‘
co Castlégar News October 1, 1986

©

Trail, new location.

ATTENTION

VETERANS
WIDOWS
& SENIORS

Community Information Forum

A community information forum, jointly spon
sored by the Department of Veterans Affairs and
Pacific Command of the Royal Canadian Legion
will be held at 1 p.m. on Sunday, October 5, at
the Trail Branch at 2141 Columbia Ave., in East

The aim of the forum is to provide information
on benefit lable to wai

ir and their

Intormation will be

benefits which may be

MS. BERNEDETTE SMITH
Notional Health & Weltore
Income Security Branch
Kelowna, B.C

MR. GERALD VAN DALE
MARS. DOREEN DEME!
-§ Dept. of Veterans Alfairs
310 . 246 Martin St
Penticton, B.C. V2A SK3

‘MAR. ELGIN

Bureau of Pensions Advocates
Dept. of Veteran Attoirs

1155 Robson St.

Vancouver, 8.

dependants and to all senior citizens generally

provided on veterans

legislation, including new legislation which
provides eligibility for pensions for widows who
have not previously been eligible

Information will also be provided on various
items of provincial and federal legislation of in
terest to seniors in general

Representatives from the following agen
cies plan to attend the forum to describe various

available. Everyone is

welcome to attend. There will be no charge

MRS. MARGARET BROWN
Provincial Ministry of Health
813 - 10th St

Castlegar, B.C. VIN 2H7

MS='VERNITA LYNDE

Provincial Ministry of Social
Service & Housing

990 Rossland Ave

Trail, B.C. VIR 3N6

SEE YOU
THERE!

Will new tax be better tax?

By ALAN BASS

OTTAWA (CP) — Tax reform is a huge political
gamble for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Finance
Minister Michael Wilson.

Overhauling Canada's twisted tangle of taxation
laws, and di to
could bring great political reward to Mulroney's Con
servative government or cause a severe and damaging
backlash.

As the minister responsible for tax reform, Wilson is
taking a particularly serious risk.

dared to tackle tax reform and both were horsewhipped
by outraged interest groups. For Edgar Benson in the

early ‘70s and Allan MacEachen 10 years later, tax
reform marked the beginning of the end of their careers
as elected politicians.

With a history like that, why would any government
— and especially one that's already in political trouble —
make tax reform a top priority?

Some say the government doesn't really have any
choice in the face of U.S. tax reforms. If Canada doesn't
keep pace, they say, investment and skilled people will
flee southward.

“The need to narrow the gap between our personal
tax rates and American tax rates is forcing major reform
on Canadians,” said John Bulloch, president of the
Canadian F ion of I di i and a
leader of the assaults on Benson and MacEachen.

“There's an inevitability here. It's not a question of
yes or no. It's a question of how far and how do we do it.
The mood is different.”

There are signs that tax reform could strike a
positive chord with Canadians this time around.

A poll conducted for the Finance Department last
year found that 77 per cent of Canadians believe the
existing tax system is unfair. A more recent poll
suggested that 66 per cent think Canada should adopt
U.S.-style income tax reforms. Almost everyone believes
the tax system is too complicated and must be simplified.

Wilson says his overhaul will follow the same lines as
American reforms, where income tax rates are being
reduced and the tax base broadened by cutting the
personal and corporate tax breaks that complicate the
system and permit some prosperous people and
businesses to whittle their tax bill down to zero.

REDUCE TAXES

In the United States, this is expected to boost the
total tax take from the corporate sector and reduce the
amount collected from ordinary taxpayers.

Wilson, aware of the popularity of U.S. reforms, says
he wants to see the same thing happen here.

“There has been for the last 20-odd years a shift
towards more personal tax and away from corporations,”
Wilson has said. “We think that is a shift that should be
stopped and, if possible, to be reversed.”

To most Canadian taxpayers, that sounds like lower
personal taxes and that’s very appealing.

But is it the whole story?

Many observers warn that it's not.

For one thing, nobody knows what tax breaks Wilson
will cancel. If he cancels some personal exemptions —
such as deductions for charitable donations and union
dues — an outcry of protest can be expected. Taxpayers
who lose exemptions could pay higher, not lower, taxes.

However, even people who don't lose exemptions
may find Wilson's reforms won't make them wealthier.

The wild card in Wilson's reform gamble — and one
that may require a pretty good poker face to play — is the

manufacturers’ sales

possible lacement of the federal
ohh a oow called the business

tax with a new “consumption tax’
transfer tax.

There is no federa!
this is a purely Canadian aspect

It's also one that taxpayers should watch carefully,
because it could cost them a lot of money -

While the federal sales tax is levied on a few specific
products, the new transfer tax would be imposed on all
goods and services, such as haircuts and banking and
child care. That means that even if the transfer tax is
imposed at a lower rate than the sales tax, it may produce
more revenue for the government

David Perry of the Canadian Tax Foundation says
the transfer tax is Wilson's “ace in the hole,” the linchpin
that will make it possible for the government to cut
income taxes without losing tax revenue

“With the business transfer tax lurking in the
background and the possibility of raising significant
amounts of money . . . he could use the transfer tax to
fund the perfect income tax system,” Perry said.

ATTACK PROPOSAL

Consumer advocates and opposition politicians say
that amounts to taxation sleight of hand

They fear that anything taxpayers gain from lower
income tax rates will be plucked from their pockets by a
new tax that consumers may not even realize they're
paying, because it will be factored into the price of goods
and services, and not rung up separately at the cash
register.

Sally Hall, president of the Consumers’ Association
of Canada, says the business transfer tax would be
“almost a licence to print money.”

Liberal MP Aideen Nicholson says it's obvious the
transfer tax is designed to enable the deficit ridden
government to “pick up the revenue somewhere where it
doesn’t show.”

| sales tax in the United States, so
to tax reform.

