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2 - Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, November 5, 2003 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. " Orono Weekly Times 5310 Main Street, P.O. Box 209, Orono, Ontario LOB 1M0 Email: oronotimes@speedline.ca • Phone/Fax 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such items. Christmas in the village While the Orono Community Focus Group is on a vision quest, the Business Improvement Association (BIA) is working on a Christmas Lighting event that is bound to put Orono on the map. The annual Lighting of the Lights will take place in the village on November 28th this year. Beside the carol singing by area school children, Brownies and Scouts, the appearance of Santa Claus and wagon rides through the village, the BIA is planning a Christmas Wreath competition. Stores on the Main Street will be encouraged to have their wreath on display so the public can vote for their favourite entry. The competition is open to residents as well who will be asked to have their wreath at the Orono Town Hall a day or two before the 28th. Categories for wreath entries are: Committee or Community Group, Resident and Junior Which is 13 years of age and under. The winning wreath will be selected by a panel of judges. A 'People's Choice Award' will also be selected from the entries at the town hall. (Unlike the Chili Cook-off, any burnt entries will be disqualified.) There are efforts underway to put up additional lights in the downtown core this year. Christmas lights have been donated by Raymond Minard for the Town Hall and downtown businesses. businesses. Store owners will, be given lights to put in their windows windows to ensure a great light show for Orono's Lighting of the Lights on November the 28th. Christmas trees adorned with lights will also line both sides of Main Street as besides our traditional traditional Christmas street lights decorations. Orono should be about the brightest spot on the planet that night. Plan to be there. DB0HH.V NEEKD BE mmfr OD.OTHE m m> mm. iJillil :ijjjr ' wiKli: Hi:!!. ■■vi! Ft" ! .'11 Ill: !ij® klT jjiijiV Ijjjpjij ..... ill ill ,i~ Villi ili il ||| jjjui .jjil ill iLl ill 1 1 "J Viewpoint by Alex Shepherd, MP Durham Senate reform Most people scratch their heads in wonder when they see the behaviour of MPs during during question period. We appear to be acting as immature immature children trying to get attention. The House of Commons definitely needs to be reformed but, ironically, reform is not about the rules or the structure of committees - the tools of the place if you will - but rather how the MPs use the rules. Firstly, in order to gel their legislative agenda through the I louse the governing parly has resorted to forcing the hands of committee members. I( is not uncommon for contentious contentious legislation to see long-term standing members of a committee suddenly replaced with members who are more compliant. In the final analysis this only serves to send a message to parliamentarians that their opinions can lie overridden. (.hieslion period is a charade. charade. All one has to do is read the morning newspapers to determine what the majority of questions will be. While opposition parties are given substantial sums to do research it is totally unclear to me what they do with this money. In reality it is the media asking the questions. And the media is largely responsible for the charade that is question period. If you want your 15- second sound bile you better say something totally absurd. The media enjoy focusing on conflict. There is no lime for thoughtful insightful reporting, reporting, it's just spoil and entertainment entertainment which one can liken to the Romans watching the lions eal the Christians. So then what is the solution? solution? My suggestion to Paul Martin is we should reduce question period to three per week instead of every day. 1 know right away some will suggest I am trying to protect llie government from having to he accountable but I can assure you this is not the ease. Britain does not have ques SHEPHERD continued ptujoS ...THE RW S STMaEKINâ $pw doiighan.com Staying in Touch MPP John O'Toole A word on the deficit No new incoming government government in history has ever patted patted their predecessors on the back and said they did a great job. For example, Premier MeGuinty made no mention of the fact that we lowered taxes, stimulated the economy, economy, and helped create over one million net new jobs in Ontario. However it would be nice to see Ontario's finances viewed in context and in perspective. perspective. MPP Gerry Phillips, now ('hair of the Management Board, was speaking of a $5 billion risk in the budget as early as June. I le is quoted to this effect in 11 an.sard on June •1, 2003. In other words, the Liberals knew the slate of Ontario's finances and the impacts of SARS, mad cow disease, and the power blackout. blackout. But that didn't stop them from promising billions of dollars in election goodies while they were on the campaign campaign trail. The fact of the matter is that our government would have made sales, found the savings, lobbied Ottawa for the funds Ontario is owed and generally made the tough decisions necessary to balance balance the budget. Why can't Dalton MeGuinty? Or is this just an excuse to start raising taxes? • < For the recoid, Ontario's Liberals stated in their election election platform that the cap on Hydro rates would not be removed until the year 2006. The words they used were: "We will keep the price cap in place until 2006. We do not believe that you should pay the price for the government's mistakes." Instead of keeping, this commitment, Premier MeGuinty broke his first major election promise and announced plans to raise our hydro rates. If the MeGuinty government strategy is to raise taxes and blame somebody somebody else, the next four years in Ontario will seem very long indeed. A billion dollars is how much money the federal government government still owes Ontario in disaster relief funds resulting from the SARS outbreak. And that doesn't include other federal federal commitments in areas such as health care. Why w'ould our new' premier not appeal to his federal Liberal cousins for fair treatment on behalf of Ontario? Bringing back higher electricity electricity prices will be disastrous disastrous for seniors on fixed incomes, families on tight budgets and small business. You may rest assured that 1 w ill continue to light for fair electricity rates.