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h 6 economist suntribune thursday april 19 2001 stouffville tribune a metroland community newspaper 9 heritage rd markham ont l3p 1m3 publishen ian proudfoot general manager alvin brouwer editor in chief brenda larson director of advertising debra welter deputy editor debora kelly editor jim mason production manager pain nichols distribution director barry goodyear online publishing manager margaret fleming classified manager ann campbell retail sales manager stephen matlueu inside sales manager stacyallen business manager robert lazurko office manager vivian oneil editorial province offers nothing but lip service to yorks hospital needs when health minister tony clement gave 177 million to ontario hospitals this week his government was trying to help hospitals strug gling with deficits balance their budgets he handed over the cash however with a stern warning hospitals shouldnt expect this kind of rescue mission again he advised get your books in order do the things you need to do to make the ledger balance weve heard it so many times were feeling ill in york region where none of the cash- strapped overworked hospitals saw a dime of rescue money from clement this time out were in the same position as always we have harried staff struggling to meet the demands of the markets york region contin ues to grow rapidly so much so that the regional government has launched a cam paign to help bureaucrats figure out just what kinds of services residents will expect from them 25 years from now and were still not seeing the level of funding from the provincial government we should be receiving we have had much lip service from the tory government about recognizing york regions rapid growth about acknowledging the need to meet the demand that is created when thou sands of new residents are added to the regions population roll each year some 21000 new res idents or the equivalent of a new town our hospital chiefs and their staff have tried to work within the tory governments financial constraints they have accepted the concept that duplication in the system has to be elimi- nated that services have to be shared that healthcare reform is a necessity to maintain the quality of care we as canadians have come to expect our hospitals are not looking for shortterm bailouts such as those clement offered strug gling facilities this week our hospitals are looking for commitments to longterm reform that will allow them to plan beyond this fiscal year without worrying about shifting dollars or changing priorities as established by their provincial counterparts if the province feels uncomfortable with hospitals running deficits then it should take measures to control growth there really is no alternative opinion letters to the editor make parents responsible for damage done by children re what goes on the mind of a vandal a column by joan ransberry april 5 it doesnt take a genius to figure out how to handle the unruly brats in stouffville and elsewhere here are some suggestions 1 make parents responsible for their chil dren by paying for the damage they do 2 print the offending childrens names in the newspaper in bold letters 3 children younger than 16 should not be out wandering the streets after dark a curfew should be put in place and enforced 4 any boy or girl in trouble with the law three times by the age of 16 should automati cally serve a term in the army or boot camp 5 more police patrols of our streets after dark 6 bring back the strap and start giving children more discipline and guidelines at home people have forgotten how to be parents they need to give their children more of their time set down some rules and make them help with household chores for their allowances too many kids are given money for ciga rettes and shoppings it all boils down to a lack of discipline maureen henderson stouffville voucher system should be open to all options we applaud the harris governments plan to bring a greater measure of accountability and choice to the school system by introduc ing the option of sending our children to a school that has favourable test results we were surprised to read of the possible offer of school vouchers only to learn they may only be used in the public system this is unfair for parents who feel their childs needs would be best served outside the public sys tem but cannot afford to pay for two systems as diverse as our organizations member ship is we do not agree on the viability of vouchers for the public system we do side however with parents who require a range of alternatives to meet each childs unique learning style again we encourage the government to look beyond the politics of choices in publicly funded edu cation and to see the potential there is in receiving excellence in education the school boards resistance to these and other liberating measures introduced by this and preceding governments is disappointing we encourage politicians to use their experience and knowledge to help give par ents students and teachers the choices we must have if we are to remain strong as fami lies and a nation greg gamble member of ontario federation of teaching parents letters policy stouflvillelhbune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than j400 words and must include a daytime telephone number j name and address the r newspaper reserves the right to j publisher not publish and to j edit fotdariwjawd spaced t write utters to the editor stouffville tribune serving the community since 1888 hub dde viairllan circulation i canadian circulations 1 i audit board member i ontario press council csnmanpuwicatlonsmaa product salartmit 11403419 h subscription rates by mail 1 year 6955 thursdays only stouffville tribune published every thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distnbuting ltd group of newspapers which includes the ajaxpickering news advertiser alliston heraldcouner barrie advance barrys bay this week bolton enterprise brampton guardian 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courted to run in the vaughankingaurora byelection for starters probable liberal candi date greg sorbara made similar noises about how seeking the nomination would be inconsistent with his work as party president exactly one week later he threw his hat into the ring then theres fantinos own record in york region it was only a year ago fantino left the york regional police chiefs post to lead the toronto force throughout a prolonged period of spec ulation about his candidacy for the big city job fantino denied any interest as late as nov 19 1999 fantino had reassured york region officers he would honour his fiveyear contract with the force by the end of that month 18 months into his contract he moved on last weekend fantino told the toronto star rumours among toronto police officers and city staff he was being wooed by the vaughankingaurora tories were harebrained well i guess it depends on what you mean by wooed vaughan regional councillor joyce frustaglio who is also being seriously considered as a tory candidate told our reporter fantino was approached by the party at the same time she was he said he wasnt interested if that constitutes wooing fantino can consider himself wooed but i doubt fantino would see it that way back in 1999 i fearlessly predicted fantino would stay in york region i will once again step out on a limb the idea of fantino running for provincial politics at this stage in his career is indeed harebrained not that he wouldnt win hed stand an excel lent chance but then what as a member of the ontario tory gov ernment he would answer to mike harris no matter what cabinet post he might hold he would be required to toe the party line then theres the question of whether hell be reelected if the economy is in the dumper the next time the province goes to the polls so im guessing the tories will have to do a lot of heavyduty wooing to con vince fantino to be a candidate but you never know fantino may decide theres a public interest he can serve by running for office if he decides to run it will make for an interesting campaign my guess is the tories will be turning to either frustaglio or fellow vaughan regional councillor michael di biase as their candidate in the byelection which hasnt been called yet both have a long record of success at the municipal level and understand the finer points of poli ticking better than fantino