The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

OFF TO QUEBEC -- Thirty grade six students from Ontario Street Public School in Bowmanvillc will travel to Chicoutimi, Quebec, next month as part of a week-long cultural exchange. This is the 13th year the school has participated in the exchange. Teachers Lee-Ann Stock and Jean Marchand are grateful to the community groups which help support the trip. The Multicultural Council of Oshawa/Durham, represented by President Dave Patterson, donated $1,000. Ontario Street Prepares for its 13th Annual Quebec Exchange On Sunday, May 24th, 1998, thirty grade six students from Ontario Street Public School will travel to Chicoutimi, Quebec, as part of a cultural and linguistic linguistic exchange. This is the 13th such exchange for Ontario Street Public School. The students will remain in Chicoutimi for five days and participate in many activities, including a whale-watching expedition in Tadoussac and a full day in Quebec City. They will be billeted in homes with their correspondents. On June 14th, the Chicoutimi students will travel to Bowmanvillc and be billeted billeted with our students' families. While in Bowmanvillc, the students will also participate participate in many activities, including a trip to Niagara Falls, a walking tour of Bowmanvillc and the Bowmanville Zoo, the CN Tower and Canada's Wonderland. The school is grateful to the following contributions to support this trip: The Multicultural Council of Oshawa Durham donated $1,000; The Bowmanville and Newcastle Optimist Clubs donated $200 each; and the Bowmanville Legion Branch 178 donated $200. Chocolate bar sales and other fund-raisers also brought in a total of $7,000. Report from Queen's Pork by John O'Toole The Clarington/Courtice Independent, Bowmanville, Saturday, April II, 1998 Page? Banks Must Ensure Customers Well-Served Regional Calculations Need Scrutiny This week, two significant items are in the news. First, Durham Regional Chairman, Roger Anderson issued a press release on the provincial provincial downloading to the Region and local levels on government. This is part of the "Who Does What" (WDW) exercise; the swap of educational funding moving to the province and services such as public health, ambulance ambulance service, farm tax rebate and other services to the municipal level. The province promised that the WDW "would be revenue neutral. The second topic of discussion discussion is the Greater Toronto Area Services Board (GTSB). This proposal of a coordinating coordinating body to integrate services between Toronto and the surrounding surrounding regions of Durham, Halton, York and Peel is controversial. controversial. GO Transit, economic economic development and promotion, promotion, as well as some infrastructure infrastructure services would be cost shared and coordinated by a single GTA Board. The main problem is the proposed composition of the GTA Services Board with only ■ three members from Durham. I would like to hear from you if you believe that we belong in the GTA. 1 have spoken to the Minister on this issue and arranged meetings with local council members, All reports are due on April 9th. The David Crombie (WDW) Who Docs What Report, the Fair Tax Commission, the Royal Commission on Learning and the Disentanglement Report arc some of the studies that have recommended over the years that the province should fund education, In exchange for the province funding a greater share of education, the province has exchanged or swapped or as some say downloaded to the municipalities municipalities an equal amount of other service costs. Up to now, many services were funded on a shared cost basis by local, regional and provincial taxes. For instance, social assistance is now funded funded 80% by the province and 20% by the region. It will continue this way. Public health varied in a shared responsibility as did ambulance ambulance service. Now the regions will fund 100% of these costs, Other more complicated changes are for instance, the old farm tax rebate program. In the past, farm operations paid full assessment property tax on all their land and buildings buildings to the municipality, The farm operation would apply for a rebate from the province to offset their taxes on the farm portion of their assessment. assessment. Now the new assessment assessment system will ensure that farm operations will pay 100% of the nsscssmont/taxes on their home and one acre plus 25% of the assessed value on the balance on the farm buildings and land, This will mean a loss in revenue for the municipality, This loss is municipal revenue is included as part of the exchange of responsibilities between the province and the municipalities, The Premier lias promised that the Who Does What (WDW) exercise will be revenue neutral. It is my job to ensure we keep this promise. Please keep in mind that back in 1995, the province advised that all municipalities would have to phase out the Municipal Support Grants (MSG) over the next three years. 1998 is the last year of these grant reductions. This municipal savings is no surprise surprise and was always separate from the (WDW) Who Does What swap. Most councils insist on linking these two changes, which was never the plan. Regional Chair, Roger Anderson has stated that Durham Region is short approximately $11 million in the Who Does What (WDW) provincial swap exercise. In fact, this $11 million is the final (third year) of the Municipal Support Grants (MSG) being eliminated. For the entire Region of Durham including all the local municipalities, the difference difference between the Who Does What swap with the province and education is a gain of $4.89 million dollars. In total, the tax room left with the province paying more for education is $103.7 million, while the new downloaded service costs are $103.1 million. million. To smooth the transition, the province is granting to the municipalities, $4.2 million dollars from the Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF). This results in an overall gain of $4.89 million to the municipalities. municipalities. Remember that the Municipal Support Grants (MSG) are eliminated so that each municipality will still have to find savings. Each municipality's savings amount varies as follows: Durham Region ($10.9 million), million), Clarington ($1.19 million), million), Scugog ($440,000), Oshawa ($2.28 million), Whitby ($911,000) etc. with a total regional savings of $13.9 million expected, I am sure this sounds a little little complicated which leads me to believe that there is further further analysis to be done. To further complicate things, recent legislation will require local municipalities to share their tax revenue (PILs), from their provincial government properties like Pickering and Darlington Nuclear Plants with the region. Another calculation calculation that must be done is the reduction in the (OMERS) Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Savings