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Waterloo threatens . to take Iharion's plan F to municipal board. The city of Waterloo may refer the Region's Official Plan to the Ontario Muni- cipal Board (OMB) if modi- fications to the plan made by the ministry of housing are not adequately explain- edor amended. Council agreed Monday to take the plan to the OMB as a last resort after a re- port Trom city solicitor, William White, revealed that minor and major chang- es have been made to the plan by the ministry of housing. These changes have been added without the approval of municipal and regional councils or a committee chaired by Jack Young said Mr. White's report. According to Mr. White's examination, these changes would limit the flexibility of municipalities in the Clair Creek change gets GRCA support A proposed Freure hous- ing development for land east of Hallman Rd. and south of Columbia St. W. drew the qualified support Monday of the Grand River Conservation Authority. The Freure proposal to build 72 houses and 30 townhouses beside Clair Creek was originally pre- sented to council in May. Included in the develop- ment plan is a proposal to rechannel Clair Creek to accommodate projected in- creased stream flows. In a letter to council Monday, the GRCA said it would not oppose Freure's plan to alter Clair Creek because the creek sup- ports limited fisheries. the wildlife around the creek is By Mary Stupart The federal Liberals' travelling caucus had a pretty easy time fielding questions last Wednesday night when It faced an audience of I30 voters at the Waterloo Motor Inn, This "town hall" meet- ing. the first of a Series designed to bolster the sag- ging popularity of the Tru- dean government. was bill- ed as a chance for the puh- he to air their mneerns and criticisms of Liberal gov- ernment policy In the role of the defence were three Liberal MP's Ed Lumley. of Stormont-Cornwall. Jim Fleming of York West and Joe Flynn of Kitchener. i' waterloo chroniaggmeji‘a‘g Liberal caucus faced easy questions at local meeting 121st Year No. 39 area of planning,' require changes in the city's pm cedures, provide extra work for city staff and add an- other layer of zoning ap- proval red tape. Mr. White also said sever- al sections in the modified official plan are illegal in his opinion and “contrary totaw". Before it was forwarded to the ministry of housing, the Region's Official Plain was modified by recom- mendations from a com- mittee with representation from Waterloo and Kitchen- er. This committee was formed in May and chaired by regional chairman Jack Young. Waterloo' council endorsed this committee's report in August. The city solicitor's report Monday revealed that changes in the plan made not significant and the creek system is almost entirely within the city of Waterloo's boundaries. and two government minis- ters, Judd Buchanan and Robert Andras. Although the caucus seemed steeled to face some tough questioning, most questions from the au- dience were general. polite and easy to answer for political veterans Robert Andras. president of the Treasury Board. and Judd Buchanan. new minister of public works The authority also said housing proposals upstream and downstream from the Freure development will alter the existing drainage patterns of the creek and it has already approved stream relocation north of the site. The fact the Freure Homes Ltd. proposes to take reasonable precau- tions to maintain stream flow also played a role in the GRCA's report said a letter from John Winters of the GRCA. Early in May, a delega- tion of Beechwood resi- dents appeared before council to object to the This could have been caused hv the preponder- ance of local Liberal party members m the audience. who were acknowledged and greeted by Kitchener MP Joe Flynn Now and then the quos Wednesday, September 29, 1976 by the ministry of housing are contrary to some of the modifications recom- mended by Waterloo. City engineer James Wit- lis said “The ministry has made changes in the things Young‘s committee agreed to and come up with a bunch of new stuff on its own ..'. They completely revised things on their own without them being recommended by the Region orthe muni- cipalitiis." Council agreed Monday to ask the ministry of hous- ing to consider the city soli- citor's comments. At the urging of Aid. Brian Tum- bull, a Waterloo represen- tative on regional council, Waterloo council also voted to take the plan to the OMB if the minister of housing does not satisfactorily deat- with Waterloo's objections. The GRCA report to council suggested that a 10 foot deep trench could be constructed parallel to the existing stream bed to minimize seepage into the creek from the Freure property. Final zone change approv- al and subdivision approval have not yet been given to the Freure proposal. Council agreed to defer action on the GRCA report until a committee of Beechwood residents can meet with city staff to discuss it. Freure development on the grounds that creek rechan- nelization would diminish the quality of creek life and leave a dry ditch dur- ing the summer months. tions got Tointed and the ministers were forced to defend their party's contro- versial stands on the Anti- Inflation Board, govern- ment spending, energy prices. the immigration green paper and education costs. Economics and inflation seemed to be the main items of audience concern How- ever, questions about un- employment and 1mrmgra- tion policies elicited the only new policy statements of the evening A question about immu- gratum procedures brought tho admission from Mr Andras, former mlmster of manpower and immigra- Carlos Lobo, a student in Mrs. E. Buckle's grade one and two class at Bright- on school, had Iots of fun Friday extracting honey from a honeycomb. He was participating in a class study of bees and honey. _ tion. that incentives to en- courage immigrants to set- tle in the less-populated areas of Canada will be forthcoming from the gov- ernment, Included in this will be better immigration reception procedures, adap- tation services and Court- selling programs in small urban centres he said, Mr Andras also revealed that the federal govern- ment plans to make a five- year job creation commit- ment that could be similar In form to the Local Initia- tives Program This an- nouncement should be made in the speech from the throne In three weeks he said, Waterloo. Ontario In response to a question about escalating govern- ment spending. Mr. Andras said the Liberals have trimmed spending this year to a 14 percent increase. Previous budgets increased spending by 20 percent a year "which was just too damn much" he said. Another area where the government has cut back is the size of the civil serv- ice he said. This growth has been limited to one-and-a- half percent this year. Have frozen health care and education budgets in Ontario been caused by the federal government reneg- - - water!“ Hist, Museum Ntcheiir Pt Queen Street Krrciriiiiih"t, ing on its promised transfer payments to the provinces?' Mr. Andras pleaded a definite "no" to this ques- tion. He said the provinces were given warnings four or five years ago that federal transfer payments for education and health care could not increase above the inflation rate According to the Liberals, the blame for absolute freezes In these two areas belongs to Ontario. Darcy McKeough‘s freezing of hospital budgets was “heart less. The federal govern- ment at least allowed an 8 percent increase" said Jim Fleming. MP for York ner Public L Street North, Igtr-,. lCominued on page 3) i, ai. ' may”;