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A8 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Tuesday December 26,2000 TheO akville Beaver Ian Oliver Publisher Neil Oliver.Associate Publisher Norm an Alexander Editor Kelly M ontague, .Advertising Director S teve C razier Circulation Director Ten C a sa s Office Manager M ark Dills Production Manager Riziero Vertolli Director of Photography Metroland Printing. PubSsrtng & Distributing Ltd., includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser. AJliston Herald/Courier. Arthur Enterprise News. Barrie Advance. Barry's Bay This Week, Bottcn Enterprise. Brampton Guartian. Burlington Post. Burlington Shopping N ews. C ity Parent. CoingwoocWVasaga Connection. East 'fork Mirror, Erin AdvocataCountry Routes. Etobicoke Guardian. Flam borough Post. Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press. Hamston Review. Huronia Business Tmes, Kingston This Week. Undsay This Week. Markham Ecnomist & Sun. Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror. Milton Canadian Champion. Milton Shopping News. Mississauga Business Tm es. Mississauga News. Napenee Glide. Newmarket/Aurora Era-Banner. Northimbertand News. North Mxk Mrror. Oakvile Beaver. CekviBe Shopping N » ns , O jtm e rs Hockey News. OnISa Today. OshawaWi/hitby/Clahngton Port Perry This Week, Owen Scxnd Tribune. Palmerston Observer. Peterborough This Wed<, Picton County Guide. Richmond Hill/Thomhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, StouffvilJQ/Uxbridge Trtoune, Forever Mxng, City of \fcrk Guarcian OPINION RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: 467 Speers Rd,, Oakville O n t L6K3S4 (905) 846-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-2809 Circulation: 845-9742 ^ C N A Canadian Community Newspapers Association THE B R O N T E i U T T E R F L Y ONTARI O | o a k v ille g a lle rie s | H OaC O j L Children's Choir E d ito ria ls W ater worries Ontarians have always taken their drinking water for granted. But that all ended when people began getting sick and dying in the quiet town of Walkerton. The inquiry into how deadly E.coli got into the town's water system has shown huge deficiencies not only in the Most Ontarians take the Walkerton water works but also in other quality o f their drinking operations in Ontario. water for granted. But after A report released Thursday by the M inistry of the Environm ent showed revelations from the that 357 of 645 municipal water treat Walkerton water inquiry, ment plants had problems. While most it' s obvious we can never of the faults were inadequate numbers take our drinking water for of tests, the most disturbing concern has granted any longer. to do with the qualifications of those who run these operations. That's when the red lights go on. For we now have the admission of Walkerton's public works director, that he didn't even know about E. coli and was not properly trained to conduct his job. Did Stan Koebel do any thing about this fact? No. Instead-, he falsified water quality reports and was so naive that he still drank the town's water after people began getting sick. The report also notes that various plants don't adequately sample for bacteria, don't meet even minimum treatment guidelines and use disinfec tion equipment that lacks backup chlorination or warning system when problems occur. There's not much difficulties in water plants meeting stiffer testing rules but each provincial waterworks operation should be taking a very close look at the qualifications of both their managers and plant operators. And in Oakville, that means H alton's public works people should be checked for their qualifications and given immediate skills upgrading if applicable. We deserve nothing less. rP 9 B H I > ..x V -| | i: V 111 1 1 XUt wi » If 7 (f (H Com m ent 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 Liberal leader touts education `peace plan ' By Dalton McGuinty SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER The holiday season is supposed to be a time of peace, goodwill and giving. That is why I put forward a plan that can restore peace and goodwill to our high schools. It would also give our students a Christmas present-the return of extra-curricular activities in January. The Ontario Liberal `peace plan' for our high schools doesn't give the teachers' feder ations everything they want. It also doesn't give the government everything it wants. But it does strike a compromise that can improve the atm osphere in our high schools, and restore our kids' sports clubs and other activi ties. In other words, it puts kids first. Here's how it would work. The government is wed to the notion that teachers have to spend 1,250 minutes teach ing in the classroom each week. I don't agree with this rigid, one-size fits all approach. No other province dictates how many minutes of classes teachers must teach. If elected, I as premier, would do things differently. But the government is the government. It remains committed to this bottom line: 1,250 minutes in the classroom each week. For most high school teachers, this has meant teaching an extra class. In a semester high school, this means a teacher is forced to teach four classes out of four each day. That's a 25 per cent increase in the number of students to teach, parents to inform, classes to prepare, tests to mark, and report cards to compile. Teachers say that, combined with a new curriculum , it's too much. In many places, extra-curricular activities have fallen through the cracks and down the drain because of it. There is a solution that can bring back extra-curricular activities for our kids. If the government is wed to 1,250 minutes a week, and teachers can't cope with another class, why don't they consider a win-win-win solu tion? If we add eight minutes to each class-or four minutes to each class in non-semester schools-everyone can win. The government will attain its goal of 1,250 minutes a week, and the teachers won't have to add another class. Most importantly, the students win. They get extra-curriculars back, they get more time in class to learn the new curriculum and they get increased attention from their teachers. Teachers will have more time for teaching students, instead of simply more students to teach. It is true that this plan will require some compromises and a lot of political will. To get extra-curriculars in place for the new year, we need to move urgently. I have prepared a private member's bill that makes the necessary amendments to existing legislation. We need the government to agree to pass this legislation or introduce its own. We