Surrey Leader from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada • 6

A6 THE LEADER, SURREY, B.C. SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 1989 mm I COULD Wi BEEN THE WES FROM HORMONES INTHE MEAT -Oft CHEMICALS ift lN) IN THE Ftp ipeeoDTi by Tom Fletcher w-mmm I Truck troubles Surrey's proposal to ban the parking of large trucks on residential properties through a municipal bylaw should be modified. While there definitely is a need to have some regulations in place, we suggest that neighborhood consensus is the answer. Bylaw enforcement will be spotty at best, while consensus is far better than ongoing neighborhood disputes. There is no need to impose parking restrictions for trucks on properties that are one acre in size or larger.

Properties that size, and there are still many of them in Surrey, offer adequate room to store trucks without causing a disturbance in the neighborhood. There are many truckers living in Surrey who have bought larger properties for the express purpose of parking and servicing their vehicles on them. Council members should keep in mind the recommendations of the Ernst and Whinney report on economic development, commissioned by Surrey a few years ago. That report pointed out that transportation and related activities offer one of Surrey's best opportunities for economic growth. A bylaw like this can have a very negative effect on that industry, and on Surrey's future growth.

We suggest that Surrey council and administration try and work together with the truckers, to meet their needs and to ease pressures that some of them are putting on residential neighborhoods. One possible area of assistance could be the establishment of truck parking compounds on municipally-owned land at Port Kells and South Westminster. This would give truckers a safe place to park and would be a good use of property that is now sitting idle. Surrey council has a responsibility to all its citizens, and that includes those upset with the parking of trucks in their subdivisions and those who operate trucks for a living. A modification of the restrictive bylaw that has been proposed is in order.

Taxing times If you haven't filled out your tax return for 1988 yet, you're probably getting to the worrying stage as the deadline April 30 deadline approaches. There are changes this year to reflect the first phase of the Mulroney government's tax reform plan. But since the election, there has been little heard about the second phase, a new version of the federal sales tax. The finance department estimates that the new tax may be in effect by the beginning of 1991. What has been heard has been alarming.

During the election campaign, Ottawa Tory MP Don Blenkarn estimated that the government will collect an extra $12 billion through the tax, a figure that was quickly denied by the Prime Minister. But no one has provided an alternative figure, although Finance Minister Michael Wilson insists that personal tax cuts and sales tax increases will end up "revenue neutral." Now we have the spectre of a food tax being raised, by an unlikely source. This week the Consumers' Association of Canada proposed that the sales tax be extended to food and other exempted essentials. The association notes that higher income families save more through the tax exemption on food than lower income families, and suggests that the food tax could be charged to everyone and then returned to low-income families through a monthly sales tax credit. Surely the government doesn't have to tax food, along with the many other things that will be subject to this sales tax, in order to cut the deficit.

Instead, the government should institute the prime minister's promise to put a minimum tax on corporate profits, and stop planning mega-projects that it can't afford or justify. Racism rooted in ignorance How many Irishmen does it take to screw in a light bulb? Four. One to hold the bulb and three to drink until the room spins. What you have here is your garden-variety racist joke, presented as an Irish joke because I myself have Irish roots and this way I can use it with a clear conscience. Did you laugh? If so, don't feel bad.

There are many things that are labelled racism that are not really harmful. I mention this because there is a great deal of concern about racism these days. Last Tuesday, in case you missed it, was the International Day for the Elimination of Racism, an optimistically titled event that passed without much evidence that the problem of racism is in any danger of going away. In fact, according to a recent Gallup poll, racism in Canada is perceived to be on the increase. We're seeing the signs in B.C.

with the attention being paid to the immigration of Hong Kong residents. Their numbers and financial influence are being exaggerated by (white) Canadians who are worried joke. But if I start to believe that Irish people are all hopeless drunks and conduct myself accordingly, then I'm a racist. What causes racism? A few weeks ago, one or more local residents defaced the exterior of the Sikh temple in Surrey with spray-painted swastikas and a crude advisory for worshippers to go somewhere else. What caused that? That, like all racism, was caused by ignorance.

Confronted by a minority group who look and sound differently, many members of the majority would rather despise and distrust than understand. It's easier, so it appeals to the lazy. The important question is not what causes racism, but what can be done about it. I don't have the answer to this one, but my theory is that we should look at each other as individuals, and not take seriously the differences between groups. We should even laugh about them.

Which reminds me, have you heard the one about the Irishman, the Jew and the native Indian who died in a car accident and all went up to Heaven about rapidly increasing property values. The current influx of well-to-do Hong Kong immigrants is a part of the upward pressure on house prices, but the facts and figures of immigration show it's a small part. Most of B.C.'s population growth, which is the fastest of any province in Canada, is coming from elsewhere in our own country. But a visible minority like the Hong Kong Chinese is an easy target for those prone to racism. What does one do about racism? The federal government has embarked on a typically Canadian solution it has set up an organization called the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, with a $25 million budget to find the causes of racism.

This sounds like a massive waste of money, initiated by politicans for whom the appearance of action is more important than real action. I could tell the government for free what racism is, and what causes it. Racism is any distinction made between groups of people that hurts one of the groups. Thus, the above Irish joke doesn't constitute racism as long as it is taken as just that a Member of CCNA. BCYCNA.

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Surrey. B.C. V3T 4W8 588 4313.