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economist sunsuntribune sundayjan 22 2005 f m stouffville bmum suntribune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave 3rd floor stouffville on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert uizurko director production interactive media john futhey advertising director retail flyer sales nicole fletcher advertising director classified real estate events management gord iaolucci distribution director circulation barry black director circulation systems lynn pashko marketingpartnerships director debra weller york region printing g en eral manager bob dean letters to the editor easy to donate others money re region not after headlines jan 15 york regional chairperson bill fisch missed guest columnist bruce annans point completely on the regions dona tion to tsunami relief mr annan nor im sure anyone in york region does not dispute the need for assistance to the victims of this tragedy the point is this donation was validated by the 12 members of regional council with money that was not theirs perhaps mr annans suggestion of underlying currents behind yorks dona tion was offensive but sir so was the regions assumption it could take taxpay ers money and donate it to any charity of its choice call it a slush fund healthy reserve fund or any other name but it is still not councils private fund we could all look wonderfully gener ous if we could throw someone elses money into the pot and claim the dona tion as our own l chesney markham tsunami donation about votes re regions 500000 tsunami dona tion simply wrong guest column by bruce annan jan 13 i agree with the writer york region should not have contributed to the tsunami relief efforts i fail to understand why the munici pality or even the province have to con tribute to these efforts this should be up to the federal government besides its our money at the munici pal provincial or federal level the money is picked from the pockets of taxpayers various levels of government are bending over backwards to contribute mainly because their constituents come from the affected areas its all about the vote as we know the liberal government was voted into power because of the constituencies in the gta and it is protecting and enhancing that vote canada is a generous country and the contributions made by the people toward tsunami relief is proof of that fact but the motives of various levels of gov ernment and their contribution to tsuna mi relief is suspect gowri rajan markham marriage between man woman the question of what is a traditional marriage has returned in my opinion traditional means without change many people have family traditions that are kept and honoured without change therefore i believe in keeping tradi tion as far as marriage is concerned the definition should stand as is between a man and a woman the dictionary is quite clear in its definition of tradition it means the passing on of customs or beliefs from generation to generation d robertson stouffville s i0m groundwork for grit health care cuts laid by ndp tories now you know where your 900 a year in new health premiums is going into severance pay ments for nurses the ontario government has announced an additional 200 million for hospitals nearly half of which will be spent getting rid of nurses so thats why you have to wait 18 months for surgery too many darned nurses certainly sounds like were making progress after spending a few hundred mil lion last year to rid the system of privately operated mri machines and repulsing mobile diagnostic clinics at the border but the provincial liberals are just con tinuing the job started by bob raes ndp which looked at spiralling health care costs and decided an excess of doctors was the problem so they slashed the number of university positions available for training them now two million oniarians cant find a family doctor once were finished getting rid of doctors and nurses the health care system will be fine and with onethird of our nurses and bruce annan half our gps over age 50 were getting close southlake regional health centre and markliam stouffville hospital are among the onehalf of ontarios 154 hospitals get ting a cut of the 200 million because theyll have balanced budgets by 2006 no doubt york central will get onside with this strate gy of becoming nursefree as well not to pick on the liberals and ndp as much fun as it is the conservatives had nearly a decade in power and failed to con front the demographic inevitability health care spending is increasing at triple the rate of inflation thanks to aging baby boomers at the current pace health will consume 100 per cent of government spending in less than 20 years when your focus is getting reelected in four years you dont make difficult deci sions that will pay off in two decades and of course the health care crisis is still abstract for politicians and other vips who enjoy our present twotier system you know our existing twotier system where you can get surgery quickly if you travel in the right circles just call an influ ential friend wholl talk to someone who can bump you up to the front of the line if you didnt know this you dont travel in the right circles just like the peasants in the soviet union that universal health care paradigm ralph klein is retiring soon as alberta premier which gives him the freedom to say his province will consider models of mixed publicprivate health care like they have in france or sweden or every other modern democracy in the world to which the usual vested interests will scream americanstyle twotier fighting to protect their monopoly because unions bureaucrats and academics know that giv ing patients a choice will threaten their power base and count on opposition from ottawa where 10000 civil servants work for the ministry of health without actually provid ing any medical care where the federal gov ernment increased its staff count by 24 per cent from 1998 to 2003 human nature dictates if a product is free people consume more of it and if providers of said product are penalized with funding cutbacks rather than reward ed with increased payments for supplying more product theyll provide less which is why our system is unsustainable as was perfectly obvious 20 years ago but well thrash about for another decade before facing reality and adopting a userpay health care model that works such as for instance dentistry in ontario had any trouble finding a dentist lately york region resident bruce annan former york region newspaper group publisher is a writer and consultant letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters submissions must be less ban 100 words and include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune 34 civic ave box 154 stouffville on l4a7z5 jmasonyrngcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrngcom assistant editor news frank king fkingyrngcom administration office manager vivian oneil 1 oneilymgcom production manager pain nichols pnkliohyrngcom advertising classified manager ann campbell acampbeuymgcom managing director new business flyer sales dawna andrews dandnnvsyrngcom new business manager steve kane skaneyrngcom managing director real estate mikes rogerson rnrogersonymgcom events management shows manager staccy allen sallenyrngcom editorial 9056402612 fax 90564o8778 advertising 9056402612 classified 18007433353i 9058531765 distribution 9052948244 canadar ontario emulations h3i p aixt board member suntnbune a york region newspaper group community newspaper the suntribune published every thursday and saturday is a member of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 70 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill andthornhillvaughan citizen the economist sun markhamthe erabanner newmarket aurora stouffville suntribune georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing