www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, March 5, 2010 · 6 OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 Classified Advertising: 632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 --Open 9-5 weekdays, 5-7 for calls only Wed. to Friday, Closed weekends 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: Canadian Circulation Audit Board Member THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America Canadian Community Newspapers Association ATHENA Award NEIL OLIVER Vice President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The Oakville Beaver is a division of Media Group Ltd. DAVID HARVEY Regional 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 SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager Con artists prey on seniors It takes a lot of nerve -- but apparently precious little heart -- to defraud the most vulnerable members of our society. Earlier this week a pair of lowlifes -- a man and a woman -- preyed upon an Oakville senior, convincing her to give them a large sum of money by promising the woman that there would ultimately be profit in it for her. Unlike the frequently reported act of telemarketing fraud, which targets anyone who can be talked into sending cash to a stranger on the other end of the line, this week's crime involved a face-to-face encounter with a 79-year-old woman -- in broad daylight. According to Halton police, the victim of the cowardly crime came upon a weeping woman in the parking lot of a popular grocery store chain. The con artist with crocodile tears claimed she had won a significant lottery prize, but could not claim the money because she wasn't a legal resident of Canada. The female fraudster's lie was further assisted by a male partner, who stumbled onto the scene pretending to be another innocent bystander interested in helping the distraught woman, but who was actually his co-conspirator. The two managed to convince the senior that if she could provide a large sum of money, lottery officials would release the winnings and the senior's money would be returned to her -- plus some extra as a thank you from the crying woman. Instead, she ended up with nothing but a story of being swindled by a pair of strangers. According to police, this kind of street scam has been around for years and usually targets the elderly or anyone else who appears trustworthy. We can only hope that a police-issued warning to all seniors in the region may prevent a repeat of this scam and, perhaps, catch some of the miscreants who make their living stealing from the elderly. 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. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Letter to the editor Hospital needs Halton solution What became clear to me at Monday's Town Council meeting was the following. · The solution to the Oakville new hospital proposal has to be a Halton solution. Mayor Rob Burton has to make a public appeal across the Halton to his counterparts and Regional Chair Gary Carr. · There are other smarter solutions, especially if all four communities work together. These would incorporate long-term care facilities that are not on the table now; and costs for an eclectic solution would be fairly shared and far below those of the current single macro hospital solution. It needs to be stated that long-term care patients and ER loads are major bottlenecks in all our existing hospitals. · Asking Oakville to pay for a hospital that all Halton residents will use is an assault on the intelligence and pockets of Oakville residents -- the exact amount of tax is not so much the issue. · The Liberal government is holding a gun to Oakville's head. Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn basically said the offer was on the table, but could disappear without notice due to the Town's due diligence delays. This is no way to do business. The fact that Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital is under a different LHIN than the three Halton Health Services hospitals is a major obstacle to bringing Halton-based healthcare together. This jurisdictional set-up comes from another dumb government decision. · Any foray into taking on big debt will cripple Oakville. No other municipalities in Ontario have been pushed like we have; Oakville has been chosen for a sick (no pun) downloading experiment by Premier Dalton McGuinty. · If Oakville is insistent on going through with this, it will have to cut its present budget by 20 per cent. We are already living beyond our means. The hospital financing represents a financial tsunami; if it goes through, the reflected tsunami will swamp Oakville across all of its departments. JOHN SCHEEL, OAKVILLE Letters to the editor 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 email to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. Will McGuinty listen to concerns? On Tuesday, residents of Oakville and Mississauga demonstrated at Queen's Park against the decision of the McGuinty government to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Oakville. The issues raised at this rally shone a spotlight on serious weaknesses in the process by which important decisions like this are made; namely -- the government and OPA's failure to adequately address the safety, health and environmental threats that result from the construction and operation of this power plant. Let me review some facts. This natural gas-fired power plant in Oakville would be built on a 13.5 acre site approximately 320 metres from the nearest school and 400 metres from the nearest home, with 16 schools and approximately 5,000 homes See Hospital page 7 Pud BY STEVE NEASE neasecartoons@gmail.com