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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance Times, 1995-01-04, Page 44 the W ingbaut Vantiz-Ziutts Published each Wednesday at Box 390, 5 Diagonal Road, Wingharn.Ontario NOG 2W0 Phone (519)357-23.20 Fax: (519) 357-2900, J.W. Eexly Publications Ltd. Second Class Mail Registration No. 0821 , Weare: Jim Beckett - Publisher Audrey Currie - Manager Cameron J. Wood - Editor Norma Goiley - Ad. Rep. Jim Brown - Reporter Stephen Pritchard -Comp. Eve Buchanan - Office Louise Welwood - Office • 'N , Nt , ,.. Nk = -= N -s.;--, •-•s‘i: :, ,„„,„•„„„ N„,?,„„ -k.„,,,,,, ‘,., -,, Memberpf: OCNA CCNA TheWingbantAdvance-Tinies is a rimer of a family of onannanny newspapers pro- vidireg news,. advertising and infoinunionleadership. Letters to the Editor All letters to the editor must bear the writer's name, telephone num- ber and address. The Advance -Times wel- comes letters. We re- serve the right to edit, .but will endeavor to preserve the author's intent_ Deadline for letters is Monday before 1000 a_m_. Some exceptions mayappy. (519) 357-2900 or mail to: • P.O. Box 390, Wingharri, Ontario, NOG 2W0 • Editorial Viewpoint • Tackling the issues With the dawning of 1995, issues nn the munici- pal table can now be handled with a level f consistency. Until now, the council in Wingham has had to de with Several interuptions: elections, committee assign- ments, holidays, among others. But, with the busiest part of the year behind them, councillors are free to jump head first into the administration of the town. Facing the decision makers now is the biggest issue in recent memory: waste management. When council heads to the chambers this week, they must decide on whether or not to implement tipping fees at the landfill site and user fees for curbside collection. Then, there's the municipal airport. Direction is still needed there. Tough choices for tough times. - CJW Incidents no longer isolated The 'December 30 shooting of seven people in Brook- line, Mass. by a lone, gunman is another despicable ex- ample of intolerance by the anti -choice movement in North America. Although pro-life groups will come out against this shooting, claiming once again that no one can prove the gunman was a member of any reasonable faction of the anti -abortion fight - and most likely claim that this shooting is just another isolated incident (isolated enough to be the fourth and fifth shooting deaths in the United States related to abortion services in the past 24 -months) - it teaks of hypocracy in their argument. Don't waste °fir time trying to convince us otherwise; we've grown tired of all that rhetoric. The death of two receptionists at Brooldine clinics - not even the "hated, baby-killin' doctors" these maniacs so often target - reveals further that the pro-life choice only applies to the unborn and not those already living. Bear in mind, the twice -convicted, former church min: ister, turned gun-totin' doc slaughterer Paul Hill said the shooting of doctors performing abortions was, a viable option in the pro-life fight to end access to such services. Perhaps instead of senteacinot'Hill to death,- the courts should force him to earn a medical degree and let him face hisequally misguided peers. Say what you want in defence of the unborn. These five people also had the right to life and anyone who claims that these continually increasing incidents are iso- lated should be ashamed. Reconsider your convictions. It's hardly the intelligent side of a complex issue.. - CJW ',IN, \ • ",„ ss, ' A reason to smile 'Hingham • The Public Works department, for their perseverence and dedication to getting the job done in this winter weather. Keep plowing along guys. with Margaret Stapleton JANUARY 1948 Wingham's first baby of the new year was a daughter born in the Wingham General Hospital to Mr. and Mrs_ Eric Schaute of town. This child makes the fourth generation in the family. Mis. Schatte was the former Madeline De Dr. W. -A. Crawford of Wing - ham recently was appointed C.NR district medical officer, effective Jan. 1: Dr. Crawford succeeds Dr. R. C. Redmond, who held the po- sition for many years. J. Rcy Adair disposed of his transport business last week to Mr J. Wardrope of Toronto, who took possession last Thursday. Mr. Adair started in the transport business 20 years ago and has built up a large fleet Wingham District High School Principal Stan Hall reported an at- tendance of 190 students at the lo- cal high school to the inaugural meeting of the new high school area board_ Wilfred French was selected chairman and Leslie For- tune, vice chairman_ JANUARY 1961 A Morris Township girl, 11 - year -old Dianne Casemore, will re- ceive a Royal Canadian Human Association parchment certificate for rescuing two-year-old Ronald Campbell from drowning near her borne last i:spring. Dianne is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs