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& 58 pages Wednesday, February 15, 1978 Wolk ik INO, 7 1FOlIe 13} 20 cents Work to rule campaign ends at Oak Ridge A work to rule campaign that disrupted treatment programs for three days last week at the Oak Ridge maximum security mental hospital in Penetanguishene ended late Thursday afternoon, after Oak Ridge ad- ministrators promised to look into grievances cited by the facility's 150 at- tendants. Speaking for Oak Ridge administrators, Jim Bain of the information department of the Ministry of Health said that normal patient treatment programs resumed with a change of shift at the hospital, at 4 p.m. Thursday. The end of the work to rule campaign came in the wake of a lengthy meeting held Thursday morning between Oak Ridge ad- ministrator Les Moricz, Ministry of Health officials, representatives of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union local 329, and union stewards from Oak Ridge's sister facility, the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre. During the meeting the union once again outlined the grievances which led it to call the work slowdown Tuesday morning. Receiving assurance from management that, in Mr, Bain's words, "'the problems would be looked into", the union represen- tatives went back to the membership, and Midland's Winter Heritage Queen for 1978. MclIntaggart won the crown Friday evening during a meeting in the afternoon, the union voted to terminate the slowdown. The three basic concerns to be examined by Oak Ridge administrators are security policy at the facility, staff-patient ratios, and the relation of the attendants with certain members of the hospital medical staff. With regard to the first of these concerns, management has promised to examine the feasibility of issuing identification badges to all Oak Ridge personnel, and all visitors to the hospital. Also, the attendants were told, a metal detector had arrived at the facility and will soon be installed at the hospital en- trance. % Management has also agreed to look into Staffing levels at Oak Ridge, although Mr. Bain conceded that there is little the hospital can do in this regard, as it must operate within increasing tight budgets imposed by the Ministry of Health. Mr. Bain added that management also agreed to "appoint someone with impeccable credentials' from outside Oak Ridge to examine the alleged tensions between at- tendants and medical staff. Although he did not elaborate on the nature of these tensions, Mr. Bains said he was confident that any such problems would be alleviated by the independent study. Staff photo by Dave Fuller Public briefs on French education to be heard by evaluation team Individuals or groups within the com- munity will have an opportunity to voice their opinions on French language education in the Penetanguishene area next week. Irving Harris, chairman of the internal evaluation team, studying the question of French education, made that announcement at a press conference at St. Joseph's Public School on Monday. The first meeting to receive public briefs will be held on Monday, February 20, at 7:30 p-m., at St. Joseph's school in Penetanguishene. The second and final meeting will be held in Lafontaine, at Ste. Croix Roman Catholic Separate School, on Tuesday, February 21 at 7:30 p.m. The briefs may be presented in either French or English. Each brief will be scheduled to be heard ata specific time and place on each of the two evenings. A press release issued on Monday ex- plained the format to be used in the presentations. "Bach brief may be presented by a single spokesman, who may summarize the con- tents of the brief in a presentation up to 20 minutes in length. There will follow a short question period (10 minutes) during which the chairman of the meeting may ask the presenter questions where clarification is needed," the press release stated. Mr. Harris stressed that the purpose of the hearings will not be to debate the issue, but to give the public an opportunity to make their ideas heard. Presently, there are four briefs scheduled for presentation. The groups presenting the briefs are, the Richeleau Club, St. Anne's Parish Council, the Centre d'activites francaises, and the Association des Enseignants francais de 1l'Ontario - the Association of French Teachers. Although there are only two nights scheduled for the presentations, Mr. Harris said that he would extend the time to include another night if the number of presentations was sufficient. After the briefs have been presented, they will be studied by the internal evaluation team, and included in the report the group complies at the end of the co-operative evaluation project. Advertisements inviting members of the public to the hearings have been placed in local newspapers. After a brief discussion about the public briefs, the discussion at the press conference turned to the recent questionnaire that was sent out by the evaluation team to measure public opinion. "T'm not free to discuss the contents of the questionnaires at this time, " Mr. Harris said. According to the evaluation team chair- man, the results of the opinion poll must be kept confidential until the entire study is © complete. The results will be made public at that time. One of the people.at the press conference questioned Mr. Harris about why many people, especially in Lafontaine, didn't receive copies of the questionnaire. Craft guild The Huronia Craft Guild held a general meeting at Georgian College in Penetanguishene on Monday evening. One of the topics of discussion was the forthcommg Winterama. The Guild will be active in events that will take place on February 24, 25, and 26. Members will be setting up displays at the High Pointz Mall. Members of the Guild project had previously approached Gerry Light of the IGA about using the mall for this endeavour. Permission had been given and plans were underway. Many local artists and craftspeople will be taking part in the festivities. Demonstrations of crafts will be undertaken by potters, dollmakers, painters, a quiltmaker and weavers as well as many others. There will be a display of hand-crafted goods and many of these willbe for sale. Activities are being planned by Guild members to involve local children as well. One of these activities is the art of face painting. An area will be set aside for the showing of craft-related