But hurry! You must
book between
September 25 and
October 9.

Pacific Western is taking

the wraps off Christmas. And
that means an early present
for you

If you're planning to travel
between December 1 and
January 10, book your seat
now and enjoy some festive
savings to many of our
favourite destinations

Unwrap your early Christmas
present today

We Are

The West.

Castlegar to:

Christmas Discount
Return Fare

Vancouver — $109.00

For reservations or information on
discount fares to other destinations call
your travel agent or Pacific Western at
365-8488

© Transportation tax not included * Fares
are limited and subject to availability and
government approval * Tickets arc
Completely non-refundable * Minimum
2-day stay * Tickets must be paid for
within 7 days of booking * Travel must
commence and be completed between
December | and January 10

OS

MEXICO'S OIL RICH

The boom

MEXICO CITY (AP) — In the days of Mexico's oi] boom,
Cicero's Bar and Restaurant was a fancy place in the capital
city where the wealthy came for fun.

Now that the boom has gone bust, the hordes of
foreigners selling oilfield equipment, the bankers. politicians
and American tourists who packed Cicero's two huge bars
have almost vanished.

The main dining room for 110 people is half-empty on
most evenings, its soothing New Orleans decor meant for
happier days. Anyone properly dressed can get a table right
away. And the menu no longer offers delicacies like New
Zealand lamb, salmon and trout from Oregon, and Alaska
king crab. No one can afford them these days.

Around #980, at the height of the ‘oil boom, customers
had to buy a bottle of Frenchrchampagnieto be able to use
the billiard room, decorated with “naughty” old Victorian
halftint photographs. Usually, it was Dom Perignon at 3,500
pesos ($134 US) a bottle and they paid without batting an
eye. Now, a rum-and-coke or a tequila will do

Regular customers still come.

“But instead of coming once or twice a week as they
used to, they now come let's say — once a month,” said
Miguel Bravo, the maitre d’. “Even the wealthy are counting
their pennies nowadays.”

GOT TOP DOLLAR

As one of a few major producers that could guarantee
deliveries to an oil-starved world, Mexico charged top dollar
for its crude, sometimes as high as $38.50 US a barrel when
OPEC's benchmark was $34.

The money rolled in so fast — an estimated $61 billion
from 1976 to 1982 — that then-president Jose Lopez Portillo
told Mexicans to “get used to administering wealth” instead
of the historic poverty

Mexicans have long known they had oil, but it wasn't
until 1977 that they began to find out they had much more
than they thought. By 1979, their reserves were set at 80
billion barrels.

Mexico became such a good credit risk that foreign
bankers elbowed each other for the privilege of lending for
long-term development. Lopez Portillo borrowed $64 billion,
raising the foreign debt to $84 billion.

He used part of the money to build airports, power
plants and other projects, which he promised would help
turn Mexico into a leading industrial country by the year
2000.

When Miguel de la Madrid succeeded Lopez Portillo in
December 1982. oil prices were dropping. The spending

LT

goes bust

spree was over and Mexicans were suffering a nasty national
hangover.

That turned into nightmare this March, when oil prices
dropped below $10 US a barrel, slashing export earnings by
a third, a loss of $9 billion this year

STOP TRAVEL

During the boom, Mexicans indulged their passion for
travel. The U.S. dollar was so cheap even the lower-middle-
class could afford to go abroad. They could buy a U.S. dollar
for 26 pesos; now it costs about 745 pesos.

Ofelia Leon, 34, and her family are at the lower end of
the wage scale and have been hard hit

Felix Robles, her 31-year-old husband, runs a fruit stall
in one of Mexico City’s open-air markets. She works as @
housemaid. Théy have six children, aged three to 16.

In 1980, at the height of the boom, Leon recalled, they
earned 11,900 pesos a month, or $458 US, between them.
“The money would stretch a long way. We even took a
vacation every year. Now we can't afford to go to the
movies.” The 155,000 pesos a month they earn now is worth
only a little more than $200 US.

“We used to have beef, chicken or pork three or four
times a week,” Leon said. low. I buy it only once a week.
And thank God we are all healthy, because I don’t know
where we would end up if we had sickness in the family.”

De la Madrid is negotiating up to $12 billion in new loans
to keep Mexico going while it tries to modernize manu
facturing plants and develop new export industries to make
up for the lost oil revenue.

Lopez Portillo's grandiose industrial projects have long
been shelved and economists estimate it will take Mexico
until the turn of the century to recover from a dream gone
bust.

Pay pennies for
poop scooping

CALGARY (CP) — Her snooper — that is, for $25 a

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Stress Management,

wherever they speak.

LOOKING FOR A
SPEAKER TO SPARK

month, she'll drop by to pick
up your dog’s droppings.
Lefebvre, who works for
Pacific Western Airlines,
started the business when
she got bored and broke
i the recent PWA

She visits each client's
home once a week. And while
there's a $5 surcharge for
each extra dog, there's no fee

YOUR MEETINGS?

Consider a doctor from the BC Medical
Association's SPEAKERS’ SERVICE!
With topics to offer like Alzheimer's.

structure according to the
dog’s size.

“If it is a large dog there is
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Heart Attack. Care of the Elderty and The of time.”
Business of being a Doctor. our doctor/ She'll also do
speakers generate audience interest

one-time
scoops for various reasons —
before parties, when you

With advance notice.a doctor/speaker
can be found to fit your schedule. The
Speakers Service is a public service of the
doctors of British Columbia.

For more information on topics and
bookings. please contact Leigh Carter.
Communications Manager.

BC Medical Association
115 - 1665 West Broadway
Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1X1
736-5551

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