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Oakville Bea Ian Oliver Publisher Robert Glasbey Advertising Director Norman Alexander Editor Geoff Hill Circulation Director Teri Casas Office Manager Tim Coles Production Manager _A Amendment Act, 1992". But the implications of this piece of legislation could well spell the deathâ€"knell for some Ontario businesses, already reeling under an avalanche of both federal and provincial regulations, not to mention the recessionary economic climate. ty In essenoe, the Bill tax:gets four designated groups: aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities, racial minorities and women. The legislation will be mandatory. This past June, Ziemba released the ‘Draft Regulation‘ for Bill 79 that provided details on the definition of the designated groups, reporting procedures and employee participation in both organized and unorganized workplaces. Although formal submissions on the Draft Regulations were to be submitted by Oct. 29th, the ministry is continuing the dialogue with business and industry. For bugirilésisi, the leg‘i]s]ation is a legal minefield and a bureaucratic morass that only government can conceive as a positive force. Here are a few samples of what Ontario business must do if the bill is passed into law. â€"the employer‘s workforce, at all occupational levels and categories, should reflect the representation of the designated groups in the community > ~all ;mplayers must institute ‘positive measures‘ for recruiting, employing and promoting members of designated groups o q q t â€"employers must have an ‘employment equity plan‘ to be negotiated with barâ€" gaining agents and developed in consultation with nonâ€"union employees. Prior to negotiating or developing a plan, the employer is to conduct a ‘workforce survey‘ to determine the extent to which it employs members of the designated groups. Information is to be obtained through a voluntary ‘selfâ€"identification‘ process. In addition, the employer is to conduct an ‘employment systems review‘ in which it analyzes its practices and policies to identify and to assist in removing barriers to the hiring, retention and promotion of members of the designated groups. And how are all these rules and regulations going to be administered? Well by a new Employment Equity Commission and an Employment Equity Tribunal that will adjudicate disputes. If the Commission doesn‘t think the employee composition of a business in a given area doesn‘t reflect the goals of the legislation, it will able to take measures to ensure that it does. This means that a business located in a specific area for a numâ€" ber of years, could find the adjacent population base changing and under this legisâ€" lation, the company would have to explain why it wasn‘t employing more people of minority backgrounds. The Commission has a $4â€"million budget for the year and the bill isn‘t even law yet. It can also force employers to comply with any part of the legislation without a hearing or fine the firm $50,000 and then write an equity plan for the business and bill that business for the work. Tronically, Queen‘s Park is itself finding huge problems in gearing up for the new legislation. Because of staff cuts, the civil service is actually losing members of the very groups the legislation is supposed to help. The NDP set up a $23â€"milâ€" lion employment equity fund to boost the number of minorities in the civil service. But when the money ran out and it became clear these groups were being laid off, the province kicked in another $4â€"million to fund the salaries of these groupsâ€"at least until the bill becomes law. After that happens these groups may again face layâ€"offs but the conscience of the government will be clear. _ The entire act needs major work if it‘s to proceed at all and under the current regulations, that shouldn‘t happen. Eliminate doubleâ€"dipping and make this pension available to people who are eligible after six years if they have no other source of income and providâ€" ing their income doesn‘t exceed the amount of the pensionâ€"then when they reach 65, they‘d be entitled to it if they didn‘t have any other income. n June of last year, provincial Citizenship Minister Elaine Ziemba introduced a very ordinaryâ€"sounding piece of legislation "Bill 79â€"Employment Equity How can MP‘s pensions be altered to ease the burden of taxpayers? Equity error 467 