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If you've ever got a little free time on your hands some Wednesday morning and are looking for a bit of light entertainment, take a trip down to Whitby and sit in on one of the twice monthly meetings of Regional council. « : A few hours in the gallery while one of. these meetings is in progress could do one of several things: bore you to tears; provide you with a good, hearty laugh or two; or leave a highly negative government, has not exactly been welcomed with open arms by the general public. The reaction ranges from bored indifference to open hostility, and despite efforts on the part of some regional officials to boost public relations, the operation of the system still remains a mystery to most taxpayers. , = After meetings like the one July 26 at the Regional council chambers on Rossland Road in Whitby, it is little wonder that the hostility, suspicion and lack of understanding continues. - oo SR impression of the political process at the Regional EARN BY 3 level. Ok Regional government in Durham, and the several Sy other municipalities throughout Ontario where the ARP system jis in place courtesy of the provincial 7. #2 I split into factions would be an understatement. To say that some reps are using the meetings some- times have the tendency to déteriorate into a three ring circus would be charitable. debate over whether Durham Region should com- to their water lines which occurred when the Region increased the pressure in municipal system. Most of the 11 members from Oshawa, led by he shoot-from- the-hip mayor Jim Potticary, (who just happens to be running for the Liberals 'in the next federal election,) got to their feet and argued elequently in favour of granting the compensation, which would 3 2 ~ Sik _amount in total to about $1500. EA They were opposed almost unanimously by the a remainder of the council, who argued that the Region Sy should not be paying compensation for damage on vk private property as it could set a costly precedent, amounting to far more than the paltry $1500. AS 3 5 A pm Cres ud, a ment in Durham is that the city has been picking up far more than its share of ghe tab and not getting its fair share of the benefits# There may be some truth in that. But had the motion to compensate the Oshawa property owners heen approved, Oshawa could well have.ended up contributing to similar _ payments to people in Scugog, for example, or Brock, or Uxbridge, the exact situation that the SENS NEY vw : A es a Fr Ba NES RERUN Toa -, NEV a2 SE: Ta rE WS zat py "councillors from Oshawa have been arguing so Co vehemently against in recent months. SOL One cannot help but suspect that the Oshawa reps breathed a bit of a sigh of relief when the motion { went down fo defeat rather handily. They had after all, been successful in putting the issue in front of the SA ._public knowing full well that the Region would turn : "down the request. They can now go back to the property owners and say "we tried, we tried very "hard, but the Region gave us the shaft once again.' It was a great way to make some political mileage, but the hypocrisy of it turned the proceedings into a sham. The farce continued 1ast week with the motion by an Ajax councillor to boost the representation in Ajax and Whitby by one each and reduce the reps, a from Oshawa from the present 11 to 9. Why the Ajax councillor included the latter portion in his motion is a mystery to everyone but himself, for he surely could not have believed that the council would ask for an increase in the representation in two municipali- ties at the same time trim two reps from Oshawa. The motion was doomed to defeat four weeks ago when it was first introduced, and sure enough the council last week turned it down by a margin of 28 votes to two. Had the council ganged up on Oshawa and reduced the representation by two, it is safe to Regs a ~ oa Se ond say that the roof would have come off the Chambers, ity and Chairman Walter Beath, who has his hands full 7 maintaining order at the best of times, would likely Bas have had to call in the riot squad. : The sad part about the whole representation issue Sa is the intent of the motion (to increase the reps in Ajax) is justified. With a population of 24,000 and growing, Ajax has but two reps on Regional council. the same number as Scugog, Brock and Uxbridge, municipalities with less than half the population. But the method attempted last week to increase the representation from Ajax was sheer lunacy. While these peculiar goings on are becoming almost commonplace at the regular meetings of council, and may provide a little mirth in the lives of a few councillors, there is a dangerous situation starting to develop. The local media who cover the council sessions, ever mindful of the need for "controversial" stories that make good front-page reading, are paying more editorial poge | Regional Council Farce good, solid well-researched reporting, on the nuts and bolts of policy and implementation, which in the long run have the most implication on the lives afig> pocket-books of the taxpayers. The horseplay last week at regional council may make good copy and good grist for all the columnist¥ » and editorial writers, but that is about all. Meanwhile, had John Q. Public'walked in off the street to take a seat in the public gallery (which, by the way, is almost always vacant) he would have sat \ through the proceedings, and probably decided that he could find something better to do with his free time, like mow the lawn or lie on the beach, or maybe To say that the 30 members of regional council are July 26 was a case in point." There was a long pensate ten property owners in Oshawa for damage. Now, Oshawa's argument against regional govern- and more attention to the follies and foibles of even gdfo the circus, where at least he would knows regional government, and less and less attention to that the clowns are only playing make-believe. en > - ) ) ) Travel Sickness i By the time this appears in print, I'll I could be.out at Foster's picking my own EY probably be' flogging around Europe, irri- strawberries and going home to a great £* * B table, exhausted and disgruntled, muttering chicken dinner that costs about $2.00, with "What am I doing here, bucketing around on tiny new boiled potatoes, green onions, new ley . a bus,gawking at cathedrals, and listening carrots and fresh beans. © Ene-- to the yammering of a horde of people of "I could be sitting in my own back yard < whose language I know eights words on a right now, looking at the Lear-like oaks, good day?" sniffing my neighbours' flowers, contem- And I'll go on. I know it. "What am I plating a late-afternoon swim, and sucking doing blowing half my life's savings junket- occaStonally on a cold ale, instead of sitting NN a ing around with a bunch of other middle- in this ruddy bus, looking- at- the other aged has-beeris, when I could-be back home turkeys who took. this- trip, inhaling the a right now, playing golf with a bunch of fumes of gasoline, contemplating the folly of -- middle-aged has-beens? - trips to Europe knowing I'm going to pay ~ I must be out of my mind, paying $24.00 'ontinued 6 : io} wv for two hamburgs and a bottle of wine, when Lontinued on page : cl *. 722 : 4 S \ ® 8