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

Peoples Forum THE WEEKEND OUTLOOK Friday April 1991 Page United Way thanks volunteers Dear Sirs Dedicating this week to the recognition of Volunteers is especially appropriate for a com munity of Halton Mills where so many worthwhile activities are undertaken by local Volunteers As President of United Ways of Halton Hills I realize that our worthwhile fund raising ac tivities would not even get off the ground without the many people and organizations who donate their time The Campaign Cabinet organizes the annual campaign and the teams under the cabinet call on the Industrial Government Education Com mercial and Residential Sectors The residential campaign is a massive effort involving over 750 Canvassers Area Captains District Coordinators and the Residential Chairperson Our Board of Directors has been dedicated to making a better and more effective United Way The Citizen Review Panels insure that the communitys dollars are wisely spent Office Volunteers help expand the capacity of our limited staff And finally other organiza tions and businesses have helped on specific events including the Georgetown Runners Club organizing the Egg Nog Jog with the Credit Valley Conservation Authority Andrews Scenic Acres setting up the Strawberry Festival and Dunlop Insurance supporting the Benefit To all these people and to all the people in Hills who support the communitys social service needs through The United Way a heartfelt Thank You from the Board and Staff Sincerely yours Stephen Williamson The United Way of Halton Hills Drug Abuse Centre benefit Dear Editor The benefit performance of Lunch Hour given to us by Georgetown Little Theatre was a huge success Our Drug Abuse Centre cleared over on the event The show was hilarious and we would like to thank Georgetown Little Theatre for generously sharing their talents with us We would also like to say a big to Al at Shoppers Drug Mart Jane and the many people who supported us We will certainly put the money to good use We are grateful for the wonderful press coverage you gave us too Thank you one and all Sincerely Kristin Georgetown Drug Abuse Centre Features Seniors Watch established By LISA BOONSTOPPELPOT The Herald To prevent occurrences of seniors being hurt and not im mediately being found in their apartments Halton Regional Police has established Seniors Watch The program new to Halton Hills was launched at Actons Lakeview Villa seniors residence Wednesday and at the Durham Street Seniors Centre in Georgetown Thursday The program improves the quality of their lives said Hills crime prevention of ficer Constable Laurel It gives seniors more of a feel ing that theyre not alone and that someone is looking out for their welfare The program revolves around the use of door tags that were printed by Acton High School and laminated by the Knights of Col umbus Acton Village Constable Bill Riddle explained the tags will be placed on the outside han dle of a seniors apartment door when they retire for the night In the morning theyll remove the tag If the tag isnt removed from the door by am a designated hall monitor will knock on the door and if there isnt a response the monitor will assume something had happened to the resident and call police The police will a pass key and will check the apartment to make sure the resident is all right Constable Riddle said there has been instances in Hills where a resident has died and there was a lapse of time before they werefound With the new program residents will be assured of daily connection with another person to reduce the possibility that a resi dent might have to wait days before theyre found injured or dead Constable Riddle said the pro gram is an extension of the seniors buddy system which in volved buddies checking up on each other The new program will help make sure everyone is checked he said Equity stressed by Halton police By LISA The Herald Recently introduced provincial legislation directed to police forces involving employment equity regulations to increase the number of racial minorities aboriginal persons women and disabled persons in the police force reinforces a Halton Regional Police initiative started two years age Regional Police developed a program two years ago to recruit people from the target groups listed in the employment equity regulation as part of the forces fiveyear strategic plan according to media relations office for the force Sergeant Carey Smith Inroads have been made in the last couple of years and weve enjoyed more of a cultural mix he said But he admits progress has been slow Perhaps its been slower than we anticipated He expects the new legislation introduced by Solicitor General Mike will speed up the process of offering citizens a force which reflects the cultural makeup of the community We welcome the legislation said Sergeant Smith What it seeks to do is rectify the ine quities of the past Halton Police Chief James Harding said this legislation compels organizations and peo ple to cast their minds to the future and deny an opportunity to let it inequity be lodged in the past a past which turned a blind eye to a problem of inequi ty Looking at the numbers of visi- CHIEF HARDING ble minorities and women on the force its obvious there is inequi ty Only out of per cent of police officers are women This service has a total complement of 165 of which are female Sergeant Smith said although there are black and Native Indian police officers there are no Orientals In Hills five of the 32 police officers are female and there is only one Native Indian and one officer in the visible minority classification Six of the six clerical and secretarial staff are women and there are no disabled persons Because the legislation states the police force must represent the community meaning if 50 per cent of the community is female SO per cent of the police force should be female women will now have a better chance of getting hired by the force than men Given the scenario that if a woman who just met the stan dards required to become a police officer and a man who ex ceeded the standards were up for the same job Sergeant Smith ad mitted that because the law said the police force must reflect the community wed likely hire the woman But the Staff Inspector of Georgetowns District Richard Kivell said he doesnt recall there being too many in stances of one candidate standing out over another when the force selected new recruits The weaker ones are weeded out before they reach the selec tion committee he said I doht see that the new law will lower standards He said women are just as good police officers as men The new regulation set goals and timetables for eliminating hiring barriers and implemen ting positive measures Police forces will have one year to develop employment equity plans which must then be submitted to the Solicitor General for ap proval The regulation was developed in partnership with police and community groups which were consulted by the Ministry at regional sessions across Ontario It is supported by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police the Municipal Police Authorities and the Police Association of On tario Canadians ripped off To The Editor I purchased from St Clair The Paint and Paper Pec- plei in Milton a 1 litre can of stain Price total A friend recently purchased ex actly the same product same manufacturer in the United States Price exchange ap- 80 cents total 579 The Canadian consumer is get ting ripped off not only by the GST and the PST but also by someone in the merchandising or manufacturing field Canadians have been paying far too much for many things for far too long and are buying in the United States goods that are overpriced in Canada Trying to stop crossborder shopping will not help correct the situation Merchants should go after their suppliers if their wholesale prices are out of line and go after our politicians to bring our taxes down to equal those of people liv ing in the United States That in cludes local business and realty taxes Until the above problems are corrected the situation will only deteriorate Georgetown Ont Write us a letter The Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opi nion you want to express or a comment to make send us a letter or drop by the office Our address is Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario 3Z6 All letters must be signed Please include your ad dress and telephone number for verification The Herald reserves the right to edit letters due to space limitations Villa resident Alice Leech feels a little safer now that Ac ton Village Constable BUI Riddle right and the Halton Regional Police Force have established Seniors Watch a program that en sures residents are checked dally Herald photo