Plan. Municipalities will reduce their payroll cost by 2% as a result of recent plan changes. All councils must examine their operations operations and analyze their police and other department budgets to be sure that we arc not pointing fingers at someone else for decisions that these councils have made. One final point to explain the differences differences between the Region of Durham and the other Regions of York, Peel and Halton is their educational taxes. Durham School Boards have traditionally been low spending boards, This means that other regions with higher education tax will have more tax room with the changes outlined above, With all this overlap and meshing of wlm pays for Is banking nV what services, 1 am sure you believe, like me, that it is about time things were disentangled. disentangled. As your elected representative representative at Queen's Park I will be working with our locally elected mayors to ensure that we arc treated fairly in Durham. There is only one taxpayer and 1 am one just like you. profession'/ profession'/ I posed this question to a Toronto Dominion Bank regional manager when our Task Force on Financial services consulted consulted people about banking generally and mergers specifically. I believe that professionalism goes beyond just making the almighty dollar I believe professionalism professionalism goes beyond just making making the almighty dollar. It means you take the time, sometimes at your own expense, to ensure that your clients and customers are well served. My 25 years of experience experience as a Chartered Accountant have provided me with the knowledge that you can't make a buck off every transaction. Sometimes you just have to give back. This is something something that is fleeing from our financial services sector. sector. I bring this up because of the closure of a bank in a small rural community that could just as well have been a bank here in Durham. Ask yourself what are the limitations of bank closures? closures? And consider the people of Lynn Lake Manitoba. The population is over 4,000 and they are now bankless. Some of you may say, so what? But imagine, if you will, needing cash to go to the grocery store. Or if you arc a small business owner having to drive over an hour to a bank in the south. Then there is the pressure pressure put on convenience store and gas station owners owners having to provide cash. For example you go into the gas station and fill up for $30. You then pay with Parliamentary Report by Alex Shepherd your credit card and ask the owner to charge $100 so you have $70 to do the groceries. The point is the small community finds itself having to keep large quantities quantities of cash around. Wouldn't you say it would be a good opportunity for the return of highway robbers? robbers? This doesn't mean banks should be forced to provide services they don't think arc profitable enough. (Notice the phraseology: Banking services services make money, it's just that some services make more money than others.) The TD regional manager manager I mentioned earlier said that, indeed, bankers feel they are professionals. But how can this be when you leave a community community with six weeks' notice and you don't take the time to train the. inhabitants inhabitants on the" uses of electronic electronic banking and worse, you refuse to install an ATM because you want the space it occupies for nothing! We can't fluff this off because if we have to compete, compete, not only with Toronto, for core density but also London, England, Paris and New York. Could it not be that the days arc numbered for bank branches in Bowmanvillc, Port Perry and Courtice! There is no question that change is going to happen. Governments stand in the way of change at their own peril. The real question is how do we manage change and what is the yardstick by which we measure it? Change has to be inclusive. It has to include all people in society. society. This is why I have a problem with the answer given me by the regional manager from TD Bank and why indiscriminate bank closures just don't fly. Either you arc a professional professional or you arc not. You must take the time to bring your clients (often customers for over 50 years) along with you. The multi-million-dol- lar salaried CEOs who want bank mergers just don't get it. Canada is a nation of communities built on the strength of mutual respect. To deny this relationship is to deny the very existence of Canada as a great nation. Just a reminder to businesses businesses and organizations, Human Resources Development Canada has extended the deadline for Summer Career Placement Applications to April 15. Applications can be picked up at my office 116 Water St., Port Perry or at HRDC, 78 Richmond St., Oshawa. ®fje petijanp Hills ikljool invites you to an Thursday, April 16th at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, April 18th at 2:00 p.m. JUNIOR SCHOOL ELEMENTARY - Grades 3 to 6 (Co-ed) Offering small classes and individual attention Excellent preparation for Senior School Visit the school to find out more Contact the school for more information/directions Tel: (705) 277-2866 e-mail: info@bethanyhills.on.ca Performance, lust $199. per month* Introducing the All-New John Deere 4100. Big-Tractor Features At Low Monthly Payments. There's a new John Deere compact tractor out there and it brings you big-tractor performance performance at surprisingly low monthly payments of just $199. Like its famous "big brothers," the new 4100 has oil-cooled brakes. A differential lock that gets both rear wheels pulling in slick conditions. And shlft-on-' the-go front-wheel drive. You'll never have to stop to get the traction you need. The 4100 features a cleanburning, cleanburning, fast-starting diesel engine, kicking out 20 horse power. Choose an economical 8x4 gear transmission, or get the clutchless, high-performance of an infinite-speed hydrostatic. hydrostatic. Both transmissions bring you mid and rear PTOs. And the hydrostatic's PTO is fully Independent. Thanks to John Deere hydraulics, the 4100 delivers effortless power steering, a responsive 3-point hitch, and fast cycle times. Optional attachments include loader, mld-and rear-mount mower decks, front blade, power broom, snow thrower and Category 1 3-point-hitch tools.- See your John Deere dealer, listed below, for more details. ' for tractor model 4100 (gear dite, not including optional attachments), based on setting price of $13,399 less $3,105.61 down payment. Taxes, setup and freight charges are extra. Balance of $10,293.39 to be financed with 60 monthly payments of $199. totaling $11,940. Based on 6% APB, the full cosl of borrowing wilt be $1,646.61. Bate subject to change without notice. All transactions subject to John Deere Credit approval. Some restrictions may apply. ORONO Evergreen Farm & Garden Ltd. 3242 Taunton Rd. E. (905) 983-9119 1-800-461-2120 Non iing Huns uki- A Diu-um