Page 6, Whîtby Free Press, WVpdnosdlay, May 4, 1994_ The only Newspaper owned and operated by Whltby residents for Whltby residents! MEMBER 0F: ~ONTARIO CANADIAN COMMUNlA COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER * N NWSPAPER SASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION ~ CANADIAN CIRCULATIONS ONA DIVISION- AUDIT BOARD ISSN#0844-398X 26,500 COPIES DELIVERED WEEKLY Pubîished every Wednesday by 677209 Ontario Imc. Box 206, 131 Brock St. N., Whitby, Ontario Li N 5S1 Phone: 668-6111 Toronto Line: 427-1834 Fax: 668-0594 Doug Anderson - Publisher Maurice Pither - Editor Alexandra Martin - Production Manager Printed on newsprint with minimum 20% 169 recycîod content using vegetablo based inks. t «D Ail written material, illustrations and advertisinig contained herein is protected by copyright. Any reproduction by any means for commercial purposes without the express permission of the newspaper is prohibited and is a violation of Canadian copyright aw. Reproduction for non-commercial distiribution should bear a credit line to the Witby Fre Press. Dear Stephanie To the edîtor: Hold on a second. Why are Durham Region councillors, who snoer and laugh at the NDP governmsnt at council meetings, suddonly on their knees begging tho province 10 build Highway 407 right away? Is Rl because the municipal eloct ion is only a tow months away and they don't want to discuss this monster proj oct with the people who will b. torced 10 move and 10 live beside it? Two years ago Ministry of Transportation off iciaIs held public meetings and wo were told the proj oct was 20 or 30 years into the futurs. Local councillors said that people shouldn't get ail oxcited about somothing that might. neyer happen. Now, these same slectsd 'Fel-good' project To the -Edtor: Our Earth Day tree-planting in partnsrship with Tres Plan Canada and the Town of Whitby was very successful becauso of the many exuberant children, g randparents and other people who took part. We want 10 thank everyons who so willingly pitched in to holp naturalize 1h. Corbett creok valley. Members of the Whitby business community generously supporting the project deserve much gratitude. We commend the visionary Town leaders and administrators who approved this important naturalization initiative. We're especially gratetul to Iree Plan Canada for their financiai assistance and to the Whitby parks and recreation department for facilitating the proj ect. 1hree hundred evergreen saplings will grow up in time to form a sheltered wildlif e habitat, a place of peace and beauty. We can ail feel good about it. Judy Bryson, prosident Durham Rogion Fleld Naturaliste Margaret Bain, president Thlcksofl'a Woods Heritage Foundation officiais want the 407 yestorday because Durham is supposedly losing $2 billion a year because of traffic tie-ups on 401. Even if that ridiculous figure was t rue, the 407 would not be the answer. Road planners the world over have, learned that building new roads neyer reduces traff ic congestion. A Queon's University profossor of urban planning plainly stated the 407 won't reduce traffic tie-ups and the Botter Transportation Coalition agreos. And what will it be liko to have anothor 401 right through the heart of Durham? What about the thousands of people who will be affected by this megaprojoct? Many people who livo in this rural area have been hors for many generations. Others chose the quiet, country setting to raise their families. By rushing approval for this before the November elect ion, our local polit icians are taking away our right to choose the kind of Ite we want for ourselves and our children. The did not ask us if wo supported their hunger for another oight lanes of concrets. The 407 will change the region and the livos of thousands of people forever. Wo should have an opportunity to talk about it, to look at our real needs and to look at various options. No off iciaI, elected or ot horwise, is going t0 ask us what we think about 407 -- they think they know what is good for us. Let's use our voices now before w. lose them atogether. Stophen G. Leahy Brooklin Tam clinlo a sucoet.-ss To the Edîtor: On behalf of the board of directors of the Cortified General Accountants Association of Ontario, Durham Chapter, I would like 10 thank The Free Press for the coverage given our rocent pensioners' tax clinic. The coverage was appreciated and contributed to the success of the clinic. Louise A. Masaka Public relations By Paul Pagnusto Ontario Taxpayers Fedoration Three days after last October's federal elect ion, my daughter approached me with an unusual req uest. With a somewhat worried look she said, ni want you to hoîp me write the nsw boss of Canada.* My job was to type hor latter on my computer. Durin the election campaign, shela heard the political contenders commenting on TV about the fiscal mess our country is ln. Her knowîedge of the issus, especially for a nine-ysar-old, surprised me. ln her latter, she explainod her understanding that everybody who works has to pay taxes. That governments use the tax revenues they get for essential and important services -- such as health, education, f ire and police protection and welfare for the Iess fort unato. But she also noted that according to her dad, 0 ... sometimes politicians do some really dumb things with taxes.