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J Sports/61 Scholarshio for Durham Daily News O VllViai dilip 1U1 EVERY WEEKDAY AT NOON HTS grad ¥ldeodurhamregion.com durhamregion.com ♦ Pressrun 24,150 ♦ Founded 1854 ♦ JULY 5, 2006 ♦ 44 Pages ♦ Optional 3 Week Delivery $6/$1 Newsstand "" I..-- I Ml ■ 'Z " , ■ y Another year of Nitro-Sorb? Committees recommend, approving contract for garden and yard waste BY ERIN HATFIELD Staff Writer DURHAM - One more year of Nitro-Sorb is the recommendation to regional council. A joint meeting of the works, planning, health and social services, services, and finance and administration committees voted in support of a motion to proceed with a one-year contract with Waste Management of Canada Corp. for the composting composting of residential garden and yard waste. But a stipulation in the contract is that the waste be used to make Nitro-Sorb, and, if prohibited, then there would be additional costs, about $150,000, to the Region for dealing with it in another way. "If I thought taking a principle stand on spending the money would help then I would be there," Oshawa Councillor April Cullen said. "We get to stand up on principle; principle; big deal." The Region anticipates receiving and composting 10,000 to 12,000 tonnes of leaf and yard waste during the year which, under the proposed contract for processing, would be used to manufacture Nitro-Sorb. Paper sludge is the material remaining after the processing processing of paper fibre at a. mill. Currently, some paper sludge is mixed with yard and leaf compost and spread on farmer's fields. • Staff recommended that the Region enter into the one-year contract, which would provide time for the Ministry of the Environment Environment (MOE) to take a position with respect to Nitro-Sorb. , "The Province has to step up to the plate," Coun. Cullen said. "We have to understand where our jurisdiction begins and ends.',' The use of Nitro-Sorb is not regulated. regulated. The ministry is currently at the policy-discussion stage on the implementation of the recommendations recommendations of the Expert Scientific Panel. Clarington passed a resolution asking that the MOE regulate end uses that include paper sludge, a resolution endorsed by regional council at its May 31 meeting. "As far as I am concerned, we are talking out of both sides, of our mouths," Oshawa Councillor John Neal said. "We are burying our heads in the (Nitro) Sorb mix with sand... Nitro-Sorb is a dangerous product." . Coun. Neal said it wasn't just about saving taxpayers' dollars because if it were then council might as well send all waste to landfill because that would be even cheaper. "We need to get tough, but we need to get tough in the right direction," he said. "We need the report from the expert panel yesterday." yesterday." But works committee chairman chairman and Whitby Mayor Marcel Brunelle said it is the ministry that has the duty of care. "What we are doing is awarding awarding a contract," Mayor Brunelle said. "What they do with it is their business.... This is a yard-waste contract; let's get on with it." On Wednesday, July 5, Durham council will vote on the renewal of the yard-waste-and-leaf-compost- ing contract. e c sur Cash-strapped health care provider goes from $14M deficit to $1.2M surplus BY CHRIS HALL Staff Writer WHITBY « Thanks to cost- savings and efficiencies, coupled with a tidy handout from the Province, Lakeridge Health Corporation Corporation posted a humble surplus after all the figures were tallied for the past fiscal year. While originally facing a deficit somewhere in the neighbourhood of $14 million in the 2005/2006 fiscal year, the regional health care provider managed to dig itself out of a deep financial hole by slicing nearly $13 million in costs and pocketing about $6 million in additional funds from the. Province, explained Bryan McLellan on Wednesday evening at LHC's annual general meeting, meeting, held at Le Gala in Whitby, In the end, that left LHC with a $1.2 million surplus. Key to the financial turnaround, noted Mr. McLellan, treasurer for the LHC board of trustees, was that all of the funds set aside for pay equity adjustments were not needed. That faint, bright light when it ; comes to Lakeridge'S" finances, however, cannot be sustained if the Province does not step up and begin to fund all Ontario hospitals in a fair and equitable manner, said Tariq Asmi. According to Mr. Asmi, the executive director of the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance, the four Greater Toronto Area regions (Durham, York, Peel and Halton) are among the fastest growing urban ' centres in the province, housing about three million residents or about a quarter of all Ontarians, with an estimated 100,000 newcomers newcomers each year. However, provincial provincial funding for hospitals in the GTA/905 area does not reflect the booming growth, as Ontario continues to dish out across-the- board increases, he; explained. Last July, the Province indicated it would implement a population-growth population-growth funding formula, "but. that did notVcome about and there are no plans for that to come about. (Not