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Suite 20 Waterics. Ontario \2J 3HS K86â€"2830 Fan: $86â€"9 383 www . waterioochronicle.ca Baterine. Ontano FAX $86â€"9 % 3 EMA Mall OR TN PERSON ® Passing the buck seems to be en vogue at all levels of government. The problem is municipalities have less ability to hanâ€" dle added financial burden. IC * mss It‘s interesting to note McGuinty has made similar arguments to the federal government about the fiscal imbalance his province has with Ottawa. Premier Dalton McGuinty has proposed a review of the problems municipalities face in providing services, with the tacit understanding some municipalities are reaching a critical point. Local municipalities have already had the costs of provincial downloading foisted on them for too long, and don‘t have the wiggle room to absorb more costs. The problem is the planned review will take too long instead of offering the necessary immediate help. While the elements of the Clean Water Act are needed to prevent another tragedy like the Walkerton water disasâ€" ter, local taxpayers don‘t have the flexibility to fund these changes from a limited propertyâ€"tax base. Changes of this scale are â€" and should be â€" funded by the province. It has the deeper pockets to pay for these proposals. 1 (opit aiie n on upgrade to water systems with the residents just up the road in St. Agatha facing massive bills to upgrade their water system. It‘s the latest move by the province to bring in changes to how Ontario is run, leaving local taxpayers to foot the bill. Political buckâ€"passing seems to be en vogue at all levels n the latest round of political buckâ€"passing. the I()nlariu government has made no firm commitments about who is going to pay for upgrades required in the proposed Clean Water Act. * "We reached the far ends of the world for appliâ€" cants, and we‘ve been bowiled over by the response." We‘ve HOW MANY STUDENTS CAN YOU SQUEEZE INTO A TELEPHONE BOOTH? already seen some of the fallout of the proposed Strong words... Waterioo Busker Carnival VIEWPOINT Life is a miracle, not a mistake My wife teaches sex edu cation, so even if I‘m a little slow on the uptake, she‘s there to instruct me on the machinery of life. She even has the teaching materials to prove it. So no one had to tell us "If you play you pay." We figâ€" ured that out already thanks for the insight. We wanted three chilâ€" dren. even though this might have been a little faster than expected. Sure, it wasn‘t as well planned as our first two forâ€" ays into parenthood, but we‘re not teenagers after all. That reaction was much different from the first two times we announced we were expecting. There were congratulations for the first two, but more suspicion about the third. People have actually questioned our sanity in having three children under three by next year. OK, maybe that was us. But our wider social cirâ€" cle hasn‘t been the most supportive either. There are the snickers about being outnumbered, the ribbing about being like bunnies and, of course, the newly minted financial planners wondering how we‘re going to pay for it all. It‘s the sheer volume of incredulous looks and dumb remarks, like the ones my wife, Tara, and 1 have endured since we‘ve told people we‘re expecting our third child in February. ‘m starting to figure out I\\'hy we have a declining birth rate in Canada and the rest of the western world. HOW MANY FIRSTâ€"YEAR STUDENTS CAN YOU SQUEEZE INTO A CLASSsROOM? ) That might explain why the average family size in Canada has declined from 3.71 members in 1971 to 3.17 now, according to Sta tistic Canada. The tradition al family of two.parents and two children hasn‘t existed for more than 40 years. But raising a family has become more of a costâ€"benâ€" efit analysis for too many of us. If you want to rediscover everything that‘s wonderful about the world again, see it through a child‘s eyes. A chore like raking the leaves in the fall becomes a soft landing for a twoâ€"yearâ€"old. I‘ve never thought of new life as a mistake â€" it‘s more of a miracle. And I don‘t remember my life being any fuller ghan when my two boys, Luke and Dylan, were born. But there‘s an attitude out there that it‘s an acciâ€" dent or an "oops" on our part. I‘d like to think that children never come into the world with that hanging over their heads. Sure, some of that money probably has gone to beer and popcorn, but more of it has gone to fund the necesâ€" sities for young families. And although I underâ€" stand why Prime Minister Stephen Harper‘s childâ€"care plan received a lot of scorn when it was _ first announced, at least he did something after 13 years of inaction by the Liberals on the childâ€"care file. Promises of universal day care with ered on the vine instead of being fully funded as pledged before the last fed eral election. There will be fewer workâ€" ers to support all the retired Canadians, and the benefits they‘ve earned through a lifetime of work. There will also be a shift in priorities as our population continues to go grey. I‘d like to think I‘m doing my part to solve part of Canada‘s future population crisis. There are a host of factors that contribute to this population decline that will have adverse effects on the future of Canada‘s social fabric. But the attitude towards having a bigger family seems to say the federal bean counters are on the mark. I‘m just trying to figâ€" ure out when three children became a bigger family. Of course, the nation‘s information clearing house could have got those numâ€" bers wrong, as it did the inflation rate over the last five years: Have we actually had a deflation in the averâ€" age family size? My wife‘s belly would suggest otherâ€" wise.