PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1979, WHITBY FREE PRESS * whitby Volce of the County Town Michael lan Burgess, 'Ihe only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whit Published every Wednesday by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone668-6111 - The Free Press Building Publisher - Managing Editor 131 Brock Street North, tby residents for Whitby residents. P.O. Box 206, Whitby, O Communlty Editor -Brian Winter ContrbutingEdito- -Jim O ,gaiI Production anaer -Marj Burgess Pfint & Promotioflal -Robin Lyon Manager Classigied Ad -Leesa Menard Malling Permit No. 460 Mebro he: Better Business Bureauof Toronto whltby chamber of Commerce nt. WhltbyChamber ai Commerce j The choice is yours on liquor licences Councillor Joe Drumm's concern.sexpressed at a recent council meeting regarding too many liquor licenses being granted too easily to establishments irl Whitby are well founded. It's just too bad the rest of council don't seem to agree with him. It seems these days that the way to get rich quick is to open a pizza joint (or whatever) and use the "food" as an easy way to get a booze permit. But what's even worse is our .elected representatives giving their blessing to every Tom, Dick and Harry who want to push the gut rot. It used to be that a restaurant had to prove itself through actual operation BEFORE it could obtain a license to push boozé, but now they apply and get licenses BEFORE they even build the-place. One would think that in Whitby we have enough booze parlours...(about 20 in all). All our larger plazas and most of our smaller plazas have them...but that doesn't seem to be enough booze joints for our "Town Fathers". They're not even opposing applications pushing into residential areas....Green St. for example. The next thing you know you'll wake up one morning and find that your neighbour has sold his house, the town has spot rezoned that chunk of land (andthe town's very experienced at spot rezoning) and you'Il have the dubious pleasure of having a booze joint beside you or maybe even a disco - •such as what's apparently proposed for one present application. You say "'l'm not worried, that can't happen io me" or "l'il object", but our democratic system, or more specifically our legal system, relies heavily on prece- dents...and we're setting so many precedents it will soon be difficult, if not impossible, to refuse anybody a booze blessing. We really question the'need for more liquor licenses. Licensed establishments in Whitby are growing in number percentage-wise faster than the population, -they've doubled in the last 5 years). You would think town council would consider this fact and try to keep the booze parlour growth related to the population growth. They restrict the number of taxi licenses, why not booze joints? But in any case, even if most of our town councillors will tolerate the likelihood of more drunks, more drunk drivers, more accidents, more noise (even loud discos), and obscene language, more alcoholics, more parking problems and more vandalism, YOU don't have to have these places and these possible consequences shoved down your throats. You have the right to object to any application for a liquor license permit. An advertisement, 'Notice of Public Meeting', appeared in last week's paper and is. also in this issue notifying you (the public) about two corporations applying for liquor licenses. The notice also advises you of your right to object either in person or by letter. If you wish to exercise your right to object you may do so by writing to the Liquor Licence Board, 55 Lakeshore Blvd., East, Toronto. You don't have fo make a personal appearance if you send a letter, and you can object regardless of WHERE you live in Whitby. Now that the liquor license laws have been relaxed, the L.L.B.O. HAS to grant licenses to qualified applicants provided that local council approves and nobody objects. So if local council won't act it's up to you. The choice is yours... If you voice your opinions. Port Hope roup wants to hear from local women Dear Editor: Our ladies group, Mor- ning Break, of Port Hope are interested in hearing from other similar groups and arranging a convention. The purpose of our gtoup is getting women together for crafts, to hear guest speakers, to sec interes- ting films and to meet new friends. Anyone interested in starting a group of your own, give us a call and we will try to help. If interes- ted, call: Jean Rudolphi (416) 885-6885 or Susan Schisler (416) 885-8912. Yours truly, Jean Rudolphi 62 Crossley Drive Port Hope, Ont. I uJI Ottawa Report By Norm Cafik, M.P. OTTAWA'S ENERGY POLICY PROTECTS CANADIANS FROM PRICE INCREASES Canadians were startled in mid-December by the oil-expor- ting nations' announcement of sharp new increases in oil prices. While most Western countries will be drastically affected by increased inflation, Canada's