films. Wye Marsh will have a display, plays will be performed by high school students, local church groups and other community based groups will also be taking part in the ac- tivities, at the mall. Refreshments and baked goods will also be for sale. Those present at the meeting were told that festivities would begin for Winterama weekend on Friday at two p.m. and would continue until eight p.m., would run all day Saturday from ten a.m. until six p.m. and would wind up on Sunday from eleven a.m. until four p.m. Peggy LaNauze, a Midland weaver has woven a belt which will be presented to the Winterama Queen on behalf of the Huronia Craft Guild. He explained that there was an error in the distribution of the questionnaire. They were mailed using the list provided by the tax assessor, and that list gave only one name per household. In many families, there were three or four people who were eligible to fill out the questionnaire, but only one copy of it came to the home. "At least one person per home in Lafon- taine didn't receive a questionnaire," ac- cording to one person attending the press Irving Irving Harris, chairman of the internal evaluation team, announced that there will be an opportunity for the public to make their views on French education known. Public meets Marlene Pruesse head of the Guild project explained at the meeting that the annual meeting for the Guild would be held in April of each year, At this time Ms. Pruesse also explained that the Huronia Craft Guild would be participating ina Summer Craft Fair that would be held in conjunction with Midlans's Centennial celebrations. The date for the CRAFT Fair has been set for June 17 and 18th and the Guild fair will be held on board the 'David Richards' at the Midland town dock. Harbour without water Victoria Harbour residents spent a dry day much of Monday, as a malfunction at the village pump house forced a shutting down of the water supply. Village officials say that at approximately 10:30a.m., a malfunction was reported in the pump house chlorinator. A worker from the Ministry of the Environment, which operates the Harbour water supply, noticed that there was no chlorine in the water leaving the pump house. The worker contacted the Ministry of the Environment, which advised that the pump house be shut down until the problem was repaired. Work on the malfunctioning chlorinator continued until about 3 p.m., when a repair crew felt the problem had been solved. However, once the water was turned on again, it was discovered that it still did not contain adequate levels of bacteria killing chlorine. Crews went to work once more, and it was not until around 5 p.m. that service had returned to normal. Victoria Harbour withdraws from area planning board In a surprise move at its Monday night meeting, Victoria Harbour council voted to withdraw its support of the Tiny-Tay Peninsula Planning Board. Although the village will continue to pay an annual stipend to the board, as required by municipal law, Victoria Harbour will no longer be represented on it, nor will it par- ticipate in its operations. The question of Victoria Harbour's support of TTPPB arose out of an item of correspondance directed to council by the board, which indicated that the village's annual assessed contribution to the board of $911 was now due. Deputy-Reeve. Ralph Gray spoke to the issue, commenting that as the Harbour's representative on the board for the past year, he felt that there was no useful function to be played by the village in the operations of TTPPB. Mr. Gray then directed the attention of the councillors to a letter written by county clerk Gordon Watson, which outlined the reasons why Simcoe County is seeking definition as a planning area. After some preliminary discussion of the letter, and the effects such a definition would have on local planning boards, some of the councillors admitted that they were confused on the relation between the question of county planning and Mr. Gray's dissatisfaction with TTPPB. The deputy-reeve replied by stating there was "really two issues at hand", and said that he had asked the councillors to read the Watson letter 'for your own information."' Harbour Reeve Theo Bernard then suggested that the discussion return to the question of the Harbour's status on TTPPB, Suggesting to Gray that he draft a motion indicating the willingness of council to with- draw from the board. Speaking to his, motion, Mr. Gray remarked that "we have an official plan and our own zoning bylaw - what do we need that body (TTPPB) for?" Under questioning by councillor Ann Connely, he went on to say that on TTPPB, "you can't hold office, you can't head a committee, and you can't have a say - because your're elected. The ones that have the say are the appointed ones." "We have an exceptionally good neighbour in Tay Township. They have an official plan and a zoning bylaw that compliments ours. Why do we need this?", Mr. Gray queried, again referring to TTPPB. There was some ensuing discussion on the wording of Gray's motion, which contained the clause "'We petition the provincial government to dissolve this body"' (TTPPB). Councillor Florence Belcher suggested that council "delete that bad sounding part", and after some procedural confusion, a motion to amend Mr. Gray's motion to not include the petition clause was passed. ~~ - Pure The amended motion was passed by council, four votes to one, with the only negative vote coming from councillor Ann Connely. Mrs. Corinely expressed fear that withdrawing support from the board could lead one step closer to its dissolution, and as a result, lead Simcoe County "closer and closer to regional government." Contacted Tuesday morning, TTPPB administrator Mike Ufford commented that he was "'not surprised" at council's decision. Ufford noted that Harbour council last year attempted to withdraw its financial support of the board. Concerning Deputy Reeve Gray's com- ments on the lack of input afforded the Harbour on the board, Ufford remarked that "you can't have very much say if you don't go to the meetings' contending that as far as he could recall, Mr. Gray had attended only one board meeting. conference. Mr. Harris explained that part of Tiny Township also did not receive the questionnaire, but that part of the area is ina different designated school district. He was also asked if the recent resolution from the French Language