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Jcnmier Mt M 51'! IN REPORTER cu 101 jurmxmn ta' w atcrioocttrottictc Prim WINKLER PUBLISHER I I WATERUX) CHIONICLE . Wednesday. April 4. 2007 EDI“ )RI AI Andrea BAILEY EDITOR cu IIS cduunal (dunlerlm whmmclc ca Bah VRBANAC SPt )RTS FdNTt JR SPORTS EDITOR ml " sporvu"itirloochrortrcle Gerry MATTICI. cu 23U REL-MI. SANA MANAGiiR olcstq watcrloochromv le an Norma CYCA cu 12‘ mwam waterhrochromclc Curly (nuns m cphhser ualcrlm ('1.»\SSIHI.I) 5Prtt95-52m SAI .113 RI:PRI'.SI thll PIHURA cut J28 hpthura (a ualcrlmwhr. um t IRVI‘I. 5 Pl-hw, Cort-ttret-rims Mail Sales Puhltcatton Agrcerncr" Number MRJSILUX lnlcrmnuml Standard Saul Num hm ASSN Mi le, um ADVERTISING Audrted Csrculat"m H ONTARIO PRESS COUNCIL The Wantioo Chronicle us a mem- ber of The Onuno Press Council. winch constdcn complains Igunsl member mun-pen Arty con-plum about news, opinions advemsmg or conduct mould first he taken to the newspaper Unresolved complunu can be brought to Onlano Press CounCIL 2 Cavllon Street. Sun: Thc Waterloo Chronicle n pub Inked each Wednesday by Metroland Mada Group Lat COPYRIGHT The CM at dtss mic-per a would by canny! and may be med only for personal non-com- mon-l purposes All other rights in renewed and communal use u mud To nut: my the of an; mm! you must an: chum the permnuon of the owner of the copyright For further Infotmlmm contact Andrea Barley. Ednm, Wm (Maude. 219 View St N.Soste 20.WaterHo.orttaooN23 1m LETTERS POLICY lulu: Io It: edetm mum cNNtUttt the want} full "me. until-L - all law mm Acuitucs lid elephant ”when It and any luv "r,6cattm, mm id will - he ”HIM Names Will not he weth held We - the ugh! In edrt modem: nv rerect my cootobetton In: New!) a legal mm testers may hr suhmmed by In In HG Mfr. 0H" m hy email Io eot,.aa"Pwater 1oochrorttoeva at M maul u: an" end In Waterloo ('hmnnlc I“) Weher St N. Sum 20 Wunlm ”Mano NN "" t706, Tommo.0N . M53 I13 WATERLOO CHRONICLE 279W St. N,, Suite N Warden. Onmno NY 3H8 5l9-88628J0 Fax. Sl9-88b9383 wow. watetuxhmmde.ca hTtl ‘N 2830 m nhnduuzmriufumh fA.t Home“ I MMI crlmx hrunwlc NTATI vr.s nu le According to Waterloo's director of public works. Tim Anderson, the city must either build a public square or completely redo the mall parking lot that abuts King Street South by the middle of this year. A lot ttt ttttttttttthm ttxlttttt around public square itizens can stop protesting, complaining and writ- ing letters to local newspapers; it seems the City of Waterloo is going to build a public square. Unbeknownst to most residents, some members of city council we've spoken to, and this newspaper, the city's hands are tied under a contract with the First Gulf Development Corp, the company that owns Waterloo Town Square. Even though council could still quash the public- squan: project, as was continued by city architect Barb McGee “met at a public-square open house a few months ago, it's unlikely anything will change. And many of them feel they were led - or misled - to believe something could be done to reverse the process when some of the current members of city coun- cil were on the campaign trail before last fall's municipal election. Despit; the public éulciy on} cost andthe concerns over parking, councils rarely overturn decisions that wen: made by their prpdecgssorx_ _ - . Meahwhile, based on the number of people we've heard from both verbally and in writing it seems most residents dont wan! this project to proceed _ _ _ But, as it stands now. the conceptual plan will be back before council on April 23, when they will be asked to approve it and direct city staff to begin working on a more detailed prolect design. It's too bad'lhé not-sorsilem majority has drawn the short straw when it comes to having a say in this impor- tant muncipal decision. VIEWPOINT Them is a lot of environ- mental tokcnism going on these days, and if we ever want the conditions of this planet to improve it's got to stop. We don't need anymore symbolic steps taken or grand gestures envisioned to spur on the rest of us to do our part. And I don't mean just driving around in a SUV that uses mostly ethanol fuel, or the occasional hybrid car like Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is driving these Drive Clean program needs improving We need people in power to take action, Mind you. I can't pick on the premier alone because there are a lot of politicians these days that have wrapped themselves in the green cloak but haven't exactly done anything to improve our air quality or the state of the environ- ment. This raised my ire this week while I was working on a story on Drive Clean, the Ontario vehicle emissions testing program. Now in Its eighth year. mere have been a few crude: in the program designed to mince the amount of green- house gases escaping into the environment, and hope- fully removing problem por luters from the mad, But there is a large loop hole a lot of can can drive through to stay on the road " comes in the form of repair cost limits Initially. if you failed the program, you could pay $200 In repairs and get a CluttN conditional pass for your vehicle until you made the bulk ofthe rest ofthe repairs orhadtobelestedagninina year's time. The limit was pushed up to $450 last year because it was found that $200 wasn't really fixing the problem and was putting cars back ontheroadthatwereiustas dirty or dimer lint that hasn't solved every issue with the condi- tional pass program}. _ What do you do in the case of David and Rebecca Beaudoin, who paid the $450 to get their car a condi- tional pass and then found out their emissions are dou- hle or triple the amount when they originally had their car tested Repairs are meant to make cars better not worse under this program The government was lacking to bump up the repair cost limit to 9600 next war, to reflect the truer cost of repairing vehicle emis. sion systems and to make sure more can on the road have a cleaner hill at health. But that announcement has been delayed. There's a sneaking suspi- cion by a lot of drivers that the Drive Clean program is another government cash grab, and that with newer emission systems and clean- er burning fuel, most mod- ern cars would pass the emission standards of the testing. There will likely be a time in the foreseeable future that this program won't be needed at all, although it might be politi- cal suicide to decide to kill the program with the envi- ronment being such a touchy subject What that means is that there will be a lot of extra revenue around as Drive Gan soldiers on. So here's my suggestion: Why don't we use some of that extra revenue to give a In break to car owners who have failed the test so they can make the necessary I'm not saying that they should be off the hook for the repair-cost limit; car owners have some responsi- bility in this to maintain their vehicles, But why no! make sure a car's emission system is repaired - not dumping two or three times the allow able limit of these green- house gases mm the air And make wre every car that fails can pass with the funds we all put into the program