The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6 economist sunsuntribune saturday feb 12 2005 0m jtouflviile mm suntnbune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave 3rd floor stouffville on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director production interactive media john futhey advertising director retail flyer sales nicole fletcher advertising director classified real estate evenrs management gord paolucci distribution director circulation barry black director circulation systems lynn pashko marketingpartnerships director debra weller york region printing general manager bob dean letters to the editor rationale for council raises filled with many holes re markham councillors give selves raise jan 22 your article omits some very important facts as a member of the citizens com mittee i can speak with some author ity even though i was the only mem ber who disagreed with the method of arriving at the final figure and healthy increases recommended council already approved a 35- percent increase effective april 1 2004 not including the york region portion of salaries given to the mayor deputy mayor and regional council lors in just nine months salary increases range from 89 to 117 per cent while staff received a 35per cent increase mississauga recently announced a 3percent salary increase for its mayor councillors and nonunion staff you might ask how the citizens committee arrived at its recommen dation first of all it ignored the raise received in april members used an average of councillors salaries from richmond hill markham and vaughan the problem with using the aver age for these municipalities was the cost per taxpayer was already the highest here in my analysis therefore if you are starting with a high average base you arrive at a high average salary and in my opinion an erroneous conclusion not satisfied with these results members arbitrarily decided to pay local councillors 60 per cent of the adjusted salaries of regional council lors prior to the committees involve ment the percentage was 571 in effect committee members arbitrarily gave councillors another increase with no justification in fact the third increase in nine months salaries of the mayor at 145 per cent and deputy mayor at 106 per cent were based on this premise its wrong in my opinion at no time did the committee dis cuss if salaries should be status quo or whether or not local politicians were overpaid statistics of population-per-coun- cillor clearly indicated they were well paid compared to other jurisdictions yet they ignored these facts the citizens committee recom mendation is flawed with so many holes council should have taken the necessary time to analyse the propos al but instead chose to approve it that very night this letter is intended to give tax payers the other side of the story so they can determine if council is now overpaid frank vvetere markham f we had to extend the humanity needs diversity to create longterm stability in the late 1950s geneticists began to analyze individual genes in plants fruit flies and mice instead of finding genetic homogeneity or uniformity within such specialized species scien tists discovered genes controlling specific proteins existed in many different forms this phenomenon is called genetic poly morphism and we now recognize such vari ability is characteristic of vibrant vigourous species but diversity is actually important on many levels over the 38 billion years life has existed on earth there have been enormous changes the sun has increased intensity by 30 per cent the atmosphere has changed from c02rich to high oxygen content mountains and oceans arose and disap peared warm periods have punctuated ice ages yet all the while life has flourished the key to that persistence has been diversity at the gene species and ecosystem levels within the biosphere as conditions change the pool of vari ability provides more options for adapta tion to the new environment weve learned from experience in agriculture forestry and david suzuki fisheries that monoculture the widespread growth of a single species or genetic strain creates vulnerability to new diseases pests or environmental conditions unfortunately globalization and the advancement of a single world economic model has created conditions that discour age diversity and encourage homogeneity in order to create favourable economies of scale in other words a walmart is a walmart is a walmart this has the effect of homoge nizing the local cultures and diversity that may otherwise help provide resilience as conditions around us change and this is why it is vital to encourage diversity within and between hurnan societies to maintain different world views and ways of thinking when the iron curtain fell for example we learned soviet secrecy and isolation resulted in different approaches to prob lems as we reported on the nature of things one technique involved surgical alterations of the cornea that has since been adapted as laser eye surgery i recently visited cuba a nation that has been deliberately blocked from the global economy by the united states and saw enough to know they have much to teach us the soviet collapse suddenly deprived cuba of their main market for sugar and source of cheap oil pesticides fertilizers and big farm machinery became prohibi tively expensive it was a catastrophic economic crisis that necessitated new solutions today 80 per cent of cuban agriculture is organic and they are working toward 100 per cent vacant lots lawns and yards now grow food so today 80 per cent of leafy nongrain vegetables are grown and consumed within cities and towns i visited an urban garden of three hectares in havana that was started by four people in 1999 and now supports 76 paid workers who all live nearby local people buy the produce which is fresher varied and free of chemicals dozens of people are fully employed the environment is cleaner and people develop a deeper appreciation of their relationship with food by criteria of literacy medical care infant mortality extreme poverty and homelessness the united nations rates cuba as a developed nation this from a country that is in many ways cut off from the outside world as human population swells and our cli mate changes in the 21st century we will encounter the limits of the resources our planet is capable of supplying if we are to feed humanity and provide a high quality of life for our people we should try to protect diversity at eveiy level now because we are going to need all the help we can get take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters submissions must be less than 100 words and include 1 daytime telephone number name nnd address the suntribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and edit for clarity and space utters to the editor the sun tribune 34 civic ave box 154 stouffville on l4a 7z5 fmasonyrngcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrngcom administration office manager vivian oneil roncil6tyrngcom events management shows showsyrngcom production manager pant nichols pnicliolsyrngcom advertising classified manager ann campbell acamibellyrngcom retail manager stacey allen sallcnymgcom managing director new business fiyer sales dawna andrews ilaiulrcwsyrngcom new business manager steve kane sknneyrngcom managing director real estate mike rogerson mrogersonyrngcom editorial 9056402612 fax 90564o8778 advertising 9056402612 classified i8007433353i m 9058531765 distrihution 9052948244 cwjm onurto j2 aam boanj utmba cam suntribune 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 and thornhill vaughan citizen the economist sun markham the erabanner newmarketaurora stouffville suntribune georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing