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i PAGE 6 THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, July 30,2003 www.durhamrecjion.com Tim Whittaker Publisher Joanne Burghardt Editor-in-Chief Tony Doyle Managing Editor Fred Eismont Director of Advertising Eddie Kolodziejcak Classified Advertising Manager Kirk Bailey Distribution Manager Lillian Hook Office Manager Janice O'Neil Cheryl Haines Composing Managers Clarington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 Œljc Canadian Statesman ■ t [July 30,2003 Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. Phone 905-579-440C Classifieds 905-576-9335 Distribution 905-579-4407 General Fax 905-579-2235 Newsroom Fax 905-579-1805 E-Mail newsroom@durhamregion.coir, 865 Farewell St., Oshawa ON L1H 7L5 Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 infodurham .com EDITORIAL e-mciil Idlers to necvsroom@durhiimreyion.eom Police budget pressures seem never-ending Board must find a way to hold pay for the thin blue line LETTERS TO THE EDITOR e-mail letters to newsroom@dtirhamregion.com Y ou can bet Durham Region Region residents certainly appreciate their police force. Just check out the skyrocketing skyrocketing increase in the police budget since 1994: from a budget budget of $50.7 million to $100.5 million last year, $110.6 million next year and all the way to a projected $141.2 million in 2007. That means a budget that has already doubled in nine years will nearly triple in 13. You would think our police would be happy with such an increase, increase, but you'd be wrong. That old saying about give them an inch, they'll take a mile holds true with Durham's police force. The latest police budget pressure pressure revolves around that dreaded dreaded five-letter word we've all heard a lot about lately: 'bonus'. Whether it be the common sense to cut out eight-per-cent hikes to Oshawa City staff or the decision decision by the Region to say 'No' to extra SARS compensation to top health department executives, our councillors have said they'll hold the line on civil service bonus payments. Now we're faced with possible possible police bonuses, which will be part of upcoming contract negotiations negotiations between Durham Regional Regional Police and the Durham Police Services Board. Seems the Toronto Police and Ontario Provincial Police have recently cut deals to pay their veteran officers bonuses to prevent prevent them from going to other forces. Nobody in Durham begrudges begrudges our police officers being paid a fair wage. After all, catchup catchup pay for officers combined with a steady increase in the size of the force has been a hallmark As this paper was delivered to your door today, an expected half-million fans were traipsing off to the so-called SARS-Stock, with the Rolling Stones and a bevy of other bands coming to what one newscaster recently referred to as Toronto's 'promotional 'promotional rescue.' The concert, hailed as a way to raise Toronto's tourist industry' industry' from the ashes in the wake of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, could very well have a strong positive effect on the economy. After all, people have arrived in Toronto from far afield to attend. Hotels near Downsview Park, where the concert is being held, were sold out far in advance of the concert. People were getting very little satisfaction in the quest for parking spots near the concert site. Early indications seemed to point to the concert doing exactly what it was intended intended to do for Toronto. But it could also have a very negative impact, Consider, for example, a recent recent story of several Americans, in Toronto for an extremely brief layover al the airport, placed in quarantine after returning home with some sort of respiratory illness. illness. An extraordinarily short visit to the airport, al a time when SARS was mil considered a major risk within the general population hut rather seemed lo have been confined to hospital sellings, led lo Canada gelling of the Chief Kevin McAlpine years. Durham residents have paid a hefty price to keep our cops tops. Recall that when the 2002 'six-figure income' club was released a whopping 49 Durham Regional Police officers were on the list, up from just three in 1996. But keep in mind more than salary attracts officers to the Durham force. The quality of life here in the region, the cost of living and the level of violent crime officers deal with compared compared to in Toronto are all factors beyond simply remaining in lockstep with megacity salaries. When it comes to local salaries, at some point, something something has to give. While the police police budget increase amounts to half the jump in our regional taxes each year, other serious regional regional expenditures get put off or downgraded. Compare the police budget to our regional roads budget. Both are critical to our way of life. But while the police police get an automatic $10 to $11 million more per year, roads expenditures expenditures barely rise. A dent of three per cent per year