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PAGE 6THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, AUGUST 15,2001 # Editorial &Opinions FOR 14 6 YEARS, OUR FIRST CONCERN HAS BEEN OUR COMMUNITY Publisher - Tim Whittaker Editor-in-chief - Joanne Burglianlt Managing Editor - Judi Bobbitt Advertising Manager - Brian G. Purdy Advertising - Laverne Morrison, Christian-Ann Goulet Office - Junia Hodge, Nancy Pleasance-Sturnian Editorial - Brad Kelly, Jennifer Stone, Jacquie Mclnncs Hjc Canadian ê>tate$iman Former Publishers and Partners Rev. John M. Climie and W.R. Climie 1854-1878 M.A. James 1878-1935 • Norman S.B. James 1919-1929 G. Elena James, 1929-1947 • Dr. George W. James 1919-1957 John M. James, 1957-1999 Produced by Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. Also Publishers of CLAR1NGTON THIS WEEK ~ P.O. Box 190, 62 King St. W„ Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 TEL: 905-623-3303 FAX: 905-623-6161 HOURS: Monday to Friday 9:00 a.ni. until 5:00 p.M. E-mail: newsroom@durhamrcgion.com Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 EDITORIAL e-limit letters to neirsmttm@tliirlmmrcgion.com Another raise? Surely they jest Regional councillors are playing games with our money We were disappointed with Durham Regional Council when it approved itself an eight-per-cent raise this past March, retroactive to Jan. 1. At that time, council was wringing its hands over a request request from the police services board for $10 million more (they eventually agreed to it), over a plea from Durham hospitals hospitals for $100 million (they said 'No'). The message was there's no money, it's belt-lightening time. So imagine our horror at reports Durham council is considering considering a further nine-per-cent raise. It must be a joke! They must be dreaming. According to Durham's commissioner of human resources, resources, the plan to bump councillors up yet again this year is perfectly legit. "It sure makes sense," said Don Paterson of tying council council pay to that of staff, who were recently granted a nine-per- cent hike over three years. Where's the sense however in linking the pay of those who help negotiate contracts with those on the other end? Where's the incentive to keep raises down for your employees employees when you'll receive the same amount they get? Wouldn't Wouldn't you be tempted to give the other side an extra per cent or two when your pay will'be bumped up the same amount? According to Mr. Paterson, councillors "were not comfortable" comfortable" talking yet again about raises after just jacking up their pay only months ago. Here's hoping a majority of our representatives can see how unfair a raise would be, how it would send exactly the wrong message to taxpayers forced to deal with rate increases across the region. There is a better way to go. First, the raise councillors got last March almost equals the nine-per-cent they just granted inside employees. That takes care of the problem of linking council pay to staff pay. Second, when council next negotiates with staff, it can consider a raise. That will fall just after the next election, which seems a logical enough time to consider a pay bump. It's just not fair, not moral and not ethical for council to get nine-per-cent more after getting eight per cent only .months ago. Who do these people think they are, professional professional athletes? Just because MPs gave themselves a whopping whopping raise, do our councillors feel they should stick their noses in the trough too? We need leadership on this issue, someone of stature on council who will come out and say 'No' to a raise. We're waiting. ...OMBik weve Fine/ CTOAVEm CFÜCANB MUTOLW 9, . www.dollghan.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR' e-mail letters to newsmom@durhamivgion.conu Time to bite the bullet on gun laws To the editor: This gun situation is soon going to be tragic and the federal federal Liberal government will be to blame. The Liberals have devoted all their time and energy to a useless gun registry while at the same lime allowing a proliferation proliferation of illegal handguns to enter the country. These illegal guns will never go away and will haunt us for years to come. It is time for us to hear from our MP on this subject. Let's hear some concrete proposals, not all this mumbo jumbo about this being a complicated issue. My first suggestion, for starters, would be legislation that would see anyone caught possessing an illegal handgun receive an automatic three years in jail with no probation. Mike Newman Two dogs too many for landlords To the editor: My dogs have super powers. They can scare landlords off in a minute by just being dogs. I moved back to Bowmanville Bowmanville after being away for several years, and I have been looking for an apartment for several months with no luck. You see 'two dogs' are two little little words that strike fear in landlords. I am an employed, clean, quiet, single non-smoker. And I pay my rent on time. My dogs, Simon and Emma, are small, clean, quiet, friendly and well- behaved. I am very responsible with my dogs, and I have yet to see them exhibit any behaviour more threatening than licking someone's face. Dogs are not the problem. It is irresponsible pet owners that cause damage and do not look after their pets. Tenants who smoke, kids who aren't looked after and careless adults can all be more annoying and destructive destructive than well-cared-for dogs. Fortunately, I have family who have very generously let me stay with them for the last five months. So despite my dogs' super powers, I still scour the classifieds while my spoiled dogs and I sleep on a pullout couch. Andrea Macnza Courtice Just bear with me, please There's bound to be a profit in our furry friends WITH THE STATESMAN 75 YEARS AGO Aug. 19,1926 The Mothers' Allowance Commission in Durham doled out $825 to 26 mothers in July. Nineteen of the women were widows with dependent children, six were wives of incapacitated incapacitated husbands, and one was "a deserted wife." 50 YEARS AGO Aug. 16,1951 Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kilpatrick became the proud parents parents of the first baby born at Memorial Hospital in Bowmanville. Bowmanville. The baby boy was born on August 9, under the care of Dr. W. IT. Birks. 25 YEARS AGO Aug. 18,1976 With skating season approaching, Town of Newcastle officials officials were trying to determine what to do after an engineering engineering firm found that up to $60,000 in repairs were necessary necessary at Bowmanville's arena, while Newcastle's arena was considered unfit for future pubic occupancy. As well, the Orono arena had been closed by the Ministry of Labour, which determined the building would be unsafe during heavy snowfalls and high winds. Bears have been seen in town. Not to worry, I am ready. I will not fight the bears in the conventional way however. Remember, Remember, 1 am a city boy... and an 'Actor.' Nonetheless I have my own arsenal of anti-bear weaponry. For starters I think, I shall play opera music at high volume volume day and night. Something from 'Carmen' should do the trick. After all, in all my reading reading I have never heard of one single bear attack in Italy. There must be something to that. 1 had thought of playing show tunes but then friends of mine told me they were playing a Judy Garland tape in their cabin once and were attacked by a group of rogue gay bears. My friends watched in horror as the huge beasts ransacked the place and then completely redecorated, including a fabulous fabulous chintz window treatment and some perky throw pillows. Next, I shall contact my mother-in-law and get her recipe for peas in jcllo. We shall eat nothing but this dish for the next few weeks. Not even the most ravenous bear would be attracted to those left- Informalion taken from the archives of The Canadian Statesman overs. Neil Crone Enter laughing Thirdly, I am going to erect a 'Vote NDP' sign on my front lawn. Bears, I have read, are terrified of lunatics and will go to great lengths to avoid them. Of course I have had to give my kids the bear lecture. Poor children. They have been lectured lectured to ad nauscum about road safety, talking to strangers and now bears for heaven's sake. I am afraid they have ingested ingested so many emergency instructions instructions they may get them all mixed up when push comes to shove. 1 can just sec Duncan, my nine-year-old, coming face to face with a seven-foot bear. For a heart-stopping moment he freezes. Then, in a flash, all of his parental training conics back, he looks both ways then swiftly knees the beast in the groin, screams as loud as he can and runs to the nearest friendly grown-up. Or, on the flip side, him backing away slowly from some creep in a black sedan, all the while banging banging loudly on a pot or a pan. Oh well, I suppose we shall all be fine. I actually pity the bears a little. They must be in pretty sad shape to come this close to such danger. I'm not talking about trigger-happy hunters or irate farmers either folks. I'm talking about my wife. Woebetide the bear who messes up her vegetable patch or sits on her tea roses. I accidentally accidentally weed-whacked a hollyhock hollyhock once and I'd rather take on 10 starving bears than face what I got that night. That bear will be begging for an MNR dart in the butt by the time Suzic finishes with him. On the upside, this whole thing might well be parlayed into a tidy little profit for all of us in town. I can sec it now, T- shirts and bumper stickers with witty sayings on them like T knocked the Pooh outta Winnie in Sunderland.' And of course black bear gall bladder is worth a fortune to the Asians as an aphrodisiac. We're practically practically swimming in the stiiff. Maybe we should change the name of the town from Sunderland Sunderland to Viagra Falls. Think about it. Jennifer Stone Staff Writer jstoncQdurliamrexion.com No rush to graduate Students now entering Grade 11 could be in their second-last year of high school this year. Under the Province's new curriculum, curriculum, students now starting their third year of high school will be eligible to graduate in spring, 2003. They will be the first group through the new four-year high school plan, which has wiped out the fifth year - the OAC year or Grade 13, as it has been variously known - of secondary school. They will be eligible to graduate, that is, if they manage to fulfil the requirements requirements of a demanding new curriculum, curriculum, which condenses what used to be five years' worth of learning into four. Eligible, if they take a full course-load in each of the four years, denying themselves the luxury of so much as a single spare class period in all of high school. This has led to the so-called "double "double cohort," when in 2003, twice as many high school students will graduate. graduate. That should translate into twice as many students applying to colleges colleges and universities, or entering the workforce. And that means a great deal more competition, in spite of provincial pledges of more money for and more spaces at Ontario's post-secondary institutions. For those students who will be on the leading edge of the four-year program, program, having to compete against all their grade-level peers as well as nil • the students who will graduate from the final fifth year of high school in 2003, is just another challenge thrown out to them. This is the same group of teens who, in Grade 7, began a new curriculum curriculum introduced by the Province, a-curriculum which downloaded concepts concepts and learning materials, sometimes sometimes from the high school level into elementary school grades. For many of them, that's meant struggling, working harder, getting extra help, because they simply weren't given the tools, in the earlier years of school, to handle the new requirements requirements thrust upon them. Completing the requirements of high school in four years is certainly do-able, as has been illustrated in other Canadian provinces, where the fifth year is not offered. But it's going to be a major challenge for those Ontario students, entering Grade 11 in the fall, who have already already been forced to struggle through the last several school years. So, no one should be surprised if many of them choose not to graduate as quickly as they can, opting instead to stay for another semester or even another year in high school. Maybe, after what they've been through since they were in late elementary school, they need a bit of a break. Maybe this won't be their second- last year of high school after all. THE CANADIAN STATESMAN is one of the Metroland Printing, Publishing Publishing and, Distributing group of newspapers. The Statesman is a member member of the Bowmanville Clarington Board of Trade, the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Circulations Audit Board and the Ontario Press Council. The publisher reserves the right to classify or refuse any advertisement. Credit for advertisement limited to space price error occupies. Editorial and Advertising content of the Canadian Statesman is copyrighted. Unauthorized Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. The Canadian Statesman welcomes letters to the editor. All letters should be typed or neatly hand-written, 150 words. Each letter must include the name, mailing address and daytime telephone number of the writer. The editor reserves the right to edit copy for style, length and content. We regret regret that due to the volume of letters, not all will be printed. 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