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CCOUNCIL NOTES FROM cc j PARI IAMFMT Disgruntled groom James Terry wilI always regret the decision he and his fiance made to hold their wed- ding reception in the municipal- ly owned Garnet Rickard Centre. Though the hall was a mess when they first looked it over, they were assured al would be well for the big day, September 19, 1998. . When the weddi 'ng party arrived at the Complex that day they were met by a pile of empty pizza boxes in the hall, the washrooms Terry recalis, were dirty, the sinks were grungy, the hall was dusty and dirty, the promised sound sys- *terr was not there, somebody's kids, who were not wedding guests were running around, and ran over his wife's wedding dress. Terry was promised the air conditioning would be on if need be. That day was hot and muggy, but the air conditioning was not on. Terry states that the day was ruined for his bride and himaself. To this day, Terry hias received no apology from- anyone at the municipality. When Terry asked about compensation, Joe Caruana, Communlity Services Director said it was impossible to attach a monetary value to this mnatter, however he did offer two free one month passes to the municipal pooîs. Mayor Hamre apologized on behaîf of the corporation. She went o to explain that though f that complex has dd;ubled in size, the level of staff has not increased. "Our staff is very trained and qualified to run the equipmenit," said Hamre, but added, "they need a womran up there whio knows how to clean."' Hunin (continued from page 1> the population of these animals are not controlled, farmers and even residential homeowners can begin, to suffer losses of crops, gardens, pets and other livestock states the letter. The Ontario government compen- sates farmrers under the Livestock, Poultry and Honey- bee protection Act for livestock lost to predators. The compen- sation comes from we the tax- payers, dlaims MacDonald, the higher the loss total the higher our tax bill. It is desirable to continue hunting as a means of indirectly keeping our taxes low expressed MacDonald. Couincillor Young stated that 50% of the names on MacDonald's petition come from the Orono area. He felt encouraged that these people were talking of proper enforce- ment rather than secession of hunting. "Not everyone shares the views we heard last week," stated Young in reference to Mr. Atkins appeal for the hunt- in- ban. The petition attached to Mr. MacDoniald's letter was in two parts. One petition begins: We the undersigned citizens of Clarington and the surrounding areas, draw the attention of the Council to the following.... .that hunting brings significant rev- enue to the area, has a long standing tradition in Clarington, is statistically an extremely safe activity and that current laws are suifficient in providing a safe environnment for the citizens of Clarington. There are 74 signatures on that petition, 48 of which are from people living outside the Municipality. The second part of the peti- tion was mnade in rebuttal of the many groundless complaints about hunting in Clarington. The stated purpose of this peti- tion is7 to ffiake council aware that it is inherently uinfair td lawful huners to base a by-law on the basis of the opinions of people who are prejudiced against huning. 0f the 109 people that signed this petition, only 61 naines were accompa- nied by addresses and phione numbers. 0f those 61, only six were fromn outside of the municipality. These petitions bothi ask thiat concerns bc addressed through law enforce- ment and not a ban. Counicil also heard trom a Mr. Norm Monaghan who stat- ed that Clarington receives 1/8 of ail the cash dispersements made in the provinces' Livestock, Poultry and Honeybee Protection Act. Monaglian claims that in 1996, the province paid over $103,000 in compensation to Clarington farmers. In 1997 that amnounit was decreased to $87,586.20 and as of November 19, 1998 payments in the amount of $52,296.54 were sent this way. Monaghan attributes the steady reduction in paymnents to the diligence of 2-3 wolf and coyote hunting groups that work in Claringtoni. It is the opinion of the Hunting Committee tiiat the muniýicipality has to cone up withi a by-law that addresses the urban areas, without restricting the land considered prime hunt- ing grounid. Safety issues raised Council referred a letter from seven Orono women regarding road safety, to Public Works for review. The letter states that speed on Main and Mill Streets is often excessive. The women request that the intersections of Church and Park Street and Church and Centre Street be made into four-way stops to aileviate some of the risks pedestrians face while crossing at those intersection. Steve Vokes, Director of Public Works stated that these intersections did not meet the criteria for four-way stops, but his department will review the suggestions made in the letter. First meeting of GSTB Allan Tonks informed the Mayor that he expects the Greater Toronto Services Board to be up and running for a first meeting on January 15, 1999. The GSTB passed final reading in the house last week, and the mayor commented on the fact that none of the Durham MPP's were in the houLse for the fin)al vote. Condolences Mayor Ham-re said it was a pleasure for her to wiork with former Bowmnanville Mayor- Ivan Hobbs. "Hle certainly was a man of this community, and he showed great leadership," she stated. Hobbs passed away on December 2 at the age of 86. Condolences were also expressed to the family of for- mer municipal councillor Paul Chant, who passed away on December 8, at the age of 73. a rm [aourisuwulul H IL L Alex Shepherd It's official. There will be no bank tnergers. And it's a triumph for democracy because no merg- ers is the message the public gave parliaxnentarians. But banks will have to change in some way. The financial world is evolving, Canada's market place is changing, and so will the financial institutions operat- ing in IL In spite of their aggressive lobbying canipaign, and the huge amounts of money they put behind it, the banks failed miserably convincing the public mergers. were a good move and'1i the interest of Canadians. The banks failed because the process requires them to prove their case for merger. This confused bankers because they thought Canadians should just follow the banks' Judgment and flot challenge it. How arrogant for banking CEOs to descent upon Ottawa armed with no more than two 8 1/2 x l1 sheets of paper7 and tkhink Canadians should totally restruicture their finan- cial services Industry based on the CEOs word alone. 1 remember the comments of Matthew Barrett. the Bank of Montreal CEO0, who referred to the know nothing backbenchers. As it turned out back- benchers had more class and understanding than the CEOs. Memrbers of Parliament consulted w«i, h constituents anrd experts in the fi nancial services industry. We tried to understand wrhat merits there were to the plans of the banks. The fact is the banks had no case. They even resorted to threats. If they couldn't get their way, they would close down a number of branches they warned. They said that whiÉle their. profits are high their retumn on Investments isn't where they want it. To improve this the CIBC went down to New York and bought Oppenheimer, a huge invest- ment bank. They lost millions of shareholders' dollars with this acquisition and you can't blame that on the branches. In fact branches represent the banks' core business operations because It affords them the ability to Interact with the public. Even though branch banking Is being mod- tied by automated tellers and the Internet, it Is clear branches Arill have a healthy future. For banks to argue they Nobody ever addressed the fact that you would not need two CEOs after the B of M and Royal merged. But Mr. Barrett would get to keep his job unlike many employees with his bank. The arrogance of the bankers toward the demo- cratic process and Canadians during Uhs debate was obvi- ous. These so-called smart executives wasted millions on a plan doomed to fail. This speaks volumes about the attitude they would have developed had they been suc- cessful. When you or 1 screw up we get fired. 1 wonder, as you do, what degree of responsibility will occur in the banks' cor- porate boardrooms now?