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

OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, July 9, 2009 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 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. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary Guest Columnist NEIL OLIVER Vice-president and Group Publisher, Metroland West 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 SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com Who should pay? Gary Carr, Halton Region chair ho should pay for the Regional roads, water and wastewater infrastructure that is required to support growth in Halton? This is a very important question that Regional Council will be considering at its meeting on July 15. Gary Carr I am requesting your assistance and looking for your comments on this very important matter. Halton Regional staff have identified requirements for over $2.4 billion in water, wastewater and road infrastructure over the next 12 years to support planned development. The Region's Official Plan requires that regional council approve an acceptable financing plan before development can proceed. The financing plan determines who pays and who assumes the risks of financing required infrastructure -- regional taxpayers or developers. This proposed plan ensures development pays for growth. Staff report CS-49-09/PW20-09/LPS80-09: Financial and Implementation Plan for the 2008/2009 Allocation Program, outlines this plan, and is available on our website at www.halton.ca. This proposed plan would mean the development industry would pay for the cost for new roads, water and wastewater infrastructure in Halton Region to ensure that the cost of growth is not paid for by existing taxpayers. I am of the opinion that our existing taxpayers should not be burdened with these growth-related costs, however this has not yet been decided on by Council. Lawyers representing some developers have argued the developers should not pay for these costs, and that instead either taxpayers should pay or we should postpone building the roads and water and wastewater infrastructure that is required. I totally disagree with the developers' lawyers. What do you think? Should regional taxpayers assume greater responsibility for financing development-related infrastructure? Should the Region delay delivery of road improvements and other infrastructure currently planned? The cost to Halton taxpayers, if the developers get their way, is a 6.1 per cent increase on taxes and 6.1 per cent increase on water rates. I do not believe that existing taxpayers should be burdened with these costs. On July 15, Regional Council will be voting on this very important matter. Some developers believe we should postpone building the roads and required infrastructure, and/or to have the taxpayers of Halton subsidize the development that is required in our Region. How do you think Regional Council should vote? I would appreciate your comments on this matter. If you would like to provide Regional Council input on this important issue, please e-mail me before July 15 at gary.carr@halton.ca and I will pass it along to my colleagues to ensure they are aware of your views on this issue before they vote on it in July. Please also encourage your family and friends living in Halton Region to do the same, as I want to hear from you all on this very important issue. W RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER SCRUBBING FOR SALLY ANN: Emily Sweet scrubs an SUV during the Salvation Army garage sale and car wash at the Community Church recently. The car wash, which was combined with a garage sale, was a fundraiser for the Salvation Army Sources say there are celebrities just clamouring to be killed I f online news sources and the always-trustworthy Twitter are to be believed, it's a treacherous time to be a celebrity. First Harrison Ford goes all Han Solo and is reported missing from his yacht off the coast of Who Knows Where, then Jeff Goldblum (or Natalie Portman, depending on your intrepid informant) falls off a cliff in New Zealand, then Matt Damon greets the Grim Reaper in a horrific plane crash. Or a car crash. Or a bizarre gardening accident, or what have you. To boot, in a one-week span, George Clooney, Britney Spears, Bruce Willis, Ellen DeGeneres and Rick Astley (a.k.a. Rick Who?) reportedly all met their maker -- spontaneously combusting, perhaps, like the ill-fated drummers in the band Spinal Tap? Oh, and around the same time, young Miley Cyrus caught a virus (which, strangely, sounds like a nursery rhyme). The bottom line is that, according to online news sources and the always-trustworthy Twitter, all of the above are dead. Or, at least as dead as Paul McCartney was in 1966. Or as dead as Mark Twain was when he felt compelled to write a letter declaring, "the report of my death was an exaggeration." So, what has sparked this outburst of ersatz obituaries, these counterfeit claims? Well, they seemed to be sparked by the very real deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. At which point, Internet observers believe, online (pseudo) news outlets discovered to what degree death sells. With the untimely celebrity deaths came heavenly hits on their websites. So, they decided to take it one step farther and off a few living stars. The sequence became alarmingly simple: plant a rumour and Andy Juniper then watch it take off on Twitter. Talk about the trouble with Twitter. Talk about a world gone viral. Seriously, it got to the point where Hollywood publicists were working overtime preparing press releases debunking deaths. It got to the point where celebrities who'd managed to avoid this plague -- particularly envious B-list types -- actually started clamouring to be killed. "Why is no one saying that I'm dead?" one imagines a pouting Paris Hilton intoning to her publicists. "Make me dead. Dead is hot." Pathetically, not only are these rumours lacking substance, they are even lacking imagination. The very scenario that is making the rounds in regard to Goldblum and Portman's deaths -- you know, tumbling off a cliff in Kiwi-land -- made the rounds a few years ago, with Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks then being the poor plungers. Honestly, who starts these rumours and who writes about them? I can just hear an online scribe saying: "I have no journalism background, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night." Finally, while soulless sorts will say that these rumours are harmless, others think of people like Patrick Swayze who, as of this writing, is still fighting for his life with pancreatic cancer, and who has been pronounced dead on Twitter more than once. In May, rumours of his demise went viral, to the point where his publicist had to issue a statement against the "severely reckless reports. Patrick Swayze," she wrote, "is alive, well, and is enjoying his life." Ah, but his death would have made such a better story. Honestly, who wants to read about people who are alive and doing well? Andy Juniper can be visited at his website, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com.