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A6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday November 8, 2000 T h e O akville B eaver Ian Oliver Publisher Nel Oliver AssociatePublisher Norman Alexander Editor Kelly Montague, Advertising Director Steve Crozier Circulation Director Ten Casas OfficeManager Mark Dlls Production Manager Riziero Vertolli DirectorofPhotography Meiroland Printing. Pubishing 4 Distrtiuting Lid., includes: Ajax/Picfcaring News Advertiser. ABiston HeraKVCouner, Arthur Enterprise News. Barrie Advance. Barry's Bay The Week. Bolton Enterprise. Brampton GuanSan. Burlington Post. Burlington Shopping N ews. City Parent. CoingwoocWifesaga Comectcn. East M*k Mnor. Erin Advocata^Caxitry Routes. Etobicoke Guardian. Flam borough Post. Georgetown independent/Adcn Free Press. Hamster Review. K ro n e Busness Tmes. Kingston This Week. Lindsay This Week. Markham Ecnomist 4 Sun. MkJand/Penetanguishine Mirror. Milton Canadian Champion. Milton Shopping News, Mtesesauga Busness Tmes. Mssissauga News. Napanee Guide. 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StouftvieUxtindge 'Rtxne, Forever Nbung, Oty of Myk Guarden OPINION RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: mZ ]W ' J iN q k B eII F u * d Y YMCA I S t r a t e g ie s f o r l J F E m CfSffligi.. in JMAirna (01 ~T)he ^ \JAvxtrd Oakville (Sewards 4 > rn ^ TV a nr Tin u AUCTION O n t Canadian Community Newspapers - U n i,e d W a » of Oakville a r i o for business excellent 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont L6K3S4 (905) 8 4 5 -3 8 2 4 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 8 4 5 -2 8 0 9 Circulation: 8 4 5 -9 7 4 2 Suburban Newspapers T il E B R O N T E i U T T E R F L Y C fi/ d f in d TOWN O f OA K VI LLI | o a k v ille g a lle rie s | S 042JJU C h ild re n 's C h o ir m et FOR V BUSSES tCTHEARTS E d ito r ia ls Democracy loses M unicipal election cam paigns in Oakville are usually pretty tame, espe cially when there are so m any acclamations, including that for mayor. But this year, there are some decid% w ith /oCfl/ edly strange goings-on, particularly in ^ north Oakville. politics com es som e issues Ward 5 is one o f those areas where th at affect everyone...and w ith \ history is recorded as anything before 1 these issues com e som e 1974 and growth is becoming a concern to area residents. strange events... W e've already been treated to a col umn by G lobe and Mail columnist John B a rb e r a b o u t th e fu n d ra isin g e ffo rts o f in c u m b en t H alto n R egional C ouncillor Stephen Sparling and on Thursday, an all candidates meeting was killed because o f a fax, no less. The whole thing is getting out o f hand. How the Town intends to develop 3,200 hectares o f land north o f Hwy. 5 was the subject o f both the column and the `phantom fax' that said an envi ronm ental group, O akvillegreen, was intending to disrupt the candidates' m eeting by using paint and animal carcasses. The group, which is running a candidate under its banner, immediately disavowed any knowledge o f the faxes that were sent throughout the town. Bizarre? You bet. In Oakville? Even more bizarre. So now residents o f W ard 5 w on't have an opportunity to check out their candidates in the flesh unless the politicians greet them on their daily doorknocking expeditions. Too bad. This leaves voters in that ward only the personal contact o f a candidate or their literature to determine how they cast their ballot. This entire episode is unfortunate for both the candidates and the elec torate that sh o u ld n 't be intim idated by false threats from questionable sources. + e l e c t iu iv ^ %jg|i\ ii | [uyenic InWM BK K *. I I 1 W fM TE Letters to the Editor 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 Colum n le ft out d e ta ilso nHalton councillor Re: Response to Globe and Mail article Oct. 27th- "Developer enters campaign ", It's disgusting to see the underhanded tactics being used to try to smear one of Halton's and Oakville's most popular and respected members of regional council. I'm referring to an article in the Globe by John Barber. Referring to Mr. Sparling's fundraiser for his re-election campaign, Barber stated that "It is not uncommon for developers to contribute to municipal election campaigns...but for a devel oper to play a lead role...." It is totally false to say a developer played "a lead role" in this fundraiser. The truth is this: Mr. Sparling's fundraising committee, headed by Don Robinson, held a cocktail reception, one of the people invited was Colin McGregor, VicePresident of Trinison Management who inde pendently invited certain persons to the recep tion. Neither Mr. Sparling, nor Mr. Robinson were