The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 20

CITY FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1997 B2 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Ottawa birder sets sights Public gets a say on how much to pay regional councillors ird world title onth -Council consensus Goal of Extremely competitive' event is to record the most species of birds in 24 hours is that members v.N are badly underpaid rrtr J5 nVj 'ft THE OTTAWA CITIZEN By Alison Uncles The Ottawa Citizen At the World Series of Birding which begins tonight in New Jersey, Ottawa's Bruce Di Labio is trying for his third home run. The winner of the 1993 and 1995 World Series, Mr. Di Labio one of this region's leading field ornithologists is aiming for another victory. And make no mistake: This is serious, big-time birding. "It's extremely competitive, and since we've been coming, it's been brought up to a new scale because these Canadian guys come down and have won it.

Home teams really want to win it, they don't want it to go back to Canada," Mr. Di Labio said in a telephone interview from Cape May, New Jersey yesterday as he and his team of three other expert birdwatchers took a break from planning strategy. The World Series of birdwatching is a 24-hour, midnight-to-midnight marathon where the goal is to record the most species of birds by sight or sound. This year teams from Britain, Turkey, Canada and the United States 600 people in all will race around the state of New Jersey in a bid to spot the most birds. It's all on the honour system, and all the winning team gets is a cup and the glory.

The teams collect pledges for each bird spotted, with the proceeds going to environmental causes. Last year, a total of 270 different species of birds were spotted by all the contestants. It is estimated that about a third of all the bird species in North America can be found in New Jersey this time of year, as birds who have left the tropics for their nesting territory farther north use the state as a stopover point. The birds are there now it's just a matter of finding them. Bruce Di Labio has won the World Series of Birding in 1993 and 1995 and hopes to do well in the 1997 competition, a 24-hour marathon beginning tonight in New Jersey.

sible. I think $55,000 to $60,000 is appropriate," says Coun. Robert van den Ham, one of the penny-pinchers on council "The job is too demanding and too stressful to ask people to do it for a honorarium." Coun. Alex Cullen agrees, saying councillors should be paid at least $60,000. "This is a significant and serious task and the salary should not only compensate for time spent on the job, but also to attract good, qualified people," he says.

Councillors are well aware that they are skating on thin ice when it comes to pay hikes. But they work punishing hours, they say, and the public has to understand that their representatives are doing a darn good job and should be adequately compensated. Mr. Clark works an average 70 hours a week, while councillors who work full-time at other jobs put in an average 40 hours a week. But the likes of Coun.

Alex Munter and Mr. Cullen who are full-time councillors, work an average 60 hours a week. Coun. Dan Beamish scoffs at suggestions that the pay must be increased to attract good candidates for office. "If you increase the salary, you attract people who will see the job as a life-time career.

You want people who will come in and move on to other things." Coun. Peter Hume disagrees. "If someone wanted a comfortable life, municipal politics is certainly not the way to go," he says. "I think we should get out of the perception that we are doing this for the money." Ed chairman of the citizens' panel that set the salaries in 1994, says the public should decide how much a council job is worth and pay people accordingly. "I don't know why people should expect it to be a civic duty," he says.

"If you want to go there with some reasonable competence, they should get fair compensation. And we are not talking astronomical salaries." The three-member citizens' panel is made up of Ottawa resident Lionel Beauchamp, a benefits consultant; Stittsville resident and professional engineer Philip Sweetnam and Richard Baird, a Nepean truck operator. They are to submit their report to regional council by the end of May. By Mohammed Adam -r. The Ottawa Citizen i Just how much is a regional councillor worth? How much is fair remuneration for the 18 councillors and chair who preside over the $1 billion corporation that is the Ottawa-Carleton regional government? $40,000 a year? These are the questions regional politicians are squirming over and local taxpayers would have to ponder as a citizens' panel looks at whether to increase the salaries of regional politicians.

The three-member panel has been sounding out councillors on the issue and the suggestions so far, vary from $40,000 to $100,000. Ottawa-Carleton residents will get a chance to put in their 10 cents worth at a public meeting on Tuesday. Well aware of public perception that politicians are always helping themselves to public funds, most councillors are reluctant to stick out their neck and demand raises. But there is a growing consensus among councillors so-called fiscal conservatives and free-spending liberals alike that what they are paid is woefully inadequate. Regional councillors now make $40,000 a year, a third of it tax-free.

In addition, each councillor gets $53,000 for staff and office budget. Regional Chair Peter Clark earns a year and has an office budget of about $580,000. Regional politicians point out that Ottawa councillors, with their much lighter workload, earn $45,000 a year, a third tax-free, and get $83,800 for staff and office budget. Mr. Clark says a salary adjustment is necessary because since councillors' salaries were established three years ago, the workload has increased considerably.

And in the face of "mega-week" changes that heap more responsibilities onto municipalities, the job is not going to get any easier. the responsibility, energy, dedication and anxiety the job commands, it is probably worth $100,000. But political reality says that's not pos times 195 won." Last year, Mr. Di Labio's 208 species only won a second place. "You never know if your car breaks down, or your run into traffic jams on some of the major routes, that can throw off your whole schedule," Mr.

Di Labio said. "But the weather conditions can really make it disastrous. A fog can roll in off the Atlantic Ocean and just wipe you out. Even with all the scouting, it all comes down to late Friday night to determine what our route is, and it can still change if the weather takes a turn for the worse." The competition begins at midnight tonight, and runs until midnight Safur- day. 17i "For those 24 hours, you have to psyche yourself up like it's first place or noplace." Mr.

