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PAGE 4THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, May 7,2003 www.durhamregion.com Tim Whittaker Publisher Joanne Burghardt Editor-in-Chief Chris Bovie Managing Editor Judi Bobbitt Regional Editor Fred Eismont Director of Advertising Eddie Kolodziejcik Classified Advertising Manager Kirk Bailey Distribution Manager Lillian Hook Office Manager Barb Harrison Composing Manager Clavington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 EIjc Canatrian Statesman ■ « May 7,2003 Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. Phone 905-579-440L- Classifieds 905-576-9335', Distribution 905-579-440/- General Fax 905-579-2236 Newsroom Fax 905-579-1809 E-Mail newsroom@durhamregion.com 865 Farewell St., Oshawa ON L1H 7L5- Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 mfodurham re g -V .com EDITORIAL e-mail tellers to newsroom@clurlianircgion.com Countdown is on to bring ITER bid up to snuff A s the deadline nears for a definitive federal government government decision on the ITER bid, efforts have intensified intensified locally and in Ottawa to press the feds to get on board. If Canada wants to seriously compete with high-quality bids from Spain, France and Japan, the feds will have to pony up cash and/or services. And the government will have to do so by June 19 when the next International International Thermonuclear Experimental Experimental Reactor (ITER) conference conference takes place in Vienna. After many years in the making and much lobbying at numerous conferences around the globe, an ITER site decision is expected this fall. To that end, everybody with an interest in seeing ITER locate in this area is pushing hard to convince the feds to jump aboard. This newspaper is joining joining its Durham counterparts in sending out 'We Want ITER' kits to all 301 MPs across the country. country. The Iter Community Council is spending money to get the word out by buying advertising on the sides and backs of Ottawa buses and in national newspapers newspapers to tell MPs Canada needs ITER. Many businesses, organizations, organizations, key universities and labour unions are pushing to make ITER happen in Claring- ton. While ITER has always had its political champions in Clar- ington, Mayor John Mutton, Durham Regional Chairman Roger Anderson and Durham MPP John O'Toole, a distinct, strong federal voice has not always always been clearly heard. MP Paul Macklin has emerged as a vocal champion for ITER and has a team devoted to seeing ITER become a reality. That would be the Northumberland Northumberland MP as opposed to his Durham colleague. Mr. Macklin, a rookie Liberal who has been in Parliament just two-and-a-half years, has taken the lead local federal role in the effort to bring the vaunted $ 12-billion ITER to his • neighbouring riding, Durham. Mr. Macklin's constituents constituents in Northumberland, after all, stand to gain from the 68,000 person-years of construction construction involved in building the massive project. And spin-off projects which will involve high- tech, high-paying jobs will surely surely result in some hires in Northumberland. Mr. Macklin has pushed hard these past two weeks to lobby fellow MPs on the importance of the project, which will require about $800 million in federal funding over the 30-year lifespan lifespan of ITER. The lukewarm support over the past few years of Mr. Shepherd Shepherd has left Iter Canada community community members frustrated and has us puzzled. Mayor Mutton and Mr. O'Toole have lobbied tirelessly for ITER, recognizing the astronomical benefits the project will bring to Durham- Northumberland. They see ITER as nothing but a win-win scenario. scenario. We find it difficult to understand understand how Mr. Shepherd sees it differently. The time to make one last big pitch is now. The biggest industrial-science industrial-science project in Durham history hangs in the balance. OPINION e-mail letters to ncwsrooiii@flurliiimreginn.coin Residents need help with dirt bikes, ATVs T he residents of the Wilcox Road/Hwy. 115 area are fed up, and it's time someone someone did something about it. For too long, they've put up with ATVs and dirt bikes screaming screaming down their otherwise quiet country road. The off-roaders use the road en route from where their owners have parked their trailers trailers along Hwy. 35 to the Ganaraska Forest, on the other side of 1-Iwy. 115. Residents say they forego Sunday barbecues barbecues and other outdoor outdoor events because the noise and dust are unbearable. One neighbour tells of a brand new black steel roof installed last summer that within weeks appeared appeared grey from dust kicked by the off-roaders driving on Wilcox Road. And most of all, they say, they're troubled about safety issues. issues. Offroadcrs are, the residents residents say, travelling at unsafe speeds, in the middle of the road, sometimes darting around cars trying to make legal use of the street. One only has to drive along