aware of this, indeed it was incidental to the vast majority of people who attended. To say that it is normal for developers (and big business) to contribute is true. We all know the two main federal parties have held fundrais ing dinners to solicit contributions from Bay Street and, in fact, many attend and contribute to both parties. I'm sure Mayor (Mel) Lastman does the same thing too. This is not against the law. The issue where Mr. Barber gets it totally wrong is where he discusses the development of lands north o f Hwy. 5. He erroneously con cludes: "The deal that brought Mssrs. Sparling and McGregor so close will result in the urban ization of an astounding 3,000 hectares..." First of all, there is no "deal" and secondly, Mr. Sparling and Mr. McGregor have in no way been brought together. The truth is this. Last summer Mr. Sparling happened to be one member of an 11 person committee dealing with land use north of Hwy. 5. He was not the chair, he didn't have undue influence over the committee, and had only one of 11 votes. The land in question has been desig nated by the province to be developed. The com mittee cannot change that fact, but can submit their input on how they would like the develop ment to be planned. The only way Mr. Sparling could influence what happened with those lands was through his single vote on the committee. It is more likely the reason Mr. Sparling was targeted in Mr. Barber's column is that his oppo nent heads a special interest group that didn't get its way with the planning committee, and since Mr. (A llan) E lgar is running against Mr. Sparling, and his interest group didn't get its way, Mr. B arber was used to sm ear Mr. Sparling's squeaky-clean record. Now here's the strange twist. Mr. Sparling and his opponent are fighting for essentially the same thing. The lands in question are owned by Letter of th e W eek Candidate sends message I was shocked when I read John Barber's article in the Globe and Mail (Oct. 27th, 2000) on how involved the d eveloper (T rinison Management Group), who has a lot at stake in the development of northern Oakville, is in the Stephen Sparling re-election campaign. This article really made me sit up and take notice. Quite frankly, I recently have been won dering w hat is going on in this town with respect to the speed and lack of planning in the development and growth of our great communi ty. This article certainly helps to explain some of it. Allan Elgar appears to send a message to the voters when he insists on not accepting cam paign donations from developers and self-inter est groups. He wants to represent the people who elect him and not be obligated to the peo ple who fund his campaign. Andy Piotrowski Growth is an election issue The comments made by (councillor) Liz Behrens and (Halton Regional Chair) Joyce S av o line (F ear o f d em o n stratio n s, pg. 5 Oakville Beaver Nov. 5, 2000) that "the devel opment of northern land has not been a major issue for voters they have spoken to during the campaign" illustrate precisely what is wrong with our municipal govemment(s). How can anyone honestly think that the addition of more than 50,000 people in the town of Oakville, which is already plagued with traf fic gridlock, over-stressed health care services and poor air quality, should not be an election issue? The reason is that some elected officials have neglected their responsibilities by not ade quately informing the residents what is really at stake. Governing is much easier when your con stituents are left ignorant. That way there will be no accountability for your actions. It is time for a change. the Province, developers, private land owners, the Town of Oakville and Halton Region. Mr. Sparling wants to save as much green space as possible by negotiating with these parties, com promising and cost sharing with them. His oppo nent wants to do the same but, try to preserve more green space. However, it is unclear how he plans to go about this. It appears from Mr. Barber's column that he will not entertain a dia logue with developers or other special interest groups. What will he do? Mr. Sparling's opponent suggests that the planning committee didn't give his interest group due process to be heard. Again, this is untrue. The fact is that the committee met for a total of 24 hours. Mr. Barber is correct when he states "There were so many (people to be heard) that council had to reconvene a second, then a third time to hear them all". What he neglected to state is that it was Mr. Sparling who put for ward the motions so the committee could recon vene for these people to be heard. Finally, the committee could not delay their vote any longer and the chair ruled that the members