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Home Newspaper of Halton Hills- Established 1866 A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown L7G 3Z6 Ontario DAVID A BEATTIE Publisher and General Manager Ontario will grow too big MIKE TURNER Editor Phone DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager Mall Regbinrd Page 6 THE HERALD Wednesday March 29 1989 Lions share of honor It was made evident recently that the people of Georgetown can be grateful for some efforts put forth on their behalf To begin with the Georgetown Lions Club is to be com mended for the work they do to recognize the people of the community who go that extra yard to make Georgetown a more enjoyable place to live The Citizen of the Year banquet last Tuesday was an ex cellent affair and served to honor someone who was very deserving indeed The selection process is not always an easy one but it must fall upon someone to make the final decision and were fortunate to have the Lions to co ordinate such an undertaking Georgetown can also be grateful for having people like Tom Ramautarsingh the recipient of the Citizen of the Year Award For Ramautarsingh and others before him the greatest pleasure has been putting something back into the community And its only fitting that these efforts should be recogniz ed in some manner Adieu to the Hills How big is too big The latest provincial population projections indicate an Ontario population of about million peo ple within 22 years Thats a remarkable figure and it has some obvious side effects that no one seems to be even con sidering The today has about nine million inhabitants which means were talking about adding a year every year for two decades Thats adding more than the population of Oshawa annually Perhaps half of the newcomers will be immigrants the vast ma jority of whom will come from out side Canada At the same time the population mix inside the province will shift Those over 75 years of age will dou ble in number to almost while the will comprise one out of every six These figures are all based on guesswork of course No one can predict the future that exactly But it is educated guesswork based on existing trends policies and commonly accepted observa tions For instance to quote from the provincial Treasury Boards demographics bulletin ex perience throughout the in dustrialized world indicates that government programs such as daycare and family allowances that are designed to stimulate fer tility really dont have much in fluence Immigration is the largest variable influenced as it is by Queens Park Derek Nelson Thornton Nnrt Sefvkt government policy and economic conditions Good economic times mean more immigrants All this is very interesting and is useful information to have What would be even more in teresting would be some indication that the provincial government has thought through the implications Consider The health care system is already under financial strain as the government tries to bring its growth rate down to some sus- tainable figure Yes the financial reality is that proportionately fewer people of working age will be supporting proportionately more elderly non- working people And- those elderly consume more than half of all health care ser vices In fact the older they are the more they use New immigrants add the young will be devoting increasing por tions of their income to keeping the elderly in a position to which theyd like to remain accustomed Equally important is that both immigrants from abroad and many of those who migrate inter nally will head for the Toronto That city and adjacent municipalities already bursting at the seams with only three million or so people will climb to more than five million in those 20 years There will be no new land available to build the housing no new road and transit infrastruc ture to move them around and no new garbage dumps to take their refuse Some suggest we also will face water shortages and sewer overflows as well None of this is a surprise of course As long ago as 1977 an On tario government planning docu ment said the notion that Ontario is a land of limitless space is in fact a myth and a dangerous one In southern Ontario which when it comes to population growth is the part of the province that really matters the population density exceeds that of Britains people to the square mile The congestion can only in crease for if a city or country cant Build out it builds up Look at Hong Kong Unfortunately our social economic and political systems lack Hong Kongs ability to adapt to events quickly and flexibly For instance look at our absurd lowdensity zoning laws that favor single family homes These are go ing to have to go in favor of high- density if were really going to add three million more people in 20 years twothirds of them to the Toronto area Otherwise it is time to conclude that how big Is already too big Editors Notebook Mike Turner Editor About six years ago over a few friendly nectar I remarked to a friend how I might be interested in taking up writing again not so much as a career but more as a diversion from my regular routine That remark eventually led to my becoming editor of the Halton Hills Herald About two years ago speaking to another friend who happened to be in toe business I remarked how it would be interesting to work at a different newspaper every few years variety being the spice of life and all that That remark in part now leads me away from Halton Hills to take up a position with a newspaper in The decision to move wasnt by