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6 stouffville suntribune saturday jan 6 2007 suntnbune 6290 main st stouffvilleonl4a7z5 wwwyorkregioncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief director interactive director advertising marketingpartnershif debora kelly media technoixgy distribution director business manager john futhey barry black debra weller robert lazurko director circulation york region printing systems general manager lynn pashko bob dean letters to the editor more arenas built but no sign of theatre the music town ontario or clock tower theatre committee has been ask ing council since 1995 to approve and help finance a theatre project in stouffville to little or no avail recently thanks to pam mandich with support from wayne hill of the york durham academy for performing arts the committee finally received approval for an arts and culture centre but even those plans appear null and void in favour of sports demands i dont begrudge the towns plans for a third and possibly fourth ice pad in a new 61 million complex however i have lived in stouffville 31 years and have seen the demolition of one arena a new arena built and then expanded for a second ice pad but still no theatre this to me does not seem like a fair allocation of existing capital under coun cils control doris harvey stouffville tory has every reason to exaggerate reality re youre owed apology tory leader dec 28 we have a hospital ceo saying the mcguinty government is doing a tremendous job in tackling surgical wait times and we have the leader of the progressive conservative party the same party that cut health care and other public services saying theyre not who do you trust janet beed ceo of markham stouffville hospital who has no reason to present anything other than fact or conservative leader john tory who has every reason to exaggerate reali ty to suit himself and his party in hopes people will forget their dismal record when they were in power mr tory and his party are again spew ing tired questionable rhetoric the liberal government is at least tak ing steps forward to fix the problem thats a lot more than we saw when the conservatives were in power john pownall unionv1lle big government change will bring enviro progress stephane dion may have passed the first test in his quest to rebuild the shattered liberal party but earning the hearts and minds of canadians will require more than a deft political hand it will require bold leadership and that means slaying canadas biggest dragon our environmen tal deficit mr dions predecessor paul martin was famous for slaying canadas fiscal deficit but on the environment mr martin lost his edge even while polls showed pub lic concern over environmental problems were reaching record lev els now with mr dion as leader the liberal party has been given another chance mr dion has made the environment a key part of his political platform correctly identifying that protecting the planets ability to provide for us by stabilizing our climate and absorb ing our wastes is one of the key issues of the 21st century sceptics may immediately cry foul after all didnt mr dion already have his opportunity as environment minister under the martin administration well yes and no mr dion may have had the best of intentions as environment minister but the fact is the current structure of the fed eral government renders the posi tion virtually impotent and pre vents real change this isnt to say great things havent been accomplished by the evironment ministry they have even though the ministry itself is a relatively new phenomenon it did nt actually exist until the 1970s arising as a result of mounting pub lic concern over pollution but we have gone as far as we can go with this narrow approach it isnt working for us anymore its far too easy for shortterm eco nomics to trump the environment at the cabinet table by their very nature environmental problems tend to be longer term and are too easily ignored by administrations that focus on immediate economic returns in hopes of getting reelect ed meanwhile mounting environ- david suzuki mental problems like pollution and global warming are costing canadians billions hurting our quality of life and reducing our future capacity to compete in a rapidly changing global market place canada isnt the only country facing environmental problems but we have been slow to change other countries such as sweden the united kingdom and japan have recognized moving toward sustainability requires a broader strategic approach the environment ministry sim ply cannot solve big environmental challenges such as global warming on its own instead we need to develop a system that recognizes conserving environmental health is like economic health a funda mental bottom line in short we need a national sustainability strat egy- the holy grail of true environ mental leadership this is to the environment what a balanced bud get is to the economy under such a national strategy the health of canadians and the environment would be a central consideration for how the govern ment plans its agenda and makes policy profligate waste like profli gate spending would no longer be tolerated the machinery of gov ernment would be imbued with an unshakable sustainability ethos that would infiltrate all levels of government decisionmaking a number of steps could be taken to further this end from cre ating a cabinet committee on sus tainable development to appoint ing a special advisor to monitor canadas progress to establishing a sustainable development advisory council comprised of the environ ment minister and representatives from the provinces territories first nations ngos business and labour the key to all of this lies with prime minister the prime minister must own the environmental bot tom line as he or she does the fiscal bottom line its the only way to move forward canadians have had an earful of environmental rhetoric over the past several years what they need now is action slaying the fiscal deficit required a revolution in gov ernment thinking and operation nothing less will be needed to tack le canadas environmental deficit our environment is not something that can be tacked onto existing programs and policies rather it must be hardwired into the process so that environ mental sustainability objectives are part of the fundamental bottom line nothing less will slay this drag on take the david suzuki challange at vmwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters ah submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribunercserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune stouffville on l4a7z5 jmasonyrngcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom assistant editor rick vanderlinde rvanderlindeyrmgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandrcwsyrmgcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauyrmgcom new business development manager mikerogerson mrogersonyrmgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom fdsa atthts4 canadian cborfatfons audit board member ccab editorial 9056402612 fax9052941583 advertising 9056402612 classified i80o7433353 fax 9052941538 distribution 9056402612 suntnbune a york region media group community newspaper the suntribune published every thursday and saturday is a division of the metroland media group ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 100 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill and thornhill vaughan citizen the erabanner newmarketaurora markham economist sun georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing