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<iIM Orono Weekly Urnes, Wednesday, February 23, 2000 - 7 Te min g inferno This home on the Manvers Durham Townline, north of Mosport was completely engulfed by the time Manvers Firefighers arrived. The two storey brick home on property owned by the Emedi family, had been vacant for the past two years. A knock on the door by a passing motorist, alerted the Emedi's that the house, just north of their own residence was on fire. Kris Emedi called the fire department and police at 8:45 Sunday evening. The Ontario Fire Marshall's office attended the scene to determine determine the cause of the fire. The investigation is ongoing. Police are treating it as a suspicious fire due to the fact the house had not been lived in for two years. The Emedi's believe the fire had been deliberately set. r v TYRONE NEWS by Jacqueline Vaneyk J Snow and. cold always makes life a little harder when you work outside. Snow must be moved for feeding and marketing animals. animals. The price of diesel fuel for spring planting is of concern to the farming community. At four to five gallons an hour in a tractor pulling tillage equipment, the cost mounts. Pleased to report that Bill Roy has improved to the point where he is home from hospital. Hope he stays that way! Miriam and Catherine Koene played the prelude at our church on Sunday. Service time is 10:45 and everyone is welcome. Bethesda Cemetery held their public meeting last week. Irwin Hamilton gave a useful talk on wills, estates, etc. Board members members for 2000 are: Glenn Smith, Lloyd Skinner, Clayton , Read, Wendy Partner, Cheryl Lepard, Ted Brock, Will Trewin and Ralph Werry. Secretary/treasurer is Lynn ' Piggott. , John and Kris Vaneyk, and . Tom and Mitch Morawetz were among several several hundred Canadians who attended the Louisville (Kentucky) Farm Show and Tractor Pulls last week. Several women (and a few men) held a quilting bee in the Sunday school last week. The quilt will be auctioned off at the church Chicken Pie Supper and Auction on Feb. 26. Call Betty Pascoe for tickets to the supper; the auction begins at 7 p.m. Everything from butter tarts to handyman hours to a lovely garden bench will be sold. Even if you can't make the supper, you are welcome at the auction. Staying in Touch by John O'Toole, MPP One of the many comments comments that I have received since the Gas Price Review Task Force hearings began in Toronto on February 14th are that fuel prices are threatening to stall the', economy. Over the past few decades, there have been a couple dozen inquires and studies on fuel prices, initially, I mistakenly mistakenly thought that "fuel" referred to gasoline. However, over the past couple of weeks, diesel fuel has erupted as an even more critical issue. The media has jumped to the obvious and controversial controversial issue of federal and provincial taxes. Let me state very clearly that the: Provincial flat tax on gasoline gasoline is 14.7 cents per litre. Federal flat tax is 10.0 cents, per litre - plus seven percent GST. The only level of government government that benefits from a fuel price increase is the federal government because of the ' GST. Ontario uses over 14 billion litres of gasoline per year; Both levels of government receive over $2 billion in revenue from gasoline, but the federal government spends virtually nothing on Ontario's highway infrastructure. infrastructure. While the provincial provincial government has the constitutional authority to regulate prices, the federal government has the authority authority to ensure competition in World Day of Prayer Service will be held in Tyrone Church on Friday, Mar. 3, at 1:30 p.m. This year's service was written by women in Indonesia, a country that has been much in the news lately. Everyone is welcome to the service and to the Fellowship Hour to follow. Durham Region Federation of Agriculture will hold their annual Banquet in Nestleton Hall on Friday, March 24. Tickets are available from Karen Yellowlees at 986- 0657, or from your nearest director. Guest speaker is to be confirmed. SUBSCRIBE $25.00 the marketplace. The forgotten elements of this old debate are that the petroleum industry operates as an oligopoly and cannot be truly competitive competitive when it controls the wholesale and retail parts of the product cycle. The recent decisions arrived at by the Federal Competition Bureau, indicating that there is no evidence of. collusion, collusion, simply proves that the Competition Act needs to be amended to protect consumers. In June 1995, gasoline was about .51 cents per litre and today, the price is almost .70 cents per litre - an increase' of 37 percent. Taxes have not increased one cent. Yes, crude, oil prices have climbed to $30.00 per barrel from $10.00 per barrel, however there are 160 litres in a barrel barrel of oil, and not all products products in that barrel are gasoline. gasoline. Crude also forms the basis for diesel, home heating heating oil, jet fuel and many other products including asphalt. It appears that at the very least, the industry should reach out to consumers consumers and answer some of their questions. Some questions questions that I have heard are why do so many different price zones exist across the province and how come the price jumps the moment the world price for crude goes up? Other questions range from why do prices at the pumps fall as quickly as they rise tb how come there are 40.percent fewer independent independent gas stations existing existing today? Consumers feel outraged and wonder about the quantity of our own Canadian crude and why we allow OPEC nations to control our economy. In Qshawa on Sunday February 20th, over 1,000 very angry truck drivers threatened to close down the Ontario economy because of the high costs of diesel fuel. They explained that over 90 percent of our food and other consumables consumables are delivered by truck. This is a very big issue and we need some answers. This week, I will be hearing input in Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie with the Gas Price Review Task Force. On March 1st, we will be in the Durham riding. Please call my constituency constituency office at 1-800- 661-2433 or at 697-1501 if you would like more information. information. This past weekend, I was pleased to present Mr. Fred West with a very special special recognition plaque, as he is now a member of the exclusive "Three Century Club". Fred, who was born in. 1899 in Bath, England, has lived in three centuries. Mayor Diane Hamre and Municipality of Clarington's Council also recognized Fred's accomplishment accomplishment at the ceremony. Over the years, Fred, a veteran veteran of World War I and a member of the Royal Canadian Legion, has received many awards for his service to Canada. My congratulations and best wishes go out to both Fred and his family. , Is your home one of our architecturally significant heritage properties in Clarington? Are you working hard to preserve the heritage features of your home for enjoyment of future generations? If you have pride of ownership, and would like your accomplishments recognized' by the Municipality of Clarington, perhaps ydu should consider requesting, a formal designation under the Ontario Heritage Act. If you would like details on the designation process, or if you would like to attend a Heritage Committee meeting to obtain more information on the designation of your property, please contact your Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee: (LACAC) Chair, Janie Dodds at 983-5926, or Planning Department LACAC Liaison, Isabel Dekking at 623-3379, ext. 217.