The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Interested in saving wildlife habitat? by Marion Strebig What can I do? If you read this column you are interested in preserving wildlife habitat in your area. Chances are that you've already had some nasty shocks when favourite places have disappeared as a result of development development activity of one kind or another. As a conservation organization dedicated to preserving preserving wildlife habitet, the Federation of Ontario Naturalists is used to the question, "But what can an individual individual do to halt this destruction?" The situation is certainly not hopeless. The more you know about your rights as a citizen to have input into planning processes which govern land use, the more effective effective you can be in taking proactive proactive (preventive) measures. For instance, instance, every municipality, including including yours, either already has or is developing an Official Plan (O.P.). This Plan is the blueprint for land use in your area, indicating where things like roads, sewers, schools etc. will go. All by-laws, including including zoning by-laws, must conform conform to the Official Plan. At the same time natural areas are marked, often vaguely, hazard land, or sometimes, environmentally environmentally sensitive. Whatever the designation, designation, it offers no protection unless there are specific provisions in the plan - to protect these areas from development. If you have concerns about development in your area, go to the municipal clerk and get "a copy of the plan. Ask to be put on the list so that you will be notified of any intended intended amendments to the plan. If you are on the mailing list you will be notified when the Official Plan comes up for review. Once you identify the weaknesses, from the protectionist's viewpoint, of the O.P. you can begin lobbying for changes. The other major land use planner in your area is the district office of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR). The OMNR is responsible for all Crown Land as well as for resources such as provincial provincial parks, forestry and wildlife. One of the most important jobs of the district office is to draw up a Timber Management Plan for the area. Since the passage of the Environmental Environmental Assessment Act in 1975, the OMNR is required to provide provide the opportunity for public consultation consultation in developing Timber Management Plans. Timber Management Plans (TMP) are prepared for a 20 year period with provision for renewal every 5 years. Currently the OM- NR's handling of timber management management on Crown Lands is being reviewed in Thunder Bay before the Environmental Assessment Board, and until this process is completed the OMNR's timber management planning has an exemption under the Environmental Assessment Act. However, public consultation must still take place. Very likely Timber Management Plans are being prepared in your district, but the only way you are likely to find out is if you see the notice the OMNR is required to publish in the local paper. Technically this is all the public notice they need to give. However, if you wish to be involved you Mainstream Canada -- A taxing -- problem By Ann M. Smith At first blush, the prospect of a highly publicized and emotionally- charged debate over reform of sales tax may not seem all that exciting. If you agree, it will probably be a very long summer. But for many observers, the all- important debate has already begun. During the long and tedious process of pre-budget discussions, Finance Minister Michaël Wilson will no doubt hear umpteen different solutions on how he should go about making repairs to the decaying system of sales tax in this country. (Few disagree that, yes, the reforms are long overdue; the problem is more a matter of which course of action Wilson should take.) According to a recent pre-budget * submission prepared by the 80,000- member Canadian Federation of Independent Business, there is a very real danger that consumers and small business will not be given a strong enough voice in the ensuing process of public debate. CF1B President John Bulloch says the issue of sales tax reform, however, is just too important to the country's overall economic stability. ! "Big business is the promoter and major beneficiary of sales tax reform," _ said Bulloch, "as this will have the effect of shifting sales tax away from exporters and on to consumers and' small business." It would be political suicide for the government, he adds, to ignore the interests of consumers and small business business in order to appease the corporate elite. "The benefits of a new sales tax system--designed to help Canadian exporters--will be wiped out if the government places a nightmarish paperburden on small business. Mr. Wilson must remember where the vast majority of all the jobs in Canada are coming from. According to Statistics Canada, firms employing fewer than 50 people accounted for 93 per cent of all private sector job creation creation between 1978 and 1986. Firms employing more than 500 people, on the other hand, generated a net loss equivalent of 50,000 jobs." During a pre-budget meeting, Bulloch Bulloch told Wilson that sales tax reform" presents