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st mp doubtful bank merger beneficial tribune tuesday february 3 1998 p 3 mike adler staff reporter oak ridges mp bryon wilfert wants to see a lot of questions answered before the chretien gov ernment makes its deci sion on the merger of two of canadas biggest banks the royal bank and the bank of montreal announced their intentions last week saying they need to merge to compete with larger international banks finance minister paul martin has said he will wait for the report of a federal task force on bank ing expected in septem ber before taking action wilfert a liberal mp representing stouffville and m north end said hes worried only bank shareholders will benefit from a merger i am concerned that the public interest will not be well served by this pro- posal he said in a release yesterday citing possible job losses and the mergers effect on bank branches in smaller communities the government will not be pushed into a quick decision wilfert promised the closing of branches means the loss of jobs the loss of access of all cana dians i am not going to voice support for any merger that will not bene fit the consumer he pledged markham mp jim jones said his conservative party supports the banks request although it shares the same concerns listed by wilfert there is a consensus that this merger will ulti mately go through and by deliberately postponing it were not doing anybody any service jones said yesterday the banks need the clout to be com petitive in the internatjon- almarkets february is the month the annual heart stroke campaign lifts off in stoufifv villc l to r doris harvey les clarke wayne emmerson mayor sheila mcneil and mary hamerstom all these people surrounding the mayor are canvassing captains and volunteers for the heart stroke phmo by steve somerville just me and my dog pat van der voort walks prince on the stouffville reservoir trails oh thursday afternoon during a bit of a sn6wstdrm 7 photo by sjoerdtvltteveen l i b ra ry boa ro se i ected the new members of the whitchurchstouffyille library board were to be selected at a regular council meeting last night although the board shrank from nine to seven members the town has been bombarded with applications to the library board jocal mayor wayne emmerson said council s appointees on the board are ward 2 councillor mark carroll ward 5 councillor judy scala and ward 6 councillor sue sherban the town is now inviting applications to the local environment committee while other boards and c6mmittees were picked 10 days ago crucial sentence delayed for 1 5th time joan ransberry staff reporter a musselman lake mother was left feeling very discouraged on friday after a newmar ket judge delayed sentencing a man found to be responsible for the death of her teenaged daughter the judge told the court including jennifer cook her parents and other family members that he needed more time before sentencing tonino iafrate 23 ofdownsview in november iafrate pleaded guilty to crim inal negligence causing death in connection with an august 96 accident on the ninth line that claimed the life of 16year old darlene oblenes iafrate wasthe driver of the car whilethe stouffville district high school student was the lone passenger v before going to court on friday cook visit ed darlenes grave it was a special day i was darlenes 18th birthday cook views the sentencing as crucial she hopes it gives her for some closure allowing her to go on to the next stage in the grieving process the case has gone towards the court about 15 times making it especially difficult on all parties involved especially darlenes mother flowers lay at the grave site of jennifer cooks daugh ter darleneo jblene who was killed two years ago the flowers were laid to celebrate what would have chief wants on ly to better serve from page ib molyneauxi newmarket fire chief and regional fire services coordinator if its my family that needs assistance i want the closest assistance available he said but stouffvilles fire chief bill brown said the town has made such arrangements under another name for years for example he said auroras department has a contract for the ivandorfarea if a fire comes in there were going to send aurora brown said if they need more help then yes they will call us cen tralized training means we should be able to work together better continued brown but added his volunteer firefighters only have so many hours to spend he said a central dispatch- replacing four separate dispatch ers in the region must be the first step v the bottom line is how can we best serve our people brown concluded local councils still have to agree to the plan so the results could be different markham mayor don cousens said the right answer may not be amalgamation it may be better coordination of services f it may be other options in between he said the regional politicians also agreed people should get per mits for plumbing or septic tanks from the same municipality issur ing them a building permit instead of frbm the region