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in li BOWMANVILLE LIBRARY 163 Church Street 1.1.05 Bowmanville, Ont. L1C 1T7 $1.00 GST Included E&E1V !,Li.hüi!i!,i """"I 11 Wednesday April 21,2004 Orono Town Hall Serving l^dliTKÎ^by, Leskard, Newcastle A/ewtonW//e, Orono. Starkville and Tyrone since 1937 HIT SjljSili ^i!ÉSn| ■. n " !l||! 111!!!® liiipil fag asp- «iiHi'liii '.'S W Region approves 5.9 per cent property tax increase Regional Council approved approved a 5.9 per cent property tax increase at Wednesday's Regional Council meeting. The Regional tax increase equates to a $70 hike on the average Clarington home. This combined with the 8.3 per cent property tax increase approved by Clarington council council last week represents a $128 tax increase for 2004 excluding excluding any projected education tax increase handed down by the Ministry of Education. The 2004 Regional budget reflects the highest-ever roads expenditure of $40.2 million, - - a $2.8 million increase over last year. The police budget increased by $5.5 million accommodating for seven additional officers and 13 civilian staff. The Conservation Conservation Authority expenditure was debated at length by councillors who in thé end agreed to increase their budget budget by $1.4 million. Provincial downloads and special contributions by the Region to the Ontario Institute of Technology and Rouge Valley Hospital added $1.2 million to the budget. The largest increase however was from the Regional Operations budget with a $13.8 million additional requirement over last year. This increase is attributed to $10.1 million base budget change for items such as salaries benefits and subsidy losses for social services. services. New programs and additional additional staffing for the Region's three homes for the aged required an additional $3.7 million in funding over last year. The overall increase to the $300 million Regional budget this year is $24.6 million. Buy local policy may have to be nixed l!S^^^aste^Siuste^h^Te!gl!^nh^bU.e bird boxes along the Blue Bird portion of the Oak Ridges Trail last Thursday afternoon. O'Toole presents 407 petition r* t 1 a ^f T/"\t* MPP John O'Toole is expecting a fair number of local people to attend the legislature legislature on the day he reads the petition which has been gathering gathering strength through the riding riding for the past half year. The petition asks the parliament to . to take steps to fast track the extension ol the highway eastward eastward into the Region of Durham. Currently the 407 ends at Brock Road in Pickering. The petition seeks a commitment from the government government to extend the 407 through Clarington to connect with Highway 35/115, all this while ensuring the necessary environmental assessment and public consultations are followed. followed. On Tuesday afternoon of May 4th, Durham MPP John O'Toole will present the petition petition and ask the Minister of Transportation what commitments commitments he has to completing Highway 407. "Right now we have to make sure they fund the Environmental Assessment Assessment process in the budget," stated O'Toole in a phone interview with the l imes on Monday. "This kind of brings some focus in a respectful way to show how important the highway is to Durham Region." The latest version of the draft terms of reference for the Hwy. 407 environmental assessment was released last week. Clarington's Highway 407 Community Advisory Committee will receive a briefing from their independent independent consultant on that draft terms of reference on I uesday April 27 at 7 p.m. This meeting meeting will be held at the Bowmanville Town Hall and is open to the public. I he Ministry of" Transportation will hold a series of Public Information Centres on this draft beginning on Wednesday, May 5, from 4 - 8 p.m. at the Garnet Rickard PETITION see page 4 Buying locally could be unconstitutional, Clarington councillors learned at Monday's General. Purpose and Administration Committee Committee meeting. At the request of Council, staff re-investigated their existing purchasing policy to see if it is still appropriate. The municipality last addressed addressed the policy in 1994 when they added a clause giving giving preference to a local bid and then a regional bid if all other received were equal in quality, service and delivery. The purchasing policy was visited again this year after Council supported a motion to accept the bid of a North York printing company to fulfill their 2004 printing requirement. requirement. That decision was reconsidered 1 ol lowing a delegation delegation by Mr. Rick James ol James Publishing in Bowmanville, Bowmanville, the firm which had always been awarded that tender. tender. Staff Report COD 014-04 before Clarington's General Purpose and Administration Committee meeting Monday morning states that from a legal aspect there are currently currently two pieces of legislation in Ontario that prohibit a local preference policy. The "Discriminatory Business Practices Act" states that no person in Ontario shall engage in a discriminatory business practices. The Canadian Govern- POLICY see page 3 What's Inside ••• V. f/ llPiiiiii Bridge over Wtlmot Creek see page 5