* The questions she put to our new Prime Minister were pretty straig htforward. Why do polit icians spend more money than they got? And why is that when govermsents borrow money, they nover pay it back? Hor concern to the Prime Minister was the tact that the federal government is now in dsbt by more than hait a trillion dollars. And that it just keeps on growing, and growing, and growing... J ust who is going to pay it aIl back? The way she sees t, its not going to bo those of us who spent it. Nope. l's going to b. her, her five-year-old brother and their friends. They're the ones who, down the road, are going to get saddled with an even higher tax burden and fewer governiment benefits. Somehow, , she just didn't consider it f air. Why should they have to smash open their piggybanks to pay for a standard ot living our generat ion couldn't afford? In her mind, we grown-ups are a self ish lot. For weeks on end she patiently awaitsd a reply. ln early February, more than three months later, a large package from the Prime Minister's office in Ottawa turned up in the mailbox. At long last, she would f inally learn how the Prime Minister planned to solve the unfairness of her generation having to repay his goneration's debt. Sh. anxiously tore open the package and read the letter inside. Ho than*ed her for writing with her impressions of Canada and the world around her. He told her how important it is that the voices of Canadas younger generation be heard. "Some day you will be making the decisions that will help Canada to romain a strong and proud country,w he wrote. "Educat ion will open doors to many opportunities so that each of y ou may realize your potential in Nowhere in the short, four-paragraph letter was t here oven the slightest hint of the D word. She looked at me with tears in To the Edîtor: Re: Louis S. Allore's letters to the editor (April 13 and April 27, The Frse Press). I would like to address some of the partial facts that have recently appeared in the letters to the editor section of The Free Press. Much has beon made of Mr. Manning receiving $8,000 from the Reform Party towards his pension. Mr. Manning is entitled 10 pension contributions, as is any employes of a corporation that has no pension plan. As an MP, he no longer rocoives this contribution. The contribution was not a secret slush f und, nor was Rt a party secret. Compare this to tho multi-million-doîlar sîush funds that support John Turner or Brian Mulroney. Reform campaigned against the obscene pension plans that MPs qualified for afler only six years service. For example, Perrin Beatty, now only aged 45, will collect $2 million should h. live to 75. The amount doesn't change, even if he works the whole time. The press has made quite an issue of the $25,000 expense allowance that Mr. Manning receivss whils doing party business. The allowaruce covers airtare, meals, hotel accom- modation and pays for his wife to eoin hlm while conducting party business. Would critics prof or that taxpayers directly support Mr. Manning's travels, or have Mr. Manning pay for these extra expenses out of his own pocket? Ail the whîle, the Liberal party gives Mr. Chretien $380,000 for the same expenses, and paid $1 million a year 10 John Turner. The her eyes. lnstead of getting an answer to her important questions, ail she ended up with was an autographed f iv.- by seven-inch colour photo of Jean Chretien and a souvenir package of Canada's symbols. Judging from the recent fedoral budget, one can only surmise that the Prime Minister ether doesn't recognize a debt problemn ex ist s, or he's at a loss as to how 10 solve I know one nine-year-old who'd lOve to -g ivem a few pointers on Opinion expressed are thoso of the author. Conservatives gave the Mulronsys $350,000 to pay for furniture that they later tried to selI back to th. Canadian taxpayer. As for the dlaim that Reform expels people, that's right, we do expel people. Psrhaps one 0f the most infamnous was John Beck, a candidate for Reform who beat our screening process and who turned out to b. racist. Once the problemn was learned, the party acted quickly and correctly 10 ask him to stop down and to beave the party. White this was happening, the Liberals already knsw Jag Bhaduria was a person capable of writing threatening letters, and was not a lawyer as claimed in election material. Why didn't the Liberals follow our example and do the honourable thing? By not following the Reform lead and expelling an unsuitable candidate, the Liberals showed an attitude of contsmpt towards Canadians that has turned Canadians away from the traditional parties. Reform is a new party. W. are not as smooth in Parliamnent during Question Period as old pros such as Sheila Copps or Lucien Bouchard, but we have a clear message, one that w. will continue to stress. We believe that sacred cows such as 'officiai' bilingualism, the weak criminal justice systemn and the Young Offenders Act deservo to b. gored. We won't let phony crises about- Preston Manning's expenses stop us from voicing the concerns of Canadians. Andrew Davles Former Reform candidats Member of th. Ontarlo expansion committes 407 needed? Phony crises 1 Vîewpoint 1 To the. editor...