need to pass the legislation right away. We need the teachers' federations wand the boards to signal that this is a compromise they're willing to live with-at least until the next election. We need parents and students to tell all parties that they support the plan. This plan will add a half-hour to the school day. We estimate it will cost $150 million in additional resources, mostly to cover the cost of additional teachers, but that represents one tenth of what the government has taken out of the system-or one per cent of what the gov ernment says it's now spending on education. It's a fair price to pay to ensure our students get a full education that includes extra-curric ular activities. Under my plan, I also propose that the provincial auditor be asked to examine educa tion funding. Since the province assumed complete control over funding, disputes have helped poison the atmosphere. There have been disputes between the government and school boards, parents and school boards and teachers and school boards. The public needs accurate information. The provincial auditor has the credibility to do this work. Finally, we propose that a panel be struck to examine the issue of goodwill in the educa tion system. This panel of eminent persons should report on positive ways to improve the `poisoned atmosphere' as recently cited by the Education Improvement Commission. The makeup of this panel must be accept able to the boards, teachers, parents and the S o m uch for Celine's government. It is my hope that someone like former Premier Bill Davis, or someone of search for privacy comparable stature, would be willing to take Like O.J. on the trail of the real killer, on this sort of work. Celine Dion's neverending pursuit of privacy This plan resulted from the Back to School last week saw her posing pregnant for a full Program launched by Liberal Education critic colour photograph on the front page of Gerard Kennedy this fall, when Ontario C an ad a's largest Liberal MPPs attended our local schools. We newspaper, The Globe did that to see first-hand what's happening in and M ail and in an our schools. We were impressed, and moved, exclusive and reveal by the efforts being made by students and ing interview on TVA, educators alike. But we are troubled by the Quebec's largest pri recurring problems, the most obvious being vate television net the loss of extra-curricular activities. work. I believe in doing more than just opposing. Will the world of That's why I am proposing this peace plan for entertainm ent never our high schools. I urge all sides to act upon it let this woman find as quickly as possible. We can restore peace and goodwill to our high schools-and give our peace and privacy!?! students a very important Christmas gift: She's retired, you know. extra-curricular activities. All The World's And it's alm ost a Dalton McGuinty, MPP for Ottawa South, is A Circus beautiful family photo Leader of the Official Opposition and Leader of Palm-tree Christmas not in the cards According to a meterologisL I was watching on television late one nighL all scientific indicators and all meteorological measures suggest that we are in for one long nasty winter. Personally, I've taken the liberty of unscientifically counting December's weather to date -- Arctic temperatures, snarling winds, freezing rain, and prodigious snowfalls -- as both an indicator and a measure. Of what, I'm not at liberty to say... With all the meteorological madness transpiring around the globe -- as I write, the World Cup ski season is in jeopardy because of, imagine this, no snow -- these are, happy, heady times for media meterologists. Media Meteorologists. Radio and TV types. Men and women in bright clothing, with bold and almost unbe lievable names like, my personal favourite, Flip Spiceland (CNN), fronting indecipherable maps and pointing at baffling amoebae-like shapes swooshing across the face of those maps. Regardless of the stormy future they are predicting, it's high entertain ment just watching these alleged experts in action. Getting all giddy over the latest "high ridge of pressure building over the Appalachians," getting all gaga over the latest storm brewing in some godless reach of Northern Wherever, prac tically wetting themselves over the possibility of Something Severe Occurring Somewhere, as they utilize millions of dollars worth of cutting-edge, weather-tracking technology. Granted, they still have about as much hope of accurately predicting weather as the guy who sticks his head out the window and looks skyward, or the farmer who predicts by sights, sounds, smells ("Hmmm. Smells like snow...") Still, you have to give media meteorologists high marks for trying. I mean, the TV weather guy I saw who was pre dicting a harsh winter had obviously spent a lot of time working on a theory and some terms to explain why we are, in the words of Ed Grimley, "as doomed as doomed can be." He said (and here, I paraphrase rather than quote because it was a late-evening newscast that I was watching, and there was plenty of seasonal rum and eggnog involved in the viewing), that this winter we are under the influence of a rare Moderately High Pressure Arctic Iceflow Confluence Hudson Bay Banana Split With Crushed Nuts Things. My word, it makes a man long for the simple, temperate times of El Nino. Or El Dino. Or El BamBam, or whatever that old El Thingy was. Recently, whilst outside shovelling, and helping myself to a hernia, I talked to a group of less-scientific souls who said: "We're just going through what was once common place -- a good old-fashioned Canadian winter, eh." I guess I just don't like good old-fashioned Canadian winters. I'm already tired of shovelling. Tired of walking around with hat head. Tired of hearing people talk about the weather. Just plain tired. You know the insufferable sorts in summertime who say stupid things like, "Hey, how about this record-breaking heat and humidity? Ain't it great?' Well, I've discovered there are terminally happy people out there who are just loving all this snow! Honestly, couldn't you just crown these ever-loving snow worshippers with a shovel... To all those who wished for a white Christmas -- and you know who you are! -- I remind: next time around, be careful of what you wish for... Because we already have way too much snow and, according to my friend Flip, we're cur rently cruisin' for another bruisin' storm. Lots more snow. Whoopee! You know what I wished for? A palm tree Christmas. W IL L IA M T H O M A S (See `Celine' page A9) the Ontario Liberal Party. Pud by Steve Nease from our family to Yours!