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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday February 6, 2008 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 DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager GO elsewhere While we support increased funding for GO Transit to make it more efficient and affordable, we do not think property taxpayers in the GTA municipalities should be asked to foot the bill. There's no denying the GTA property taxpayers use GO Transit, but the property tax system is not the best way to finance the necessary improvements. One of the best ways to reduce gridlock on the GTA's highways is to encourage people to get out of their cars and into public transit alternatives. And in the GTA, GO Transit represents the best possible alternative currently available. What we need is a massive transfusion of money into GO Transit to make it one of the best rapid transit systems in North America. GO Transit is trying to meet the demand and has increased its 10-year growth capital budget created in 2001 from $1 billion to $2 billion. But the province expects the GTA municipalities to fund one-third of this, and local politicians are balking at this amount. And so they should. If Halton is forced to contribute, regional taxpayers would see their share jump from $37 million to $75 million. And that's only a start. What about the future? Halton could recoup $45 million of that amount through development charges, but would still be $30 million short. Relying on property taxpayers to help fund GO Transit improvements is shortsighted. It discourages rather than encourages investment. Instead of relying on municipal governments to further burden property taxpayers, the Province should be looking at going it alone, or, better yet, forming a partnership with the federal government and putting some of those gasoline taxes to good use. It's high time the federal and provincial governments realized the more money they contribute to rapid transit systems like GO Transit, the less money they have to spend in other areas such as road improvements. Someday, we would like to see a rapid transit system shuttling trainloads of people along the lakeshore from Niagara Falls to Kingston. But that won't happen unless some leadership is shown in changing the existing flawed funding system. 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 Constituents demanding affordable child care: Turner Your editorial (Daycare issue growing old, Oakville Beaver, Feb. 1) questioning my motives for making child care a topic of upcoming Town Hall meetings did as much for the issue as politicians have: Nothing. Why am I offering people a chance to come and talk about this? Because they asked. A flood of new residents has created a tidal wave of questions about affordable childcare in this community. You should know the waiting list is at least four months long. Why have governments failed to address this? Because there's no consensus on whether it's the state's job to provide child care, a parental responsibility only, or a combination. Why is this an issue with a federal election looming? Because there's no better chance for taxpayers and parents to exert pressure for what they want. Between votes, sadly, citizens are rarely listened to. Why is change needed? Because the current government's spending $2 billion a year sending parents $100 a month, while child care in Halton costs $1,200 a month. Is this a crisis in Halton? If you have children and lack $13,000 a year in aftertax income to purchase care, you bet. We have one of the biggest populations of kids in Canada, which makes this something politicians had better try to understand. What will my meetings accomplish? They'll offer people a chance to speak. They'll give me a chance to listen, learn, and take that back to government. I made only one promise when I took this job, and that was to represent Halton to Ottawa, not the other way around. I won't forget it. GARTH TURNER MP FOR HALTON There goes the neighbourhood Re: Edgemere Estate eyed for two-storey flats, Oakville Beaver, Feb. 1 Oh my stars and garters! Medium-density development in the east end of Oakville, and on the waterfront no less. What has happened to this town now that the wealthy and privileged must go cheek by jowl with the swarming, unwashed masses, such as they are, when they can afford $4 million for a condo, oops, manor home. Whoops, again. Mansion. Wow, that was a close one. I wouldn't live there either, by the way. Dangerous precedent indeed! WES ROBERTS Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com 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 416-3401981. 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.