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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1982, WHITBY FREE PRESS whitby Publis Voice of the County Town Michael lan Burgess, Publisher - Managing Editor 'The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. I 1 P shed every Wednesday by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone 668-6111 rhe Free Press Building, 31 Brock Street North, P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. MICHAEL J. KNELL Community Editor MARJORIE A.;BURGESS Advertising Manager Maliing Permit No. 486 Second class Mail -Registration No. 5351 If the government can spend $11 million for a jet, why can't we get $350,000 for Ruddy expansion? It was with great sadness that this publication reported last week that the Government of Ontario wilI not provide $350,000 to re-open the second floor of the Dr. J.O. Ruddy General Hospital. This money would have been used to renovate the floor in order to establish a 32-bed chronic care unit. This unit would have provided a much needed facility for long term medical care in our region. It would have relieved some of the pressure at the already over-crowded Ajax-Pickering General Hospital and allowed that facility to concentrate its efforts on active, short term medical care. This project has had star billing from the Durham Region District Health Council. In their hospital role study that was released last year, the health council pointed out that one of this region's greatest needs was for chronic care facilities. Such facilities are needed to care for many dif- ferent kinds of people, but most notably for our Since 1903, when Ontario Hydro was founded by Sir Adam Beck, it has broken new ground for public utilities throughout the civilized world. It continues to provide On- tario residents with some of the cheapest electricity in North America. Power costs 37 dollars per thousand kilo- watt hours in Ontario, compared with 122 dollars in New York, or 88 dollars in Charlottetown. Yet as far as the On- tario media is concerned, Hydro, as it's known, can do nothing right. Ralph Nader, the American consumer advo- cate, blew into the province recently, and immediately went on a rampage. He said that Hydro's proposal for ex- porting power from coal-fired generators to the United States would undermine Canadian credibility in the acid- rain campaign. He chose to ignore Hydro's solemn pro- mise that with, or without, the U.S. sales, it would reduce the 1980 level of emmissions by half by 1990. I can't think of another utility or corporate polluter, on either side of the border, who has made such a promise. And i have no rea- son to suppose that Hydro won't honor it. While Nader was waltzing around, unchallenged, an American techni- cal magazine, "Nucleonics Week", rated the performance of 130 of the world's major nuclear reactors, and gave On- tario Hydro's plants top billing for reliability and safety. If Hydro was expecting pats on the back, it overlooked the Canadian penchant for savaging the home-grown product. The most banal reaction came from the Toronto-based en- vironmental group, Pollution Probe. A probe spokesman suggested that Hydro's clean record was not re-assuring but alarming. "The most accident prone plants", he told Global News, "in general are the ones that were perfectly reliable. Three Mile Island was a leader in the States for reliability." I won't attempt to analyze the twisted reason- ing that led to that conclusion. Suffice it to say that as a piece of logic, it's preposterous. The pressure groups have mounted horror carrpaigns against both coal-fired gener- ators and the nuclear variety. For obvious reasons, they don't support oil either. So the effect of what they're ask- ing is that Ontario Hydro produce less power or create new rivers. There aren't any other choices. It's not Ontario Hydro's credibility that should have suffered hererecent- ly. lt's everyone else's. That's not news, but that too is reality. senior citizens. Often, they need more care than a traditional nursing home can provide, so ob- viously, they cannot go home. The issue of long term medical care has been before the people of this part of the province for some time now and it is imperative that some kind of action be taken before the problem reaches crisis proportions. This issue is just one of many in this region. For example, Durham Regional Council will spend almost $2.65 million to renovate Whitby's Fairview Lodge*Home for the Aged. This renovation will not add any more beds to the home, but will sim- ply bring it up to more acceptable and modern standards. In fact, the region's commissioner of social ser- vices, Doug Johns, has said that it will be ab- solutely imperative to construct another home for the aged somewhere in the region within the next f ive to ten years. The cost of providing such medical care and facilities is enormous and the taxpayers are already feeling the pinch. Perhaps what disturbs us most about the pro- vincial government's announcement is that it shows a lack of fiscal priorities. This provincial government recently spent some $11 million or so to purchase an executive jet for Premier William Davis and members of his cabinet. It is interesting to note that this aircraft cannot be used at the vast majority of airports in this province. This strikes us as a tremendous waste of the taxpayers'money. Would not the taxpyaers of this great province have been better off if that money had been used -for the expansion of hospital facilities such as what was proposed for the J.O. Ruddy? Just think of how many such facilities could have been pur- chased for $11 million. The people of the Town of Whitby built the Dr. J.O. Ruddy General Hospital. This community opened its heart and its collective wallet to build that hospital and ail we are seeking from the pro- vincial government is $350,000 to help re-open the f loor that it closed in order to save money. This government has now said that it cannot provide the relatively small amount that this community needs to expand our hospital for another eight years. It just doesn't seem right. If the gpvernment does not change its position, it is possible that the people of the Town of Whit- by will have to go it alone and provide this much needed facility. In fact, Regional Councillor Tom Edwards is afraid that Durham Regional Council will have to reverse its present policy and fund such projects from the property tax bill. Our taxpayers are unable to afford it. While it is unlikely that regional council will change its policy it is something that will probably get some serious attention. This publication does not believe that the pro- vincial government is totally wrong in this situation - after ail the biggest chunk of the budget is for health care. However, it seems that when their refusal to spend the $350,000 is measured against other somewhat questionable expenditures one has to wonder what their priorities are. The provincial government has done some good things in this region, most notably the locating of the new Ministry of Revenue building in Oshawa and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario warehouse here in Whitby. But even this does not justify their refusal. It is this publication's sincere hope that the gover- nment will change its mind and straighten out what surely must have been an oversight in its spending priorities. i~i