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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday October 22, 2008 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: NEIL OLIVER Vice ­ President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER President Media Group Ltd. DAVID HARVEY General Manager 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 A step in the right direction Although Halton's shortage of hospital space has been looking particularly critical of late, some positive news emerged last week. George Smitherman, provincial minister of energy and infrastructure, says he is prepared to sit down to discuss the situation with Regional Chair Gary Carr. While that is not guarantee that the province is prepared to fast-track longawaited hospital projects in Oakville and Milton, it sounds like a step in the right direction to us. A recent bombshell delivered to Halton Healthcare Services -- that the province is delaying construction of a new Oakville hospital by more than a year -- is devastating not just for Oakville, but to neighbouring Halton communities like Milton and Burlington that also find themselves in desperate need of more hospital beds. Both communities' existing hospitals -- Milton District Hospital and Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital -- have been stretched far beyond the populations they were designed to serve. Both have also been awaiting a green light from the province to pursue expansions. With Milton now the fastest-growing community in the GTA and Burlington's lone hospital not having had a significant expansion since 1971, we would certainly hope the Ontario government would view Halton as a top priority for adding more patient spaces. Since the last provincial election, Conservative MPPs Joyce Savoline (Burlington) and Ted Chudleigh (Halton) have been going to bat before Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government in an effort to improve the health of their respective communities. Chudleigh's recent decision to raise the issue of hospital care in Milton and Oakville during Queen's Park's Question Period is being credited with Smitherman's offer to sit down with Carr to discuss Halton's healthcare needs. If Savoline, who made healthcare the top priority of her successful election campaign last year, can make similar inroads on behalf of Jo Brant, then Halton Region could soon be on its way to much better health. Once that is accomplished, the next goal for Carr, Chudleigh and Savoline will be to convince the province that its Places to Grow plan requires far more funding downloads to pay for all the other forms of infrastructure such as schools, libraries, stations for ambulance, police and fire services, community centres, parkland as well as more roadways, bridges and interchanges to existing highways. For all our sake, we should wish them well in their efforts. 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 must admit I was, and still am, quite upset about the article by David Lea in the Friday Oct. 17 edition of The Oakville Beaver. How fitting it is that Oakville Transit and its drivers' union come to a new contract agreement and now it needs to increase fares. Mr. Cole says it is due to "an unexpected increase in the cost of diesel fuel during 2008." Funny, I don't hear about any other municipalities, Mississauga, Burlington, Toronto, increasing their rates. Mr. Cole's report to the Community Reader hopes town council nixes transit fare hike Services Committee also said that, "When compared to the current fares charged by other municipalities ... Oakville Transit's still appear quite favourable." How can he say this, especially when we're paying the same adult fare as riders on the TTC do, and we get less than half the service? The fare increase from July 2008 was supposed to increase service; they added a Saturday route to the #22 bus, Saturday service every 30 minutes for Route 24 and increased peak-hour service for route 200. There was also a new route 32 introduced. This was a start, but the transit system still needs vast improvements. What happened to the Oakville Transit Plan 6F872? I thought they were working toward going to a grid system instead of the confusing neighbourhood route system we have now. There are still areas of the town that are not serviced by buses. As I said at the start, this whole fiasco has me upset. I hope our councillors will do the right thing and say no to this increase. CARMINE NACCARATO Turner tells why he did it Your paper fussed over my decision on election night, prior to the polls closing, to punt your reporter from my campaign office. You ask why. Actually, you didn't ask. You just concluded, saying this action "Speaks volumes about this man's principles." Maybe so, if the principle involved is journalistic ethics. During the campaign, I issued three media releases, one on the Halton economy and job losses, one on the truth about child care payments and one on a base online attack on my wife and campaign manager. You printed none. During the campaign, I issued a media notice of an open Town Hall meeting to be held for voters wanting to ask detailed questions of me that an all-candidates debate would not allow. You refused to print it. I was told to buy an ad. In the concluding days of the campaign you ran an editorial endorsing the Conservative candidate. Your two sister Metroland papers in Halton also ran editorials endorsing the Conservatives in the three federal ridings covered. In fact, you all ran exactly the same editorial (with a few words changed). So much for community journalism. So much for transparency and accountability to readers, since you did not disclose the "local" editorial comment wasn't local at all. Given this track record, I thought it best to leave election night reporting to television and radio journalists. They don't make it up. GARTH TURNER 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. Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com