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rp6jffleiaagwmtesbayungyfi t98 st tot tribune tuesday june 16 1998 vol 110 no 47 the tribune is a member of the ontario press council send your letters to the editor to the address below the power of degeptipn as our longsuf fering mps do their best to put a positive spin on their proposed pay hikes they will undoubtedly fall view point doug deuine back on several tried and true methods of deceiving the public deception no 1 their pay has been frozen since 1 991 the truth the first portion of the yettobeapproved pay hike was secretly implemented last january- c deception no 2 the basic salary for an mp is just 64400 hardly an extravagant amount for the men and women entrusted with leading our proud nation the truth when taxfree allowances are factored in including a 6000 housing allowance our mps are paid the equivalent of a fullytaxed income of 1 19000 easi ly placing them among the top 10 per cent of incomes in the country 1- deception no 3 the new- pay package will only increase mp salaries by two per cent a year for the next four years for a total raise of about 10 per cent- well in keeping with the current average industrial wage hikes of 25 per cent a yean the truth because that twoper cent raise is also being applied to the 21300 taxfree allowance and the housing allowance is being doubled to 12000 the total taxable value of an mps salary will be140000 at the end of the four years an increase of 1765 per cent or about 44 per cent a year almost double the average industrial wage hike prime minister jean chretien is correct in pointing out the new salary simply brings mps in line with other top public servants such as police chiefs and hospital presi- dents- y but his 1400013 argument only makes sense if you accept the concept that the duties of a backbench mp are comparable to those of top executives since cabinet minis ters and party leaders are paid significantly more than an mp and since middle managers in our hospitals and police forces are paid considerably less than chiefs and presi dents deception no 4 the payhike has been recommended by an allparty committee and theres little the average mp can do about it if the majority of the house of commons approves it thetruth chretien himself has removed this crutch sug gesting any mp who doesnt want the pay hike can simply opt out so far only liberal mp guy st julien has taken chre- tiens bait telling government officials to apply his salary increase to the national debt instead others including ndp leader alexa mcdonough say they will give their raises to charity its now up to average canadians to convince the other 300 mps to follow st julien sleadi to the average canadian the arguments against a pay hike are vast and varied including the fact canadians- remain among the most heavily taxed people in the world our cpp payments are skyrocketing due to past govern ment mismanagement and our national debt remains an obscene blight on the future of our children and grandchil dren but perhaps the best argument against the pay hike is the simple fact pur mps were just elected last year by run ning for office they willingly accepted the conditions of the job including the current salary so even if a salary adjustment is warranted it should only take effect after the next election r bad rho ve can ce 1 1 i rig shop family studies letters dear editor i have been a firm supporter of the harris government policies i had the recent occasion to be at a local school where i was shocked to find that the woodworking shop and family studies programs were being cancelled i would say that cancelling these courses does not make common sense there are times when the bureaucracy is not famous for intelligent decisions and the socalled slash and savings are not conducive to the society in which we now live as we all know today many children come from single family homes and how else are a lot of these children going to learn ordinary everyday maintenance skills q c naturally we would all like the chil dren to be computer whizzes but down to earth skills are also important politicians please fake note in balanc ing the books arid saving money for we the taxpayers dont want to be saving at the price of basic instructions being denied to children v i hope the bureaucracy will take the time to think again patricia stauderman e lions say to participants of king roast dear editor on behalf of the lions club of stouf- fville i would like to thank those in the community for their participation and support in the roast of former regional chairman eldred king this was a night to honour one of our past mayors and longestrunning region al chair we bestowed a melvin jones fellow ship to king which is the highest lion award that one can present to a citizen special thanks also to piper cameron mackenzie classical guitarist michael jammer and the roasters mayor wayne emmerson jim thomas and lion tom winters as well thanks to tom brillinger and ahgies eatery the stouffyille lions do volunteer work for the betterment of the communi ty working with the blind and humani tarian needs to name a few it is through the help support and par ticipation of the community that we are able to succeed in our tasks david barthau lion president stouitvlixe tribijne a metroland community newspaper jftkbkaasa ian proudfoot publisher alvin broiiwer general manager brenda larson editorinchief brian kirlik regional editor tracy kibble editor debra weller director of advertising margaret fleming business manager vivian oneill office manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution pamela nichols operations manager news 905 6402100 retail sales 905 6402100 classifieds distribution 905 6402100 905 6405477 krmfoil thetribistarca 6244 main st stouffviue ont l4a1e2 tli stouflvibe iwliuix publlihld it in of lu mrow prbunftpt- uthlnt mdkubrvmuen tmup nm- i raxslty mwmytpm which inctwta ajrtinnwarfyw am ton junucearttr iurvu adnaii bury hjr ihu vad bollon entar- i prlw bruaptan qutrdiw burling ton kboppinf nin burttnrlou port city- i i ponnt colmdwoodwui bd oiuwum krt yrk mirror brio ajvoclvcoratry hnulrv ktobicok ruanllan huiwouh tkat cwj town iiusqwutoiimeion pr jvw kioiilw luwwkij ihl j lndprlaulau mirror mflion canadian ouutplon mjlon suppta now mu10 w itidniw xorll york mirror oamb bmr onlnium htttvflat sm otl- urn 1baayoeiuinoiuxurio mth this wodc bionaoba nflvftom 1 hflwuirvn uwj aowiwroaffa mtr- i iidlopnsf x 2 h klu letters policy the tribune welcomes your letters to the editor please keep letters to no more than 300 words note that letters may be edited for space libel spelling grammar while we endeavor to print as many letters as possible we regret that not all let ters may be printed ww nf i 3