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economist suntribune news thursday nov 21 2002 protecting rouge park a promise unfulfilled bymikeadler staff writer years ago it had such promise in 1995 rouge park opened in scarborough with the understand ing that canadas largest urban park was only the beginning the rouge river the province declared would be a living river through the middle of greater toronto the entire watershed up to its headwaters in richmond hill and whitchurchstouffville would be saved from the development everyone knew was coming all the municipalities needed was a plan for the park in york region and by the fall of 1997 they had one i five years later as studies on that plans application drag on sub divisions are forming along the river and its tributaries in york were just getting the stuffing kicked out of us the same as 12 years ago in fact its getting worse said environmentalist glenn de baeremaeker his lobby group save the rouge valley system began in 1975 to rally people for the river a movement politicians by the late 1980s could not ignore but so toothless has the rouge park north plan become that last month the municipal partnership in charge the rouge alliance debated fighting one of its own members thetown of markham at the ontario municipal board- at issue was markhams refusal to place the plans sciencebased environmental buffers in its 700- acre box grove development but the buffers will not be included either in the 1400 acres of development planned around leslie street in richmond hill much to the disgust of that towns deputy mayor brenda hogg by the time its all closed and the stud ies are all done she said of the rouge in richmond hill the pave ment will be down while some alliance members were clearly angry development lawyer jeff davies convinced most of them the rpn plan is impotent until it is incorporated into official plans of the towns and region he reminded them that on june 7 the municipal board ruled in a case where save the rouge had appealed for sciencebased buffers of 3040 metres along a creekbank in markham that the plan is currently a strategy document and in its cur rent form is not an effective tool regional councillor frank scarpim of markham then added to the gloom by mentioning the staff photosjoerd witteveen mary brown of rouge street in markham picks up garbage in the vinegar hill dip thats hwy 48 south of hwy 7 along the banks of a rouge river watershed creek province was refusing to enshrine the park in law maybe we would have done bet ter by imposing a standard 30- metre buffer he added reflectively but at a meeting three years ago the alliance narrowly rejected 30metre buffers in the rouge watershed in favour of sciencebased buffers markham mayor don cousens had argued would provide better protec tion and be defensible at the omb protection developers typically accept for rivers and streams is a 10- metre buffer but in richmond hill landown ers take requests for further encroachment into floodplain areas to the committee of adjust ment ms hogg said and in plan ning subdivisions all we do is hang on to our minimums meanwhile frustration is building among many members of the alliance you shake your head and say why am i at this table said whitchurchstouffville councillor mark carroll the towns representa tive who says applying science- based buffers now would prevent greater expenses in 20 or 30 years to repair damage to the river in an interview mayor cousens argued the towns dont have the money to pay for 30metre buffers and cant successfully defend them at the omb but the mayor who for years was chairperson of a steering commit tee on the plan said he thinks its tragic that its taken so long and that further delays may cost politi cians the ability to plan the town the way we want mr carroll said he will press his town to incorporate plans for rouge park and duffins creek into its official plan in 2003 but if markham incorporates the rouge park north plan he predicted the other municipalities would quickly do the same housing tech to buck employment trend in york by jeff mitchell staff writer while winter is expected to bring its traditional hiring chill to york region some sectors are bucking that trend by bolstering their work forces for instance a red hot hous ing market will continue to ward off the cold as residential con struction in the gta breaks records and one markham tech com pany is deepening its talent pool with hirings suzanna cohen a spokesper son for the greater toronto home builders association said construction layoffs predicted by one employment agency wont be happening here in fact the torrid pace set by the housing market in york and the gta means labour is in short supply she said weve already sold 48400 homes this year ms cohen said were going to easily break 50000 sales for 2002 so far mark a 42per cent increase over 2001 statistics she said a home sale now equates to more work for the con struction industry months down the road ms cohen said a house sale today means a housing start six months down the road she said those hous es have to be built and many of them are being built in york region two south ern municipalities vaughan with 308 and markham with 282 were among the top five gta municipalities in home sales in october the tremendous amount of work is putting a strain on the available workforce the home builders associa tion is working with the federal government to allow qualified workers from other countries to take up the slack theyre coming from all over the place ms cohen said in the hitech sector the opposite is true too many work ers seeking precious few jobs at ati were looking for the best and this economy affords us the opportunity to get the best people many out of fulltime work since the tech bubble deflated have been depending on short- term contract work to make ends meet taking advantage of this ready and willing labour force is markham ati technologies manufacturers of games and 3d technology the locallybased company has a global presence ati recently launched a recruitment drive aimed at filling some 80 positions in markham where the company maintains a workforce of 1400 job fairs in ottawa and brampton were flooded with candidates said michel cadieux vicepresident of human resources with the company at ati were looking for the best and this economy affords us the opportunity to get the best people mr cadieux said now you can get people with five to 10 years experience atis current hiring effort is aimed primarily at software and hardware engi neers the goal is to attract personnel to help the company maintain a leading edge mr caclieux said i would call it strategic hiring mr cadieux said of the recruitment campaign currently under way as opposed to broadbased skill sets were really targeting specific skills manpower inc an interna tional staffing and employment service released its predictions for the job market locally and nationally early this week it predicted a cyclical down turn in hiring in york region and across the country as winter sets in manpower spokesperson lee sitarz said just 10 per cent of firms interviewed anticipated hiring over the januaryfebruarymarch period while 23 per cent expected staff reductions and 67 per cent planned to maintain staffing at current levels the first quarter is typically the slowest for hiring for all sec tors mwj msmmzm mar islams tlestination qiftshop open 7 days a week w 106 main st n markham village 9054717820 5