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Page 6 — Halton Hills This Week, Saturday, November 27, 1993 . HIS WEEK Georgetown, Ont. L7G 481, PUBLISHER: Ken Bellamy OFFICE MANAGER: Jean Shewell When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters A lot has changed about Christmas since the early 1900’s. Christmas trees are as apt to come from a factory as a forest; nutcrackers have given way to electronic games in children’s stockings. One thing that hasn’t changed is Christmas Seals. The colorful Seals can still be found on millions of cards and packages each year. And they’re still the country’s leading source of funds for fighting lung disease. The Lung Association has just mailed the 1993 Christmas Seals to some 3.5 million homes in Ontario, including 120,000 homes here in Halton. This year’s campaign aims to raise $5 million province-wide and $160,000 locally forms of lung disease, which together represent the third leading cause of death in Canada. The 1993 Seal was designed by artist Raymond Boyer. The Seal reflects a continuing fondness for traditional holiday images. It depicts a burning can- dle against a winter’s night sky. The flame is sym- bolic of hope - hope for those struggling with lung disease. But there’s a part of the Christmas Seal tradition The Lung Association would just as soon end. Fund from the first campaign were used to fight tubercu- losis (TB), which was then the leading killer in Ontario. That fight, which once seemed all but won continues, as outbreaks of drug-resistant TB have raised the spectre of deadly epidemics. “It’s not time to panic about the threat from TB in Canada,” says Dr. John Kirby, medical advisor to The Lung Association, “through education and Tesearch supported by Christmas Seals today, there’s less chance they’ll have to worry about tuberculosis tomorrow as well as other forms of lung disease.” Dr. Kirby says the next few years could bring sig- nificant gains in lung disease research: “New thera- Pies are saving an increasing number of babies born with respiratory problems. We’re working towards unraveling the genetic causes of asthma. With suc- cess in these areas and continued progress against air pollution and smoking, tens of thousands of lives could be saved each year.” However, more resources are desperately needed. In recent years, the death rate from lung disease has been increasing dramatically. With more resources, we can not only stop the alarming rise in deaths from lung disease, we can reverse it. That’s what Christmas Seals are all about. Please give generously because when you can’t breathe, nothing else matters! NDP legislation is seriously flawed To the Editor: _. - additional costs and paper- Re: Proposed 4 Employment Equity When will this one-term Legislation NDP government stop pass- Not only is this proposed _ing legislation which has a legislation profoundly cost component associated flawed, it is_also another dramatic example of this NDP government's contin- ued lack of consideration for municipalities and the Private sector to cope with additional costs. Municipalities such as Oakville and Halton Region are already well-advanced at self-regulating such ini- tiatives. And the last thing the private sector needs is with it without supporting dollars. As a politician, I believe government at every level should have to pay for any costs associated with legis- lation or by-laws initiated by that government. Councillor Stephen Sparling, Halton Region and Oakville Councillor RE TT More letters page 8 The People’s Corner EDITOR: Colin Gibson CIRCULATION MANAGER: Marie Shadbolt HALTON HILLS THIS WEEK IS INDEPENDENTLY OWNED & OPERATED. PHONE: 873-2254 FAX:873-391: Major truck crash possibility a concern To the Editor: I found the article by your reporter Ms. Oksana Buhel and Mr. Dale Holman most interesting, without wishing to engage in a protracted or ongoing dialogue on the subject I offer the following comments. First let me say that my own son-in-law drives a truck for a living and shares the same view as Mr. Holman, both are obviously among the professionals in their occupation, unfortu- nately not all who drive the Big Rigs subscribe to their work ethic. One of the things your reporter might have found interesting and useful view- ing prior to writing the story was a program recently aired on C.B.C Marketplace entitled “Jack-Knifed.” The points raised in this documentary give cause for grave concern regarding the safety of large trucks, not only on the highways but even more so when one considers the potential for and consequences of a major crash on the Maple Ave. hill, which is really the reason for this letter. Consider the following quotes from the program!: 1.) “In Canada as many as eight people are killed every week in accidents involving cks.” 2.) “Poor vehicle mainte- nance and/or unskilled dri- vers are a major factor.” 3.) “One out of every three trucks stopped or approximately (30 percent) fail roadside inspections.” Many other points were raised in the program, such as the possibility of manda- tory ABS braking systems and more rigid driver train- ing standards being intro-. duced, which I must point out are endorsed and pro- moted by various trucking associations and drivers: The overriding issue of concern to Maple Ave. resi- dents is not drivers like Mr. olman, it is the fact that there is no logical reason for heavy trucks to be on a residential street. 