Jim C2SallOre. Members of the office and facto- ry management staff at Western Foundry Company met last Friday evening to honor T. A. Currie on his retire' meat as general rnanaker. At the inaugural meeting of the Wingham Public School Board, Dr. Murray MacLennan was elect- ed chairmaa. It was reported the school had the highest attendance record of its histoty in December with 517 children on the roll and another four or five have started • JANETARc1971 Steven Morrison and Bruce Le - Van scored three and four goals re- spectively to lead the Wingham Tykes to the championship in the Tyke tournament held late last month at Teeswater. Mrs_ T. F. (Kate) Mundy was presented with a gift to mark her re- tirement as assistant librarian at the Wingham Public Library. A large L-shaped barn on the property of Stanley L. Herrin' gton, Con. 9 of Turnberry Township, was destroyed by fire early Monday morning_ A barn owned by James Inglis of RR I, Clifford, also was destroyed by fire the same evening. Karen Ann Laidlaw arrived at Wingham and District Hospital at 8:40 a_m_ to be Vimgham's New Year baby_ Her parentse are Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Laidlaw of Wing - ham. Mr. and Mrs. George H. Anger of Wingham celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary with a dinner at their Shuter Street home for 25 guests. An estimated 2,000 spectators saw an excellent card of races rim Sunday on the old race track south of town on the prairies when the, Wingham Kinsmen Club sponsored the first snowmobile race meet of the 1971 season JANUARY 1981 Wingham Mayor Bill Harris wel- comed visitors to the levee held New Yeats Day. This is the third year for the levee, which first was held to kick off Wingham's Centen- nial idn 1979. A pew eating place will becoin- mg to Wingham soon. The Twin's Drive -In of Kitchener haz applied for a building permit for a Kentucky Fried Oficicen outlet at the Wing- liam plaza. The Wfilvenon Sun has been pur- chased.hy Wenger Publications of WinghanL !gamin' g forecasts of another mild winter, the first blizzard of 1981 swept into Human Oxatty ou the weekend with binedy cold weather, snow and wind. THE MOW ES - LOOKING B4Cir4r1111EYE4Nni4- NEMO; JANUARY 4, MX Not being sick is costing us dearly Getting sick is something no one plans. There are moments when our health is challenged through seIf-inducel punishment; but it is rarely a scheduled event. Yet, for some in the workforce, not getting sick can have huge finan- cial rewards_ In the December 24 edition of the Toronto Star, it was revealed that for some public sector employees, the sick day benefit plan can result in up to half of the final year's salary paid out when they retire. Ontario school boards, for exam- , p e, fork out an estimated 5200 million over the next five years to re- tiring teachers. The payout comes as part of a sick -day benefit plan that al- lows teachers in both the public and separate school boards to bank un- used sick days. Each Ontario teacher is allowed 20 paid sick days per 196 - day teaching calendar. Unused days can be saved up towards a retirement gratuity. This translates into an average of almost 530,000 per teacher' upon re- tirement based on the sick leave gra- tuity. The Star article states that at some school boards in Ontariojeachers can use up to 10 days of paid sick ' leave, while still being able to bank the maximum number ofdays al- lowed (10 per year) towards the re- tirement gratuity. In the East York Board of Educa- tion, the former director of education retired with an estimated $70,000 gratuity after 33 years of employ- ment with only 4.5 sick days_ Dick Dodds. the retired EYBE di- rector, defends the payment, clairn- ing it is not the teachers at the root of the payment plan, but the school board trustees. And so, he said fur- ther, it should be the.m.istees that bear the resporisitiiity for such bene- fits.' Liz Barkley, president of the Onta- rio Secondary School Teachers Fed-- eration, argues the gratuity is pari of the teacherscollective agreement and cannot be discussed without • their entire contract examined_ Bark- ley says the bankable sick days is parallel in the contract to other nego- tiated benefits such as class size and The Outer Edge Cameron, J. WOOD . salaries. Add to this the current NDP government's social contract claim that existing benefits cannot be touched until 1996. And Barkley says that after three years of NDP enforced social con- tract, now is not the time to go back to the.negotiating table with plans to eliminate bankable sick days. Teach- ers, she says, are in a testy mood about salary, job security and bene- fits. "It would create a very hostile en- vironment within the education sec- tor." Despite having outgrown its use- fulness in the age of long-terrn health care benefit plans, some still nego- tiate to gain the cash cow benefit For example, 1991, 