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economist suntribune saturday march 23 2002 stbiiffviuetiibiine a metrbland community newspaper 9 heritage rd markham ont l3p 1m3 piiblishen ian proudfoot editor in chief brenda larson director of advertising debra wetter deputy editor debora kelly editor jim mason production manager pam nichols distribution manager barry black electronic communications manager john puthey classified manager ann campbell retail sales manager stephen mathieu inside sales manager stacey allen business manager robert lazurko office manager vivian oneil letters homes oh vacated airport land should be rented out i live in one of the pickering airport homes just down the road a place became vacant in january weeks went by and no hew tenants moved in since i know there is a waiting list for these homes i called the town of claremont office to ask why it was still empty i learned since the summer of 2001 as they became vacant none of the federally owned north pickering homes have been rented to new tenants they said they were concerned about the possible presence of mould in some of the properties and that they were going to do a study i called an expert and learned mould usu ally starts where there are leaky roofs doors windows and plumbing or moisture buildup in bathrooms i was told one good way to develop mould in a home is to abandon and close up the building and turn down the heat i also learned it only takes about two hoursj not seven months to do a home inspection that includes a search for mould i was told as soon as the presence of mois ture is corrected the mould generally dies there are seven empty homes in the altona area and dozens more throughout north pickering many of these are in beautiful river- backed wooded locations i believe its wrong these places stand vacant when there are people willing to move in the authorities in charge of the federally owned homes in north pickering should immediately make them available to people willing to move into them as is and i also believe every effort should be made to get these places back into private ownership by offering them first to anyone who has lived in them since before 1972 or secondly to offer them to the present tenants i understand this proposal was made in the early 1990s but after an election the plan was scrapped recently a number of homes in our area have been bulldozed now there is a rumour floating around all federally owned homes in north pickering will belevelled this is outrageous i also learned the federal government is not subject tolocal laws regarding zoning or demolition this is also very wrong whenwe have so many homeless people in the greater toronto area it is wrong for houses to be sitting unoccupied especially when there are people willing and ableto use these places i am asking people who have influence to encourage the authorities to correct this situation ronbrownsberger stouffville expensive standardized testing promotes shallow rote learning re no more excuses from schools with poor scores a column by tracy kibble march 16 i was compelled to respond to this editor ial on many levels first- lets look at what standardized test- ing actually is it is one snapshot in the entire album that is your childs schoolyear experi ence this snapshot is costing the taxpayers untold millions to geherate- think of the cost to prepare distribute administer and finally mark all those tests it is an investment that in no way justifies the return second our current model of standard ized testing was adopted from the united states since test scores seem to mean so much to you ms kibble all you heed to do is look at where the students in the united states ranked overall this method of learning is failing as a result of this failure many parent groups and leading educators are refusing to let their children be part of the testing prefer ring instead to focus on real learning that results in true understanding standardized testing promotes shallow rote learning it has been proven to fail in the us yet we have adopted it here in canada r at the expense of our childrens learning and at a loss of funding that could benefit ourchil- dren so much more for the other nine months of their school year instead of focusing on test scores that are virtually irrelevant i would suggest you look at your children and askthe following ques tions are they happy at school are they excited about the tilings that they are learning are they performing at their personal best and retaining the concepts they have learned are they being given enough time to process and learn new information are they doing a reasonable amount of homework each night if you answer no to any of these questions then its very likely your school is either strug gling to keep a high score ranking or trying desperately to bring up their results be very careful what you wish for ms kibble you just might get it carrie perruzza unionville letters policy stouffville tribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the newspaper reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space write letters to the editor 9 heritage rd markham ont l3p1m3 email lettersdeconsuncom stbuffville tribune serving the community since 1888 canadian circulations audit board member ontario press council canadian publications mail product sales agreement 1403419 subscription rates by mail i year 6955 thursdays only stoufrville tribune published every thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd group of newspapers which includes the ajaxpickering news advertiser alliston heraldcourier barrie advance barrys bay this week bolton enterprise brampton guardian burlington shopping news burlington post city parent collingwoodwasaga connection east york mirror erin advocatecountry routes etoblcoke guardian flamborough post georgetown independentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week midlandpenetanguishene mirror milton canadian champion milton shopping news mississauga news newmarket- aurora georgina erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakville beaver oakville shopping news orillia today oshawawhitbyclaringtonport perry this week peterborough this week richmond hillthomhillvaughan liberal scarborough mirror stouffville tribune todays seniors uxbridge tribune and city of york guardian phone 905 2942260 fax 905 2941538 classified 18007433353 distribution 9052948244 distributioneconsunxom telephone 905 294220o 416 7987624 fax 905 294-1538- email newsroomeconsunc6m frank daggett future shines dim for ontarios hydro utilities while your lights will stay on after may 1 when the province deregulates hydro the future doesnt burn so bright for utilities in ontario the provinces rriultibilliondollar effort to upgrade ailing nuclear plants is running years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget fixing the four mothballed nuclear reactors that make up the pickering a unit will cost 15 billion 400 million more than estimated it will also take at least a year longer than forecast in its 1997 annual report ontario hydro said it would spend 49 billion between 1997 and 2001 to refurbish the 1 2 reactors kept in service at the bruce b pickering b and darlington power sta tions the price tagincluded the cost of purchasing replacement power during temporary reactor shutdowns the province is dependent on nuclear generation for 60 per cent of its electricity needs and billions havebeen invested to maintain nuclear stations why bother why not get out of this bankrupt resource and find more environmental ly friendly alternatives at less cost the german parliament passed leg islation to close down its 19 nuclear power plants within 20 years beginning next year germany is the worlds largest indus trialized nation to make the move the legislation bans building new nuclear power plants and requires safety checks until existing plants are closed in may 1997 it was revealed ontario hydro had dumped more than 1000 tonnes of copper zinc and other metals in lake ontario the metals were being eroded from the pickering stations brass steam condensers over the last 20 years in july 1997 ontario hydro revealed it had failed to report tritium contami nation of ground water on the pickering site for the last 20 years in 1979 it found 2150000 bec- querels per litre bql of tritium in ground water and in 1994 found 700000 bql tritium can cause cancer if ingested ontarios current objective for tri tium in drinking water is 7000 bql but in 1994 a provincial advisory committee recommended this level should be reduced to 100 bql and brought down to 20 bql within five years options exist just ask brent kopperson a sutton resident who leads the environmental group windfall eco- works and who is part of a trillium foundationfunded effort to develop a clean renewable energy in wind power vve have and will continue to pay for lan inferior energy source that threatens our environment its time to pull the plug on nuclear power v wrwvstvsm9 i aw f t t fc jc y t t f jp v x v rf t js t wwjnw mzfwtrjwitc jnflrjrjjrirwdrxr jvprjwffr irv9ri