The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

PAGE 4 THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, MAY 21,2003 www.durhamregion.com Tim Whittaker Publisher Joanne Burghardt Editor-in-Chief Chris Bovie Managing Editor Judi Bobbitt Regional Editor Fred Eismont Director of Advertising Eddie Kolodziejcak Classified Advertising Manager Kirk Bailey Distribution Manager Lillian Hook Office Manager Barb Harrison Composing Manager Stje Canadian Statesman ■ Clarington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 H May 21,2003 Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. Phone 905-579-440C Classifieds 905-576-9335 Distribution 905-579-440/ General Fax 905-579-2236 Newsroom Fax 905-579-1805 E-Mail newsroom@durhamregion.corri 865 Farewell St., Oshawa ON L1H 7L'ff Publications Mail Registration No. 07637* infodurhamregioti.com ' EDITORIAL c-mail Idlers to new.sroom@durhiimrcgion.coni Tory promise on municipal taxes misplaced A fter eight years at the helm at Queen's Park, the best the Tories can do for cash-strapped municipalities municipalities is completely tie their hands and prevent them from raising taxes which local democratically-elected democratically-elected representatives representatives believe are needed. The 'you can't raise taxes or add new ones without a referendum referendum proposal' is a key plank in the Tory election platform for the upcoming provincial race. The Tories have cast themselves themselves as the white knights who plan to protect taxpayers against the evil tax-increasing local and regional councillors. They describe this as the 'Taxpayer 'Taxpayer Protection Act.' Never mind that for many years local and regional councils made cuts and bled their budgets dry to avoid tax increases or that the Province, in its move to reorganize reorganize responsibilities, ended up downloading services onto local levels of government. In brief, the Conservative pledge demands municipal or regional governments, should they decide on any tax increase or new tax, must first hold a referendum referendum and get the support of a majority of taxpayers. Given that taxpayers favour higher taxes as much as they support say, voluntary root canal work, it's not likely many referendums;, would pass. More likely is . th'St-'cbuhcils would S twist thernsélVes into pretzels hacking and slashing necessary services to avoid a tax increase and stay away from a referendum. referendum. Consider the impact, for instance, of inflation and cost- OPINION e-mail letters to newsroom@diirhamregion.com Time to make an ITER deal T he time for rhetoric is up. Less than a month from now Canada's bid to host ITER will either be taking its place at the international negotiations or it will be a lost dream. ITER, and the science behind behind it, has received a major credibility boost from studies done in the United States in the past year as that country considered whether it was worth the investment to be part of the project. The end result is the U.S. is backing ITER along with every other G-8 country - except maybe Canada. The University of Toronto is poised to release its own study on ITER in the next week and proponents of the project are anticipating anticipating that study will be very positive. In Europe, Europe, China, Russia and Japan, they need no convincing. Those countries are heavily invested in fusion research and have seen major strides towards harnessing harnessing the energy. As well, they have seen their efforts pay off with other major dividends in technologies technologies that have nothing to do with fusion. Typically, here in Canada, we have a more conservative approach. Some federal members members feel we'd he better to sit back and let all the other countries countries lake the risk, any research, research, by its nature, requires. If ITER is successful, down the road we'll simply buy the technology from those who invested invested in it, they point out. That's a strategy that is incredibly incredibly short-sighted and ignores ignores all the spin-offs that will come from being involved in Jacquie Mclnnes Staff Writer China, Slates a U M mu THEIM-V IW6 m>m FOR,.. of-living increases. What about construction price jumps or other unavoidable rises? It will be difficult, if not impossible, impossible, for councillors to explain explain all this to the average taxpayer taxpayer and convince him or her it's in their best interest to approve approve a tax increase by way of referendum. With referendums costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to run, who will pay the cost for such a service? No surprise there, as ultimately, one way or another, it will be the taxpayer who foots the bill. Though they promise this wrong-headed notion, the Tories, Tories, if re-elected, must never implement it. It serves nobody's interest to have the Province bullying local councils. After all, just like MPPs, councillors are accountable accountable to the electors they serve and must face the people every third November. On average, average, councillors must head to the polls more often then their provincial counterparts. Councillors are often closer to the voters they serve and, already, already, spend many committee and council meetings wrestling with numerous requests from departments and citizens for tax money. The Province must let local and regional councillors do the job we have elected them to do. We can't allow our local services1 services 1 and, structures to'crumble' ; around us, while our representatives representatives are handcuffed by their Queen's Park masters. The Tories should stick this promise in the shredder, where it belongs. www.dolighan.