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ssshs3kasssfi8sskssg35seh2s3s3 f thursday may 5 2005 serving the community of whitchurchstouffville 36 pages1 including gst music mania takes bow x y after 45th stouffville show opinion 6 education 15 calendar 8 sports 29 v staff photobill roberts does whatever a spider can tristan hayward3makes it out of the smoke demonstration in sparkys bedroom during yorkids safety day events at the york region community safety village in braces mill conservation area saturday the new village officially opens may 14 with tours from 10 am to 4 pm york by chris traber staff writer york residents are being shortchanged to the tune of 554 each in hospital funding according to a report released tuesday by the gta905 healthcare alliance the average ontarian gets 1183 a year in total health care funding excluding ohip pay ments and contributions to drug plans york region residents get 629 the state of hospital care in the gta905 2005 the first comprehensive accountability report on the status of hospital care in the regions surrounding toronto states york region gets 251 million less in hospital fund ing than the provincial average the shortfall is 544 million across the gta that represents 212 less in gta905 per capita funding than what other regions of the province receive to deliver hospital care alliance executive director tariqasmi said for york residents on a per capita basis the gap is 554 we are now feeling the effects of this historic underfunding on average each york resident gets 366 a year for hospital acute care compared to a provincial average of 704 in contrast york taxpayers contribute 169 million in health care premiums to ontarios 22billion health budget the numbers are unbalanced southlake regional health centre president dan carriere said my thinking is that this isnt something that relates to any particular gov ernment rather its something thats been- building for the past 15 years or so weve been cost efficient and its not a matter of trying to get ahead of the curve rather its an issue of getting closer to the provincial average that would mean signifi cant improvements in health care the report gleaned from data provided by member organizations including yorks three hospitals the ministry of health and ontario hospital association identified two glaring concerns see care page 13 lebovic unhappy geranium approved hwy 48 site wins big box fight byhannelorevolpe staff writer the big box complex proposed for hwy 48 south of ringwood got whitchurchstouffville councils unanimous approval tuesday night a 160000squarefoot walmart store will be one of the major ten ants in the 467000squarefoot retail and commercial space to be built by geranium corporation the complex could also include a 68000squarefoot canadian tire and similarsized home improve ment centre the original plans called for a walmart that was 50000 square feet smaller the total area of retail and commercial space wont change other stores will be made smaller to accommodate the larger wal-mart- l a similar proposal by lebovic enterprises ltd on ninth line south of stouffville was turned down by council r presentations were also made tuesday by hillmount properties ltd for the stouffville country market lands and anderson haulage limited which had pro posed a big box development on its lands on main street all of these commercial develop ments should be approved eighty two per cent of our tax dollars are supported by residential taxes that has to change helene johnson president of the -whitchurch- stouffville chamber of commerce said the proposal by geranium also received support from the down town stouffville business see lebovic page 20 s i sxwct houston ford ltd 5786 main st stouffville 9d5b404541 www billhoustonf 6rd com v v v dealer hemo selldolaflw s- 0 call or visit sales staff for details y 02 explorer 2 door sport 03 mustawg cowvertable v6 auto 05 ford 500 os ford freestyle 2 left 05f150sc4x4 05 escape ltd 05 free star sport 05 explorer ltd is 05 explorer sporttrac 4x4 j 1 vl ll