1 wonder if our emergency response teams could handle a tanker crash similar to the one that destroyed the James Snow 401, overpass if it occurred at the corner of Main and Maple? Mr. Holman is quite cor- rect, deliveries must be Bingo a major fundraiser To the Editor: In your latest edition of the Paper I read about the upcoming decisions to be made by the town regarding “Bingo Halls” in Halton Hills. ; As the Vice-President of the Halton Hills Gymnastic Club, I would like to let the community know how important bingo is to the fundraising efforts of sports clubs and community groups and, what is currently like to fundraise at a bingo outside of our community. It is very difficult to get Parents to travel (in our case) to Oakville to do our sched- uled “Bingo” nights. It isn’t even the distance that is so bad (although for most of us it is a nuisance) but more the time of night that we heve to be there. Our bingo time slot is at 9:45 p.m. which means for the majority of the parent volunteers we do not get home until 1 o’clock in the morning. You see, we are the low group on the totem pole and do not get to rotate into other time slots. I used to ire a student in the summer to attend on my behalf, but what parent is going to let their kids be out until 1 a.m. on a school night. I want you to understand that I am not a big fan of “Bingo”, but I have a child who really likes the sport of gymnastics and is in the competitive program. In order for her to remain in this Program, we must, as par- ents, volunteer our time to help fundraise and generally manage the operations of the gymnastic club. The Halton Hills Gymnastic club moved to a new facility in September and the cost to Tun this facility means that we thust fundraise annually approximately $20,000. This facility provides recreational gymnastic. programs to approximately 400 children. in our community. To annu- ally raise $20,000 it takes a lot of organization and dedi- cation by our parent volun- teers. I am sure there are many other sport groups, commu- nity groups etc... who have considered doing bingo’s to fundraise but have been turned down by other munic- ipalities as their time slots are already full with their own local groups or they have a very long waiting list. On behalf of the Halton Hills Gymnastics Club (I am sure I can speak on behalf of the other parents who drive to Oakville), we would like to see a BINGO open up in Halton Hills and we would like to be the first group on the list. (Don’t tell anyone but, I have even had a few good laughs while working at the Bingo Hall). What’s under the “B”? Bingo in Halton Hills for the future of good kids programs in our area!!! Laurie Burns, Georgetown. made to various town busi- hesses but there are none that I know of that cannot be handled by alternate routes to Maple Ave. and certainly none that require hundreds of semi-trailer and tandem dump truck loads of aggregate each day. It is to be hoped that our elected officials pay close attention to the voice of their constituents in this matter and understand the mood of the electorate when it comes to being heard! Something Conservatives learned the hard way. R.G Sears, Georgetown Turner credibility questioned To the Editor: Recently, former National Revenue Minister and Halton-Peel MP Garth Turner has been using news- Paper columns to deliver a self-serving analysis of the federal election. The worst of it is that Mr. Turner appears to have learned lit- tle from the devastation ‘suf- fered by his party. in the Financial Post, for instance, he maintains that the Progressive Conservative Party will survive its elec- tion humiliation. Fair enough: Where he departs from reality is his comment that, “if Canada is to sur- vive the Tories must.” We have already seen what the PCs have done for national unity. If Canada breaks up'in-the next few years, the Tories can take credit for it because of the massive political divisions it has helped create within the country. If, however, the country is held together — as is likely — the credit will belong to Jean Chretien and the new Liberal Government. Mr. Turner’s posturing about the future of the Tories would be more believable if he were to tell us that the past election campaign taught them that Canadian voters need to be listened to, not lied to. To cite one example, few. peo- ple believe that the PCs didn’t have a good idea of what the current deficit would, no matter what fig- ures they used during the election. And Mr. Turner continues to take digs at the new gov- ernment and its plans for Canada, claiming that pro- grams such as job creation will increase the national debt. This from a former MP in a government which drove the deficit and nation- al debt skyward while doing nothing to attack the nation- al ailments of unemploy- ment and business failure. We will watch with inter- est.Mr. Turner’s new career as a television business edi- tor for stations in southwest- ern Ontario. For the sake of his’ viewers, I hope that he serves up greater doses of honesty and reality than‘he has done so far in his final media columns. Bob Stuart, Georgetown