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Wednesday, March 2, 2005 Weekly Times Subscriptions $29.91 + $2.09 GST - $32.00 per year. Publications Mail Registration No. 09301 • Agreement No. 40012366 Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. 'We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs" CanadS A ocna ORONO WEEKLY TIMES - 5310 Main St., P.O. Box 209, Orono, ON LOB 1M0 Email: oronotimes@rogers.com or Phone/Fax 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart Sports and Display Advertising - Donna Wood Front Office and Classified Advertising - Rosey Bateman The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of Interest to "be retîned'we and slander If your retail S^dassifed' fettoTÆ'SS cSX n Note o e f r a°n Ir must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such rte . ^ Festival a tough sell It finally happened, but it took the RCMP to do it. Hundreds of people attended the Great Canadian Town Band Festival s Military Tattoo last year to watch the RCMP Musical Ride. The stands at the Orono Fairgrounds were full, and no one left that evening without feeling they had witnessed something special. The GCTBF had been trying to draw crowds to their weekend festival for five years, and found that it took an attraction the calibre of the RCMP Musical Ride to finally succeed. (Ironically, the RCMP Musical Ride is performed to recorded music these days.) The problem being, the RCMP, funded by tax dollars, performs performs for no fee, though host communities have to look after stabling and feeding of the horses while they are in your town. The GCTBF have brought top notch bands, some ot the best in their field, to this community over the past five years. Who can forget the The W.P. Cyclone's Magnificent High Wheel Band parading through town playing their instruments while perched on their big bikes. True North Brass, Intrada Brass, the Hannaford Street Silver Band, trombonist Alain Trudel, the band of the Royal Regiment of Canada, and the 48th Highlanders, were all brought to Orono to play in the GCTBF. . . , • u , , The people that come to the festival enjoy the whole package, package, says Festival President, David Climenhage. However, the Festival never managed to attract enough people to make the weekend event a financially viable venture. Building an audience for an event, that does not have broad appeal, no matter how talented the players, is no easy taS The All Canadian Jazz Festival, another weekend-long festival, festival, held in Port Hope at the end of September, has been drawing huge crowds since it's inception in 2002. A weekend-long festival featuring a variety of brass bands is a much tougher sell., This year's scaled down festival, with a day of free concerts concerts might be just the ticket. Holding the event at the band stand on the library lawn in the village, will hopefully attract more local residents to partake of the concerts on offer. Letter to the Editor RE: "NOT IN MY BACKYARD" BACKYARD" The editorial regarding the Quebec court judge who ordered the closing of a trail through the Laurentians and "compensation for the rural • residents affected, and the indignant response from you and your proofreader Dear Editor, We have nowhere near 500 vehicles in a weekend "thundering" "thundering" past our home, but here is our experience: They not only "thunder" past but often "fly" across our driveway, disregarding the STOP signs posted on either side of the driveway by the Trail Patrol people, creating a veiy unsafe situation on our approach in or out ot our driveway which slopes up toward the highway. We, our family , friends and other visitors visitors literally take our lives, and those of the trail riders, in our hands each time we use our driveway. We cannot see down the highway bank lor riders as we turn in to our driveway and have had sever al scares with drivers flying in front of our vehicle. Our driveway had been there many years before the trail was - made "legal 1 . Aside from the safety issue, there has been serious erosion caused along the trail sending clouds of sand dust flying into our .yards, not to mention the fumes hovering in our front yard as well as the noise from these machines. A few years ago the Trail people decided to clean up the road allowance, mowing down trees, shoving them over the fences onto private fences and property. They park their vehicles vehicles and trailers at the carpool, down the highway and also at the junction area. We live with the extra garbage created here, where we have walked for years (no garbage containers) as well as coping with those who use the nearby private property as washrooms. Arthur Black was NOT wrong to suggest that "It never seems to occur to snowmobilers that their pastime constitutes an invasion of everyone else's BACKYARD see page 3 Staying in Touch MPP John O'Toole Province passes Bill 171 legislation The provincial same sex marriage legislation was passed in the Ontario Legislature last week. It is the federal government that has responsibility for the definition definition of marriage. The provincial provincial government has jurisdiction jurisdiction over legislation on the solemnization of marriage. Bill 171 protects churches and sacred spaces against a human rights charter challenge challenge that would compel them to solemnize same-sex marriages. marriages. My position is that 1, as a married person with five children children and two grandchildren, support the traditional view of marriage: That is that a marriage marriage is between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others. I understand that others others would have a different choice. The Liberal government government won the vote, despite those who were opposed. Greenbelt Law approved Ontario's greenbelt law was passed last week in the Ontario Legislature. Regrettably, Regrettably, it was passed with no recognition of the input from people who live in the Greenbelt. While everyone recognizes the need to preserve preserve green spaces, the greenbelt legislation is a flawed document and the shortcomings will be seen very soon. In fact, 1 would not be surprised to see the legislation back in the House for amendments that should have been made during the consultation pro-cess. One of the Greenbclt's major flaws i$^ the impact on farm communities communities and the provincial government's government's un-derlying philosophy philosophy of trying to protect farmland without protecting farmers. There will be regulations regulations drafted in the coming weeks to specify the boundaries boundaries of the Greenbelt. In addition, the Greenbelt legislation legislation includes establishing a Greenbelt Commission to guide the implementation of the new policy. Farm advocacy rallies at Queen's Park this month On Wednesday, March 2, Ontario's farm organizations will be attending a rally at Queen's Park. The message from the farmers' "Once Voice March" is that farming in Ontario is in serious trouble. trouble. Farm incomes are devastated devastated by factors such as low commodity prices, the BSE crisis, poor crop conditions, and rising costs of energy. Farm groups have asked the Premier and his Minister of Agriculture for an emergency meeting to discuss these issues. In the absence of a reply from the provincial government, farmers farmers have opted to deliver their demands to the Prenyer and his government personally on March 2. Over 10,000 are expected to attend the rally. On March 9, the Lanark Landowners' Association is holding a Queen's Park rally to O'TOOLE see page 3