THE HERALD Wednesday April 17 11 Ottawa Report Rough night in Etobicoke for blue suit from Ottawa By GARTH TURNER MP Maybe you caught the TV news clip last Saturday night It featured pictures of a meeting on tax reform which turned ugly There were people shouting a each other milling around in the of a high school auditorium getting ready to do some shoving as they were bath ed in the lights of the television cameras Inside the meeting itself peo ple in the audience were heckling some of the speakers including me The Etobicokebased group called Halt Increasing Taxes HIT had invited me to come and talk about the report I wrote to Michael Wilson recommending some radical changes to the tax system But I was never much able to get around to that topic For a lot of people here was an MP a blue suit from Ottawa standing up there talking Some of them had just come to get angry because property taxes had risen because the size of governments keep growing because they don feel they have much input into the system Some folks have a hard time understanding that you can be against bigger government and higher taxes and still be a politi cian So Saturday morning there at that meeting I was a target for frustration and anger Don get me wrong no com plaints from me That s part of the job Having people yell in my face just comes with the ter In these times of confu change and great divisions between groups regions and even levels of government it not surprising that emotions run high and people look for targets But getting angry is not enough Some folks at the meeting understood that and they tried to tell the hecklers to be quiet After the meeting as I was surrojnded by TV cameras and people asking questions a few troublemakers started a demonstration to drown out my comments and divert the reporters attention away from what was being said That s when tempers flared as a couple of people came out to try and stop the rowdies At least one of them is a man who deeply disagrees with me on several issues and has even been in in setting up another political party organization But he does share with me a desire to find a constructive solution to our problems like having the level of government which spends money on programs be the one which taxes people to fund them If we could have that simple change taxpayers would know who zooming them So the meeting demonstrated a number of things to me There are angry people who want to lash out at a system which they do not fee a part of That of course has to change Ironically that s why I went to the meeting to try and involve them But at the same time there are a lot of people who want to find solutions to our problems folks who realize that yelling may get the attention of the TV cameras but it does nothing to change things These taxpayers know that we have too many levels of govern too many politicians and therefore too little accountabili ty People unhappy about high taxes should be talking about disentangling governments at tacking the waste inefficiency overlap and duplication that results from having so many leaders Do we need correspon ding ministers of health environ ment industry energy etc at both federal and provincial Queens Park Report- Discussing Health Professions Act ByNOELDUIGNAN MPP Health Professions Legislation Last week I outlined the Regulated Health Professions Act and related individual acts introduced by Health Minister Evelyn Gigantes in the Legislature on April 2nd Some of you may have questions about the new bills so I will attempt to pro vide you with more details about the omnibus and its 21 separate Health Professions Act The need to replace the existing patchwork legislation was iden some time ago and in 1982 Toronto lawyer Alan Schwartz was commissioned to carry out the Health Professions Legislative Review The Review mandate was to make recommendations to the Minister of Health on which health sions should be regulated and to update and reform the Health Discipline s Act and related legislation One of the Review guiding principles was that the public must be permitted to exer else freedom of choice of health care providers within a range of safe options There had been con pressure to change the regulatory framework both from members of the public who lack ed confidence in the complaints and disciplinary processes and from regulated and unregulated professions who realized the system was unworkable There was also a need to give the unequivocal right to practice and to establish standards for midwifery and the six other unregulated professions The legislative package introduced by the Minister has been based upon the Review although some changes have been made and strives to find a balance between professional independence and public accountability Twenty five health professions will be self regulating and governed by the Regulated Health Professions Act The pro fessions include seven groups that are not currently regulated auditogists dietitians medical laboratory technologists mid wives occupational therapists respiratory therapists and speech language pathologists For the first time the public will have the same rights and remedies in relation to all pro fessions Patients will have ac cess to the Health Professions Board if they are not satisfied with a particular colleges in vestigation- of their complaint against a member Procedures or acts that can be harmful if not properly carried out are listed as controlled acts and one or more are designated as entitled to perform them Under existing legislation some professions such as medicine are given ex elusive rights over a whole range of activities including many that are unlikely to cause harm The Regulated Health Professions Act lists the thirteen categories of controlled acts the related in dividual bills outline a profes sion s scope of practice its authorized controlled acts and the composition of its council and committees Some occupations- will have new official names denture therapists become dentunsts dental technicians become dental technologists nursing assistants become practical nurses and radiological technicians become medical radiation technologists NOTICE D GRANT IS A AC b co BARRISTER SOLICITOR NOTARY is pleased to announce the opening of his newest office located at Suite 803 The E mo raid Business Centre Garden Circle Ontario LSR 3K6 Northwest of Highways 10 and 43 507 0303 Fax 507 Toll Free From Georgetown 7910619 Monday to Friday 00 Evening and Weekend by Appointment levels Do we need forty cabinet ministers Ottawa Shouldn there be some legislated control on how much government at all levels can spend Ottawa is pass ing a law to prevent spending in creases of more than 3 Can we get Queen s Park to do the same we should have a tax conference and invite all govern ments to be there after all they have their hands in the same set of taxpayer pockets This might be the only way of making sure what one government does the next one does not undo Example Ottawa is cutting back on money to the provinces so we can end the deficit and then lower taxes But Ontario is dramatically increasing ding Ottawa limited civil ser wages to Then Queen Park gave its workers twice that amount Ottawa is waging war on the deficit reducing it by 75 over the next four years But On tano is poised to bring in a deficit that in four years will be much bigger than hat of the entire country This madness has to end The people deserve governments which don t waste money fighting each other Until they get it the yelling and shoving will continue OneStep Lawn Care and 549 Savings bolens Suburban Lawn Tractor now with NEW OneStep Mulching System- FREE Eliminates the need to collect grass clippings makes bagging obsolete Patent pending GRS technology recycles grass clippings into fast acting all natural fertilizer 12 and Models fromthe makers of the Original Mulching Mower NO MONEY Financing now available with approved credit BEST SALE ends May Balens OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT OPPOSITE GEORGETOWN DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL 8770314 JKrVJKSi SUFBR LUBB OIL CflANGg PLETE CAR CLEANING RD ARMSTRONG AVE 8779394