'teachers with the Elgin County Board of Education struck for 33 school days in an un- successful attempt at gaining the plan for all teachers after the plan had been grandfathered in 1977. On- tario community colleges won their battle in 1991 through arbitration af- ter arguing the benefit was no longer viable with extensive long-term disa- bility leave in employee benefit packages. The debate of whether or not sick days should be bankable or not is age-old_ Such benefits were created out of need year ago when civil ser- vants were not in a high income bracket. Lengthy periods away from employment could cripple them fi- nancially and tight-fisted employers were not willing to, maintain their salary if they were not on the job. However, those days have passed. Benefit plans and labor standards have replaced the need to bank un- used sick days in the event of long-. term illness. There is little question that health care is a prune concern among the employed in the 1990s. Working conditions in all sectors have led to more modern day health concerns such as stress, chronic fatigue syn- drome, sick building syndrome, among others. And while what ails us has grown in epidemic propor- tions, so !mate benefit plans - includ- ing long-term health care support. But while plans to eliminate the benefit would rile the unions, the pri- vate sector is growing weary of read- ing and witnessing the plums in the public sector. Twenty paid sick days in a perceived short work year (196 tearhing day calendar versus a 343 - day private sector work calendar) seems extreme. Especially when bankable sick days are relatively un- heard of in the private sector; and the public sector do not lose pay for time booked off sick_ And the benefits are not just for teachers: municipal and provincial employees, crown corporation em- ployees, school janitors, school su- perintendents, board secretaries, all enjoy equal benefit To blame the educators would be parallel to blaming Eve for eating the apple. It had to be put there for temp- tation to begin with. Responsibility for such benefits lay on our shoulders. We have al- lowed the trustees iirour school boards to continue down this path for years; all the while extending benefit plans with eachcontract negotiation and asking little sacrifice in return - such as bankable sick days when long-terrn disability options were brought forth. Wemust remember that these peo- ple work for us, the public. In a sense, we have been irrespon- sible employers_ We have failed our employees, by giving them the apple and the tree on which it grows. We have not asked for some responsibili- ty in return; and now, years afterwe established such precedent, we final- ly react and lash out Not at our- selves, those deserving of the guilt, but at those we employ in the public Sector. If we want to regain. our position of responsible employers, we must first determine what is right for the ultimate end users of the product we are selling. If we can't get a handle on our quality control, then we won't have a handle on our employees, and our own purse strings. 1 1 1 Time to `Bloc' the sleazy stuff I Dear Editor. Nero fiddled while Rome burned_ Neville Chamberlain, sin- cerely desiring for peace, compro- mised to a demented Adolf Hitler and a horrendous World War II was the extremely costly outcome. What Canadians now have are two modem day "Chamberlains- - Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps. Ittook Reform Leader, Reston Manning, to stand tip in the House of comrnons and declare the illegit- imacy of the unilateral declaration of independence by the Quebec government and the resultant crass illegitimacy of a proposed referen- dinn based on it. • Here we have a Quebec govern- ment and the traitorous Bloc Que- becois in the House of Commons, both nf which will use any devious method possible to accomplish sep- aration. By comparison, whoever stopped a mad dog from anacicing,„ by not muzzling it, but simply re- questing it not to bite. The question begs How can Quebec be independent, totally govern its own affairs and yet re- tain Canadian citizenship, use Ca- nadia. n cuuency, operate in the Ca- nadian economy, and still be nominally Canadian, and at the same time, be separate and inde- pendent? Imagine the Stag of Texas pull- ing this sleazy bluff on capital 4 in Washington, D.C. • It's way past time that the Liber- al government in ottawa shed its grovelling role and speak out force- fully on behalf of the 99 per cent of true and loyal Canadians. A fight isn't won by lying on the turf and allowing your opponent to steamroller you. For the sake of Ca- nadian unity and the welfare of all Canadians, let's see a healthy dis- play of intestinal f2rtitude, fortitude by our federal government in Otta- wa. A boxer does not win a world championship by running and hid- ing, but by squarely facing up to his opponent. Robert S. Cherry, Palmerston