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mmm-muumuwmm'.mtw. Emer via the maii entrance beside the Restsurant (directly opposite the card shop} or from the elevator foyer beside the Tâ€"D Bank. Take the elevetor to the Ind floor and you are there Waterloo council has taken a giant first step to preserve our historical heritage by appointing a local architectural conservation advisory committee. This committee will play a vital role in adâ€" vising council which buildings in the city should be preserved for their historical significance. Under Bill 176, which was passed by the proâ€" vincial government, local councils have the power to give a threatened building a 180 day stay of execution if an architectural conservaâ€" tion advisory committee has designated the building as historically significant. When a building is designated historically significant, the owner is not allowed to alter or demolish it without giving council 180 days‘ grace to conâ€" sider its fate. The aim of this legislation is to give councils time to consider ways to protect or preserve historically significant buildings when they face the threat of a wrecker‘s hammer. While Waterloo has fewer historically signifiâ€" cant buildings than many communities, it does have several beautiful and significant buildings that could benefit from this designation. The Brubacher farm house on the UW campus has this designation by special council order. But a local architectural conservation advisory comâ€" mittee will provide an ongoing reference source for council. It will be able to compile a list of buildings that should be designated historically significant and will provide a body of historical knowledge that can assist council in determinâ€" ing ways to preserve our heritage. ~ Many property owners have expressed akears in the past that historical designation will take away their property rights. However, that is not the aim of the legislation. It provides a stopâ€" gap breathing space of 180 days when lastâ€"minâ€" ute efforts to preserve the building can be conâ€" sidered. If, after 180 days, no feasible plan of preserving the building has been drawn up, the owner has the right to do what he wishes with it. 2 Leftfer fo cediftor Waterloo council deserves credit for appointâ€" ing this committée, albeit a bit tardily. Woolwich Wellesley and Cambridge councils have already appointed architectural conservancy commitâ€" tees. Kitchener is still debating the idea. It has come to the attenâ€" tion of the Citizens Comâ€" mission on Human Rights in Canada that a bill passed in South African parliament recently is designed to cover up widespread psychiatric atrocities against blacks, by putting strict controls on photographing or drawâ€" ing â€" psychiatric â€" hospitals and publication of critical information on mental hosâ€" pitals. Dear Sir, We have sent a telegraphâ€" ed protest to the Canadian South African Ambassador, Norman J. Best, explaining our view that the Mental Health Amendment Bill is Protecting our heritage published every Wednesday by Fairway Press, 2 division of Kitchenerâ€"Waterico Record Lid.. owner. address correspondence to Waterioo office : Waterigo Square, Waterioo, Ont. , telephone 886â€"2830 Pubtisher: James M. Boland Editor: Mary Stupart subscriptions: $10 a year in Canada, $12 a year in United States and Foreign Countries 195 Fairway Rd. S., Kitchener, Ont. purely an effort by the Secâ€" retary of Health Mr. J. De Beer to silence the truth. He has repeatedly denied our charges that millions are being made out of madâ€" ness but he has been unâ€" able to disprove any of the facts we presented. The â€" restrictive â€" legislaâ€" tion was first introduced on February 12, 1976 and was preceeded only 2 days earâ€" lier by a newspaper expose concerning a private menâ€" tal hospital chain, operatâ€" ing with full state backing, which is being used to conâ€" fine thousands of blacks throughout South Africa. (Continued on page 5) A recent course in Municipal Affairs sponsored by the Ontario Conference on Local Government provided some interesting insights into the opâ€" eration of the municipal corporation. The subâ€" ject was presented in the form of a number of difâ€" ferent topics, each of which was given by a difâ€" ferent speaker. The speakers included Mr. Donoâ€" van Meston, former Mayor of Waterloo, and Mr. Bill Thomson, Commissioner of Planning and Development for the Region of Waterloo. The present (regional) form of local governâ€" ment is the latest of a series of responses to the changing needs of our local society, a series which can be traced back to the rebellion of 1837, and includes the forms of Townships and Counties, many of which were mapped out by the Baldwin Act of 1849. , The City of Waterloo is governed by a Mayor and eight aldermen elected at large. â€" They meet as a council every other week, and as a committee on the intervening weeks. The function of the committee is to deliberate on the various matters of business and make reâ€" commendations in the form of the minutes of the committee, to council, who may then approve or modify the recommendations. Council also receives recommendations from the city staff; either from individual departments (planning reports, engineering reports, etc.) or from the administrative committee, which consists of the commissioners of finance and engineering and the city clerk, and which is the top staffâ€" level coâ€"ordinating group. In general, the counâ€" Downtown perspective A View from the Grass Roofs The decision of the federal government to allow oil drilling in the Beaufort Sea must evoke some mixed emotions amongst people in Southern Ontario. On the one hand we desperâ€" ately need more oil to keep our homes heated, our cars running, and most importantly our factories operating. On the other hand we must feel embarrassment and guilt as we take steps which may threaten the life style of the Innuit and other native peoples of the north. It seems to me to be a desperate step. The and we have substantial quantities of uramum threat of an oil blowout in that area with its re which can and will provide our electrical sultant spread of black crude oil over the polar energy for many years. Eventually that too seas and down the coasts of our country is will be exhausted but certainly not in our lifeâ€" truly frightening. It‘s unlikely to happen of â€" time. course, but it might. At the same time the cost What then? Well perhaps we can only plan of exploration, drilling, and transportation of ahead so far. But for heavens sake lets plan oil to refineries in the south is staggering. Howâ€" ahead. Drilling in the Beaufort Sea is not planâ€" ever these are risks and costs which we must ning ahead. It‘s a desperate long shot gamble. bear as long as our society is dependent on We‘d be better to invest our modest capital oil to run it. resources in other sources of energy. cil determines policy and the staff administers it. > Regional governments were formed to provide a means of planning coâ€"operation between adjaâ€" cent local municipalities; to do certain things which all or some of the local municipalities would be unable to do by themselves, such as debenturing, finding water supplies, etc.; and to provide a means by which the local municiâ€" palities would have a certain amount of leaverâ€" age against the province. The primary function of the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) is to oversee municipal capital financing. It does not control municipal current expenditures. Planning is only a peripheral OMB issue; however it does act as a last court for inâ€" dividuals. Municipalities operate under the statutes of the Municipal Act. This spells out what they may do or may not do, and how they must do it. Muniâ€" cipalities do not have the legal power to do anyâ€" thing unless the statutes specifically allow them to do it. ~ About 50 to 60% of municipal revenue comes from the province, in the form of conditional or unconditional grants. The rest myst be raisâ€" ed locally, and much of the local revenue comes from the property tax. This is expressed as a mill rate (one mill is one tenth of one percent of the assessed property value). Assessment is a recognized value, for taxation purposes, placed upon a property by a qualified assessor. The conciuding part of this column will appear next week. In 25 or 30 years, the oil will be gone anyway. Why not start now to learn to live without it? Our salvation in Ontario must be through nuclear energy and solar power. The latter may eventually play a major role but because of the primitive technology now existant it has little to offer us in this northern climate in the short term. The technology of nuclear power on the other hand is more advanced. We have clean and efficient nuclear reactors in operation and we have substantial quantities of uranium which can and will provide our electrical energy for many years. Eventually that too will be exhausted but certainly not in our lifeâ€" time. aA 4 submitted for the WDRA by Bob Rowell By Richard Hobson CGan SYuQcrTEe