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I PAGE 6 ♦ THE CANADIAN STATESMAN ♦ December 28,2005 Tim Whittaker Publisher Joanne Burghardt Editor-in-Chlef Chris Bovie Managing Editor Fred Eismont Director of Advertising Eddie Kolodziejcak Classified Advertising Manager Kirk Bailey Distribution Manager Lillian Hook Office Manager Janice O'Neil, Cheryl Haines Composing Managers Clarington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 ®f)t Canabiatt Statesman Opinion | DECEMBER 28, 2005 durtiamregion.com Phone 905-579-4400 Classifieds 905-576-9335 A Distribution 905-579-4407 ' v General Fax 905-579-2238 Newsroom Fax 905-579-1809 / E-Mail newsroom@durhamregion.com | 865 Farewell St., Oshawa ON L1 H 7L5 j Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 : infodurhamregion.com EDITORIAL e-mail letters to ncwsroom@durhamrcgion.com Ontario needs more federal help Election debates, issues, largely about every other part of the country We have just passed the halfway halfway point of this marathon eight- week election campaign and it has become clear that Ontario, as usual, has been taken for granted. granted. Not in the way you'd think, however. That's because, with more than one-third of Canada's 308 seats up for grabs in battleground Ontario, we'll see plerity of the nation's three major party leaders glad-handing and promise-making promise-making across our province's major highways and biways. They'll be eager to take seats at the expense of each other in the fight for supremacy in Parliament. No, Ontario is taken for granted when it comes to discussing and dealing with the country's main issues. Consider the debates about national unity (Quebec), western alienation (B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan Saskatchewan and Manitoba) and the plight of Atlantic Canada (Newfoundland, P.E.I., Nova Scotia and New Brunswick). There seems little time to discuss the many issues which plague our province (other than a debate over how to handle the serious problem of gun violence, largely a Toronto -- not Ontario - problem). problem). Ontario often finds itself stuck in the middle, playing the statesmanlike statesmanlike role among Canada's feuding provinces. And, increasingly increasingly because of its economic might, the growth of the Greater Greater Toronto Area and its vast resources, Ontario has become Canada's bank. It would behoove Premier Dal- tpn McGuinty to make Ontario's $23-billion fiscal imbalance with Ottawa, an election issue. Ontario consistently helps to subsidize Canada's seven have- not provinces: All four in Atlantic Atlantic Canada, the Prairie provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba and even Quebec. That's fine because a federation federation requires those with wealth to help out those which have less. That makes for a stronger Canada. However, when the feds run up surpluses of $10 billion or more in a year, some of that money must come back to the province most responsible for it: Ontario. After all, Ontario requires funding funding to make up shortfalls, especially especially in health care and education. education. There is a budget to be balanced, balanced, which would benefit by a billion or two in surplus revenue from Ottawa. And Ontario's new energy program, so important to Canada, could use federal support. support. Ontario does hold the balance of power in deciding whether the Conservatives or Liberals will be in government after Jan. 23. It's time that power was recognized with some solid returns from Ottawa. ■MB lHh 15 VWJtNfa UVtiEi uk£ PBKtiZH (W. COJNtR/... I 1 • 1 I a. - >411111 - •• ••• 1 : . • . 1 Wlmm FI ' 1 m i. i ,..WLB>5 \AS eiBWONE. SttoW CUNtKB iMf W I k " .SB dolighan.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR e-mail letters to newsroom@durhamregion.com BACKWARD GLANCE Newcastle P.S., 1994 Photo supplied by Bowmanville Museum Newcastle Public School is shown on April 4,1994. It was later demolished to make way for a new building. Time to show Liberals thedoor To the editor: Your Liberal columnists just don't get it. The upcoming election is about 12 years of ongoing Liberal corruption. corruption. From $1 billion missing from HRDC to unaccountable Crown corporations, sleazy political political appointments to plum jobs, Shawinigate and Adscam. Paul Martin signed the cheques and now denies knowledge,.Is he dishonest or incompetent? The columnist who complained about a winter campaign ignores the fact that the Liberals were looting the national treasury daily'trying to buy us with our own money. Since when did democracy become a burden? It is time to send a message that corruption and dishonesty won't be tolerated. D.R. Bulmer Bowmanville Handgun ban won't really deal with crime problem To the editor: Re: Handgun announcement not anti-hunting, Tim Lang letter,.Dec. letter,.Dec. 18. . Tim Lang said: "Handguns are only used to kill on the street and there is absolutely no reason to have them." He is wrong. Thousands of people in Canada belong to handgun clubs and organizations. Target shooting with handguns is a sport just like hockey and football. There is a greater chance of being hurt on the football field or in the hockey arena than in a properly organized organized gun club. Handgun shooting shooting is even an Olympic sport. By outlawing handguns, Paul Martin is again only hurting law- abiding taxpayers, just as he did with the gun registry. It is already illegal for drug dealers or anyone to carry a handgun on the street. If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. Does the Liberal government honestly believe a drug dealer will give up his illegal handgun because the prime minister says . it is illegal? Over $2 billion has been spent on the gun registry. This money would have been better spent hiring and training police officers to deal with the illegal gun problem. Mn Martin has also upset the Americahs whose help we need in stopping stopping illegal guns from entering Canada.from the U.S. This latest move by the Liberals is only a vote-getting attempt which does nothing to take the guns out of the hands of criminals. Jim Couch Newcastle Watch out for environmental lobby on nuclear To the editor: Re: Darlington is the right site, if OPG gets nuke nod, says company, company, Dec. 16. A column in your paper tonight that mentioned new nuclear power plants at Darlington made me laugh a little. We better not lét the environmental environmental lobby find out, or else we will have to face another deal with Manitoba. LETTERS We welcome letters that include name, city of residence and phone numbers for verification. Writers are generally limited to 200 words and one submission submission in 30 days. We decline announcements, poetry, open letters, consumer complaints, congratulations