The Rural Voice, 1999-06, Page 49News
carry out enforcement of legislation
that is on the books.
. The issue of downloading of
provincial responsibilities to
municipalities brought sharp debate,
and spontaneous audience partici-
pation. John's claim that the transfer
of responsibility and increased taxing
power (by taking education funding
out of the local taxation pool)
brought a groan from some
municipal politicians in the room.
But Johns fought back. "You will
see that we have guaranteed and the
numbers are revenue neutral," she
said.
But Lamont said the figures don't
balance out and that in his visits to
municipal offices "I have yet to meet
someone who felt it was revenue
neutral."
Municipalities had been given
responsibility for land ambulance
service but they don't have the
capacity to deal with that service, he
said. The Liberals would take that
responsibility back to the province,
he said.
Noting that rural Ontario is very
dependent on its roads, Lamont said
"It's very unlikely the municipalities
have the capital to maintain the roads
(downloaded from the province)."
McQuail drew laughter from the
audience when he said that when he
first ran for Parliament in 1980 PC
stood for Progressive Conservative
but now it stood for "Pure Chaos".
The consequence of the
combination of municipal
amalgamation and downloading is
that you can't compare the books to
know what downloading has meant,
he said.
"I think we've got a very serious
problem and it's one the next
government is going to have to
address and address very quickly", he
said.
During the question period, one
paramedic noted that just before the
election the province had announced
it had taken back half the cost of
operating ambulance service which it
had downloaded to municipalities
and asked Johns if this would be
downloaded back to the municipality
once the election was over.
Johns said the government's
decision to take back part of the cost
of ambulances came after discussions
w ith municipalities. Personally, she
said, she didn't think ambulances
should be downloaded to
municipalities.
On the issue of rural health care,
Freiburger said the Family Coalition
Party would help encourage more
doctors by taking the caps off doctors
fees. Money would be freed up for
hospitals by stopping funding
abortions and sex -change operations,
she said.
Lamont said the Liberals would
invest $1.1 billion back into health
care. A Liberal government would
increase the number of positions for
medical students by 15 per cent and
would offer to pay the tuition for
medical students willing to commit
five years to serving underserviced
areas.
However, he said, while the
Liberals will try to replace the 10,000
nurses laid off at a cost of $400
million in severances, it will be
difficult because many have been
forced to go elsewhere in order to
find work and may not want to come
home to Ontario.
Johns said there were f,000 empty
beds in Ontario when the
Conservatives came to power. "We
have made an effort to ensure that
dollars are spent on patients as
opposed to infrastructure." In Huron
and Bruce this has seen hospitals
push dollars down from
administration to the patients through
a new business partnership, she said.
She said it was hard to allow more
doctors into the system because the
federal government has a cap on how
many doctors are allowed each year.
She had proposed a private member's
bill, however, to offer free tuition to
medical students who would pledge
to work in rural areas for five years.
But McQuail drew applause when
he said the Conservative's years in
office had amounted to "three years
of cuts followed by one year of
advertising".
Health care workers were
demoralized because of the cuts, he
said. "Our health care system is being
privatized a cut at a time," he' said
and pledged an ND,P government
would stop the evolution to
American-style health care and home
care.0
Advice
Identification of
diseases of field
crops
By Marc Sabourin
Pest Diagnostic Clinic, Guelph
If you suspect a virus is infecting
your wheat or any other field crops,
the Pest Diagnostic Clinic of the
Laboratory Services Division at the
University of Guelph has several
tools to help you in diagnosing the
problem.
The Clinic has access to
Transmission Electron Microscopy
(TEM) facilities which can be used to
directly visualize viruses. The TEM
will permit rapid detection of the
virus but not to the species level. Its
use is ideal if a viral infection is
suspected but the symptoms do not
match those of the common viruses
for the crop. It is a quick technique
with a sample turnaround time of
about 24 to 48 hours and a cost of
$65 per sample.
The Clinic also uses serological
tests for virus identification. These
tests will detect the presence of
specific viruses. Serological tests are
available for viruses such as the
various strains of the Barley Yellow
Dwarf Virus (BYDV), Soil -Borne
Wheat Mosaic Virus (SBWMV).
Wheat Spindle Streak Mosaic Virus
(WSSMV), Wheat Streak Mosaic
Virus (WSMV) and many others. We
can test for one virus or screen for a
group of viruses.
Sample turnaround time varies
between 24 hours and two weeks
depending on the viruses you wish to
test for. The cost varies with the
number of viruses tested and the
number of samples submitted.
The staff of the Clinic is also
trained in the detection of diseases
caused by fungi and bacteria and can
readily tap on the large resources
available at the University of Guelph
to provide you with fast and accurate
disease diagnoses.
Call (519) 767-6256 to receive a
sample submission form and fee
schedule or for more information on
disease detection in field crops.
nematode counts, and the other
JUNE 1999 45
ANN