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2 - Orono Weekly Times Subscriptions $38.09 + $1.91 GST = $40.00 per year. No Refunds. Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs." Wednesday, June 2, 2010 ORONO WEEKLY TIMES - 5310 Main St., P.O. Box 209, Orono, ON L0B 1M0 E-mail: oronotimes@rogers.com or Phone/Fax: 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart Production and Display Advertising - Roxanne Johnston Classified Advertising - Sue Weigand The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such items. Oda avoids scrutiny Last week we asked our federal member of parliament, Bev Oda, if she would be willing to divulge her parliamentary expenses to her constituents. MPs' parliamentary expense accounts garnered a fair bit of public backlash lately when we learned that the Commons' Board of Internal Review declined a request by Auditor General Sheila Fraser to conduct a performance audit on the millions MPs spend each year for their parliamentary expense accounts. A recent survey conducted by Leger Marketing revealed that 88-percent of Canadians think detailed reports of expense accounts should be opened for the public to see. Of Canadians 35-years of age or older, 93-percents said they wanted the books opened to the Auditor General. We have no reason to believe the numbers in our riding would be any different than the national averages, so we asked Oda, last week Tuesday morning in an email, where she stands on revealing her expense account records. On Thursday, Oda's Constituent Assistant, Meg Goard, sent a reply which stated, "The House of Commons budget is independently audited every year. We [meaning, we assume, the governing party] will be talking with the opposition parties to resolve this issue in a way that will provide Canadians with more transparency. We want Parliament to work to limit the growth of its expenses which is what we are doing as a government." We were told that if we want further information we can contact the Speaker of the House, who is the Chair of the Board of Internal Economy. I thanked the Constituent Assistant for the response from the Minister, and asked, again, if Bev is willing to disclose the details of her expenses to her constituents. On Friday afternoon, Goard informed us by email that "the Minister has responded and has no further comment." There you have it. The minister will not answer the question, nor will she reveal her expense accounts to her constituents, the very people who elected her to office and who pay for her to be there. If the government is looking to provide more transparency, one sure way is to have all MPs reveal their expense accounts. Or, let Fraser get on with her audit. Also, there is nothing like an audit to help Parliament limit the growth of its expenses. In the fiscal year that ended March 2001, expenses for Canada's 301 MPs totalled $90-million. Seven years later, in the fiscal year ending March 2008, Canada's 308 MPs had expenses that totalled $127-million. Apparently what the government is doing now to limit the growth of expenses is not working. True, as Oda states in her response to us, the expense accounts are audited annually by an independent auditor. KPMG, a private sector accounting firm, provides an audit that focuses on the accuracy of record keeping and accounting for the Board of Internal Economy every year. Fraser's proposed performance audit however, would cast a wider net, examining administrative systems, information technology, security, financial controls, management practices and human resources, among other things. According to comments made to an Ottawa media outlet by Fraser's predecessor, Kenneth Dye, a private sector firm will do the audit within a time frame that allows them to maintain a profit margin. If the auditor general comes across an irregularity, her department will take a fair amount of time to figure out what the underlying cause of it is and make recommendations to fix the problem. Because Fraser is not billing Parliament, she can take the time to get to the bottom of issues, where the private sector auditor would be more inclined to indicate they found a problem, but would not get to the root of that problem. According to Dye, if it is public money the MPs are spending, it should be audited by the Auditor General. If the procedures and regulations currently in place are sufficient and are as good as they should be, parliamentarians have nothing to fear from a performance audit by the Auditor General. Letters to the Editor Oda grateful over office incident To the Editor: As I was in the House of Commons in Ottawa, I was deeply concerned and disturbed when on Tuesday May 25th, I was notified of a serious disturbance occurring in my community office in Bowmanville [in which a man from Nova Scotia smashed an office window, and uttered threats to staff]. I am grateful to the local police officers who dealt with the matter expeditiously and that no one was harmed. It is unfortunate that such an incidence happened in our community. My office will continue to serve my constituents with all federal matters. Bev Oda, M.P. Durham Green Party wants dialogue To the Editor: It is regrettable that siting wind turbines has become such a controversial subject ("Wind farm opponents vocal at Manvers meeting," Orono Weekly Times, Wed May 26). In order to maintain a reliable electrical system, Ontario will need an ambitious energy efficiency program, demand management, a smart grid and a diverse and distributed mix of renewables, including wind generation. Yet, how to address the concerns of the community? One of the most important guiding values of the Green Party of Ontario in moving toward a greener and a more sustainable future is to promote community-based economies. The transition to green energy has the potential to create opportunities for all Ontarians to become energy entrepreneurs and for the economic benefits to flow to local participating communities across the province. As such, the Green Party believes that green energy projects should not proceed without a minimum local ownership target and without on-going financial benefits flowing to the local municipality hosting such projects. Communities must be involved in determining their future, and there must be a democratic process for local input into the development of new energy projects. The Orono Weekly Times article highlights the lack of a frank, open and cordial dialogue between the proponents and the community. It is difficult for residents to have faith in the process if the legislation favours a heavy handed "topdown" approach to approvals. An on-going conversation would build a mutual sense of trust and respect. TURBINE see page 3