PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1984, WHITBY FREE PRESS Published every Wednesday MICHAEL KNELL by M.B.M. Publishing Community Editor i* iand Photography Inc. f1 L\X Phone 668-6111 VALERIE COWEN % m JJ ~ The Free Press Building. Advsrtlsing Manager VoleofteConyTwnMcae a Bres, ulshr-MaaigEditor 1:11 Brock Street North, Second Class Mail Vole o th Cunt Ton ichel an uressoPuliher- Ma idnaggP.O. Box 206. Whitby, (Ont. Registration No. 5351 The only Whitby nespaper independently owned and operated by W esu er rhiby residents. Couldn't the money have been put to better use? Dome decision Last week, the residents, voters and taxpayers of the Province of Ontario witnessed the greatest act of fiscal irresponsiblllty ever perpetrated by a Progressive Conservative government in this country. Outgoing Premier William Davis announ- ced that the Government of Ontario would lead a syndicate to build a $150 million domed stadlum for the Toronto waterfront. In his announcement, the premier said that the There was a picture In the Toronto Star recently that has been creeping back Into my thoughts for several days. It was a photograph of Stanley Burke, shovelling snow off the deck of his sloop Into Vancouver Harbour. Stanley is oider and greyer now, but he Is stili the best-looking man who ever read a national newscast. And he is still a man who marches to a different drummer. Stanley stopped reading the CBC's National News about 15 years ago, and left the mother cor- poration cold because of a principle that he wouldn't compromise. The CBC wouldn't let him speak his mind about Biafra, and other concerns dear to him, so he turned his back on what was then a princely salary and perhaps the most prestiglous news job in the country. He hasn't been Idle In the last 15 years. He bought a falling newspaper in Nanaimo, and tur- ned It around in a matter of months. With artist Roy Peterson, he has turned out five small books - biting, allegorical appraisals of the political and social confrontations that afflict the country which Burke refers to as The Swamp. They're on my desk now. in the flyleaf of the first one, Stanley wrote: "If the muck gets too thick, come and join me in Ot- terland." By Otterland, Stanley means B.C., and i don't mind telling you that i have nearly taken him up on It, a dozen times. Stanley lives up Vancouver's False Creek, on a barge which has a house erected on it. It's more cabinet-making than carpentry. Stanley's wife Daphne cooks dinner in a corner galley and throws things to the Canada geese through an open window. The house rocks gently In the wash of a passing tug. We went for a sail on a sunny, balmy day in April the last time i was there, and yarned about the old days, and-watched the seals and talked about the future, and for two cents, I'd have pulled the plug. Sometimes the muck does get a bit thick, as Burke the Otter knows full well. "Can't you do something to 'end all' Peter Waterhole?" he wrote in the flyleaf of "The Birchbark Caper" in 1981. "Sink the (expletive deleted) before he sinks the Swamp." Peter Waterhole, in case you haven't read the books, is a thinly disguised Pierre Trudeau. Well, Peter Waterhole Is gone, and there is a new figure in charge of the Swamp. i have a feeling that we may be hearing from Burke and Peterson again before too much longer. province's contribu thermore, the gove for the building of pass $34 million. This Is the legac newspaper has oftR to lead this provinc on many occassior never thought that this. The government the partly governm fronts. Firstly, the1 from profits off the dly, it will createa construction jobsi term jobs in the c government can al domed stadium wili Toronto and this pa That's all very newspaper would Il Whitby that this i refused to pay its costs at the Dr. J.O community had to nment's contributi second floor as ac unit. This is also the Ontario Hydro to go will be paid by theE the next half centu that scrapped a hi program that was students it served, b as well. It is also this ne domed stadium wa had the profit poter why didn't the priva was irresponsible tion would be $30 million. Fur- The main tenants of the new dome, a professionai rnment would pick up the tab football team and a professional basebaîl team, the dome itself should It sur- wil be the main beneficiarles of the dome. Because of the dome, they will attract more spec- y that Davis will leave us. This tators and more spectators means more gate en admired Davis for his ability revenue and concession revenue. The companies e. We have disagreed with him that own these teams will see a major Increase, or ns and on. many issues, but we 50 we are told, ln their annual profits. If that s so, he would do something like then why didn't they build t themselves? Why dld they come to the public treasury for 20 per cent of can counter our opposition to the money needed to bulld It? nent financed project on two The goverment can argue that since tfelr government money will come money s coming from iottery schemes that the sale of lottery tickets. Secon- taxpayer isn't being touched. However, we would a great number of short term counter that better uses could have been found and will produce many long for the money. operation of the facility. The For example, $30 million could be used to hire so say, quite rightly, that the 3,000 teachers for our education system; could be 1 bring more tourist dollars into used to give over 9,000 students summer jobs, rt of Ontario. couid be used to put who knows how many unem- well and good, but this pioyed Ontarlans ln job training programs; and, ike to remind the residents of could be put into the health care system ln some s the same government that way. fair share of the renovatlon. Quite frankiy, thîs newspaper just doesn't see . Ruddy General Hospital. This the construction of a domed stadium as a priority pick up most of the gover- for this province. The people of this province have on to re-open the hôspital's other needs wh1ch wil11 not be met by the dome. chronic and rehabilitative care We would aiso point out that the domed stadium built ln Montreai for the 1976 Olympics government that has allowed still has not paid for ltself. And It probably neyer )$20 billion in debt, a.debt that wiil. That facility will be a drain on the taxpayers of electricity users of Ontario for Montreal, Quebec and Canada for decades to ry. This is also a government come. ighly successful summer Job Ail we're really saying is that it will be nice to not only beneficial to the have a dome, but surely there are other more lm- but to the business community portant thlngs that could be done with ail that public money. wspaper's contention that if a Considering thîs is a goverment that believes s such a desireable thing, and in business as the province's and natlon's ntial everyone says It has, then economic saviaur, should It not have left this ate sector build it themselves? project in theisr hands? "Mor