I Iwy. 115 on a Sunday afternoon to see off-roaders tearing up the hill between the highway and the Ganaraska Forest. Even when no riders are there, the erosion and very obvious path cut into the hill by the off-roaders is evident. And this is happening in what is widely widely considered to be an environmentally environmentally sensitive area, The Municipality of Glaring- ton is awaiting response to a request request made to the Ministry of Transportation in April to have a tunnel the riders use to get under Hwy. 115 closed off during the summer months. That would prevent prevent Wilcox Road from becoming becoming become the most obvious and convenient choice for the ATVcrs trying to get into the forest. This might work, but needs to be implemented implemented soon, as the off-road season is already well under way. Local police arc getting two ATVs soon, to help deal with the issue. The problem is, those ATVs don't come with additional additional officers to provide extra enforcement. Since it's actually illegal for off-roaders to be on the road, a little extra enforcement could go a long way. Perhaps also the Ganaraska Ganaraska Region Conservation Conservation Authority (GRCA), which docs allow the off-roaders into the forest, needs to lake some ownership of the problem. They do say they're looking at alternative alternative trails to get people into the forest. But maybe they need to go a step further. If people are allowed to offroad offroad in the forest, they need to have a place to park their trucks and trailers on GRCA property in the ! Iwy. 115 area. While there is parking at the GRCA Forest Centre further east, it's obvious many people aren't taking advantage advantage of it, and prefer to enter the forest via a different route. Additional Additional parking closer to I Iwy. 115, on the very edge of the forest, forest, would help slop the off-roaders off-roaders from using Wilcox or any other public road. One way or another, something something needs to be done, before residents spend another summer tumble to enjoy their properties. Jennifer Stone Staff Writer SXBWM. www.aollghan.com CLICK AND SA^ Today's question: Do you support the provincial government's proposal to rescind mandatory retirement at the age of 65? □ Yes □ No Cast your rote online at invodurham nv:.com w Last week's question: Are Durham Region and municipal municipal officials doing enough to prepare for the return of West Nile virus this summer? □ No 79.2% □ Yes 20.8% Votes cast: 72 HAVE YOUR SAY LETTERS TO THE EDITOR e-mail letters to newsrooiii@diirliamrcgion.com Change is part of Bowmanville development To the editor: Re: 'Bowmanville needs to prepare for changes,' letter by George Van Dyk of May 4, 2003. I chuckled as read Mr. Van Dyk's letter. I have lived in Bowmanville most of 30 years, and it was a town of about 10,000 when I first moved here. I remember well when tfie east mall was proposed, proposed, and the doom and gloom predictions of the death of the downtown that appeared appeared in the paper. I remember similar stories when thé east mall wanted to expand, and yet again when the west mall was proposed in the 80s. There were more still when the west mall wanted to expand. And now it has started started again when Wal-Mart wants to come here. It may surprise Mr. Van Dyk but Bowmanville is no longer a country village! There are niost of 30,000 people people living here, and more than 20,000 living in Courtice! These people need to shop, and if we don't provide a place for them to shop here, they will certainly drive to where they can. Take a drive into Harmony and Taunton in Oshawa, which is now a huge shopping district. See the size increase at the Oshawa Centre.,Many of the people who shop, there come from here. Why shouldn't shouldn't we have those stores nearby? nearby? As to the fact that businesses businesses move to malls, the reason is that malls arc far more efficient. efficient. 1 can well remember trying to get parked at Canadian Canadian Tire when it was downtown, downtown, not a pleasant experience. experience. And the liquor store behind behind the town hall was a tiny cramped place which had long outgrown its facility. The entire downtown would not contain the traffic CTC now creates at the west mall. Speaking of which, maybe some of the stores downtown are vacant, but you sure can't see it from driving through. In fact, if anything, the downtown appears busier than it ever was, with traffic often backed up to Martin Road. I think wc-a 11 need to watch and see how the downtown evolves over the next few years, but judging by the last 30 years, 1 think it will do just fine. Bruce Polley Bowmanville OPINION e-mail letters to newsroom@durhiimregion.com Health minister latest darling for Tories O ntario's Progressive Conservative government government has found a hero and is making the most of the situation. Health Minister Tony Clement returned to the legislature, legislature, after helping persuade the World Health Organization to lift its warning