Page 4, Terrace Bay-Schreiber News, Wednesday, January 14, 1987 errace Schreiber Control Order The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is published every Wednesday by: Laurentian Publishing Co. Ltd., Box 579, Terrace Bay, Ontario, POT 2W0. Telephone: (807) 825-3747. Second Class Mailing Permit Number 0867 EDITOR OFFICE Two public meetings will be held in Terrace Bay concer- ning the proposed control order to be served to Kimberly- Clark on Jan. 14 and Jan. 20. . Kimberly-Clark initially had until Oct. 31 of last year to clean its effluent that goes into Lake Superior. Provincial Environment Minister Jim Bradley approved the delay after an independent auditor announced that Kimberly-Clark could not afford to implement the pollution controls by Oct. 31. The new control order is a three-year agreement, and if approved, gives Kimberly-Clark another chance at taking temporary steps to cut its pollution. If the mill is still operating in three years, it will have to stand up to even tougher controls. New Democratic environment spokesman Ruth Grier has said that Bradley has set a dangerous precedent by allowing Kimberly-Clark the extension. Grier said that the government should not have backed down to the threats that the company would close if forced to spend the millions of dollars on pollution controls. She believes that the company would have been saved by government loans or direct investment. The new deal does not end the pollution nor will it guarantee jobs, Grier said. The new control order should be Kimberly-Clark's last chance to sink or swim. If the company cannot show that it is cutting its pollution successfully over the next while, then some drastic measures should be taken. Although the proposed control order is for three years, Jack L. Lavallet, president and general manager of the mill, has said that the parent company has given the Terrace Bay mill until the end of this year to show that it can be profitable. Hopefully the mill can stay within the control order guidelines and show a profit. Terrace Bay does not need any more layoffs. Letter to the editor The death of Margaret Laurence is a great loss to Canada's cultural com- munity, Minister of Citizenship and Culture Lily Munro said in a news release dated Jan. 6. Although she was best known as a. novelist, her work enriched many peo- ple across Canada and around the world through film, television and stage adaptations, she said. '*Margaret Laurence's writing con- sistently. revealed her wide-ranging talent, embracing the many facets of the human condition from exuberance and joy to compassion. "Her finely-crafted characters, especially the heroines of her. Manawaka series of novels, broke new ground in Canadian literature. "'She was one of Canada's first Biac By Arthur Black "Public opinion polls? I pay no at- tention to them. You know what dogs do to poles." John G. Diefenbaker Well, the Chief and I part company there, I reckon. I follow the public opi- nion polls religiously -- be they Gallup, Goldfarb, Decima or Straw. I also keep an eye on censuses, enumerations, can- vasses and surveys. That's why I par- ticularly enjoy these first few weeks of a brand new year because that's when the head-counters and entrail-readers flood the market with all the data they've compiled over the previous 12 months, concerning the foibles and frailities of Homo Erectus. Day after day my mailbox groans and sags under the burden of surveys taken by everyone from the U.S. Cen- sus Bureau through Statistics Canada, all the way down to an 805-page opus from the Ontario Treasurer's Office. The latter calls itself "Ontario novelists to write about women in such a detailed, wise and compelling man- ner," said Munro. Though born in Manitoba, Margaret Laurence settled in Lakefield, Ont. where she died. "We in Ontario, whether we were fortunate enough to hear her read publicly or had the privilege of meeting her personally, benefitted from how generous she was with her time, spirit and talent," Munro said. "Indeed, we are lucky she has left us a rich legacy of keenly observed Canadian life and imagination through films such as Rachel, Rachel and The Olden Days Coat, plays such as The Women of Margaret Laurence and her novels. She will be missed," said Munro. Statistics, 1986." I call it '"Trivial Pur- suit: Central Canada Edition."' Why would anyone this side of a desperate furnace stoker allow such drivel onto his desk, you ask? Well, I admit it is a little like panning for gold -- there's an awful lot of muck to wade through before you turn up any nuggets. But it's worth the hard work. Why, now I can tell you everything from the projected population of the earth in the year 2000 (6.2 billion) to how many Canadian households are without flush toilets (60,000, give or take a Johnny- on-the-spot). Some other gilt-edged gobbets I turn- ed up: Half the world's humans live in just four countries -- China, India, the USSR and the United States. eThirty-five per cent of Canadian households now have video cassette recorders. That's a leap up from a mere ADVERTISING Ken Lusk Betty St. Amand - Gayle Fournier Single copies 35 cents Subscription rates per year in-town out-of-town Member of Ontario Community Newspapers Association and The Canadian Community Newspapers Asscciation $14.00 $16.00 Letter to the editor Canada Post Corporation released on Jan. 6 details of proposed new rates in- cluding a two-cent increase in the basic letter rate, to take effect April 1, 1987. The news release, dated Jan. 6, also stated that the new letter rate will be 36 cents. Most other postal fees and services would also rise but the majori- ty of new revenue would come from commercial and competitive services. As previously