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6- The Oakville Beaver, Friday May 4, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director TERI CASAS Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager MPs get game misconduct There have been plenty of newsworthy occurrences in the past week to keep our federal politicians busy. 1) While oil companies continue to report multi-million dollar profits for the first quarter of 2007, no one -- especially our MPs in Ottawa -- can seem to come up with a logical explanation why Joe Consumer is paying more than a $1 a litre for gas. 2) The ongoing Air India inquiry should be a concern to some MPs, considering the fact 329 people were murdered and no one has been held accountable for the bombing of the flight 22 years after the fact. 3) In another blow to the problemplagued RCMP, Auditor General Sheila Fraser has found the RCMP's forensic services suffers from a serious backlog of cases and other problems that may jeopardize past cases. 4) Fraser also found the federal government's poor handling of embassy staffing -- including a lack of security checks on locally employed staff in foreign consulates -- is undermining Canada's diplomatic mission. Then there's the ongoing issues about alleged prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, the government's new environment plan, the fact Caledonia residents are entering their second year of upheaval because of a native people's land rights dispute and a multitude of other problems. Yet, despite all these concerns our MPs still managed to find the time this week -- through an all-party parliamentary committee -- to demand officials from Hockey Canada and Sport Canada explain Hockey Canada's selection of Shane Doan as captain of the national team at this year's world championships. Inflation may be rearing its ugly head and motorists are being gouged at the gas pumps but our elected officials can waste time debating whether Doan, who was accused of calling a referee a "....ing Frenchman" two years ago, is worthy captain material. It doesn't even seem to matter to our MPs that Doan was investigated -- and cleared -- by the National Hockey League at the time of the incident. Too bad taxpayers can't give the MPs a game misconduct, or a suspension without pay, for their actions. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Town purchase of Dominion Twin Rinks was ill advised Taxpayer money spent: $7.5 million. Increase to Oakville Ice Inventory: zero; Improvement to Oakville's "livability" (or quality of life): little if any. Those are the hard facts about the Town's acquisition of Dominion Twin Rinks. Hard-working, capable Town staff, faced with a consultant's report stating the obvious, that there is an ice-surface shortfall in Town-owned facilities, and solicited by a receiver eager to protect their client by finding a solvent buyer, recommended to council that the Town buy the financiallystrapped Dominion Twin Rinks. With apparently little debate, the mayor and council embraced the idea, and the Town won the bid against several private bidders. The receiver and secured creditor are happy: municipalities pay their bills on time. Staff, the mayor and councillors congratulate each other on getting $19 million worth of facilities for $7.5 million. Taxpayers, however, scratch their heads -- the total number of ice surfaces available for skating and hockey remains unchanged. To increase the number by two will still cost another $19 million for a total of $26.5 million. Perhaps the Town was afraid that a buyer would close the ice facility and develop the property for a different use? Fair enough. A bid anywhere above land value (say $3 million) would have ensured that could not happen, and if successful would have been justifiable. The $7.5-million bid was clearly more than was needed, so this was not the rationale. What was the rationale? Where was the business acumen for which we rely on our mayor and councillors? When I first heard of this I found it puzzling. Not wishing to rush to judgment, I spoke to my councillors and to Town staff. I haven't yet heard anything which makes this deal make sense. Moving ice from private to public ownership may improve BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com ratios, but it doesn't change reality: the public was already using this facility. The affordability argument doesn't hold up either. The Town subsidized the use of Dominion Twin Rinks by minor boys' and girls' hockey, as it subsidizes all ice, in that user fees do not cover the fully-burdened cost of ownership of Town facilities. Yes, the Parks and Recreation Department can now control the allocation, but control could have been achieved by co-operating with a private bidder and, at best, that will represent a marginal improvement in any case. Pud See Creative page 7 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council.The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206,Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.