The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Page 6 — Halton Hills This Week, Wednesday, August 11, 1993 e HIS WEEK ., Georgetown, Ont. L7G 4B1, and is printed in PUBLISHER: Ken Bellamy PRODUCTION MANAGER: Kathleen Topo! ...country’ the other day I ran into a politician.....he survived. More good news! Canadian businessmen attending the Couchiching conference in Orillia — a purported deep-think tank gathering — woke up long enough to issue this dictum (Or words to that effect).“Prospective employees should be forced to take literacy and math tests to Prove they know how to spell their names when endorsing their pay cheques and can calculate how much tax is being swiped by various levels of govern- ments when attempting to cash same.” Now this should make Parents hearts glow. You just have to prove that little Joey and little Suzie are functionally illiterate (which shouldn’t be too tough considering the present education Standards) to keep them around the parental nest until they are old enough to collect their‘Canada pension, at which time a block party will be held and false teeth auctioned off. Here’s a real nifty piece of good news! Further to my offering in this space last Saturday, Halton Hills won’t have to worry about what to do with any grubby provincial grant money that might have been coming our way — at least for the time being. Why? you ask! Because nobody in administra- tion took the time to fill out the required forms. So time consuming, you know. Trailed about the $263,835 in grant money the Town of Milton received from the Provincial ministry of Economic Development and Trade — the second such grant, I found out, in as many years — and wondered why Halton Hills, more specifically Acton, wasii’t on the receiving end-of such largesse. . . The money, it turns out, is available (it comes from a Provincial capital works fund which Presently sports a hefty balance of close to $6 billion) but the Town of Halton Hills hasn’t bothered to apply. This information comes from Halton North MPP Noel Duignan. “The money is there,” said Duignan. “It would be nice if the Town of Halton Hills took the time to sub- mit applications under the jobsOntario Community “The Town of Halton Hills is not as on top of things ignan did let slip that a Provincial government Official, Bill Kriesel, with the Culture, Tourism and Recreation ministry, will be arriving in town shortly, to show our local administrators how to fill out the appropriate forms. One more piece of good news. People with P.O.W.E.R. (Protect our Water and Environmental Resources) won’t have to be attending all those time-consuming Meetings concerning devel- opment in Acton. Things are being looked after and controlled development will be allowed. I was able to obtain a copy of the letter provincial Environment Minister Bud Wildman wrote to Barbara Halsall, president of P.O.W.E.R., in reply to a letter from this local organization (a copy of which I also have obtained) about the Status of development in Acton and how Black Creek would be affected. I think the second last Paragraph will suffice. The letter is dated July 28. . Wildman writes, “ As you can see, neither water quality nor fish in Black Creek are in jeopardy at this time. Please be assured that the Ontario Government is committed to developing responsible and environmen- tally sound programs and that the long-term viability of our natural resources is a major consideration in this Process.” Yes, it certainly is good news week. Colin Gibson Daniel torshi Colangelo, . Georgetown: “What does the social contract mean! Another definition for dicta- ip!” lisa Glen Georgetown: “I am glad Bob Rae decided to reduce the deficit, but why didn’t the government start this years ago?” OFFICE MAN. ot HALTON HILLS THIS WEEK IS INDEP| ‘PHONE: 873-2254 Merson, Georgette MacDonnell, Georgetown: “My husband won’t be getting a raise for three years. The contract will also affect his pension.” g Shew ENDENTLY OWNED & OPERATED. “AX: Ss the social contract mean to you? EDITOR: Colin Gibson Isek GRCULATION MANAGER: Marie Shadbolt 5 el aia i Donna Georgetown: “It’s a good idea. Other sectors of society have been suffering for quite a while now, and I am glad the government has finally responded.” Courneya, By any other name, By Des Morrow Garbage always stinks and the latest swift turns in this matter by region and local Politicians, proves this old Esquesing saying. One of the pettiest and most wasteful. cost-cutting moves was the region’s deci- sion to stop funding the local garbage transfer stations. This took away a traditional municipal service from rural residents. Namely, a nearby Place to dump their trash. Local municipalities have always provided a place for Pick up was out of the ques- tural and urban residents, however, always included the cost of a local dump. Rural residents got a small break in their taxes because there was no rural Pick-up. took over and created local transfer stations