Loading...
The Wingham Advance Times, 1995-10-18, Page 4e tngbam Cabbante -Zimest Published each Wednesday at: Box 390, 5 Diagonal Road, Wingham, Ontario Phone (519) 357-2320 Fax (519) 357-2900 J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. Second Class Mail Registration No. 0821 We are: Jim Beckett — Publisher Audrey Currie — Manager Cameron J. Wood — Editor Cathy Hendriks — Ad. Sales Stephen Pritchard — Production Jim Brown — Reporter Margaret Stapleton—Reporter Eve Buchanan — Office Louise Welwood — Office i:,s '•••••' • • Member of: OCNA CCNA The Wingham Advance -Times is 'a member of a family of community newspapers providing news. advertising and information leadership. Letters Policy 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 10:00 a.m. Some exceptions may apply. Fax: 519-357-2900 or mail to: P.O. Box 390, Wingham, Ontario NOG 2W0 A Educate the kids The idea of the Huron County Board of Education placing a limit on the number of credits students can take during Grade 11, 12 and O.A.C. is a travesty of our education system. Schools were designed for learning. The idea of hav- ing students attend schools is so that they can broaden their personal horizons and hopefully reach a conclu- sion with enough knowledgeto become contributing members of society. Schools were not designed to tell kids you could learn,..but only so much. The school board, in trying to cope with the down- loading from'the provincial government on their budget •has identified 30 areas for consideration in cost savings. The majority of the items are reasonable areas for dis- cussion: such as a no work — no pay policy for storm days and attrition. But others, such as the credit limit for high school students contradict reasonable thinking, even for a school board. Our students and teachers have endured several years .of media scrutiny. Often the focus has been on the fail- ing side of education in Ontario. Seldom have we exam- ined the real problems that lay within a top-heavy bu- reaucracy. After all, which trustee will actually vote to reduce the number sitting on a school board when they may be the one that loses their political clout? Or reduc- ing the number of superintendents that collect large sal- aries? How about the number of "consultants" used in developing school board curriculum? To even consider reducing education opportunities for our students, the board is truly showing that it has little interest in producing highly . educated students. These budget cut considerations reveal more that the board is interested in producing cost effective students: an mandatory end result with as little financial invest- ment as possible. Rather than considering placing a limitation on the number of courses students are allowed to take in their final three years of high school, our school board should be encouraging our students to grasp every minuscule piece of knowledge they can. Any advantage gained in high school will most certainly pay off down the road in the working world. The school board has every right to inform the public about the level of downloading from the provincial gov- ernment. They have every right to complain about hav- ing to bear the responsibility of increased taxation. But they also have the responsibility to educate the children;. not to determine what and how much they 'can learn. How muchmore will our students have to deal with as they prepare for a rapidly growing competitive world? — CJW TOPOlfs' 4,. '.:-0.;S:fF:."f.,�'.J:�`�ST;G:'F:'.i.'.{'i :::`C ��R'iY77:%f;y4�ii •1. ..� r.,��;.>><;.:•'��#':•'%�s'�;� `. Vis, A reason to smile 44W'irg/ram The Wingham Community Trails Committee. After a great deal of hard work and many meetings they have finally got their plan on the go. The bridge will be a nice addition. with Margaret Stapleton OCTOBER 1948 Four boys and four girls repre- senting the Wingham High School, together with their physi- cal education teachers, Miss McInnes and Mr. Smith, attended the WOSSA field meet at Western University last Saturday. The girls' speedball team of Jean Adair, Doris Clarke and Lois Lockridge finished fifth. Other competitors were Margaret Proct- er, Fred Riehl, Bill Lockridge, Grant Ernest and Murray Stain- ton. Roy Disney of Hollywood and Burbank, Ca., visited with Blue - vale friends recently. He was ac- companied by his wife and while here took pictures of his ancestral home in Mon -is Township. Mr. Disney is a brother of the famous Walt Disney and is the business head of the Disney Corporation. Wingham had its first taste of winter on Sunday night. Snow be- gan falling in the evening with the heaviest fall during the night. When residents awoke Monday morning, they found four inches of snow on the ground. Winners of the "Tiny Tot" pop- ularity contest at the Wingham Legion recently were Allan Leg- gatt, Trevor Adams, Don Van - Camp, Freda Lott, Janice Hender- son and Vanna Rosenhagen. OCTOBER 1961 Doreen Elaine, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Howatt, RR 1,. Belgrave, and William Eldon Bur- nett Taylor, exchanged marriage vows in Westfield United Church on Oct. 11. The old Cunningham building on Josephine Street North has been the scene of considerable ac- tivity over the past six weeks as workers changed the appearance inside and out to house the Brew- er's Retail Store. The district engineer for the Kitchener and Owen Sound dis- tricts of Bell Telephone, Douglas Sloane, was the guest speaker at the monthly Lions Club meeting. Mr. Sloane stated that Wingham and District will have dial tele- phones by next year. OCTOBER 1971 Margaret Rose Ann Holt of Bluevale and Raymond Walton Hogg of Wingham exchanged marriage vows in Bluevale United Church earlier this month. Mr. and Mrs. Hogg have made their home at 515 Shuter Street in Wingham. The Wingham Midget Softball Club won the Western Ontario championship last Sunday after- noon when it defeated Ayton 7-6 in a sudden -death playoff which took 12 innings to complete. A master citation given to su- perintendents for their efforts in keeping projects accident -free was presented to Atigus Mowbray of Mowbray Construction, Wing - ham, for 113,000 accident -free hours. Ted Brewster, Woodstock na- tive, has joined the staff of the F. E. Madill Secondary School in the geography department. Donna Jean Edgar exchanged wedding vows with Roger Wil- liam Bieman in Wingham United Church earlier this month. OCTOBER 1981 Maloney and Diegel of London has been awarded the contract to build the new Eadie Bridge at a tender price of $355,835.00. John Leedham is junior club champion at the Wingham Golf Club and Jason Goodall is runner- up. Rev. John Swan of St. Paul's Anglican Church in Wingham has been selected as the newest mem- ber of Wingham Town Council. The annual Remembrance Day service will be held at the Legion Hall rather than at the cenotaph for the second year in a row. WEDNEWAVY, OCTOBER 18,1985 `Bomb'goes off following Bluewater ann i .