is about all the bpdget will allow for road projects which, according to Regional Regional works chairman Rick Johnson, are about $60 million behind in repairs. At this rate we' 11 v soon have bottlenecked, pothoRd roads our high-paid of- ficers%on't be able to patrol. Our police services board must take a long, hard look at Durham policing conditions, cost-of-living and quality of life issues that attract officers here before signing a blank cheque with taxpayers' money. At some point, enough is enough. yet another round of bad press and video in the U.S. That the illness soon proved not to be SARS seemed to be neither here nor there, as it was portrayed portrayed in the American media. It leads one to believe that if three people go back to America with head colds after this concert, we could once again face a week of CNN broadcasting images images of people running around Toronto in masks, as though that were ever the reality among the general population. population. Television and Internet media sources have indeed shrunk the world, allowing us to find out what's going on around the globe with little more than a point and a click. But in the case of SARS, those media outlets did some damage - at a time when people here were taking reasonable precautions and health care professionals were taking extraordinary measures to prevent the spread of SARS, some U.S. media sources would have watchers believe a plague was running rampant among us. Not to diminish the impact and tragic results of the SARS outbreak, outbreak, but the reality is, reasonable reasonable precaution, not widespread panic, was the order of the day, as far as I could tell, during the height of the SARS crisis. I lopelully the reality of the situation is what the world will see its the Stones and friends make an attempt al being Toronto's Toronto's little helper. Bus service a great help To the editor: The idea about a bus for rural areas was great when Laidlaw thought of it many years ago. There is a bus that runs from Newtonville to Crooked Creek, Starkville, Kendal, Kirby, Orono and senior senior complex, trailer park, Newcastle and Wilmot also can be hailed anywhere along this route. It runs every Tuesday leaving leaving from Newtonville at approximately approximately 9:30 a.nr. They also will bring you back on an early bus leaving Bowmanville at 1:15 p.m. or a later bus at 4:15 p.m. I am sure Laidlaw has been running this bus at a loss for the amount of people who use it but for us who use it, it is a godsend. Dora MacDonald Kendal Why change marriage now? To the editor: Re: 'Gay, lesbian marriages deserve respect,' letter from Gail Stanoev of July 20, 2003. I think it's funny how all the supporters of the same-sex marriage legislation think and As I write these words, D- Day, or Downsview day, is only one week away. As you read them, it will be upon us. Let me be clear at the outset of this piece that I am not currently currently a big Rolling Stones fan. 1 didn't even really care for them when they still vaguely resembled human beings. 1 am even less of a fan of paying through the nose for a ticket and taking out a second mortgage on my house for parking so I can then walk for two hours to stand in the middle of 800 acres of sun- scorched scrub grass and bubbling hot tarmac, tarmac, shoulder to sweat- soaked shoulder with 450,000 screaming, two-legged rock lemmings. Suffice it to say, I would rather stick pins through my eyes than be within a 50-mile radius of the place on July 30. (Which coincidentally is roughly roughly where you'll find the first available parking spots for the event.) I don't think the promoters and organizers are really getting getting it. So far they've been basing basing most of their contingency plans for this thing on the set- re 1er to the people who don't support same-sex marriages as people who just want to discriminate discriminate against a person's love for another person of the same sex. The whole issue is about marriage, and if it should be extended to those of the same sex! There are a lot of people who don't agree with allowing two people of the same sex to marry; it's not that they feel homosexuality homosexuality will spread like wild fire through out the community, community, it's that for the past 136 years of Canada's existence existence as a nation marriage has been between a man and a woman, so why change things now? Brad Miller Oshawa Column on car insurance not objective To the editor: Re:. 