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Placement of O'Toole photo criticized to the editor: Please tell me why you think it was necessary to place a picture picture of our member pf provincial* provincial* parliament setting a poor 1 example of public' debate 'on your cover. I have always been keenly aware of the "family" pictures within the community on the front of your newspaper, and proud that the morals and values values of the people behind the paper were to promote community community living. Shame on you. For making the decision you did, I've had to spend consider- e-nisiil letters to newsroom<®diirlumire}>ion.i able time with my 10-year-old explaining that is unacceptable behaviour. John knows it too... but to put it on the cover? Stephanie Jukes Courtice Durham MPP doesn't get it To the editor: ' The recent incident involving involving Durham MPP John ,0'-' ; Toole is typical of ' the'Tory government. Do something wrong, get caught doing it and then provide a 'half-hearted' lame apology and expect the people of Ontario to forget about it. Well, this issue goes beyond beyond just "flipping the bird" to another member of legislature, legislature, it shows contempt for the people of Ontario who do not agree with the actions of this government and their policies. The issue at hand, (or finger), finger), in this case was the decision decision by the Tories to deliver a budget outside the legislature, so that it could not be debated or challenged by opposition parties. This decision has backfired badly on the government and so it should - the decision was wrong. ; Mr. O'Toole was quoted in ' this paper saying "the 'reason 1 the budget was moved to'an auto parts plant, was because "there is a lot of theatre in the legislature". Mr. O'Toole, that 'theatre' is part of democracy, and while you were trying to weakly defend your government's government's actions, who's the bad actor in the spotlight now! Dean Lindsay Courtice OPINION e-mail tellers to newsroom® (lurhamiTgimi.com this project - the largest international international collaboration since the space station. Even if the project is located elsewhere, we'd received great benefits for our money. Every country who participates will spend about half its investment in its own country developing new technologies for the project. Of course, we'd like ITER to come to Durham but even if Canada wasn't picked as host, there are so many things to be gained by participating. A few years ago the federal government made a decision to pull the plug on two federally- funded fusion research projects, projects, one in Quebec and one in Ontario. Ontario Hydro continued continued the research here. But in Quebec, the project was dismantled. Given recent advancements in the international fusion community it seems that decision may have been hasty. Perhaps Perhaps it is the federal government's unwillingness unwillingness to admit it made a mistake in 1997 that is creating this wall of resistance. resistance. Can the European European Union, Japan, Russia, the United I he wrong about this and only Canada has the inside scoop? Or could it he that the politicians politicians in Ottawa have simply not been properly briefed on the most recent advances in fusion fusion research, the spin-offs that research could bring and the major benefits for our industries industries and universities across the country? We have a great si le, and still a great chance to make it happen. Let's dare to dream, There's little to lose and much to gain. Tories are suffering from foot-in-mouth disease O ntario's Progressive Conservative Conservative government has fallen into a dangerous habit of saying the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time - just before before an election. The Tories, led by Premier Ernie Eves through slips of the tongue and in one case the hand, have got themselves in a succession of mostly unnecessary controversies. controversies. It makes them look insensitive and untruthful untruthful and is unprecedented unprecedented for a government government about to call a Bountrogianni, who speaks Italian, Italian, said she heard him say it clearly. A third Toiy backbencher, Ted Chudleigh, commented 'bull-- --,' another word most residents would not use in front of their children, when Speaker Gary Carr ruled the Tories showed contempt by staging their budget outside. Finance Minister Janet Eckcr said, at one stage, when insisting her budget budget outside the