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economist suntribune thursday nov 21 2002 stouffville tribune serving the community since 1856 a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave stouffville on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editorial residents have to pay for clean water if you live in the industrialized world access to fresh clean drinking water is anessential that is why ontarios safe drinking water act and its regulations still being hammered out critiqued and massaged by municipalities should be great cause for celebration but wait a minute while were raising a toast to ontarios strin gent guidelines to ensure a safe water supply we musnt forget who will pay for the massive restructuring of water systems and testing methods taxpayers at all levels a 20page report from the region talks about the ramifications of the walkerton tragedy which launched the provinces initia tives in dealing with water supply york region could be faced with 15 million in capital expenses and about 250000 a year in staff and lab fees to implement the recom mendations of the walkerton inquiry there are a lot of ways we can get into trouble by not paying attention to every detail of the provinces plans the director of yorks water and wastewater debbie korolnek said thats good news to residents who have the right to be protected from lifethreatening dis ease and bacteria regardless of where they live and while the region says it is already well under way with protection plans it admits new policies overhauling and expanding water testing delivery and monitoring is going to be a huge and expensive undertaking theres the fact 16000 homes or 53000 peo ple in york region drink untested unregulated tap water every day york region says it doesnt have the resources to test and monitor unprotected water supplies richmond hill mayor bill bell suggested charging residents on private sys tems for water tests that may have to be an option but while the region enjoys unprecedented growth it must along with the province shoulder some responsibility for polluting water supplies with growth comes a demand on services and while york has been doing an admirable job tackling the many issues that come with a population boom tightening water system controls must be added to that list the province is calling for recertification of all water system operators to ensure they are experienced and knowledgable in the latest testing and monitoring techniques but the region says recertifying its operators will cause a flood of retirements and massive staff shortages however considering many of walkertons problems were due to undertrained staff recertification is a must the handson daytoday staff manning these supplies have huge civil responsibilities and we should expect nothing less of workers paid to look after our most precious resource perhaps a special water levy on new homes might be an option opinion til in vli lil i f- jr fggsrj si 1 ml mamfnfrv 1 1 i- tc iflm wwi i sk m sttfil 1 9f mml 1 llv mmii m 1 lpl i -it- f 1 tv im ofbgial mulroney portrait unofficial chretien portrait letters to the editor province should let people decide on hydro deregulation re deregulation of hydro in ontario still alive mpp nov 14 mpp frank klees and premier ernie eves are in agreement unforeseen market forces caused the crisis in electricity the very nature of markets is their unpredictability and if you could predict the markets you would be a bil lionaire this is precisely why electricity was made public and regulated in the first place the conservatives decided to continue with dereg ulation after the collapse at enron and deregu lation failures in alberta california new zealand and many other places as for the liberals after leader dalton mcguinty suddenly backtracked on his sup port of privatization who knows what his partys electricity policy is the people have seen first hand what a profitfocused electricity market does to their hydro bills they didnt like it provincial and federal politicians of all stripes hadnt had this many angry phone calls on an issue in decades the deregulation of hydro in ontario is now added to a long list of electricity market failures around the world given the facts its astonishing that the conservatives havent changed their electricity policy one bit the party remains committed to deregulation and is also trying to fix it the economist sunstouffville tribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the economist suntribune 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 letterseconsuncom corporations such as power budd brascan and british energy are scrambling to convince people that somehow electricity competition is still good for us the one thing proprivatization politicians and corporations have forgotten is the people what is the will of the people they have spo ken loudly and all the polls show overwhelm ingly that they dont want private power a hundred years ago there were six referen- dums held in ontario on electricity all the same arguments using the same words to pro mote private forprofit power were put for ward the people overwhelmingly chose pub lic power hydro was created by referendum and that referendum law was in place until the conservatives removed it in bill 26 in 1996 the choice is clear private forprofit power or at cost public power let the people decide now paulkahnert spokesperson ontario electricity coalition editorial editor jim mason navsroomeconsuncom advertising retail sales manager steve kane stevekyorkregioncom sales manager new business development distribution dawna andrews dandrewserabannercom classified manager ann campbell anncerabannercom real estate manager mike rogerson production electronic communications manager john futhey jfulheyyrngcom distribution distribution manager barry black bbiackeconsuncom administration office manager vivian oneil voneileconsuncom york region events managing director debra weller dwelleryrngcom shows manager staceyallen sallenyrngcom york region printing general manager bob dean bdcanymgcom editorial 9052942200 fax 2941538 advertising 2942200 classified 1-800- 7433353 fax8531765 distribution 9051948244 ehuhiipie canadian ontarfoprcss cbculations audit councp board member stouffville 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 whollyowned subsidiary oftorstarcorporationmetrolaridrs comprised of 70 community publications across ontario the york rcgon newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hid and thomhili vaughan owen markham economist sun stouffville tribune stouffville sun georgia advocate york regkm business times at home good lrfcyorkrcgkxicom 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 gord paolucci jslii wpjbbfxy vbko hh fsfflpk r ip fij kf e rss a i 2s m us ift lijgfc- debora kelly healthcare crisis not about money its about values what is our crisis in health care have canadians had a fair chance to find out the answer to the question with the release of the romanow report looming discussion remains frustratingly focused on money a ssenate committee headed by michael kirby recommended la dedi cated health tax last month according to the author of what good is health care reflections on the canadian experience our healthcare crisis isnt about cash its about values in her new book dr nuala r kenny attributes our healthcare crisis to poorly articulated values she says canadians havent clearly defined the meaning of health and health care the place of health in soci ety and the role of the government as long as we define health care as a resource allocation issue the solutions will obviously focus on funding while prime minister jean chretien is rejecting a dedicated tax its all about the money game for him while admitting the system needs some modernization he says it is the business of the government to decide where money will be allocated well see what we can do we want to keep our books balanced that kind of thinking simply leads to policies that create winners and losers in a game of allocation according to dr kenny because of the pervasiveness of technology and the almost unlimited potential benefit from medical science framing the issue this way leads natu rally to options that will increase the money available for these resources through private arrangements thats what is happening in ontario the province has shaken hands on a deal with a private company to build a hospital in brampton this week ontario hospital assoc iation president david mackinnon said effectively insolvent hospitals must create partnerships with the private sector to grow have canadians had a chance to really think about what the goals of health care are is it really unlimited health benefits to all citizens is it sim ply about receiving care in a timely manner or is it much larger than that is solving our healthcare crisis a test of our commitment to community in our globalized world has health care become so commercialized that the idea of a real debate is idealistic have the values of the market overrun those of a caring community canadians must have an opportuni ty to debate the answers to these ques tions m tc s ji riumd t j