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Page 4 The Canadian Statesman. Bowmanville. May 7.1997 ®he Canabtan Statesman Former Publishers and Partners Rev. John M. Climie and W. R. Climic 1854 -1878 M. A. James, 1878 -1935 • Norman S. 13. James, 1919 - 1929 G. Elena James, 1929 -1947 • Dr. George W. James, 1919 -1957 Produced weekly by James Publishing Company Limited P.O. Box 190,62 King St. W., Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 905-623-3303 lnternet-statesman@ocna.org Fax 905-623-6161 For 142 Years, Our First Concern Has Been Our Community Assoc. Publisher - Rick James Editor - Peter Parrott Publisher-John M. James Plant Manager - Rick Patterson Ad. Manager - Brian G. Purdy Production Supervisor - Ralph Rozema, Suzanne Bennett, Kevin Britton, Sharon Cole, Laurens Kaldcway, Doug Lugtenburg, Barb Patterson, Jim Snoek, Vance Sutherland, Jim Tuuramo Advertising Laverne Morrison Editorial Brad Kelly, Lorraine Manfredo, Laura J. Richards Office Supervisor - Angela Luscher, Junia Hodge, Grace McGregor, Nancy Pleasancc-Sturman, Marilyn Rutherford Durham Comes of Age With University Centre With the plans for a university centre at Durham College, this Region can truly be described as coming of age. Come to think of it, there are few major cities that are not associated with at least one centre for higher education. For decades, Durham College has been an important educational educational focus of the community, but it was limited to offering college, rather titan university programs. The plan to bring a university centre to Durham will open up a wider range of opportunities. As we understand it, the vision of the Durham College "Building Futures" campaign is to create a centre for educational educational excellence which will build on the best of both the college college and university systems. In fact, the two systems can share resources to enrich each other. In our experience, many university graduates have eventually eventually found themselves completing a more job-oriented college program. Similarly, some college grads find it necessary to obtain the formal academic qualifications of a university degree later in their careers. Here in the Durham Region, there is an opportunity to create create a model of how post-secondary education might function in the 21st century. The advantages to a University Centre in Durham are numerous. Students will be able to avail themselves of a university university education without the expense of travelling to another city. In other words, a university education will become more accessible. In addition, employers will have access to a more highly-skilled workforce. It should also be noted that education is, in itself, a major industry. The existence of a university facility in Durham will create spin-off benefits in areas ranging from retail sales to real estate. In an "information age," the universities and colleges are as important as the factories and mills of the industrial age. At a recent meeting of the Bowmanville Rotary Club, the President of Durham College, Gary Polonsky, observed that some centres having less than 10 per cent of the population of our regional -municipality have a full university curriculum. Moreover, a person living in Toronto and hoping to remain at home while attending university has a choice of seven or eight facilities in that city. Someone living in Durham has no university university to attend., The concept of a University Centre can grow, with time. At the moment, students can already pursue studies through several several universities at the Durham campus. Perhaps some day Durham will be able to grant university degrees of its own. Or, perhaps it will offer a hybrid diploma combining elements of both. It remains to be seen whether future grads who have both college and university credentials will be said to have university university degrees, diplomas, or credentials somewhere in between. But, if they receive quality education close to their home towns and are well qualified for today's workplace, does' it really matter? We draw your attention to the fact that Durham is backing its plans for the University Centre with a $12 million public fund-raising campaign. It is a worthwhile cause. Outlook Everyone Wants to Work Towards Self-Sufficiency by Laura J. Richards Provincial Gov't Asked that Land Price Remain Confidential Dear Sir: I read your editorial recently, which was entitled "Why The Secrecy ?" and which was speaking to the issue of the sale of the Orono Forestry properly by the Province of Ontario. 1 agree;, one' hundred percent, percent, with your comments regarding the legitimate rea sons for "in-camera" meetings meetings and also respect your statement that "there was no reason we're aware of to exclude the public", when dealing with this issue. I would advise you that the Province of Ontario indicated to the Clarington Staff that one of the conditions of the sale of this property was that we would not discuss the sale price openly, and that it must be kept confidential. Clarington Council therefore therefore had-no choice but to deal with the matter, "in-camera". Hopefully, this information information will clarify the matter. Yours very truly, Diane Hamre How to Help Flood Victims At our constituency office, we have had a number of inquiries from people wanting to assist the people of Manitoba. The flood of the century in Manitoba, like every emergency, emergency, brings the best out in all Canadians. Donations The Canadian Red Cross is accepting financial donations at most banks and credit unions. Cheques can be mailed to the Canadian Red Cross at 1623 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, M4T 2AI. Make cheque out to Canadian Red Cross Manitoba Flood Relief or call 1-888-662-3211. Material donations can be dropped off at any branch of the Salvation Army, according to the information I have. Call your local Salvation Army for additional information. Locally, the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 419, Bay Street, Port Perry is accepting donations of non-perishable food items, clothing and blankets blankets and small household items on Saturday, May 17 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.tn. For more information, call the Branch at 985-8502. We