The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6 economist sun stounvibe tribune thursday july 22 1999 stouffvifle tribune a metroland community newspaoer 37 sandiford dr suite 306 stouflville ont l4a 7x5 f jpublisher- ian proudfopt generalmanager- alvin brouwer editorinchief brenda larson regional editor brian kirlik advertising director debraweller classified manager stephen mathieu business manager margaret fleming office manager vivian oneil editor tracy kibble distribution director barry goodyear eprmrial federal tax cuts would help all canadimis in the earning months vaughankingaurora mp maurizio bevilacqua will be asking for our opinions on tax cuts arid tax reform in his capacity as finance chairperson bevilacqua will be conducting a series of town hall meetings across the country to help finance minister paul martin pre pare the next budget and ma letter circulated to all mps and several national prganizatioris bevilacqua has specifically asked for ideas en tax cuts and tax reform lets hope this means the federal government is finally getting serious about taxrelief liberal mps will argue that their government has been cutting taxes all along this years budget reduced the basic personal exemption and removed the 3percent surtax on income above 50000 arid according to bevilacqua the federal goyerri- rixent has delivered 165 billion in tax cuts over the three years before that but for most of us those tax cuts were so insignifi cant they were wiped out by increases in canada pension plan coritributions the federal goverriirient is projecting budget sur pluses of 10 billion a year although politicians often view a surplus as a pot of money to be spent however they see fit it really repre sents the airiount of taxes the government collected beyond what it needs if the federal government is expecting to collect 10 billion ayear more than it needs it is morally bound to reduce taxes chambers of commerce across the country are call ing for reductions of approximately 9 billion over two years less than half of the projected surplus prime minister jean chretien is noncommittal on the idea preferring to divide the money evenly between tax cuts debt reduction and new social spending bevilacquas letter also seeks input on new areas of social spending one suggestion from many liberals is that it be used to combat child poverty recent uses for surplus federal funds include a 25- billion millennium scholarship fund and restoration of provincial health transfers the problem is that although 10 billion seems like a lot of money once its divided into several pots and spread across the country it makes for an insignificant tax cut barely a drop in the bucket of the national debt and a few programs that might generate a few electionfriendly headlines but cant really address a problem as vast as child poverty on the other hand the chambers have costed out their still rather modest tax proposal to mean a 474 tax saving this year for an ontario farnily of four with a household income of 65000 next year the chambers proposal would cut that familys taxes by 1013 the chambers also propose to hold program spend ing increases to mirror population and inflation hikes all yearend unanticipated surpluses would be direct ed to debt reductionthis may or may not be the best fonriula to build canadas economy but it is a clear direction costed out and far better than the politically expedient econonric waffling favoured by chretien finance minister paul martin has indicated he con siders deducing taxes to increase productivity a high priority bevilacqua has indicated that taxes are on the table for his meetings this fall and traditionally he has held at least one of these meetings in york region perhaps if we participate in this process and make our views known loud and clear well finally prod the federal government in the same fiscal direction as the province and most municipal governments letting taxpayers keep more of their hardearned money residents who supported wagon wheel ranch blood donor clinic thanked an excellent neighbour i would like to thank the participants and donors to the recent blood donor clinic at the stouffville legion on july 9 it was an overwhelming response by concerned citizens of the stouffville area nadia james donor services repre sentative of canadian blood services was impressed by the number of donors at this clinic she had projected 120 units would be collected but it produced 210 registrations and processed 185 donors we believe the success of this event was the combination of information signs and posters and a front page story in the stouffville tribune of july 8 which pertained to the urgent need for blood we would like to mank graham fretz of the stouffville legion branch 459 for the use of the hall the cbs staff technit cians and nurses who worked constantly keeping the never ending flow of donors moving along the many stouffville lions who registered and served the donors with