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A6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday July 18, 2001 T h e O a k v il l e B e a v e r Ian O liver Publisher Neil O liver .Associate Publisher Norm an Alexander Editor Kelly M ontague, Advertising Director Steve C razier Circulation Director Ten Casas Office Manager M ark D ills Production Manager Riziero Vertolli Director ofPhotography Metrotand Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd.. indudes: 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 pping New s, C ity Parent. CottngwoodAA/asaga Connection, East 'fork Minor. Erin Advocate/Country R outes, E tobicoke G uardian, Flam borough Post, G eorgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times. Kingston This Week, Lindsay This Week, Markham Ecnomlst & Sun. M idland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton Canadian Champion. Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times. 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L 6 K 3 S 4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-2809 Circulation: 845-9742 |* C N A BRONTE BUTTERFLY THE C fc M fin d n m lito M M | oakville galleries I T h e O a k v ille . M ilto n a n d D is tr ic t OPINION SK S u b u rb a n N e w sp a p e rs o l A m e ric a H O Children's Choir a C jju REAL ESTATE BOARD Editorials The sport o f sports And so the final illusion of Olympic integrity has been played out with the rejec tion of Canadian Dick Pound as president of the International Olympic Committee. Not that this is shock to observers of the Olympic movement. Pound was one of two North Americans in the running for the top job, the other was an American woman. For the record, a former Olympic sailor and Belgian physician was elected. The fact that Pound's credentials were the best of all the can didates meant nothing to IOC voters. Once again it was the North American factor that was the difference. Instead of being called the IOC, the organization should more rightly be called the European Olympic Committee, after all , the idea of incumbent boss and Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch giving up his post for a North American is just too much to handle. According to all reports, it was no secret that the influential Samaranch hand-picked his successor. But all was not gloom and doom for Canada in the Olympic arena. When Beijing won over Toronto for the 2008 Summer Games, it gave new hope to Vancouver that it will be chosen as the local for the 2010 Winter Olympics. And in this there is another story. Whistler would be the main venue but there's the prob lem of infrastructure, specifically, how are people going to get to the site? The road .from Vancouver north is a twisty road that demands a driver's full attention and the route is often bogged down due to accidents and simply traffic volume. The cost to make the road more navigable would cost untold millions of dollars. Then there's the impending debacle looming that is the 2004 Summer Olympics slated for Athens, Greece. The idea was that Greece, being the home of the original Olympics, would be the natural choice to host the 100th anniversary of the `modem games'. But their so-called organizing committee is in disarray, there are serious money concerns and the IOC has even suggested it might move the games. Just who would step into this vacuum isn't known. This is the next Olympic story to watch. And so, once again, watching the IOC machinations is the best armchair sport around. CHINA'S LATEST PUBLIC EXECUTIONS.,. L e t t e 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 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, Ont. L6K 3S4 SUVs in urban settings make no sense busy as ever, gridlock and all. The social and environmental implications of car-dependency are becoming more visible each year. As many as 1400 premature deaths and 7600 hospital admissions each In response to the editorials and expense of its accountability. nience the process in healthy year in Toronto are associated with letters concerning the H alton Therefore, the voting citizen is democracies. air pollution. Cars and trucks con Board's decision to implement a further removed from the board In the interest of maintaining the tribute about a third of the green policy governance model I would and any chance of influencing its balance that is necessary for a true house gases that are threatening to like to add my thoughts, as an policies. Perhaps policy gover democracy and improving the effi overwhelm us with global climate Oakville West Trustee. This partic nance is more efficient. So are the ciency of our administration, I pro change, rising sea levels, and more ular policy governance model will policy-making procedures of total pose that the position of director severe natural disasters. O il is disenfranchise the trustees and itarian regim es as they rem ain should become one that is elected being drilled from wildlife refuges essentially award to the position of unencum bered by the system ic by the voters; even if this elimi to fuel a growing fleet of sports director, absolute authority at the checks and balances that inconve- nates the trustees' positions, alto utility vehicles. gether. I would rather see the vot As governments are fumbling ers choose the individual who to take even the smallest of steps to O u r ch ild re n deserve better would manage the schools, teach reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Another outbreak of Ecoli in the water in Charlottetown, P.E.I. ers and students. In this way they there is much that we as individual Is the mayor and town councillors waiting for this to happen in would have direct access to and Oakville, before they ban the spraying on lawns and public parks with share in the responsibilities of a citizens can do: walk, ride a bicy cle, carpool, take the bus! Don't pesticides? system that impacts their families' . buy into the insanity of the current It is time to take our heads out of the sand and admit what pesticides lives. SUV craze. are doing to our town and to human health. Instead, we face a paradigm in Honestly, how treacherous are Oakville has always had problems with pollution, but now it is out of which the role o f the trustees is the roads of Oakville that we need control with all the spraying with chemicals. On a news broadcast aired increasin g ly m arginalized. on June 18, 2001, it was quoted that Oakville had the highest rate of pol C onsequently, they threaten to vehicles with all-wheel drive and lution. That day it was 62, higher than Toronto and other municipalities. Is become one more barrier