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economist sunsuntribune saturday nov 292003 suntnbune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave stouflville on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director of production john futhey advertising director retail fuer sales nicole fletchr advertising director classified real estate events management gord paoliicci letters to the editor assessment procedure inaccurate by now or very soon most residents of vvliitchurchstouffville will have received property assessment notices in the mail please look at it carefully and ask yourself is this assessment of my property realistic can i sell it for this amount if you are not sure check the value with a representative from a real estate office if the answer to either question is not a clear yes then appeal to the municipal property assessment corporation the instructions for appeal are in the enclosure with the assess ment the procedure for evaluating homes is outdated assessors establish property value by reviewing house sales nearby they do not take into consideration the age of a house its square footage or the type of constructibri such an antiquated system tiastogo at one time assessors came to peoples homes and discussed changes granted given the number of properties this is no longer practical neither is it practical for the assessor to appraise a property from behind a desk far from the site they say this appraisal may or may not affect taxes but that depends on the tax rate we all know with the demands of society taxes will increase if enough of us appeal this assessment maybe the powers that be will get the mes sage and revise this antiquated procedure wilfmorley stouffville merger opponents misguided the canadian alliance and progressive conservatives are anticipating the ratifica- tion of asingle new gonservatiye party an inconsequential faction of resistance has defined the merger as illegitimate and deceptive former pc leader joe clark and former leadership candidate david orchard have characterized the agreement as a betrayal to democracy mr clark vindicates the progressive conservatives as the only reputable option to the liberals he believes the tories have gen uine broadased national appeal his anti quated theory has proven to be fallacious inaccurate and politically treacherous under his leadership the tories won 12 seats and only 12 per cent of the popular vote in the 2000 election ten of those seats came from atlantic canada illustrating conclusively this brgani zation can hardlybe defined as a national force mr clark has declared a toryalliance merger would not be inclusive in reality letters poucy v the stouflville tribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the tribune reserves the right to publish or not publishand to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the tribune 9 heritage rd markham on l3p1m3 email letter6econsuncom and i cant feel my toes irwnw to wmnce 1 mkwt dpughancom this coalition exemplifies genuine nation building similar antimerger comments have come from antifree trade activist mr orchard he is an impregnable adversary of modern conservatism yet his supporters make up 25 percent bfme current party membership what mn clark and mr orchard dont acknowledge is the liberal party has won three majority governments garnering a popular vote no greater than 40 per cent as a result of vote sputting the liberals wbrr93 ridings in the 2000 general election 1 if a unified rightwing option existed during that election many incumbent liberals would hot have been reelected and the government would have been formidat bly held accountable we must question why these two individ uals are so opposed to consolidating the two parties first and consequently the most notable and obvious reason is mr clark and mr orchard are not philosophically conservative they have identified themselves as indi viduals politically sympathetic to left-of- centre issues and policies the second more poignant reason is opportunism this act of selfishness is elect orally detri mental and destructive canadians desire options within our democracy given that clark and orchards vision has been rejected within the realms of conser vatism they would likely function more appropriately within the ranks of the new democratic party kirk sutherland markham thanks to police restaurant staff last week we had a surprise visit from a police officer my first reaction was concern was someone we knew hurt what could be wrong but within seconds we realized he was on a good samaritan mission turns out id dropped my wallet an hour or two earlier outeide the bluestone bistro in unionville some kindly citizen submitted it to the restaurant staff who reported it to the police they retrieved it and returned it to me intact arid before i noticed it was missing i want to say thanks for the goodness i experienced from the uriknown citizen who didnt want a reward the bluestone for not only providing a great dinner but later tak ing care of my wallet arid the police officer who dazzled my fouryearold son with kindness hopefully you each recognize this inci dent and know your kindness was much appreciated laurie rose unionville david suzuki development threatens ocean meadows human beings are airbreathirig landlubbers and that constraint shapes the way we see the world pur priorities and values water covers more than 70 per cent of the earth but it is an alien world our windows into the water world are tiny and we catch brief glimpses of the diversity there we are almost as ignorant of the ecology of forest canopies and of the diversity at the microscopic level in the soil that sustains us ifwe dont know what we have we dont know what were losing so the purpose of a much needed project called the interna tional census of marine life is to document as many species as possible over a 10year period according to a progress report released recently by the census more than210000 marine species including 15000 different types offish have thus been identified arid the work is just beginning its an inyentorythat is desperately need ed recent surveys of some of the most pro ductive parts of our oceans such as coral reefs and seagrasses show steady declines although not well known seagrasses are critical to the health of marine ecosystems about 60 types of seagrass some just a few centimetres long others extending sev eral meters form meadows that extend in range from frigid arctic waters to warm tropical seas these meadows serve vital functions that help maintain the health of the oceans as a whole although seagrasses may be the most widespread shallow marine ecosystems in the world they are among the least protect ed and according to the recently complet ed world atlas of seagrasses a project fund ed by the united nations meadows are in serious decline the good news is that seagrass mead ows can often recover for example after a new sewage processing system was installed in boston harbour seagrasses returned for the first time in 200 years such stories are currently the rare excep tion rather than the rule and unless we start protecting these overlooked ecosystems our oceans will continue to decline take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdayidsuzuki6rg editorial editor jim mason newsroomeconsuncom advertising retail sales manager stevekane skaneymgcom sales manager new business development distribution daivna andrews dandrewsymgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbeuymgcom real estate manager mikerogerson mrdgersonymgcom production production manager pamnichols pnlch6lsymgcom- dlstribunon distribution manager barry black bblackymgcom administration office manager vivian oneil voneilymgcom york region events managing director debraweller dwellerymgcom shows manager staceyallen sallenymgcom york region printing general manager bob dean bdeanymgcom editorial 9052941200 fax2941538 advertising 2942200 classified 1-800- 7433353 fax8534626 distribution 9052948244 canadian ontario press circulations audit council boarj member sufftribune j community newspaper the stouffvibe tribune published every thursday and saturday is a member of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd a whollyowned subsidiary oflorstar corporation metroland is comprised of 70 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill and thomhillvauian citizen markham economist sun stouffvibe suntribune georgia advocate york regkm business times north of the c yakregkjncom and ybrkregon printing 44 4t4 4 s t 4 i i vv vv4 4 1iij l