Page 6, Whitby Free Press, Wednesday, July 13, 1994 The only Newspaper owned and operated bv Whitbv residents for Whitby residents! MEMBER OF: ONTARIO CANADIAN COMMUNITY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION a CANADIAN CIRCULATIONS CNA DIVISION AUDIT BOARD ISSN#0844-398X 26,500 COPIES DELIVERED WEEKLY Published every Wednesday by 677209 Ontario Inc. Box 206, 131 Brock St. N., Whitby, Ontario L1N 5S1 Phone: 668-6111 Out of town: 1-800-668-0322 Fax: 668-0594 Doug Anderson - Publisher Maurice Pifher - Editor Alexandra Martin - Production Manager Printed on newsprint with minimum 20% recycled content using vegetable based inks. 0 All written material, illustrations and advertising contained.herein is protected by copyright. Any reproduction by any means for commercial purposes without the express permission of the newspaper is prohibited and is a violation of Canadian copyright Iaw. Reproduction for non-commercial distribution should bear a credit line to the witby Free Press. To th e ior Residents demand clean-up To the editor: Recently a senior officiai within the Ministry of Natural Resourses (MNR) said he thinks the density of the proposed Lynde Shore - development is too high and the buffer area too narrow to safeguard the class 1 status of the Lynde Marsh. He agreed that I could quote him provided that I quote him also as saying that he nevertheless thinks that under the circumstances MNR had done the best it could, considering the paucity of laws dealing with the environment. Even the wetland policy came into effect a few months after the Lynde Shores Secondary Plan was approved (and it cannot be grandfathered). Without laws in place, MNR's hands are tied. Because of the lack of laws protecting the environment, the MNR official told me, unlike what is popularly believed, it is not MNR that has the greatest potential to protect the environment. Rather, it is the municipality -- the councillors. The weaker the laws the more we are dependent on councillors' judgment, on their common sense to safeguard the environment. This is something to bear keenly in mind come election time. He spoke of the need to be fair to ail parties involved, which he identified as: the animais and plants of Lynde Marsh; the citizens of Whitby; the developers. Have the decision-makers been fair to ail three parties? The first party has not been dealt with fairly. The decision-makers don't have to worry about them, though, because this party isn't too vocal. h is easy to equivocate on fairness here, because this party can't speak for itseif, at least not immediately. Later when their collective actions may proverbialiy speak louder than any numbr of words, the deveiopment wii aiready be in. What about the second party, the citizens of Whitby? Are they being deait with fairly? Crombie's Royal Commission on the Future of the Toronto Waterfront has stated that "a good quality of life and economic development cannot be sustained in an ecologically deteriorating environment." But this party isn't very vocal either. The decision-makers might just get away with it. So which party's interests is clearly being served? You don't need three guesses. lt's the developers, in this case the Rose Corporation and the province. Now here's a vocal party. Money speaks. in a perfect world, this officiai told me, the density of the development would be lowered and the agricultural land right beside the marsh would be let alone to reforest itseif naturally. This, he said, would be the best for the marsh...in a perfect world. 1, for my part, think that with some human will this could happen in a far from perfect world. And why don't I name this MNR officiai? In a perfect world he would be allowed to speak freely. in our world he may well lose his job. Dr. Johanna M. Tito Whitby To the editor-. Re: Whitby Chamber of Commerce meeting, speech by Ontario chamber president Stewart Verge One must seriously question whether Verge knows anyone personally who is or has ever been on government assistance. To compare the welfare system to a "hammocku is to suggest that i provides a secure, worry-free and comfortable lifestyle. As most persons familiar with the weif are system will tell you, the words unpredictable, stressful and inadequate more aptly describe the experience of depending on an outside source for their very existence. Eating macaroni and cheese five times a week, wearing a thin spring jacket in the dead of winter and watering down the baby's juice to make more, are just a few true-to-life examples of the lifestyle afforded to those living on assistance, hardly the enviable set-up alluded to by Mr. Stewart. To the editor: Copy of letter Edwards. to Mayor Tom Dear Mayor Edwards: Re: Landfill/holding site, Consumers Road, Whitby. Like .most Canadian citizens, we, the residents of Irwin Drive, look forward to enjoying our summer