6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday May 7, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager Narrowing the gap Oakville enjoys a vibrant arts and cultural community consisting of many talented musicians, artists, dancers, actors and writers. The town is blessed with a wide range of groups for these talented individuals to explore and hone their cultural interests. What they lack, however, is a central place to meet, practice, and display their talents. Instead, they are confined to whatever venues they can rent to showcase their talents. CommUnity Arts Space is trying to change that. CommUnity Arts Space represents a wide range of local arts and cultural groups that are trying to convince the Town of Oakville to invest in one or more multi-purpose arts facilities. While it sounds expensive, CommUnity Arts Space contends it is simply trying to close the gap between what the town spends on recreational centres and cultural items in its annual budget. Cultural funding in Oakville is definitely lagging when compared to the amount of public money spent on arenas, soccer pitches and other playing fields. We're not in favour of robbing one to fund the other, but surely the gap can be narrowed. The Town is taking steps towards closing that gap by developing a cultural plan for Oakville for the next 20 years. To help form that plan, residents are being asked to complete an online survey on the Town's website at www.oakville.ca/cultureliveshere.htm. The Town is also holding four public meetings in May for people to discuss their thoughts about the direction of cultural funding in Oakville. To anyone who is involved in the arts, whether it be as a patron or the proud parent of a budding dancer, these are important meetings. What message will it send to the Town if these meetings are sparsely attended. The arts community in Oakville is being given a chance to build a roadmap for its future over the next 20 years. It would be wise to make the most of this opportunity. 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 Property taxes should not pay for new Oakville hospital Re: Local share of new hospital could go on tax bill, Oakville Beaver, Saturday, May 3. The local share of the new hospital should not go on the residential property tax bill. Enough is enough. Thank you for highlighting that the Provincial Development Charge legislation used to include provision for hospital growth. Ward 3 Councillor Keith Bird is right on the money; this is clearly growth related. The Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital Charity Foundation does a great job of raising money. Those funds should focus on purchasing state-of-the-art hospital equipment, with business and residents continuing to support voluntarily, without an additional burden on property tax. Enough is enough. In June, it is expected that the longawaited Provincial-Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review will be released. To communities like Oakville, which are required to accommodate provincially-mandated growth, it is essential that the reinstatement of provision, within the province's Development Charges legislation, for hospitals is one of the Review's recommendations. Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn, as a former Oakville regional and local councillor, is well aware of this need. I believe resolutions of council, the Chamber of Commerce, residents' associations and individual householders re-enforcing that this need must be addressed to the Provincial Ministers of Finance, Municipal Affairs and Health will assist our MPP advocate effectively. The well-being of Oakville depends upon our locally-elected councils, municipally and regionally, not having to absorb further, what are clearly growth related and/or provincial responsibilities. You will soon get notice of the final two installments of your 2008 property tax bill; reflect on what a further increase will look like and act immediately. ANN MULVALE Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com Picture delivered powerful message As an amateur photographer and a father of two boys, both of whom are healthy and embarking on what I hope will be quite the variety of pre-vocation job opportunities, I feel compelled to write to congratulate your photographer, Chantal Ayotte, on capturing the pain and poignancy of Rob Ellis' message on the front page of The Oakville Beaver, April 30. May the focus of Dave's loss never be lost in the "presence" of our lives. KEVIN HAXELL The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. 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