Heart Campaign begins

According to all those roman- —

tic ballads, love gone wrong can
break your heart. An unhealthy
lifestyle can also break your
heart. | .
Fifty-nine percent of all adults

in British Columbia have at least

one of the major risks of heart
disease: 45 percent of B.C.
adults have high blood choles-
terol; 14 percent have high blood
pressure; one in four smoke; 27
percent are overweight and less ©
than half exercise regularly.

The Terrace unit of the Heart
and Stroke Foundation of B.C.
and Yukon met last Sunday at
the Inn of the West for their an-
pual reception preparatory [to
February’s Heart Month. cam-
paign (Feb. 15 to 28).

Betty Campbell, area coor-
dinator of northwest B.C., ex-
plained that volunteers are the
life blood of the Foundation,
that little could be accomplished
without them. Campbell gave
recognition to several long-time

- yolunteers, among them Edith

Martin, whose impressive record
includes more than 12 years ser-
vice under various presidents.
Campbell added that the
number of volunteer canvassers.
has increased this year to ap-
proximately 130 volunteers.

The province-wide goal of the
Foundation this year is $7.2
million. Campbell says the re-
sponse in Terrace to last year’s
Heart campaign was overwhelm.

- Heart attack is associated with
symptoms such as severe chest
pains, but as was explained in a
later interview with a gentleman

who suffered a mild heart attack’

last year, a mild attack, or warn-
ing, can be little more than a
feeling that something is not
quite right. He cautions every-
one to visit their doctors regular-
ly for a complete checkup.

- And here’s food for thought
in case you’re wondering just ex-
actly what your dollars accom-
plish: 35 years ago many people
died because doctors had no sure
way of treating hypertension
(high blood pressure). Since
then, researchers have developed

‘many drugs, including beta

—Beat the-
January Blahs!

HAGITWAVES

preparations

blockers and calcium channel
blockers, to treat this silent
killer.

meant you would have to spend
up to six months in bed. Today,
some patients can be out of bed
and. discharged from hospital
within one week of a heart at-
tack. Surgical techniques for
valvular heart. disease were
primitive or non-existent. To-
day, researchers have designed
numerous types of artificial
valves, and valvular heart
surgery is readily carried out.

And all this has been made’

possible because of the generosi-
ty of Heart and Stroke Founda-
tion supporters.

Having a heart attack in 1955 |

ANY PERM

——

ing — they had targeted $10,000
but actually raised $15,000. This
year’s campaign will have to
compete with both the Northern

The Pets of the Week are a brace of cats. The tabby, dubbed
Che Che, is spayed, one and a half years old, has all her shots
and is reputedly an outdoors kind of cat. Her black companion is
two and a half years old and very affectionate, despite a missing

of 0.00 off with coupon 2

4646 Lakelse Ave. 635-4555

Sy PES CHNOEDG NES nine SOD oa

eye. Both can be met at the Terrace Animal Shelter on Haugland.

B.C. Winter Games and Variety .
Club Telethon. —

With recent changes to pen-
sion legislation, RRSPs_ will
become an increasingly impor-
tant source of retirement income
for Canadians. This article looks
at why the federal government

- provides us with such a powerful
incentive to save for retirement.

Over the past few years,
changes in federal tax law have
virtually eliminated any oppor-
tunity for average Canadians to
shelter their earnings from taxa-
tion.

In 1987, for. example, the
. $1,000 Investment Income
Deduction was consigned to the
legislative scrap heap, along
with a number of other tradi-
tional tax deductions. Last year,
the Pension Income Deduction
was downgraded to a tax credit,
All of which tends to suggest
that Ottawa has a very keen ap-
_ petite for potential sources of
tax revenue. So why was it that,
in the summer of 1990, our
federal government passed a bill
that deliberately encourages
Canadians to reduce their taxes?

What I’m referring to, of
course, is the new pension
reform legislation — specifical-
ly, the. new. rules providing for

much higher contributions to
RRSPs (up to $11,500) starting
in the 1991 tax year. The conse-
quences of these rules, while cer-
tainly beneficial for RRSP in-
vestors, will be millions of

‘Your money,
f your choice

dollars in lost or deferred tax -

revenue for Revenue Canada.
Clearly, the federal govern-
ment believes it has an impor-
tant responsibility to encourage
more Canadians to put more of
their money aside for retire-
ment. The question is, why? —

Aging baby boomers

One answer can be found in
the unprecedented number of
Canadians who will be reaching
retirement age over the next few
decades. By 1996, almost a third
of the population will be over

the age of 50. And in only 20

years, seniors’ centres across the
country will be welcoming their
first members from the baby

‘boom generation.

The result will be a major shift
in the demographic profile of
our society, with fewer people in
the work force having to provide
social benefits for considerably
more retirees. And because
average life expectancy con-
tinues to rise, these benefits will
be.required for a greater number
of years.

While no one is predicting the
day when the government stops
mailing out its pension cheques,
the fact remains that Ottawa
may eventually have to cut back

on its traditional level of social
assistance to retirees. Given this
prospect, it’s not surprising that
Canadians are being encouraged

A regular feature of the Terrace Review on
consumer finance by

Gordon Oates, accounts manager,

Terrace branch,

Bank of Montreal

to assume a greater level of.

responsibility for their financial

security in the future. —
Significant tax incentives
Certainly, it appears that we

need the encouragement. Ac-

cording to a recent Gallup
survey of Canadians’ financial
preparedness for retirement, on-

ly 46 percent of people inter-.—

viewed were enrolled.in a retire-
ment savings plan ora company
pension plan, More than 30 per-
cent had no savings or invest-
ment program of any kind set up

to provide income for retire- |

ment. a,

Not surprisingly, the survey
concluded that many Canadians
are dangerously ill-prepared for
retirement; some, it said, will
simply be unable to retire.

The outlook is not entirely
bleak, however. As more and
more people get closer to retire-
ment, it seems reasonable to
assume that interest in RRSPs
will continue to grow.

And besides, who can resist an
opportunity to pay less taxes?

The Terrace —

Your guide to
the community.

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