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w w w . o a kv ill eb ea ve r.c o m O A KV IL LE B EA V ER W e dn es da y, O ct ob er 6 , 2 01 0 6 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 Open 9-5 weekdays, 5-7 for calls only Wed. to Friday, Closed weekends The Oakville Beaver Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. OPINION & LETTERS Letters to the editor The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakville- beaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. Fire Prevention Week is October 3 to 9 and this years theme is Smoke Alarms A Sound You Can Live With. The Office of the Fire Marshal wants everyone to participate in this years campaign by testing all the smoke alarms at home to ensure they work. The bottom line is, working smoke alarms can make a difference in surviving a fire as they give occupants a chance to escape. Following are the top 10 things you need to consider about smoke alarms to help keep you and your family safe. 1. Most fire deaths happen at night when every- one is asleep. You can have as little as one minute to escape a fire. 2. Its the law. All homes must have working smoke alarms on every storey and outside all sleep- ing areas. The fire department has the power to issue a ticket for $235, or lay charges that could result in a fine of up to $50,000 and/or up to a year in jail. 3. The more smoke alarms you have, the better your odds of survival. 4. Landlords are responsible for providing and maintaining smoke alarms in their rental proper- ties. If they dont, they could be fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced to up to a year in jail. 5. Homeowners or tenants can be fined for tam- pering with or disabling a smoke alarm and that includes removing the battery. 6. The most common reason for removing batter- ies is because the alarm operates when you dont want it to such as when cooking dinner. There are ways to address this that dont put your life in danger, such as installing a smoke alarm with a hush feature that allows you to temporarily silence it at the push of a button, moving the alarm or installing a photoelectric model. 7. Smoke alarm batteries should be replaced every year, or when the smoke alarm starts to chirp. 8. Smoke alarms should be tested every month, following the manufacturers instructions. Be sure to test them if you have been away from your home for more than a few days because the batteries could have expired in your absence. 9. All smoke alarms, whether battery-operated or electrically-wired, should be replaced with new ones if they are more than 10 years old. 10. When the smoke alarms sound, everyone in your household needs to know what to do. Develop and practice a home fire escape plan. NEIL OLIVER Vice President and Group Publisher of Metroland West DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager 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 accept- ed 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 appli- cable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Letter to the editor Its alarming THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: ATHENA Award THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIALMEDIASPONSOR FOR: Recognized for Excellence by Canadian CirculationAudit Board Member Canadian CommunityNewspapers AssociationOntario CommunityNewspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America Election signs are bad for the environment The Oakville Beaver is a division of As I drive home from the mall, I am astonished by the unbelievable number of signs that have been erected in support of candidates running for the next election in Oakville. As I drive up Eighth Line, it troubles me to think that these people are expecting Oakville to support them. Many claim to support sustainability and going green, yet they have used materials that do not sup- port the issue. As a Grade 12 student, who is too young to vote, I am already becoming less and less interested in choosing who I would like to represent me as a citizen of Oakville. Many of the people running in the elec- tion run on the basis of helping to make Oakville an even more beautiful place to live, grow up and raise a family. They say that the environment is one of the main subjects they hope to deal with, but when I see signs shoved into the green earth, made from what they are supposedly trying to protect, how can any of us believe that they will truly be committed to helping our environment? On one block alone I have seen eight signs, one after another. What good does that do? If I am driving past at 50km/h, what good are the eight signs when they are posi- tioned one after another with a single per- sons name on it? Is this going to convince me to vote for them? Do the people who are running really want to be voted for on the basis of how many signs they have? Not only is this a costly approach, both monetarily and environmentally, it is also not how the youths of today are reached. Have they not heard of the Internet? With the state our world is in, including our economic crises, global warming, and the amount of poverty we have in our vari- ous communities, I would hope that our town officials will be people who are going to help make change, and care about why they are being elected. When I went on a field trip to a local ravine to look at animals in their natural habitat for my Grade 11 biology course, the number of discarded signs from the previ- ous election was upsetting. The amount of paper, or plastic, that is used to make these signs, is wasteful. The signs end up in the environment and they are not biodegrading, and therefore our pol- lution levels rise. Our officials are supposed to be addressing the issue of pollution and environmental solutions, not adding to the problem. If no one else has realized, we have entered the 21st century and therefore have access to something called the Internet. If we could put a limit on how many signs people are putting up, and encourage campaigning via Internet, the media, local appearances and town meetings, then we might start to truly become a green com- munity. LAURA ELLIOT, OAKVILLE TransCanada responds to letters TransCanada has decades of experience operating natural gas pipelines and power plants safely. But I know that doesnt mean much when youre concerned about the safety of your family. Thats why TransCanada volun- tarily had an independent safety analysis conducted. Our safety report (www.tran- scanada.com/oakville/safetyreport) indicates that the Oakville Generating Station would be a safe neighbour. Weve also offered fund- ing to the Town of Oakville to con- duct an independent review of the report. In a recent letter published in the Oakville Beaver there were sev- eral references to incidents and fatalities due to TransCanada facili- ties that I would like to clarify: TransCanada did experience two pipeline ruptures in Ontario in the past year in northern Ontario. These incidents occurred in remote See Employee page 9