6 -The Canadian Champion, Fniday October 10, 1997 ** OPINION Box 248, 191 Main St. E., The Canadien Chamiipon, publshied twice weekly at 191 Main St. E., Milton, Milton, Ont. L9T 4N9 Ont., L9T 4N9 (Box 248), ison ofî Th1e Metroland Printlng, Publishing & Disti- butlng Ltd. group of suburitan rompanies which Inctades: Ajax / Pickering News Advertiser; Atliiton HeraldlCourier; Barrie Advance;, Brampton Guardian; (905 878- 341 Burlington Post; City Parent; Collingwood / Wasaga Connection; East York Fax: 878-4943 Mirror; Etobicoke Guardian; Georgetown Independentl Acton Free Press; Kingston This Week; Lindsay This Week; Markham Economiot & Son; Midland I Classified: 875-3300 Penetanguittiene Mirror; Mitittauga News; Newmariret / Aurora Era Banner; Northumberland News; North York Mirror; Oahoitte Beaver; Orillia Today; Ian Oliver Publiher Oshawa / Whithy I Clarington / Port Perry This Week; Peterborought This Week; Neil Oliver Associate Publisher Richmontd Hiii / Thomhill 1 Vaughan Liberai; Scarborough Mirror; UxbrtdgeI David Bos General Manager Stoafloilte Tribune; Todayxs Seniors. Rob Kelly Editar Advertising ix accepted on the condition 1h01, in the event of a typographicat error, thot portion 0f1the arteertisiox opace otcapied by the erronoox item, Karen Huisman Circulation Manager together with a reasonable allowance for signature, miii flot ho chorged for, but Teri Casasa Office Manager the halance of tht odvertisemext miii 11e paid for at tho applicable rate. The pub- Tina Colea Production Manager Ilober reservesth11e right 10 categorize advertixements or declioo. Menit pay, for everybody Recently, CTV news used an Access ru Information requesr ru uncover the following: - Appruximately 3,000 senior federal civil ser- vice managers were eligible for performance bonuses in the last budget year. .- 0f that number, 97 per cent - must paid between $61 ,000 and $120,000 - got a bonus. - To receive a bonus, managers had ru be ranked a tbree te, a five on a five point perfor- Ta/k Taxes The Milton Red Sox infiders were an Important factor when the locals took on Ajax in the fourth gae of their best of five playoff series ln September, 1963. Blake Inglis, Ron Shannon, Glen Dance and Theo Charlton dispiayed the gloves that hhey were hop- ing would make the difference that day. Anybody feeling the heat? mac sae.Utnawrentdicosu vihBRA - LE Thank the stars for Indian summer. It means -The bonuses averaged $4,300, for a total -the garden hose won't freeze up during the price of $12 milIlion. Recipients ranking a 'three' for better value. night, and you might need it if your house catch- got a 2.5 per cent bonus, a 'four' eamned a five ln Canada, civil servants wouldn't-have had es on tire, given the precarious state of sonne of per cent bonus and a 'five' eamned a 10 per cent mucb trouble selling their twisted version of per- the Milton Fire Department's rolling stock. bonus. Some recipients had a part of the bonus formance measurement ro their so-called politi- Maybe our burg will be dealt int the next udded to their base solary as a raise. cal masters. After aIl, the minister respunsible hand of Trivial Pursuit cards with a question - The bonuses were paid despite the fact that a for the senior civil service - Marcel Masse - along tsese lines: 'What ix the only municipality salary freeze ix in effeet throughout the public was once Canada's mnost senior civil servantinCadtohvtotretckbekdwnn sevc.himself. ine Cayad to bhae woîl?'tuk bekdono - Guidelines on the size and number of bonus- Taxpayers can judge for themselves Mr. h a otesiecl? es were often ignored. Masse is qualified for tbis tbonks in part to the By tbe time functioning equipment arrives on The federal govemment's reaction to tbe story growing observation of civil service habits by the scene for a local congatiow ni bat gh was typically contradictory. First, it was suggest- investigative joumalists, not just at CTV but at beloing on sye an but bgalow eieso roat ed that the money was deserved by aIl the mon- the Ottawa Citizen as weîî. sbck prsye, n tbo wigemesofyu agers. Second, the CTV report was denounced Earlier tbis year, Citizen staff revealed thot suuro pidea offndjoy. ir reetinWek as a fabrication. Third, Canadions were told tbe more thon 100 senior bureaucrats con autborize Miton to itil i off, tis aFr Preventio eek.t payouts were necessary to prevent a brain drain. their own expense accounits, a policy that altbough somte pundits may dlaim the>' are going Our government ix unwîlling to take the allowed une bureaucrat to blow an average of over tbe top witb the festivities. plunge and actually try to measure performance $50,000 annually on mealo, lîquor and travel. Council bas burriedly scrawled a purchase objectively, as other industries and even other The samne manager forced taxpayers to buy bis order for two new tiretigbting trucks wortb bet- govemments bave done. office fumiture for $15,000. ter than haîf a million dollars. Delivery this Taxpayers would be better off if civil service Ontarians con join the Canadian Taxpayers montb, if you please, altbougb the day after pay was actually linked to fairl>' objective, pub- Federation's quest for better oversight of the tomnorrow would be even better. lici>' accessible measures of performance. senior civil service. Simpl>' mail your