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

PAGE A6THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, APRIL 23,2003 www.durhamrGgion.com Tim Whittaker Publisher Joanne Burghardt Editor-in-Chief Chris Bovie Managing Editor Judi Bobbitt Regional Editor Fred Eismont Director of Advertising Eddie Kolodziejcak Classified Advertising Manager Kirk Bailey Distribution Manager Lillian Hook Office Manager Barb Harrison Composing Manager Elje Canadian Statesman Clarington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 ■April 23,2003 Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. Phone 905-579-440C Classifieds 905-576-9335 Distribution 905-579-440/ General Fax 905-579-2235 Newsroom Fax 905-579-1805 E-Mail newsroom@durhamregion.com 865 Farewell St., Oshawa ON L1 H 7L5 Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 infodurhamregsosi.com EDITORIAL c-nmil Idlers to ncwsroani@durliimircj;ion.i , oni Lake ridge holds up well under SARS strain I f it's true that extraordinary extraordinary times require extraordinary extraordinary measures, it is vividly illustrated at Lak- eridge Health Corporation hospitals, as frontline staff cope with the potentially deadly arrival of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The infectious disease, believed believed to have originated in China late last year and which has since turned the Greater Toronto Area into one of the globe's 'hot zones', has required required a swift reaction at various various levels locally, including provincial and Durham Regional Regional health officials. But nowhere has the syndrome been felt more acutely than at local hospitals. "We still have cases, we're very pleased that the numbers are down but we cannot get complacent at this time," said Dr. James Young, Ontario's Commissioner of Public Security. Security. "We want vigilance on the part of the public and health care professionals." And that's been the response response among health care officials officials at Lakeridge Health Corporation who have operated operated professionally, compassionately compassionately and swiftly. Immediately Immediately the corporation, which has five hospitals in Durham, established a 24-hour. ; command command centre and a strict.policy strict.policy limiting visitors to its sites. Shortly after, a separate SARS clinic was established in Oshawa to help identify possible cases. SARS may well be with us for a long time, as current thinking tends to suggest. But our local hospitals have shown that by moving swiftly, by remaining informed and responding to daily changes, it can succeed in mitigating the effects of the infectious disease in the larger community. community. Staff is taking unparalleled precautions to ensure the safety safety of themselves and their patients. patients. Their jobs can be daunting at the best of times, but health-care workers have shouldered a yeoman's task in performing their work under the cloak of SARS. The community at large is becoming more informed and aware of the syndrome's impact impact and taking appropriate steps where necessary. The hospital administration is ensuring ensuring the challenge is being met professionally and efficiently. efficiently. While Lakeridge Health has been SARS-free for more than a week, staff know there's no room for complacency. It now faces the challenge of maintaining the need for elective surgeries and other services while maintaining maintaining a tough SARS policy. We can all take a measure of comfort in the local efforts by our hospitals and health agency, but we also must play a role in this reality. The public public must also remain vigilant in containing this disease. By working together, we can minimize the potentially terrible terrible effects of this virus. OPINION c-mail letters to ncwsrooni@durliamregion.com Check corkboards to get the scoop on community H ere's a little tip most real estate salesmen won't give you. If you're thinking about moving into that quaint little town but are still a little unsure about what the place is really like, take a boo at the bulletin board in the post office. Believe me, that four-by-six sheet of corkboard will tell you more about what's really really going on than any other source. Here is just a short list of some of the 'dos and don'ts' when shopping shopping for a town to live in: Do move into a town advertising Strawberry Church Socials. Who can ever get enough coleslaw and devilled eggs? Do not move into a town advertising free pit bull pups. Especially those raised in a 'Gud Hoam'. Do move into a town where the Lions Club is active. These men arc saints on earth. Do not move into a town where there is an annual Klan barbecue. The food is usually good bill it's hard to eat ribs through a hood. Do move into a town that has some kind of a festival. Even pagans dancing naked in the street is fine. It