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6 stouffville suntribune h thursday april 27 2006 suntnbune a metroland community newspaper box 154 stoufmile on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director advertising distribution barry black director interactive media technology john futhey director circulation systems lynn pashko marketingpartnerships director debra wetter york region printing general manager bob dean editorial well all pay for health care ifs likely the last thingyou want to hear your municipality is asking you to pay more property tax to help cover costs of a new hospital wing but health care funding is a provincial responsibility you protest and queens park already gets enough of your hard- earned cash yet it seems municipal taxpayers may soon be called on to help fund hospital expansions and according to a study conducted in the north end of york region residents support the concept a telephone poll found 82 per cent of residents surveyed in bradfordwest gwillimbury east gwillimbury georgina newmarket aurora king and stouffville would support municipalities ponying up cash for construction of the new cancer care centre at southlake regional health centre in newmarket as the centre is being built to serve all of york region the hospital plans to request funds from other towns as well weve been here before municipalities are being asked to help fund hospital expansions more and more in barrie royal victoria hospital is proceeding with its expansion plans which will also see the creation of a regional cancer centre barrie has already agreed to contribute 525 million to the project while simcoe county is now con sidering a request for funding the province meanwhile is contributing 1375 million of the 250 million for taxpayers theres nothing more aggravating than governments coming back to the same well through a different route to fund needed services we pay taxes to the province and many of us contribute to hospital fundraising campaigns but our health care system in burgeoning york region simply cant keep pace with our booming population during a york region newspaper group interview last week premier dalton mcguinty made it clear high- growth areas wont see supplemental funding based solely on growth and the new cancer centre is a neces sity on the basis of current incident rates the canadian cancer society estimates 38 per cent of canadian women and 44 per cent of men will develop cancer dur ing their lifetimes the new southlake facility is expected to increase treatment capacity sixfold with cancer patient visits to southlake jumping to 95000 per year establishing this centre will take a conceited effort and that may mean resi dents will have to pay more than once its money well spent spring cleaning letters to the editor unsettling numbers in story on town council expenditures re council costs 170000 april 13 on first glance this short story could have been yet another indictment of town councils rather spotty spending record of late but it was simply a documenting of the salaries that we as taxpayers of whitchurchstouffville have been giving to the members of our illus trious council and after having read the article and consid ered the figures therein i have noticed a couple curious if not unsettling facts first i understand that those who toil on our behalf in government as either elected officials or as employees of various and sundry levels of government certainly deserve annual salary adjustments i just wonder why the mayor receives an increase of almost 7 per cent while the councillors and presumably all the other town employees have to make do with a pitiable cost of living allowance of less than three per cent i suppose there are some benefits to being the boss second there is the question of car allowance it seems the mayor gets more than triple of what the councillors get and all the councillors get exactly the same amount no matter how much they drive or from where for that matter those who represent the further flung rural ridings get the identical allowance as those whose constituency is in town hmmm thirdly an accounting of the expenses they are reimbursed for would certainly provide enlightening reading councillor harry bowes the stouffville suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the stouffville suntribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space write letters to the editor po box 154 stouffville l4a 7z5 email jmasonyrngcom or fax 9052941538 apparendy spends the least which must be due to the fact he utilizes all of his valuable time attending all the events going on simultaneously in our town and as such is too busy to spend any more of our money councillor phil bannon seemingly must have spent most of his allotment on his annual carni val by the lake thats a lot of money for a lot of little wieners or perhaps one big one and councillor susanne hilton who while holding the dubious distinction of being coun cils biggest spender is proud to be known as one of public transits biggest boosters in this town and as such must be spending all that money on bus tickets unless of course seeing as she hasnt declined her car allowance i could be wrong on the other hand maybe all the councillors are spending this money to facilitate their legacy building in the new memorial park seeing as what kind of legacy thats going to be i wonder why that should cost any money at all hugo t kroon bethesda editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrngcom assistant editor rick vanderlinde tvanderlindeymscom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandrewsyrngcom advertising classified manager ann campbell acampbellymgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauymgcom retail manager stacey allen sallenymgcom new business development manager mikerogerson mrogersonymgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrngcom editorial 9055131717 fax9055137525 advertising 9055131717 classified l8007433353f 9058531765 distribution 9055131717 canadian ontario oraiaiionshallu ftes auott board member councu sunlribune 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 thomhill vaughan citizen the economist sun markham the erabanner newmarketaurora georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorioegioncom and york region printing off the top with jim mason cream of our volunteer crop gets its thanks volunteers are a lot like our vehicles we depend on them dearly and we take them for granted until they are not available sometimes we even ride them too much this is national volunteer week sounds about as exciting as colonoscopy month which was last month and poetry month which we are currently enjoying if you hadnt noticed you rhyming couplets out there but volunteers are something about which we should get very excited consider our life without them sometimes it gets that serious here in whitchurchstouffville weve heard the threat from groups such as the recycling group and girl guides unless we get more volunteers we will cease to exist is the coles notes ver sion of the message usually someone steps up and takes over the presidency of the floundering group or agrees to coach the team with out a leader those kind of volunteers filled much of st james presbyterian church sunday the main street congregation has hon oured local community workers for the past 18 years with its volunteer recogni tion service sixty volunteers representing 40 groups were thanked for their communi ty activism another handful of groups couldnt be represented probably too busy working in the community to make it out many of those in attendance are involved in multiple organizations you see them chairing meetings coaching hockey or ball teams and doing the grunt work all clubs and associations require these are the people we look for each spring at the suntribune well hand out the citizen of the year and sports person of the year awards at the strawberry festival in late june the recipients are the super heroes of volunteers they dont coach a team teach a sunday school class or lead a youth group just because they have a child involved they do things because its the right thing to to its that simple they dont get involved because the government says they have to growing up they were likely affected positively by a volunteer or two themselves as cliched as it sounds they give back for all the right reasons look for nomination forms in the suntribune later this spring to nomi nate one of our community leaders jim mason is editor of the sun- tribune