DECEMBER 16, 2020
News Advertiser PAGE 7
www.NewsAdvertiser.com
North Pole gets help from Christmas Bureau From left to right in the photo are Santa, Donna Melenka, Debbie Uskiw, Mike Hewitt, and Alysha Melenka besides the collection of toys and non-perishables the Fill a Cruiser project collected. (Rosanne Fortier/Photo)
Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent Vegreville Christmas Bureau Depot was the temporary home where Vegreville Christmas Bureau, Town of Vegreville, Municipal Enforcement Services Department, Vegreville RCMP, and Alberta Fish and Wildlife helped Santa and his elves with storing some of the toys and non-perishable they collected from the Fill a Cruiser project.
cruiser wrap up - CONTINUED from front PAGE tions or to the Christmas light-up parade in November. The children’s smiles and laughter when they saw Santa and his elves were joyous. So many wanted to come to give us hugs and we tried to maintain social distancing but with children, sometimes they move so fast, my elves couldn’t catch them in time. Numerous times parents would bring their children, who took money from their piggy banks to donate to our cause. Wow!!! What else can I say. The first night we set up it was -18 with a wind. The elves’ masks were freezing up, they were wearing hot packs in the boots and mitts and wearing two winter coats to stay warm. They never grumbled, lost their smiles, laughter, and dance moves. They felt it was their duty to pick on poor Santa. Almost every night we filled our trucks with
donations of toys, food items, and clothes. To date, we were able to raise close to $4,000 in financial donations. I just can’t say enough about the generosity of the residents of Vegreville and from the surrounding area. I want to acknowledge and express my gratitude to everyone who helped to make this project the success it was. On behalf of the Vegreville Christmas Bureau, the volunteers, Santa’s Naughty Elves, and the enforcement agencies, we would like to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Everybody stay safe.” Ken Podoborozny added, “This whole gig has been a wonderful experience. We had a great team involved with it.”
Free Trade
Free trade, created in the last century, evolved to be a powerful commercial tool. Along multiple alliances like the G7 and G6, we saw the creation of the WTO and NAFTA to regulate, oversee, and promote international trades. International trading looks great in theory: organizations locate their operations where there is a competitive advantage, and every country ends up better off. Unfortunately, a great deal of tuning up needs to happen before we begin to see fiscal justice and work stability for local workers. I appreciated the documentary “Fast and dangerous: a race towards the abyss” shown on French CBC (Ici RDI). It discussed how the greatest challenge of our time is for countries to work together to tax international companies in each country they do business. Currently, we are far from being able to do so because countries compete with each other to attract these multinational companies. As an incentive, countries offer years of tax exemptions to these companies. The problem is that when the tax-free period is over, they often move to another country to benefit from other exemptions. International companies have become experts in creating bidding wars to obtain the best tax breaks. The documentary shows how this game leaves countries with revenue deficits. Without collecting these dues, countries face difficulties dealing with the most urgent challenges of our time: the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. It is urgent our politicians stop their harmful competition to attract multinational companies and begin taxing them appropriately. We created world trade, now it is time to adjust it for justice and the survival of our society. Gaetane P.- Lucsanszky
Thank you for your letter Gaetane. Another documentary you will find interesting is by University of British Columbia law professor Joel Bakan, entitled The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel. From a recent Financial Post report: “While millions of Canadians lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s top 20 billionaires have amassed an average of nearly $2 billion each in wealth during six of the most economically catastrophic months in Canadian history,” said the CCPA. (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives). Our push for globalization has definitely helped those in the top 5%. Unfortunately, there are too many politicians in that group, so change is unlikely without extreme pressure. - AB
This Weeks Numbers Saturday, December 12, 2020
Friday, December 11, 2020
12 25 27 34 45 46 11
2 4 7 24 35 40 50 19
EXTRA: 4870063
EXTRA: 3881582
Saturday, December 12, 2020
Friday, December 11, 2020
27 28 29 36 46 48 49
9 21 30 33 38 39 46 48
EXTRA: 4870063
EXTRA: 3881582
