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P ;ge , VMitby Free Préss, Wednesday1 Màrch1.199 The only Newspaper owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents! MEMBER OF: ONTARIO CANADIAN COMMUNITY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER CNA NEWSPAPER " ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION CANADIAN Pw" •%CIRCULATIONS CNA DIVISION AUDIT BOARD 25,500 POPIES DELIVERED WEEKLY Published every Wednesday by 677209 Ontario Inc. Box 206, 131 Brock St. N., Whitby, Ontario L1 N 5S1 Phone: 668-6111 Toronto Line: 427-1834 Fax: 668-0594 Doug Anderson - Publisher Maurice Pifher - Editor Alexandra Martin - Production Manager Printed on newsprint with minimum 20% #'W recycled content using vegetable based inks. To the editor... More cuts were possible To the Editor: After being shut ou! from the recent Town of Whitty budget deliberations, members of the Whitby Chapter of the Ontario Taxpayers' Coalition decided to conduct a quick review of the 1993 operating budget. As many citizens of the Town are aware, our group was instrumental in discovering that council planned to spend $5,000 on a trip to Belleville last year for budget planning purposes. While council decided to proceed anyway, the public outcry on this waste of money was certainly heard by councillors. Apparently, we didn't make our point. From our glance of this year's budget, it would appear that a funtime junket has been planned for 1993. They call it Twinning with the City of Longueuil, Que. We call it a complete waste of taxpayers' money. Approximately $14,000 has been allocated for this social event to be attended by a number of civic representatives. Obviously, somebody hasn't heard that taxpayers are fed up with this type of attitude. We want it stopped and council can start now with the cancellation -of this extravaganza. Another item that stunned the participants on the taxpayers' review committee was that $80,150 has abeen budgeted for conferences and seminars by a number of departments. In the private sector, this type of expenditure is one of the first to be drastically reduced or eliminated altogether in tough economic times. What is also shocking about this is that the Town does not have many employees. Believe it or not, more interesting figures came to light. Expenses have been planned for memberships, magazine subscrip- tions, books and publications in the amount of $44,385. A slush account, called miscellaneous expenses, calls for planned costs amounting to $44,200. Of this amount, $13,000 is planned for the office of the mayor and council. The most intriguing budget category was planned costs associated with travel. Under the administrator's office, an increase of $8,400 over last year's budget of zero is planned. This expense would appear to be for an equipment rental which, in layman terms, is the terminology used for leasing a car. The expense associated with the car leasing is now planned for zero, but the 1992 budget was $8,747. What do you think is going on? We found that a total of $75,835 has been allocated for the travel category. Undoubtedly, some of these expenses may be justified but our operating budget indicates that cost reductions can be made. Of the several budget categories that we examined over a one-hour period, we felt that at least $100,000 could have been eliminated from this year's budget. This gives us some answers to a few questions. Why does council not open up the budget process? Why does council not provide ample time to give taxpayers the budget information prior to the scheduled public meeting so that they can ask reasonable questions? You be the judge. Sheldon Shea President Whitby Chapter Ontario Taxpayers' Coalition Tourism cause of damage To the Editor: In response to Mr. G. Reed's letter regarding 'Youth to Everest,' (The Free Press, Feb. 17), I would like to clarify some facts that seem to have been misinterpreted. Nepal is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world and does not have an infrastructure that can even begin to address the dire environmental damage being caused by tourism. The damage is being caused by tourism, not the local people. 'Youth to Everest' works together with local community groups and is highly regarded in Nepal for running an effective waste management and solar energy program. If no steps are taken now, we may see the highest mountain in the world become a treeless garbage heap. Hats off to the Whitby residents and service clubs who work towards a world we can all be proud of. JilN Sharpe Executive director Youth to Everest ew--1 "Can / have one?" Bell's party line doesn't ring true By Michael Wycks Alexander Graham Bell, the first person to ever have phone trouble, was ambitious and innovative. But as an inventor, his good judgment and integrity weren't compromised by an insatiable thirst for profit. Regrettably, the same can't be said for a powerful beneficiary of A.G. Bell's invention, Bell Canada. This is the reaction after seeing Bell Canada's profits for recession-ravaged 1992 (almost $1 billion) and hearing Bell wants to hike local telephone rates for customers in Ontario and Quebec (where it has a monopoly on local service) by 60 per cent. