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Page 6. Whitby Free. sWeclnday, February 2,1994 The only Newspaper owned and operated by Whltby residents for Whltby residents! MEMBER 0F: ONTARIO CANADIAN 11 COMMUNITY COMMUNITY ~I NEWSPAPER + N NEWSPAPER - ASSOCIATION C SSOCIATION I!~JE~CANADIAN CIRCULATIONS CNA DIVISION AUDIT BOARD ISSN#0844-398X 26,500 COPIES DELIVERED WEEKLY Published every Wednesday by 677209 Ontario Imc. Box 206, 131 Brook St. N., Whitby, Ontario Ll N 5S1 Phone: 668-6111 Toronto Uine: 427-1834 Fax: 668-0594 Doug Anderson - Publisher Maurice Pither - Editor Alexandra Martin - Production Manager Printed on newsprint with minimum 20% -' recycled content using vegetable based inks.to 0 Ail written material. illustrations and advertising contained herein is protected by copyright. Any reproduction by any means foi' commercial purposes without the express permission of the newspaper is prohibited and is a violation of Candia pyight law. Reproduction for non-commercial distribution should bear a credit lin. to the Whitby Free Press. To Ute editouI Town abandoned downtown core To the Editor:, Re: Downtown Whitby Th. fight over extra taxes placed on downtown businesses should b. abandoned in the same way the Town has increasingly abandoned the downtown core. f is obvious that successive Tawn councils have repeatedly don. little to improvo tho downtown care and have neglectod the noed for growth of a vibrant and community-friendly centre. f they feit any need to promoto growth in the downtown core, they would not have romoved every DBIA: No benefit for the moneyvý% To the EdItor: Re: Taxation without representation At the Whitby Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) meeting Jan. 19 at Legion Hall, I was interested in the strangly conflicting opinions and ideas from businesses. As an outsider. 1 was also impressed by the desire and interest by merchants in pulîing together and co-aperating. Th. trouble is, thoy can't got together because of the DBIA. There are simply too many businesses getting no benefft for their maney. In 1773, some U.S. citizons eruptod and had the Boston Tea Party because thoy were being taxed by England without representatian. Here we are 220 years later with the same difficulty because of Ontario BIAs. The DBIA board of management should b. elected by the merchants instead of bein afpa inted by Whitby counci. rose who pay should decide on the make-up of the board. B3ob Adams Toronto Founder, Federat Ion of Boielnnss Agabna BIAS public office f rom downtawn and moved them to the 'country!~ This includes the lack of effort to retain provincial offi!ces in the cor.. Ail of the foliowing offices have maved out of downtown Whmtby: the caurthouse, Town hall, police departmenit, land tax assessmont building, hockey arena, hydro office and the recently announced docision to move the f ire dopartmont offices. In communities ail across Canada, Town councils feft thore was a need to connect both the people and the business community, and by having public off ices in the centre of town, this was accomplished. To this day, they remain communities whoro there is activity in the streets and the downtawns f lourish. Rt really is unfortunate that our Town counicils did not have this same attitude and koep public offices where they would b ring the people toq et her. And stilî they wonder why it is hard for business ta prosper thoro. Maybe they can start by keeping the f ire dopartment where it is, downtown. BIh Hepburn W hltby Big Brother support is appreciated To the Edîtor: On behaif of the board of directors and the Big and Little Brot hors cf Oshawa-Whitby Big Brothers Association, aur sincere thanks to the Whtby Free Press for the coverage given us during the past year. The support in keeping bef are the public the activities af our agency is sincerely appreciated since United Way funding in tho amount of 40 per cent of our budget cames originally from the communmty. Phylls F. May Roadl sait costly By Stephen Moore Envlronmental consultant end founder of Resolve: The Envlronmontal Training Croup It's time ta endure those white filigreed sait designs on aur boots and impersonate anchovies because the taste of sait is in the air. The population of Oakviîle is approximately 120,000, with an average of 11,000 tons of sait per year at an annual average cost cf $350,000. This is enough to f ill 367 double tractor-trailers or 180 pounds of sait for overy man, woman and child. Road sait damages soul, groundwater, rivers and streams, roads, buildings, bridges, underground utilities, automobiles, wiîdlife, trees and human health. Until recently, however, most municipalities have sither denied the damage or justified it as the price w. must pay for having summer driving conditions in January. Some individuals in Ontario are no longer willing