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Clarington Communities/A? Get chopping at tree farm Sports/B1 Speedskaters on podium durhamregion.com ♦ Pressrun 24,150 ♦ Founded 1854 ♦ DECEMBER 14, 2005 ♦ 46 Pages ♦ Optional 3 Week Delivery $5/$1 Newsstand Changes ideal for Municipality: planner BY JENNIFER STONE Staff Writer BOWMANVILLE - A package package of proposed new legislation from the Province, including reforms to the Ontario Municipal Municipal Board, could help provide the Municipality with the tools it needs to design sustainable, esthetically pleasing communities, communities, while helping to curb urban sprawl, says Clarington's top planner.' The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing announced a package of proposed legislation Monday. The proposed new mles would not only work to curb the V'.VjT*? power of the Ontario Municipal Board, making it into more of an appeal than a decision-making body, but help deal with issues of intensification and sustainability, in an effort to curb urban sprawl while being environmentally friendly. "Putting it all together, it's a terrific package that addresses a lot of the issues municipalities municipalities have complained about for years," said Clarington planning director David Crome. The rules go hand-in-hand with previously announced legislation, such as the Greenbelt Act, which protects a 1.8-million acre stretch of land, running from Niagara Falls to Clarington, and sets strict limits on urban boundaries, in an effort to curb sprawl. The proposed OMB reform is aimed at providing municipalities municipalities with more accountability on local planning matters and reducing reducing both the number of appeals to the OMB and the duration of OMB hearings. It should allow municipalities to make decisions without the immediate threat of a hearing at the OMB. "It seems to be giving local councils a little more power, and residents a little more power as well," said Clarington Mayor John Mutton. Given legislation like the Green- belt Plan and Places to Grow, municipalities like Clarington are going to have to look at increasing increasing densities, and under the proposals proposals announced Monday, those can't all be appealed by residents to the OMB, said Mayor Mutton. . "Once (Places to Grow) passes, we're going to be making some decisions that are politically •unpopular, but in keeping with the legislation," said the mayor, noting there will be no choice. "The public think that you have the power to make any decision you want, when in effect, you're bound by pieces of legislation." Under the new rules, the OMB will make its decision based on what council has heard. "The problem in the past has been that it's a .hearing from the beginning," said Mr. Crome, noting that under the proposed change, hearings before the OMB would be limited to the information and material that had been before municipal council, unless new information couldn't reasonably have been provided before council's decision. In that case, under the proposal, if the OMB decides the new information information could have led to a different council decision, .the matter is sent back to the local council for reconsideration. In all, the reform should make the OMB "a true appeal body, and not a decision-making" organization, organization, said Mr. Crome. The reforms also work at allowing allowing intensification while supporting supporting sustainable, well-designed communities. Ontario's population, population, says a news release from the Municipal Affairs Ministry, is expected to grow by four million by 2031. Combined with an effort to curb urban sprawl, there's going to be a need for urban intensification. The proposed riew rules are aimed at allowing that intensification while protecting protecting the environment, encouraging See PROVINCIAL, page A4 ■ pji OPA report energizes Durham's •I. ■ w • jky' : . m m MM Sill ■l, *•. Concert concentration PEaN m -vp ? . l-. a. f$JÉi Jason Liebregts/Metroland Durham Region Media Group SbÔWMANVILLE- The John M. James Public School Band, including Ty Owen, were rehearsing for their Christmas Benefit Concert on Dec. 15 at the school. , . " times for women BY JENNIFER STONE Staff Writer CLARINGTON - The holidays holidays can seem a little bleak for a woman who has taken her children children and left an abusive situation. situation. V Though she may have done the best thing for her family, the mother may find finances tight, and there, may not be a lot left over for holiday extras, says Jaki MacKinnon, executive director of Bethesda House, the local shelter for abused women and their children. That's why the shelter is working hard to provide a number of special holiday holiday services, including holiday hampers, to families who have used or are currently using the shelter. "Because we. know women starting off on their qwn often start off less well off than before, we supply them with hampers if they need them" she said. The hampers are filled with toys and non-perishable food items and are packed in a laundry basket, so all parts can be used. "They are all past clients, so we can do a bit of