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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1981 , WFITBY FREE- PRESS whi«tby Voice of the County Town Michael Ian Burgess,1 The onuy Whitb% n ewspaper îndependentlI, uwned and operated bY WhiIl r Iublîshed every Wedneisday Ilhone 669-61 Il The' Free P>res~s Building Pubiisher - Managing Editor 1:11 Brovk Strèt North, tbN residents for W'hlth% residents. PA)(. Box 206. Whitb'q, M nt. MICHAEL J. KNELL Communlty Editor MARJORIE A. BURGESS Advertlslflg Manager MaiIing Permit No, 40 Member of the Whitby Chamber of Commerce Ho w much shouild o uncilo rs be paid What is a municipal politician, be he a mayor or a local or regional councillor, worth in terms of saiary? For example, Is Mayor Bob Attersley worth the $35,000 or so that he Is paid for being head of this municipality and a reglonal councillor? What about regional councillors Tom Edwards or Gerry Emm - are they worth $21 ,000 a year? Then again are our local councîllors, Ross Batten, Joe Bugelli, Joe Drumm and Barry Evans, worth $7,000 a year? This le an Interesting pirobiem and Its solution le a complex one and diff Icult to arrive at. Last week, the members of Durham Regionai Council debated for almost an hour-and-a-half as to whether they shoul1d grant themseives a f ive per cent Increase. The arguments used on both sîdes have -some menit. However, some-of the regional politicians used this Issue as an excuse to "poilitick" and "play to the press." Some, most notably counciliors Edward Kolod- zle and Margaret Shaw both of Oshawa, In essen-- ce toid their colleagues that If they took any kind of salary Increase It was simply an attempt to rip- off the taxpayers. That Is an argument that ls difficuit to swai.low, because it Is our belilef that while we may disagree 1 find myseif spending a lot of air-lime chiding politi- cians for following the, herd rather- than leading il. But there's littie doubt that on the questioin of acid rain, they're away ahead of us. Our federal, and provincial envir- onment ministers have been sounciing the alarm, here and r in Washington for some lime. The Prime Minister himself brought it up again in his recent meeting with President Reagan. We've been bringing groups of influential con- gressmen and leading Ainerican journalists here to con- front them with hard scientific evidence. It isn'l difficuit to understand our politicians concern with the Americans. Publicly they say that American industry is. responsible -for îwo-îhirds of the acid ramn that falls on southern Ontario. Privately some experts have hegun t0 fear that American industry may beresponsible for 80 or 90 percent of it.,Not long ago, the provincial environment minister, Keith Nor- ton, told a group of visiting Arnerican journalists that President Reagan's plan to weaken air pollution controls as an inoentive to industry was, in his words, "bloody close to an act of hostiliîy». on the part of a friendly neighbor. He's absolutely right,and we can only hope that the kind of educative process now going on will finally make the Amn- enicans see the light. It isn'l just that lakes are dying, of course. No one really- knows what prolonged exposure to acid ramn will do to our soil, but few experts believe that in the long run it can be anything but destructive. And no one can say how much time we've got before its too late. Un- less the Americans gel the message pretîy quickly, how long can we afford to wait? Ultimaîely, however reluctant- ly, we may have to act without them, and against them. The obviaus kind of retaliatory actions -- economic sanct- ions for example--are unthinkable. The living standards to which we have become addicted are dependent on the United States. We may find that the only tîng left 10 us is the United Nations. Smile, if you like, but what the United States is doing to Canada with acid ramn is covered by the UN Charter. As Keith Norjon hinted last week, its called aggressiolM. That's flot news but that too 15 reality. with their stands ln many Issues most members of regionai council and local council are honest, hard working people who are trying to do some- thing for the community in which they live. However, like ail organizations, this does flot apply to ail. Some on the other side of the argument said that givlng councIllors a 'graduai Increase each, year will prevent council from being in a "catch- up" situation ln a few years when they Will be for- ced to grant themselves a huge stipend Increase. This happened earlier this year when members of the House of Comnmons voted themselves a 60 per' cent salaryi ncrease. Whiie this action was politically unacceptable and attacked by ail sectors of the Canadian public It must be remembered that this was the f irst time MP's had received an increase in salary for several years. Some reglonal councillors, and rightly so, wan- ted to avoid this kind of situation. Another argument put forward by those suppor- ting the increase was to keep the salaries attrac- tive 80, that good calibre people will run for office without worrying about what kind of effect the salary wiIi have on their lifestyle. Whiie this argument has some menit for those people who become fulI-time councillors, not all politicians' dedicate ail of their time to municipal business. Most of them do have a career'job or business from which they draw a saiary.- It would be a fair statemnent to say that most councillors are better off financiaily now that they hold public ôffice. However, these arguments have flot addressed that all Important question: How mUch are municipal politicians worth? C onsidening that not all of them are fuIl-time people perhaps they are not worth a fuli-time salary. Two suggestions were brought forward during last week's regional cou ncii meeting that deserve to be studied. Regional Councillor Laurie CahillI (Pickering) suggested that the polilticians be given the same percentage increase-given to the senior members of their staff., He pointed out that sînce topý management people were given a 12 per cent in- crease ln satary, that same increase should be given to counciliors since they perform essen- tlalty managerlal f unctions. Another suggestion by Whitby Régional Coun- cillor Tomý Edwards also has some menlt. He has suggested that an Independent committee 0f private citiznes representlng business, labor and the general public be given the task of deter- mining council lors' salaries. He said that this committee should be given al of the pertinent Information needed to arrive at an unblased and fair salary structure. However, this committee would make their recommendations to council which will then have to make a decision. Thi s means that the Inévitable bickering wiil againtake place. Both of these suggestions have agreat deal to offer, however, Cahill's suggestion would put an end to the debates such as the one witnessed last week. Edwards' suggestion would stilI allow for debate ln the political arena. Cahill's suggestion Would take the "account- ability" out of the Is§ue 0f salaries while Edwards' would make it more equitable to everyone. Either of these Ideas wouid make an adequate compromise on this testy and controversial Issue. But, once again, neither will adequately address what the municipal politi.cian is worth in terms of salary. To be perfectly honest, this publication doesn't know what they are worth. 'AIl we can say Is that It appears that'some are worth more than others. C3 c-,