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vol 105 no 7 a metroland community newspaper wednesday february 17 1993 16 pages 50 cents region to take metro to court for 60 million tracy kibble staff reporter york politicians will haul metro toronto into court next month on grounds the city trashed a 60 million payback agreement with the region york politicians say metro owes the region about 60 million in residen tial commercial and industrial rebates from last year but refuses to send the cheque metro which runs the keele valley landfill site in vaughan says it cant afford to give york previously agreedupon tipping fee rebates because of skyrocketing system and maintenance costs but regional politicians say metro is losing millions each year in the garbage business and is sticking those losses to york taxpayers instead the region claims operating estimates and total solid waste management costs should be reduced given a 60 per cent slide in tonnage at the site between 1990 and 1993 york and metro staff made no progress in meetings last month to try and rectify the problems a report from yorks chief administrative officer bob forhan states the response of metro staff was not encouraging and any reasonable settlement of the pastdue rebates calculated to be in the range of 60 million was rejected forhan said since 1988 york municipalities have been entitled to a tipping fee rebate based on the difference between the gross tipping fee and the sys tem costs which have both been determined by metro last year metro had promised york a rebate of 112atonne but would only give 84 a tonne this shortfall left markham in a 1 million waste budget squeeze and left stouffville with a 200000 deficit part of a regionwide 45 million deficit which was reimbursed to municipalities from yorks waste reserve account metro is unwillingto reconsider the arbitrary reduc tion in the residential rebatethis leaves york region no alternative but to take legal action to enforce the existing agreement with metro forhan said regional councillor ray twinney told officials last month that york is being pushed around by metro and that the region should take them to court york says metro refused to budge on any of the follow ing regional concerns metros retention of 60 million in industrialcommercial tipping fee revenues from york businesses a 4atonne increase with no satisfactory explanation in perpetual care costs metro transfer stations and waste haulage costs charged to the region an increase in the charge to york taxpayers of 38 a tonne in 1991 to 69 a tonne in 1992 while metro taxpayers have not paid tax levies for waste disposal since 1991 when metro eliminated tax levy funding and utilized industrialcommercial revenue to subsidize metro residential tax payers waste disposal costs yorks solicitor will prepare its case in the next few months stouffville resident killed in scugog snowmobile accident tracy kibble staff reporter a 46yearold stouffville man is dead after a snowmobile acci dent on lake scugog durham regional police ser vice report james beattie of bloomington road crashed valentines day at about 630 pm and later died from injuries sustained when he was thrown from his snowmobile a press release issued mon day states beattie was travel ling alone on lake scugog about one mile out onto the lake straight east of the robin glade estates in the area of seagrave police were called to the scene after reports a single snowmo bile had apparently struck a pressure crack in the ice beattie was thrown from the machine and was rushed to port perry hospital where at about 845 pm was pro nounced dead from his injuries police say it was dark at the time and there was very little snow on the ice investigations are continuing the accident happened just 24 hours after snowmobile safety week ended one of the safety tips issued by the ministry of tourism and recreation during its drive safe campaign from feb 6 to 13 was to stay off ice at all times if at all possible and stick to groomed marked trails education board to administer standardized math test julie caspersen staff reporter the york region separate board is looking to stan dardized testing to rate its math program the test will be administered to all grade 6 stu dents across the board in the first week of june to uncover weak and strong points in the program but some york region roman catholic separate school board trustees believe the proposal does not go far enough to weed out schools or even teachers who are below the board standard we need to compare schools we cant talk about averages board ryan chair terry ryan said at the educa tion committee meeting last monday everyone in life is accountable for what they do ryan said the review is not intended as a witch hunt but parents are pushing for standardized test ing because they are not satisfied with what their children are learning and being taught trustee maddalena smirnakis also called for a clear definite review of the math program to deter mine board standards and discover if this is being met by the students the proposal brought to the education committee will lead to percentages averages and vague com ments smirnakis said parents want to know can my kid do this in grade 6 and if not why not but program superintendent john mcrae argued that the intent of the test is to understand what stu dents are doing across the system as opposed to what certain children are doing he said a pilot test conducted in june 1992 in the north end of the region was initially met with suspi cion by principals and teachers fearing their schools and classes would be compared to others mcrae said each school will receive confidential feedback when the test results are analyzed and this confidentiality will encourage trust which will lead to honest testing the test will include specific math questions a questionnaire on students attitudes toward math and a teacher selfreport survey the results will be compiled by the end of 1993 the grade 6 math review proposal was discussed by the committee and received for information but not yet passed by the whole board