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Whlby Free Press, Wecinesy, Novembor 1,1995. Page 7 Mi*ke Months? Once upon a time you could separate ridiculous ideas fr-om workable ideas with esse Workable ideas made sense Rtidiculous ideas didn't make sense. If's not so easy anymore. lil get thi one lime about the Quebec referendum off my chest - and then I won't mention that vote agamn. Promise. (MonÏday wiHl be known as the day Quebec almost Oui-Oui 'ed on the rest of Canada.) The idea of Canada breakcing up once seemed too remote te contemplate. A down-te-the-wire result Monday might once would have been thought ridiculous. Not any more. Now the. problem facing the federal government is this: te corne up with an offer of -nstitutional reform acceptabe te Quebec, and te each of the other nine provinces. And that reform must be workable. And that, of course, is ridiculous. Let's deal with another example. Later this month, penhaps within three weeks, the Ontario government of Mike Harris wiil make announcements of funding cuts acroos the. public service. Nothing new. Each of the past five years have' seen one, two per cent snipped away fror various budgets. Tiisocal contraet carved out even more. (Remember Rae Days?) But the rumours of this year's pending cuts range fo 20 per cent over the next two yste 20 per cent for each of the neÈt two years. At any other time, either of those rumours would immediately have been discounted as ridiculous. Let us hear rumours that are at least workable, everyone would have said. But the rumours show the range of what is now thought possible. That means education, health care, and aIl other areas of public service can expect at least a 20 per cent cut over two years. Or, as much as 20 per cent this year and again next year. Are such cuts workable? Well, one thing the Harris government has communicated, quit. clearly, says yes. The cuts wiil b. announced, they will be huge by comparison, and they will be swift. We may go from Rae Day te, Mike Months. It will then be up te hospitals, boards of education, collegesi, universities and ail of the. publiceservice tolimp through the results. On. story making rounds this week defined the bemigof contract negotiations with one public service union. The stoiy goes that the union negotiating team filed. team-like into the board room te begin the usual ritual dance. But on the other side of the table sat only one parson: a lawyer representing management. lhe lawyer had one thing tesay Heres the government offer. Itfs a 20 per cent pay cut. That, said the unionmembers, isn't even a starting point of negotiations. No, no, said the lawyer. You misunderstand. That's the only offer. Take it or leave it. And then he left. At any other Urne, such a stery would b. dismissed as just plain ridiculous. And my instinct for steries says this one has ail the earmarks of an "urban myth." And yet. And yet. Who would have thought Canada would have been so close te dissolving? t M1PIP- AERIAL VIEW 0F ONTARIO LADIES' COMLEE, C. 1956 This picture of Ontario Ladies' College (now Trafalgar Castie School) ta looldng east from Reynolds Street shortly alter the completion of Graoe Chapel. Development of the fields in the background into a subdivision began i 1957. WhItby Arcivesphoto 10 YMARS AGO from the Wednesday, October 30,1985 edition of the WITY FK PRESS 0 Whitby will get an extra seat on Durham Region Coundil, but flot'in Urne for the 1985 election. a Proposed provincial funding for Roman Catholic Separate Sehools bas become a municipal election issue. *A public meeting will be held by the town on a proposed sign bylaw. *Lack of busing for special education classes ls a municipal élection issue. 35 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, October 27, 19ÇO0 edition of the WHITBY WNEKLY NEWS * Larzy Gond, a former meniber of Trafalgar Township Council, is hIMtby~s new Industrial Commrissioner. *Eight people were iured in a two-car accident at Dundas and G3arden Streets. * One hundred and twenty-five Queen's University students will run through Whitby on Oct. 29 as part of a Queen's-University of Toronto football match. * Anne's Fabric Shop will open on Nov. 3 on Byron Street beside the Legion Hall. 80 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, October 28, 1915 edition of the WIBVGAZETTE AND CHRONICLE (This issue is missing) 01-1 # --oo- 1# 1- ao- 1- #--. 00-- J-% - - op- nm,