6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday October 11, 2006 OPINION & LETTERS THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS A DIVISION OF METROLAND MEDIA GROUP WEST GROUP PUBLISHER IAN OLIVER NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor KELLY MONTAGUE Advertising Director DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Manager TERI CASAS Business Manager MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd., includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, Caledon Enterprise, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora Era-Banner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian Play it safe in the kitchen Thankfully, most of us will never have to endure the horror of a house fire or its long-ranging effects. For many people, a fire is their worst nightmare -- property destroyed, personal mementoes reduced to charred rubble, not to mention the obvious danger fire poses to an individual's health. This week (Oct. 8-14) marks Fire Prevention Week in Ontario and this year's theme is Prevent Cooking Fires -- Watch What You Heat. Fire services across the province want to increase awareness about cooking-related fire hazards and reduce the number of injuries and fatalities from kitchen fires. Careless cooking is the No. 1 cause of preventable fires in Ontario as there are approximately 1,500 cooking-related fires each year in the province -- and that doesn't include fires not reported. Provincial statistics indicate that these types of blazes are the leading cause of fire-related injuries in Ontario and the second leading cause of firerelated fatalities. There is no great mystery behind these statistics -- the trouble starts because someone wasn't paying attention. It is very easy to place a pan with cooking oil on the stove, turn on the burner, then get distracted. Within minutes, a kitchen can turn into an inferno. "Pay full attention when you're cooking and stay in the kitchen," suggests Bernard Moyle, Fire Marshal of Ontario. "Most cooking fires occur when people get distracted or are careless and often because they are intoxicated." In 2004 (the most recent year available for statistics) there were 151 people injured and eight fatalities as a result of stove-top fires. Those fires resulted in more than $16 million in property damage. The Ontario Fire Marshal's office offers these tips to prevent kitchen fires: · Keep a large lid near the stove when cooking -- if a pot catches fire, slide the lid over the pot and turn off the stove. · Stay in the kitchen while you cook -- particularly if you are using oil or high temperatures. · Wear tight-fitting or rolled up sleeves when using the stove. · Keep combustible items such as cooking utensils and paper towels, a safe distance from your stove -- they can easily ignite if they are too close to a burner. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Tree bylaw efforts from councillors not as rosy as they appear Reports about the recent council meeting confirm our worst fears. Council voted to kill the (tree) bylaw and at the same time resurrected it (in another form) and, in doing so, has shown clear contempt for the wishes of the taxpayers of Oakville. However well-intentioned our local politicians might have appeared to be, the proposed bylaw is, in reality, merely a symptom of a different underlying reality. The fact is that the taxpayers of Oakville have a right to expect a better effort from their municipal representatives. If we excuse this fiasco by describing it as "well-intentioned" then we send the message that mediocrity from our elected officials is acceptable. It is not. The taxpayers of Oakville need to recognize that they, to some degree, brought this on themselves. By acquiescing their individual rights (by an elected proxy) to their municipal representatives, they provide a forum where the opportunity exists for their elected officials to ignore the wishes of electorate and to attempt to impose their own paternalistic vision of what is good for the community at large -- even in the absence of a well-defined and welldocumented problem. In essence, we trust our representatives to work in our best interests. Such is not the case with the proposed bylaw. It should be disturbing to the public that in the face of extensive opposition to the proposed bylaw, there are still some councillors who continue to ignore the wishes of the people they represent. They continue to insist on usurping the rights of private property owners by insisting that the only way to address a clearBY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com cutting issue is to seduce the public into voluntarily acquiescing their private individual property rights. It is clear that the public's trust in their elected officials in this instance is misplaced. The Tree Bylaw issue may (or may not) be coming to an end, but in the absence of elected officials who understand that they represent the collective will of the individual taxpayers and that town council is not a forum to impose their personal views, it will only be a a matter of time until a similar situation develops on a different issue or even the same issue. The lesson here is that the public must be ever vigilant to ensure municipal council hears their voice, hears their message that this is a democracy of majority rule and that this is not a forum for personal self-serving agendas. This public vigilance needs to begin with the upcoming municipal election. PETER SWIRZON Pud The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. 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