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"It would seem to me imperative that those of us who have responsibility must do all we can to maintain the quality of our urban life, preserve our ravines and parks, conserve our residential communities, private homes and historic landmarks‘‘ The words of Premier William Davis, June 3, 1971 in killing the Spadina Expressway. * The new Metro chairmanâ€"elect, Paul Godfrey was â€" and still is an advocate of a controlled access traffic route in northâ€"west Metro in the area where the Spadina roadway was to be built. He suggests the It is to this kind of salutary remembrance that this fifth commandment calls us. It calls us to remember and honor the past. Our individual past, in the shape and person of our parents. And through them, our remote‘past in the tradition and culture of our society and civilization. Memory, remembrance, our power of recall, is a remarkable human faculty. It lengthens our days. It enlivens our experience. It enlarges our lives. It makes us heir to the ages. It holds us securely in the ongoing stream of human consciousness. So she should: And so should we all. What poor creatures we are if we cannot remember: And in remembering, give thanks. A while ago I visited with a person in hospital. The bedside conversation was very oneâ€"sided. The patient grumbled all the time about everything in general and life in particular. I remonstrated, rather feebly, and suggested she should try to remember better times. Although, in these days of family breakdown, this commandment (like others we shall be looking at later) is more honored in the breach than in the obâ€" servance, the requirement and the promise attached to it still stands. St. Paul called it the first commandment with promise because, after stating the requirement; honor thy father and mother: it goes on to describe the result; that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Honor thy father and mother. A teenager may have reservations about it. And a women‘s libâ€"ber would certainly wish to reverse its order of priorities. But this fifth commandment, holds as commanding a position as the first of six comâ€" mandments dealing with social relationships. Debate on second reading of these bills had been as sharp and as substantive â€" sometimes even bitter â€" as the legislature had heard in many a year. Both Liberals and New Democrats were solid in their opâ€" position. I acknowledge that, on occasion, opposition spokesmen can get carried away with their own eloquence, and in their zeal to make a point, become guilty of some exaggeration. I wondered about this as I listened to the debate; but my wondering ceased when the committee heard outside testimony. n Web oie ol atinnnnn ce * Aiimanitinent, Aovtalrin i The most scathing criticism of the government‘s bills came from a man with the widest experience and most detailed knowledge of planning procedures in Ontario up to this point, namely, J.A. Kennedy, former chairman of the Ontario Municipal Board. All of this should be considered in the context that there has long been a virtually unanimous demand that government must take a more active part in the planning of land use. So it wasn‘t the objective of the legislation that was being challenged; rather, it was the government‘s means for achieving that objective, Whether it was individuals who were merely speaking for themselves, or organizations (like the developers) with interests to protect, or lawyers pleading the cause of their clients, they all had essentially the same thing to say: the government has taken excessive powers unto themselves, and in the process, failed to protect legitimate individual rights. 1 am a member of the Standing Committee on Resources to which the government‘s package of land use bills was referred for the purpose of hearing testimony from outside individuals and organizations and of clause by clause consideration, when amendâ€" ments might be made. Therefore, while others of my colleagues in the New Democratic caucus had carried the burden of the debate on second reading of the bills, it was my good fortune to be involved in receiving and assessing the public reaction from across the province. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister John Formulating approach White amotinnnic ies es unc irege Aomadiegy w com Moving traffic Somewhere between the hard and fast positions of the province against the The province is determined that mass public transit is going to replace at least the Spadina Expressway in Metro and maybe other. expressways. But automobile registration continues to rise at the rate of four per cent yearly in Metro and no sure fire method has yet been found to pull the motorist out of his car and on to public transit. Such veneration springs from the ready acceptance of the undischargable debt the young owe the old. As infants they were the recipients of love and favors they southerly extension of Highway 400 as an alternative, not the best, but an alternative. You will find standing at the heart of these cultural traditions the strong bulwark of the family. I think particularly of the extended families of Italians and clans of the Scots. Always there is respect, mounting almost to veneration, for the older members of these families. It now becomes clear why the government didn‘t respond. It was engaged behind the scenes in forâ€" mulating its own new approach to planning, without the benefit of widespread consultation. In short, what we now have are the proposals of the minister and his civil servants, with minimum input from the public at large. That input was permitted belatedly at the Standing Committee hearings.In its impact, it was both devastating and virtually unanimous. Two results have flowed from the government‘s particular approach, shaped without consultation with those who were going to be affected by the legislation. many countries, old traditions are being conserved and, indeed, strengthened by reason of the remoteness of their origins. We need tradition, not traditionalism; which has been defined as the dead faith of the living, but tradition; defined by contrast, as the living faith of the dead. It is good that in a country like Canada, comâ€" posed as it is of so much diversity of culture from so The Select Committee on the Ontario