me out of bed. Then | go see 'JOHN'. Then 'CHARLIE HORSE' comes along and when he is here, he takes a lot of my time and attention. When he leaves 'ARTHUR RITIS' shows up and stays the rest of the day. He doesn't like to stay in one place very lorg, so takes me from joint to joint. After such a busy day, | am really tired and get to go to bed with 'BEN GAY". What a life!!" BE RISA SL Ca A NAS i Se i spe SR LOB