* C h ish o lm SCHOOL SUCCESS www.chisholmcentre.com Talented youngsters strut their stuff A rtscen e Tis The Season for great gift giving S ection d (905) 844-3240 Mercedes-Benz Q .E . W . & D o r v a l D r . w w w . oakvi lleb eaver. co m NOR'S A M etrolan u P u b lica tio n A 'S \ bl. 3 9 N o. 14(i M O S T A W A R D E D C O M M U N IT Y B EA M .>2 P a g e s <. > ( .1 . N E W S P A P E R ts > !i is GST W EDNESDAY. D E C E M B E R 4. 2 0 0 2 Liberals pledge to preserve ORC lands W o u ld b e c o m e p a r t o fG T A g r e e n b e lt By Kim Arnott S P E C IA L T O T H E B E A V E R Bear-ing gifts The Halton Children's Aid Society m ade it's annual visit to the Maternal Child Unit of OakvilleTrafalgar Memorial Hospital last Friday and handed out Flurries to the babies in the ward. Holding their Flurries contentedly are (clockwise from the left) Jacob King, Celina Contestabile and Alex Perron. The Flurries are available at Sears Oakville Place for $2.99 with a minimum pur chase of $20 at the store. The C hildren's Aid Foundation re ceives 50 cents for each Flurry sold. An Ontario Liberal government would preserve 1,100 acres of land in north Oakville as greenspace, local Liberal candidate Kevin Flynn announced Monday. Flynn, who made the announcement at Bronte Creek Provincial Park, said his party would dedicate the lands cur "This is a plan that rently owned by the Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC), as deals specifically with a part of a permanent greenbelt. piece of land that is The ORC owns property in really important to the the area bounded by Bronte people of Oakville." Road to the west, the Sixteen · Oakville Liberal Mile Creek to the east, Dundas Street to the south and Hwy. candidate Kevin Flynn 407 to the north. With the lands already held in public ownership, Flynn said it would be possible to link the property with the existing Bronte Park lands to create a contiguous greenbelt area administered by an authority dedicated to its preservation. "It's a tremendous opportunity to do something really spe cial here in Oakville," he said. The Liberal promise is part of a recently-released environ mental platform outlined by leader Dalton McGuinty last week. Along with addressing issues of air and water pollution and public transit, the platform calls for the creation of a per manent greenbelt ring of 600,000 acres of land around the existing Greater Toronto Area. "This is a plan that deals specifically with a piece of land that is really important to the people of Oakville," said Flynn. "We think this is good news for Oakville." Iris McGee, an executive member of the local environ mental group Oakvillegreen, agrees. "We're pretty excited about this," she said. "We think this is a great place to start." Oakvillegreen has petitioned the provincial government to (See `L ib era l's page A3) Photos by Liesa Kortmann Young wants action on Romanow drug recommendations By Howard Mozel OAKVILLE B E A V E R STA FF Hospital gets $3-M donation for MRI The private donation of $3 million to secure an MRI for Halton Healthcare Services (HHS) will be celebrated at tomorrow's launch o f a $10 m illion Critical Support Campaign. The gift is the largest donation ever received by the hospi tal from a single community donor. Representatives of the pri vate family foundation will be on hand at the Harbour Banquet and Conference Centre to announce the gift and par ticipate in this historic event. The Critical Support Campaign will aid in the acquisition of diagnostic equipment, including the MRI, and the renova tion of the maternal child program at Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. In August, HHS received approval to purchase and oper ate an MRI from the Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care. Vanessa Young W hile Terence Young is pleased the Romanow Commission has recommended an independent agency to evaluate, approve and monitor prescription drugs, he remains afraid this finding will only gather dust like previ ous healthcare reforms. "I'm very concerned it will sit on a shelf and never be thought of again," said Young, whose daughter Vanessa died in March 2000 while taking a prescription medication. "The government has to have the political will to make it happen." So far this hasn't been the case, said Young, who maintains that the 59 compre hensive recommendations made by the coro ner's jury probing Vanessa's death have been largely ignored. Vanessa - a Grade 10 student at OakvilleTrafalgar High School who had been taking Cisapride (known as Prepulsid in Canada) off and on since 1999 - died on March 19, 2000 after her heart stopped the night before while she was at home. Her father has maintained for years that had the issues he raised been (See `Call' page A2) Terence Young INSIDE Editorials.............. .......A 6 Focus .................... ...... B l Classifieds............. B4 ArtScene................ ......B6 Sports.................... ...... C l Best Wheels.......... ....... C8 `Tis the Season..... m Full Delivery: Staples Business Depot, Home Depot Hy & Zel's, Ikea, People's Jewellers, Sheridan Nurseries Ltd. Partial Detivery:' Jeep left crash scene Burlington Detachment OPP are investigating a serious accident on the QEW in Oakville on Saturday morning in which a local woman somehow avoided being injured by a tractor trail er. According to investigators, the chain-reaction mishap started around 8:15 a.m, when a truck driven by Mortin McIntosh, 59, of Hamilton was travel ing eastbound on the QEW when he attempted to avoid a collision with a grayish/silver Jeep vehicle. In doing so, the truck struck a dis abled Toyota van driven by Irina VlasicPrelovec, 46, of Oakville, that was (S ee `O P P ' page A3) Sport Chek, Globo Shoes, Nintendo, BeUExpress Vu, The Bay, National Sports Centre, White Rose, Party Packagers, Liqidation W orld, Cogeco Video on Demand, The Bay, Black' s Photo Canadian Publications Mail Product Agreement #435-201 Barrie Erskine · Oakville Beaver OakviUe firefighters examine the wreckage after this tractor-trailer rolled pver on the QEW Saturday morning. C LOCKWOOD L U V j IV T V V / V / L / C H R Y S L E R *JE E P *D O D G E F l\/E S T A R sB O O © d C E R T I F I E D I P eter W iTS°n I N V E S T M E N T S H R Y S L E R 175 Wyecroft Road, Oakville 905.845.6653 W W W .l0 C k W 0 0 d c h r y s le r .C 0 tn 1 7 y e a r s in t h e s a m e lo c a t io n . RETIREMENT PLANNING SPECIALISTS F re e C o n s u l t a t i o n 8 4 2 -2 1 0 0 P rs e rC .H irisra ra C J E R . RJFJ*..