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6 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday, M arch 5, 2003 Till! IIAKVIIlli M W R Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association V v / aV , a Canadian Community Newspapers Association EDITORIALS AND LETTERS IAN OLIVER Publisher NEIL OLIVER Associate Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in C hief KELLY MONTAGUE Advertising Director STEVE CROZIER Circulation Director TERI CASAS Office M anager MARK DILLS Production M anager RIZIERO VERTOLU Photography Director ROD IERRED Managing Editor Motrcfand Printing. PtUefung & O o tr W r g L td . aluO ee AfM/Ptctojrlng News A d rtrtosr A la fcn HeraltVCounar, A rtrw Enterprise News. Banto AAunce. Barry * B jy Th * Vtox*. Bolton Entarproo, Brampton Guorctan. Burtngton Post Burlington Stopping News. City Parent. C trtn g w w tV rtB a g i Connection. East 'ittV Minor, Erin AdvocaWCourary Route*. EtoCicoM GuarOan. Flanttcrough Port. Goorpetown lnd«*n<JertfActon F rw Prwa. H v rtto n P«Mew. K jro r« Buainess Tinyo Kingston Thtt w w * . LrtJM y TNs Week. Maridxwn Economist & Sun. M kaan d*Pu n«afgu8fir* M n cr M *o n CanaOan Charrcnon M u on S *o c p n ; New) M e se s a u p S t r e s s T ries M s x s a j p News. I t p r a Guide NewnwfceC'Auroa Era-Banner. N o rT v rtx rte n d Nevw. N o rti < trt M m O M e Btautr. OeteMe SJopprg N aw v CW&man Hxkey **»w j 0 » * Today. Oaw*H&m>tKXxr c r Port Parry The Wwfc. Owen Sound T rtx iie Pam enfcn Otaervtr. Pemtiarougfi TN i W W *. Pctnn G x r ty Gude. Rtnm cnd U/TTorrf>*Yaujhan LfeeraL S a t c r r ^ Wrror S k x /M fe lU r t) g a Trtbuna. F<rewr 'rtx rg Qr*.o< tfarV GuarOan 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax; 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 337-5610 Circulation: 845-9742 0 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: op | o a kvllIe q a lle rl»s | c>a ELCO M E^t- P**TTtT!im rAGONu» JrgrMFurxi B 0/JLJUU SKi Suburban Newspapers of America S TVw © f t ^fwarMts fW B U SW eSSE M & U H K T n»O a* v * rM fe o na n dD *tw ( 7 A M f i n d R IA L ItTATI tO A R O Why the cheap shots? It was less than 18 m onths ago the world looked on in stunned horror as terrorists struck at the heart o f the United States with air borne assaults on W ashington, Pennsylvania and New York on Sept. 11,2001. But, in the year and a half that has passed, our closest neighbour has gone from receiving the w orld's sympathy, tears and unw a vering support for its declared w ar on terrorism to feeling its scorn. Som ew here along the way the victim has becom e the one on trial. N ow here has this been m ore evi dent than from our federal govern ment. In recent months. Prim e M inister Jean Chretien, as his style, has sent confusing signals as to the extent this country will support the U.S. in its fight against terrorism , which includes the regim e o f Ira q 's Saddam Hussein. Hussein is the same m an who pays rewards to fam ilies o f suicide bom bers and has been linked to AlQ aeda terrorists. A fter m onths o f w affling, Chretien and his m inisters have, in recent weeks, show n their support d o esn 't lie w ith ou r A m erican cousins. Last w eek, one o f the prim e m in iste r's ow n, M ississau g a M P C arolyn Parrish, p roclaim s her hatred for the A m erican "bastards" but suffers no repercussions for her actions. Instead o f asking her to resign, our PM blam es the m edia for m aking a big deal o f the issue. We w onder if Parrish had chosen to insult a country other than the U.S. -- say India or Pakistan -- if C h rd tien 's reaction m ight have been different. We think so. To top it o ff our lam e-duck PM feigns surprise the U.S. w ould like to see a regim e change in Iraq and ridiculously w onders if C anada w ould be next on the U.S. list. Surely A m ericans m ust be w on dering with "friends" like C anada, w ho needs enem ies? N o m atter what your position is related to a w ar in Iraq, we need to ask ourselves who we w ould turn to for support should C anada ever fall victim to a terrorist attack? It's unlikely Hussein w ould top the list. It's fine to be opposed to a hur ried m ilitary action against Iraq. H ow ever, an ti-A m eric a n c h eap shots serve no purpose except to d iv ert a tte n tio n from the real issue. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Is this really smart growth? The proposed 20-plus storey building on the west bank of 16 Mile Creek or even a slightly downscaled version of it would deal our downtown a serious cosmetic and cultural blow. For many of us, our pride of place would be reduced forever. We were told in a Beaver editorial that the principles of Smart Growth support this development. Because the proposed development makes good use of existing infrastructure, offers new housing to some hundreds of people without the cost of new infrastructure it meets the Smart Growth criteria. There should be no doubt that we need to manage growth as intelligently as pos sible. Growth is inevitable. Growth is something else, as well. Growth is inter minable which is to say that it will go on forever. Eventually, the limits of intensification will be met, neighbourhoods will have been destroyed and there will be no alter native but to make the investments in new infrastructure which we are currently try ing to avoid. Destroy our neighbourhoods perma nently in order to postpone investment temporarily? This kind of smart growth is not smart enough for Oakville. TOM SCOTT Provincial government sets education taxes: trustee RE: editorial: Saturday, March 1, 2003, Sending Mixed Messages. Your comments about school boards' difficulties negoti ating two-year contract settlements with teachers, while mostly accurate, bears some clarification. I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you - and your readers - of one aspect of funding for education that is some times forgotten. You state that, "..if they (school boards) sign..deals with significant increases... and the province doesn't provide any second-year funding, then they're on the hook - or more accurately local taxpayers are on the hook - for the differ ence." While not absolutely incorrect, this statement is mis leading. I wish to remind you that, since the imposition of Bill 160 in 1998, local school boards can no longer directly influence or access the local tax base. The education portion of our property taxes are established by the provincial government, collected by the municipality and flow directly to the provin cial government coffers - and are then redistributed on the basis of per-pupil grants to every school board across the province. In fact, those who pay higher assessments are sub sidizing the costs of education in less-prosperous communi ties across the whole province. It's well-established and pub licly acknowledged that those grants are sufficient only to restrict every school to the lowest possible (equalized) stan dards, but that's a topic for another discussion. The point I wish to highlight is that local taxpayers will not see a board-imposed mill-rate increase to manage salary increases that exceed the grants from the province. But, everything has a cost: should a reasonable contract not be reached, the cost to school boards, to students and families -- to our society -- will be the necessary re-allocation of scant dollars from other areas of school operations. MARY CHAPIN TRUSTEE - OAKVILLE, WARD 3 HALTON DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD UTTER 01 THE WEEK Let's not give away our `unique, beautiful' community I read with curiosity your editorial on Urban sprawl vs. urban intensification, The Beaver, Feb. 28. You end your arti cle with the statement that. "We can't have it both ways," referring to opposing both intensification proposals like the 19-storey apartment block downtown and urban sprawl devel opment north of Dundas. My question to you is, why not? Urban sprawl and urban intensification are not the logical opposites of one another, they are simply two concepts relat ing to housing an increased population. There is no reason in the world why we can't have both, if that is what the commu nity feels is best. Who decided for us that we must accept more individuals moving into the community than we feel we can physically accommodate? I don't see any initiative amongst the residents of Forest Hill or Rosedale to try to accommodate increased density in their communities. You reference as an alternative, "forcing families to have one child." While I understand that this was an exaggeration on your part. I am surprised that your message is that the Town of Oakville should feel such a responsibility to accommodate Canada's increased population. What duty do the citizens of Oakville owe to the world to try to (almost single-handedly, by the sounds of it) solve a very normal and usual issue like accommodating a growing population? The reality is that Canada is the second largest country in the world and we have amongst the lowest population densi ties anywhere. Believe me, people are amazingly resilient. If it is not possible to live in this area for lack of accommodation, then they