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

6 ·The IFP· Halton Hills ·Tuesday, March 13, 2012 OPINION Shop 'til you drop It's likely you can cut the frustration level with a knife at Town hall these days. For years the Town has struggled to turn the 401-407 Gateway Business Park, more commonly referred to as the 401 Corridor, and even more commonly known as `that area along Steeles Avenue between Trafalgar Rd. and James Snow Parkway'-- into something, anything. Dreams of prestige industrial buildings soon became largely industrial operations and now, with outlet malls planned by Calloway REIT (at Trafalgar Rd. and Hwy. 401) and RioCan (at James Snow Parkway and Hwy. 401) it appeared two significant commercial malls might provide the Town with the answer (and tax dollars) to its dreams. But, big business-- and U.S.-style big business at that (i.e. nasty)-- has intervened, at least for the short term. RioCan has filed an application to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to quash the bylaws passed by the Town to enable the construction of the proposed $170 million Calloway REIT mall. The application also requests declarations that the Town and Regional site plan and servicing agreements, respectively, were entered into illegally with Calloway REIT. From where we sit this just looks like a blatant attempt by one mall operator (RioCan) to slow/disrupt/stall another (Calloway) from getting shovels in the ground. The trouble is the Town (and Region) and more importantly, local consumers, looking for additional shopping opportunities, are penalized. This action will only make lawyers richer, and delay further development of the Corridor. Shop `til you drop indeed. 905-873-0301 Publisher: Ken Nugent General manager: Steve Foreman (sforeman@theifp.ca) Retail advertising manager: Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@theifp.ca) Managing editor: John McGhie (jmcghie@theifp.ca) Distribution manager: Nancy Geissler (ngeissler@theifp.ca) Classifieds Kristie Pells (classified@theifp.ca) Accounting Rose Marie Gauthier Editorial Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@theifp.ca) Ted Brown: Photography (tbrown@theifp.ca) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@theifp.ca) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@theifp.ca) Letters policy Letters must include an address and daytime phone number. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters should not exceed 150 words and may be edited for content and/or length. Publication is not guaranteed. Email: jmcghie@theifp.ca Steve Nease Mail or drop off: Independent & Free Press, 280 Guelph St., Unit 29, Georgetown, ON., L7G 4B1. Letters to the editor Drivers getting worse in town These are your neighbours driving alongside you, and your children trying to cross these roads. This is a sensitive time of day to be aggressively speeding around town. Please keep this in mind when you choose to exemplify all the behaviours we chastise our children for: Butting in/cursing/yelling and generally being rude/thoughtless-- and behaving dangerously. It takes 10 minutes to get anywhere in town. I challenge everybody to leave themselves the extra 10 minutes, to slow down and actually enjoy their morning drive through our community. Dawn Attard, Georgetown donation is key to improving the everyday lives of our clients. Please give; the rewards are twofold. Our campaign goal for 2012 is $110,000. You, the community of Halton Hills, have the choice of deciding who should be the recipient of charitable monies, but, we hope your generosity includes CAS-hh. Remember, we live in a truly great community-- together we can do this. For more information please visit our website www.cancerassistance.org or call our office at 905-702-8886. Betty Fendley, Campaign Manager Cancer Assistance Services of Halton Hills Dear editor, Every morning I start the car, head out the door and spend 20 minutes driving my children across town to the French Immersion program and back, then head out of town to work. Sounds simple right? I am in, and witness, near collisions and displays of anger every morning and frankly it shocks me. The drivers in this town have become insane! I have lived in Georgetown for 17 years, coming WEB POLL RESULTS here from Toronto, and have never (Go to www.independentfreepress.com) seen anything like it. From the people butting in, out The town of Georgina is considering banof turn, at four-way stops and then ning smoking at most of the town's outdoor arguing with/cursing the other drivparks, sports fields, etc. Should smoking be ers who are proceeding when they banned at outdoor facilities? should, to the irate woman at Tim · Yes. Second-hand smoke is a problem Hortons screaming obscenities at regardless if it's inside or outside (51%) another driver for not allowing her · No. Smokers should be allowed to light up to butt into the line until he finally gave in. outside (49%) At least once a week, I get hollered for leaving Holy Cross The Independent & Free Press School-- at the intersection-- on a The Independent & Free Press is published Tuesday and Thursday and green light! is one of several Metroland Media Group Ltd. community newspapers. EdiIt is very disheartening to see torial and advertising content of The Independent & Free Press is protected this behaviour every day. by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Dear editor, Think about the hundreds of families, friends and neighbors who need help while battling cancer. Cancer Assistance Services of Halton Hills' annual Residential Campaign runs April 1-30. Our countless dedicated volunteer canvassers will be knocking on your door. Please, think of others who are suffering with cancer by reaching deeply into your pockets. Your CAS-hh campaign: care great Give where you live Hospital Dear editor, I recently had occasion to spend a month dealing with various departments of the Georgetown Hospital. The level of care, compassion and good humour in each of those areas was the best. I have had other occasions to deal with is hospital and the care is always top-notch. You are the best. Robin Elliott, Acton