�ement Dear Editor, A bomb has gone off under Huron County's plans for a proposed dump site. It was known to some members of the Concerned Citizens' of Ash- field and Area (CCAA) that the Bluewater Recycling Association (BRA) was intending to expand its operations. Still, the announcement brought 'a smile to many. Francis Veilleux of BRA stated* that the total diversion would be 75 per cent of waste that would go to the landfill. This, rightly so, serious- ly undermines the need for a new landfill. Do we need a landfill for 25 per cent of the waste, particularly if millions of dollars will be freed up to purchase a much smaller incinera- .tor than has been suggested by the county's expert, Gore & Ston -ie Ltd. We no longer need to 'rely upon logic. Experience has shown in Blue - water's business decision to separate profitable components of waste be- fore it hits the landfill. This shows how far recycling has come in recent years. Projection of this direction would indicate that further waste materials will be profitable enough to divert and sell. Presently, Switzerland and other European countries sort out 95 per cent of the waste before the remain- ing five per cent is incinerated. It is only a matter of a few short years be- fore we will catch up with their recy- cling entrepreneurial spirit. ,Should Bluewater not be able to complete plans to divert the waste, Huron County itself could use this as an alternative to greatly reduce the waste needed to go to landfills a?id save some $40 million on building a landfill. The county then would have no excuse (regarding expenses or cost) that would bar the idea of in- cineration. Rob McQueen Ashfield Twp. Life's tough TORONTO -- Ontario's Progressive Conservatives are making life tough- er for the poor, but get quite offend- ed when they fight back the only way they can. The Tories, who are cutting wel- fare and many services to poorer people to give others a tax cut and balance the budget, have been sub- jected to more demonstrations than usual for a new government. In one, led by the Ontario Coali- tion Against Poverty and supported by unionists outside the legislature, 5,000 demonstrated peacefully for three hours until a handful tried to push in and were beaten back by po- lice who used batons to inflict much more damage than they received. Since then, demonstrators climbed the roof and threw smoke bombs in a golf club where Premier Mike Harris spoke to those affluent enough to pay the Tory party $150 a plate, splattered his pants with an egg at another rally and even spoiled the festive air by turning up at his home- town Labor Weekend corn roast. Hams wasrestrained enough to tell the uninvited at his roast this was not the time or place to "do busi- ness" and he would meet them later, but he has warned against 'lawless- ness' he said hurts causes. A Harris spokesman sniffed that the protests would "fall on deaf ears" and news- papers that support Harris have called demonstrators 'hooligans,' urged him not to mistake them as representing the public and sneered at "the starving masses," while let- ters have called them whiners and undemocratic. Pushing police and throwing smoke bombs, even by a small minority, cannot be condoned, or Ontario's poor fah'. z'r.?..f?•� %a. RFs! with Eric Dowd but it should be borne in mind that many of those who demonstrated have no power except to make them- selves seen. The poor cannot afford to hire any of the multitude of public relations and government consultants and law- yers who besiege Queen's Park and are experienced in putting clients' cases to government. The former press secretaries to premiers William Davis, Frank Mill- er and David Peterson all served up inside knowledge so those who have money, largely business, can ,be heard by government, as do half the retired deputy ministers. the highest rank civil servants. Davis and Peter- son are both with firms of lawyers that lobby for clients, and former premiers of other provinces, includ- ing Alberta's Peter Lougheed, New- foundland's Brian Peckford and Prince Edward Island's Joe Ghiz all sell what they know of government to help big business lobby. Prime Minister Jean Chretien while briefly out of elected politics was with, a lobby firm, according to its safes pitch "providing advice on public policy issues to selected clients" (meaning those with enough mon- ey.) Those of the poor who can afford a newspaper will have read last month that when businessman and big donor to the Tory party John Bi- tove Sr. wanted a more favorable lease for his airport concessions he simply phoned then prime minister Brian Mulroney -- he did not have to march outside waving placards. The anti -poverty coalition cannot afford huge newspaper ads like those cur- rently by the Petroleum Communica- tion Foundation praising the industry and presumably preparing' the ground for seeking some tax break. The poor cannot pay for polls like those business trots out to prove the public supports it including one re- cently from the Ontario Restaurant Association claiming most Ontarians would be thrilled if government ac- cepted its proposal to install video lottery terminals in bars. The poor do not have in their ranks spokespersons like Tory MPP Lillian"Ross, who stood in the legis- lature this week, said she is a mem- her of the Ontario Real Estate Asso- ciation and asked the government to stop regulating it. The poor would not know how to hold a news confer- ence unlike the PR men employed by business. The PR men also can go in the legislature building and push their causes on the press gallery, and MPPs and ministers who join it at times for drinks, all buddies togeth- er, while the poor are kept outside the walls. In such circumstances, no one should object when they let off steam.