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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 197i, WHITBY FREE PRESS wliitby Voice of the County Town Serving Over 27,000 Readers. r Published every Wednesday• Mike Burgess 1)y Whitby Free Pres. lac, Bl otiHruno Harlaid. The Free Press Building Publisher-Manag g Editor. 121 Brock Street North, , Puliser-anaingEdior.Whitby, Ontlario, Assistant Editor - Blake Purdy Contributing Editor - Jim Quail Production Manager - Marje Burgess Display Advertising Manager - Robin Lyon Classified Ad Manager - Shelley Crowley Box 206, Whitby Marling Permit No. 2941 Phone 668-6111: Toronto Line 282-1004 'PMdishonest Dear Sir; Several weeks ago Prime Minister Trudeau spoke in Toronto. He described in detail how painful and difficult it was to make the decision in regard to the Pickering Airport. Apparently the Cabinet agonized over the problem but in the end he said the project must go forward as'only 2,000 people would be affected by building Pickering whereas expan- sion of Malton would dis- rupt an additional 60,000 people.. This phoney 2,000 population disturbance figure. from the Ministry of Transport has been used for three years by sorme Ottawa politicians and Malton residents who are pro Pickering. i would like to give some examples of how many people are paying the freight right now for this Mickey Mouse one- runway Airport. There are about 800 properties in the expro- priated area. These home- owners were promised a house for a house by the Minister of Transport but Ottawa has renegued. Next is the Provincial freeze on about 50,000 acres around the site which removed land-use rights from all residents. There are thousands af- fected in this area because Queen's Park refuses to accept any responsibility for the hardships that it has created. Thanks to the Ontario Tories, the Fed- eral Government is able to control the whole area without paying a penny. People with residential land cannot build. or sell but must continue to pay taxes on original assessed value. With most of the Air- port site located in the Town of Pickering the bulk of the property taxes are payable to this Municipality but the hitch is that they are not being paid promptly. As of May lst, 1975, the taxes owed to Picker- ing by the Federal Gov- ernment were about $125,000 and climbing. The 25,000 residents here are paying interest on borrowed money to pay Town bills because Ottawa will not live up to its commitments. Pickering Municipal staff have been asked for special reports, addition- al tax bills and other information by Ottawa with charges standing at over $5,000 after 3 years and still unpaid. I could continue but foregoing are sufficient to show that many thou- sands are affected now without -even discussing the coming noise pro- blem. What does the future hold for the people of Pickering and the other Municipalities here when we have to deal with a Federal Government that breaks every promise it makes and a Provincial Government that has so little interest in our well being that it acts as an Ottawa stooge in 50,000 acres worth of expropria- tion without compensa- tion. The 2,000 population disturbance figure used by the Ministry of Trans- port is obviously only the number of fingers in their office available for counting. In my opinion anyone who uses this ridiculous figure of only 2,000 people affected to des- cribed the physical, emo- tional and financial cost of this project locally is either easily led or is dishonest and that in- cludes the Prime Minister. Yours truly, Ken Spratley, Councillor, ward 3, Town of Pickering. letters box 206 whitby We're proud of Mayor Newman The people of Whitby and especially those living in the West Lynde subdivision should be proud of Mayor Des Newman. Mayor Newman did what few politicians would do. He admitted that he had made a mistake. During Thursday's public meeting called to discuss the planned high rise apartments for Jeffrey and Dundas Straets and Ontario Housing Corporation involvement in them, Mayor Newman was asked if he felt that the council which signed the site plan agreement with builder Peter Sorich- etti and Sons had made a mistake. "I hllievu in retrosnect. ves". the mayor ad- mitted. He was the mayor of Whitby at the time the agreement was signed. Mayor Newman, in making this admission, indicated that he is opposed to the high rises now that he has heard the public opposition to them. He said, though, that nothing could be done to stop the buildings as the agreement has already been signed. He did, however, say that he would heartily attempt to block O.H.C.'s proposai to make 25 per cent of the apartnents' units available to on low incomes. We are fortunate to have a mayor like Des Newman. He will be missed. rwrite: I W ' M --- noup, ii glu v %0 0 1 1 y 1