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by Laura J. Richards It will likely cost more to send your kids to swimming lessons after after February 1st. In fact, a new set of user fees ready for Clarington Council approval approval on Monday will result in higher rates charged by the municipality municipality of Clarington for almost all local government services. For example, it will cost about 10 per cent more to rent municipal buildings, process planning documents documents or go skating in a municipal arena. There also will be several new fees, including a charge for the use of soccer and baseball fields "However, Clarington Mayor Diane Hamre said people are more willing to see user fees go up than taxes. "The public is adamant about having no tax increase in this year's budget," Mayor Hamre said on Wednesday afternoon. Even with a loss of almost $1 million due to provincial government government cutbacks, "the user fees are only going up less than 10 per cent," she stated. The rest of the money will be found internally, and "this is the way to go," Mayor Hamre remarked. remarked. Rentals and user fees for Clar- ington's community services department department have gone up by 10 per cent across the board. For public skating or swimming, adult daily fees will be $2.75 and 10 tickets will cost $18.70. Parents wanting to enroll their children in swimming classes could be forking out as much as $12.50 more, depending on the level. Even at that, the increase in user fees is up by 10 per cent. Rentals have gone up too. Clarington residents will pay up to $10 more for ice rentals while non-residents will pay $15 more during prime and non-prime hours. Non-residents will be paying $145 per hour, which is still higher than residential adult rales of $110 during during prime times. There is no cut rate for non-residential youths. Community Services Director Joe Caruana told The Clarington/ Courtice Independent while some user fees have been increased at different times, the latest increase "keeps us competitive with other municipalities." Ice time and reniai of the rooms at the Garnet Rickard Recreation Complex are the big ticket items. They cost between $550 to $735 per rental for non-licensed and licensed licensed areas. Non-residential users Turn to page two Advertising / Printing Advertise in the Statesman/Independent during February, and 25 % of the value can be used toward the cost of printing and services. See page 6 for details. iBpBlsS MfS£l£ ■ : • nr^ Mgo Ufaws Present New ÈMÉ1 k ÊÉÉM Mm by Laura J. Richards Clarington would become a rural rural hinterland in the landscape of a new Greater Toronto Area, according according to recommendations from four Toronto area mayors. The report is called "Moving Forward Together." The document re-designs the Greater Toronto Area, as seen through the eyes of Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCal- lion, North York Mayor Mel Last- man, Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall, and Oshawa Mayor Nancy Diamond. Diamond. Report Puts Clarington in New "Rural County yy In the mayors' plan for local government reform, Clarington would be'outside the urban GTA. It would join Scugog, Uxbridge, Brock, Witchurch-Stouffvillé, East Gwillimbury and Georgina to form a new county A second county would include King, Caledon, Milton and Halton Hills. Both counties would become what the mayors called rural municipalities. municipalities. Urban municipalities under the umbrella of the new GTA government government would include: Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Newmarket, Newmarket, Aurora, Scarborough, Toronto, Toronto, East York, North York, York, Etobicoke, Mississauga, Brampton, Oakville and Burlington. Burlington. Under this proposal, which has been in the making since late last fall, the province would cover 100 per cent of the costs of welfare, social social housing, day care, homes for the aged, watershed management, inter-hospital ambulance transportation transportation and specialized police services. services. A new "Intermunicipal Services Board" would oversee a user-pay system for waste disposal, water purification and supply, GTA economic economic development, promotion and tourism, and finally, growth management management strategy. Municipal councils would oversee oversee and pay for planning and zoning, zoning, building standards, by-law enforcement, enforcement, local storm sewers, water distribution, roads and sidewalks, sidewalks, waste collection, traffic and street lighting, parks and recreation, cultural facilities and grants, business business development, hydro, libraries, telecommunications, property as- Turn to page two A & P. Canadian Tire* G r a h a m ' s 8 G A * Lifestyles Miracle Food Mart (*indicates partial distribution) For information about inserting flyers in The Independent, please contact our office at 623-3303 $100,000 Winner They may only be photocopies, but Lina Shetler knows where the originals are. "I put the cheque into the bank yesterday (Wednesday, Jan. 24), and they (Ontario Lottery Corp.) had to keep the ticket," Shetler said of her $100,000 winnings in the Wintario draw. A Library Assistant at the Bowmanville Branch of the Clarington Library System, Shetler and her daughter have been playing the game for the past two to three years and have only won small prizes of $5 and up to $32. Her prize money has already paid for a new washer and dryer. While she hasn't made a lot of plans of what to do with the rest of the money, Shetler is thinking about taking a trip to England with her sister. Shetler Welfare Cheats Beware by Lorraine Manfredo Durham Region is" cracking down on welfare cheats. Over the past year, the number of people charged with defrauding the system has more than doubled. Fifty-six people were arrested in 1995, compared to only 25 in 1994. According to the Durham Regional Regional Police, there were 177 criminal criminal charges laid in 1995. That's well over a hundred more than the previous year. Total dollar value defrauded in 1995 was $745,852. That's almost $700,000 more than 1994. However, these higher figures "don't necessarily indicate welfare fraud is on the rise," says Detective Reinhard Albrecht, of the Durham Regional Police major fraud unit. A lot of those cases are "historical," "historical," he says. Some clients had commenced defrauding the system as far back as 1992, but diligent work by eligibility officers finally resulted in enough evidence for police police and prosecutors to act. Typical ways of defrauding the system were: not reporting a second second income (working under the table), table), or "spousal fraud," which occurs occurs when couples living together do not report the income of a spouse. Det. Albrecht credits teamwork between social services investigators investigators and police for successful apprehension apprehension of the welfare cheats. "Of course, we can't catch everyone," everyone," he says. "But with the work that investigators arc doing it's getting more and more difficult for people to even consider defrauding defrauding the system." The arrests also send a message to the general public that something is being done about the problem, he adds. Defrauded benefits arc recouped by the Social Services Dept., thereby thereby reducing the amount, on subsc- fluent socuil services checiues.