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2 - Orono Weekly Times Wednesday, April 20, 2005 Weekly Times Subscriptions $29.91 + $2.09 GST - $32.00 per year. Publications Mail Registration No. 09301 • Agreement No. 40012366 Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. 'We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs." CanadS A°cna ORONO WEEKLY TIMES - 5310 Main St., P.O. Box 209, Orono, ON LOB 1M0 Email: oronotimes@rogers.com or Phone/Fax 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart Sports and Display Advertising - Donna Wood Front Office.and Classified Advertising - Rosey Bateman . The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our be «SnmMeSiedw returneTwe resmTtte righub edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail Orono-gate Adscam On Monday afternoon, a staff member of the Municipality of Clarington delivered a poster to our office. The poster describes the activities of Pitch- In Canada Day. In Clarington, the day selected is this coming Saturday. We questioned if the municipality intended to follow the normal course of events and publicize these activities via a paid advertisement in our paper. We were advised that no such paid advertising advertising would be forthcoming to this publication. Chances are that the other paper in Clarington will receive a paid àd. Is this discrimination by the municipality? Since we were not to be paid for our efforts, our initial reaction was to throw the poster in the garbage. We attribute this municipal policy to some of our recent editorials that were factual yet critial of some political activités. What annoyed us most is that again, the municipality municipality had decided to support one paper in Clarington and penalize another. It seems that "Freedom of the Press" is alive and well in Clarington; but if one wishes to receive paid advertisements, then it is best to be supportive (maybe blindly supportive) of our current elected officials. When we realized that our readers (many of whom do not receive their free copy of that other publication), would be the losers if that poster stayed in the recyling bin--we changed our minds. Saturday's activities, which have several corporate corporate sponsors besides the Municipality, invited residents residents to join in the fun of cleaning up areas such as the Samual Wilmot Creek Trail and the Sidney B. Rutherford Trail, from 9:00 a.m. to 12 noon. They are also offering a special Recycling Drop-Off Centre at the Animal Services branch at 33 Lake Road in Bowmanville from 9:00 a.m. to 12 noon. You can drop off such items as used cell phones, and hazardous household waste such as propane * tanks, oil and filters, weed killer, pesticides, pool chemical, fertilizers, paint stain batteries, antifreeze etc. Habitat Canada is sponsoring the drop-off of usable construction material and scrap metal. They are looking for new or gently used items, kitchen and bathroom units, lumber, windows, electrical lighting, home goods etc. We wonder if the corporate sponsors for the event understand that the ad including their sponsorship sponsorship logo will only be used in selected media outlets? Apparently council thinks so little of Orono residents, that they would launch these Pitch-In Canada activities without advertising them locally. Or do our elected officials hope to control the media by removing their paid advertising? This speaks volumes about our elected officials. The constituents who elected these people, and who pay their salaries, obviously don't count for • much between elections. Staying in Touch MPP John O'Toole Province must end inequity in hospital funding On Thursday, April 14, the Lakeridge Health Board of Directors held their budget meeting in Port Perry. The capacity crowd was very disappointed disappointed about the current deficit dilemma the Lakeridge hospitals find themselves in. I was impressed with the citizens citizens who were clearly upset, but remained polite, respectful and went away from the meeting meeting committed to work as a community to resolve their problems. I can assure you, as a member of the community and as the Member of Provincial Parliament, that I will do all I can to support healthcare in Durham. It's time for the Dalton McGuinty government to give Lakeridge Health and all 905- area hospitals the fair funding to which they arc entitled. Here in Durham Region, every man woman and child receives $871 less healthcare funding than the average Ontarian. Durham hospitals receive only 62.6 per cent ol the average Ontario hospital funding and Durham Access to Care receives 82% of the average Community Care Access Funding. The fact that Lakeridge operates hospitals at four different sites, along with numerous satellite offices and clinics adds to the funding challenge. If Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care recognized the added costs of multi-site hospitals, Lakeridge would receive another $9 million million per year. Had Lakeridge Health not been penalized and had it received even the average average Ontario funding over the past three years, it would have revenues $42 million higher than current levels. Last week's announcement of the Lakeridge annual budget budget raises understandable concerns concerns over staff layoffs. While the hospital is to be commended commended , for reducing the layoffs from 308 to fewer than 100, our growing community cannot cannot afford to lose frontline healthcare workers. The solution is for the provincial government to restore fair funding not only to Lakeridge, but also to all the under-funded hospitals in the GTA 905 area, and to all of the multi-site hospitals that are currently under-funded. Every Durham Region MPP supports Lakeridge in its plea for an end to under-funding. under-funding. As recently as last week in the Legislature, I had the opportunity to raise this issue in a question to Ontario's Minister of Health and Long- Term Care. It's time for the provincial government to end the band-aid approach to funding at Lakeridge Health. We deserve the same consideration consideration as eveiy other hospital in Ontario. We should not forget forget the "Fair Share" campaign of 1994. Durham deserves more support from the Province. National Volunteer Week April 17 - 23 This week, Ontario celebrates celebrates the contribution made to our communities by thousands of volunteers. National Volunteer Volunteer Week is being observed April 17 to April 23. Canadian volunteers give approximately 1 billion hours a year. Power commitment falls many megawatts short Last week's announcements O'TOOLE see page 9