Home Newspaper of Hills Established 1866 A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Street Georgetown 3Z6 Ontario DAVID A Publisher and General Manager BEST AVAILABLE COPY BRIAN Editor Phone DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager brand Mill RcKhlrrn Number Ml Page THE HERALD March Expensive expenses Halton Hills five hydro commissioners ran up a 33 bill attending conferences last year Murt Allison Bill Smith Jim Fisher Roger Haggett and Miller make up the hydro commission of Halton Hills Their spending demands some tough questions Roger who was appointed to the hydro commis sion last year after the death of Doug Mason spent only on conferences last year Jim Fisher who was elected to the hydro commission in 1988 spent 3 600 Bill Smith who has been on the Hills Hydro Com mission for years spent on conferences and Murt Allison an year member of the commission spent almost on conferences including a 100 trip to New Orleans Mayor Miller spent on the same trip Both hydro commissioners were accompanied by their wives at tax payers expense Hydro commissioners are now saying the practice of paying wives expenses will stop While many councillors and hydro commissioners have demonstrated fiscal responsibility with their conference budget in the past it clear that a firm policy limiting the amount spent on conferences annually by municipal cians at every level is badly needed And so is a policy which gives the public quick and clear access to spending figures by politicians For years town and Regional councillors have presented their spending voluntarily and openly to the public Hills Hydro commissioners only agreed to release their ex after a formal letter from the Herald requesting the figures and after a meeting to discuss the issue In these days of doubledigit budget increases it s that politicians be very open about their spending which is bound to undergo close public scrutiny Politicians at the town and Regional level including the hydro commission should act now to ensure that spending on conferences never gets out of control and that spending stays very much in the public eye Fighting cancer Brian MacLeod Ed io Notebook 1 Hundreds of volunteers from Georgetown and Acton will soon be knocKmg on doors looking for help in the fight against cancer In Georgetown alone 200 volunteers will be hitting the streets looking to raise for cancer research the month of Apnl The Georgetown cancer society kicks off its fundraising campaign with a breakfast at the North Golf and Country Club 4 In Acton the campaign is already under way Organizers started the campaign there with a fashion show at the Acton Legion put on by Elizabeth Fashions Proceeds from the fashion show go to the cancer society Both units will look for sue cessful daffodil sales the ed symbol of the cancer society to enhance their campaign Daffodil day in Canada this year is Apnl Nationwide the cancer society is hoping to raise million in Apnl The cancer society strives to make each dollar Of every dollar donated cents go towards research goes towards patient services 15 cents are used for education six cents are earmark ed for fundraising and only four cents are used for administration The research area is becoming more interesting for cancer year Scientists are now concentrating their study on live genes called oncogenes These genes are believed to tngger the change from normal cells to cells which spread and cause cancer If oncogenes can be con trolled a cure for cancer may be possible cancer scientists sa Scientists want to measure on to accurateh dentifv the stages of cancer Eventual 1 research scientists hope to develop blood tests to detect the loss of pro That would allow doctors to catch the warning signs of cancer before the cancer even develops the cancer society says around Hills pic countryside and taking all the well kept lawns in town make it easy to forget that there are people in Georgetown who don have the luxury of two cars and three bedrooms Jusl such a reminder came across my desk Monday when I heard the Baptist Church will open a food bank The food bank itself will be open Apnl and Apnl from 30 a m to3p m Jim Bradley got roasted by opposition members Derek Nelson Queen Park on HO They quite burn Environ merit Minister Jim Bradley on a funeral pyre of tires here as the spring sitting of the legislature opened But observers could be forgiven for feeling he d have felt less heat at the tire fire than from opposition politicians In a word Bradley got roasted It wasn just the Hagersville tire fire either He was questioned about possible environmental con at the site of the closed Roman Catholic St Bruno elementary school in Toronto He was thumped over the high levels of fecal matter in the well water at Spencerville in eastern Ontario Bradley was learning a lesson he has mainly managed to avoid up until now that it t matter how right or wrong you are on an environmental issue the real ques tion is whether you can be tagged as somehow failing to protect the environment Both the New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives went after him with green clubs par tf cularly over the Hagersville fire TIRE TAX After all Treasurer Bob Nixon had decided the last budget to levy a environmental cleanup tax on every tire sold in Ontario This was partly because he drove past the Hagersville dump every day That tax has brought in 30 million so how come only million of it has been spent on recycling efforts Then there was the question of why many frantic media people t contact Bradley the first few days of the fire They assumed he was ducking them NDP Leader Bob wanted to know why Bradley hadn used available legal tools technicalities Bradley called them to speed up enforcing safe standards at the site something the owner was fighting every step of the way And finally they sought to find out why Bradley didn know about the fire at the same location It was all rather like earth day in the legislature with Bradley being buried in accusations and recriminations How fair it all was is another question With the perfect hindsight now available it is quite clear Bradley would have acted sooner against tire dumps It is obvious he didn t consider them a potentially major hazard But then neither had the In a decade no opposition critic had ever suggested the tire dumps constituted a super threat to the environment One reason might be that tire deposits simply aren that much of a problem beyond ugliness and now cost Even though Hagersville has been described wildly exaggerated terms as the worst ecological disaster in On history there is still no evidence of any permanent harm to the environment Even the other problem packages that have been thrown at him quick and fast in recent days necessarily the apocalypse either COMMON fecal matter pro blem is quite common try a Toronto beach in- summer The remedies while alow and expen are under way As for St Bruno the medical evidence as opposed to the political posturing t in any need for a panic reac This isn to say Bradley has been brilliant about all this In fact his refusal to concede he might have erred on the of tire dumps is whaj is causing offence to many In particular because he is an inflexible advocate of recycling and an opponent of burning waste he has consistently ignored proven alternatives such as high temperature incineration with the tires used as fuel in cement kilns The cement companies are willing but Bradley would rather stack than smoke Now with the chlorinated water controversy and other looming issues one thing is certain Bradley perennial grin is going to be badly stretched by the end of this sitting These are Voices of Fire but theyre a bit cheaper Vic Parsons Ottawa Bureau I Any resemblance of the fictional characters below to persons living or dead is purely intentional OTTAWA Art schmart The MP for Upper Elbow Venison Tickle slams the edge of his desk so hard that the noise jars his companion from blissful slumber Elvis Droodge has been raving on for a good 10 minutes in his of about the purchase of the Li in rl abstract painting Voice of Fire by the National Gallery It absolutely outrageous Droodge a backbench rookie con I go to my nding for the weekend and everywhere I turn people are onto me about the goods and services tax We don want it they say So 1 smile and tell them it necessary for us to get our national debt under control But they don believe it Quite mumbles H J Stoneycroft Droodge less than attentive listener These young pups the old Commons warhorse thinks to himself why do they lake things so Then goes on I asked why the government is reducing its payments for long term care for hospitalized veterans when we re buying a painting by an American artist at 8 million Especially for a red and blue painting Why a 1 farmer duplicated it in his field just outside Ottawa last week Someone else pointed out that the cost of that socalled work of art was more than the 1 6 million the government is cutting from women s programs this year in eluding the federal support for centres for battered women and children How can I justify that to voters LET EXPERTS JUDGE At the mention of voters Stoneycroft attention is gained The flond faced veteran lurches forward in the chair his jowls a quiver Indeed he says And this morning I heard on the radio H curator from a private gallery suggesting that we pohti are unqualified to judge what art is Leave it to the experts she said Well Stoneycroft continues uncharacteristically animated now I d suggest are un mo j suggest are un