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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday June 14, 2006 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: IAN OLIVER Publisher NEIL OLIVER Associate Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor KELLY MONTAGUE Advertising Director DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Manager TERI CASAS Business Manager MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd., includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, Caledon Enterprise, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora Era-Banner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian Fears unfounded We don't understand how a proposed joint administrative building -- to be shared by Halton's two publicly-funded school boards, Halton Region staff and the Halton Regional Police Service -- could possibly threaten Catholic education. The proposed joint "supercentre" is a 540,000-square-foot multi-use campus capable of accommodating more than 1,900 staff from the four organizations. The campus would cost about $127 million to build, while saving taxpayers an estimated $20 million over the cost of each partner building its own facility. For the Catholic school board,the shared administrative building is the answer to an accommodation problem it has been facing for several years. The board's administrative staff is currently spread across four locations in Burlington and Oakville on sites that are in need of either repairs or upgrades. According to Giacomo Corbacio, superintendent of facilities, the proposed shared facility would save the Catholic board about $6.2 million compared to building its own administrative headquarters. Despite assurances from their own senior administrators, some Catholic board trustees -- including Burlington's Bob Van de Vrande -- have voiced concern that such a shared facility might somehow cause irreparable harm to Catholic education. At a recent meeting Van de Vrande said he was worried about the possibility of "irreconcilable differences" arising between the Catholic school board and its partners. With all due respect, until Van de Vrande can show us how this innovative, cost-saving initiative is inherently harmful to Catholic education, we find it difficult to take his remarks as anything more than unfounded fear. The Catholic school board is not exactly going into this shared arrangement blind. Corbacio assured trustees that all concerns about the Catholic school board retaining its autonomy, identity and Catholicity would be addressed in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) all parties need to sign before the project moves forward. Quoting a former U.S. president, we think the Catholic school board has "nothing to fear but fear itself." The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR I couldn't agree more with Marion Sternbach's comments in her letter (Respecting the environment begins at home) Oakville Beaver, June 7. I have been noticing terrible litter and vandalism problems in our area as well. In particular I have to name Maurice Drive and Traflagar Park, behind the arena on Rebecca St. I too walk my dogs in this area daily and each time I am out I can fill a grocery bag full of litter. I have seen children casually toss aside pop cans and candy Litter problem demonstrates lack of respect for the environment wrappers as they walk down the street. Last Friday night we had all of the trash cans in the park overturned and garbage strewn all over. And this certainly was not the first time that this has happened. It was left to residents to clean up -- the parks and rec people, who do a wonderful job on the baseball diamonds, totally ignored the overturned cans and litter. Still, apparently the question remains as to who is responsible to teach the children environmental responsibility. Judging by the amount of litter that remains in front yards, it is not the parents, and the schools say they can't do it either. The elementary school on Maurice Drive doesn't even have one single garbage can on the front school grounds. And our world leaders don't seem too concerned about environmental issues either. Not many role models there. I guess it is back to the grassroots organizations that seem to be the only ones who get things accomplished. Somehow we have to get the message across to our youth that we only have one planet Earth and we should be doing a better job by now with all that we have learned about pollution. I think that Oakville's problems on many environmental issues are only going to get worse as we become more and more crowded in all parts of town. I am expecting our council members to take a lead and and make all environmental issues matters of priority. L. THOMPSON Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com Concerned about fluoridation Evidence is growing that the practice of fluoridating the water does more harm than good and that some risks may be very serious. Many children and young adults of Oakville sport the tell-tale white marks of fluorosis on their teeth. Can we really believe that other organs of the body are not also affected? The majority of European countries have banned the fluoridation of water. Dr. H. Limeback, head of the preventative dentistry program at the University of Toronto is against it. Why are we in Oakville persisting in this mandatory medication of our drinking water? DIANE SPRULES