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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, FEBR UA RY 12, 1986,WHITBY FR FF PRESS IPublished every Wednesday whitby BILL MCOUAT by Mb..M. Publishing CommuntyEdtor and Photography Inc. Phone 668.6111 VALERIE COWEN u u - -Advsrtlalng Manager The Free Press Building, i31 I6rock Street North,SendCasMi Voice of the County Town Michael Ian Burgess, Publisher Managing Editor 1:11BoStreetb ot egrcontdior o. 535 The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. PAW budget raises serious questions This week council approved the budget estimates for Whitby's first term In the business of animal control. By now everyone is aware that the town has taken over the'service from the On- tarlo Humane Society. It was a political wrangle which would have been difficult to Ignore after playlng itself out for more than a month on the front pages of the local papers. During the course of that dispute, however, there was one rather im- portant question that seemed to slip everyone's notice. That question is, can the Town of Whitby A w90a isus o--* fro. -n etaa's . , outpading news persIen.tie OTTAWA - I see by the papers that Mike Pearse, the outspoken mayor of Quesnel, B.C., wants February the 28th declared Good News Day in his province. Like the rest of us, Mayor Pearse has the feeling that there is altogether too much bad news around and he would like a little annuai relief from It. Mayor Pearse recently Made headiines by protesting against risIng provincial fuel taxes, which I suppose would have to be classified as bad news. This tem- pts me to suggest: "you stop making it, Mr. Mayor, and we'll stop reporting it". Our problem here is that news tends to be the unusual, not the commonplace. Sometimes that works to the advantage of people whd think there ls too much of the bad stuff. When a war ls on, and death and destruction have become commonplace, it is the cessation of fighting that is the unusual, and it is the armistice that grabs the front page headlines. The senseless daily tragedy of the Iran- Iraq war has become so commonplace that it barely -gets reported anymore. Fleads are knocked and so many black people die in South Africa these days ln confrontations with white police that it is only when black murders black that the media's attention is recaptured. Ugandans continue to murder each other and it has become so commonplace that it rarely makes a newscast. The same has become true of Lebanon. It has to be an awfully big car bomb with a very large fatality list for Lebanon to get media attention now. A serious out- break of good will in Lebanon would make front pages all over the world and stay there for some time. There ought to be some solace in.this for Prime Minister Mulroney. It Is only because disasters like the tuna scandal are unusual that they make headlines. If the Mulroney government ever deteriorates to the point where this sort of thing becomes commonplace then It won't make news any more. And the government won't make headlines again until it steps out of character and does something right. Somehow I have a feeling that the Prime Minister would prefer to have things more or less the way they are. It is a good thing for the human race that decency, compassion, love and happiness are not so rare that they déserve the attention of Global News or any other newcast. And although I understand and ap- plaud His Worship's suggestion that February the 28th be proclaimed Good News Day, I think it would haye;been more realistic of him to suggest February the 29th, really provide the same' level of service to the communities of Pickering, Ajax and Whitby after significantly cutting shelter staffing and its hours of operation. To hear our local politicians tell it, they have pulled off a minor coup and discovered the secret of complete and efficient animal control at two- thirds the cost budgeted by the Humane Society for 1986. If this is true, they are to be commended but we remain unconvinced by thelr bold assuran- ces. A quick analysis of the numbers should at least spark some skepticism. Under the new management, there will be two animal control vehicles on duty between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday with emergency service assured for the remaining hours of the day. However, until an animal com- plaint is phoned in to the shelter, the trucks will be parked and the animal control officers will be working ln the shelter. Previously, there were three trucks on active patrol from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. seven days a week. In addition to these, a fourth truck remained at the office to attend to the many chores that will now have to be done by one of the two patrol trucks. Under the new arrangement, If one truck is busy in Pickering, and the second is making a trip to the dump, who will respond if someone reports a pack of wild dogs roaming the Corridor, This is perhaps a worst case scenarlo but it doesnt require a grasp of advan- ced mathematics to recognize that the numbers don't add up. Apparently the committee feels it was wasteful of the Humane Society to have four trucks in its budget, although Humane Society President Tom Hughes will tell you differently, but it escapes us how our politicians can assert so blithely that they will provide the same level of service with half the resources. And, according to Mr. Hughes, we have yet to see the worst. Wipter is the down time of' year for animal control and it won't be until this, spring that we really see the service put to the,1 test. We expect our elected officiais to exercise. restraint when budget time rolls around, and when tax dollars are at a premium we are prepared to accept cutsJn public services - to a point. In this case, however, it would seem to us that our politicians are not being completely honest with the people who pay their bills. Just as the PAW committee expected a full accounting of how the Humane Society was using our money, we as tax- payers have a right to know exactly what the town is delivering in way of animal control. If council elects to reduce the quality of animal control in the interest of restraint, they should be forthright enough to tell us this is what they are doing.