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economist suntribune news saturday nov 2 2002 staff photosjoerd witteveen steve graham is the grim reaper as he protests for people of planes outside the cedar grove community centre on wednesday where the greater toronto airports authority explained its proposal for an interna tional airport in pickering where will runways be ask residents near proposed airport from page 1 a month ago the gtaa released a financial analysis supporting an airport somewhere on vast federal government holdings in markham and pickering it suggested york region durham and toronto are all within a 60minute travel distance of such an airport potentially providing as many as 10 million passengers a year to it by 2032 the local markham councillor jack heath said residents want to know if and when an airport is com ing and they want to know where the runways are steve shaw gtaas corporate affairs vice president said the authority will finish a runway siting study next year early in the new year if we can as well as a master plan that plan will be the basis for an environmental assessment and the gtaa hopes a final federal decision on the fate of 18500 acres expropri ated in the 1970s were coming to bring this to a conclusion one way or another mr shaw said i think in terms of 30 years five more years isnt so long bill virdiramo longtime resident of the hamlet of cedar grove said he thinks probably we need an air port but still had questions about how the government treats the area theyve rented to tenants for decades why if the airport is not certain he asked are they clearing the land and knocking all the houses down last year transport canada said it would dedicate 7500 acres of the air port lands to greenspace but has not determined what form that will take handfuls of people fought over the decades to keep an airport out of the federal lands and the govern ment is hoping its opponents have died out mr graham said we should send a message to them that there are even more homeowners with dry wells to hear regions explanation at meeting bymikeadler staff writer york region officials have been invited to the markham civic centre to explain water- draining operations in the town and what they may have done to private wells the 7 pm wednesday meet ing with residents is the regions latest chance to deal with angry homeowners whove been told they might have to use trucked and bottled water for years because dropping water levels make their wells useless dozens of homeowners have complained to the region in recent months during its de- watering for trunk sewer con struction along ninth line which has ended and during its water- taking along 16th avenue which will continue until 2005 officials have admitted they underestimated the area affected by the continuous withdrawal of underground water at 16th avenue west of hwy 48 last month however they said they wanted to see if the end of summer brought water levels up before assigning blame the region has promised to alert all homeowners from 16th avenue to the town line with whitchurchstouffville along markhams north end to possible water problems last month paul jankowski the regions construction director told markham council water js being provided immediately to any household with problems and a response to complaints is available 24 hours a day mr jankowski also assured councillors the sewer project has no impact on well water quality some are disputing this how ever including environmentalist jim robb of scarborough he said water now seeping into wells from lower depths would have more minerals than water nearer the surface inevitably the water quality suffers some householders in the markham hamlet of box grove complained of silt and persistent bacteria in their wells during the ninth line sewer construction region continue to say water levels are returning to normal south of hwy 7 near ninth line still one resident east of the road in that area said his water level continues to drop and some neighbours wells remain affect ed the regions sewer contractor mcnally international does not like to admit any responsibility suggested the man who asked not to be identified if you know that you know about the dewatering then theyll admit it the region is also proposing a third sewer project running through southeastern markham to be completed by 2006 if approved this will mean a new area of dewatering for two years while dewatering at 16th avenue continues project man ager steve kyle acknowledged last week 105 gay couples in markham 10 in stouffville statscan by lisa queen staff writer ian mccallum finds it impossi ble to believe there are no homo sexual couples living in aurora thats not a true statement said mr mccallum cochairperson of pride york region a group pro moting the interests of gays and les bians in the region for the first time samesex cou ples were recognized as part of the canada census national snapshot of families released last week but nobody in aurora reported they live in a samesex union which mr mccallum believes is more a reflection that homosexuals are reluctant to identify themselves in the conservative town meanwhile statistics canada reported 65 samesex couples in georgina 105 in markham 55 in richmond hill 35 in vaughan and 10 each in whitchurchstouffville king township east gwillimbury and newmarket even though a total of 300 couples out of yorks population of 800000 reported to the federal government they are living in samesex unions mr mccallum believes the number is grossly underrepresented american stats had the same result the first time they did it they got a low number the next time there were 10 times more said mr mccallum who hopes more gay and lesbian couples will be willing to come out of the closet at the next census theres still that stigma people arent out to their neighbours but it is becoming more accepted for people coming out other than georgina mr mccallum isnt surprised most of yorks reported samesex couples live in the south part of the region not only is the total population larger in those communities but he argues gays and lesbians are more likely to live in more urban centres indeed 81 per cent of samesex couples live in canadas 27 major urban areas in richmond hill in my neigh bourhood there are four i know of but im sure they didnt all report their status on the census form mr mccallum said still he sees the census recog nizing samesex unions as another bonus in a banner year for homo sexuals earlier this year the ontario supreme court ruled in favour of gay marriages deciding marriage cant be restricted to one man and one woman the ruling was suspended giv ing ottawa two years to redefine the term marriage its a good start we still have a long way to go mr mccallum said weve made a lot of dents this year we also got a pride procla mation by the region for the first time fflmppfl hiiiibr lrkh pfbptjs ja fsfei 1m mb fc ywttsfhiifa jftjfp j ib uk ijr ftdkm v dt4f3fl t dr harold a stein dr 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