Municipal Board, of which I was a member, reported last December, and suggested to the government that planning legislation was long overdue for a careful review and overhauling. It suggested that the comâ€" mittee be reappointed, or alternatively some other body be set up, to tackle this job. The government didn‘t respond, although it has authorized continued select committee work on other relatively less imâ€" portant topics, ‘such as tile drainage of problems relating to snowmobiling. Granted, we have heard of the dead hand of the past. We know that too much veneration of ancient custom can have a stultifying effect on future progress. But there is a place for tradition. It would be a sad day for us if we all started hopping madly on the hot plate of modernity without the steadying awareness of anâ€" cestral blood running in our veins. It is good that the recent visit of the Queen has quickened our sense of tradition, awakened our love of pageantry and make us freshly aware of our need of a symbolism that enshrines our highest values. His first contention was that the avowed purposes of the new legislation could have been achieved by relatively minor adjustments to the present Planning Act. I am not certain that I am completely persuaded by Kennedy‘s argument in this connection, but it does underline a point on which the government is very vulnerable. Lest you may have concluded that opposition criticism was excessive, let me give you a sampling of Kennedy‘s comments. attempted to discredit Mr. Kennedy‘s testimony by claiming that he had appeared on behalf of three clients. But the minister‘s efforts were unfair. True, Mr. Kennedy had been asked to appear by three perâ€" sons with special interests, but he was given complete freedom to say what he wisked in opposition to the bills, and he did so â€" at his fearless best. Look to the rock from which were were hewn: The hold of the pit from which you were digged, says the prophet Isaiah,. When you drink water, think of its source, say the Chinese. In other words, as you enjoy and relish life in all its fulness and freedom,. have a thankful remembrance of whence it all derived and of the source from which it came. Lifeâ€"line Spadina Expressway and the acting chairman‘s desire for a controlled acess route for vehicles must be a compromise. The northâ€"west area of Metro needs some type of roadway to handle cars that otherwise pour through residential neighâ€" borhoods, maybe not an expressway but a widened existing route of six lanes. With proper design minimum environmental and community damage could result. Certainly the Spadina subway will attract many customers but it alone will not end traffic congestion in northâ€"west Metro. Honor thy father and mother: Why not give them that call or send them that bunch of flowers right away, while the thought‘s still fresh in your mind? said: My son, don‘t forget to return the neighbor‘s wheelbarrow. Your son will be wanting to borrow it for you. One for the parents. I believe it originated with Mark Twain, who said: When I was 18 I thought my father was a doddering old fool. At 28 I discovered he had acquired a surprizing amount of knowledge and commonâ€"sense. â€" The other is for the youngsters. It comes from China. A young son borrowed his neighbor‘s wheelbarrow. In it he placed his aged father. He trundled him off to the river bank. Just as he was about to tip him over, his father placed a restraining hand on his shoulder, and Of course, inevitably, in every family there comes a time where tensions threaten to crack the relationâ€" ship wide open. There is a point of confrontation when parental pride is crossed by youthful exuberance. Often the point at issue is some trivial matter such as hairâ€"length or the time of returning home at night. When tensions of such threatening proportions do arise, it would be well to remember two little stories. Thus spake the man who, in 16 years with the Ontario Municipal Board, built a reputation of unquestioned integrity as he championed the rights of the individual citizen or community to have a day in court when their lives are to be drastically reshaped through governâ€" ment decisions, whether at the provincial or local level. By comparison, opposition spokesmen had been mild in their attacks on the land use bills. easy rein and the gentle governance of their early days. For this they pay high honor and respect to parents and elders. And he drove his basic point home: "The minister of this topâ€"heavy, manyâ€"splendored department can‘t possibly give attention to individual cases. Governâ€" ment will be by his advisors, the mandarins of the public service, the palace guard. Try getting approval sometime of something they don‘t like." could not possibly have earned and often did not deserve. Growing up amid healthy, growthâ€"stimulating tensions whose strain was contained by bendable but unbreakable bonds of affection, they learned to give and to take, to accept and be accepted. Now they are able to take their place as full, responsible members of adult society. And they remember they owe it all to the Second, "this legislationis a frightening departure from the administrative process â€" the day in court â€" which has been imbedded for many years in our administrative law and procedure.‘" Translated into more meaningful terms for the layman, that simply means that the citizen or corâ€" poration who find themself aggrieved by a government decision suddenly freezing their land, and denying them the use to which it had been entitled under existing zoning byâ€"laws and official plans, will not have effective recourse to some tribunal, such as the Onâ€" tario Municipal Board, for protection of their legitimate rights. The edict from Queen‘s Park becomes divine law. It was in this connection that Mr. Kennedy was sharpest. ""In sole discretion of one minister the authority and work of as long as 50 years is cast aside by the stroke of a pen and centred in one office in Toronto,‘"‘ he said. *‘‘*No reasons need be given and there is no review. A cat can look at a king, but how can a private citizen appeal from a minister to the cabinet,"" he added. an unwarranted and rapacious invasion of local autonomy.‘‘ First, to quote Mr. Kennedy, "these bills constitute The Times,; Thursday: ‘July 12; 1973â€"Page ? J§6€: