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

A6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday May 2, 2001 T h e O akville B eaver Ian Oliver Publisher Neil Oliver .Associate Publisher Norman Alexander Editor Kelly Montague, Advertising Director Steve Crazier Circulation Director Ten Casas OfficeManager Mark Dills Production Manager Riziero Vertolli DirectorofPhotography Metrotand Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd., includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News. Barrie Advance, Barry's Bay This Week, Bolton Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, B urlington Post. B urlington S h o p p in g New s, C ity Parent, CoHngwood/Wasaga Connection, East 'fork Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes. E tobicoke G uardian, Flam borough Post. G eorgetow n Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review. Huronia Business Times. Kingston This Week. Lindsay This Week. Markham Ecnomist & Sun. M idland/Penetanguishine Mirror, M ilton Canadian Champion. Milton Shopping News. Mississauga Business Tmes. Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora Era-Barmer. Northumberland News, North 'fork Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News. Oldtimers Hockey News. Orilia Today. Oshawa/Whrtby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune. Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week. Picton County Guide. Richm ond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal. Scarborough Mirror, StouffviHe/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever 'foung, City of 'fork Guaidan OPINION RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: O ntario Community N ew spapers Association THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Y TM qa j JM wm H i R jh e _ W fe L C O M E ^ W A G O N tm v rS m c-.93o JiiNqlE B e II FuNd J^ward O akville © siw attk rvfliirTinw TV A U C TIO N U nited way of Oakville ^ · C 467 Speers Rd,, Oakville Ont L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-2809 Circulation: 845-9742 r* N . A Canadian Community N ew spapers Association M 1 8 T H E B R O N i r f U T T E R F L Y I FOR BUSINESS EXCELLENCE C f a & t f t it d ON T AR I O | oakville galleries SK Suburban New spapers of Am erica H o J m ju u C h i l d r e n 's C h o i r F O RU B U S IN E S S & T H E A R T S krteMM* Editorials Timely actions It's not often that the Canadian medical establishment takes a contrary view point to the dictates of Health Canada. That's why when it does occur, the occur rence is worth noting. What it took was the death of Oakville | The U S. is ahead o f us in tee n a g e r V anessa Y oung to spur the | warning consumers about Canadian M edical A ssociation Journal drug side-efleets. Let' s (CMAJ) to action. Vanessa was the 15year-old who died suddenly after taking a f hope Health M inister drug for stomach irritability that had been | Allan Rock follows taken off pharmacy shelves because of | potential side effects. the American example. A coroner's jury looked into the death a 1 made a series of recommendations outlined . on the Oakville Beaver website. Underlying the tragedy was the lack of information surrounding the sideeffects of Prepulsid, the drug in question, and the disregarding of American action by Health Canada and allowing the drug to be sold here. The latest edition of the Journal contains an editorial suggesting Health Canada lagged behind the U.S. in its drug advisories and regulatory actions and says it will blow the whistle on similar drugs when it has the information from the Americans. How refreshing. In the past decade, close to 100 deaths in North America have been linked to the drug make by Janssen-Ortho Corp. which is facing several suits in connection with these deaths. After hearing of heart attacks suffered by the drug's users, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned about side-effects on Jan. 24, 2000. Less than two months later, Vanessa Young was dead and it wasn't until May 31 of last year that Health Canada sent out a similar warning to that of its U.S. counterparts. The CMAJ will be printing drug warnings issued by the FDA and posting them on its website. We trust it will spur Health Minister Allan Rock to adopt the monitoring system the U.S. uses and more importantly, to implement its drug warnings immediately so that other tragedies are avoided. L e tte r s to t h e E d ito r The Oakville Beaver welcomes your comments. All letters must be typed, signed and include the writer's address and phone number. Send to: Letters to the Editor, The Oakville Beaver 4 6 7 Speers Rd., Oakville, Ont. L6K 3 S 4 Q u e s t