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Orono Weekiy Times, Wedneeldly, August il, 1993 -3 W% qua Randty S. Frank graduated recently from University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Science in Honours Applied: Chemistry (Co-op). He will be resuming his studies in a Masters Program at the University of Waterloo in the fali. Randy is the son of Ron and Peggy Frank of R. R. 1 Newtonville. Book R evi.1ew from Crystal Pages AVALON by Anya Seton - This is a grand piece of storytelling with characters evolving around a back drop of 1Oth century Iceland and England.' Written at a time when those living in the western part of England did flot then consider themselves Engiish. The tale is wrapped in continuai reference to the Cornish Area, AvalIon,, the haunts and myths of the great King Arthur, and the magie of grand old Merlin. Yet this is not reaily a mystical tale. Though fictional, it' traces the plunder and pillage of the warring tribes from the North, the Vikings, Icelanders and Danes, who killed, bumned and carried off what was'of interest to them; the difficulties -of the priesthood in organizing the Irish to 'civilized ways' and the holdover of pagan rites and ceremonies which clever kings were fearful of abolishing. And, of course, love stories, some happy, some sad, al taking place in a brooding dangerous time when the wiid and the civilized in man were ail but indistinguishable. Fawcett Crest - Recycied Ready to right school charges The Ontario Home Builders' Association is threatening legal action if sehool boards try to pass educational development charges. The local board ste cthe levies arc designed to shift the burden of ncw school building costs to new homo buycrs., _1 Only two boards in the province have passed such legisiation which was struck down by a divisional court. As a resuit of the court case many boards arc now holding off in giving final passage of such' legisiation of which Northum- berland and Newcastle is one. The divisional court ruling is hcing appcaled. If an appeal is successful in ruiing out.the divisional court decision thc Northumbcrland and Newcastlc Board intcnd-to procccd with a dcvelopmcnt charge in an anounit of S2,162.00 per housing unit. Q3ueen's Park Repoft from Gord iMhlîs, MPP Durham East The Spring Session of the Legisiature finally ended last Monday a ft ernoon, five weeks later than scheduled.. The shenanigans surrounding the last sitting day are but a prelude to open war" when the Houso resumes on Soptember 27th. Changes i n procodure are unavoidablo if the government is to proceed with legislation. These changes, will without any doubt, set the stage for more intense battles in the next Session. During the last couple *of weoks, I have recceived many letters of complaint over a governmont grant to a1 "Black Credit Union". The topic even became the subject of a local newrspaper's Editorial column. It's too bad the way some tinsget distorted and misunderstood. Stephon Leacock once said, "A bank is an institution that oxists to lend you money provided you can prove that you doni't reaIlý need it." 1 suspect that many readers will agreo with that, and 1 speculato you would also agree that credit unions are a great aternative to batiks and large trust companies. After ahl, credit unions are community based and are set upto serve a "community of intorests," such as people who share a particular ethnie background, work for the saine employer or livo in a certain' geographical area..There have long been credit unions for Japanese, Ukranian, Korea, Dutch, and other ethnic groups as well as credit unions that serve auto, workers, teachers, or postal workers. Thero is nothing niew about government funding to assist community dovelopment or even to assist credit unions. For example, in 1979 the Federal government gave, a grant to the Ottawa Women's Credit Union. The particular funding which appears to bo under-some scrutiny now, is part of a new initiative from the Provincial govemment to assist "community econoie developmenit" and heip create jobs and heip thoec-onomny. It is called, 'jobsontario Community Action," and is a $300 million dollar, 3 year programn that was announced a few weeks ago. The "Caribbean Canadian African Credit Union," is an expansion of the 30 year old "Jamaican Canadian Credit Union," and it wili receive $250,000 for three yearsto help it grow and, serve more members of a commun ity that needs this help. This grant has been made: because in the first three ycars of opera tion, the credit union is expected to incur a deficit because startup expenses will be higher than revenues. Man y groups such as this community have arguecd they Udti that traditional financial institutions were not meeting their ncds. Following the Yonge Street riots,- Stephen Lewis was tasked with preparing a report for the government, outl iniing problems faced by the black commfunity. In his report Mr. Lewis said, "there is a wilful financial impediment on the part oU mainstrcam financial institutions towards minority businesses." It should flot bc hard for us to accept this dlaim, given the fact that Stephen Lewis is respected for his perspecti ve on all social issues throughout the world. To me,-the grant