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

6- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday May 10, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager Metroland Media Group Ltd. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Caledon Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver is a division of Guest Columnist Focused to improve health care for all Kevin Flynn, Oakville MPP 'd like to tell you about our government's vision for health care and some of the issues we're targeting to improve the quality of medical services in Ontario. I've heard from a lot of you and so have my colleagues, and our government is listening. During our second term, we will continue the significant improvements we have made in attracting doctors and lowering surgery wait times. But over the next four years our government will focus on two overarching priority areas: · Reducing wait times in emergency departments · Improving access to family health care. Ultimately, we're working towards a future where our hospital emergency rooms can more effectively respond to health crises -- a future in which people with life-threatening injuries, strokes or heart attacks receive the quick and compassionate care they need and then are moved smoothly to an available hospital bed. That's what ERs are for. For so long, congested ERs have been a catch-all for health care. Many Ontarians visit them, even though often they don't need emergency care. We want to ensure Ontarians have round-the-clock access to health care in their community, instead of relying on ERs for non-emergency care. Solutions will be found, of course, inside the ER, but, more importantly, we must go beyond the ER to make real and lasting changes. If you need a prescription, you'll go to your doctor, a community health centre or a walk-in clinic to get it, not to an emergency room. Those with mental illness or chronic diseases like diabetes will be able to find better care in their community, not the ER, which is a poor and costly substitute. Our government will be focusing on a number of other improvements, including: · A four-year, $1.1 billion Aging at Home strategy, providing increased support and services for seniors to live independently so they don't have to come to the ER. Working with our Local Health Integration Networks, we will launch more than 200 distinct initiatives designed to enhance the prospects for dignity and independence. · Eliminating blockages of hospital beds often occupied by seniors who no longer require acute care, but are waiting for a space in a long-term care home, rehabilitation unit or a chronic care hospital. · Providing more funding for hospitals in high growth areas · Improving health promotion to keep people healthy I believe fixing waits in the ER will improve satisfaction and enhance confidence in the health care system, as will fulfilling our second priority, providing more family health care. We've made significant strides increasing the number of doctors and nurses working in Ontario, including creating 150 Family Health Teams and adding 8,000 new nursing positions across the province. Our government will continue building on this by adding 50 new Family Health Teams and establishing 25 nurse practitioner-led clinics. We will hire 9,000 more nurses and aim to have 70 per cent of nurses working full time. We are ironing out a plan to help Ontarians currently without a health care provider. This strategy will see 500,000 more Ontarians receive family care over the next four years. Patients are at the heart of the health care system and they have been telling us how to make the system better. We are heeding your advice and we know our commitments will result in better access to health care for all Ontarians. Kevin Flynn IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora EraBanner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America I THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION The sun's up and the smiles are returning to their faces M y wife and I needed a respite from soul-sapping reality. We'd just endured the longest winter in recorded history and, to boot, our lives of late were nothing, if not out of control. We'd been nutty busy with work and life and we'd been feeling disconnected from each other and disenchanted with our existence. My wife and I needed a holiday. So, we searched for a window of opportunity and found such an opening between the time our eldest finished his university exams and the time he was slated to start his summer job. Then we enlisted him to care for the hounds and the homestead ­ oh, and his siblings, too ­ and we booked ourselves off for a 10-day getaway, and booked ourselves into an ocean-front hotel on the scenic, serene and sandy shores of Hilton Head, South Carolina. Personally, I didn't think we'd ever get out of our laneway at home let alone onto the long and winding road(s) that would take us south, and allow us to follow the fugitive sun. Indeed, there were moments when, despite our meticulous planning, and the fact that we had this baby booked, I truly believed the holiday would never happen. It's not that we are exactly cursed, but in our lives the stars sometimes seem slightly out of line. As the holiday neared, things at my wife's company went crazy, as things tend to do in the wild and woolly world of public relations. Further, our eldest dog, Franny, was suddenly acting her age, which is to say, somewhat sick and senile (that's a euphemistic way of saying the old goat was sick as a dog and nuttier than a fruitAndy Juniper cake!). Thankfully, my wife was able to keep business muzzled and at bay, and Fran got on some good medication and rebounded, acting less and less like a dog set to celebrate her 98th birthday. We finalized instructions for the kids ­ don't burn down the house and try not to murder each other ­ filled the tank with overpriced fuel and hit the wide-open road; `wide-open', that is, with the exception of the entire state of Pennsylvania which, for the second straight year, is...under construction! It's an interesting drive from our home to the sunny south, with stretches that are awe-inspiring (John Denver's Blue Ridge Mountains, for instance), and stretches so mind-numbingly monotonous they test your sanity. And no matter where you go in the USA, there are always interesting people to watch. In one restaurant in West Virginia (restaurant motto: Eat Like It's Your Last Meal -- and patrons were doing just that!), my wife and I considered that there wasn't a man in the place who hadn't killed something with his bare hands. But the 18-hour drive is all worth it when you cross the bridge onto Hilton Head and witness the island in all its redolent glory, in full summer bloom. Crossing the bridge we put Gram Parsons on the stereo: "In South Carolina, there are many tall pines. I remember the oak tree that we used to climb. But now when I'm lonesome, I always pretend, that I'm getting the feel of hickory wind." There's something soul-restoring in that hickory wind. And there's something rejuvenating about walking barefoot on a beach, under a cloudless sky and a watchful sun, sans commitments and cares, watching dolphin fins rising and falling in the ocean waves, witnessing sandpipers comically scooting along the sand, and seeing the smile returning to your wife's face. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajuniper@strangledeggs.com.