any means an easy one This com munity has a great deal to offer and has been good to me and Ive enjoyed working with all the peo ple here at the paper Fortunately someone has been selected to replace me who I feel will do an excellent job for the community Brian MacLeod has been cover ing the local political scene for close to two years and assumes the position of editor here in the wake of my departure Brian has had quite a high pro file town- and has proven himself worthy of the editors posi tion My tenure as editor wasinade much easier because of the diligent work of Brian covering local coun cil and the Regional political scene can be sure he 11 have no pro blem taking the reins and I know hell do the same thorough job as editor that he did as senior reporter at the Herald And there Is another side to all this While Brian is competent having to look at him for extended periods of time can take its toll Donna Kell on the other hand is far easier to periods of time I can attest to tnis having sat across from Donna in our office for the better part of a year Donna will take over as senior reporter and I have every con fidence she will do an excellent job while at the same time brightening up an otherwise dull media table at council meetings Theres a sign that hangs in the comer of the Montreal dressing room that reads To you from failing hands we pass the torch and whenever we hear that Guy Lafleur and I have a real good retch Sorry folks but mistyeyed good byes just aint my style I wish everyone the very best and Ill definitely be back from time to time for some of that good old Hills hospitality Governments image problem lingers There was a joke lurking about in some bureaucratic circles a cou ple of months ago about a new phase of privatization Ottawas you may recall banned smoking in federal offices on Jan But that didnt deter some devotees of the weed A boisterous few held protests in side and outside their offices The less valiant however fled their places of work and loitered in near by private buildings and shopping areas while they lit up for a quick morning puff Shopkeepers arriving to open their stores for business later in the day were greeted by the fragrance of stale tobacco smoke Many were not pleased Some chuckled that the govern- had rid itself of smokers and turned them over to the private sector The smoking incident is a minor sidelight But its a reminder of the kind of thing that brings contempt raining down on the heads of public servants Too many federal employees seem to have littlr pride in their work This isnt Intended to malign public service In fact while federal government has its share of shirkers ail workplace Ottawa Vic Parsons most public servants work hard day in and day out Thats especial ly so in this time of austerity when staff are cut and vacancies remain unfilled History shows that when societies- dating back to ancient Egypt and China creep out of the dark ages they develop a bureaucracy to administer and en force laws that provide a basis for orderly growth STEREOTYPE MAINTAINED every so often something comes along to prop up the bureaucratic stereotypes The latest is the Federal Court being pursued by the Public Service Alliance the largest federal employee union against a successful productivity plan in troduced by Statistics Canada The plan was tried In the federal agencys travel section and proved highly popular among staff Under the system if employees get more work done they are permitted to take off some of the time they save Productivity in the section has almost doubled in six months One worker said she gets two extra days off a month Staff work together almost as a family And theres now time available to in troduce new surveys The union is challenging the plan because it doesnt want employees negotiating working conditions directly with the government In an argument that might be more sympathetically viewed by the public they also say such plans put too much pressure on those who arent able to be more productive such as workers with health pro blems or disabilities A cynic also might see a situa tion in which some staff deliberate ly ease up before a productivity plan is brought in so they can benefit more when one is in place The publicity given the union challenge will only confirm for some that regrettable public ser vice image WASTE SEEN Recently an intriguing Gallup Poll was published in a Toronto newspaper It found that respondents across Canada estimate that- 38 cents of- every federal dollar spent is wasted That compares with 33 cents for provincial governments and 25 cents for local governments These are not scientific figures arrived at by discerning citizens after scrupulous research They are merely an average of the guesses offered by those polled But they do tell us something about the way the public views govern ment The poll also showed that regionally the skepticism in creases with distance from Ot tawa British Columbians rate the federal spending waste at cents per dollar and those in the Atlantic set it at cents Ontarians are most comfortable with the way Ot tawa spends setting the wastage figure at 38 cents The Prairies are on the national average and Quebecs wastage figure is 37 cents Ontario is most skeptical about local spending with an average of 26 cents and British Columbians are by far the toughest on their provincial government at 39 cents The survey showed too that those with the lowest incomes and poorest education are more inclin ed to believe in federal govern ment waste