and thank you notes. The editor reserves the right to edit copy for length, style and clarity. The newspaper newspaper contacts only those people people whose submissions have been chosen for publication. FAX: 905-579-1809; E-MAIL: Newsroom ©durhamregion. com. \ Province showed sound judgment CLICK AND SAY $ Today's question: ^ Do you make New Year's resolutions? Cast your vote online at infodurhamregion.com Last week's question: Are you worried about the economic future of Durham Region in the wake of job cut announcements and closings? No 50.8% Somewhat 6.8% Yes 42.4 % Votes cast: 547 HAVE YOUR SAY Have you made any New Year's Resolutions and if so, what are they? As you wilt likely remember, remember, the Government of Ontario recently inked a deal with Manitoba Manitoba to send power from there to here. Basically the environmental movement convinced the powers powers that be in Toronto that it was better to get power from elsewhere than to spend money building nuclear plants here... so we bought the power from Manitoba. Sadly;. for the environmentalists, environmentalists, the power Ontario is buying buying from Manitoba was probably generated in nuclear plants, so what did they really save? Not much... but we gave away good jobs that could have been created building the plant here before we sent the other $500 million out of province only to discover that we are likely going to be in need of new nuclear plants here anyway. It's a good thing the people who know what they are doing are in charge or we'd really be wasting a lot of money. Adam Mercer i Oshawa Andy Gruyters "My New Year's resolution is to stay married. It's been almost almost 50 years so it's too late to change now." oil Connie Vuur "Yes, to be a more aware mother, quit smoking and take up yoga." Kim Gerrits "No I haven't. They are just too hard to stick to." Chris Vella "Yes, staying out of trouble.' ss The Ontario government reached the right verdict when it judged Oshawa was the right place for the new consolidated or regional courthouse. Even though the pledge to build a new courthouse was made more than a decade ago by the late, not-so-great, NDP provincial provincial government of Bob Rae, there has been much speculation about where, when or even, if such a courthouse would ever be built. During the eight-year run of the Common Sense Tories, the thinking was that, with high- powered ministers such as Jim Flaherty and Janet Ecker at the controls, the courthouse would be sure to go to Whitby or Ajax, When the Liberals came to power in the fall of 2003, they were swamped by so many financial financial headaches, it looked like the idea of a regional courthouse for Durham was way down the priority list. But now, a clearly thought out decision which most benefits the Tim Kelly entire region has been made. While Mayor Marcel Brunelle and his council may not have been applauding the selection of Oshawa as the site of the new 350,000 square-foot courthouse, perhaps they could see it a different different way, While Whitby has traditionally been the site of the superior court in the region, in more recent years, as the region has grown, courts have been built or rented out in Oshawa, Much court business has taken place on King streets cast and west in Oshawa while Rossland Road has been the site lor several courts in Whitby. Whitby, of course, was long the county seat for Ontario County. County. But the county gave way to Durham Region three decades ago, eliminating the necessity of Whitby'as the mandatory site for any new courthouse. Additionally, Whitby has become the capital for regional government -- and it now also holds the regional headquarters headquarters for police services too. If anyone had any doubts about Whitby's supremacy for regional matters, those doubts were dispelled dispelled when the new $70-million regional headquarters was built there last year. Whitby - Clarington too -- will be fine without the regional courthouse, Both municipalities are consistently Durham's leaders leaders in development and will continue continue to attract business and residential residential building for many years to come. In short, they don't need the courthouse - Oshawa docs, badly. As Durham's largest city and its key industrial hub, Oshawa has needed help for years. Yes, there has been commercial development development and plenty of residential building, but the core of the city has been rotting away. However, because of - or often in spite of - Oshawa's new council, there is now a new drive to remake the lunch-bucket area, A view from the top of one of Oshawa's downtown buildings buildings makes it clear that this city was built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is essentially essentially industrial in nature. That's not news, but little has been done about it over the past few decades, To bring it into the 21st century knowledge-based economy is the current challenge and one that Oshawa councillors have been bedevilled with since the late 1970s. It means tearing down the old GM north plant lands, preparing the old Fittings lands, and finding new investment and development to. transform this city. A new courthouse, with its thousands of employees, fits this model. It will compliment the new downtown sports and entertainment entertainment complex and will help be the catalyst to generate new commercial projects downtown. In addition, a vibrant residential buildup can bring thousands and thousands of people back to the downtown region - at the Fittings Fittings lands, in downtown condos and in the vast lands freed up by the tear down of the old GM plant area. Oshawa has been identified as a core urban growth area for Ontario - certainly for Durham region - by the Province. It only makes sense, and should be applauded by citizens across -Mît the region, that the Province saw fit to put the new courthouse at the corner of Mary and Bond streets. Copy editor Tim Kelly's column appears every "other Wedhesday.Æ-mail • tkelly@durhamregion.com. The Canadian Statesman is one of the Metroland Printing, , Publishing and Distributing ; group of newspapers. The '-Statesman is a member of the Bowmanville Clarington Board of Trade, the Greater . Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, Commerce, Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc., Cana- diàn Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Circulations Circulations Audit Board and the Ontario Press Council. The publisher reserves the right to classify or refuse any advertisement. Credit for advertisement advertisement limited to space price error occupies. Editorial and Advertising content of the Canadian Statesman is copyrighted. Unauthorized reproduction reproduction Is prohibited, Aoctia <+cna jfjfjg m m IS i§ %