legislature legislature was proper, she would do the same Eric Dowd Queen's Park vole. The gaffe voters will best remember, because because it was pictured on many newspaper front pages, was backbench MPP John O'Toole waving a linger at opponents opponents who objected to his gol party's unveiling a budget on TV in an auto-parts plant. Most people view this gesture as obscene and manage to express express disagreement without using it. The Tory MPP also was exposed exposed as untruthful when he claimed he had not made the gesture gesture and was merely shuffling documents, but the cameras that broadcast the legislature caught his action and he admitted it. Another Tory backbencher, Joe Spina, was accused of shouting shouting a graphic swear word in Kalian Kalian at Liberal MPP Dominic Agostino, who was heckling. Mr. Spina tried to fob off reporters reporters by claiming lie was not in the legislature long enough to say anything, hut Liberal Marie again. But as the heat built up, she denied saying it and a TV reporter dug up a tape showing she had said she would hold it outside again, and an aide explained she for- Votcrs must now wonder if Tories regularly fail to tell the truth unless forced by cameras, Mr. Eves contributed when he was asked why he was golfing in Arizona when the World Health Organization issued a warning against travelling to Toronto because because of SAILS. I le scoffed it would not have changed anything if he had been "limiting for Easier eggs on Easter Easter Sunday in Toronto," Voters would not expeet the premier to stay looking for Easter Easter eggs, but would expect him to be in the province, helping co-or- dinatc the response, reassure residents residents and encourage health-care workers in its worst health crisis in memory. Premier Eves also told re- CLICK AND SAj^ Today's question: Would you use the proposed ' single GTA-wide 1 transit pass? □ Yes □ No v Cast your vote online at •i infodurhamregi0ga.eom,, » Last week's question: Should the federal govern- - ment make a financial ' commitment to the Interna- : tional Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)?' 1 □ Yes 86.4% □ No 13.6% j Votes cast: 88 -u HAVE YOUR SAY ; •t Question Do you think mu-- nicipalities should have to gdP residents' permission to raisé! taxes, as proposed in the neW; Tory election platform? ' Susan Moss "Definitely. And I definitely would say' 'no'. On the' other hand,' then nothing' would geb done. How--' ever, we should have input into) where the tax money goes". Penny Hear). "Yes. I think we pay enough' taxes and' sometimes- the money goes toward minor things.", "No, porters he supported precautions against SARS and wore a surgical surgical mask, but his face must have gone red when he discovered the city of Toronto had already advised advised wearing a mask was unnecessary unnecessary and could even raise fears. Energy Minister John Baird joked he had just enjoyed a trip to Asia at a time there were fears of SARS originating there and could have caused Ontario's Asian community to feel it was being further stigmatized. He later acknowledged he was thoughtless and insensitive. Mr. Spina also belittled his Liberal opponent in the election as "that little girl," a chauvinism not heard in the legislature for years, and acknowledged she is a woman after Liberals objected. The comments by Tories were mostly gratuitous - they would not have helped their party even if they had escaped without protest. All parties make offensive remarks, remarks, but the Tories, including Mr. O'Toole and Mr. Chudleigh, normally among the most polite anil proper MPPs, are running up a record number because they are rallied with an election close and the Liberals far ahead in polls and at this stage showing no signs of collapsing. The election also will be decided decided more on policies than slips of the longue, but the slips hurt the overall image of the government government anil, if the race is close, could make a difference. l'or demies, Fric Dined luis been core ring provincial politics ns a freelance columnist hosed out of Queen's Park, Laszlo Martoti 1 it's not a good idea. We'd never give, permission. We'd be like' children. The' elected! officials, should do . what they have to do to get things done", Diana Smith-Byroiq' "Yes, ycs ; . one hundred' per cent yes. I didn't, realize that it was part of the Tory' platform."' <Elic Cmiatiinn Statesman is one of the Metroland Printing, Pub- ' fishing and Distributing group " of newspapers. The StatesmarV is a member of the Bow- manville Clarington Board of ;l Trade, the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, On- tario Community Newspaper '* Assoc., Canadian Community" 1 Newspaper Assoc., Canadian'! Circulations Audit Board and the Ontario Press Council, The' 1 publisher reserves the right to " classify or refuse any adver- tisement. Credit for advertise- • ment limited to space price error occupies. Editorial and ' Advertising content of the ' Canadian Statesman Is copy- righted. Unauthorized repro- duction is prohibited, 1 A ociia rrei-i: <0NA