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6 economist suntribune thursday sept 26 2002 stouffville tribune serving the community since 1856 a metroland community newspaper 9 heritage rd markham ont l3p 1m3 publisher ian proudfoot editorial immigrants need coordinated service imagine setting foot on a busy street in beijing with two children in tow to look for a job and place to live no one can understand you and because you look and sound different have no estab lished credit and no idea about the culture you cant find help to start a new life thats the way many of the 260000 immi grants now in york region likely began their first days in canada with about a third of yorks 775000 resi dents being newcomers that has to change as more people file into canada over the next two decades york region must keep pace with a growing demand for language services settlement and adaptation programs afford able housing and job training while immigration responsibility lies pri marily with the federal government munici palities and social service agencies must work together to entice skilled workers to the region to offset an aging and dwindling workforce you cant provide a lifestyle for immigrants if the services that help them begin new lives are inefficient york region needs to coordi nate with other levels of government to estab lish a single resource centre for immigrants the centre would be a onestop shopping experience where newcomers could find all the support they need to settle in comfortably and to quickly begin working paying taxes and contributing to our federal retirement plans the main agency streamlining this often isolating process is catholic community services of york region which receives fund ing from ottawa queens park the catholic church and united way of york region settlement counsellor felina rezza admits resources in the region are slim to none while welleducated immigrant families are waiting to become productive members of society they are faced with impatient unco operative employers school boards with insuf ficient english as a second language programs and a lack of affordable housing she says on the bright side york region and social service agencies such as the united way are gathering information to change the way immigration is handled and to ensure the area will attract qualified tradespeople and skilled professionals from around the world and with ottawa setting an ambitious new target of allowing an additional 300000 new comers into canada each year offering oppor tunities to settlers would benefit york region what the region could do to help clear a major jobseeking roadblock is better educate employers on the benefits of hiring new canadians perhaps the provincial or federal governments could offer incentives or tax breaks for businesses providing training with the united way holding discussions this fall with various communities to talk about barriers and ways to improve gaps in services york region is making a breakthrough opinion thestartofthe fall session he must have a l0ton his mind letters to the editor speed bumps not answer re speed bumps no fun if youre having a baby joan ransberrys column sept 19 i fully agree with joan on the proposed speed bumps or humps in whitchurch- stouffville they are not slowing down the over all speed just at the location of the bumps the speeders are burning their tires in between also i can see the concern for our emer gency vehicles as they are speeding to acci dents of an acute emergency would you like to see an ambulance racing to the hospital with a patient who has suffered a heart attack having to come to a sudden stop because the front end is damaged due to speed bumps we have only one ambulance in stouffville when ours is disabled we have to wait for ambulance service from markham would whitchurchstouffville council take full responsibility when this happens and the patient dies due to the extra time involved i can see the day when due to the speed bumps the repair to ambulances will cost us taxpayers an arm and a leg theres also the family of the deceased who can then sue the town for millions of dollars the planners in our town better take a sec ond look at the condition of some of our roads like blake manitoba and obrien on these streets it is impossible to go over the speed limit verhoog stouffville the economist sunstoufmle tribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the economist sundtribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space write letters to the editor 9 heritage rd markham l3p 1m3 email letteiseconsuncom for more information phone the editor at 905 2942200 smokers have themselves to blame as a high school student i know some of my classmates smoke frequently it is no problem for me talking with them when i see them lighting cigarettes what confuses me the most is why they enjoy killing themselves so calmly i think schools and media provide enough information warning what tobacco will do to users and they all know that surely a rightthinking person cannot watch him self or herself dying for a known reason without prevention my friends smoke because of the way they think they look when they smoke so the main pusher is not advertising not peer pressure not others smokers make themselves smoke fanny ru markville secondary school markham editorial editor jim mason newsroomeconsuncom advertising retail sales manager steve kane steveklheliberalcom sales manager new business development distribution dawna andrews tlarulrewseralxinnercom classified manager ann campbell anncerabannercam real estate manager mikerogerson production electronic communications manager john futhey jfulheyyrngcom distribution distribution manager barry black bblackerabannercom administration office manager vivian oneil voneileconsuncom york region events managing director debra weller divellerymgcom shows manager staceyallen sallenyrngcom york region printing general manager bob dean mcanymgcom editorial 9052942200 fax 294538 advertising 2942200 classified 1-800- 7433353 f 8531765 distribution 9052948244 bseeittdib canadian ontario press circulations audit council board member stouftville tribune a york region newspaper group community newspaper the stouffville tribune published every thursday and saturday is a member of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd a wholrycwned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 70 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond kin andthomhidvaughan owen markham economist sun stouffville tribune stouffville sun georgna advocate york region business rimes at home good life yorkregkmcom and york region printing editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director marketing new product development brenda larson advertising director retail flyer sales nicole mathieu advertising director classified real estate events management gordpaolucci debora kelly lets worry about global warming h ow was your summer people would ask as the return to routine arrived as predictably as did september it was awesome id reply a big smile lighting up my tanned face isnt this weather absolutely amaz ing id add in a blissful cadence what kind of an ignorant self- absorbed hedonist am i soaking up the heat and every glori ous ray of nonstop sunshine without a solitary concern about global warming i should have been worrying dont get me wrong i worry about a lot of things far far too many things according to my husband i worry my daughter will lose her glasses again i worry my son will forget to bring home his homework i worry after i yell at them some times they dont understand i love them more than anything in the world i worry when my husband is an hour late or so and hasnt called to let me know hes still alive i worry about that a lot because he does that a lot i worry we cant save enough money to send the kids to university just how many thousands of dollars will it cost then anyway i worry about the state of the world since sept 11 i worry about a lot of things but somehow not global warming im not alone the typical canadian has been pretty cavalier about climate change if one can judge simply by the parade of suvs on our roadways as ottawa gets closer to signing the kyoto protocol the focus is on con sumers as 80 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions the gas said to cause glob al warming come from consump tion not production of fossil fuels we will have to dramatically alter our energyburning ways if canada is to reduce emissions by the required 30 per cent over the next seven years canadians produce more than 22 tonnes of the gas per capita while in france and japan its less than 10 tonnes per capita by getting rid of or reducing the use of our cars we could half our personal c02 emissions practically overnight public transit has to become a fact of life for us the federal government is expected to provide multibilliondollar invest ments however given the importance of developing public transit kyoto accord or not its difficult to under stand its reluctance as well as the provinces to commit to stable long- term funding for it and until that happens im worry ing about that now too