From: medusa@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada
Subject: Re: Ontario $11 billion debt
Date: 7 Sep 92 21:41:17 -0300
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

In article <18el51INNohv@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, bj368@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mike E. Romano) writes:
> 
> I have just read recently that Ontario is approx $11 billion in
> debt.  
> Since I am here in California where there is a huge debt, much
> greater....I am wondering how we are going to pull out of it,
> so how are things going in Ontario?
	With Bob Rae in power the debt will only grow.They believe
  they can spend their way out of the recession, despite the fact
that the de-industrialization of the province in part of a global
trend.Last year a bond rating service in NY lowered Ont.'s rating,
something I believe has recently happened to Cal.

 What is unemployment rate
	Highest in 9yrs.Over the last 2-3yrs @400,00 jobs have been
lost in Ont., mainly in manufacturing sector.Rae's response has been
nothing short of idiocy and only driven Bus. and industry into the
waiting arms of the economic planning officials in Buffalo, NY.Some
of his measures: raising min. wage to $6.00/hr.
    -introducing anti-scab laws, when people are going begging for
     jobs, begging.  
    -introducing legislation that demans bus. hire minorities according
     to their numbers in the local community.  Besides institutionalizing
     racism this move will only serve to fan racial hatreds in a province
     where peoples' willingness to tolerate the demands of immigrant
     minorities and their bigotry of anthing or anyone that even appears
     to be of European origin is wearing very, very thin.


> Is there any significant movement out of the province as there
> is here in CA?

	NO.  The real change is that people are not moving to Ont., 
despite its tradition of being a source of employment for people who
can not find employment in their own provinces.  People seem to be
going out West and to B.C..


> Is there a large number of homeless?

	I don't know for sure, but the five year I lived in downtown
Toronto there was a noticeable increase in the number of bag people
in the area I lived.

> I have heard also that Toronto still receives a great flow of
> immigrants into it from other countries, one of the highest for
> any city in North America...what effect is this...maybe we can
> learn from Ontario's solutions to apply them here in Calif.
> 
	No solutions are a growing problem.  In the past the immig.
population was for the most part skilled and educated and willing and
able to abapt to the cultural mileau of Can and abide by its civil and
criminal code.  Unfortunalty things have changed a lot in the last 10yrs.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of refugees and unskilled
immigrants coming into to Can., mostly to Toronto.  Many of these people
are truly a burden on the tax payer.  They pay no taxes, yet receive 
an obscence amount of goods, services and financial aid in their first
year here.  Their inability to speak English has put a tremendous burden
on the educational system as it tries to cope with teaching thousands of
people how to communicate in English.  Then there is the health care 
system that has to deal with the diseases and illnesses these people  bring
with them.  An even greater problem is the level of criminal activity 
amoung these people.  Asian drug gangs and enforcement gangs terrorize
Asian merchants and committ drive-by shootings.  The level of crime
among a minority within the black population has risen to alarming
levels.  Jamaican drugs gangs travel between NY, Toronto and Montreal. The 
illegal use of fire arms and drug pushing are now common problems within
some segments of the black community.  Last year 40-50% of the robberies
in Toronto and nearly 25% of the homicides were by and of black people.
They comprise only 10% of the population.  The response of the Rae gov't
shows how divorced they are from reality.  Recent laws further constrain
people officiers' ability to use force to dealing with the rising crime
wave in Toronto.    Toronto has many of Cal.'s problems, but only to a
lesser degree. Susan
-- 
>             Mike Romano     Univ. Calif. Berkeley
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada