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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1982-09-01, Page 4• ti $ Pave 4 ` TImes-Adveee,e. September 1.1902 amommvierammem Ames - Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 dvocate Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by I.W. Eedy Publications limited LORNE EDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager Bill BATTEN ROSS HAUGH Editor Assistant Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 235-1331 SUBSCRIPTION. RATES: Canada $20.00 Per year: U.S.A. $55.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and `ABS' it ILI Need support from south By Nancy Patterson — Staff Environmentalist Federation of Ontario Naturalists Park supporters cheered this spring when the Minister of Natural Resources, Alan Pope, tabled a roster of more than 240 candidate parks to be con- sidered for inclusion in the provincial park system. A deadline of December 1982 was set for all decisions to be made on the allocation of crown land to forestry, mining parks and other landuses. More cheers -because firm deadlines from within the bureaucratic ivory tower are hard to come by and this time the Minister seems committed to meet that deadline. An aggressive public participation campaign complete with open houses would ensure local concerns were considered in the decision making. More cheers - because we all like to have our say. But also cause for alarm particularly among the residents of southern Ontario. Of the 87% of the provincial land base known as crown land, an overwhelming percentage is located in northern Ontario. So, unless southern Ontarians were prepared to drive to the open houses in the vicinity of . their secret fishing hole, nature reserve or wilderness retreat, they will be hard pressed to comment on what uses were allowed in their favourite spots. Herein lies one of the major weaknesses of the Ministry of Natural Resources public participation pro- cess. Major decisions are being made on a province wide system of parks, made up of land owned by and paid for by all Ontarians. Yet only local comment_ is being solicited. Park advocates, parti y those in the .Horth,. need support. Their case ks hinges on a gleam in the eye of the conserva . A complete system of parks that would truly preserve representative por- tions of Ontario landscape, provide recreational oppor- tunities and a broad economic base for many Ontarians. Their opponents are working with a well- established network of support founded in the local communities of,northern Ontario. The forest industry claims expansion of a parks system will "deal a crushing blow to their (sic) industry and the provin- cial economy". The mining industry claims "vociferous environmentalists would close down anything remotely related to mining". Many of the nor- thernresidents believe these statements. Yet .in identifying candidate parks, the Ministry of Natural Resources went out of its way to screen out most parks which had a high conflict with either forestry or mining. And even if all candidate parks were approved, the total area designated for parkland including existing parks, would involve less than 5 per- cent of the productive forest land of the Province and a smaller portion of land with high mineral potential. Parks have been short changed for years. Not one wilderness park has' been designated in the 11 years Bill Davis has been Premier. Yet in the same period, an area the equivalent of one wilderness park has been written off every year from further commercial forestry because of insufficient regeneration. It is time for the people of Ontario to stake their claim for parks before it is too late. It is unclear but doubtful whether there will be an opportunity for southerners to support park advocates in the north. This is a sad comment on the Ministry of Natural , Resources public participatio>Iprocess. ,After all, 85 percept of Ontarians have visited a.pro- vincial park at some time in their lives and over half do so in any one year. And where is the vast majority of the Ontario population? In the south.``' The Ministry of Natural Resources is not doing its job. In soliciting public comment it should not be allow- ed to close the door on the vast majority of Ontarians who clearly have a vested interest in Ontario parkland. Common sense missin There are alligators and crocodiles swimming in the sewers of New York and other cities in North America. Now there are reports of ferocious piranhas in American lakes and rivers and there are fears the meat -eating fish could eventually wind up in the Great Lakes system. Closer to home, .of course, farmers continue to lose valuable stock to marauding dogs and often encounter stray cats. The wildlife isn't on an exodus of its own making. Most of the reptiles and animals have been' discarded by owners who have become tired of them or can't meet the expense of looking after their pets in the cur- "I hold you directly responsible for this country's mess — voting for Trudeau." rent economic crunch. However, these thoughtless people fail to realize the dangers they impose on others when they abandon their pets and force them to fend for themselves. The strange thing is, most cities have animal shelters which will take the pets and give them to people who want them, or at least will terminate their lives in a humane manner if no other home