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p4therlbunefjrjue6dayijul1s a rtllacwjjj st the tribune tuesday july 15 1997 vol 109 no 39 opinions send your letters to the editor to the address below el u m rial prevent fire tragedies through new program theres a new fire education program aimed at senior citizens with which everyone should be familiar called older and wiser the program is directed towards seniors their family members and care givers considering that the fire death rate for adults over aged 65 is four times higher than any other age group this is an extremely important program funded by fire prevention canada and the fire mar shals public fire safety council with a contribution from the city of north york the program will be avail able through all local fire departments in ontario the first step in older and wiser consists of a home safety check which includes making sure that smoke alarms are not only working but loud enough to be heard theres also instruction on how to look for some early warning signs of trouble such as scorched pots and pans and cigarette burns on clothes furniture or floors the next step is a 14question quiz on fire safety pro cedures in the home its an excellent program that both seniors and their families should take advantage of in order to avoid needless tragedy contact your fire department for more information hydros monopoly should be broken the lessons of history are clear great civilizations great powers are seldom defeated by some external force the end when it comes comes from with in history is about to repeat itself for one of the last great bastions of public power in north america ontario hydro is beleaguered by crushing debt an expensive and aging fleet of nuclear reactors and looming competition when hydro eventually collapses guest column susan elston from its own weight the shock waves will resound throughout the province the fundamental problem is that ontario hydro isnt being held accoun table this despite the fact that we the ratepayers of ontario own the utility the power corporation act is the key to hydros blanket powers as one crit ic put it hydro is simultaneously the rule maker the player and the referee this provinces 300 plus municipal utilities are forced to purchase electric ity from ontario hydro and yet hydro itself is in the retail business in rural areas the act also gives hydro regula tory powers over the utilities any rate recommendations made by the ontario energy boar4 hydros only potential video viewing left much to be desired and this weeks award for the video to avoid goes to love and war starring chris odonnell and sandra bullock like warnings on a cigarette pack age the presence of these two actors on a video sleeve should not be taken lightly especially if your budget is hardpressed to withstand a 4 outlay its true however that i did once watch a chris odonnell movie cir cle of friends in which our man managed to portray a believable fully- rounded character ms bullock on the other hand has always seemed to me to be a graduate of the ah macgraw school of acting which appears to have been founded on the premise that starring in a movie however ineptly means never having to say youre sorry in the eyes of this curmudgeonly critic her annoyance quotient is on a par with that of andie mcdowell she of the gummy smile and annoying mannerisms which were displayed to particularly irritating effect in four weddings and a funeral in love and war mr odonnell played the young ernest hemingway with apologies to dave barry i am not making this up during his stint kates corner kate gilderdale with the red cross in italy in the first world war while he was there behaving if this movie is to be believed like a spoiled kid from kindergarten he was badly injured and ended up in the tender care of the underwhelming ms bullock uncon- vincingly portraying a nurse i kept expecting her to jump into the ambulance drivers seat and take off never letting the speedometer dip below 50 milesperhour instead she stood about using one of her two expressions to denote everything from amusement and angst to passion by the time my friends and i had sat through the whole thing we had lost the thread of the story entirely being more intent on a deep discussion of whether our sandra had undergone cosmetic surgery lip augmentation and other miracles of modern science after what seemed a lifetime is it still tuesday inquired one of my friends the movie limped to its con clusion the final scene took place at a cot tage on a lake somewhere in america where the call of the loon was artfully interspersed with leaden dialogue the result ought to have been but wasnt a series of heartbreaking gut- wrenching moments which given our stars wooden performances even kodak and kleenex might have hesi tated to sponsor someone in makeup had stuck bris tles on chriss smooth chin because he was now supposed to be eight months older but still eight years younger than poor old sandra who explained in a lacklustre voiceover that they never saw each other again why was i not surprised to hear this other members of the cast included a gallant italian surgeon who when moved to passionate declarations of love by the sight of nurse bullock sounded perilously like inspector clouseau and the male leads requisite selfeffacing pal who also seemed mysteriously smitten by ernests min istering angel still thats hollywood a place where in the immortal words of walter winchell they shoot too many pic hires and not enough actors- v cm vi v regulator are not binding hydros antics have drawn the ire of an interesting cast of characters in april the municipal electric as sociation mea which represents the utilities filed suit against ontario hy dro for 52 billion mea claims hy dro has used more than 5 billion of ratepayers funds slated to pay down hydros debt for ongoing operations and selfpromotion the remaining 145 million represents rate subsidies that were improperly collected for the municipal utilities in may it was alleged that the picker ing nuclear generating station had knowingly been dumping tonnes of copper and zinc into lake ontario since the 1970s in response a coalition of environmental groups submitted an application for investigation under the environmental bill of rights two weeks ago last week the atomic energy con trol board aecb ignored hydros request for an unprecedented fiveyear licence renewal for the pickering nuclear plant the aecb even over turned its own staff recommendation for a oneyear licence and imposed a ninemonth renewal instead hydros response to all this criticism is to throw more money at its nuclear plants and more of our money oupub- lic relations the irony is that hydro continues to fight change hoping to maintain its longstanding monopoly ontarios minister of energy and environment norm sterling is under pressure from environmentalists the utilities and the independent power pro- ducers to dismantle the power corpora tion act this would hopefully impose a strong regulatory system that would make on tario hydro more accountable while giving the people of ontario achoice of where they purchase their electricity stouffville tribune patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief julie caspersen editor debra weller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager about us ipsi 905 6402100 905 thetribistarca 6244 main st stouffville ont f laawi tttt atwtibmu trttmne path uitmd everjr tnekuy tbamujr i i tad 8urdyr 1 of uw kwtawl trintimg pttwfata j u dfethbatfaa grtmp of hmu jty onnp whb tatludm i kn hnsd43ortf btnria mrtnoe bnmpltm fcuuntaus x i eo0iagmimfst con- i oofce omrtua 0tb t jmaatntmatoti vrt prbfv mssimimss mfatcn northobrlvi j rc9mr bemar orilu tnmtbt ubvralft contort ewaetb msmmismmk or cumitr ttttiiaal v ctsiit ufa myfnipi 1 i letters policy the tribune welcomes your letters to the editor please keep letters to no more than 300 words note that letters may be edited for space libel spelling grammar while we endeavor to print as many letters as possible we regret that not all letters may be printed t m mmtmmifflfflmmffl2bs