national energy policy will continue to protect Canadians and even help Canadian industry gain a competitive edge over U.S. and Western European competitors. The reason for the shock was that most experts had thought the increases would be five to ten percent. Instead, the oil-exporting countries delivered a body-blow, increasing their already high oil charges by 14.5 percent over the next 10 months. This rnove will bring the international price of oil to $16.73 (Canadian) a barrel. Canada is better protected than other countries because of the federal government's initiatives, undertaken in co-opera- tion with the provinces, to move the price of oil in Canada toward international levels in measured and calculated steps. Since last August, Liberal Energy Minister Alastair Gillespie has renegotiated the oil-price agreement with Alberta, thus assuring Canadian consumers of stable prices. The new agreement, running to June 30, 1980, provides that Canadian consumers and Canadian industry will have only two price increases over the next year and a half - $1 a barrel on July 1, 1979 and $1 a barrel in January 1, 1980. Each increase represents only threc cents a gallon at the service station pump. UI SAVINGS MEAN MORE JOBS The Liberal government know you don't solve unemploy- ment by mailing cheques to the unemployed. Unemployment insurance however is an important form of income assistance for people temporarily out of work, or employed in a seasonal industry, or living in a region with few job opportunities. It alleviates the hardship. But it doesn't eliminate the problem. Job creation does, however. That's why the Liberal government is focusing this session on creating job opportuni- ties for those who urgently need them. Next year, we'll be devoting over $1 billion to the task. At the same time, we're tightening up the UI program to eliminate abuses and we're using some of the savings - $935 million a year when fully implemented - to make jobs. It's an important decision. It means the difference between deciding to live with unemployment and deciding to live without it. LET'S GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER BETTER IN '79 From time to time we need to remind ourselves about how and why this land has evolved; about what it means to be Canadian; and what it takes to keep a big, diverse nation like this one together. One of the greatest stumbling blocks to Canadian unity is the fact that most of us really don't know each other very well. W ith all the modern paraphenalia of communications and transpor- tation, you'd think "getting to know" people in other parts of Canada would be a problem belonging in the last century. But it's a real challenge for us today. To a large extent we're al isolated a bit within our respective provinces and regions. Canada is an incredibly awkward land to envisage as a single nation state. We have formidable geography; a difficult climate; natural physical ties running north-and-south while we strive to build a nation east-and-west; a relatively small but complicated population, with the often, but fortunate, blending of two of the world's great linguistic groups and enriched by every colour, philosophy, cultural origin and creed to be found anywhere on the face of the earth, and all spread out sparsely along 4000 miles of U.S. - Canadian boundary. You could hardly imagine a more difficult set of circumstances fròm which to try to forge a country. The way ahead for Canada is not going to be easy. Our national will, our ingenuity and determination will be put to the test by the Levesque administration in Quebec, and by some Canadians outside Quebec who do not seem to believe that our national unity is worth the bother. We do not have yet, by any means, a perfect arrangement. Our federation is not al] that we would want it to be. And whether the issue is Western alienation or Atlantic regional disparity or language rights or whatever, we have many improvenents yet to make. lut surely, we've come too far too successfully together to turn back now from this great land. Theatre articles appreciated Dear Editor: The Ontario Arts Coun- cil supports and encour- ages the health and growth of all arts activi- ties in Ontario. One of my particular responsibili- ties as Associale Theatre Off icer is to keep in touch with all theatrical acti- vity in the province. I therefore have a clipping service which includes articles from your news- paper and I depend upon local coverage of com- munity and professional theatre events to keep me up to date. I thought you might be interested to know that I read everything written about theatre in your newspaper and such cov- erage of the arts contri- butes to our assessment of the needs of the many hundreds of arts organi- zations in the province. Yours sincerely, Jacqui Manning-Albert Associate Theatre Officer Ontario Arts Council r ýnt,