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6 THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2007 EDITORIAL Distributed to every home in Acton and area as well as adjoining communities. 373 Queen Street East, Unit 1 Acton, Ontario L7J 2N2 email: thenewtanner@on.aibn.com Frances Niblock Mike OLeary Angela Tyler Janis Fread Rebecca Ring Publisher Editorial Ted Tyler Hartley Coles Editorial Contributors Advertising and Circulation Composing Marie Shadbolt Bruce Cargill Danielle McIsaac Janine Taylor By Angela Tyler with Hartley Coles (519) 853-0051 Fax: (519) 853-0052 Every effort will be made to see advertising copy, neatly presented, is correctly printed. The publisher assumes no financial responsibility for typographical errors or omissions in advertising, but will gladly reprint without charge that part of an advertisement in which an error may occur provided a claim is made within five days of publication. All articles, advertisements and graphic artwork appearing in The New Tanner is copyrighted. Any usage, reproduction or publication of these items, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher of The New Tanner is a copyright infringement and subject to legal action. A Place to Grow Ontari-ari-ario The Irish have an old joke about a policeman recently transferred from a beat to the mounted unit. With no knowledge of horses, let alone riding one, the cop was having difficulty getting up into the saddle. He prayed to St. Patrick for assistance. No success. He slid back. He implored St. Brendan to lend him a hand. Again, no result. He went through a litany of the saints. Each time he just slid back to the ground. Determined to succeed he gave it one more try, managed to get up on the horse, kept going, landing kerplunk on his backside on the other side. Shaken, bewildered and confounded, he shook his fist at the heavens and yelled; I didnt ask you all to push at once. It reminds this scribe of the Provinces Place to Grow Plan. It would more than double Haltons population to 780,300 in 25 years. Growth was once considered an answer to all that afflicted most municipali- ties. Everyone clamoured for it and it came but only in manageable doses. Now the Provinces amitious plans for growth would see Halton Hills land gobbled up in one big push. Naturally, local politicians led by Mayor Rick Bonnette are perturbed. Not only would it affect the quality of life in Halton but the estimated $6.8 billion required for assimilating all this infrastructure growth was not included in the plan. Alarm bells are ringing. The mayor says the Province is already delinquent in providing an estimated $300 million for existing growth in Haltons four municipalities. So theyre pushing back. The Region and the municipalities are jointly advising Queens Park they cant accommodate the growth targets specified in The Plan unless the Province provides Halton with the necessary financial tools and funding commitments for infrastructure. Much of the growth is planned for some of the best agricultural land in the province, south of Georgetown, extending as far as Highway 401. Growth areas would house another 150,000 people changing the rural landscape into a veritable mish-mash of subdivisions along the lines of Mississauga and Brampton and much like what is happening in Milton. Theres good cause for alarm but not only from a fiscal stand point. It could mean that the long standing rural-urban mix in Halton will be overwhelmed by urban. Quality of life will suffer. The area around Acton has been protected from expansion by the imposition of the Greenbelt legislation so people in this area are not likely ever to see almost unbridled growth. But the old County of Halton will be almost completely altered if the provinces Place to Grown Plan is fully implemented. Briefly The big oil companies are certainly opportunists, if not all the other names they are being called by motorists since they raised prices at the gas pumps to an unseemly $1.02 or $1.03 a litre or more. Its all being blamed on refinery fires in Sarnia and Nanticoke which caused shortage of gasoline even to the point where some stations were closed. Of course, prices are based on supply and demand and whether the shortage is real or artificial as some maintain, Big Oil has again uncovered windfall profits. *** The scary thing about the alleged gasoline shortage is the turmoil it caused among motorists looking for gasoline with some stations shut and others run- ning out. This was all the result of a nasty fire in one refinery and a minor in the other. If that can cause severe shortages think of the chaos that would ensue if terrorists attacked the refineries of the province. Wed be paralyzed. *** Last Thursdays vicious winter storm shut down roads and highways all over southern Ontario but this area escaped relatively unscathed. Driving condi- tions were horrible but most of the roads were kept open in the storm and in its aftermath, a tribute to the work of Town and highway crews on plows. When youre smiling The other day at work, I made a phone call to a customer. We had talked over the phone for years and she always recognized my voice. I seem to always start my conversations with her in the same manner Angieheyhow are you? Usually she responds with a Hi, Angela since we both have the same name. However, this time she started to giggle. I asked her what was making her laugh and she told me it was how I sounded. Apparently, I lacked en- thusiasm in my voice. You never sound really happy, she told me. I found myself explaining myself to her. Well, you know, Im not really an overly bubbly person. I wanted to tell her that I do have my moments but Im not the type of person to be beaming from ear to ear with a gigantic Julia Roberts smile. Yet, just because I am not smiling and bubbly all the time doesnt mean Im not happy. I had a similar type conversa- tion when I first started dating the Dude years ago. He had learned to know the inner-me, the one that maybe isnt bubbly all the time. But deep down he knew I had it in me and it actually did appear from time to time. I was surprised one day when he called one of his friends on my phone and his friends daugh- ter answered the phone. Why are you at Angelas house? You arent dating her are you? she asked, not knowing I was right beside him. She is so-o-o-o-o- o-o mean. He thought it was funny. I told him not to wreck it for me, that sometimes that reputation works well when I play school bus driver. According to the Dude, there are people who think I am a tad nasty because Im not beam- ing and bubbly all the time. Over the weekend, after that odd conversation, I was at a hair salon reading a magazine. I just look for things that interest me and inspiration for different col- umns. There it was staring at me. It was a big toothy smile and the title of the article was SMILES. As I was reading I was really get- ting into this information piece. I even asked my hair gal if I could tear it out of the magazine. She said yes, but was curious as to what it was about. Finally, I had some backing for not smiling all the time. Ive always heard it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown. Then in Allure magazine I found victory. According to plastic surgeon David Song, it takes 12 muscles to smile. Then the magic number 11 appeared. Song stated it only took 11 muscles to frown. So, Im figuring that if Im not grinning from ear to ear, and Im not frowning, just kind of going with the flow, then Im probably only using about eight muscles. Maybe, just maybe, as that awful 40 number is approaching quicker and quicker, I may not have as many wrinkles. Maybe that is why the paint guy at the Home Depot called me Miss, not Maam, not just once, but three times. Temperatures may dip well below zero but the Black Creek still hurries on its way to join the Credit River through the heart of the village of Limehouse. The fast flowing stream starts its journey from the Fairy Lake dam through Acton to Limehouse and then to Stewartown and Georgetown where it is joined by Silver Creek and another tributary before flowing into The Credit at Norval.