Advisory Com- mittee to build a French secondary school in Penetanguishene would affect the presen- tation of the public briefs. Mr. Harris said that it would not have any Harris briefs canbe presented-next Monday night, in Penetanguishene, and next Tuesday night in Lafontaine. Staff photo affect, but he hoped that FLAC would present a brief along with other groups form the area. The resolution in question was presented by FLAC chairman Marcel Bellehumeur at the last Simcoe County Board of Education meeting. The Board received the presen- tation from FLAC, but said they didn't want to debate the idea until all the information from the evaluation project was compiled: It was also pointed out that the board of education has only one month to reply to the resolution to the satisfaction of FLAC ac- cording to provincial law. If, at that time, FLAC is not satisfied with the answer, the matter may be referred to the Languages of Instruction Commission. The number of questionnaires sent out, and the percentage returned were also discussed at the press conference. There were 4,222 questionnaires mailed out, and all of those should have been received. Only 1,693 of them were returned, and that amounts to 40.1 per cent. Mr. Harris wasn't completely satisfied with the results numbers in that area. "Thad hoped that it would be better than 40 per cent, but I understand that 20 per cent is average in most cases," Mr. Harris said. In addition to those mailed out, 1,431 questionnaires went to area students from grade seven to grade 13. The one thousand three-hundred and fifty five of those were completed - which is 94.68 per cent. The reason for the high rate of return in this area was that the questionnaires were completed in regular class time, under supervision of teachers. Area teachers received a total of 132 questionnaires, and 118 - 89.39 per cent - were returned. Nine questionnaires went to FLAC members, and eight of those were returned. Generally speaking, according to Mr. Harris, the questionnaires were complete - that is, all questions were answered and comments were also made. A small number of people wrote down only their comments, and didn't answer the questions. A total of 5,847 questionnaires were sent out. All questionnaires have now been key- punched and computer-analysed, according to Mr. Harris. The members of the internal evaluation team are now studying the computer print-outs containing the results, and are preparing summaries of their fin- dings. "No conclusions are being drawn from the summaries at the present time," according to the press release. When the work of the internal team is complete, and conclusions are drawn, they will be submitted to the project co-ordinator in the Ministry of Education. The scheduled date for that submission is March 17, and Mr. Harris said he feels the team will meet that deadline. The ministry will then begin the process of validating the findings of the internal team, and producing a final report which is due for publication and presentation on June 19, 1978. Pen-Glen in Winterama Members of the Pen-Glen project have decided that fund raising activities will take place in conjunction with Winterama in Penetanguishene this year. The future site of Place Concorde is definite. A sign has been erected on the property which was donated by Dr. William Butt. Fund raising activities are being planned to correspond with the annual winter car- nival and Sister Angelina Moreau, who is Director of the Pen-Glen Corporation, ex- plained that two areas in town will have Citizen needs carriers The Citizen needs delivery people for the Wednesday Citizen. Applicants would be responsible for a paper route in the Fox Street area of Penetanguishene. booths set up. "A fish pond will be set up for the children." This will take place on the town dock. "Candy floss will be sold at the High Pointz Mall."' Both booths will be set up for the entire weekend. "Hopefully we'll be able to pay a few of our debts," said Sister Moreau. When asked if construction would begin sometime in the spring Sister Moreau replied: "There is so much red tape. There is a possibility though." She added: "Certainly we'll go ahead with the project, we need to raise funding first though."' Interested people should apply at the Citizen office, 75 Main Street, or call 549- 2012. Office manager Dona Beauvais will take your application. Midland man remanded Charles A. Beman, a justice of the peace, charged with five counts of indecent assault, was remanded until April 3 in provincial court on Monday morning. Beman was representated by Midland Lawyer Robert MacKinnon. MacKinnon asked that the matter be put off "for assessment purposes." He has just been retained in the past week. Talbot seeks NDP nomination Port MeNicoll Reeve Robin 'Yalbot an- nounced last Thursday that he would be seeking the federal New Democratic Party nomination for Simcoe North. Talbot, who is the youngest Reeve in Ontario, says that the decision to seek the nomination was finalized Thursday night, although, he said, he had been considering running for the position since returning from the provincial NDP convention, held two weeks ago in Toronto. "My belief in the party was reconfirmed at the convention,' he commented. Talbot says that as far as he is concerned, the main issue in Simcoe North is the economic situation, and what he sees to be "a lack of commitment" to improving the area's economic lot on the part of present elected officials. "We're dealing with an unhealthy economic situation throughout North Simcoe, and I think there at least should have been some gestures made to improve it," Talbot commented. "We have to change this area from a tourist area to something more economically sound, which is what the party has been calling for all the way along."' Talbot says that his nomination campaign is already underway, and that he is op- timistic about receiving the NDP nod. To date, Talbot is the only declared can- didate for the NDP nomination, although there have been some reports that Orillia school teacher Fayne Bullen, who ran on the NDP ticket during the last federal election, will seek the position once more. The Simcoe North NDP nomination meeting is scheduled for April 8. Although the location for the meeting is at present undecided, Reeve Talbot said he suspects that it will be held in "this end of the riding." < FO re ee \