personalizing," personalizing," said Ms. MacKinnon. "The , majority of our families really do need this type of support." As well, the shelter holds a children's Christmas party for See ROUGH, page A5 Clarington well positioned to deal with province's,.,, , power woes BY JENNIFER STONE Staff Writer CLARINGTON - Durham Region and the Municipality of Clarington are well-positioned to help Ontario through its energy woes, not only by potentially providing providing a home for new nuclear reactors, but by being a site for other types of energy innovation, say business leaders. The Ontario Power Authority released a report last week, advising advising the Province on how best to ■ deal with future power shortfalls. . The report recpmmends nuclear continue to supply about 50 per cent of Ontario's power, which means building new reactors and, perhaps, refurbishing existing units, which begin reaching the end of their lifespan within 7-10 years. Though the report does not detail when or where new nuclear should be built, there has been broad speculation that the Province Province will choose to build two new reactors on OPG-owned property next to the Darlington Nuclear /ScV_ ONTARIO'S C$AN • SERVICE • PARTS MON., WED., FRI. 7:30 am - 6:00 pm TUES. & THURS. 7:30 am - 8:00 pm SAT. 9:00 am - 4:00 pm ACCREDITED TEST & REPAIR FACILITY WHITBY OSHAWA Honda 300 THICKSON RD. S. WHITBY ! ® 666-1772 honda wnww.hondi1.eom X. donation comes BY JENNIFER STONE Staff Writer BOWMANVILLE - Barbara Barbara Standley spends a lot of time looking out the window from her room at the Strathaven Retirement Residence on King Street in Bowmanville. She isn't able to be as active as she used to be. She's used to volunteering, knitting for the hospital, taking part in the community. community. But she's hooked up to an oxygen oxygen tank now, so that's curtailed a lot of her activities. "I sit here and look out a lot and think, 'What can I do?' I sit here and do nothing. I'd like to do something," something," she said, on a recent Friday morning, as the sun bounced off the newly-fallen snow. Well, do something, she has. Instead of waiting till she dies and passing along what she has left to her children, who say they aren't inter- J; ar ~f ra ested in a monetary »t an dley inheritance from her, she's giving giving a living legacy, something that may, one day, save someone's someone's life. Ms. Standley has donated a $5,900 defibrillator, a machine used to restore normal heart rhythm by delivering an electrical shock during cardiac arrest, to the Municipality. It will be installed at the Bowmanville Indoor Soccer Facility Facility on Baseline Road. The facility is an. appropriate location, since it has recently become home to the Lakeridge Health Cardiovascular Prevention Prevention and Rehabilitation Program, a one-year program for patients at risk of developing cardiovas cular disease. It's an appropriate type of donation for Ms. Standley to make. She lost a husband and a son to heart attacks. Several family members have worked as firefighters or paramedics, including son Steve Rowland, who is currently a shift manager manager with Durham EMS. It was Mr. Rowland who suggested the donation, which Ms. Standley went along with enthusiastically. enthusiastically. "She kept saying, 'What should I do with my savings?' and my husband came up with the idea," said daughter-in-law Carol Rowland, Rowland, Generating Station in Clarington. Clarington. Not only would.building new nuclear mean immediate construction construction jobs, but it would ensure long-term jobs for people to run such a plant, said Rick Lea, executive director of the Durham Region Local Training Board. That organization, along with Ontario Power Generation, the Power Workers' Union, and other groups ran an event for people looking at careers in the energy sector last spring, and even without the spectre of a Darlington 'B', "the organizations organizations said, over the next five to 10 years, they were going to see an exodus in the skilled labour force due to retirement," explained Mr. Lea. New nuclear reactors would mean availability of even more jobs, and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology is training prime candidates, he said. The OPA report also calls for • greater dependence on alternative and renewable sources. The combination could be win- win for Clarington, which stands to be home to new reactors and also has planned a new energy park, expected to play host to private private and public business focussed on advancing and applying energy energy technologies. The park is to See ENERGY, page A5 "She's always been a donator." Ms. Standley isn't looking for recognition. Instead, she's hoping hoping that by telling her story, she'll spark the idea of donating a public access defibrillator in someone else's mind, to ensure the life-saving device can be found in. even more places. "I just want to get the idea out there," she said. It's a donation for which the Municipality is most grateful, said Mayor John Mutton. "It's wonderful when members of the community come forward and make such a donation, and we thank her very much," he said. 1 .'*1 1| ! I 8