Speers Road, Oakville, Ont. L6K 3S4 $45â€"3824 Fax: 845â€"3085 Classified Advertising: 845â€"2809 Circulation: 845â€"9742 or 845â€"9743 \QUESTION OF THE WEEK Do you think the Petroâ€"Canada refinâ€" ery should close and why do you feel this Give us your opinion on this topic by calling 845â€"5585, box 5012. All callers are allowed 45 seconds to respond and must provide their name, address and phone number for verificaâ€" tion. A sampling of the best answers will be published in the next Weekend edition of the Oakville Beaver. K. Bell This is a story about two human settlements. One of them is called Astakos. It‘s in Greece. The other one is known as Hogtown, Zurichâ€"Onâ€"Theâ€" Humber, the Queen‘s City, Taranna The Good â€" or just Toronto. I don‘t know a whole lot about the settlement called Astakos. It‘s not listed in my World Atlas, so I figure it‘s safe to assume that it‘s smaller than Toronto. In some ways, at any rate. As for the other settlement, I know a fair bit about that one. I was born there, for one thing. And in the half a century since I have called it home from time to time. Worked there. Studied there. Got married and divorced and hired and fired and drunk and happy and sad there. I don‘t live in Toronto any more and I never will again. But I still hop an eastbound Gray Coach bus three times a week. A bus that crawls in along Toronto‘s Lakeshore underbelly to deposit me in the bowels of the burg, there to grub for my paycheque. So I have my own hardâ€" earned opinions about Toronto â€" but then, breathes there a Canuck from the Queen Charlottes to Signal Hill who doesn‘t? We all know what we think about Ontario‘s capital. And generally speaking, the farâ€" ther away you live, the less ediâ€" fying the sentiments. It‘s an easy city to dislike. Toronto doesn‘t have the easy beauty of Vancouver or the joie de vivre of Montreal. It lacks the architectural grace of Forget about ‘Toronto the good‘ _ he‘ll take Astakos any time Ottawa, the mountainscape backdrop of Calgary, the down home warmth of a St. John‘s, a Winnipeg or a Windsor. To the outsider, Toronto feels fast and brittle and cold and more than a touch arrogant. Toronto feels like it is about money. Or perhaps even less. After all, Las Vegas is about money too, but at least people enjoy themselves there. Torontonians seldom look like they‘re having a good time. Oh, they fill the seats in SkyDome and Maple Leaf Gardens, but visiting sportsmen teams speak with disâ€" belief about the eerie quietness of Toronto fans. Torontonians don‘t take easiâ€" ly to new cultural concepts either. Remember The Archer? It‘s a sculpture created by the late great Henry Moore. A vast, shining nugget of burnished bronze that glows and catches the sun in Nathan Phillips Square. Moore wanted so badly to see it standing in front of Toronto‘s New City Hall that he slashed the price to a bargain basement $100,000. Torontonians freaked out. What is it, they squawked. Looks like a chicken with it‘s head cut off. Can‘t tell the front from the back. One city counâ€" cillor grumbled "How much art and culture...can we have shoved down our throats?" Well, that was more than a quarter of a century ago, and Toronto has more or less grown grudgingly accustomed to that stunning bronze brooch pinned to it‘s bosom. It isn‘t loved. It just isn‘t talked about any more. The Rock is a massive slab of Muskoka granite that‘s being installed in a downtown park. Once again Torontonians are bleating about the extravagance of featuring something as unproductive as Precambrian stone when the space could be used to make money â€" another parking lot, say...or maybe a McDonald‘s. Instead they‘re talking about The Rock. And if it must be a damned park, then, as city councillor Tom Jacobek imaginatively suggested "What‘s wrong with simply laying some sod and planting a few bushes?" Every time there‘s a rainbow in the sky, the city fathers serve free glasses of wine to everyâ€" body in the town square. I don‘t know how Astakos stacks up against Toronto in other respects â€" garbage pickâ€" up, sewers and sidewalks, pubâ€" lic transportation... Ah, yes. That‘s the Toronto we‘ve all come to know and loathe. Which brings us full circle, to the Greek settlement of Astakos, Greece, that I menâ€" tioned way back at the beginâ€" ning. But I know which town I‘d rather be having dinner in tonight. â€" â€" Do you know what they do in Astakos?