introducing that formula) is moving back 15 years in the way the Province See LAKERIDGE, page A10 Photo by Mike Pochwat A bubbly birthday celebration in Newcastle NEWCASTLE - Cassidy Dejeong and Sarah Rutherford, both 2, were enjoying themselves making bubbles during the Saturday Saturday events of the town of Newcastle's Sesquicentennial celebrations at the YMCA Early Years Activity Centre. Kids' activities, demonstrations, information tours and a costume contest were just some of the features of the three-day event, which wrapped up Sunday. For more on the Sesquicentennial celebrations, see the Clarington Communities section on page A7. awarded for new football field BY JENNIFER STONE Staff Writer BOWMANVULE - By next season, the Clarington Tigercats will be on their own turf. The Municipality recently approved a $930,000 tender for construction of the field, which will get underway soon, said Tony Cannella, Clarington's engineering engineering director. "The field will be done this year, but it will not be usable this year, because the sod has to knit in," said Mr. Cannella. "It should be ready for next year's football season." season." The CFL-sized field at Bowman- ville Community Park, at Base line and Green roads, will include bleachers, lights and a scoreboard, said Mr. Cannella. "It will be a state-of-the-art type facility for football," he said. "It will be done in the same capacity as what we did for baseball - we got them a first-class facility." The field will be home of the Tigercats, but "not exclusive to them," said the engineering director. director. The work will be partially funded funded by development charges. Dol Turf Restoration Ltd. of Bond Head, Ont., was awarded the contract. "It will be nice to have the representative representative team have a home field," said Mr. Cannella. A sign that courthouse is on the way Site will be environmentally safe BY JULIAN F0LLERT Staff Writer . ' OSHAWA - A sign of the times was unveiled in downtown Oshawa recently, as politicians and city officials pulled a white sheet from a massive billboard advertising the future site of the consolidated courthouse. It's mostly dirt and rocks right now, but City Manager Bob Duignan assures that a lot is going on beneath the surface, so construction can commence in the fall. He said crews are in the midst of a remediation process, to rid the soil and water of a potentially dangerous substance called Trichloroethylene Trichloroethylene (TCE). TCE is a metal degreaser widely widely used in industry, and dangerous dangerous to humans. In recent years, the Ministry of the Environment has introduced tougher standards for dealing with the substance. "The Ministry has established standards for soil conditions and we arc exceeding those," Mr. Duignan said. "This will be a very, very clean site. There will be no environmental impact to anyone anyone on the site or in the building." The cost of the clean-up is included in the total price tag for the courthouse. The Province lids yet to release either figure, however however those details arc expected soon. The only additional cost would come if the clean-up wasn't completed by the October 2006 deadline, in which case the City would be required to pay a penalty penalty to the Province lor delaying the process. Mr. Duignan said this is not a likelihood. "We have an obligation to be done by October and we will be, we are on schedule." Mayor John Gray said he is thrilled that things are moving along and called the sign unveiling unveiling an important step. "It sends a message to the citizenry citizenry and the businesses, that the courthouse is coming," the mayor said. "It's time for the private sector to start thinking seriously about investing in downtown Oshawa, because we're going to need grade A office space for all those court support services." In addition to new office space, City officials are confident that the courthouse will bring increased demand for other downtown services, services, like retail, residential and entertainment. It is estimated that an extra 1,500 lunch meals will be consumed daily by courthouse employees and users alone. Courthouse construction will begin in late 2006 or early 2007 and wrap up in the winter of 2008/2009. The 350,000 square foot consolidated consolidated courthouse will bring the seven courts currently scattered scattered across Durham under one roof, housing 33 courtrooms, five motion rooms and related justice services. DRIVE CLEAN • SERVICE f* PARTS MON., WED., FRI. 7:30 am - 6:00 pm TUES. & THURS. 7:30 am - 8:00 pm SAT. 9:00 am - 4:00 pm ACCREDITED TEST & REPAIR FACILITY WHITBY OSHAWA! Honda 300 THICKSON RD. S. WHITBY 1-866 240-6192 © HOZVDA. www.honda1.com CHEVROLET 0°/o Financing ON MOST 06 MODELS $1000 OWNER LOYALTY BONUS FOR SUNFIRE. SUNBIRO. CAVALIER ÔWNERS > : 'h i-'ki'v. STUDENT BONUS PROGRAM CALL FOR DETAILS. fi CAR HEAVEN PROGRAM $ iooo FOR YOUR TRADE / "ho Y ; W-NICHOLS DIRECT LINES: Ports 905-436-2227 Service 905-436-2228 Body À Point 905-436-2229 2728 Courtîce Rd., HWY. #2 Courtice 401 â36§22â2:. Toll Free 1-866-885-8822 roynicholimotors@gmcanada.com www.roynkholimotors.com See deetof tore .L . 'v )\' 'V