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Page 8 WHITBY'S MAYOR -CONTEMPORARY "Our conscience and our intelligen- ce tell us that between being an out-of- date modern and a contemporary of the future, there is a big difference. Desmond G. Newman is a man of presence - both physically and intel- I e c t ually. He compounds the required el ements of his office with the philos- oph i es of a fine mind. The day by day: frustrations and triumphs, tiny and grand, are his. The day by day seek- ing, thinking, reasoning, planning are ideals sought and djscovered. To Whi tby, Mayor Newman has brought not only present prosperity and un d r eamed of development, but an in- sa ti ab le desi re to provide a future in step wi th the future - in that future. Des Newman is a big, dark-haired s i x-footer who looks more like a half- back than a politician. There is a cas- ual impeccability in his appearance. Behind horn-rimmed glasses, his eyes are dark , deepset and thoughtful - ready to communicate. In conversation h i s'vo i ce is a quiet instrument which articulates an intellectual way of think- ing - all things, all facts, all possib- ilities must be considered. And he can I i s t e n. From the hardnosed business man, the citizen, the student comes the comme nt, "You can talk to him."" You tiscoun don't have to agree with him. Maybe he emnment. d o e s n 1t agree wi th you, but you know h e'1 I h ave your side of the story. He listens. " What follows is a Ilistening to May- or Newmant. What is it that he's been s ay i n g these past years and sti1 is? t Whatdoes it mean for the Whitby area, now and in the future? levels "QUESTION"WHAT IS THE FOUNDATION, tsou THE KEYS TO YOUR AT TITUIDES AND hscu ~ red m i IDEAS IN RELATION TO YOUR POSI- 'conditic TION AS MAYOR? saying 1 NEWMAN: "I'm very centrally concerned dothing! about the process of government. 1 see ionof lac a si tuation in Canada where the Feder al mn a and Provincial level s of Government are atryl essentially understood to be what they anex are and are respected for what they do. riei We have a level of government at the thte local level which on occasion is treated aotf very disrespectfully. Not so much by ards individuals as by institutions. "QUESTlON" wOULD YOU D EFINE YOUR BC USE 0F INSTITUTIONS'? HW NEWMAN:By that I mean companieS, indus-NEAN tris i thir ealngsit th feera acep nth I country. or provincial governments, who do so with a certain manner and in a certain things i t on e . T h a t i s not to be directed to the pres companiesalone. It is something which totaly is very pervasive throughout the society. that ther Groups of individuals go to the hallowed cipaitie hall 1 s of Ottawa or Queens Park, but vincial these same people don't have the same ctivewo regard for municipal institutions. Local al? Thi government, - perhaps because of it- advocat self - not taking itself too seriously - thatthe doesn'1 t appreciate how relevant and thems importantitis. Today local government might e spends 30% of all money spent by ail peopler governments in this country. I think it inastrc would come as a shock to most people the 30 to realize that of the billions and bil- Provirc 0F ollars spent by governiments in try, is spent by the local gov- We'realmosta full third part- =processof government in this Thi s as a very serious concern There's a second, very insid- blem. We're the only level of ent which raises only half of nney it spends. The other half rom the federal and provincial I think the figure for grants is -i ng like 2. 9 billion dollars in ntry. Of that, twenty-six hund- 1i i on is given in the form of onal grants' - in short they're we'l1 give you the grant IF you sTHIS Way'. That is an invas- -al jurisdiction, local govern- nodiscretionpowers left. And u've subtracted our fixed costs enses from ail the taxes we've n the municipality, you can say effectively have control over ve cents! That's the extent of mretion! YOU WANT TO GET CONTROL NTO THE MUNICIPALITIES. Before local government can the kind of responsibilities I'm g abou tit's got to docertain tself. It has got to realize that sent structure of government is inadequate. When you reali ze -e are something I ike 900 muni- es in Ontario how can the Pro- government possibly have effe- rkable communication with them at's why live been a very strong e of regional government. I say municipal ities must restructure e I v e s so that, for example we nd up with 40 regions, then the -esponsible for those regions are ng position to communicate with or so cabinet ministers in the cial government. One of the cri- ticisms of regional government is that in making these bodies you'll squeeze out local identities. That's nonsense! First of ail, in any regional govern- ment that I would support there would be two levels. The regional level which would administer major things such as sewe r s, water, police, parks etc. , an d a l ocal level which would retain c o n t r o I over those things which dir- ectly relate to local parks, garbage collection, people, local welfare and so on. In one region you might have 10 municipalities, and representatives of those10 municipal ities would sit toget- her on a regional council whose respon- sibility isto look at regional problems. The representative of a region of, say 250thousand, is going to be listened to far more carefully at Queens Park than a rep from amunicipal ity of 20thousand. "QUESTION" BASICALLY, THEEN, YOUR IDEA IS DECENTRALIZATIONOF POWER? NEWMAN:Yes. Decentralization of power FROM the provincial level of govern- ment TO the local, municipal, level. "QUESTION" w IÉL REGIONAL GOVERNMENT, IN FACT, BECOMEAREALITYIN ONTARIO? NEWMAN:1 think that within the next five to ten years, conceivably sooner, you'l1 se e the entire province bl anketed by regional governments. "QUESTION" WHAT IS, PERHAPS, THE MO RE PERSONAL SIDE OF MAYOR NEWMAN? NEWMAN: l'm married. Mywife'sname is M.arjorie. We have three daughters, Di edr e who isl15,years old, Rhoda, 13 y e a r s, and Marsha, 8 years old. Fortunately they've ail become accli- Continued on page 9 DESMOND NEWMAN THE FUTURE -yi