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While the city has no option but to pay this cost, 1 feel very strongly that city council should have exerâ€" cised greater "due diligence" when ascertaining the original estimate. Four million dollars is a large sum of money which could have been used to finance two small branch libraries. A recent 3,600â€"squareâ€"foot addition to the main library in n the Waterloo Chronicle dated Ilan. 8 2003, the front page article stated that most city councillors had no regrets about the huge increase*n the cost of the RIM Park inquiry from $600,000 to possibly $4 million. I am certain that the majority of taxpayers, particularly those on fixed or declining incomes, resent this cavalier attitude. This region has a big problem with outside salt getting into our water supply, (water softeners, 200 million lb. a year; and road sal.t 110 to 130 million Ib. a year ). About 10 per cent of our wells are currently affected. In 1999, two of Waterloo‘s wells were scheduled to be shut down because of high chloride levels, but instead water is being brought in from the Mannheim pumping station to bring the sodium and chloride levels of our Council has cavalier attitude towards rising inquiry costs 'I\'Ae pollution problem with our air and water seems so monumental that it freezes us into not taking any action however small because it will not make a difference anyway. Of urgent concern is a proposed subdivision and city park on the far outreaches of the city on the west side of Waterloo. On Jan. 27, Waterâ€" loo city council meets to vote on whether or not to build Columbia Street through rowards the Wilmot Line in order to allow a developer to Do you wonder in amazement at how the city keeps on growing out in all directions? Do you say "yes" when you see that phrase "Stop the City" painted on yet another barn on an outer fringe of the city? Salt is causing big problems for our water supply Stop the city from growing out in all directions You said it HOW DO YOU STAY HEALTHY? QUESTION U.S. President Harry Truman‘s famous remark, "The buck stops here" was meant as a reminder to all in authority that those in high office must take responsibility for their actions even to the point of resignaâ€" tion. Thus far, we have witnessed one written public apology from Goderich was built for $2 million. Mr. Brian Detzler, director of recreâ€" ation and leisure services, has just advised city council that there is at present no money in the budget to build either a new library or even an addition to an existing library. Pubâ€" lic confidence in Waterloo city council and its administrative staff has fallen to an allâ€"time low and it will take more than a few platitudes to restore anty sense of trust. Water is a renewable resource and as such we have a responsibility to keep contaminates out of the water that our treatment process is not designed to handle. While governâ€" ments are lax in their responsibilities, we as individuals have to act instead of waiting for the other person. We have retired our softener and use magnetic technobogy, have a push mower instead of a gas model, water to an acceptable level for now. Elmira has Waterloo‘s water because of chemical contamination and now Waterloo is using some of Kitchener‘s water because of salt conâ€" tamination. build a subdivision called Vistaâ€" Hills right next to an environmenâ€" tally significant area â€" the Forested Hills area. The city has already said "yes" to allowing this same developâ€" er to build houses and parking lots etc. in a new city park called "The Vista Hills Ampitheatre Park" in the same area. This proposed development is of urgent concern because if it goes through it would endanger the Region of Waterloo‘s only environâ€" mentally sensitive landscape which "I play sports, like soccer and basketball. That way I‘m still able to run without coughâ€" ing up a lung." "I go to the gym at least three times a week, and eat a lot of salad." ) THE CHRONICL] Manny Menezes COMMENT John Aissa The RIM Park debacle is a sad chapter in Waterloo‘s history and most people hope that the final judicial report will assign blame where it property belongs. In the final analysis, it is the citiâ€" zens of Waterloo who will have to suffer the brunt of this colossal financial fiasco for 30 years to come. This has not affected my life at all except that my water is better and 1 am saving money and have alleviated at least some of my effect on our enviâ€" ronment. I am sure there are many other easy things we can do that will have little or no consequence on the quality of our life but have positive effect on the environment. Mayor Woolstencroft, one resignaâ€" tion by Mr. John Ford and a few mumblings of contrition from some city councillors. In Waterloo City Hall the buck seems to ricochet back and forth along the corridors of power withâ€" out ever coming to rest. This is totally unacceptable. use calcium carbonate instead of salt for melting ice and have stopped the use of pesticides. My vehicles have the same magnetic technology and to quote my mechanic "my drive clean tests are unusually low." We need a protective buffer zone kilometers wide around this area â€" not development right up to it. It is time to tell the City of Waterloo to "Stop the City" east of the proposed Vista Hills development, east of the Forested Hills Area. includes four special