outdoors and leaving the windows and doors of our homes open. However, we are unable to enjoy these simple pleasures due to the excessive noise and dust caused by the work at the landfili site directly behind our homes. The residents of Irwin Drive request your assistance in closing this site or at the very least controlling the dust and noise. For the past few months this process has been taking place seven days a week from morning until the wee hours of the following morning and has caused the residents of Irwin Drive and vicinity loss of peace and quiet to which all citizens of Whitby are entitied. As well, the lights from the dump trucks and dozers shine directly To suggest that the culprit of our growing provincial deficit is the welfare system conveniently overlooks the frivolous spending and mismanagement of our tax dollars by those in power. The recent grant for a Toronto hospital to study whether or not car phones are distracting and dangerous is but one example of this fact. Essentially, Mr. Stewart could make better use of his time and energy by putting his business expertise into stimulating ideas for job creation, the lack of which is, in our view, one of the true culprits of our growing deficit. Up to 40 per cent of those receiving welfare assistance are children and if we w.ere to follow Mr. Stewart's directive -- to reduce the level of assistance -- the end resuit wouldobu nothing short of taking food out 0f the mouths of childron. Earl Smith President Ontario Association of Professional Social Workers Durham Branch into our windows all night long. Complaints have been made to the Town regarding this matter but it appears that developers are entitled to special privileges. A private citizen causing this amount of disturbance would be ordered to stop as weil as receiving a fine. The noise during the night was bad enough, but now we have to put up with dust as weil, such an enormous amount of dust that you can feel the grit in your mouth. Our decks and gardens look like a dust storm has attacked them. After a rain storm you would think my grandchildren have been making mud pies on my deck. Windows, carpets, cars, outdoor furniture, pets and the inside of our houses all require excessive amounts of cleaning and our hydro bills have soared (those who are lucky enough to enjoy air-conditioned houses) as windows must be kept shut. Not only is the noise and dust unbearable, the dirt left on Consumers' Road could be the cause of a major vehicle accident. The dust from cars/buses driving over the dirt on the road, the slippery mud and the sharp corner at Garden Street provide the prime elements for a serious vehicle accident invoiving bodily injury or death. We demand. that this site be made envir*mentally safe and closed immdiately in order that we, as taaying, law-abiding citizens of Whitby, may enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Please inform us what actions will be taken to meet this demand. R. Brown, on behalf of the residents of IrwIn Drive Bring back the noose To the editor: On the final day of the Police Chiefs conference held in Oshawa, they passed a resolution asking citizens to demand the return of capital, punishment for premeditated homocide, for serial killers, for the murder of police officers, prison guards and for eople involved in premeditated omocides. i, as weil as the majority of Canadians have said this for years. Is anyone listening? We have too many bleeding hearts in Ottawa who have their blinkers on and make stupid remarks. A few days ago, I spoke with a very weil versed member of Durham Regional Police. We spoke about our laughabIe Young Offenders Act and justice system. At the end of our conversation, he said -- and i agreed with him 100 per cent -- we have too many lawyers in Ottawa in our justice and immigration system. What we need Is people like, for instance, farmers who know what is going on and understand the people of Canada instead of thèse grandstanding lawyer politicians. Herman van der Veen Oshawa More illegal dumping To the editor: itneatly for the Town to dispose narcn etrt h dtr On July 8 at approximately 1120,p.m. someone dumped a load o waste consistingof drywall, large containers of garbage and, what appeared to be construction material on Anderson Street, just south of Taunton Road. This waste was of considerable volume, about a ton and a haf. It was strewn all over the road and shoulder of the road and the neighbours cleaned it up and piled In a recent letter to the editor, 1 suggested free disposal of hard structurai waste to create an island offshore to alleviate the damage to the ecology that will be a result of the Lynde Shores development. . Too bad nobody considered the idea to have any merit. Let us hope these occurrences are less frequent in the future. Jim Priest Whitby Lynde Marsh fiasco Ignorance about Welfare