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Com- mission (CRTC) will make the final decision but in the meantime Bell has tried to justify its thirst for revenue with a scheme that involves expanding the local calling areas around the three largest cities in Bell territory -- Metro Toronto, Ottawa-Hull and Montreal. If approved, the average cost of basic local service for residential customers would rise to $16.88 from $10.31. A spokesperson for Bell declared, "It is only by having a strong financial base that we are able to meet customers' demands, provide reliable, high-quality telecom- munications and maintain Canada's worldwide reputation for excellence." Frankly, this is telecommuni- cations twaddle. What's really going on here is Bell Canada is attempting to make up the money on local usage it will lose in the recently opened long-distance market. Bell expects by 1994 to have lost 14 per cent of its long- distance market to competitors so the answer is to soak the local subscriber: the new services offered lately by Bell are again a reaction from a scared monpoly as it loses its grip on the market. These services could have been offered years ago; Bell wouldn't move on them because it had no incentive to do so. Competition has given it incentive. What's more, the expanded local calling service is essentially a present to big business at the expense of small firms and individual users. Bell makes most of its money f rom big business users so that's where they target their marketing strategies. Finally, when the CRTC relaxed the long-distance competition rules, it stressed that local rates should not be increased substantially as a result. Well, after a $1 billion profit-rich year, a 60 per cent hike is pretty darn substantial. What's clear from all of this is that Bell Canada's greed knows no bounds. The man who invented the telephone would surely agree. To the editor... Zealous ticketing leaves bitter taste To the Editor: Copy of letter to Wayne Hancock, director of public works, Town of Whitby, re parking in downtown Whitby. Dear Mr. Hancock: I am writing to ask your consideration of a change in the way parking infraction bylaws are being enforced in downtown Whitby. On Feb. 18, I parked my car in one of several vacant spots on Dundas St. W., near Brock St., to attend a 12:15 p.m. dental appointment. The change that I had available brought the meter time to only 34 minutes, so I went up to the dental office to obtain more quarters. The staff urged me to come right in to start the procedure, rather than go back to my car. The time did, however, go slightly over their estimate. I returned promptly to my car to find that it had been ticketed about two minutes before. The ticket for the expired meter had been written at five minutes past the expiry of the time allotted. Effectively, the Town of Whitby is requiring a payment of $10 for five or six minutes of parking. The zealous ticketing of cars parked in the downtown area leaves a bitter taste and seems directly opposite to the promotion of downtown Whitby as a place to stop, shop and do business. i would respectfully ask you to consider a revised system of parking meter enforcement. Perhaps a warning ticket could first be issued, to be changed to a fine if the meter is found to be still empty a short time later. Any extra time and money to implement this change should pay off significantly in improved goodwill and more frequent usage of the downtown area. A modified system, such as one with an initial warning, could still penalize the people who have deliberately abused the privilege of on-street parking. At the same time, it would not take avantage of those who made a genuine mistake on the time (or just plain didn't have enough change). i appreciate the opportunity to bring these concerns to your attention. E. Happé (Mrs.) Whitby Objections 'hard to understand' To the Editor: This letter is in response to the caricature on page 6, Feb. 17 issue of The Free Press. The- objections from Whitby council regarding the 401-407 link are hard to understand when we look at developments around us. There are subdivisions built everywhere along main highways. Just take a look from Hwy 401, driving from Pickering to Oshawa. Go north on Thickson Rd. in Whitby -- there are houses on both sides of the highway. There is a multi-storey apartment building, erected on Thickson Rd., south of Taunton Rd., right beside the highway. People leaving this building can step right onto the pavament. Every time I drive by this building, the words 'poor planning' come to mind. Compare this with the minimum distance of 0.5 km f rom the proposed link to the next house -- and think about it. I am sure the Ministry of Transportation has considered the reasoning of the opposing groups. Nevertheless, they decided that this is the best location for the link, with the least negative impact, considering all matters. These people are professionals and have spent thousands of hours and a lot of our tax money to come up with this. Let us not waste more money by studying it to death. We should also not forget, regardless of where and what infrastructures are proposed, there will always be a group of people opposing it. Johann Torok Whitby