food and drink me first time donors who were willing to take the chance to give the gift of life and the reg ular donors who always respond at the need ivan harris stouffville uons club blood clinic volunteer organizer regarding the accident at the wagon wheelranch i have been a rieighbour of ranch owner james coultice for more than 20 years in that period of time i have not heard of one complaint on the contrary i have been informed of incidents where urutjly horses have been halted immedi ately cbultice is and has always been ail excellent neighbour as a parent with two children can deeply sympathize with the parents of the young girl who was killed it was indeed a most urifortunatearid tragic accident and i am sure that nothirig can possibly be worse than the pairi suffered by the loss of a child from the moment of birth a parent must decide what is safe and what is not safe and direct their children according ly that is their responsibility no sport is 100 per cent safe and rid ing is rio exception unlike an accident a lawsuit or a criminal charge is intentional but it too has the potential to kill just in different ways no court decision can bring back a life my sincerest sympathies to all who are involved dave mcmullen stouffville our letters policy letters should be no longer than 400 words and mustinclude the writers full name address and a daytime telephone number so authorship can be confirmed arionyriious letters will not be published v letters will be edited for parity and space limitations please send your letters to letters to the editor stouffville tribune 37 sandiford dr suite 306 stouffville ont l4a 7x5 dougdevine york region politicians face impotent future ow that regional chairperson bill fisch is finally getting mad about sending toronto 90 rriillion a year in social funding imagine how upset hellbe when york taxpayers are forced to help pay 5 for torontos homeless shelters the ttc and repairs to torontos aging roads and sewers as ridiculous as that may sound the wheels are already in motion to add all three of those expenses to yorks proper ty tax bills and thanks to the tory municipal restructuring fisch and the rest of yorks 75 politicians may be pow- erless to stop it fisch and many of yorks mayors got a glimpse of thek impotent future at last weeks meetirig of the greater toronto services board v first it was toronto councillors howard moscoe and david shiner bluntly criticizing yorks pathetic patch work of public transit which they say has made it difficult to discuss integra- riori with the ttc although the criticism of yorks r tran sit woes hit the mark it doesnt take a huge leap to realize what the tororito cbiuiciuorsreauy want is suburban tax- payers sharing the huge ttc costs after all dontthousands ofyork resi dents ride i the ttcs buses arid subways toworkeachday arid isnt this the same common- link argument the tories used to force regional taxpayers to share the citys socialcosts it gets worse the same arguriient can be applied to torontos aging arid faltering infra structure which a tororito board of trade report warns is threateriirig the economic future of the gta yorks infrastructure is new on that front fisch was quick on the deferise correctly pointing out that much ofyorks irutructure is relatively riewarid that weve been smart enough to set aside reserves to repair our infra structure wheri needed but whether fisch and the rest of the 905region representatives on me gtsb can prevent the torontodominated board from expanding its role arid its cost-sharing- is questionable arid other regional services already mentioned as possible gtsb takeovers include policing ambulances water sewers and garbage all of which could make the 500 the average york homeowner is how send- ingtoronto each year look likea drop in thebucket stoufmletribune serving the community since lwi the stouffville tribune published every tuesday thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd group of newspapers which includes the ajaxpickering news advertiser alliston heraldcourier barrie advance barrys bay this week bolton enterprise brampton guardian burlington shopping news burlington post city parent collingwoodwasaga connection east york mirror erin advocatecountry routes etobicoke guardian flamborough post georgetown independentacton free press kingston this week undssy this week markham economist sun mkllandpenetanguishene mirror milton canadian champion milton shopping news mississauga news newmarketaurora georgina erabanner northumberiand news north york mirror oakville beaver oakvihe shopping news oribia today oshawawltbyclarlngtonport perrythfe week peterbwoughthlsweeltlmondhilythorrtfilivvaughan liberal scarborough mirror todays seniors oxbridge tribune and city of vbrk guardian phone 905 6402100 csassified 18007433353 distribution 905 6402100 email thetribistarca sabmrntiyilrwt69jhdiyovau fax9056405477 ontario press council bsa canadian circulations audit board member