from the provincial government to this particular credit union, is a good investment and makes good economie sense as well. The Social Contract process, now over, hâs been challenging. Not since my election in 1990 have 1 taken such personal abuse over a single issue. It hasn't been pleasant at ail. In spite of everything I remain convinced, that without the Social Contract between 20,000 - 40,000 jobs and hundreds of services we have corne to take for granted, would have been lost. I don't believe too many other governments would have had the courage to have done the sanie. This week 1 get to take my seat in the Senate! Along with the Speaker of the Ontario Legisiature, I will represent the goverfiment at the Annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference ini Ottawa, from Monday to Friday. Ahl of the meetings are to be conducted in the Senate Chamber, hence my quip about taking my seat there. Some of the more interesting subjects for debate are, "Free votes, responsibie government and Legisiature reform, " "The changing nature of Representation," and of particular interest in these times, "Parliamentary Scrutiny of Publ ic Expenditures." The foilowing week, 1 will be in Windsor as a -member of the General Government Committee listening to presentations -in regard to the Casino Legisiation. In spite of a rather hectie schedule, my coiumn wiil appear as usuai, I want to keep my record of nover missing a week, intact. Until next week - take care. Cedar VauiIey Resort SEASONAL TRAILER CAMPING BEAUTIFUL $912 - 1993/94 7 km. nast of OronolHwy. 115 on Conc. LUne 4 1-416-786-2562 Qde, q.)utch Carpentry CUSTOM HOME BUILDING RENOVATIONS "SmaiI Jobs and Large l'i Take Charge" 1-705-277-2397 JOE H. LEYSTRA Teacher/Board agreement In a special meeting of'the Northumberland and Newcastle Board of Education Friday evening, local agreements within the Social Contract legisiation were approved between both elementary. and secondary teacher groups and tho Board.- By reaching a deal with mhe two teaching groups the groups were able to realize the twenty percent reduction in the amount of their targot cutbacks and-to use some actuarial reductions in the amount of monies paid to teachers Pension Plan to further reduce the overal target.. .The local agreements wero part of a deal- hammered out between mhe goverinent and the educators. in provincial bargainir .g earlier in due week., The targeted reduction for the teachers, which is in excess of four million dollars a year for three years, will see teachers taking a throe year salary freeze, a freeze on salary incremnents and graduai increases ovor the three year period to the pupil-teacher ration to meet tho provincial target of a 4.75 percent staff reduction. Toachors have agreed to accept marginal increases in class size student numbers and to not add positions due to the system growth in the next three years. Teachers were able to take, advantage of the decision by seniors administration earlior in June to freeze aIl additional' hiring in anticipation of cutbacks which might have resulted from the Social Contract legislation. By withholding new staff hiring for increased enrolment and attrition, mhe teachers were able to realize significant savings to apply against their target reduction for tue first year of mhe three year period. Dick Malowney, director of education, states that he is "pleased to have achieved the local agreement wim mtis largest group, which now means that there is agreement with al employee groups within the board sys tem. As a result the board tarp-ets are îrreatlv rednced and the impact on educational services and individ-ual employees wîll be minimized. 1It is noted by the board that mhese sav ings, amoun ting in dueý millions of dollars flow back directly to mhe province and- local ratepayers will not be mhe direct beneficiaries of these cutbacèks through local taxes. Mr. Malowney states mhat he bas been pleased with due co- operation and positive attitude demonstrated by the local leadership to deal with mhe issue once the sectorial plan was i place.H e states that relationship between the board and its employees is stronger than ever. The elementary teachers' group bas also accepted a tentative settlement of their collective agreement which bas been an outstanding issue since August 1992. The elementary teachers are expected to ratify die agreement in September. Provincial negotiator- who accepted mhe tentative agreement for the elementary teachers recognized acceptance of the collective agreement now, wil avert staff lay-offs otherwise required by mhe Social Contract cutbacks. Tho Board bas now settled with not only the teachers but local members of CUPIE and Administration. Mr. Malowney points out that the local CUPE organtization settled with a local agreement while mhe Ontario body bas as yet to settle wimh the province. Through mhe'Social Contract the province bad called for a reduction of $5.681 million fromn salaries with an allowance of 20 percent waived if mhe settlement took place as of August 10th. The local board and employees having met the time limit of August lOth had only to reduce the salary monies by $4.52 million. The board does not expect any lay-offs nor, any need for days off.