will try to keep an up to date listing of how you can help at our constituency constituency office at 697-1501 or L/D I-800-661-2433. Significant Change Last week, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, the Hon. A1 Leach, announced a significant change in how the province will work with our municipal partners. After much discussion with AMO (The Association of Municipalities of Ontario) and ROMA (The Rural Ontario Municipal Association) as well as others, we have listened and responded with a new method of funding provincial and municipal services, services, The most important changes are as follows: The province will continue to fund Long Term Care at 100% and Welfare at 80%. The municipalities municipalities were very concerned with the original proposal of human services being funded at 50% by the local taxes. The original proposal was to fund education entirely from provincial revenue. This meant that the $5.4 billion dollars of municipal taxes for education were going to be spent on other municipal services like roads, ambulance and social services and long term care. The new proposal will have the province set the mill rate on 50% of the educational portion of your municipal tax bill. For example if your municipal municipal tax bill is $2,400.00, approximately 50% of this was going to education with the other 50% paying for other municipal services like police, fire, roads, parks, administration administration and a portion of welfare. With the proposed change, 25% of your local tax will be funding education, with the remaining 75% funding the traditional traditional municipal services with fewer provincial grants. The biggest change is still educational funding. The provincial goal continues to be funding each child equally. The new funding formula will recognize recognize special education, second second language, inner city school issues as well as capital, maintenance maintenance and administration costs, The significant change here is that areas of the province that have little assessment assessment will still receive an equitable equitable share of education funding. funding. I believe that it is important important for governments to listen and be willing to make changes that accommodate the wishes of the people. Our Fiance Minister, the Hon, Ernie Eves has finally won agreement with the Federal government on a Canada-Ontario Infrastructure Program. This program will create over 10,000 jobs and will be funded by all three levels levels of government. The Health Services Restructuring Commission will be in Durham Region on May 6, 1997. Dr, Duncan Sinclair and the other commissioners will, I am sure, examine the work of the District Health Council and the Hospital Council of Durham. I have had our hospital board chairs advise me that they welcome the Commission and they feel confident about the restructuring of health cafe in Durham. Hospitals The hospitals in Durham want to get on with the planning planning for our regional health care model. We all want the cancer treatment, MRI and other services locally. 1 know our Minister of Health, the Hon. Jim Wilson will respond to Durham after the commission makes its recommendations. recommendations. Our Minister's plan is to put people, not bricks and buildings first. We must have the right services in the right place at the right time. This week is Education Week with the theme of, "Better Education for ■ a Brighter Future". Next weekend is Mother's Day and an important time in the life of my family. May is also sexual assault month and a time for every one of us to reflect on stopping all violence. I often remember a saying my mother used, "Kindness is a. language the deaf can hear and the blind can see". Work. Some people work all the time, others do not. Some folks work part-time, others work flex-time. Still others work fulltime fulltime and also part-time. It appears that everyone works. This seems especially true if you don't work and really want to. Perhaps you know of some folks who have developmental disabilities who really want to work. They are people who have dreams not unlike yours to be self-sufficient. But, their options are not thé same as your own. Recently, the Oshawa-Clarington Association for Community Living decided to put a Community Options Program employment support worker here. Terri McCabe, a resident of Bowmanville, is that person. Recently, she has been introducing herself and her program to business owners. Currently, she is looking for employment opportunities for about one-half of her 25 clients. Some of the positions on her clients' job wisli list are: janitor, dishwasher, cooks, teacher- aides, day care helpers, factory workers, and stock people. In essence, people who have developmental disabilities are not unlike ourselves. Let's face it. If you only received $700 a month on Family Benefits Assistance, you'd probably want to subsidize that cheque with something more. So do the people Terri McCabe supports. Terri explained each individual being paid $700 from government government programs is allowed to make $160 over and above their monthly cheque. Once more money is made, money starts getting taken off the individual's cheque. However, most people people (even those who do not have any disabilities) cannot live on $860 a month...unless they live with their parents. And even then it can be difficult. "The point is, they don't want to stay home," Terri explained. They want to expand their horizons, learn new skills, and create a network of friendships...just like the rest of us. For those of us who work, we find friendships with either the people we work with on a daily basis, or with those we meet through our work. If you are what is called 'painfully shy' you won't have many friends, and if you don't work or have a social network, life can be lonely. While some people may think developmentally disabled individuals may be better served by being shut away in institutions, institutions, most people do not. Shutting people away is not a solution. Finding meaningful (paid) work enabling greater participation in society is a solution solution for many people, whether or not they have disabilities. This is an election year for three levels of government and the school boards. Perhaps it is