io n s a b o u t S it h e p l a n t k e e p c o n n in g Re: E lectrica l energy supplies, needs, options, economics and environmental factors. The `Letter o f the Week' entitled `Option running out for power course'- re: Sithe natural gas-fired energy station by N. Leslie Williams, caught my attention in the Wed. April 23, 2001 edition of the Beaver. Both Mr. Williams and Mary Trudelle and her supporters are to be commended for asking legitimate questions and then doing something constructive, it is sug gested that they are both right in asking ques tions and wrong in being too colloquial. The implicit questions being asked by the two parties might be listed as follows: Mr. Williams: Will the population of Toronto continue to grow in the immediate future at the rate of the recent past? Will the demand for electrical energy con tinue to grow at or faster than the population growth? What socially, environmentally and techni cally acceptable alternatives exist to natural gas for power generation? W ould stopping the W inston C hurchill Boulevard plant stop the construction of similar plants in the GTA? Mary Trudelle et al. Is the air shed contamination in Oakville sufficient to be a significant health hazard to the residents? If it is, then should any additional emission sources be permitted? Could and should the Sithe plant be required to conform to tighter emission standards? Will the noise or vibration from the plan be sufficient to disturb local residents? Will the ammonium nitrate aerosol emission from NOX control pose a new health hazard? These are all legitimate questions from con cern ed citiz en s and deserve co n sid ered answ ers. They also go beyond the scope, knowledge and powers of the local community and Sithe, to answer. There are many other relevant questions of importance to the Ontario population that are being ignored. Additional questions. Will the reliance on natural gas as a `clean fuel' source lead to future shortages of this fuel? Should natural gas be reserved for premium used such as home heating (90% efficient vs. 53% for Sithe)? Could and should First Nations be given incentives to invest casino revenues in mini hydro developments? Who is seriously investigating the economic and environmentally acceptable conversion of reject biomass into ftiel? What is the remaining technical and eco nomic life of the existing coal-fired and nuclear plants in Ontario? Is it valid that nuclear plants have a 30 year life and coal plants a 40-year life? What scope is there for further substantial increases in efficiency of electrical energy use? Will electric cars as a partial answer to air pollution from auto exhaust overwhelm the power supply system? What is the risk of placing prime reliance on a natural gas line from the West (Mackenzie Delta) for Ontario? How is competition from the U.S. for natur al gas going to effect future prices? Is the consumption of natural gas in North America outrunning discovery/development of new reserves. A public hearing (or Class Environmental hearing) on this important subject appears to deserve serious consideration to permit airing of all the relevant factors. L e tte r o f th e W e e k C a n a d ia n p r o te c tio n is m w o n 't so lv e a n y th in g Since 1995, we have been subjected to the rule o f a P rovincial governm ent controlled by unelect ed idealogues in the P re m ie r's office and dogged by a string o f failures in its plans - a hem orrhag ing o f s ta ff from the h e a lth se rv ic e , le a v in g us 10,000 nurses sh o rt - an u n d erfu n d e d ed u c a tio n system staffed by dem oralized teachers - tax cuts w h ic h h av e le ft th e P ro v in c e w ith o u t fu n d s to im prove the infrastructure - a gutted E nvironm ent M in istry , w hich led to the re g re tta b le d e a th s in W a lk e rto n - a n d h a s a n y o n e h e a r d a n y n e w s recently about the previously h ighly-touted `delin quent boot cam p pro g ram '? I h av e g o t so in u re d to th e se d e b a c le s th a t I co u ld n 't im agine that som ebody could propose an even m ore m anic philosophy, until I read Floreen C a rte r's le tte r w hich left m e (w e ll, te m p o ra rily ) breathless. H er po litical and eco n o m ic su g g estio n s are so in p e n e tra b le th at th ey d efy su c c in c t re b u tta l, at least to me. H ow ever, one only needs to co nsider her suggestion to "buy o r sell only C anadian pro d ucts" to show how lacking in fo resig h t the lady is. For a start, no m ore coffee, no tea, no cocoa (or c h o c o la te ); no c itru s fru its , so no o ra n g e ju ic e , le m o n s , lim e s o r g r a p e f r u it, p in e a p p le s , fig s , raisins and in w inter, the su p erm ark ets' fresh fruit and v eg etab le sectio n s co u ld only o ffe r us p o ta to e s, c a rro ts , m u sh ro o m s, p a rsn ip s, tu rn ip s and hot-house tom atoes at $3.99 a pound! P ickering High S cho ol c e le b ra te s 50 y e a rs W e're looking for form er students and teachers to help celebrate Pickering H igh School's 50th anniversary June 8-10. There will be a pub night, golf tournament, a football game, decade rooms and a barbeque lunch at the school, plus a gala dinner and dance featuring Little Caesar and the Consuls. Legendary tales will be told of the time a weigh station on Church Street mysteriously disappeared (with a bang), or the fabled paint ing of the whole school...in pink. Or the little football team from Pickering that blew the doors off all the big-time Ontario Goliath foot ball teams A limited number of tickets are available for the gala dinner. Call the school at 683-4761 or check the w ebsite at w w w .pickeringhighschool.com Bill Parish 638-2003 Progress based on measuring our well-being People are no longer content with deci sions that affect their lives being made with out their knowledge. We can be involved and we can hold governments accountable if they do not respond to our concerns. An elegant new tool is available for doing this. By identifying the issues that m atter to Canadians and establishing indicators that show whether these aspects of our lives are improving or deteriorating, the whole system would become more responsive. Indicators are powerful. What we count and measure reflects our values as a society and literally determines what makes it onto the policy agenda of governments. Such indi cators can tell us w hether we are m aking progress, whether we are leaving the world a better place for our children, and w hat we need to change. The 7th G eneration In itiativ e aim s to establish indicators to m onitor the social, environm ental and econom ic well-being of p e o p le , c o m m u n itie s and e c o sy ste m s in Canada. We offer at no cost, a "Discussion Kit" with suggestions for starting a discussion about what we value and how we might mea sure related circumstances. Feedback from such discussions is a first step toward identi fying appropriate indicators. We also have a legislative fram ew ork for establishing the indicator set and their regular publication through the office o f the A uditor General. The Canada W ell-Being M easurement Act, B ill C -2 6 8 , w as ta b le d in the H ouse o f C om m ons on V alentines Day as a gift to future generations. The Act is not associated with any particular political party. W ith y o u r h e lp , w e c o u ld soon see progress measured in social and environmen ta l term s. F or m ore in fo rm a tio n , w rite postage free to: Joe Jordan MP, House of C om m ons, O ttaw a, K1A 0A 6 or to: su s tain @web.ca D e ta ils can be fo u n d at: http://www.SustainWellBeing.net/index3.html K. H azeld en High school test results a farce In rep ly to yo u r recen t ex am in atio n o f O a k v ille 's G rade 10 literacy test resu lts on A pril 11th, 2001, I m ust say I am outraged. M any other news m edias have c o n c e n tra te d on the n eg ativ e view o f the re su lts as well. As a Grade 10 student at Blakelock m yself, I ques tioned the necessity o f adm inistering the test this year, as we were so often told it would not count. Just over 32% o f the stu d e n ts at B la k e lo ck " fa ile d " the te st, m any o f whom I am acquainted with. They did not fail the test because o f teach er neglect or incom petence, and certainly not because o f the own stupidity o f illiter acy. I know honour students who failed. The students did not try. We knew it didn't count; the province made that fact clear, so why try? B lakelock, to the best o f my know ledge, is one o f the highest rated academ ic institutions in H alton... yet alm ost half o f their Grade 10 students are illiterate. Anyone with half a brain, or anyone literate, for that m atter can logically assum e we did not try on that test. Five hours o f useless w riting, ju st so the governm ent can "iron out any bugs." If they are going to do it, do it all the way. M ake it count. The point of, and the only proven way to achieve a successful education is to give students a purpose. A non-m andatory five ho u r tw oessay test for... what? Ask yourself this question: W ould you have done it? Mike Nickerson Coordinator, Seventh Generation Initiative Michael P. Sudbury Pud V w a Ys different by Steve Nease IN h e re ? . IHADTHE H A R D W bO P Floors Polished. O CV thats 'C R A S H M eghan M . Banks . Proud Grade 10 Blakelock Student