can be found for them. Common sense would dictate such a course of ac- tion, but unfortunately many of these owners appear to have less of that than the animals they so casually discard. Governments must build confidence The premiers of Canada's 10 provinces huddled in Halifax this week in an at- tempt to•come up with some solutions to the nation's economic problems. ' Not unexpectedly, they cited the federal government asone of the main causes for the problems, unloading their criticism on the federal foreign investment review agency, the national energy program, a lack of federal job creation programs and high interest rates. It is, of course, a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but perhaps of more noteworthy connotations is the implica- tion that governments are almost solely at the controls of the economic system. Some of our more senior readers may recall when this nation was operated under a free enterprise system, but that has drastically changed. Now, govern- ments are involved in every aspect of the economy, and while that was through necessity in a few areas, they have clearly over -stepped their mandates and in very large measure are responsible for the pro- blems now being experienced. Not the least among those problems is government waste and spending. The huge deficits being incurred by the federal and provincial governments are taking theft' toll and have contributed to the inflation that they now seek to control by (yes, you guessed it) increasing those deficits. . The premiers have also cited the need to restore confidence in the Canadian economy, but it should be noted that coupled with that is the need to restore confidence in the various levels of government. That restoration will only come about when people can clearly see that govern- ments practice what they preach in the way of restraint and common sense. Travellers along Highway 4 between Centralia and Clandeboye have had an op- s.y//x;;; ,' BATT'N AROUND with the editor portunity to see an example of govern- ment waste through the past few weeks. Crews from the ministry of transporta- tion and communications have been busy chopping down the long lines of evergreen trees on the west side of the highway. A crew of four men with two trucks, chain saws, wood -choppers and allied equip- ment have been busy removing the trees. No doubt the same number of men, vehicles and equipment were involved in the planting of the trees some few years ago. It can be assumed that the trees are be- ing removed because they created a build-up of snow during the winter months, although one wonders why the engineers of the department didn't en- visage the problem at the time they were planted. If private enterprise owned the trees and wanted them removed they would have chosen a different course of action than the government department. First, they would have checked with neighbouring property owners to see if any . wanted some of the trees transplanted on to their properties and would have had one of those trees mov- ing machines brought in with the proper- ty owners picking up most of the cost in- volved in return for the benefits of hav- ing the trees. Failing that, they would consider the alternative of leaving the trees standing until late November and then put up a sign advising one and all they they could chop down what they wanted for Christmas trees. Anything not chosen for that purpose could have been given away as free, firewood with the stipulation that the brancheslhadjtolbe taken away as well. Private'enterprise would probably have come out of the scheme on a break-even basis, or at worst, a much lower expen- diture for tree removal than what the tax- payers will be picking up as the young evergreens get chopped into small remnants. Private enterprise may also have left a few trees to add some beauty to the countryside and provide the benefits associated with trees without any majdr snow build-up along the highway. Of course, that's not what the work - order dictated, and, what does some bureaucrat sitting in an office in London or Toronto care about the countryside along Highway 4 between Centralia and Clandeboye? warned you about Been quite a summer • Well, it's been quite a summer, hasn't it? Lots of hot beach and golf weather in July, enough rain to keep the country from burningup, and a general relief from a long, hard winter... , With the adveittiofstnk- tier, Canadians seemed to throw off the depression of The Depression we are in. Thumbing their respec- tive noses at the darken- ing mood reflected in the financial pages, with their bleatings of growing unemployment, inflation untouched, and a dither- ing government, the masses of the country have headed in all direc- tions, trying to squeeze a little enjoyment out of life before the steadily shortening days. remind them 'of the cruel fall and winter ahead. Despite the lack of jobs and the gloomy forebodings of experts in all. fields of finance and economics, the beaches are crowded and colorful, the beer and liquor stores have never been busier, the marinas are jammed, and tourists swarm like locusts - welcolne locusts, not the other kind. Although many people have been hard hit by the employment situation, there's still algreatldealbf bounce and resilience in the Canadian people, a good sign. We'll see if it keeps up, as things get worse. Maybe it's not bounce and resilience at all. Perhaps it's a .kind of .hysteria, an inner sense that the world is going to hell in a wheelbarrow, and we might as well enjoy it while we can. Something like the last days of the Roman Empire, with the Vandals knocking at the gates, the empire shrunk,. and the once -mighty Menachim Begin should pulverize a city and slauter civilians to wipe out the Palestinian ter- rorists and Yasser Arafat, whose very name sounds vulgar). :Sugar and Spice Dispensed By SmNey legions composed of foreigners and mercenaries. "What the heck! Next year my dollar will be worth 40 cents, so why not spend it now? We're going to run out of oil anyway, so why not buy a big car and enjoy it, keep the cruiser running, buy lots of booze because the price will go up again and again? Maybe we'll have a mild winter and the oil bill won't be so vicious. Maybe Trudeau will resign and Joe Clark will lead us far- ther into the wilderness. Maybe the world will blow up. Let's live it up while we can." Is that what's going on in the subconscious of Canadians? I hope not, but I have a sneaky little feel- ing there might be something in it. Summer haze and lazy •days have pushed away from our consciousness the black clouds in the Middle East: war between Iraq and Iran, the brutal attack on Beirut by the once much -admired Israeli forces (how ironic that that old terrorist Sunshine and green golf links and blue water have shoved into a corner our knowledge that three- quarters of the people in the world are living on what we'd throw into the garbage over. a month. Mea culpa. I'm as guil- ty as anyone. Did the peo- ple of Berlin grieve when Britain was being blitzed, night after night? Did the British sorrow over the fate of civilians when their bombers went out night after night and obliterated German cities, with the deliberate intent of ter- rorizing the Germans into submission by destroying civilian morale? Not on your life. They both rejoic- ed, if anything. Human nature, I sup- pose. Cultivate your own garden and don't worry if the guy next door can grow nothing but bitter weeds. The summer hasn't been without its lighter moments, as far as the news goes. Personally, I got a tremendous hoot out of a couple of items. Chief one was the predawn visit to the Queen's bedroom by some young nut, who sat and chatted with her in the middle .of impregnable Buckingham Palace. Never again will I read a novel about MI5 or MI6 or Scotland Yard without smirking gleefully at the utter ineptitude of their "security" measures. Another story that gave me a chuckle was about the guy who owns the shack in which the Dionne quintuplets were born wanting to move it to Niagara Falls, Ont., because he wasn't getting any tourist trade in Nor- • thern Ontario. I wouldn't walk across the street to see that place, and I don't think many others would. Tough Luck, Joe. On the home front, it's been pretty strenuous. We agreed to relieve our daugl2ter of her two boys for the month of July, so she could concentrate on a university course. They arrived in June and left in August. It turned out to be about seven weeks instead of four. If I could somehow harness theenergy of those two kids, I could forget about furnaces, air conditioners, and anything else requiring energy. Unlike oil, their energy seems to be undepletable. They can go from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. without a break and are driven off to bed only under threats of "no story, then!" And I just about ran out of stories. But the boys were great fun. And I hope you had a great summer, too. Dropped a hot potato It takes a pretty strong person to be able to listen to criticism of himself in an ojective manner. Most bf us like to hear compliments rather than comments about the way we do things. Teachers are no different, of course, but criticism, justified or otherwise, is all part of the. game since no • two teachers teach alike nor do any two teachers have the same philosophy of education. What's more, there are always parents who disagree with one's style, and children who also feel that one method of teaching is better than another. It is from the children, of course, that teachers are least likely to listen to any type of criticism. were going to ask students were fairly harmless, for example: Do you think Perspectives By Syd Fletcher This was vividly , brought home to me a number of years ago when a grade twelve class of mine, as part of an organizational -type of assignment asked if they could do a survey about the teachers in the school. The questions that thy there is a reasonable work load being given in this course? Is there early enough warning given for tests? etc. I got permission from the principal to run the survey provided the rest of the staff were assured that only they, individual - ly, would be given the results of the test. Nobody else, including myself or the principal would have access to the results. Talk about raw anger. Almost half the staff, violently opposed the survey. No way were they going to have the students tell them what they were doing wrong. One teacher in my own department was so angry that he almost struck me in the hallway. Many teachers were in favour of it, but in the interests of staff unity I dropped the whole issue like a hot potato. I wonder if the reaction would have been the same in other professions. t•. .► '.� . . ,•i.',, ,..' ` i. .1, 1 7 r, T 1 ' '. Y