ta pay that price. ln October 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a series of bower-court rulings ordering the Ontario Ministry of Tranprtation to compensate Niagara Peisula fruit-growers for excessive and unreasonable sait damage to their orchards. Others file damage dlaims every year, part icularly for underground parking garages. Aif or damage abave-ground, some sait ont ers our water supplies. Sodium chloride can be a serious problem for people with hypertension and other circulatory problems who are on 10w-sodium diets. For these people, sodium concentrations shauld not excoed 20 milligrams per litre, y et welîs in Ontario have been found with concentrations of 400 mlligrams per litre, leading to the closure of countless weîls over the last two decades. The obvious answer is ta roduce the use of road sait. This doosn't mean we have to rosign ourselves to sliding sideways down the road ail winter while looking out the passenger-sido window to see whore we are gaing. Relying only on pbows, blowers and shovels doesn't work in aur car- and truck-dependent saciety becauso, inevitably, an ice layer buiîds up on~ the roads. A combination of cammon senso and warkable alternatives could roduce the damnage don. by road sait withaut compromising safoty. Ontario experiments have proven the effectiversess of two other chemnicals, sodium formate and calcium magnesium -acetate (CA. Noither is corrosive. CM is biodegradable and sadium-free and does not throaten sail, water, va etation or human health. So far, the main obstacle ta their use is that the initial cost is about $1000 a ton (versus $32 for road sait), and shart-sightod thinking usually stops right there. Let's total up just the hausehold expenses f ram sait: Car undercoating, washos, windshield washor fluid and rust damage; ruined boots, carpets and throw rugs; additianal drycleani ng costs; rpacement for damaged lawns an vegotation; and maybo you can think of athers. A conservative estimate isthat ail the abave dam ag e costs each Oakville hausehald $300 per yoar. This amaunts ta a hiddon household 'road sait tax' from the town because of the damage dans by road sait. f we take the $300 road sait tax and multiply tho number of households in Oakville (41000), w. arrive at more than $12 million, enough ta buy ail the CMA Oakvillo needs, while completely eliminating sait damage. The total cost aof sait doasn't end there. Although seductive at $32 a ton, the roal price has been estimated ai $2.000 per ton, or twice as much as sodium formate and CMA when structural and vegotative damage is caunted. A 1987 study ccncluded that Ontario faces a $200 million repair bih for 2,700 salt-damaged bridges that wtill have ta b. repaired wit-In the next 10 years. Gardiner Expressway drivers in Toronto have alr.ady experienc.d some of the_ prablems assoclated with sait-reîated road and bridge repairs. Sait is not cost-effect ive. Why not sand? Rt anly costs $725 per ton this year, oven cheaper than sait . We live on top of sand already, and it won't rot aur socks off. Sand doesn't eliminate snow and ice as well as sait does, but we could drive more carefully and stop demanding July drivinq conditions in January. People in Northern Ontario and on the Prairies do just fine with sand instead of sait. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Palinena, epr Support for small business By Aox Shepherd Durham rldlng MP As a backbench MP, I was fortunate onough to b. oneloaf tii. f irst members to speak during the oponing week of Canada's 35th Parliament. 1 mentioned that small- and modium-sized businesses have created betwoen 17 and 83 per cent of new jobs, and that a large portion of aur economy is controîîod from otside our borders. Ibelievo, and I'm f inding spport for my view fromn othor MPs, that through incentivosan support for smnall- and modium-smzed businesses to croate new technology, we can regain controi of our economy., I toid the House we could croate newi long-termn sources of ~..apitàl by using pension funds and other saving vehicles as the basis of economic growth. As the government promised, MPs' pension reform wiiI b. one of the f irst items of business during this session cf Parliamnent. Doubto-dipping by defeated or retired MPs into the taxpayers' purs. is over once the legisîation is passed. The government reaffirmed the need ta end the GSI and 1 hope to hear ideas on what Rt should b. replaced wth. I know this tax has been hard on both the consumer and small businesseple, and unf air to those on fixed and low incarnes. There is goîng ta b. a substantial consultative process Cirior ta the budget. ht wiII give the people of Durham riding the opportunlty to express their opinions before the legisiation is proposed. Take advantage of the opportunity so 1 can take your opinion ta Ottawa. 1 Viewpoint 1