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VIEWPOINT by John B. McClelland x= v Scugog Citieen -- Tuesday, January 10, 1995 -- 9 dn LETTER TO EDITOR J4 SOME GIRLS HAVE ALL THE LUCK Queen Elizabeth may have Her share of problems, but money is not one of them. She is, without doubt, the wealthiest woman in all of England and among the wealthiest in all the world. Just how much she is worth is tough to calculate. After all, what would the Crown Jewels fetch in a yard sale? And how much would she get if she had to un-load a few of those castles that dot the English and Scottish country-side? And what would a Saudi prince pay for the Royal Yacht if it went on the auction block. Queen E's problems are certainly not financial. What keeps her up nights pacing the halls at Buckingham Palace are the antics of her children and their spouses, though she really should learn to relax. What Chuck and Di, Andy and Fergie are doing is nothing different from what the Royals have been deing for centuries--except there were no tabloids in the 1800's to record and photograph their every move. However, let's not shed too many tears for "Lilibet," as her good husband the Duke likes to call her. A Canadiah d@mpany has been given the go-ahead to drill for oil on the grounds of Windsor Castle. The managing directog of Canuck Explorations believes there could be a pool of 100 million barrels beneath the Royal turf in the southern English county of Berkshire. If 80, and even if the stuff fetches just $15 a barrel, that's a fair chunk of change even by Royal standards. Frankly, I hope Canuck Explorations finds more of the black gold than they ever imagined. This looks good for Canada. There are a lot of Brits, especially in Berkshire County none too happy about the prospect of drilling rigs in the Queen's back yard. And drilling rigs owned by some "colonial" outfit"from across the pond. Talk about good old-fashioned Canuck chutzpah to first of all determine that there may oil be there, second to get the Royal stamp of approval to go drilling for it and third, to get the OK from the County council in Berkshire over the protestations of many well bred locals aghast at the idea. One such opponent argued in front of the local council that Britain, with its huge pool of the black' stuff in the North Sea, has more oil than it needs. So why poke around in the sacred_grounds at one of the world's best known chunks of real estate. The Monarchy has taken a Royal ] bashing over the last few years, thanks mainly to the antics of the children and their spouses. But God bless the Queen for her pragmatic decision to allow (gasp) a Canadian company to poke around for 100 million barrels of crude. After all, as Lady Vanderbilt once said, "darling, you can never be too rich, or too thin." And of course one can never have enough oil, especially if those *%#&@ Arabs decide to turn the tap off again. If the probe for oil at Windsor Castle turns out to be a dry hole, there is still hope for the Queen. The British tabs reported last week that gold has been discovered on the grounds of her Scottish estate at Balmoral. In fact, there may be several million quid worth of the stuff there and prospectors are already on the scene, including (get this) Prince Charles. While his estranged wife and their two sons are zipping down the ski slopes in Switzerland, Charlie is up there in Scotland on his hands and knees, grubbing around for gold. Ah, what would we do without those Royals to keep us amused. IN CLOSING: 1 have always been a stickler for natural Christmas trees. And have always prided myself on being a pretty good judge of trees. But over the years I haven't had alot of luck with trees. This year was no exception. After picking out what I thought was a lovely tall and bushy pine, I found to my dismay that it was too large to fit the stand. r a fair amount of hacking and chdpping, I finally wrestled the stand on the tree and got it into the living room ready for the decorations. 4 But no amount of shifting and turning could get the darn thing to stand straight. Even with a wall "anchor it stood at an angle. On Christmas morning as the family started to open gifts the inevitable happened. The tree, on its own, toppled over. Son Matt had to be very nimble to leap from a chair to avoid being smothered in those lovely scented pine branches. Why me, why Christmas morning, I muttered as I struggled to get it standing again. For the rest of the festive season that tree stood at an angle, but the only topple-over was Christmas morning. Just my luck. I might be checking yard sales this spring for one of those artificial kinds that never fall over and never shed a needle. As for the smell of fresh pine, who needs it? Letters policy The Scugog Citizen welcomes letters to the Editor on just about any topic, local, national or international in scope. We will endeavour to print all letters except those that we consider to be outside the laws of libel and slander. We would also ask that letters stay reasonably within the bounds of good taste for a community newspaper. Our policy is to insist that the writer of the letter allow his or her name to sear with the letter, however, we will make Deadline for letters is Monday at noon. You can mail to 36 Water St., Port Perry, LOL 1J2, or fax to 985-1410. ptions in certain ci Our kids would like to get their GT sleds returned To the Editor: I would like to express my sincere thanks to the two fine fellows who kindly pulled their Pontiac up to our home and loaded our children's two GT's into the trunk. Your thoughtfulness shall not be forgotten. You have obviously little regard for the feelings of others or yoursglves. ~To steal from children is lower than a snake. But beware! As the old saying goes--what goes around comes around. You shall not be spared. If you find it within your hearts to return our GTs, it would be greatly appreciated. You know where they belong. 