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2 - Orono Weekly Times Subscriptions $38.09 + $1.91 GST = $40.00 per year. No Refunds. Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs." Wednesday, June 9, 2010 ORONO WEEKLY TIMES - 5310 Main St., P.O. Box 209, Orono, ON L0B 1M0 E-mail: oronotimes@rogers.com or Phone/Fax: 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart Production and Display Advertising - Roxanne Johnston Classified Advertising - Sue Weigand The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such items. Boaters lose ground to developers Last week Clarington Council made some key decisions that clearly suggest that developers wag the dog in Clarington. A group of boaters docked at the Darlington Marina has been asking council since March to partner with them and help pay the $40,000 cost to dredge the Bowmanville Creek channel from the municipally owned boat launch to the lake. Dredging has not been done for about 20 years apparently, and silt building up in the channel combined with the historic low water levels in the lake has made dredging a necessity this year. According to Bob Kreasul, the municipally owned boat launch is used by thousands of boaters each year, including 150 boats tied up at the Darlington Marina for the season, and the 50 Salmon Charter boats which attract a large clientele from outside the municipality. The municipal boat launch generates hundreds of thousands of dollars in tourism revenue annually for the municipality, If boaters cannot launch their boats in Clarington, they will go elsewhere, Kreasul told Council repeatedly. According to Kreasul, once the creek has been properly dredged, smaller maintenance dredging would be required every five to seven years. Last week Council members decided to hold off making a decision about whether or not to get involved in dredging the channel until next year, as they had not budgeted for their onethird share of the $40,000 in this year's municipal budget. In the same meeting, Council chose to forgo an estimated $80,000 in lost development charges revenue for the last half of this year. All new construction is levied a fee called a development charge, which the municipality collects to offset the cost to the municipality for the new development. New roads, parks, and recreation facilities are funded by these development charge dollars. The municipality is working towards a model whereby new development pays for itself, rather than relying on existing taxpayers to pay for infrastructure to support new development. In a report to Council a few weeks ago, it was recommended that development fees be increased by six-percent for residential development and 10-percent for non-residential development. It was anticipated this increase would ensure that development pays for itself, and that current property taxpayers are not subsidizing new construction and their developers. At the May 17th statutory public meeting dealing with the proposed development charge rate hike, no one spoke in objection to the increase. Not one member of the development industry appeared before Council at that meeting or at any subsequent meeting asking for a reduction or delay to the proposed development charge increase. Yet at the end of the May 17th committee meeting, Councillor Gord Robinson put forward a motion to phase-in the proposed development charge increase over a six-month period with half of the increase to be applied in July and other half next January. By phasing-in the increase, the municipality could stand to lose an estimated $80,000 in development charge revenue this year. This figure is based on an estimated 200 building applications for the last half of this year. It is a financial burden Council would rather place on the existing property taxpayer than the development industry, where it belongs. It baffles the mind why Councillors could not see their way clear to support an already existing tourism industry with approximately $14,000 (one third of $40,000), yet they have no objection to supporting the development industry by foregoing an estimated $80,000 in potential revenue this year. One can only imagine how hard the development industry lobbied individual Councillors for their support for the phasein proposed by Robinson. This is exactly why municipal Councillors should not be allowed to take election campaign contributions from developers. Councillor Willie Woo was the only Councillor who did not support the phase-in of development charges, and he has declared that he will not take contributions from developers in this election campaign as he did in the previous campaign. Letters to the Editor Flyers fill up blue box Gunning for Bill C-391 To the Editor: I am becoming increasingly agitated by the proliferation of ads in the paper that is dropped off at my door. If I didn't have such a responsible paper boy, I would stop delivery, as I don't appreciate paying a monthly fee for ads I do not want, which are printed on colourful glossy pages. The Orono Times incorporates its ads in its paper which I scan quicly and if intersted, the subjects will pop out at me. The Sun and the Star papers included most of their ads within their pages. I realize it is the paper's bread and butter, but please, don't give them to me as flyer inserts. Without these flyers I could reduce my recycling to once a month, or once every two months. If my paper boy wasn't careful he could get a hernia from lugging all the bulk around. Marj Lowery. To the Editor: I was recently sent a copy of a letter from the Wednesday, May 12, 2010 edition of the Orono Weekly Times, in which the author urged the Hon. Bev Oda, M.P. for Durham, to "show support for the safety of women in Canada and vote against Bill C-391 at third reading." Bill C-391, if passed, will repeal the useless and prohibitively expensive long gun registry, that the Auditor General of Canada has stated twice (2002, 2006) has not been proven to save lives and enhance public safety, the very foundation on which the system was originally established. Despite the contentions of the writer, the rate of homicides using firearms declined from the mid-1970's to 2002, long before the long gun registry ever existed. It is also a fact that spousal homicides using firearms were also declining before BILL C-391 see page 4 Oda responds To the Editor: In response to your editorial of June 2nd, let me provide the following information. I was not informed by my office and was unaware of your request regarding my MP expenses until I read the Orono Times upon my return to the riding on Friday, June 4th. You are quite right that the Auditor General asked to do a performance audit. As she has said "to look at what spending rules are in place and if they are being followed." When interviewed she indicated that the public have clearly "misunderstood" her intentions. You had also reported accurately that expense ODA see page 4