2 Friday, June 5, 2020 brooklintowncrier.com Less than half the picture: By Richard Bercuson Clarification-Edification-Mystification Clarification True: Highway 407, 412, and 418 tolls rise each June 1 per the Consumer Price Index. True: Tolls were to rise 2.23%. This was passed by the provincial government on May 14, with Regulation 214/20 replacing Regulation 175/15. True: One opposition party got all lathered about it (rightfully) until Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney tweeted how reports (as in the aforementioned party's claim) about an increase were "patently false," that in fact the government was freezing tolls due to the pandemic. True: Her use of "patently" was patently redundant since something can either be true or false. There are no degrees of false. Same for redundant, I suppose. True: The "reports" were quite correct. The new regulation was clear. Aside from her tweet, no one knew or had heard otherwise. Edification MPP Lorne Coe contacted BTC Publisher Rhonda Mulcahy, informing her of the Minister's tweet. She relayed it to me. Finding the regulations online was simple. Anyone seeing the updated one, Reg. 214/20, would correctly conclude our government was raising the tolls. However, in my vaunted role of columnist, I still needed to check it. Consequently, I asked myself this: Assuming the freeze is true, where would I find an official announcement about it? It would surely be on the Ontario government site; or on "Ontario News Now," their news site; or on Minister's Mulroney's site; or on Coe's site; or on the Ministry of Transportation site. But no, there was nothing anywhere. It didn't dawn on me for a nanosecond that I should need to navigate the Twittersphere where the minister's "So there!" response to the opposition's umbrage lay in the weeds. This was the official government response? With no announcement to be found, I could only conclude they were raising the rates. Mystification With everything else going on, it seems the government must have figured anger about the published new regulation could be mollified with a tweet. Well, if they were so dang proud of the freeze, why not make a thing of it with even a modest showing of pride? While it was at minimum a fitting gesture, I remain mystified about how the government has "handled" the entire toll issue. Here's a thought. This would have been the ideal time to proclaim a REDUCTION by even a token amount. Then again, wouldn't that give Durham residents false hope of the tolls being cancelled altogether? And afterwards, wouldn't it be viewed as curmudgeonly to return them to Reg 214/20 levels once the current crisis has passed? They'd have a point. Why? Because such an approach might further remind voters of the promises made by local MPP candidates, including Mr. Coe, during the 2018 election campaign, regarding removal of the 412/418 tolls altogether. No sense tossing gasoline onto those embers. How the provincial government and MPP Coe have dealt with the entire toll road situation reminds me of Aesop, he of fable fame. "After all is said and done, more is said than done." Song Spot Hanging On By Richard Bercuson In a time of business peril, the vulnerabilities of certain types have become particularly apparent. For instance, fitness gyms and yoga studios come to mind. But there are also a host of other, less obvious ones which seem to be existing almost day to day. Brooklin's The Song Spot is one of those. Rumours circulated in recent weeks that Andrea Akers's business was closing. Not yet, she says, though it certainly is a challenge to teach musical instruments and voice without being face to face. For now and the next couple of months at least, The Song Spot should be fine. "At the beginning of all this, I was a lot more anxious," she admits. "Now I realize the situation and just want to get through the summer. I would love it if people could afford lessons, but I also know the reality. I hope people are willing to hold onto the credits I've offered." For the time being, she will offer individual guitar and drum lessons in person as per the government's law allowing small group instruction. Those instruments will continue to be offered as virtual lessons as well. But for other things like voice and piano, it may be a while before they can be offered in any effective way. "For piano, the instructor needs to see the student's hands and touch both the student and the keys. It means taking perhaps a 10 minute buffer of every hour to disinfect the keys and the room between lessons. I don't think many teachers are willing to lose that much time." As for voice lessons, obviously having the face covered makes it mostly impractical. Besides, virtual lessons always seem to have glitches. Akers says she's been able to have her rent postponed and is hoping the government permits a larger number of students by the end of the summer. Until then, she is very much taking it one day and one week at a time.