time for the federal, regional and municipal governments to take a look at the possibilities. And, if they don't know what the possibilities are, it is time to find out. Maybe it's time for tire politicians to look at another part of the population -- those with disabilities -- and take action. It has been said no one is as disabled as a person who does not. see beyond the tip of her/his nose. Letters to the Editor The Canadian Statesman encourages our readers to make use of the letters to the editor column to express their opinions opinions and viewpoints on just about any subject, as we feel a lively letters column helps make a better community newspaper. newspaper. We insist, however, that all letter writers sign their name. Sorry, no anonymous letter will be printed. Thoughts Unlimited by Rick James When It Rains, It Pours If you want it to rain, just ask tire Bowmanville BIA to hold a promotional event. One again, die weatherman was not a supporter of the annual Maple Syrup Festival held in downtown downtown Bowmanville on Saturday. You may recall that it was cold, wet and windy during last October's Apple Festival too. I wandered down to the event about 10:00 a.m. Saturday to see how organizers were coping. Despite the high winds and heavy rain, those working in the tents were keeping a brave face and hoping for the best. They even had to tic the tents to the bumpers of cars to keep the shelters from turning into kites. As in the past, neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night could keep Garth Gilpin and the crew of BIA volunteers from their appointed rounds. It's a shame the weather was so dismal considering the amount of work everyone put into the event. We can only hope the weatherman lias a change of heart and lets the sun shine on the next BIA event. Dangers on the Internet You may recall a story that appeared in this column column recently about a newspaper that proudly published published an electronic version of its pages on the Internet. Everything was working fine until a "hacker" decided to add a little more spice to the web page. I was able to get a copy of the story from The Pertli Courier, the newspaper that was the victim of the "hacker." I've re-printed it here for the benefit benefit of anyone planning to offer their wares on the Internet, "It Could Happen to You Too If You're Not Careful" By Maureen Pèftg, Editor, The Perth Courier Here at the Perth Courier we've hud our little homepage up anti running for almost a year now. It's simple - il lias to he - the editor (me) is the homepage manager! We've laid some pood response since we went on line. Lots of pood comments and we've discov ered we have readers all over the world. Unfortunately, we also manaped to attract interest of the worst kind. Two weeks apo, as I was calmly sittinp at my desk, I received a terse and worried phone call from our local sendee provider. "You'd better check your homepage Moe, someone's been at it and put all sorts of obscenities on it." I raced over to our stand alone computer to check things out. / logged on to our homepage and there in all its glory stood the most disgusting version version of the newspaper I'd ever want to see. It certainly certainly hud changed from the day before when I'd put tip the week's online edition. Someone had changed words in almost all the articles. Town councillors' quotations in my budget budget story had been altered so it appeared they were speaking all sorts of obscenities. Our background logo, which features a rider on a horse had been rearranged (the rider was facing the hack of the horse)). In fact, everything was topsy turvey. Police were called. A sympathetic officer arrived and surveyed the damage. The only way the homepage could have been clumped was if someone laid obtained the password. The police officer suggested a security leak. I didn 7 think that was possible since only a few people at the Courier were aware of the password. The only other option was that our password hud been hacked. In our innocence■ lust year, we selected a simple password -- o name. Bad idea. Apparently, passwords, particularly those using just letters can he cracked. There are plenty of password hacking programs available on die Internet. We clumped our password immediately and added plenty of number and keyboard symbols. This password, we hope, should provide more security, because the hacker programs which exist now can't decipher mixed symbol letter passwords. passwords. Ottr homepage (the clean version) is now up and running again. We feel a little more secure. Wc are also thankful that we didn't receive a hunch of e-mail letters'ranting about our disgusting home page! There are small mercies. So there you have it. If you would like to venture venture into the Internet, be wary of the dangers. As for our approach to it, we're taking a wait and see attitude. I'm still not convinced the Internet is a better mousetrap. Considering The Perth Courier didn't receive a single response to the altered page would suggest to me that very few people actually saw it. Particularly when it is so easy to send anonymous messages via e-mail. If the same changes had been made to the regular regular printed version, I guarantee the offices of The Perth Courier would have been Hooded with complaints complaints and subscription cancellations. Rick Takes the Lead I'm not going to suggest that I become a stock broker, but after this week's update of the stock market challenge, it appears the publicly-traded companies 1 selected by throwing darts are outperforming outperforming the choices of a professional stock broker. The breakdown and averages for this week arc... Rick's Dart Choices' Stock Purchase Price Current Price % Change BCE $63.45 $69.50 9.54 CSN $41.75 $40.00 -4.19 HST $2.00 $1.75 -12.50 RJL $13.50 $13.50 0.00 TCH $30.50 $30.50 0.00 Average -1.43 Stock Broker's Choices NPP $7.20 $6.75 -6.25 13 PL $5.20 $5.05 -2.88 PD I $13.50 $12.50 -7.41 AKC $6.60 $6.50 -1.52 13 NS $51.85 $51,00 5.59 Average -2.49 Since both of us are losing money, I hardly feel confident in saying I'm winning the game with only one week to go, The results do, however, support support my theory that if stock brokers were any good at wiiat they do, they wouldn't have to he stock brokers very long.