2 Friday, November 30, 2018brooklintowncrier.com Less than half the picture: By Richard Bercuson Oshawa is us A GM union official was quoted early this week as saying the mood around Oshawa was as gloomy as the weather. Indeed, anyone who has ever been without a job or handed a "package" can, and should, relate. My son's father-in-law, with an engineering Ph.D., was a victim of a major company's cutbacks a few years ago. He was given a bit of a severance and access to a job search service. After two years of nothing, he happened upon someone he knew who told him of a school board's special engineering program for senior high school students. He was hired...at a fraction of his previous salary, but still. Our lovely and pristine "gated" Brooklin would, at first glance, appear to be immune from the vagaries of what our eastern neighbours are suffering through. Hardly. It isn't just the 2900 GM employees who will be affected. Let's say you run a little home-based business here, as we reported in last summer's feature (July 20 issue). Let's further state that 10% of your sales are from Oshawa. You may now lose that 10%. It doesn't sound like much, however, small businesses and shops aren't raking in six figure incomes. The ripple effect in the region will be enormous and hurtful. Whether or not the provincial or federal government is able or willing to mitigate the damage is another is- sue. But here's what Mr. Ford can do: Remove the 412 tolls AND cancel the proposed 418 tolls AND reduce the tolls on the province-run section of the 407 from Brock Rd. and east. Then allow development of the lands along these roads. It's a lip-biter for politicians and their abacus-armed bean counters since it'd mean a chunk of cash not rolling in. However, apart from being a goodwill gesture (that post-election majority governments don't much care about), the freedom to move in Durham region, at a minimum, to job hunt could mean keeping good people and their skills here. Aside from the cost, the difficulty of uprooting one's family to another part of the province or elsewhere, not by choice but by need, can't be overstated. This disaster though has come at a relatively good time. New local and regional councillors, a regional chair, and a new Oshawa mayor are all fresh, eager and as yet untainted by years of humdrum blather. They now have an issue to sink their chops into. Let's see if they have the right chops. Because really, in Durham, Oshawa's problem is everyone's. The Last Remembrance Day at Vipond World War II veteran Steve Cosgrove, 93, speaks to onlookers at the Remembrance Day ceremony outside the Luther Vipond Memorial Arena on Nov. 9. It was the final ceremony at that site as the Brooklin Legion prepares to move the cenotaph and ceremony to outside the Brooklin Community Centre and library in 2019.