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6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, November 27, 1990 The Port Perry Star 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO PHONE 985-7383 FAX 985-3708 The Port Perry Star is authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, for cash payment of postage. Second Class Mail Registration Nurnber 0265 Subscription Rate: InCanada$25.00 per year Elsewhere $70.00 per year. Single Copy 60¢ EDITORIAL Publisher - J. Peter Hvidsten Editor - John B. McClelland News/Features - Julia Dempsey Billing Department - Louise Hope News/Features - Kelly Storry Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Lynda Ruhl, Tracy O'Neil PRODUCTION Annabell Harrison Trudy Empringham Darlene Hlozan BUSINESS OFFICE Office Manager - Gayle Stapley Accounting - Judy Ashby ADVERTISING Advertising Co-ordinator - Valerie Ellis All advertising subject Jo publisher's approval Advertising Sales Representative - Anna Gouldburn Note: No ads accepted # any balance owing over 45 days. 0=0 Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Lid. Port Perry, Ontario | I Editorial Comment THE CRISIS In handing down her statement on waste management last week, Ontario's NDP Environment Minister Ruth Grier in- dicated she is not afraid to tackle a major and difficult issue head on. In fact, Ms. Grier should probably be in line for some kind of a medal for bravery. What she has done, among other things, is relieve the Regional Governments in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) from the horrendous task of finding and opening a garbage dump. This is exactly what Regional politicians had been asking her to do. The job of selecting a site for a dump and then steering that site through the environmental assessment pro- cess is simply put, just too big, too costly, too time consuming and too politically explosive for Regional governments. It is not surprising that when the announcement came down last week, politicians in Durham Region were chortling with glee, and they wasted little time in terminating the work of MacLaren Engineering in the search for a site for Durham only garbage. Ms. Grier's statement on waste management contains some positive ideas on the three R's. And while the statement may be short on specifics, we expect more details to be enun- ciated over the next several months. And given the fact that the NDP long put environmental issues at the very top of its agenda, we expect to see some legislation with teeth that will once and for all force us to move towards a preserver society, especially in the area of packaging, reusable and refillable containers. A good start might be in the wine and liquor industry. The Ontario government's own liquor stores continue to sell spirits in non-refundable bottles that wind up in landfills of in recy- cling. And how the LCBO can peddle American beer in non- refundable cans (while Canadian beer is sold in cans worth a nickle) is a twist of logic that escapes us totally. Several times in her statement last week, and in subse- quent comments in the Legislature, Ms. Grier used the word "crisis" in waste management. That we are in a terrible crisis, there can be little doubt. And governments that recognize a crisis situation give solving the problems top priority. The government hopes to achieve a 25 per cent waste re- duction goal by 1992. Clearly, the goal will have to be higher than that, much higher within the next two or three years. And there are many who say that higher waste diversion goals are easily attainable through innovation and a switch to new tech- nology. More importantly, the goals can be reached by a change of societal thinking from "throw-away" to conserver. The changes in our thinking are already happening. But, Ms. Grier also recognizes that even with drastic redu- cutions in waste, landfills will continue to be necessary. And to this end, she will be setting up a "public sector au- thority" which will work as "co-operative venture between the province and the regional municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area. The mandate will be to start looking now for a waste dis- posal site. Though not spelled out in the minister's statement last week, it is obvious that the GTA, including Metro needs some kind of large disposal site, and by large we mean 1,000 acres or So. The GTA now generates just over 4.3 million tonnes of waste each year that goes to landfill. Even a 50 per cent diver- sion would leave about two million tonnes per year for landfill. There have been all kinds of ideas about where to put this stuff (mine shafts in Northern Ontario, old quarry pits near Marmora, etc.) While not dis-counting these ideas completely, the fact re- mains that the GTA needs a landfill somewhere, and needs it within the next four to six years. And let's face it, a landfill is a landfill, whether it's operat- ed by the province or some GTA authority, or by an individual municipality such as Durham Region. Turn to Page 12 ] 7 CAA §2 A i. AN | { fin ff | i | LI +1 | Ln ( & S th | ZZ NN f | | THE IRON LADY Ti Su Random Jot tinm oIgS ste LOVE THOSE WINTERS Our good old Canadian winter is slowly creeping in on us, and as usual it brings with it a variety flu bugs, viruses, hacking coughs, runny noses, cranky kids, etc. And our house is no different than a lot of others these days, as we have been infected with our fair share of cold weather syndromes. We've had numerous visits to the doctor over the past couple of weeks and even an un- scheduled one to urgent care. In fact the road from our driveway to the medical buildings at the top of the hill is well worn. At the moment our young lad, Matt, looks like he was used as the target in a 'pin the tail on the donkey' contest. His entire body is cov- ered with red sores as he goes through the childhood delight....chicken pox. It was just a couple of weeks ago that | was diagnosed as having a mild case of 'shingles', which | am told is the old chicken pox virus that stays in a person's body until later in life. So we don't know (and even our doctor finds it curious) if it was Matt's contact with the virus that activated my shingles, or my shingles which activated his chicken pox. At any rate, were going through similar situations and con- soling each others misery. The twins you ask? Well, we just finished a bout of sore throats and cranky spells with Jamie about a week ago and she finally cleared up justin time for her sis- ter Katie to take over. Katie has been suffering for the past week with a runny nose, two infect- ed ears, a raspy croup-like cough and very un- settled at night. I arrived home from work last Monday night at about 11:15 p.m., after 16 hours on the job, to see the television beaming brightly from the window. | knew even before | entered the house that it was going to be one of those nights. There was Nancy, sitting in a chair watch- ing the late news (something that she almost never does) with Katie laying flat across her chest snuggled up with her 'security' blanket. Needless to say, | was already tired, but | offered to stay up for the first shift as | find it dif- ficult to go right to bed after our long production day without winding down first. That night of baby-holding ended at 3:00 a.m. with both of us taking shifts in the chair over the next four hours until she finally settled. So we've been busy the past couple weeks rubbing calamine lotion on chicken pox, keeping enough videos in the house to keep Matt occu- pied, wrestling to get antibiotics into the twins, wiping runny noses, and changing dirty diapers. All this and the winter is just starting. UNNECESSARY Zero Garbage committee has to be com- mended for their efforts in making the public and politicians aware of their opposition to any land- fill sites being established in Scugog Twp.. The committee was quick and efficient in its organization following the announcemnt of can- didate landfill sites and CRO established a credible offense against the dumps. Recently they have mounted an anti dump sign posting campaign in and around the Black- stock, Nestleton areas with some very innova- tive slogans and comments. Unfortunately, taking 'pop shots" at our local politicians on these signs will only serve to alien- ate any goodwill that might exist between the politicians and the public. If my memory serves me correctly, Scugog council supported Zero Garbage, by officially go- ing on record as opposing the selection of two potential landfill sites in the township earlier this year, and passing a resolution to that effect. To see the names of councillors now being ridiculed on some of these signs is unfortunate. These tactics will do nothing but tarnish the worthwhile efforts of the Zero Garbage commit- tee and turn some against their cause. | was always taught as a young lad, "if you can't say anything nice about someone...don't say anything at all". It's an old Seyi , but it's stuck with me all my life and it's worked well. Zero Garbage may well want to adopt that slogan and get onto the business of fighting the landfill and not the people whose support will be so important to them down the road. Wasting signs on this type of 'hate protest' will do nothing more than create the false public image of a radical protest group. And nobody wants that. Sv ---- WAR rn tn Ge emg dai ST al an es i ON RR