against travel to Toronto because of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), to the most rapturous welcome given a minister in memory. The drama was heightened because a new session was starting starting and the lieutenant governor was reading the speech from the throne. Drcsscd-up representatives representatives of the establishment establishment rubbed shoulders shoulders with political fixers fixers in extra scats jammed on the legislature legislature floor and the silence silence was such that you could have heard an earring drop. Partway through the reading, the diminutive Mr. Clement scurried through them all to his seat, having just flown from Geneva, kissing Deputy Premier Elizabeth Winner on bis right and Training, Colleges and Universities Universities Minister Dianne Cunningham Cunningham on his left, a human touch that did nothing to hurt his parly. Tory Ml'Ps led by Premier Ernie lives quickly started a standing ovation that became prolonged. They needed something something to go right for them because because their parly lias fallen to its lowest popularity since being elected in 1995 and laces an election. Most opposition MPI's joined in, either because they fell Mr. Clement deserved it or did not want to seem to begrudge begrudge the speedy end to the crisis. crisis. It was like Caesar returning from the wars -- the only thing missing were captured enemies in chains. MPPs have given standing ovations before, routinely to new and retiring leaders, sometimes sometimes to others leaving and on rare occasions when legislation is introduced that all parties embrace. embrace. The ovations do not necessarily reflect MPPs' real feelings. Mr. Evcs's predecessor, predecessor, Mike Harris, got a ' standing ovation from all parties when he retired. retired. New Democrat MPPs, who detested his right-wing policies, chanted a ditty about how lie soon would be golfing with the boys, trying to mask their dislike. Bob Rac, when NDP opposition leader and paying tribute to retiring Tory William Davis, the longest-serving premier premier of recent times, said in a less formal setting lie would have liked to shake Mr. Davis's hand and then broke protocol and walked across the floor and did so. Mr. Davis also got a standing ovation from all parties when lie returned after helping secure the agreement by which the Constitution Constitution could be amended in Canada instead of Britain. But it is difficult to recall someone of lesser rank than premier premier entering the legislature after being judged to have handled handled a specific task well and being given a standing ovation by some in all parlies. Mr. Clement has given some needed cheer to his parly. The health minister was praised widely and particularly by news media for handling SARS, while Mr. Eves was accused of being slow to react. Mr. Clement was pictured on newspapers' front pages carrying carrying his bag to the plane to light for Ontario abroad, while Mr. Eves got his picture on front pages only when accused of wearing a surgical mask unnecessarily unnecessarily and prolonging concern. Mr. Eves has been complaining complaining his party's biggest problem is not its policies, but its inability inability to communicate them effectively effectively and now he seems to have someone who can. Mr. Clement also has boosted his own career by a single dramatic dramatic act. It was reminiscent of Liberal Andrew Thompson in the 1960s making a speech ripping ripping apart the Tory "police stale' law, which would have indefinitely indefinitely jailed organized crime suspects who refused to answer questions. The speech vaulted Mr. Thompson over others to the job of party leader. Mr. Clement did poorly in the leadership race Mr. Eves won. obtaining only 13 percent of the vote, despite obvious brightness and a lot of ideas. But if Mr. Eves loses the next election, Mr. Clement would have new strength in a race to succeed him, because the Tories do not have many heroes. This may explain why Enterprise, Enterprise, Opportunity, and Innovation Innovation Minister Jim Flaherty, considered considered Mr. Evcs's heir-apparent, heir-apparent, sal scribbling furiously during during most of the standing ovation for Mr. Clement. It is not the sort of innovation he had hoped for. Fur tlvvudi's, Uric Hon'd Inis been covering provincial politics politics os a freelance columnist bused out of Queen \ Park. Eric Dowd Queen's Park Question Are you taking any precautions against West Nile Virus this summer? Kris Wright j "I'm using J bug spray." J 1 » Ï i h t 5 Margo Paradis | "I'm using 5 lots of i Muskol to' | fully protect j our kids who S are playing f sports in the ! evening." \ t -y . f Del Sciauzero ; "Yes, I plan « to but I need » to read some ! more J information." J i J » » I t Eric Van Denhaas * 'No, I'm not i overly i concerned." ; > < « » tEljt Caimtnnu Statesman is one I of the Metroland Printing, Pub- ; lishing and Distributing group ? of newspapers. 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