3 I would like to thank a nearby friend for "IDing" the car and the taller one. PS: Our yard was not the only one hit that Friday evening. So, Port Perry, watch out. You can no longer trust fellow man. Kind of sad, isn't it. Sincerely, C Houthuys. Port Perry. excitement. (and cats and any other pet) at home. home that day. Leave pooch at home With the dog-sled races scheduled for Port Perry on the weekend of January 21, 22, organizers are hoping to welcome. large crowds of people out to view all the However, they are also requesting that spectators please leave their own dogs Last year their was than one incident in which a pet dog on a"leash upset the racing dogs, both on the course and in the pre-race staging areas. So, by all means come on out and enjoy the dog races, but leave your own fido at Queens Park Report by Gord Mills, MPP Durham East If you don't live in the all p So by simple arithmetic it's easy to see political world it is difficult to understand just what takes place all the time in politics at the provincial level. I say this to explain why I can't be at every event I'm asked to attend. An MPP who is a member of the government has a far different political life than the MPP who belongs to one of the opposition parties. It starts off by belonging to a much stricter regime that doesn't allow for leaves of absence, leaving early or arriving late. It means you can't miss your committee nor can you be absent for any vote. Being in government means having at least twenty ed in the Legislature each day at 1:30 pm and on Thursday morning at 10 am when the Ontario Legislature is in session. Opposition parties are not required to have anyone in place if they don't want to. But if only one of theirynembers is in the House and makes a quorum call, and we can't muster 20 members the House closes down for the rest of the day. Depending when such a call is made it could result in the government loosing important legislation. The attendance of government members is in the hands of the Government Whip. The Whip makes surg everyday that the "numberd" are there. In giving circumstances, for example votes of no- confidence or a vote involving expenditure of funds, and not having sufficient members present could cause the government to fall and face an immediate election. Much of the same regime applies to attendance on the various committees. Legislation passes through committees of the Legislature. Their formation, by tradition, gives the government of the day one more member than the combined numbers of opposition bers. Votes the d ds on governm@pt members. We have to have twenty people in the House all the time. As a rule at least four committees are sitting every day, some in the morning, others in the aftexgoon which for her 24 bers. Take away the members of Cabinet who are more often than not away busy with their ministry operations, and do not take part in any committee function. Add in a few people off sick and you can see just how difficult it is sometimes to come up from the Legislation to attend a particular event. Bill 165, a key part of the government's reforms of the Workers' Compensation system received Royal Assent at the conclusion of the session ending on December 8. The changes for the most part are now in effect. Of importance to constituents is that about 47,000 unemployed older workers injured before 1990 will now have increased benefits of $200 a month. The Bill provides for vocational rehabilitation provisions which strengthens an early return to work. About 52,000 of the most vulnerable WCB recipients of WCB benefits will continue to get full inflation indexing. The bottom line for this new legislation will combine improvements to early return to work and vocational rehabilitation which will save the system a minimum of $18 billion over the next twenty years. The WCB's financial situation is very serious and that didn't get that way since we formed the government in 1990. The problems with the WCB started in 1970. In the early 80s the situation got worse. I know, by the reaction by some injured workers present at the clause by clause examination of the Bill in Committee, that not everyone was pleased with the deci made by bers. | are taken in committee and government members must always be present. Opposition members can appear at committee or not, legislation goes forward just as long as one member from each opposition party is present. The government is required to have their full compliment of 'six members present on all of the various 11 Legis] tive C was appalled with the beh on the committee by the Liberal members who used the situation, in front of the injured workers present, to gain political points, all the while knowing they would have been forced to take: the same actions if they were in government. If we had allowed the system to as it was, the WCB would have full who for of th y don't all sit at the same time 11, d, and then what would injured workers do?