interconnectâ€" ed areas: the Schneider‘s property (commonly called Schneider‘s Bush); Sunfish Lake; Schaeffer‘s Bush and the Forested Hills area. "I run after two kids all day. That‘s enough." "I wake up every morâ€" ing and go jogging for about an hour or an hour and a half. I also try to eat healthy." Sharon Woodley, David A. Crow, Steph Irvine Lynn Carty Ray Wright, Many critics of the legislation are still refusing to comply, including high profile gun enthusiasts such as Tory leadership candidate Peter Mackay. Several of them have taken unregisâ€" tered firearms to public protests in order to invite arrest. They claim that they want "a test case" so that they can have the law struck down. Instead, the first charge under the new legislation was laid against a Mississauga man, who left an illegal gun where his sevenâ€"yearâ€"old sister found it and fatally shot their sixâ€"yearâ€"old brother. Somehow, I don‘t think this was the test case that firearms advocates were looking for. What it was, however, was an excellent reminder of why we needed the legâ€" islation in the first place. Because we live next door to the United States, our gun conâ€" trol faws may appear strict, but they are very much in line with those of the rest of the world. In fact, a 1997 resolution of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, called on all countries to adopt licensing a registration requireâ€" ments for all firearms. A 1991 Angus Reid survey found that "half the firearms in Canadian households have not been used in the past year." Firearms registration has and will encourage people who no longer use or need their weapons to get rid of them. Fewer guns lying around will lead to fewer successful suicides, fewer gun accidents, and fewer gun thefts. The Canadian Police Association (representing rank and file police officers) argues that registration increases accountabiliâ€" ty of firearms owners by linking the firearm to the owner. This encourages owner®to abide by safe storage laws, and compels owners to report firearm thefts where storage may have been a contributing factor. â€" A study by Neil Boyd, a criminoloâ€" PR gy professor at Simon Fraser Universiâ€" {f Mes | ty, has concluded that "there is more inte" evidence to support the effectiveness %. #4" ‘ of gun control measures than most . \ _ ‘ other legislative interventions. For Y N | example, Canada has always had ;, stricter gun laws than the United SCOTT | States, particularly with respect to PIATKOWSKI | handguns. As a result, Canada has "â€"â€"â€"â€"============= roughly one million handguns while the United States has more than 76 million. The costs of firearms death and injury in the two countries have been estimated to be $495 (US) per resâ€" ident in the United States compared to $195 per resident in Canada.‘" Every year, over 17,500 prohibition orders are issued that include restrictions on gun possession. According to the Canaâ€" dian Firearms Centre, "as of October 2001, over 4,000 licences have been refused or revoked by public safety officials and there have been 32 times more licenses being revoked than the total for the last five years of the old program." The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police estimates that the gun registry is already being accessed an average of 2,600 times a day. They provide numerous examples where it has assisted police in solving crimes and identifying suspects. Quite often, arguments about the gun registry tend to stray off topic, with both sides labeling their opponents as someâ€" thing that they are not. Opponents of the registry are painted as violenceâ€"prone gun fanatics, when only a small proportion of them are. At the same time, advocates of gun registration are vilified as urban snobs who want to confiscate every gun in the country. Neither side appears to hear nnaeeeii {or care) what the other side is saying. â€" Theâ€"case for firearms registration continues to be compelling. While politicians and advocates on both sides argue about cost and compliâ€" ance, I think it‘s worthwhile to considâ€" er some of the following points: While the Liberals‘ continuing mismanagement of public resources annoys me as much as the next person (OK, probaâ€" bly. MORE than the next person), I think it is unfair to assign them total blame for the cost averruns. Clearly, complete intransigence by the provinces, delaying tactics and avoidance by gun owners, and other unforeseen turns of events had much to do with the increase in costs (in fact, gun advocates have been quite explicit in stating their desire to drive up the costs of the registry). Moreover, the cost alone is not sufficient justification for ending a program that is based on a sound principle, just when it is beginning to work. After all, the bulk of the money has already been spent; why not let it do some good, rather than ‘scrapping the registry‘ as everyone from Ralph Klein to Bob Runciman have called on the federal govâ€" ernment to do. The Chretien government has taken its share of lumps over the federal gun registry â€" particularly since Auditor General Sheila Fraser announced in December that her office had idenâ€" tified huge cost overruns that will bring the cost of the registry to close to a billion dollars. The case for gun registration C td oo meunhsati4 .. ’ ANOTHER J | _ VIEW | | | | | [‘ || Yihez | ib | C\ “‘§) SCOTT | PIATKOWSKI