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2 - Orono Weekly Times 1937 - 2012 · Celebrating 75 Years 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 Canada Periodical Fund for our publishing activities." Wednesday, April 4, 2012 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/Sports 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. Love them or hate them, whistles and pigs are here to stay... for now A bit of comic relief was offered by Bowmanville resident Bill Humber in his address to council members on Monday afternoon, in what ended up being a very long meeting of the committee of council. Humber made reference to The Pig and Whistle show as the meeting dealt with the cessation of train whistles and the order to remove a potbellied pig from his home in the village of Newcastle. The Pig and Whistle Show was a Canadian musical television show which aired for a decade beginning in 1967. The show filmed in Toronto was set in a fictional English pub and featured the music of a Canadian-Irish group and a Scottish singer. While things do look optimistic for the Willoughby's and their pet pig, the same cannot be said for the people who want to stop train whistles from blowing through their communities. Councillors stayed the pig's banishment to the rural area of Clarington until such time as the 20 year-old Exotic Pet By-law is revised. One cannot imagine that pigs as tame and friendly as Toby, who even tucks himself into bed at night there are lots of who don't do that, could continue to be considered livestock in an updated Exotic Pet By-law. While animals as cute and cuddly as potbellied pigs are not permitted to live within the urban boundaries, Willoughby pointed out that as she has a visual impairment, according to the existing by-law, she would be allowed to keep a monkey in her Newcastle home. The by-law permits handicapped persons to keep a monkey within the urban boundaries to assist in their day to day living. The train whistle was described by several residents at Monday's Committee hearing as jarring blasts, an auditory assault to the ears that they cannot escape, an intrusion on their lives day and night. The horn blasts leave adults and their children living near train tracks suffering from sleep deprivation which is a medical condition that can lead to a host of other effects and conditions, including tired people driving cars which is a safety hazard, and reduced productivity at work and all the negative implications that entails. Where council had previously been asked to consider four intersections for whistle cessation measures including the two intersections at the Wilmot Creek retirement community, the request has now grown to six of the 20 level railway crossings in Clarington. A Courtice resident told councillors that she is subjected to 80 to 100 horn blasts a day from the approximately 20 trains that pass by her home near Prestonvale Road. That number will dramatically increase when the GO Train comes to Bowmanville, she warned. As you can hear a train whistle from anywhere in Clarington, one resident who addressed council on Monday claimed she knew people who are moving out of Clarington because they can't get away from train whistles and home values in Clarington are declining as a result. Those arguing for the train whistle cessation stated that Cobourg was successful in their attempt to stop trains from blowing whistles in their town, as were other communities, including Oshawa where whistles do not blow at certain crossings. Clarington staff is recommending that because of the potential risk to public safety, that Clarington not pursue anti-whistling on either the CN or CP rail lines within Clarington. The Operations Department in their report on the feasibility of whistle cessation was on the agenda for Monday's committee meeting, acknowledge that train whistling in urban areas is a quality of life issue. Problems with trespassing onto railroad properly, and the complexity of the additional liability the municipality would likely have to assume if trains no longer blow their whistles at level crossings all played into the Department's recommendation against whistle cessation. One of the residents requesting whistle cessation accused staff of writing a report which was flawed, extremely biased, undertaken without an open mind. While you can never please all the people all of the time, this week in Clarington one pig and his extended family were pleased and a whole host of sleep deprived residents living along Clarington's railway tracks will continue to receive auditory assaults from train whistles. Only in Clarington. Slots not racing's Holy Grail To The Editor: I have received complaints for my opinion on the possible divorce of the "horse racing business" (this one is private) and the "slots business" (this one is not). The horse racing business needs adequate purse money in order to operate and before slots, it survived on its own. Dare I suggest that a non essential private industry needs to be self sufficient and hopefully successful to a point of contributing business tax to our government. That's capitalism. I neither know nor care how slot profits are divided at horse tracks ... however the horse racing business apparently requires their slice to stay in business. What I do care about is how my government spends our money! As a retired auto worker ... I was anticipating a much reduced pension ... prior to the government bailout. Even though most of my GM benefits continued ... I didn't think it was "right". Private businesses can't rely on the free government ATM philosophy and the horse racing business got their subsidy several years ago. Horse racing people seem to view the original deal with government slots as some sort of Holy Grail. Circumstances change. Partnership agreements change. I suggest they concentrate on a new business plan that will allow their entertainment venue to stand on its own four feet ... once again. Sincerely Kelly Adams, Orono Conservatives fail older Canadians To The Editor: Are you prepared to give up $13,000 during your golden years? MP Bev Oda and Prime Minister Stephen Harper think you are. That's what the average Canadian will have to give up thanks to the federal budget introduced by the Conservative Party last week. The Budget cuts retirement benefits by raising the age of eligibility for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement from 65 to 67 years, forcing Canadians to postpone their retirement for 2 years. For low income seniors it's even worse. They stand to lose up to $30,000 which could hike seniors' poverty by up third. It's a massive hit to the least-well off. It's mean-spirited and it's wrong. The Conservatives offered zero financial analysis to justify the cut because there is none. The OECD, the Parliamentary Budget Officer and other leading experts have all confirmed that Canada does not face a pension crisis. The Conservatives are also using the Budget making deep ideological cuts. They are cutting $7.5 million from the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, $6.7 million from the BUDGET see page 4