should vote. It was not Mr. Sparling who ended it. New developments are completed by devel opers who work hand-in-hand with government. The roads, sidewalks, street lights, water line, parks, bridges etc. are all paid for and built by developers. I can hardly see any truth to Barber's sugges tion that Mr. Sparling and McGregor could pos sibly have a "deal" when in fact Mr. Sparling simply had one vote on an 11 person planning committee. He doesn't award contracts or deal with bids. He simply had the misfortune of being on a committee when his opponent led a self-interest group that didn't get its way with the committee. One glaring fact that Mr. Barber didn't con sider is Mr. Sparling's political record in dealing with developers. In the last year, a major issue in Glen Abbey was an attempt by Home Depot to locate on North Service Road West. The resi dents strongly opposed this and the land wasn't zoned for it. If Mr. Sparling was in the practice of making deals with developers, as Mr. Barber suggests, this would have been his opportunity. The facts speak for themselves. Mr. Sparling strongly opposed this development, he spoke out about it at council, he voted against it at council. In fact, he addressed the Ontario Municipal Board at an open meeting and stated his strong opposition to the plan. That's his track record when dealing with developers. Referendum question anything but clear I am upset about the m unicipal election ballot for mat as it pertains to the referendum question. My wife and I voted at the advance poll on Sunday at Town Hall. We received a ballot the size o f a poster or x-ray. A solid line separated m any words at the top, fro m th e lis t o f th re e c a n d id a te s f o r R e g io n a l Chairm an on the left and tw o candidates for school tru ste e on the rig h t. T h e ca n d id a te se le c tio n used a p p ro x im a te ly o n e -q u a rte r o f the " p o s te r'V ballot. Below this was a large blank space roughly the size of a large envelope. Then below that were som e words in the lower right corner which were initially blocked by my right arm. The words were two or three per line and about six or seven lines in length. At first glance, it looked like a classified ad. Believe it or not, it was the referendum question on w hether the Town should allow billboards. Surely, this question deserved m ore prom inence on the ballot, especially a ballot the size o f a poster. And why were the words stacked on top o f each other like that? Luckily for me, I looked under my arm and saw the question way down at the bottom corner o f the ballot. Not so lucky for my wife. She m issed the question all together and was not perm itted to cast her vote on the question. The assistant town clerk said it was too late; she had already voted. A nd besides, they could not tell which was her ballot in any event. T his despite the fact that my w ife told the election officer and the assistant town clerk that she did not see the question and, therefore, did not have an opportunity to vote on the q u e stio n . A lso , w e w ere th e o n ly o n e s a t the advance poll at that tim e and my w ife w as the last person to cast her vote. I note at page 29 o f your new spaper from Friday, an ad v ertisem en t from the Tow n. It is so cluttered w ith in fo rm a tio n and g ra p h ic s th a t m o st re a d e rs would be hard pressed to find the referendum ques tion tw o-thirds o f the way down the page. At least, the q u e stio n is p rin te d in th re e -a n d -a -h a lf lin e s w ith seven to nine words per line, unlike the "help wanted ad" form at on the ballot. And you need a m agnifying glass to see the refer endum question on the election card. Voters beware. On Nov. 13th, check the fine print and bring your m agnifying glass. A nd fo r w hat its worth, vote NO to billboards and keep the "Town" in the Town o f Oakville. Hank Rodenburg Phil Allchin Pud by Steve Nease Russell Browne PM buying taxpayers' votes A recent news item stated that more Canadians than ever declared earnings from the stock market last year. This was not news to the average wage earner who, because o f the erosion of traditional job security and retirement benefits, has had to take charge of his/her long-term savings. Most of us have a financial adviser but, even if we keep financial matters at arm 's length, we have had to become inform ed. It is th is in fo rm ed e le c to ra te w hom (Prim e M inister Jean) Chretien underestimates and insults by his "generous" use of the taxpayers' money to buy votes. No, Mr. Chretien, we would not trust you with our life savings, and I predict that you will not be given another chance to fritter away our hard-earned tax dollars. Betty Reade