'Car insurance nightmares nightmares seem to never end,' column column by Martin Derbyshire of July 13, 2003. So much for objective reporting. reporting. I would expect this complaint complaint from a naive reader but a reporter should be a little better informed. Did Martin Der- up for last year's very successful successful (unless you own an ldomo store) 'World Youth Day'. You may remember the fiasco involving involving tons of human porta- potty waste, that turned the day into more of a 'Poop Visit' than 'Pope Visit' for one bearded Scandinavian retailer. The numbers of bodies bodies attending both events are about the same but that's where the parallel comes to an abrupt and very ugly halt. Has it occurred occurred to no one that these arc not brighteyed, brighteyed, freshly scrubbed 'Peace Pilgrims' Pilgrims' but hard-core Stones, AC/DC and Rush devotees? I don't know how much dope, booze and beer those pilgrims pilgrims put away, but I'll bet you it's nothing compared lo what real rock 'n rollers can consume. consume. And yes, I've heard how stringent security is going to be, but you and I both know that when it comes lo sneaking in contraband, rock fans are more inventive than the French underground. underground. Personally, I'm calling calling my broker and telling him to sell everything and buy as byshire really expect his insurer insurer to ignore the information that an insured driver on his policy had an impaired conviction? conviction? This was a clerical error on the part of the Quebec Department Department of Transport, which is where his pique should be directed. directed. I find it hard to believe he was not advised of the reason reason for his rate hike at the outset outset but possibly his broker was having a "sitting-by-his-pool" moment and gave him the 9/11 answer instead of checking the records. 1 suspect the dramatic increase increase in premium was a result of his policy being assigned to the Facility Association, a normal normal consequence of an impaired impaired conviction. If this was the case, the "greedy money- grubbing insurance company" wouldn't have seen any of his money and the broker wouldn't have been "calculating his fat commission" as facility commissions commissions are capped at minimal level, and the broker probably would have earned more on the original premium. These are facts. that any knowledgeable reporter should know, but I guess when it gets personal and insurance is the hate topic of the day, facts aren't that important. Just ask George W. Kent McDonell Agent, State Farm Insurance Oshawa much Doritos stock as lie can get his hands on between now and July 30. 1 also seriously doubt there were more than a handful of frantic female 'Pope' groupies tearing their tops off when the Pontiff arrived on stage. But you watch what happens when Mick starts strutting and pouting. pouting. Not to mention when AC/DC gets it cranked up. That's going to be the mother of all rnosh pits, my friend, and unless you're into group prostate exams, 1 wouldn't go anywhere near it. I suppose this monstrosity's heart is in the right place. All of the profits arc, ostensibly, going to light SARS and to help out Toronto's problem-plagued tourist industry. But I still can't help but feel it's a nightmare waiting to happen. Then again, maybe it is just me. I am, after all, the guy who breaks into a sweat if the checkout checkout line at Zchrs gets too long. Might do me a world of good to lake my top off and flash Mick and the boys. I just don't know how long Suzanne could keep me up on her shoulders. Sunderland resident Neil Crone, aetor-enmic-writer, saves some of his best lines for his columns. OPINION e-mail letters to newsroom@durhaniregion.com Here's hoping SARS concert shows the real Toronto Jennifer Stone Staff Writer OPINION e-mail letters to newsroom@durtiamregion.eom Only rock and roll, but I don't like it Crone Enter Laughing CLICK AND SAY Today's question: Is the Province doing enough to catch up with delinquent spouses who refuse to pay support for their children? □ Yes □ No Cast your vote online at infodurham com Last week's question: Should Durham Region pay its two medical officers of health for all their extra hours during the recent SARS crisis? □ No 25.0 per cent □ Yes 75.0 per cent Votes cast: 144 HAVE YOUR SAY Question "Clarington is considering a $1.3 million plan to improve downtown. Among the improvements being looked at are sidewalks and parking. Should they go ahead with the plan and if so, what should be the top priority?" Kathv Holroyd "More parks and spots for silting and a pedestrian area to shop." Marjorie Sorrell "Add high contrast pavement designs, which would add to the esthetic esthetic value of the town as well as aid visually impaired walkers." Lisa Norman "(We) need bicycle racks downtown for people to lock their . bikes, especially in front of the library," John Coe "Improve broken pavement in the 11 ' downtown." l y i tElic Cmmtiimi Statesman is one of the Metroland Printing, Printing, Publishing and Distributing Distributing group of newspapers. The Statesman is a member of the Bowmanville Clarington Board of Trade, the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, Ontario Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Circulations Audit Board and the Ontario Press Council. The publisher reserves the right to classify or refuse any advertisement, advertisement, Credit for advertisement advertisement limited to space price error occupies. Editorial and Advertising content of the Canadian Statesman is copyrighted. copyrighted. 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