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2 -Orono WeeklyTimes, Wednesday. November 18, 1998 Subscriptions $21.50 + $1.50 G.S.T. - $23.00/year. Publications Mail Registration No. 000368 Publishing 50 Issues Annually at the Office of Publication 5310 Main Street, P.O. Box 209, Orono, Ontario LOB IMO E-Mail Address: oronotines@speedline.ca Phone/Fax (905) 983-5301 Publisher/ Editor Marg Zwart Can We Afford Summer Games? by Roy Forrester The question surely should be asked if indeed we can afford the summer games being proposed for the City of Toronto in the year 2008. There has been a lot of hype over the issue with much being promoted by Toronto's for- mer, perfect little mayor, David Crombie. It's all a piece of cake. Crombie interviewed by Suhanna on the evening CBC news some weeks ago gestured in a grandiose style with locations for a Olympic size pool along with many other other stadiums and facilities to house the games. It was a saviour for the city. Suhanna asked a very simple question "who will use all these facilities after the games?" Of course Crombie saw great use of the facilities catapulting Toronto into a new orbit of activity and prosperity. Lets look at the history of the multi-purpose Skydome Dome completed in 1989 at a total cost of $580 million. The first estimate of this grandiose structure had been set at $235 million. A budget over-run of $345 million that was made up by the Ontario taxpayers. In 1994 the Ontario government sold the Dome for a mere $151 million to the Skydome Investment group who required $75 million in mortgage bond financing. Since that tine $15 million has been repaid. Some are saying the edifice is already obsolete and recorded a $2.9 deficit in 1998 with taxes yet to pay. Not a very bright picture for all the hype that went with the Skydome. A further look reveals the Blue Jays with a loss of $40 million US for 1998. Why should the 2008 Summer Games be any better? It won't and can't and Suhanna had the right question for Crombie which was never really answered by the 'perfect lit- tle mayor'. If the plan goes ahead one can bet odds-on that the low income and street people, as in B.C. will be rushed out of the city and the taxpayer will divy up for the financial loses. The human cost, in itself, will be just too much. (Letters to the Editor ORONO WEEKLY TIMES S ervn atCaig n beyondsne 193 lives up to the level of public consultation set by the three Round Tables. The Consolidated Report is available for public review until the end of this month. Your readers may review the recommendations at http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/M NR/lfl on MNR's Lands for Life web site. Your readers may also obtain a printed copy through any MNR office. I encourage everyone to please take the time to read the report and once again provide their input on the use ard management of our shared resources. I want to take this oppor- tunity to thank everyone who took part in the Lands for Life Round Table consultations and shared their vision of the future for our Crown lands. Sincerely, John Snobelen Minister of Natural Resources. November 15, 1998 Call me if you disagree Quebec based politicians are using official bilingualism to acquire political influence in the rest of Canada. The cost is immense, and most of it goes unnoticed by most people because it's being done one step at a time over a peri- od of years. Am I being racist, bigoted, or paranoid? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but these are the facts as I see them. And I invite you to ponder some questions that we all need to ask: 1. Successive Quebec gov- ernments have ruined Quebec's economy through their dictatorial language laws, and constant threats of separation. And we in the rest of Canada Impede our eco- nomic progress by spending billions of dollars on official bilingualism. How much of your income would you vol- untarfly spend on government lmposed bilingualism? 2. Two attempts were made to give Quebec constitutional recognition as a distinct soci- ety (Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords.) Both failed. So now the Calgary Declaration is being used to achieve the same purpose. Why is there such a deter- mined drive to give Quebec legal and political powers that no other province will have? 3. The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telec ommunications Commission) has ruled that Lindsay Comcable, and every other cable TV company in Canada with over 2,000 sub- scribers, will be compelled to carry TVA, a French language network. Given a choice, would you pay your share of this cost? 4. Bell Canada is also bending to pressure from Quebec politicians. Lift the receiver on your telephone and dial 411 to get telephone directory assistance. A recorded announcement wili ask you if you want to be served in English or French. Only 2.9% of the people in Ontario report French as their "home" language. And most of them also speak English. 5. David Levine, an avowed separatist, has recently been made chief administrator of Ottawa's three major hospi- tals: Montfort, Ottawa Civic, and Ottawa General. Shortly after his appointment he issued an edict: unilingual English employees can retain their jobs, but all new-hires November 10, 1998 Dear Editor: I am writing to bring to the attention of your readers that the Consolidated Report of the Lands for Life Round Tables has been released for public comment. Many of your readers par- ticipated in one form or another in Lands for Life Round Table consultations. This input to the Round Tables has made Lands for Life the most comprehensive public discussion that has ever taken place about land- use planning of our Crown lands. I would like to publicly thank the three Chairs and members of each of the Round Tables who had the difficult task of combining, into a single set of recom- mendations, the often vastly different views; of the more than 65,000 people who took part in this consultation. I think they did an admirable job. It seems that there are amost as many different opinions on the future of our Crown lands as there are peo- ple who took the time to get involved. I believe that there has been a common thread in every submission made -- that every Ontarian has a stake in the future of these lands, and that every Ontarian deserves the oppor- tunity to have a say in how they are managed, for today and for the future. The 242 recommendations in the Consolidated Report will provide the framework for Ontario's land-use strategy. More importantly, the process of Lands for Life has set the standard for public involve- ment in determining this strategy. The test of any future discussion of Crown lands use will be whèther it must be bilingual. Why do all employees need to be bilin- gual when only 1.6 per cent of the francophones in the Ottawa region are unable to speak English? If official bilingualism was intended to increase the number of French speaking people in Canada, it has failed. The percentage of peo- ple that speak French in their home is holding steady in Quebec. but declining in the rest of Canada. The following statistics (published by Statistics Canada in 1996) show the percentage of people that reported French as their "home" language: Newfoundland 0.2%; Prince Edward Island 2.3%; Nova Scotia 2.3%; Ontario 2.9%; Manitoba 2.1%; Saskatchewan 0.6%; Alberta 0.7%; British Columbia 0.5%; /Yukon 1.8%; Northwest Territories 1.0%; New Brunswick (our only bilingual province) 30.5% and Quebec 82.8% (because it is unilin- gual French). The Liberal government has decreed that by the year 2001 all executives in all fed- eral institutions must be bilingual. Nobody can dispute the value of having two lan- guages, but why is it a pre- requisite for government posi- tions? Truth to tell, it's not a job requirement - it's a polit- ical requirement. Mr. Bouchard and his followers are using language to achieve their goal of "sovereignty association" or to paraphrase, an equal partnership with the rest of Canada. Do you want one province to have powers equal to all of the other com- bined? Jim McKee R. R. #3, Woodville, Ontario KOM 2T0 705-374-4647 op MM%%ý Illýl,,.","ý11-1,17",,-",,.,ý,,ý,ýýr"",n""ý1.1b.-ýýý1âý-,ý--ý,ý"-