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

THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2009 12 ??????????? ?? ?????? ????? ???????????????????? ?????????????? ??? ??? Pioneer Day The Pirates & Princess Dance Sponsored by Animals Homeward Bound Adults $20 Family of 4 incl 2 under age 12 for $50 Children under 5 free Includes: BBQ Dinner, Family Fun, Door Prizes, etc. TICKET HOLDERS ONLY TICKETS AVAILABLE AT: Rockwood Vet Clinic - 519-856-9002 Lisa Logan - 519-856-9570 Marla Reid - 519-856-9819 Costume is optional. Prize for best dressed Pirate or Princess SATURDAY, JUNE 13 6pm - 1am LLOYD DYER PARK, ROCKWOOD On Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at about 10:50pm County of Wellington OPP officers investigated the driver of a 2008 GMC Pickup located driving on Mill Street, Erin. When police spoke to the driver, they found he had been drinking. A 64-year-old Hills- burgh man has been charged with Impaired Driving and Over 80 mgs under the Criminal Code of Canada. He is sched- uled to appear in Guelph court on July 6, 2009 to answer to the charges. Pioneer Day in Rock- wood is on tap this year for Saturday, June 13, and organizers are again planning a day filled with family fun and en- tertainment. Hand-in-hand with the celebration, Ani- mals Homeward Bound is sponsoring a Pioneer Day Pirates and Prin- cess dinner dance to be held at Lloyd Dyer Park in Rockwood from 6pm to 1am. It includes a barbecue dinner, family fun and door prizes. Tickets for the dinner dance can be purchased at the Rockwood Vet Clinic (519-856-9002) or by calling Diane Lea at 519-856-9154 as well as Lisa Logan at 519-856-9570 or Maria Reid at 519-856-9819. Adults are $20 but a family of four including two under 12 only costs $50. Children under five are free. Animals Homeward Bound is a non-profit registered charity pro- viding aid for orphaned or injured wildlife or domestic animals in- cluding critical care, veterinary care, re- habilitation, release or placement. By Rebecca Ring Ontario secondary school students gathered in Ottawa recently to partici- pate in the Ontario Model Parliament, lead by Premier Jeremiah Rivers, a Grade 12 St. James Secondary school student from Rockwood. The unique process began back in April, when the students met at Up- per Canada College to choose party leaders and hold an election to choose their Premier. After their election process was complete, they went on to Queens Park where they spent three days holding a Legislative a Assembly in the actual Provincial Parliament. The students were divided into age groups and three political parties of their choosing - Liberal, Progressive Conservative and New Democrat. Rivers joined the Liberal camp and decided to run for party leader. His platform was based on party involve- ment and representing their principles. His slogan was: A famous man once said, These are my principles, if you do not like them I have others. He says he did not expect to win and was even tempted to vote for someone else, but in the end he did indeed vote for himself as did many others. They wnt on to hold leadership debates and then the election, where Rivers Lib- erals won a minority government. Guest speakers addressed the stu- dents, speaking to the main issues of the election - health care, post-sec- ondary education and the budget. The students then met with their Parties to write bill for each issue. Rivers Liberal Party developed a health care bill that included digitiz- ing medical records to replace paper records to increase efficiency; creat- ing physician units or teams of four or five that share patients and infor- mation via electronic documentation; expanding the medical clinic system to take pressure off emergeny depart- ments and having a nurse practitioner on duty at all times to fast-track care; and finally, advertise these clinics and physician teams to promote public awareness of alternatives to emer- gency rooms. Their post-secondary bill included a tuition cap limiting increases to one per cent per year for four years; fa- cilitating meetings of post-secondary institution heads to develop financial strategies; and setting aside $150 million for four years in emergency funding for any post-secondary in- stitution in serious difficulty. Rivers says many Ontario colleges and uni- versities are at a critical stage, as costs are accelerating beyond revenue, so education suffers because the schools channel more finances into research, which has a higher financial return. Some very innovative elements of the bill revolved around combating brain drain via scholarships, bursar- ies and student loans. Geographically based scholarships would require stu- dents to live in Ontario for at least five years prior to attending post-sec- ondary school. Extra funding would be awarded to students who choose to attend a college or university in a 200 km radius of their family home. Jeremiah Rivers Liberal leader in Model Parliament Students enrolled in post graduate programs could have 90% of their OSAP loans paid by the Province if they used their degree for gainful em- ployment in Ontario for four years. Rivers says the idea is to encourage deep community roots in Ontario so that people will choose to attend school and work in the Province. Their budget featured two key elements intended to increase rev- enue, highway safety and fight crime. They included re-implementing photo radar, while maintaining an OPP presence on the highways, and increasing the cigarette tax, while spending more on policing the black- market tobacco and drug trade. The third component of their budget was to restore the safety net fund to $750 million, as it has been depleted by the recession. This was based on projected recovery and substantial growth in the economy. Rivers government presented their bills to the assembly and then broke into caucus meetings to discuss and refine them before voting. Rivers says this is where he shone. He used leadership skills learned while vol- unteering for his church youth group, where he lead meetings every week. I learned how to have a feel for the room - to know when to stimulate discussion or when to calm things down, he says. His strategy was to hold a general discussion, then nar- row it to specific points, and finally to form a plan of action. When the bills came to a vote, the health bill did not pass because there was no time for amendments, the educa- tion bill passed by a small margin, and the budget passed easily, giving Rivers government a vote of con- fidence. Rivers has participated in the mod- el parliament program for four years. He says it gets better each time and he can now envision a career in politics. He is taking a step toward it this Sep- tember, when he will begin studies in Political Science at the University of Guelph. Rockwood student Premier in Legislative Assembly Pirates and Princess dinner dance on Pioneer Day June 13 Wellington O.P.P. Report