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serving the community of whitchurchstouffville 56 pages1 including gst treat your mom to dinner for her special day opinion 6 sports 31 movies 33 classified publication mail agreement 40007673 no viva without federal funding region province challenge harper by caroline grech staff writer ante up mr prime minister that was the message york region and provincial politicians had for prime minister stephen harper as they announced fund ing for viva transit friday morn ing in richmond hill ontario transportation minister harinder takhar was at the richmond hill centre station at hwy 7 and yonge street to confirm 7 million for design work on the transportation plan we have enough money to start phase 2 but we havent got enough to finish it york region chairperson bill fisch said to date the federal govern ment has not made a specific financial commitment to the sec ond phase of viva thus far mr fisch said the only monetary compensation he has heard coming from ottawa is 200 million to be divided across the province its just not going to fit the bill mr fisch said adding regional officials will be asking federal finance minister jim flaherty for specific funding as we make this future investment i want to invite the federal government to make an investment vaughanking see next page 17 staff photosjoerd witteveen stouffville district secondary school spartan lee averill passes the ball and holds onto his mouthguard during his teams 100 win over streetsville secondary school tigers of mississauga at the niner bantam boys rugby tourney at fletchers field in markham thursday while immigrant population grows funding has dropped by caroline grech staff writer ifyou are an immigrant who has recently moved to york region chances are you cant get intoprograms to help you adjust to life in canada between 1991 and 2001 the number of new canadians in the region ballooned by 132 per cent compared to just 31 per cent who were born and raised here and while the irnmigrant population will continue to grow by leaps and bounds fund- ing from the federal and provincial govern ments for settlement and integration services in york region declined from 416 per immi grant in 20012002 to less than 200 in 20042005 in fact compared to other areas of the gta we pale in comparison when it comes to having the money to help our new neigh bours in 20042005 toronto received funding equivalent to 873 per immigrant peel got 557 halton 417 and durham received 502 less money can have negative effects on the work groups like catholic community services of york region does said stephen lam director of immigrant services and com munity programs at the richmond hill cen tre were facing increasing demand with the see new page 16 27 kemtaqe bd markham 48030 beochcgrnbef tcroii jd country km lid 6400888 r n it wvickteiiiit itf istfisrsi stt f imcwhrertm trs fjlt t