brings money into the local businesses and draws the community together. together. And let's face it, some of those pagan chicks are pretty hot. Do not move into a town where the 'Dental Van' visits once a year. Do move into a town with a Legion. A tray of draught with a veteran is the best drink you'll ever have. And I don't have a problem with second-hand smoke from a guy who picked up the habit under shellfire. Do not move into a town where the mayor's name is 'Ace', 'Slick' or 'Fats'. Do move into a town where they have a 'Firefighters' Dance'. Eight bucks for a chance to twirl your best gal around the dance floor and all the Sweet and Sour meatballs you can eat. It doesn't get any better than that. Do not move into a town with a 'Scurvy Clinic'. Do move into a town with lots of seniors' stuff. That means they take care of a very precious resource. Do not move into a town that has a 'Swap-a-rama' or a 'Spousc-a-paloosa'. Do move into a town that has a 'Breakfast with Santa'. Do not move into a town that has a 'Breakfast with Satan'. Do move into a town with a Book Club. Do not move into a town with a Book Burning Club. Do move into a town where they sell Girl Guide Cookies to raise money. Do not move into a town where they sell hash brownies to raise bail. Do move into a town with a Remembrance Day Ceremony. A town that remembers is a town with heart. Do not move into a town with adult T-Ball. Sunderland resident Neil Crone, aetnr-eomie-writer, saves some of liis best lines for Ins columns. Neil Crone Enter Laughing LETTERS TO THE EDITOR CLICK AND SA^ Today's question: Have our health officials done enough in the prevention and containing of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)? □ Yes □ No Cast your vote online at infodiirhamregiicjj9.com Last week's question: Should Durham Region contribute contribute $10 million to the University University of Ontario Institute of Technology's $100 million community campaign? □ Yes 59.3% □ No 40.7% Votes cast: 150 HAVE YOUR SAY Question The new Claring- ton central library is set to open in May. Will you be using the new library? c-mnil letters to new.sroom@clurhimivejiion.com Funding exceptions cost us all To the editor: On the question of Durham Region funding the UOIT to the tune of $ 10 million, I have to agree with Finance Commissioner Commissioner Clapp's refusal to intrude upon the Province's education jurisdiction. 1 also agree with (Statesman columnist columnist Jacquie Mclnnes's) statement statement that there are exceptions. exceptions. However, those exceptions exceptions come at a price. One exception would be to rename the University as 'University of Oshawa Institute Institute of Technology', since it is in Oshawa. That's the easy part. We don't even have to change the acronym. Another change would be the removal of the Province's cap on taxation taxation of business and industry. That cap unfairly skews the cost of administration of public public affairs to residential property property even further than has been in the past. Historically, the cost of education has been broadly based since education benefits the whole of society. Training institutions benefit mostly corporations. Recognising the difference between education and training, it has escaped the notice of most taxpayers that the cost of training that was once paid for in house by business and industry has been shifted onto the education education system. Additionally, the public education education that admittedly bestows bestows economic benefits on the educated, and which was once recovered through the graduated income tax, has' been eroded by more than $40 billion annually in provincial and federal income tax expenditures. expenditures. Those income tax expenditures, expenditures, the deductions that - if we accept that a graduated graduated lax is fair - should have been regressive. That is, the higher the person's income as a result of publicly paid education, education, the less beneficial the deduction. As example, a person earning earning $20,000 a year, paying tax at the 16 per cent level, can deduct whatever they are allowed allowed to pay into an RRSP. A person earning $200,000 a year has all of their allowed contributions subsidized at the highest income tax rate. If graduated, then the higher person's subsidy would be phased out, thus recovering a fair portion of the public investment investment on their education. Ed Goertzen Oshawa OPINION Jana Cryderman "I don't go too often, but I will go to check it out." Cory Burns "I use it all the time for school research purposes." Denis Mason "Probably not. I haven't been in a long time." c-mail letters to nc\v.sroum@<liirhanircj;ion.coni Premier like a motorist who's lost his road map P remier Ernie Eves keeps asking people to follow him, but one problem is they have no idea where lie's going. They also