views to; Let's not confuse lambasting management That migbt create circumstances wbere some the Honourable Marcel Maase, Treasur>' Board bnln ihgvn re otegut.Mlo civil servants eam more than tbey do now. But, of Canada, Esplanade Laurier, East Tower, 9tb bglinglu witb givngy grifitegun Mifone provided the worker is in a useful job, real merit Floor, 140 O'Connor St., Ottawa, Ontrio, KI A ail appearances indicate. pay would ensure tbat taxpayers only paid more 0R5. Tbere ta a dedicated cotenie of part-time tire- How your teen handies the homework I now know bow teenagers do their home- He was lost. So we leafed tbrougb tbe book work in tbree minutes. together, and found a section explaining "How Teens are guided by the Least Effort Principle tu estimate square roots" on the two pages prior (LEP), and ir is a frustrating experience getting -.to the assignment. LEPERS ru actuall>' tbink wbile doing their At tbis point, any reasonable parent would bomework. feel there job is fînally done, at least for the Ben ix in nintb grade, and be was bringing Ps c o o y assignment on this nigbt. Wrong. Neyer forget home grades onywhere from 60 per cent ru 100 ~ h 9 tbe power of LEP - you con't let your guard per cent in math. I was determined tu find out in t e ' 0 own for a moment, or least not until the home- wby. I proposed a contract.. If be let me check - * work ix acrually dune, you've cbecked il and it's bis work and followed my suggestions, I would vihD.ANL ICVR rigbr. Assume notbing. buy bim the new computer gamne be's dying for were wrong. 1 badn't told bîm bie then sbould fix Wben I came bock, Ben was busily esrimating ait the end of the term. tbem. I elaborated on my recommendation. the problemrs, but be was getting haîf of tbemn He bougbt in. Another nigbt the math bomework stated: wrong. I was dumbfounded. It turos out that bie The first night I cbecked bis math bomiework, "First estimate the square mot, then colculate the didn't read the two paragrapbs on the preceding there were only two wrong answers. The square moot ru the nearesr tentb". Ben only bad pages, ratber be went tbrougb on example tbey onswers, bowever, were in the bock of the book. one onswer for eacb square rmot. There were two gave ru see wbat rbey did. He tben did that for He bad dune bis bomework witbout chec-king if onswers for eacb prublemt - first an estimate, bis homnework. prublems. tbey were rigbr. I asked bim wby be didn't second tbe precise onswer. I recommended that bie octually reod the para- check, and hie said be knew the stuff and ir was a He found the square moot using bis calculator. grapbs on estimation, before doing the home- waste of rime. His answer was in fact rigbt. Since be bad the work. I recommended thot be do this for the resr My first recommendation was that hie check precise onswer and it was righr, hie didn't see the of bis life - read the instructions first. He final- bis bomework ail thse rime. need for estimating it. I explained that the ly did, it was ail rigbt, and be slept well. A few nigbts later, I was checking bis math teacher ix not drilling to see if Ben con tind the Leorning ru do bomework occurs in very homework and ogain there were somte answers square moot burton on the calculator, rorber hie small steps at this age. It takes fimie, but the LEP wro!lg. il wms ut be did check it. He knew tbey wanted Ben to, tbink, to leamn how to estimate. con be beaten. Rob Kelly a modest stipend for the privilege of serambling around in buming buildings and pulling crash victims fromn mongled vebnicles. The bondful of fulîtimers - there are about haîf a dozen - scem ru take the business seri- uusly roo, alrbougb the management question lingers there, unfortunately, due in nu smal measure ru Cbief Harold Penson's forthrigbt admission last week. Mr. Penson said be basn't been aggressive enougb in pusbing for new equipment. He also pointed out thar, "these old trucks bave sbut down or stalled many times, witbout warning, wbile firefigbters were conducting interior tire attacks.' Let's sa>' Mr. Penson was an airline pilot instead of the tire ebief. How wuuld the above paragrapb read then? Maybe sometbing like this; 'Captain Penson told the Royal Commission on Airline Safety that, "These old planes bave sbut down or stalled mony rimes, without wam- ing, wbile pilots were conducting commuter tiigts. ' Chief Penson takes tbe tiretigbring business seriously, even if be docs leave sometbing to be desired witb regard ru bis aggressiveness and communication okilîs in dealing witb politicians. It doesn't look as if Mr. Penson sbould be thse faîl guy for this embarrassment - and tbank God tbat's ail it bas been su far. Not if you believe Councillor Morion Howard, wbo siammed ber colleagues for rele- gating the firefigbting equipment replacement to also-ran status in budget priorities. This, she says, was su advanced electronie bean-counting software could be purcbosed instead. That $400,000 computer network council opted for prior tu, the panic porehase of firetight- ing inventur>' migbr bave come in bond>', thougb. Ir could bave been used ro tally the legai costs facing the Town of Milton bad council faced a lawsuit over fauity tiretigbting equipment that resulted in property destruction, or the loss of something more precious, oe life. j -j -e Looking Back .