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! COURTS «** 163 Church age uC 1P7 Bowtha nvl ' e ' Volume 69, Number 20 $1.00 GST Included Wednesday May 17,2006 Serving Kendal, Kirby, Leskard, Newcastle, Newtonville, Orono, Starkville and Tyrone since 1937 RE: Greenbelt Protection Plan Region to challenge province Robin Vickers, Krystyn Ewert, Ben Vickers and Abbey Vickers, planted a tree at the Newcastle Lions Club Memorial Gardens which was dedicated last Sunday. Krysten planted the tree in memory of her great grandparents, Helen and Reginald Lovekin. The park is at the Samuel Wilmot Nature Area, at the end of Cobbledick Road in Newcastle. Town kicks in for defibrillator training Clarington staff found a way to broaden their defibrillator defibrillator training budget. The issue was addressed on the council floor a few weeks ago when it was revealed the Newcastle and Orono Arena couldn't afford to pay for public public access defibrillator training for their staff. Both arenas said they could acquire defibrillators defibrillators through donations, however they couldn't afford the $2,000 annual cost for training and unit maintenance. Council had approved the purchase pf enough defibrillators defibrillators so all their municipally owned and operated sports facilities would have the life saving devices. As the Orono and Newcastle Arenas are operated by volunteer boards, they did not qualify for defibrillators defibrillators purchased with municipal tax dollars. Last month council directed directed the Community Services. Department to see if some arrangement could be made with their department for defibrillator, training for staff at municipal facilities operated operated by volunteer boards. This week council approved approved an additional expenditure expenditure of $8,400 for support and certification costs for defibrillators defibrillators at the Orono and Newcastle arenas, and the Newcastle Community Centre. Centre. The cost of training and annual maintenance at $2,000 a year led Councillor Don MacArthur to ask last week, "I wonder why on a public access defibrillator, that apparently the public is supposed supposed to able to walk up to, read the card on the door and know how to operate, why is it necessaiy to spend $8,000 to train people?" Community services director, director, Mr. Joe Canuana explained that the $2,000 annual cost per unit covered training, maintenance maintenance and upkeep, and counselling counselling for anyone who might have used the unit and had a bad experience, Caruana TRAINING see page 6 Durham Regional Council north Courtice, made a pres- voted in favour of challenging entation to Regional council the province's green belt pro- on Wednesday, where she ask- tection plan. ed council to stop developing Ms. Linda Gasser of Orono in the Black and Farewell was one of several several speakers at Wednesday's Regional Council meeting, meeting, objecting (( >r A l watershed watershed study will to the greenbelt determine what challenge from r . 7 r 7 7 kind oj development, development, if any, will occur in north Courtice" the Region. " T h e r e should be no recommendation recommendation going forward forward to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and the Greeenbelt Council to remove lands from the Greenbelt," stated Gasser. At that meeting regional councillors were faced with a recommendation from their Planning Department to ask the province to delete four parcel's of land from the Greenbelt protection plan. Two of the parcels of land in question are in Courtice, one in Whitby and one in Ajax. The Greenbelt Act, which was passed by the Province in February 2005 protects 1.8 million acres of environmentally environmentally sensitive land and agricultural agricultural land in the Golden Horseshoe from urban development development and sprawl. -Elements of the Act ensure that the total area protected by the greenbelt can grow, but cannot shrink. Under the legislation legislation set out in 2005, the plan will be reviewed by the government in 10 years. Clarington councillor Mr. Jim Schell, who sits on the Regional Planning Committee, Committee, says that while he has concerns with ground water issues with the Courtice property property at Hancock and Nash Road, he did support the motion as as a whole. "This is more about finding out the integrity of the Greenbelt Plan," Schell told an Orono Times reporter on Monday morning. "Will the Ministry break its code of 'Thou shalt not go there'?" he stated. Ms. Libby Racansky of Courtice, who has long lobbied lobbied to stop development in - Libby Racansky Courtice Resident Creek area till a watershed study on the two creeks is completed. "This is a groundwater recharge area, all the water is drawn from a common aquifer," she told the Times reporter. "Each time land is developed in north Courtice, the developer has to drain the she stated. "A water- study will determine land,' 1 shed what kind of development, if any, will occur in north Courtice," Racansky said. While the ; recommendation recommendation to remove the parcels of land from the greenbelt came to Regional Planning Committee Committee through committee member Councillor Joe Drumm of Whitby, according to Schell, it was Mayor John Gray of Oshawa who made the request to exempt the Townline, Courtice property and it was Mayor John Mutton who requested the Flan- cock/Nash Road property be exempt. The motion to exclude 1,400 hectares in Durham Region from the Greenbelt plan was approved by Regional council in a 16 to 8 vote. Of Clarington's three CHALLENGE see page 3 What's Guides & Sparks dean up! SeePageô