PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1984, WHITBY FREE PRESS whitby Voice of the County Town blished every Wednesday Michael lan Burgess, i The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby Publisher.- Managing Editor by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone 668-6111 The Free Press Building, 131 Brock Street North, P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. MICHAEL KNELL Community Editor VALERIE COWEN AdvertisIng Manager Second Class Mail Registration No. 5351. reuet to V8UiL 1 vynituy rsicenItsL. Humane work should have been left out ofbdget O th, /ver ie course ofi th last few months, we nave Animal Control Committee (otherwise known as devoted much af the space on this page ta com- the P.A.W. committee). And, we're-going to do so menteng on the relatlanship between the Ontari once again. Humane Society and the Pickering Ajax Whitby Last Wednesday, the P.A.W. committee firmly rejected the O.H.S. budget proposals for 1985 which called for a 26.1 per cent increase paid by £ w y news comentay Mm the three muncipalities for animal contrai ser- ne ot 4anada' vices. The committee, or more specifically Coun. outstanding news persepa s Ross Batten, Whitby's representative and chair- man of the committee, told O.H.S. executive vice- president Tom Hughes that he is going to have to lIve with a five per cent increase. While Hughes accepted the decision, we believe that some comment should be made on the process that resuited in the decision. When the original budget request was presen- ted to the P.A.W. committee, Hughes said that the request reflected a demand from the employee's union for a 29 per cent salary hike. The committee was told that the union wanted workers at the Thickson Rd. N. animal shelter to enjoy wage parity with outside workers employed by the Town of Whitby. Batten told Hughes, quite rightly, that the negotiations between the O.H.S. and the union are not the affair.of the committee .nor the It's an odd sensation, coVering Ottawa these The budget presented ta the c mmittee was ta days. You might say novel Tebde rsne o h omte a o das You itsbaus nve' account for monies spent on two different f thinkt's because were ail famifiargwith apatisrun from the shelter. The shelter is the- feeatÇ èS~tsa~ying'i' hon'g' But now home' of the animai contrai service and is.the they're doing things as well. And for the most part, home far the operations of the humane saciety it- doing things they said they would. self. The Clark government didn't really have time to The proposai was submittedin such a way as ta leave any lasting impression of how Conser- give the impression that the society was using vatives behave in office. money spent and earned far its humane work ta The Diefenbaker government was conservative justify the money demanded ta meet their con- about the old flag and the Queen, perhaps, but tractual obligations ta the municipalities for anything but conservative when it came to foreign animal contri services. Therefore, the cammittee palicy, Canada's unique blend of public and was forced ta consider budgetary items having private enterpriseý,the military, and our closest ally, the United States. So unless we have vivid memories of R.B. Ben- nett - who for all his conservatism founded the CBC - most of us don't really know what a Canadian Conservative government Is like. Many Canadians, I suspect, are small '1' liberals under the skin, who became totally disillusioned with the large 'L' Liberal party. And during the last couple of years they were in power, it was the Tories who best articulated the average Canadian's anger and frustration about the Liberals' contempt for our money. The middle-aged among us, despite our essen- tial liberalism, have strong conservative tenden- cdes when It comes to budgets, free enterprise, social standards, and the rest of the moss-backed inventory. As one who more or less fîts the profile V've just described, V've been watching the Conservatives operate here these last few weeks with admiration and mild shock. The new trend in foreign policy worries me some, not because it's conservative, which it is, but because it's radical. The idea of deregulating oil prices appeals to one part of me and disturbs another. The same goes for the sale of crown corporations. Pity me my uncertainty, but i was born a Canadian. I don't mind the ideal of cutting the CBC budget, as long as the people who cut it eliminate the right CBC functions. ~iPJ$ O O o3Y M Beefing up the armed forces and restoring them' ta the uniforms that the Lord intended comfortsA kANhiWPk0 me, as long as they don't steal the maney tram the$CS R5 OkALlfO> foreign aid budget.RIO $ OUL ECINÇ And Perrin Beatty can do whatever he likes ta improve Revenue Canada's manners. Politeness--140i will help when taxes go up. nothing to do with its mandate. it should be noted that the shelter Is jointed owned by the towns of Whitby, Ajax and Pickering. It is a public faciility supported by tax- payer's dollar to perform a needed and vital public service. The committee has allowed the society tq use that building for other purposes, in other wor- ds, its humane work, without charge. While there is nothing wrong with this, we do not belleve that the society have corne ta the committee and sought additional funding that would be used, In part, to help offset the costs of providing humane work. The society agreed when it signed the original contract to provide animal control services to the municipalities at a set fee. It is only just that each year this fee be modified to reflect increasing cost of providing these services. But the taxpayer is not lIable for the society's other work. We believe that it Is now incunmbent on thie society to actively seek other sources 6f revenue for Its other vyork. Over the course of the last few months this newspaper has repeatedly advocated a no grants policy. The humane society should aiso be subject to a no grants policy. The taxpayer pays It a certain amount of money to provide a service and allows it the use of a public facility without charge for its other activities. That is compensation enough. It Is not the taxpayer's fault that the sòcietyis running an operation'deficit and it is not right that the society use its budget proposal as a means of getting the taxpayer to subsidize its other operations. The five per cent increase given by the P.A.W. committee is consistent with the current policy of fiscal restraint on the part of the municipalities. And the society is going to have to live within those restraints.