announced, the letter rate increase is less than the rise in the . Consumer Price Index continuing a four-year trend. In addition, there will be no increase on post office lock boxes and on some other commonly used services such as change of address. The five-cent Christmas greeting card discount for special postal-coded envelopes will also continue. While emphasizing market pricing for commercial mail services, the Corporation will continue to offer volume and mail preparation discounts to maximize cost efficiencies and revenue contribution. The Corporation expects the rate proposals to generate approximately $127 million in additional revenue a year to offset continuing pressure from inflation and household growth and to further reduce public funding. The -Government funded postal operating deficit was $184 million last year. These subsidies are to end after March 31, 1988. six per cent only three years ago. eA total of 360 Ontarians list Icelan- dic as their mother tongue. Inevitably, there are a few surprises lurking in the verbal underbrush of surveys and polls. Which province, for instance, would you say has the most VCRs, microwave ovens and home computers per capita? British Colum- bia maybe? Or Fat Cat Ontario? Nope. It's Alberta. You know - the one that's going through that terrible economic slump right now? Here's another curve for you. Which province would you say contains more than 50 per cent of the best agricultural land in Canada? Easy, right? Has to be either Saskatchewan, Manitoba or Alberta. Wrong again. It's Ontario. According to Statistics Canada there are some four million hectacres of first- class agricultural land in Canada, and 2.1 million of them are in Ontario. The rate proposals, which were published in the Canada Gazette, are the last part of the Corporation's finan- cial and operating plans to require Federal Government approval. 1) Seventy-two per cent of Cana- dians mail 10 or fewer letters a month. A two-cent increase is.less than 20 cents a month for most consumers and less than a dollar a year when the five- cent Christmas discount is accounted for. 2) Sending a letter takes less from the average pay packet than it did 30 years ago. Today, at the average manufactur- ing wage of $11.51 per hour, it takes 1.8 minutes to earn enough to send a letter across Canada. In 1956, at $1.52 per hour, it took 1.9 minutes. In 1946, it took more than three minutes to earn the postage for a coast to coast letter. 1956 was the second last year the post office reported a profit. 3) First class postage is relatively cheaper in Canada than in many other industrialized countries. At comparative rates, only the Americans at 1.5 minutes can earn their postage faster. It takes more than three minutes for the average wage earner in Japan, Bri- tain, West Germany and France to earn enough for a first class letter. It takes That's more than all the western pro- vinces combined. I'm discovering (through bloodshot eyes) that pollsters can be downright sneaky, too. Recently the Gallup organization asked more than a thou- sand Canadians to give their best estimate of the temperature outside on a given particular day. Gallup couldn't have cared less about the respondents' potential as meteorologists. The pollsters just wanted to see what system of measurement the respondents relied on. Turned out that 76 per cent of the people surveyed gave their estimates in Celsius, while only 24 per cent responded in degrees Fahrenheit. Con- clusion? After 14 years of force feeding, Canadians are becoming ac- customed to Celsius. As scientific procedure goes, I guess that's kosher, but I get a little nervous when I see statisticians turning fancy Other measures to continue controll- ing costs, improving productivity and to modernize postal operations and ser- vices were approved in December. (See this page for interesting facts about postage). Facts about postage more than two minutes for an average Australian or Swede. 4) Admail serves business and con- sumer needs alike. Market studies show that three- quarters of Canadians welcome and use free samples received in the mail. While not everyone appreciates everything they receive at any given time- only 16 per cent do not like any Admail ever. 5) Admail's value as an information medium is understood by business, governments and other organizations who have helped Admail grow by 39 per cent since 1981. It is an important contributor to the financial viability of the postal service. 6) Serving a small number of peo- ple over long distances makes a big dif- ference to a postal and its economics. Canada, with only 25 million peo- ple, is 41 times larger than the United Kingdom (244,000 sq. km). The entire U.K. population of 55 million is con- centrated in an area less than half the size of Alberta (661,000 sq. km). The U.S. on the other hand has 10 times the population of Canada, and maintains, for example, half as many postal facilities per capita as Canada. and playing games -- as a matter of fact I get a little nervous about statistics, period. agree with Benjamin Disraeli, who once grumbled, '"There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damned lies... and statistics." It's true. An artful dodger -- be he politican or pollster -- can use statistics to prove anything he wants them to. That's why I think it's import- ant that we non-statisticians be very careful about just how much clout we give these guys. I heard of one fellow -- a non-swimmer -- who loved to splash around in one particular river because he'd read in a survey that it was one of the shallowest rivers. in Canada, with an average depth of only 12 inches. Didn't help the poor soul much though. He stepped in a pothole and drowned.