“y

j

_ You ain't seen

th

“workfare” — making wel-
fare recipients do useful
work in order to earn their
government handouts?

_. This election promise of
Ontario's new Tory Premier Mike
Harris is, in theory, as pure as
motherhood. But in practice it's a
very different thing — especially
for a government vowing to slash
LAXES, me

“In neighboring Quebec, which
has had workfare for six years. the
plan has become an administrative
nightmare.-Not only has it failed to
save taxpayers accent. it has also
failed to help any significant num-
ber of welfare types to find steady
work,

Teasons are obvious.
Providing training and jobs that
the private sector can't provide

"= costs money, bundles of it.

!
roa

In Quebec it has proved as
expensive as paying welfare recipi-
ents to be idle, if not more so. And
idle again up to 97% of them

become as soon as workfare pro-
jects end. #

.. Private-sector jobs are created
‘solely to help boost profit for the
employer. Typical workfare jobs —
at daycare centres, in senior citi-
zens homes, or roadside tree-plant-
ing — ‘cost tax dollars for training.
set-up and wages, but bring no
financial return at all:

_ With workfare beset by these

~ problems today, just'consider what
he year 2025 may bring.

That's the date by which Jeremy

_Ritkin — a Washington D.C. eco-

“nomic guru and author of a recent

chilling beok. The End Of Work —

_ predicts that gafloping technology
will enable the world’s total needs
to be supplied by just 20% of its
workforce. : ;

Today’s almost one in five
young people aged 18 to 24 who
can’t find even minimum-wage ,_.
work pumping gas or slinging ham-

o*:, burgers are already sampling.

Rifkin’s brave new world.
When it arrives —— with ‘almost

» every once-human workplace func-_

. ion computerized, robotized or
automated — the situation will be
dramatically reversed. : .

“’, Four out of every five able-bod- .

» ted, able-brained adults on the

planet will then be entirely depen-

Peter Speck .

ing yet

/ WHAT'S WRONG with

/

Given a moment's thought, the

Doug Foot“

us

hither
and yon

dent upon the fifth to provide them

with a livelihood and a reason to
live.

In short, “workfare” will he
needed on a scale as yet
undreamed of,

Moreover, poverty-level hand-
outs to the jobless four won't be
enough:

Pad ERIE EEE CBE EE IES

i

,
i
'
PERCE RAY

IN KEEPING WITH THE ABBOTSFORD SCHOOL BoARD DECISION
TO INCLUDE CREATIONISM IN THE SCIENCE CURRICULUM:

Unless their incomes mateh that.

of the single job-holder. low will
they buy all the goods he and his
high-tech wonder machines are-
churning out? And if they can't.

- what happens to HIM?

The answer, of course, is cither
that lack of sules will bankrupt
him: or that he'll have to be bled
white in taxes 10 bankroll bis pen:
niless customers and supply then
with money-losing workfare jobs,

Andy Rooney, tongue-in-cheek
sage of TV's 60 Minutes, argues
that — humans being what they are
— the best guarantee of full”
employment and a healthy econo-

“my lies in incompetence and inetfft-

ciency. :
Rifkin’s industrial society of

2025 virtually ends incompetence

and inefficiency. :
But the “workfare” bills

promise to be far higher than even

the cost of running Andy's blunder-

ing human world!

‘GREEN THUMBS ALERT!
. Closing date for the 1995 North

Shore Gardens Contest is this
weekend. Details and entry forms
from your local municipal hall up

“to 4:30 p.m. Friday, July 14, and

drop off there,, when completed, no
later than Sunday, July.16. ;
WRIGHT OR WRONG: To pick
the winners in life’s game, watch

‘those not complaining about the

umpires. ce

_. Chris Zohnson

ast

ONTARIG'S recent decision.

» ESPITE

to remove photo-radar-equipped vans

"from the province's highways, Victoria

has shifted into the fast lane to install the ulti:
mate user-pay system in B.C. ;

: wered debates about Big Brother

aside, Victoria’s decision to institute a photo-

radar program in B.C. makes sense from an *

_accouniant’s point of view. \

Mike Harris, .Ontario’s newly elected pre-
mier, ‘kicked the. photo-radar issue around
like the proverbial political football during

his: election. campaign, and last week made.

good on his pre-election promise to ditch the
program. Harris tapped voter discontent sur-
rounding the issue by portraying the program

- as-a left-leaning money-grab. And money it
grabbed: during its six months of operation
in Ontario, the program averaged $1 million
a month in speeding ‘fines.

Linda Stewart
© Sales & Marketing Director

Timothy Renshaw

“' Peter Kvarmstrom
Display Manager

cas

Another ‘criticism of the Ontario project

was the high ‘cost of the camera-toting vans

and the high-tech camera equipment...
But in times of fiscal restraint — ‘and-an
overtaxed populace — creative ways to'save .
‘the province money in the long run are need-*
ed. The photo-radar program does just that.
“In 1993 in-B.C., accidents involving exces-
sive speeding cost ICBC -— a taxpayer-sup-
ported entity —- about $400 million in claims. -
Victoria estimates that the first year of the

‘photo radar program will knock $125 million

off that figure. And that doesn’t include ‘the .
fiscal impact to the social system from work-
er rehabilitation and ‘accident. victims’. med; -
ical costs. AEN SRE
~ Such savings should cut automobile insur-
ance rates. If that doesn’t happen following a’

year of photo radar, then B.C. residents have .,”

got something to complain about.

- Valerie Stephenson. Trixi Agrios
" "> Promotions Manag

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