between V-8 engines to cart our kids to soc cer practice? SUV's spew out 30% this not telling everyone about the danger of all the spraying with pesti the public and their children's edu more hydrocarbons and 75% more cides? cational system. nitrogen oxides than passenger Children are the innocent ones in this war against pesticides; give them D rew C urrah cars. T hese are precu rso rs to the right to live a normal life, to breathe clean air, and drink clean water. Oakville Trustee ground level ozone, which when V. C arley Wards 1 & 2 combined with fine particles form smog. Many claim they feel safer driving SUB's, however, being tall D entists all seem to have one thing in com payment. I have seen many seniors who need den and heavy for their size, they are m on. T h eir arm s o u tstre tc h e d and th e ir hands tal w ork but are unable to afford it. A nd from not conducive to handling around grabbing your purse strings. I have heard two such those I know who do have insurance, price is not obstacles or other accident avoid ance manoeuvres. Consequently, stories just this past week!! relevant. Talk about two tier! H aving v isited the d e n tist for a h a lf-h o u r's It seems that this profession is in the throes of they roll twice as often as cars. teeth cleaning executed by a hygienist who then inflation, perhaps, the reason being the insurance Instead of being part of the prob lem, why not become part of the advised me that I would have to return for the job companies cover any fee, exorbitant or not. I am not suggesting that the government take solution? to be com pleted, I was am azed to be presented Help lobby the government for with a bill for $99.81 for work that should have over this important part of our medical system (we increased funding and more innov been co m p leted in the usual 45 m inutes. T his do call dentists Dr.), but in view of the fact that ative solutions to public transit, means I am paying $200 per hour for the hygien dentists are proliferating, one would think that the start a car-pooling program, and ist. Oh, as a senior, 10% was deducted from the com petition would be more intense. However, if when making a vehicle purchase bill. th e in su ra n c e co m p a n ie s a c c e p t in fla tio n a ry consider its fuel efficiency and I do not have insurance for dental work! After billing, the situation will never be remedied. emissions ratings. If not for your much thought and not a little rancor, I phoned the M eanw hile, this leaves in lim bo those who self, then do it for future genera office and com plained. I was told this paym ent need dental work but can't afford it without sacri tions who are the ones that will live with the mess we are creating. was legitimate because the Dental Association, or ficing some other necessary item in their lives. E lizabeth C urran some such institution, made up the schedules for B e tty H a n s fo rd Ontario. One would think that all the recen t p u b licity about the appalling quality of our air would encourage people to think twice about driving their car. Yet looking out at Oakville's streets, traffic is as Listening to the radio, I hear that yet another smog advisory has been issued fo r south w estern Letter of the Week T r u s t e e s ' jo b s b e in g m a r g in a liz e d CamJackson has little understanding of CCA Cs Re: "Accusations fly over Halton CCAC funding, " page 1, Oakville Beaver Fri. July 6, 2001. I'm constantly amazed how current provincial gov ernment ministers speak out prior to being informed of the facts. In your story, Cam Jackson, minister responsible for seniors, complains that funding to increase wages in order to retain and recruit nurses and other staff working on the front-lines isn't really "going to front-line ser vices." What a ludicrous statement! The provincial gov ernment is responsible for allowing the proliferation of private for-profit companies, who unlike not-for-profits can still skim off a return. Prudent CCACs (Community Care Access Centres) are looking at opening contracts to provide increased wages for front-line nurses in an attempt to stop their mass exodus from the community sector, where they have been exploited by substandard wages, casual work and a steady erosion of their benefits and working condi tions. Apparently Mr. Jackson doesn't realize there is an acute nursing shortage in Ontario. He also doesn't realize that many community nurses have returned to hospital nursing because professional nursing skills are compen sated there at a significantly higher level. They also don't have to worry about fighting to keep their jobs from one contract to another, as they do under the government's current ill-conceived bidding process for home care ser vices. Obviously, Mr. Jackson hasn't read the relevant rep o rts sittin g on the desk o f his co lle ag u e , Tony Clement, the M inster o f Health and Long-term Care, where they are likely gathering dust. A July 17, 2000 report from the Joint Provincial N ursing C o m m ittee, " S tab ilizin g N ursing H um an R esources in Hom e N ursing Services," w hich was authorized by the Ontario governm ent's own nursing secretariat, recommended that compensation for commu nity nurses be made comparable to nurses in the hospital sector "to support recruitment and retention of nurses and ongoing access to continuity and quality of care." In December 2000, a report com m issioned by the Health Minister entitled "A Review of Community Care Access Centres in Ontario," found that "human resource shortages, compounded by wage differences, are posing serious problems for the home care sector because ser vice providers are finding it difficult to recruit and retain qualified staff." Clearly, without the requisite staff, home care suffers as do the patients who need it. Next time, Mr. Jackson, get the facts before you offer your comments. B a rb W ahl, RN President, Ontario Nurses 'Association Dental billing hikes hurt those who need care most Pud by Steve Nease Humans are biggest trash producers fh sst. M j A couple of letters caught my eye in the past week. I strongly endorse Betty Reade's suggestion in the naming of the Bill Hill Bridge. I loved Brian Cable's letter `All creatures big and small.' I have walked or run the Bill Hill portion of the Waterfront every morning for six years. We have lived in Oakville or Bronte for 30 years and every morning I tell myself how lucky we are to live in Bronte with people like Bill Hill and others whom I see on the trail every day. I also love the ducks, geese and swans. The biggest messes I see are coffee cups and other garbage left by humans. D oug D ixon