will make other communities elsewhere and Canada and the Province of Ontario will be the stronger for it. When you step back for a moment and put this issue in per spective, it is not that big a problem and there are other com munities out there that are more than willing to accommodate the growing population. This issue has been blown way out of proportion by the economic interests north of Dundas versus the environmentalists who oppose them. It's now time to bring the issue back to basics. Believe it or not, there is a third choice in this matter and that choice is for the citizens of Oakville and Halton region to decide exactly what kind of community they want to create and ignore alarmist views on either side. This is a unique and beautiful community, let us not give that away just because there are regular everyday pressures out there to deal with. Canada's population will increase over the years, agreed. But, there are hundreds if not thousands, of other options in this province and across the country to accommodate their housing needs. What is totally wrong is to make the citizens of Oakville feel any sort of obligation, ethical or otherwise, to stack Canada's population growth on top of us and ruin the beauty and uniqueness that took decades of patience and good foresight to create in Uie first instance. N. GREGORY MCNALLY People - including students - respond poorly to threats Re: What's the excuse? (Feb. 26, 2003). The Oakville Beaver appears to have taken a very hard position against 2,000 Halton high school students who are risk ing graduation due to their decision to not comply with the government's required 40 hours of mandatory community service. I can't honestly believe for a minute though that The Beaver is not terribly anx ious about the future of these young peo ple caught up in this latest Tory education crisis. The Beaver appears honestly per plexed as to the motives of such an enor mous number of good, young people. Why are they not volunteering? Volunteering is a great thing after all, isn't it? Let me suggest that it's possible that many of our young people are failing to volunteer not because there is no money in it or that they couldn't be bothered, but simply because they are being told that they have to volunteer, or else. 1 can't help but imagine that young people like a lot of other people in our society respond poorly to threats especial ly from a government that has brought so much utter chaos, pressure, and confusion to so many of their school years. TOM KOPERWAS Bear-ly dressed raffle a success On behalf of Oakville Big sisters, a member agency of the United Way. and the United Way of Oakville, I am writing to thank you for participating in the first annual Bear-ly Dressed Raffle. I am pleased to report that this initia tive raised in excess of $1,800. Marilyn Markow, executive director of Oakville Big Sisters, has advised me that all monies raised will be used to provide much needed programs for the young girls and boys the agency serves. In addition, the fundraiser was able to attract considerable media coverage due to the involvement of local celebrities and community leaders like you. This in turn has allowed Big Sisters to raise its profile within Oakville. Once again please accept my appreciation for participating in our "Bear-ly dressed" Celebrity Raffle 2002. MARY MURPHY FUNDRAISING CHAIRPERSON Don't impose volunteer work The definition of volunteer (from the dictionary): One who enters into or offers him self fo r a service o f his own free will. I am a volunteer, yet my opinion is that high school stu dents should not be forced to do volunteer work. They should be able to concentrate on their studies and extra-curricular activities such as sports, arts, etc. They have their hands full already. Imposing communi ty work on them could turn them off completely. MARTHA LOEB Pud MY UTTLE 6UY, M AX IN SRADE ONE, CAME HOME WITH ONLY ONE MtTTEN. By STEVE NEASE We welcome your letters The Oala'ille Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considera tions and grammar. In order to be published, letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Road, Oakville, On., L6K 3S4. or via e-mail to editor@ oakvillebeaver.com . The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish any letter. The Oakville Beaver Is a member of the Ontario Press Coundl. The coundl 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, togeth er 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 dedine. I IF I c o u u D LOOK THROUGH THE SCHOOLS m S W 0 rtD E R \N & ^ LOST AND FoUNP? A