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# \ > 8 -- Scugog Citizen -- Tuesday, January 23, 1996 54 WATER ST., PORT PERRY, ONT. LIL1J2 Phone : (905) 985-6397 Fax : (905) 985-1410 THE SCUGOG CITIZEN an independently owned and operated weekly community newspaper, is distributed, free of charge, to over 13,500 homes and businesses in and around Scugog Township. Subscriptions sold outside Scugog Tc ip. published by: Scugog Citizen Publishing Ld OCNA Member CCNA Member E] EJ conmaonnts CCNA Verified Cirei kA Verified co-publishers : John B. McClelland, Valerie Ellis editor : John B. McClelland office manager : Sibylle Warren advertising sales representatives : Thom Doran, Jennine Huffman, Bob Osborne reception : Janet Rankin production : Tanya Mappin, Valerie Ellis feature writer : Heather McCrae "Proud Canadians, proud to call Scugog Township tee - i _---- EDITORIAL Ontario needs more court space, not less We all know that the Ontario provincial government led by Mike Harris and his Conservatives are hell bent on cleanin up the fiscal mess by reducing the deficit and tackling the accumulated debt which now stands at just a tad under $100 million. The spending cuts have been massive and unprecedented in the history of Ontario and will impact on just about everybody, including some 13,000 civil servants whose jobs are on the line right now. Hospitals, school boards, colleges and universities, municipalities, are all grappling with ways to provide services with less provincial dollars. Welfare recipients saw their cheques decline by 21 per cent last October just to mention a few well known examples. . The spending cuts have deep and painful. Most people in this province would agree that we had no choice but to put the economic house in order or face bankruptcy. After decades of free wheeling ding the chickens had come home to roose, the day of reckoning had arrived. Included in the list of cuts is about $32 million to close down the court houses in.50 communities, a move that would force people to travel as much as 170 km in some instances. Included in the list are the courts in Bowmanville and Whitby, where vases would be heard in Oshawa, about ten km. away. Court workers, lawyers, crown attorneys and the general public are less than happy with shutdowns, apd with good reason. They will lead to more of a back-log in hearing cases, add to the costs of people who must travel the longer distances and more seriously, lead to cases being dismissed when witnesses and others fail to appear. The citizens of this province are already fed up with the delays in bringing serious cases to trial; delays that drag on for months and even years, and in some instances wind up being tossed out before justice is handed down. ' We would strongly suggest that the citizens of this province want to see the court system improved, expanded even, rather than further restricted. And that goes for the jails as well where prisoners are being released before they serve their full sentences due to over-crowding. Ontario needs more judges, more crown attorneys, more court workers and more courts, to speed up the administration of justice. | Premier Harris and his government surely should recognize this fact. And surely they must recognize that while the good citizens of Ontario are prepared to swallow some of the heavy duty spending cuts to bring the deficit and debt to acceptable levels. * The administration of justice, from police forces to the courts to the jails, to parole boards, early release and so on, is one area that must be spared the big knife. The system is already in serious trouble. Shutting down the court houses in 50 communities from James Bay to Lake Erie will do nothing but exacerbate the present problems. Mr. Harris and his government are walking a very thin line on this one. Somebody at Queens Park ought to get out on the street and take the public pulse on law and order. They will find that not many tax-paying, law abiding citizens would be-grudge their hard earned bucks going towards an improved justice system; one that speeds up the entire process, keeps convicted prisoners in jail for their full terms and helps make the streets of small town and big city Ontario safer for them and their families. DON'T 50.. WE UE GOT TONS OF SNOW UP UNTIL THE WEEK OF THE BIG DOG SLED RACE. SUDDENLY T'S ALL GONE "AND WE -- AH... GOD MUST BE A Doa.- DEFIANTLY A. DoG! DoG SPELT BACKWARDS > < | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR | 'We must not sell our souls' To the Editor: For over 36 years, I have made Durham Region my home. I have built or renovated homes for my family to live in, in Oshawa} Whitby, Brooklin Raglan, Ashburn, Chalk Lake, Utica, Uxbridge, Williams Point (Caesarea), Port Perry and Enniskillen, and owned and operated business in Pickering Village, Scugog Township, Oshawa and Whitby. With the exception of Brock Township, my family and I have had the total Durham Region experience...A very rare and very pleasant experience indeed. It is one thing to visit or pass through these communities, or to judge them from afar, but yet another, to experience the unique differences in the people of these hamlets, towns and cities, by living and working with them as we have. One thing my family and I have learned is that although these communities belong to a common Region, each one has its own varied interests, unique lifestyle and proud heritage. How then, can Anne Golden and her band of city dwelling task forcers, have the audacity to suggest that a new Greater Toronto Council, would include only one seat from the combined communities of Uxbridge, Pickering and Ajax. It simply won't work. These communities are far too diverse in their interests and needs to be represented by one common seat...One seat out of a proposed council of 30. The people of Durham Region must speak out on this issue. We must first oppose the new GTA council in principle and if not successful in halting the push to implement the plan by the fall of 1997, we must insist on a much "better deal. ' We are the Region with the resources, available development land, low debt, diverse work force, and an enviable lifestyle. We must not sell our souls for a pittance. William D. Little Whitby, Oshawa, Scugog Township Should slow down To the Editor: Re: H. Stacey, Manilla, Ontario (letter last week) We all agree with you with leashing our animals and fencing them. But evkn when all the above is done, accidents can still occur. Animals are very unpredictable. The point that I was trying to make was drivers should slow down going through villages, towns, hamlets. They should take the responsibility when they hit something, or someone, and report it so the animal or person isn't left there to suffer. If reported sooner, maybe they could be saved. There are too many bad drivers out there, getting away with murder. Yours sincerely A. Drisdelle Scugog Township Blame the politicians To the Editor: The cuts the Ptovincial and Federal governments are doing are hurting the ones that are already hurting. I do not see where the people had anything whatsoever to do with the Provincial or Federal deficit. The ones that are to blame for the high deficit are the MPs and the MPPs. They are the people that spent more of the taxpayers money than they took in. The MPs and MPPs are the ones who should be getting their pay frivalties and freebies cut and stop padding their own wallets. I 'can't imagine how many people even come close to what they get as pension or freebies over and above their high wages. Not until ALL Canadians can stick together and not just a few groups, which I doubt will ever happen, will they accomplish anything. Until they do they will forever get the shaft from all levels of government. I am in favour of some cuts but not the ones on education or medical or-on the people"that really need it. The welfare system should revert back to the old system of paying bills that need paying not handing out money. That way money would be spent on necessities and not on booze and drugs. That way the children do not suffer. I am in no way saying that all welfare persons do it but some do. I would like to see the MPs with their gold plated pensions and freebies live on the low pensions that they expect others to live on. The Federal Government should also look after their own first instead of other countries. R. Collins Seagrave, Ontario