must be beginning to wonder if the Progressive Conservative Conservative premier knows himself. His latest appeal to the electorate was to help him 'stay the course.' But Premier Eves has steered left and right, detoured, zigzagged and reversed - his course is about as straight and easy to discern discern as the tracks around the average Ontario Ontario lake. He stalled by claiming claiming he would be more moderate than his far- right predecessor, Mike Harris, and postponed lax cuts so he could spend more on weakened services. Premier Eves dropped plans to sell the provinciaily-owncd hydro transmission transmission network and allow the cost of hydro to rise and fall with the market, saying he was more concerned whether consumers could pay. lie delayed phasing in tax credits to parents who send their children to private schools, which helps mostly the better-off and erodes publie schools. lie spoke politely to labor unions, which Mr. Harris never did. Premier Eves chatted to striking civil servants picketing a government building and phoned their union to help settle the strike, although he did have the incentive he was miming to win hack a seal in the legislature at the time, Premier Eves said he believed in listening to divergent opinions including those of union leaders and appointed a labour minister, Brad Clark, who said the premier had assigned him to make peace with the labour movement. The premier also claimed he always had been a pragmatist pragmatist close to the political political centre and had a lot in common with William Davis, premier from 1971-85 and the most moderate Tory of recent decades. But Mr. Evcs's meandering meandering toward the left did not lift him in the polls as lie hoped and he is now off in a different direction. He has resumed cuts in income tax that will help particularly the better-off. He will give a tax credit credit to ovcr-65s, homeowners and renters, that will reimburse them for the part of their property tax they pay for education, and those in more expensive homes will receive receive most. He has restored phasing-in lax credits to parents who choose to send their children to private- schools and weaken the public- school system. Premier Eves says he is considering considering permitting home-owners to deduct part of their mortgage interest costs from provincial taxes, which would help the bet- ler-olf who already own homes, and is thinking of banning strikes by teachers, a confrontation even Mr. Harris, despite his many criticisms criticisms of teachers, shied from. Premier Eves also is back knocking unions, lie classed unions as a special interest group other citizens have to beware. He claimed unions support the Liberals Liberals because they feel they could control a Liberal government, but know a Tory government will not allow them to domineer. Trying to split teachers from their unions, he said lie never equates teachers with the union heads who claim to speak for them. But despite his new drive to the right there is no sign Ernie Eves is rising in popularity and he now has mailed a survey to residents asking them where he should go next. Voters usually have chosen leaders who had a clear view of where they wanted to go. Mr. Harris had an image of never having the slightest doubt. Bob Rae, the New Democrat premier before Mr. Harris, had policies well-established and all written down as a result of votes at conventions - just turn the pages and you would find them. Liberal David Peterson exuded exuded change, although he never kept the promise to allow beer to be- sold in corner stores that most exemplified this, and Mr. Davis could be relied on always to be moderate, not switching from one extreme to the other. But Premier Eves, with his twisting and turning, has the most indistinct image of any premier premier in memory, lie looks like a motorist who iias lost his mail map and this does not encourage others to fall in behind him. I'or decades, Crie Dowd lias been covering provincial polities as a freelance columnist based out of Queen's Park, Eric Dowd Queen's Park Fiona Stirbisky " Oh yes, I've used it all along and look forward to the larger facilities." ®ljc Ciiimtiinn Statesman is one of the Metroland Printing, Printing, Publishing and Distributing Distributing group of newspapers. The Statesman is a member of the Bowmanville Clarington Board of Trade, the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, Ontario Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Circulations Audit Board and the Ontario Press Council. The publisher reserves the right to classify or refuse any advertisement. advertisement. Credit for advertisement advertisement limited to space price error occupies. Editorial and Advertising content of the Canadian Statesman is copyrighted. copyrighted. Unauthorized reproduction reproduction is prohibited. jLocna nrrnni