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

6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday October 31, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager Crystal ball gazing If only we could gaze into a crystal ball to see what Halton Region would be like in 2031. We are sure it would make life much easier for the regional planners who are doing their own form of crystal-ball gazing as they prepare for Halton's expected massive growth. According to the provincial Places to Grow document, Halton must plan for up to 780,000 people and 390,000 jobs by the year 2031, while the current Official Plan looks at growth to 2021 and for a population of 628,900 people and 340,000 jobs. "When we plan for what Halton will look like in the future, we need to hear from the community on what they want to protect and preserve as we plan for that growth," said Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr. That's the reason Halton Region's planners are turning to the community now to find out what local groups and businesses believe are the most important issues and challenges that will face this area in the coming years. Sustainable Halton is a planning process designed to consider all aspects of growth including, among other things, the environment, transportation needs, infrastructure, social and emergency services, and adequate housing. While the Region intends to host open houses this winter, it also wants to ensure that everyone has a chance to participate. Halton staffers say they are available to any community group or business that would like to hear a presentation and discuss the Sustainable Halton planning process. It is important for all our voices to be heard as the Region prepares to meet the critical challenges in the years to come. If you would like more information and to have Halton make a presentation to your group either send an e-mail to sustainable@halton.ca or phone 905825-6000, ext. 7455. Additional details are also available online at www.halton.ca/sustainablehalton. Halton is a great place in which to work, play and live. We need to keep it that way. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR I was shocked when I read the story (Family finds confidential CAS files, Oakville Beaver, Oct. 26) on the front cover about the case worker who accidentally left her paper work behind. Do you think she did this intentionally? Can people not make an error these days? I was surprised by the couple that found them. Are they not just as guilty for reading them and then calling the press? I don't know which is worse. Who made the graver error? Why would they continue to read them to the extent that they knew the details of CAS story prompts question: Whatever happened to human decency? the other families' deepest and darkest secrets? I cannot believe the reporter actually admitted to viewing the files, which included relocation of women and children to foster homes, details of sexual abuse, drinking and drug habits. Why was this any of their business? This didn't even belong to them. The error here was that a case worker accidentally left some paper work behind. If it had been her wallet, would it have made a difference? Do they call her and let her know that she forgot her wallet, or do they go through it, take the money, use all of her credits cards for a lesson to her for leaving it then pass it on to someone else to do the same? In the article, it states "all of these cases have been jeopardized." My question is "By who?" Are humans no longer able to make errors? Have we stooped so low that we expect perfection? What is the driving force? Do we believe we are better than the other person, or do we think so little of ourselves that we have lost our human decency? There is no question that the caseworker should have kept those files in her car, or organized herself better. I could however, almost guarantee you that a simple phone call to her, would have been enough for her to think twice, knowing the increasing demands about confidentially. So who is the real guilty party in this whole situation? The one who made a human error or the one who lost their human decency? MARY LOHR Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com CAS story was shameful I was horrified to read of the CAS file left in a kitchen by a case worker -- not because the files were inadvertently left, but because of the attitude of the people that found it (Family finds confidential CAS files, Oakville Beaver, Oct. 26). It is unconscionable that after reading the files (a clear violation of the privacy they claim needs to be protected) and recognizing that these files are confidential in nature, they refuse to hand them over to the proper agency by adopting a holier-thanthou attitude. How could you possibly expect CAS to comment without having seen the documents? Shame on The Beaver for reading the files and reporting on it. MAUREEN NOVAK The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council.The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206,Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.