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6 stoufivillesuntribuneu saturday february 24 2007 suntribune 6290 main st stouflville0nl4a7z5 wwwyorkregioncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology john futhey director advertising distribution barry black director circulation systems lynn pashko york region printing general manager bob dean letters to the editor put smaller theatre in old town hall re larger theatre eyed by bowes dec 14 former town councillor harry bowes what exactly are your motives you went to port hope and other municipalities to look at theatres and reported back they were all just money pits and a huge drain on the municipalities when theatre supporters presented a petition you labelled it invalid because people from other communities had signed it rather than pointing out the fact it had support from our neighbours you insisted a theatre shouldnt be a financial burden and should pay for itself no other facility in town does that you went to huntsville and investigated the 408seat algonquin theatre designed by the ventin group and reported back how terrible everything was in terms of the cost overruns to belittle and destroy the ventin initiative now you are just attempting to under mine all the work done by this community toward establishing a small community theatre in the old town hall as a focus for the renovation and regeneration of our historical downtown i assume the skate park property is your secret location the structure you are talking about would cost 6 million to 10 million and at least 200000 a year to run it will require a staff of three to four peo ple for maintenance and marketing it will require contracting commercial ventures to pay some of its costs and will be beyond the reach of the average small citizen group or individual to participate in therefore rendering it somewhat use less as a community facility to foster the arts in this town how do you propose to pay for this venue if you solicit corporate contributions will you be selling the name of the theatre to some developer how will this venue not be a financial burden on this town for years to come likewise mayor wayne emmersons lack of care or concern for the heritage and culture of our town is the reason the build ing is in such sad shape to begin with so mr bowes for the very same rea sons you have opposed the theatre all along your proposal shouldnt go forward with all due respect and lets not forget the valuable parking space lost with the construction of the new building you people need to get out and travel the world so you can begin to understand the importance of heritage and culture to a communitys identity and psyche randy mole stouffville internet gives average canadians voice on environment i dont know what is more inspiring the audiences or the videos travelling across canada seeing so many faces in so many different commu nities i have to keep pinching myself to make sure its all actually real and just when i start getting down after a long bus ride when the audience faces start to fade from memory and i start to wonder did it really make a difference thats when i watch some of the videos and get inspired all over again there are now hundreds of if i were prime minister videos up on the tour website wwwdavidsuzu- kiorg some are silly some are inspiring some are familiar faces and others complete strangers but they are all canadians who have ideas on what our politicians can do to make canada a world leader in sustainability and thats just the point i dont want to cross the country talking at people our goal is to get people talking with each other sharing ideas and pushing our leaders to get serious about the environment canadas once vaunted environ mental reputation is falling apart and no politician has picked up the pieces yet let alone started putting them back together im hoping my audiences will stand up and exercise their rights to demand real change the videos are one way this can be accomplished at each event young simon our videographer is there ready to record clips of people expressing the kinds of changes they would make if they were prime minister sometimes people are shy but rriore often than not simon is prac tically mobbed by people wanting to express their opinions thats especially true of the real ity tv generation who has been raised under the blinking light of a camcorder and has few reserva- david suzuki tions about talking to one all those videos will eventually go up on our website if they arent there already and the beauty of the internet is you dont have to actually come out to an event to put up a video youtube has made video post ing accessible to anyone with access to a computer you can watch rate and even comment on all the posts its an easy and democratic way to get your point across and at the end of the tour we are going to send all the videos to the party leaders weve been fortunate on the tour to have earned the support of a number of wellknown canadians i was recently interviewed on muchmusic with hiphop artist kos for whom i have great respect and singersongwriter sarah harmer even performed at one of our events ms harmer is an impressive musician and passionate about conservation but while i really appreciate sup port from amazing people such as these the videos that really blow me away are from average canadians who are clearly so pas sionate about environmental issues there seems to be a growing sense for too long weve tried to separate our environment and our economy into two separate and dis tinct entities that has caused huge problems in our society because our environ ment is our home and it is finite our economy on the other hand is predicated on relentless growth and considers environmen tal issues externalities as though they dont really matter yet they do matter because today with problems such as global warming we are seeing what hap pens when endless growth meets a finite system what we need now is to rational ize our economy with ecological reality this means we need to shift our economy to be cleaner and smarter we heed to stop subsidizing pol luting industries we need to create targets and timelines to reduce pollution to lev els that do not jeopardize our natur al systems it means our environment not our economy must be the real bot tom line me the suzuki challenge at vmwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribuncrcscrvcs the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune stouhville on l4a7z5 jmasonyrngcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom interacttve media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandrewsyrmgcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauyrmgcom new business development manager mike rogerson mrogersonyrmgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom ontario press council ripe fdsaw canxftan ccab editorial 9056402612 fax9052941583 advertising 9056402612 classified i8oo7433353 fax9052941538 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 media 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