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

THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2006 THE NEW TANNER 7 GRAPEVINE with Mike OLeary The Way I See It LIFESAVER THANKED Congrats to Actons Linda Jean whose quick thinking and life- saving skills saved the life of a 10-year-old boy who was drown- ing at Wildwood Manor camp last August. Although she was unable to at- tend last Thursdays ceremony at Halton police HQ, Jean will receive a Chiefs Commendation Award for resuscitating the boy by perform- ing CPR for five minutes until he regained consciousness. He was taken to hospital by ambulance and fully recovered. Jean, who worked in the camps lunchroom and learned CPR because she watches her grand- children, said it was instinct that made her take charge when she saw the boys lifeless body on the pool deck. And, its not the first time shes saved a life many years ago she saved a baby who was choking. SOBEYS RAFFLE The sleek 16-foot canoe sus- pended above the aisle in Sobeys has made more than a few shoppers halt in their tracks as their minds wander from their shopping lists to perfect paddles. The canoe, valued at $1,200, and 34 other donated gifts will be raffled by Sobeys in its campaign now at more than $5,000 to raise money for the Acton skate- board park. Other prizes in the August first draw, sponsored by the Acton Knights of Columbus, include a Little Tyke toy box, carving sets, a locker and gym bags. Tickets will be on sale any day. *** Speaking of the skateboard park Town staff are tweaking final designs for the $204,000 facility and details of the very successful fundraising campaign should be revealed at the mid-June Town Council meeting, along with an ambitious construction schedule and hopeful fall opening. On Friday, grateful ASAP mem- bers accepted a cheque for $2,500 from Bank of Montreal officials at the Acton branch Actons five financial institutions bucked up big for the skateboard, blades and BMX park to be built beside the arena, donating and pledging a total of $22,500. ACTON INKED Fat Cat Tattoo will open at 20 Mill Street East on June 17 during the BIAs Taste of Acton party when tattoo artists David and Sharon Coulson will introduce themselves to the town. The Coulsons, who bought the building and have already moved to Acton, will continue to oper- ate their Aurora tattoo shop, also known as Fat Cat Tattoo. Coulson said they discovered Acton while visiting friends and decided this would be their home and business base. *** The Taste of Acton runs from 12 to 4 p.m. on June 17, and will feature walking historical tours, a classic car show and restaurant food sampling. COMMUNITY MUSIC The great acoustics at Bethel Christian Reformed Church will showcase the music skills of a num- ber of Acton residents on Sunday as the Acton Citizens Band hosts a Community Musicians Making Music concert at 2 p.m. Band members will perform a selection of favourites and feature soloists Joanna Kroezen and Carin Pelka. The Area Code 519 barbershop quartet, featuring Actons Don Lindsay will entertain with their dulcet tones and the Bands begin- ner band will show their potential. The concert is a fundraiser for the Acton FoodShare foodbank and a free will offering is requested. Refreshments will be offered. The Bands last concert for FoodShare raised approximately $200 and 99-pounds of nonperish- able food. JUMPSTART Over half of the low-income Halton Hills kids able to take part in spring sports and recreation programs due to the JumpStart pro- gram are from Acton, an increase since the launch of the program in this area last year by the Canadian Tire Foundation for Families. JumpStart, using $8,847 in dona- tions, has paid registration fees and equipment costs for 29 Acton kids (46 from Georgetown) to date. Money is available for all chil- dren, five-to-18, who can register in two programs each year. Forms are available at the Town office and at Canadian Tire. HEALTH HINTS Plagued by headaches, back- aches, sore joints, digestion problems, or just not feeling up to snuff? If so, check out Knox Presbyterian Church on May 31, for a fun and informative talk with Actons Margaret Aitken, a certi- fied reflexologist. The free evening begins at 7:30 p.m., and refreshments will be served. GET FIT Students and staff at Robert Little School are celebrating Canadas Fitweek this week with an agenda full of fun activities including SpecTAGular Day today, (Thurs- day) a national challenge involving students, teachers staff and parents who played a continuous game of tag for 30 minutes. Tomorrow is Outrageous Friday and Crazy Sneaker Day when classes will challenge each other to perform the most outrageous physical activity will include a skip-a-thon, a walk-a-thon, a run-a- thon and cooperative games. Canadas Fitweek began in1983 as a way to motivate Canadians to become more physically active. 2 + 2 = 90 million Sheila Fraser must have the patience of Job. Either that or Canadas Auditor General must have a great sense of humour and permission to expense scotch. The woman is obviously bril- liant but year after year she goes through the mental masturbation exercise of issuing her report to parliament. Most bean counters, er, ac- countants I know would have given up in frustration and run screaming from the building by now. Every year the federal government flushes billions and billions of taxpayers money down the drain. Just as predict- ably, every year parliament, and their bureaucratic accomplices, continue to fund their nefarious pet projects confident in the knowledge they wont spend one day in the Crowbar Hilton for their fraudulent schemes. I realize that there are a few small fish looking at jail time in Quebec. The Tories are also making noises about going af- ter the whole $200 million the Liberals are suspected of embez- zling from we serfs. But does anyone with the brainpower of a toaster really think the top brass will ever get charged? As an example: why arent messieurs Chretien and Martin playing pick-up-the-soap with the as- sorted inmates in Kingston. Like that will ever happen. This years Auditor Generals report covers a broad spectrum of mismanagement. The depart- ment of Indian and Northern Affairs, for instance, our gener- ous politicians bestowed over $6 billion with only one teensy problem. The denizens of Dis- neyland-on-the-Rideau failed to conduct a proper audit of their largesse. Probably didnt want to insult anyone by asking the hard questions. Heres one that amazed me. The kindly folks at Revenue Canada are not doing enough to collect more than $18 billion in tax debts. Excuse me these cer- tainly arent the same sharks I had to deal with at Revenue Canada. Like most small businessmen I was often cash poor. Most of my sales occurred between September and December. The nice people at RevCan were happy to work out a payment plan for me. After, of course, I paid a significant penalty and usuri- ous interest rates, of course. You know that commercial hands in your pocket? Thats the Revenue Canada anthem. Imagine my surprise when Ms. Fraser disclosed that the RevCan folks have a kinder, gentler side. The folks at Revenue Canada cant offer any explanation why the uncollectable taxes increased by 88% while taxes brought in rose by 48% in the last nine years. Perhaps the latter fact goes a long way to explaining the former. *** This column has long been a supporter of Canadas military. One of the first columns I wrote 13 years ago was in support of our soldiers. But obviously the defence department needs people who can seal the deal. In the latest reporting year the military recruited over 20,000 applicants. But they only signed slightly more than 700. Thats a pretty low percentage of success- ful enlistments. If the military is to have any chance of meeting the enlistment targets that trend has to be reversed. To be fair theres a big gap between application and a suc- cessful enlistment. In todays modern military a soldier, sailor or airman must have an interest in technology. Like most specialized occupations there is probably a higher level of education needed. Yesterdays soldiers would be hard pressed to meet the demands put on todays troops. Thats no slight on the old sweats but just a sign of our times. We all mourn the loss of Capt. Nichola Goddard in Afghani- stan. The mere fact she was there is another sign of the changing face of soldiering. Some will say that women warriors are a good thing. Others will dis- agree. I think the decision to have women participating in the military was inevitable. The bottom line is that Ca- nadian forces are spending a bundle trying to recruit new members. Whether its better pre-screening, better salaries or better equipment the answer has to be found. The pitiful rate of successful recruiting must improve. Regular readers will know I have opposed the long gun reg- istration since it was first passed into law in 1985. Of course, it didnt get off until 97 or 98. This should have been the first clue the program was doomed for failure. This year the Auditor General found $61 million in costs that the previous government had hidden in different departments. Had that fraud occurred in pri- vate business heads would roll. But the feds attitude is Hey! Look what she found. Now who could have put that $60 million there? I dunnknow. Computers are wonderful; Right? The firearms centres new system costs us $90 million, is overbudget (what a shock) is three years late and best of all theyre not using them yet. But what can you expect from a program that the feds said in 1985 would only cost $2 million per year. This years budget? Close to $90 million or so. The total cost so far? Over a billion dollars and counting. How do you spell boondoggle? Cha-Ching! BLOSSOMS GALORE: Home owners anxious to keep driveways clean as trees everywhere dropped multitude of seeds, and other stuff had to deal with more than they bargained for. In this instance a well known woodsman on Elizabeth Drive ran for shelter as the yellow stuff red maples dropped triggered allergies he hadnt known since 2005. He left only a plaintive note for help.