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t V Clarington Community/A5 Model railroad show on track EVERY WEEKDAY AT NOON Daily News lwiclBodurhamreoIorB.com durhamregion.com ♦ Pressrun 24,350 ♦ Founded 1854 ♦ OCTOBER 11, 2006 ♦ 54 Pages ♦ Optional 3 Week Delivery $6/$1 Newsstand Mutton, Oda at odds over clean-up Port Granby really not Municipality's problem, says Mayor BY JENNIFER STONE Staff Writer CLARINGTON -- Local councillors shouldn't be taking the flak over the Port Granby cleanup, given it's a federal project, project, says Clarington's mayor. And MP Bev Oda is going to hear about it, whether she The LLRWMO has, on behalf wants to, or not, he said, as the . of the federal government, been Municipality received a recommendation from its peer review team last Monday to accept the cleanup criteria put forward by the Low Level Radioactive Waste. Management Office. But Ms. Oda said she's had plenty of input on the matter, and feels it's well within the Municipality's-jurisdiction Municipality's-jurisdiction to deal with questions on the issue. John Mutton looking at ways to deal with the 500,000 cubic metres of low- level radioactive waste, left over from operations at Eldorado Eldorado Resources: The •waste and some marginally marginally contaminated soils were placed in the Port Granby Waste Management Facility on the . Lake Ontario shoreline from 1955 to 1988. Contaminants from the waste are said to be leaching into both Lake Ontario and the area groundwater. The waste also includes some non-radioactive contaminants. There is also some waste found at various iocations in Port Hope. Engineered storage mounds would be located located in both Clarington and Port Hope, under the plan. The LLRWMO has developed a preferred option to deal with the waste, which includes moving it across. Lakeshore Road, and building Bev Oda an engineered, lined and capped storage mound. The Municipality's Municipality's involvement involvement is essentially as host, said Mayor Mutton. It's the federal federal government's problem. "We're not accountable for this problem. It's a real issue ' and I know the residents down there are not happy. They are blaming Clarington council and it's not our issue," said the mayor. , women: Oda BY JENNIFER STONE Staff Writer DURHAM - MP Bev Oda says criticism over changes to the funding and mandate of Status of Women Canada is misguided. The Durham MP, who is Minister Minister for the Status of Women, deflected calls for her resignation resignation earlier this week, saying it's time, to help, not just study the issue. - "Fundamentally, as a party, to say that we don't believe in the equality of women is misdirec- [ lion," said Ms. Oda, in response to calls for her resignation made by at least one New Democrat MP. The Conservative government recently announced changes to , the funding of and mandate of Status of Women Canada, including the end of funding to women's organizations that do lobbying, advocacy or general research on rights issues. The change met with extensive criticism from other parties, and from women's advocacy groups. Money could be better used to directly help a woman in need, rather than study the situation, said Ms. Oda. • "All that money could be used to help those women living in Durham or Clarington ... rather than spend those, hundreds of thousands of dollars to study the problem again," she said. For example, she pointed to the number of older women who find themselves losing their homes in their old age. "When it's purely financial, we have to do something, so we introduced changes this week on the Canadian Pension Plan," she said. It's a matter of a "fundamental change in direction" her government government has embarked upon, said the MP. - with files from Torstar Network Dirt bike stunt lands daredevil in hospital • CLARINGTON - A man was rushed to hospital with broken ; bones after a motorcycle stunt went badly wrong Monday afternoon. afternoon. '• Durham police said a 27-year- old Oshawa man crash-landed after launching his dirt bike off a makeshift ramp in a field near Boundary and Avery roads in the Burketon area, around 2:30 p.m. Police said the man was attempt ing to jump the bike about 50 feet by riding it over a ramp that was 22 feet long and 8 feet high and aiming for a dirt pile.'But once the bike was in mid-air the man panicked and let go, crashing to the ground about 75 feet from the ramp. Paramedics found the man with, a broken ankle and a fractured femur. He was later airlifted to Sunnybrook hospital. ", Jason Liebregts / Metroland Durham Region Media Group Carving out a perfect Fall Festival NEWCASTLE - Krysten Ingram carves out a pumpkin while at the Newcastle Fall Festival in downtown Newcastle. Planning director David Crome said he'd received no inquiries about the situation from MP Oda. . "It's totally the responsibility of the federal government, not us," said Mayor Mutton. "For Councillors (Charlie) Trim and (Gord) Robinson to be facing the heat is entirely- unacceptable. unacceptable. "Send a copy of the file to (Ms.) Oda's office," instructed the mayor to staff. "If she's not going to ask us for it, she's going to get it any- See POLITICIANS page A6 No news is news in transit êi WATCH VIDEO durtiemreglon-oom BY ERIN HATFIELD Staff Writer . DURHAM - No talks have been scheduled between Durham Region Transit (DRT) and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Union Local 222. The union went out on strike Oct. 5 after failing to negotiate a first contract agreement. Workers and management don't see eye to eye on issues of retiree benefits, cost of living adjustment. adjustment. (COLA) and contracting out, among - ~ • others. For more •p ^ e on this story Region's commis- sioner of human resources, Garth Johns, has maintained what the union is asking for would cost the taxpayers taxpayers SI 1 million. "We've said it a dozen times before, these big items have to disappear," Mr. Johns said. "If they do we will be back at the table." The Region says the contract it offered July 14 was a fair one. To date, the CAW has not put the proposal to the membership for a vote. "The membership already sent it back and gave us a 92 per cent strike mandate," unit chairman John Johnson said. "They don't' even want to entertain it." But the fact that the Region did See TRANSIT page A8 Zf ONTARIO'S •SERVICE • PARTS Political candidates speak to the issues 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 A REPAIR FACILITY WHITBY OSHAWA Honda 300 THICKSON RD. S. WHITBY 1-866 240-6192 HOMDA. www.honda1.eem j Five running for the seat vacated by Jim Schell BY JENNIFER STONE Staff Writer CLARINGTON - Change versus staying the course. That seems to be the major issue in the race for the Ward 1 and 2 Regional scat in Clarington this time around. The ward, which encompasses the area from Townlinc Road in Courlice to Liberty Street in Bowmanvillc, and from Lake Ontario to Clarington's most northern edge, is holly contested this time around, with five candidates candidates attempting to take the scat vacated by Jim Schell, who is running for mayor. Don MacArthur, who has represented represented Local Ward 2 lor the past two terms, is ' hoping to make the jump to the regional level and is being challenged by former Durham Regional Police Chief Kevin McAlpine, former former Regional Councillor Mary Novak, landlord/property manager manager and retired real estate broker broker George VanDyk, and, former councillor from 1985 to 1991, Arnot Wotten. For Mr. MacArthur, the key is staying the course while working harder' to ensure Clarington gets its fair share. "Wc need to continue the kind of growth and governance (that's been happening), making sure the infrastructure keeps pace with development, as it has," said the retired teacher. ■ Also important is "making "making sure Clarington gets its fair share of provincial, provincial, federal and regional spending in Clarington." In terms of taxes, Mr. MacArthur said he "can defend what the council has done, given our performance in the tax rates in the BMA survey" which rated Clarington above all but seven other municipalities in the province on taxation-related issues. But, for other candidates, change was high on the list of priorities. "The main issue, I believe, is taxes," said Ms. Novak. "A lot of people have told me the increases are too tremendous." As \ycll, Ms. Novak said she believes the public feels it has not been allowed to participate in democracy under the current council. VISIT AND CLICK Durham Votes'I M --4*1, Mnwwttf 1 ), 2964 For more on the ^ > 2006 elections ^ durhamrofllon .com See TOTAL page A6 CHEVROLET LIS.J.L fllpsFv; ' Otar* n 5yr/1 60,000km ||£ WARRANTY PRO BEST $ 1f IN THE FO oVo BUSINESS vZn CUE. Ei CAR HEAVEN PROGRAM $ ~IOOO FOR YOUR TRADE Call fur details STUDENT BONUS PROGRAM Call Inr details HkE555 DIRECT LINES: $1000 OWNER LOYALTY BONUS I FOR BLAZER.TRAILBLAZER JIMMY, ENVOY. 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