The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

l>AGIS 4, W[EDNI:SI)AY. MIAI Y 6,I )8I . Wl Il 1'By FRIT PH .wh itby C Voice of the County Town Michael !an Burgess, Publisher Managing Editor The only whitby n ewspaper independentiy owned and operated h Whithy residents for Whith residents. l>ublishtîci ' er.% 'ned. b NJII.Iuliîg -à.111<1 Ihotograph% I lit. l>hon. fs-HI The F ree Press Building. 1*11 Brock Street North, P>.O. Box : 21>6, Vhitby. Ont. Michael J. Knoll Community Editor Marjorle A. Burgess Production Manager Karen Thompson Advertising Manager Maiing Permit No 480 Member of the Whitby Chamber af Commerce Substandard, unsafe housing is not a problem that can be solved easily Marie Brooks, the director of Whitby Com- munity Care, and other have brought to light a serious social problem in the last two or three weeks. Brooks has charged, and we have no reason to doubt the honesty of her claim, that there are many people living in unsafe and substandard housing in the Town of Whitby. These people, according to Brooks, are usually those on some form of fixed income, senior citizens, the handicapped and people on out- patient programs from various medical in- stitutions. The gravity of this situation cannot be over- stressed, however, it is not unique to Whitby and according to Durham Region's commissioner of social services, Doug Johns, it is a probleriu throughout the urban parts of the region. In fact, where ever there is an urban area, this problem can be found. Last week, Brooks accused Whitby Town Coun- cil of knowing about this situation and doing nothing about it. Ottawa Report By SCOTT FENNELL. MP (PC - ONTARIO) Ontario should work with Alberta The Province of Ontario has to make a choice. It can generate new economic wealth with Alberta or it can use Ot- tawa to gang up on Alberta so that we all can econornically stagnate together. If Ontario endorsed Alberta's energy plans, our province would grow with Alberta's oil development. Our industrial base would blossom. Production of fuel efficient cars would employ thousands as the economy moved to dispose of gas guzzlers. The steel industry would practically explode with activity with the increased demand for millions of tons of steel pipelines, oil rigs, etc. And further along in the future, as world oil supplies become more depleted, Ontario will benefit more from its nuclear energy program, an area we're already years ahead in relative to the rest of the world. The arguments against the Alberta government from Ot- tawa are politically motivated. All the good economic arguments are on Alberta's side. The federal government makes the claim that higher energy prices will fuel inflation. The government is willing to delay billion dollar energy projects and put up with energy production cutbacks simply so that Alberta won't accumulate more wealth. The gover- nment's wrong. The only way to counter inflation is to chan- nel private money into the productive side of our economy. This doesn't happen with government takeovers, with tax- payer money, of oil companies - no matter how politically popular such moves are. The Petrofina acquisition by PetroCanada hasn't given Canadians an extra barrel of oil; it hasn't increased research and development in Canada. All it has done is change the private sector versus the public sector composition of our economy, made a few Belgiums very rich, and diverted taxdollars which could have gone to worthwhile social welfare progra ms. The longer the public of Ontario relies on the federal government's National Energy Program, the longer we put off the day of energy self-sufficiency and increased economic grpwth. According to Brooks the town's position seems to be one of if the bylaws were strictly (or to the letter) enforced many of these homes would be condemned and torn down, thereby displacing the residents. If, on the other hand, the homes were brought up to standards, Brooks said that the town believes that rents would be increased to the point where these people could not afford them and they would be displaced again. This is unfortunately true and this publication believes that this is the tragedy of the situation. This is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. It is also a highly emotional issue, one that is guaranteed to produce hot debate at the various levels of government. It is, therefore, difficult to come up with prac- tical and reasonable solutions to the problem. This publication finds itself concurring with both Brooks and Johns who have said that the best solution in this case is to encourage the development of low rental accommodation for people in this situation. However, it is unlikely that privale enterprise will undertake the construction of low rental ac- commodatiôn because of the small return on in- vestment. Since private enterprise will not do it, many people and organizations will be pressuring either Whitby Town Council or Durham Regional Council to undertake the fulfillment of this need. That within itself creates more problems. If local goveinment undertakes the develop- *ment of low rental housing it will have to be paid for with taxpayers' money and the taxpayers are already overburdened. Another solution has been to undertake the construction of a new home for the aged in the region to accommodate some of these people. According to Regional Councillor John DeHart (Oshawa), chairman of the social services com- mittee, the construction of a new home would be about $6 million. However, a new home for the aged could not accommodate all of the people presently living in unsafe or substandard housing. Johns summed up the feelings of many when he said that "people shouldn't live like dogs." What is needed is an effort by the community and its elected authorities in a combination of all of these things. Whitby Town Council has taken a step in the right direction when it authorized its planning department, after receiving an appropriate grant from the Ontario Ministry of Housing, to prepare a municipal housing statement. This statement will identify the scope and nature of the problem that these people suffer. When it is complete, council will then be able to take advantage of many programs offered by the provincial and federal governments to provide for low rental housing, Those housing facilities should be scrutinized and the bylaws applied keeping in mind that these people could be displaced if the homes are con- demned. . Secondly, both local governments should begin to encourage the construction of local rental ac- commodation. It would be well to keep in mind that this problem will never be totally solved, however, if organizations such as Community Care, local government, and the residents of the community- at-large all make a conscious effort to relieve the problem many of these people can and will be helped. It is an increasing and terrible social problem that we must all work towards resolving. 0$