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Wednesday August 14 1991 Opinion Page 11 Town council waffling on mobile home issue To explain- the Town s failed at tempts at finding a new mobile home park for the residents of Willow Park in Norval Hills Council rationalizes that most of the public is prejudiced against mobile homes and the people most attracted to this type of living accommodation In other words Council believes and has expressed on several occasions townspeople don t have a problem with mobile homes as long as this type of housing located in their neighborhood For those who don t know the Willow Park residents are re quired to leave the park because it is situated in the Credit River When the issue first came to the public attention a couple of years ago Town Colin approved an Acton location where the Willow Park residents could relocate The neighboring residents balked at the approval and challenged Council s decision to the Ontario Municipal Board In the end the Board sided with the residents and overturned Council s decision At that time and since then Council has partly attributed its inability to find the Willow Park residents a new park location to people s unjustified prejudice towards mobile homes and their owners Given Council s opinion concer the public s perception of mobile homes it should follow council would take action to enlighten the public about mobile homes and their owners To me that means taking action that shows the public mobile homes are an affordable and attractive form of housing However at a recent council meeting councillors missed the perfect opportunity to take such action During the council meeting in which discussion centred on an application to locate a mobile home on Stderoad in rural Halton Hills for nine years conn ignored the chance to re evaluate its zoning bylaw for mobile homes in the rural area The current bylaw stipulates Political Forum OTTAWA REPORT mobile homes are not permitted in the rural area Mayor Miller said the zoning bylaw was approved during the early 70s because trailers were springing up throughout the rural area Council of the day felt the trailers detracted from the rural area natural setting While the zoning bylaw may have been appropriate during the early 70s it may not be now Despite the zoning bylaw coun approved the mobile home ap plication Note the approval only applies to the specific location under consideration It does not mean mobile homes are now per mitted throughout the rural area for nine year periods Council made the exception on the basis the mobile home would be replaced by a permanent dwelling after the nine year period and the mobile home itself would be built on a tion giving the structure a look of permanence Most councillors appeared to agree mobile homes if put on a foundation and surrounded with landscaping closely resemble a permanent single family home Acknowledging this fact why council direct staff to review the current restriction on mobile homes in the rural area The point is council members should have done so It would have sent a clear message to the public and mobile homeowners council truly supports its claim mobile home owners live in an at tractive form of housing which should be discriminated against By not sending out this mobile home owners have no reason to believe council supports their housing as being legitimate PC policy conference a step in right direction I went to that Conservative policy conference in Toronto last week along with other people from Acton Georgetown and Burlington We wanted a chance to vote on some of the resolutions being con It was a new experience for all of us In fact there hasn t ever been a meeting like that one by any political party Over 2 people sat at tables listened to debate and then voted Ironically Policy sessions started in the morning and went through until after eleven at night Observers from the other political parties were there along with hundreds of reporters and TV cameras The prime minister sat there in his sweater and blue jeans and voted with the other delegates from his riding Those of us who went from Halton Peel had been involved for several months in the process of forming policy We had attend ed other meetings regionally and then We drafted resolutions overselves on things like reforming the Senate We had spoken on the phone and met in small groups to try and ham mer out positions A dec was made two years ago that policies would stop com from the top down and start going from the bottom up After the Lake deal failed over a year ago the whole process speeded up Clearly people could no longer put up with closeddoor meetings where a handful of men struck a bargain after negotiating all night The political system in this country is in for an overhaul and the Toronto meeting last week was I think a part of that Giving all members of a political party an equal chance to vote on what that organization stands for Garth Turner MP Halton Peel Progressive Conservative seems like a good idea Maybe all the parties should adopt that way of doing business giving less power to the leader and more to the follower The issue of Quebec and Con federation came up in a big way last week The delegates voted in favor of a united Canada They also voted for a motion saying Quebec should stay in Canada if it wanted to instead of being fore At that moment the thousands of people in the hall rose ap plauded and started to sing Canada A few of the delegates from Quebec brought out big Canadian flags and ran down the aisles with the banners stream ing behind them A lot of people were moved to tears Several left the room embarrassed at their own emotional love of country This was important because a national political party had given the federalists in Quebec an lm tool to fight the separatists in the Bloc Quebecois No more can Bouchard say that the rest of Canada t want Quebec or that Canadians outside that province refuse to take seriously That caused problems at the conference One Montreal MP quit the Tory party moments after that important vote and will probably join the separatists in a few days Pierrette Venne who has sat beside me in the House of Commons for the last three years instead wanted peo ple to vote for a massive decen of power from Ottawa to Quebec But the delegates refused to even debate it And as the meetind ended Front Street was full of pro testing civil servants who are fighting wage caps postal workers about to strike for a new contract women s groups wanting more social programs and a host of other special in groups demanding the government shead Inside the delegates had voted for less government lower spen ding and an end to the deficit The next election it seems certain will be an interesting one QUEENS PARK REPORT NDP worker- related initiatives in the works In my last couple of reports I talked about the various in itiatives undertaken during the pat legislative session This week I would like to concentrate on labour issues particularly becaue I know that many of you have been affected by plant closures and layoffs In a previous report I outlined the Wage Protection Fund and its role in ensuring that you receive your back pay if your place of work goes bankrupt But there are a number of other pro grams that our government has designed to help you cope with hard times We ve pledged for example 5 million in new funding to retrain laidoff workers Helping workers adjust to a changing economy allows individuals and companies to take full advantage of economic recovery Some of the money has been earmarked for the coordination of services provided to laid off workers through labor adjustment com mittees and the remainder million has been geared toward new programs These programs which include literacy and basic skills development are ad ministered by the Ministries of Labor Skills Development Col leges and Universities and Citizenship To make the workplace safer weve toughened up construction site regulations under the cupational Health and Safety Act to improve the protection of workers against falls from heights You may recall the un fortunate accident which happen earlier this year in Milton While we may not be able to eliminate every work related death or serious injury the amendments to the Construction Safety Regulation address four of the main health and safety con cerns in tne construction industry including falls from heights trench caveins and Hie also call for proved hygiene conditions on most worksites Under another amendment clothing regulations for firefighters have been proved In June Labor Minister Bob Mackenzie announced that the general minimum wage would be raised to from in response to the rising cost of living in On tano With the increase fewer people will need government assistance to make ends meet This move will be of greatest help to young people and female workers two of the most poorly paid and vulnerable sectors of the economy The raise is the first step in reaching the target of 60 per cent of the average wage by The provincial government has also been working on a pair of ground breaking proposals to make it easier for you to invest in Ontario companies These plans will give workers more commit ment to success and efficiency in Noel Duignan Halton North MPP New Democratic Party the workplace At the same time employers get new sources of capital and ideas for innovation One part of the program will complement existing federal legislation and provide tax credits to workers who invest in labor sponsored investment funds another part will provide extra tax credits to workers in vesting solely in their employers corporation Treasurer Floyd has announced that the discussion paper and draft legislation on the above Ontario Investment and Worker Owner ship Program will be released on August New technologies and the increasing globalization of markets are creating new challenges and opportunities for Ontario businesses To meet these challenges these com panies need access to new sources of capital to help them grow and adapt New relation ships between business labor and government are also needed and the Ontario Investment and Worker Ownership Program at tempts to encourage individuals to invest in Ontario business and to facilitate employee ownership For more information on these initiatives or other programs please call my Milton office Tuesdays through Fridays at Berrys World Is this a GRBA T Idea or what