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"WEEKEND STAR" FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2001 - 7 OPINIONS & HAPPENINGS Social time for you and the little one at library This Saturday, Feb. 17 is the registra- tion day for Brooklin Library's. "Tales for Twos" program. This is a six week effort for two-year- olds and their caregiver/parent which will introduce both to stories, songs and finger play. A great way to socialize. Help socialize your little ones too. The actual program runs every Friday between 9:30 and 10 a.m. from March 2 to April 6. There is no charge, but chil- dren must be pre-registered. This Saturday's movie matinee is the great animated Disney film Lady and the Tramp. A personal favourite of mine. I've lost track of how many times | made my kids watch it. The flick runs from 2 to 3:16 p.m. Again, there is no charge, just phone the library at 655-3191 ahead of time and book a spot for your school age children. Hockey, Hockey, Hockey The first game of the round robin playoff series in the Brooklin Men's Hockey League saw Village of Brooklin Hawks double Foundation Financial Leafs 44-2 on goals from John Debois, Glenn Hobbs, Bob Middleton and Cam Stewart. Nick Attwood got the Leafs' pair of goals. Brooklin Legion Bruins played copy cat doubling Brooklin Concrete Rangers 4-2. Steve Pidgen got both Rangers markers while Dean Bertrim, John Emm, Bob Saunders and Darren Stevens chipped in for the winning team. In the final matchup Brooklin Pharmacy Canadiens outscored Brooklin Legion Bruins 6-4 on a pair of goals from John Fusco and singles from Joel Gangemi, Jim Mason and John Patterson. Graham Underwood answered with a pair of his own for the Wings as did Jeff Solly and John Schell. After the first playoff game, it's obvi- ous there would be a three way tie for top spot and those teams are the Bruins, Canadiens and Hawks. John Fusco heads Brooklin Profile News and views from the village By Roxanne Reveler Please call 655-4420 with submissions the leader board with two goals and two assists. Pancake Supper St. Thomas Anglican Church will be holding its annual pancake supper on Pancake Tuesday, Feb. 27. Lots of pan- cakes, sausages and choice from the dessert table for only $6 per adult. Children 10 and under pay $4 and little ones under five eat free. All proceeds will be donated to the Christian Children's Fund. Tickets are available at the door. For more information call 655- 3833. Legion Stuff Allen James will be providing the live entertainment on Saturday (2/17) at Brooklin Legion's open house. Listen to 50s, 60s and country/western with your friends and neighbours. No admission, no cover charge, but you must be of legal age. Fun gets under way at 9 p.m. % Shuffle Off CO Whitby Seniors Activity Centre will be holding a fun afternoon of shuffleboard from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 23 at the Brooklin Community Centre. A great way to spend the afternoon social- izing. The cost is only $2 per person and includes light refreshments. Concert Southern gospel singer Marlene O'neill will be the guest performer at Brooklin Village Church's Village Concert Series this Sunday (2/18). The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and is being held at the Brooklin Community Centre. Unique three-dimensional pictures coming to gallery On Feb. 24, "Three Dimensional Wall Pictures in Stone," featuring the unique work of artist, William Henderson, will open at the Kent Farndale Gallery in the Scugog Memorial Public Library, 231 Water Street, Port Perry. William Henderson will be at the open- ing reception from | to 4 p.m. to meet the public and answer questions about his work. William Henderson's inspiration derives from a long-standing interest in and study of ancient civilizations. He states that he has always been intrigued with the challenge of creating three dimen- sional wall pictures in stone, and that his first love is the ancient wall paintings, fres- cos and sculptures of the Egyptians, Assyrians and Etruscans. To create his images in stone, William first takes a photograph of his subject mat- ter, and then scales it up to any size required. He transfers that image to stone by hand-engraving, a long and arduous process, that results in his beautiful and effective stone pictures. William Henderson's creations range from wild life to images of farms, homes, cottages or businesses. He is also pleased to accept commissions to produce a unique image for his customers from a favourite photograph. Currently working out of Beaverton at his studio, Stone Quest Graphics, William Henderson creates truly unique stone pic- tures; he is the only known local artist using the combined arts of photography and engraving to create three dimensional works, and the opportunity to view his pic- tures makes a trip to the Kent Farndale Gallery well worthwhile. Museum seeking directors for 2001 The Scugog Shores Historical Museum has openings on the Board of Directors in 2001. The term of office is three years and as a member of the Board, you will con- tribute your thoughts, ideas and energy providing input to tactical as well as strategic plans that guide the operation and development of the museum. As well, you will be on one or more committees of personal interest to you such as Human Resources, Finance, Physical Plant and Development, or Collection Management. In addition, there are specific roles that you might undertake within the organization. At the current time, there is a need for a treasurer, volunteer coordinator and a chairperson for fundraising. All of these are challenging positions and prior experience in the discipline is a definite plus, for example, a business background in finance would be ideal for the role of treasurer. Currently, on the board, there is a cross-section of the community. There are young professionals, business peo- ple, homemakers, semi-retired individ- uals and retirees. If you would like to apply, please send a letter to the address below out- lining your particular interests and a few facts about yourself. If you would like to talk to one of the current board members to find out more about the opportunities and the environment, call the museum and request that a board member give you a call. Please reply to: Scugog Shores Historical Museum; 16210 Island Road; Port Perry, Ontario .L9L 1B4; (905) 985- 3589. Rebate a good idea that was The problem with government policy decisions is managed badly Maybe it would have been better to give the money that legislators put time into the decision-making process, but little time into how programs can be effec- tively delivered. The heating rebate is @ case in point. Canadians hear about prisoners getting it, along with students and renters; groups who, for the most part, do not pay heating bills. Rising heating costs are being driven mostly by higher natural gas prices because of higher demand. Those most affected are people living on fixed incomes. They simply can't pass these costs on to somebody else. This is the issue government tried to address with the rebate. Buried in the price of automobile fuels is a 1.5 cent excise tax, originally set up as a deficit reduction tax. The deficit is now gone, so it was logical for the gov- ernment to find some way of eliminating it's impact. Reducing the pump price was considered impracti- cal because we had no assurance that gasoline compa- nies. and other companies in the supply chain, would pass on the savings to consumers. The federal government's goal was to get the rebate to low and modest income 'Canadians as quickly as Straight Talk by ALEX SHEPHERD DURHAM M.P. possible. We didn't want to create a new bureaucracy to do it, since this would cause time delays and be expensive to implement as well. Indeed, often the people who are in need the most are the people who fail to apply. That led to the decision to piggyback on the existing GST system already in place. Because you have to reg- ularly file income tax returns to get the rebate - and often many low-income people fail to file -the GST sys- tem was the best delivery system available. For some people this brings up the question of whether or not government should have attempted the rebate at all. in child-tax benefits, or increase exemptions for seniors. But then people would not have clear evi- dence (the receipt of a cheque) government was trying to deal with the problem of rising fuel costs. In retrospect, we likely should have given the rebate a different name, say the "energy adjustment rebate", since it clearly is difficult to directly relate it to heating oil. People could argue that 2.to 3 per cent of the cheques will go to people who technically are not enti- tled to have them. However, | can assure you the cost of setting up a new bureaucracy and application forms would have cost even more. We have the same problem with farm-income sup- port programs and the federal infrastructure program. Governments seem to have good intentions, but aren't any good at creating a seamless delivery system. I spend a lot of time trying to come up with a better way for government to deliver programs in an efficient and effective way. Getting more government online and managing by results are two ways we can accom- plish better program delivery. | |