problems for the small business business community in the following areas: » That an increased sales tax on consumer consumer services will drive economic activity underground to the detriment of all legitimate, taxpaying businessès. • That an increased sales tax on consumer consumer goods and services will reduce demand, which in turn will result in a diminished contribution by small firms to job creation and economic growth. • That the costs of administering the new sales tax system for smaller firms and government will be greater than the revenue collected. • That auditing of small firms in the future by Revenue Canada will be a continuous source of fear and harassment. Sales tax reform will fail unless consumers and small business are treated fairly. Our economy cannot afford a warped system of sales tax that favors big business at the expense of the. average Canadian, CFIB Feature Service Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, March 15, 1989-11 should visit your district office and request to be put on the mailing list so that you are notified of proposed TMPs. Each step of the process has provision provision for public consultation. The first stage will likely be notification of invitation to participate in plan. Then there will be notification of a public information meeting where the OMNR will set out a series of maps outlining proposed areas of operation and alternatives. At this open house there are two things that you should be looking at. The first is where the timber access access roads will go. Roads open an àrea to all sort of potential development. development. Are the proposed roads a threat to any sensitive area? Will these roads be closed after timber operation are completed? Secondly, TMPs are supposed to take into account other resource values of the forest. The provision for doing this is to mark Areas of Concern (AOC). These may be canoe routes, deer yards, endangered endangered species habitat, nesting areas like heron rookeries, special geological features, or areas with special vegetation features. Here is an opportunity for you as naturalist to get involved in making management techniques the OMNR intends to use to protect these areas. Finally when the plan has been approved, approved, and you discover that your concerns have not been addressed in the plan, you may apply for what is termed a "bump-up." This means that you may write to the Minister of the Environment explaining that your concerns have not been dealt with and request that the plan be subject to a full Environmental Assessment. All this may sound tedious and time-consuming and it can be. But at the same time it can be immensely immensely satisfying to find out how the system works and to be part of the process. You may even be able to see ways in which your input has made the final plan more environmentally environmentally sensitive. Besides it's good to lose that feeling of, helplessness and realize that it's possible for one concerned individual individual to make a difference. The Corporation of the TOWN OF NEWCASTLE NOTICE OF THE PASSING OF A BY-LAW BY-LAW 69- belng a by-law to amend By-Law 86-112, being a bylaw bylaw to establish a street name map and a street name Inventdry for roads In the Town of Newcastle. WHEREAS the Corporation of the Town of Newcastle deems it ] expedient to amend the street name map ana street name inventory inventory for roads in the Town of Newcastle; AND WHEREAS such street name map and street name Inventory Inventory establishes an official name for all Improved roads and those unimproved roads which receive summer maintenance and are Included in the Road Needs Study for the Town of Newcastle; NOW THEREFORE be It enacted as a by-law for the Town of Newcastle as follows: 1. Schedule 'A' the street name map, and Schedule 'B' the street name Inventory, be amended to; a) Change the name of the road between Lots 4 and 5, Concession 6, former Township of Clarke from Shiloh Road to Langstaff Road; ► b) Change the name of the road between Lots 32 and 33, Concession 3 and 4, former Township of Clarke from Pollard Road to Bowen Road; c) To name the road, in Lot 5, between Conees- , sions 8 arid 9, former Township of Clarke, McMillan Rofed. By-law read a first and second time this day of 1989. By-law read a third time and finally passed this day of 1989. Mayor Clerk Dates of Publication; March 15, 22, 29 ' and April 5, 1989 P.O. 3501 NOTICE OF A PUBLIC OPEN HOUSE PROPOSED INFILL PROJECT LAIDLAW WASTE SYSTEMS LÂNDFILL SITE STAPLETON ROAD, NORTHWEST OF NEWTONVILLE, ONTARIO Laidlaw Waste Systems (Durham) Ltd. is proposing to modify' the existing landfill site to provide additional waste disposal capacity. This second open house will provide you with further further information on some of the recent developments regarding regarding the Infill proposal and the on-going studies. Your input la welcome. Laidlaw staff and consultants will be present to answer your questions and discuss the proposed Infill project OPEN HOUSE SESSION Date: Wednesday, March 29,1989 , Place: Newcastle Community Centre - Village of Newcastle, Ontario Time: 1:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. For more information call: (416) 786-2070 Datas of Publication: March 15, 22, 1989