for the resi- dents use. Now that the region has dropped the local transfer stations and local councils were able to blame tegion for this and thus do nothing about it, the local sit- uation is.a mess, With the loss of local transfer stations there is an increase of garbage dumped along rural roads. Thousands of people are now using the Regional Dump. What did they think those People who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, pay the $4 to $5 a week charged for garbage dumping at the Privately owned local trans- fer station were going to do, at it? So the situation is: Some, who simply have not the time, are paying for Private collection at ing $200 to $250 per year and-taking it to the Private -Sarbage transfer station. Another group is driving all the way to the Regional Dump at Highway 25. A few who do not care a damn about the community are dumping it in the ditches. The latter are just a cut worse than those who use our ditch- es for fast food and pop and beer can disposal. The first two options are meters, one way, to get rid of sonal time lost is stupid. Worst of all is the extra exhaust gases added to the atmosphere. Two’ thousand residents used the dump ona Saturday. That’s at least a $.50 per liter of gas, that’s $575 per year and 150,000 liters of energy down the The transfer station for local people to use, both urban and rural, was and is, a sensible, economic and envi- ronmentally correct solution. A regional station is short- sighted, wasteful and a dis- Brace to regional politicians. tut that is not the end of this situation. The Regional Container Station is getting heavy public use. Obviously, the simple logistics of this happening has been missed by our Works Commissioner, Art Leitch, as he states “the Station is attracting a lot more waste than anticipat- ed”. Where did he think the garbage not taken to the local transfer stations was going to g0? He sug- gests that a user fee at the Regional Container Stations is a possibility. He argues, according to the local Press, that rural people do not pay a collection fee. That, Mr. Leitch, is correct, and that is why rural residents have always hauled or paid for their garbage to be hauled to the local dump. He leapfrogs from that premise to the idea that the urban resident subsi- dizes the rural resident. He States the urban resident Pays the dump. Halton Hills the urban resi- dent pays on the average assessed property an extra $165.02 for Crossing Guards, Street lighting and refuse Pickup and disposal (see tax- garbage. This princely sum . of $127.80 per year does not convince me that my fellow urban resident is subsidizing garbage always stinks my refuse disposal. I wonder if he is even paying enough to cover his garbage costs. Considering that it costs the tural resident $432 a year for refuse pickup-up and dispos- al, or $200 to $250 for dis- Posal only at the local Private transfer station, I doubt it. ir. Leitch, let’s not hear any more of this nonsense about urban residents subsi- dizing rural residents. Let’s not hear about a fee for dumping. Don’t write that report you are contemplating. Local councils, let’s see you Action funding program which has been operating | rurai and for that matter, expensive. The waste of the for nothing more than collec- Providing a local transfer sta- since April.” urban residents, to dump__ third option, as individuals tion of his garbage and rural tion for rural and urban resi- (The money had been available Prior to April under} their garbage. Rural residents haul four or five bags of and urban both pay through dents to dump their refuse. a different program). realized that collection or trash an average of 20 kilo- their taxes for what goes in Return to us that benefit we have had for years, Stop the as, say Milton. ” continued Duignan. “Town of Milton | tion because of the high their household trash is dis- In fact, a look at the rural _ present wasteful’ and environ- officials cooperate a lot more with the government, } expense in long collection graceful. Gasoline use, wear versus urban tax bill will mentally harmful situation, they’re really up on things.” routes. The taxes paid by and tear on the Car, and per- support this position. In Alternatively, if the rural resident is forced to continue Paying for local dumping, then they will have no recourse but to question the differential in taxes between urban and rural residents, It Isn't it great to know we’ve been spared the anguish Somewhere, back in time, thousand man-hours wasted payer information, Town of would seem_to me that the of having provincial money floating around Halton Councils lost the control of _ and 3,000 liters of gasoline a Halton Hills). It details that differential will have to Hills. local dumps and the tegion week. At $10 per hour and $127.80 of this charge is for increase to about $500. The Situation seems remarkably simple: provide a local trans- fer station or reduce the rural residents’ taxes,