Di Labio, together with his three teammates, spent the day yesterday in the field in their first stage of preparation. "I want to be out just as much as possible, I'm psyching myself up just by being out (On Friday) we'll get into a different mode of preparation with the car, getting food organized. All the last-minute details." On average, Mr. Di Labio and his team will drive 1,100 kilometres during the competition, sometimes spotting from inside the car in their bid to beat the best the birdwatching world has to offer. In the seven years Mr.

Di Labio has been competing in the event, he says the calibre of competitors has increased dramatically. "If a team were to get 200, they were almost guaranteed to win. For the first years, some Air show gives space to arms trade foes CITY fence and a wall structure we have built," Mr. Sanders said yesterday. "The drawings by Iraqi children were collected by a Canadian woman in 1991 and are not from the consulate," he added.

In addition there will be a collection of photographs of the war's aftermath, taken in Iraq by a Canadian aid worker. "We're not opposed to air shows per se," said Mr. Sanders, "but we feel the public should have a chance to learn what damage these war machines can do." Representatives of the National Capital Air Show Association could not be contacted yesterday. The show, which has been moved to this weekend from its traditional Canada Day weekend, runs from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

both days. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for those 16 and under. In addition to planes such as the CF-18 Hornet, IDS Tornado, Bi bomber and A-10 Warthog attack aircraft, for the first time, there will be a trade show, the AerospaceHigh-TechIndustry Exposition. The Ottawa Citizen Before visitors to the National Capital Air Show get to the latest in hightech machinery, they'll get a look at some of the results of attacks by these weapons systems. Richard Sanders, co-ordinator of the Ottawa Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, says show organizers have given his group space just inside the gates at Macdonald-Cartier airport to display their opposition.

"We will mount a display of art depicting the effect of war on Iraq on the Kasonde: There's a lot of violence out there' caught without incident in Columbia, south of Nashville, by members of the Columbia police department. At the time of his arrest, Mr. Ling was operating a vehicle that had been stolen from a car dealership in the Columbia area. Mr. Ling is to be extradited to Canada.

Clayton Strang was just warming up when he won a Lotto 649 second prize in 1990. The Ottawa resident hit the jackpot this time, with a $944,212 windfall from the Nov. 13, 1996 649 draw. He picked up the prize yesterday. He won $171,793 in the Oct.

31, 1990 Lotto 649 draw. "I didn't believe it," Mr. Strang said when he realized he won a second time. Both winning tickets were Quick Picks. The 70-year-old retiree plans to bank his windfall.

Mr. Strang was reached at his home last night, but he declined to comment on the win. A 40-year-old Rockland man is dead following a five-vehicle accident at a Cumberland Township intersection yesterday. Michel Laporte, owner of Springfield Nursery and Landscape in Rockland, was driving south in a pickup truck on Tenth Line Road when his vehicle collided with a westbound cube van on Innes Road, said Const. Mario Royer of Cumberland OPP.

Paul Sabourin, the driver of the van, received minor injuries. After hitting Mr. Sabourin's van, Mr. Laporte's truck spun around and struck three other vehicles in the eastbound lane of Innes Road. One person received minor injuries.

Cumberland OPP is investigating the cause of the accident. A man charged in connection with a car theft ring in the Ottawa area was captured this week in Tennessee. George Ling, 31, was at the time, there were so many other cases that appeared to be higher-risk." Ms. Russell turned to the juryand spoke in her soft Scottish burr: "I don't know how one can possibly identify the person who will commit the ultimate act of shooting his children. I wish there was a way of doing that.

There's a lot of violence out there and children being abused "Obviously the services we were providing were not in-depth enough," she said. "I don't like to use the word Band-Aid, but it's been used in the past. It's the nature of the work. There's always more that you can do but you're limited by resources." She added: "This may seem hard to believe, but in the context of the work Continued from page Bi When she returned, it was to her same job as supervisor of seven workers at the west-end CAS office in the Pinecrest-Queensway Health and Community Services Centre. She said she was never told to change the way she did her work, as a result of the review Lifeguards: For most, it's a part-time job to pay tuition Continued from page Bi Fill out a ballot for your chance to win Two tickets to the May 24th 7om Jones Concert at the Civic Centre! She diapered you.

She bathed and loved you. She made you soup when you didn't even know your tummy needed to feel warm. She is YOUR mother. When she giggles and says "no, no, I don't need anything this year, YOU SAY, "Mom, I'm taking you to see Tom Jones courtesy of the Bank Street Pomenade! "I'm going to have to wean myself off life-guarding. But it's hard.

It's addictive," she says. Ottawa-area lifeguards get about $9 an hour. But in British Columbia, where some beaches open officially on Victoria Day veekend, lifeguards get a little more economic respect. Some Vancouver lifeguards are now unionized and get paid about $18 an hour. Lifeguards on the west coast are pushing to use more lifesaving procedures and devices, propelled by the leadership of former lifeguards who have gone on to careers as physicians and paramedics, says Mr.

O'Hare. On Vancouver beaches, for example, lifeguards are trained to administer oxygen to victims of heat exhaustion. In some cases, the victim may decide he doesn't need a trip to the hospital. "What we're trying to prove is that there's a lot of skills and talents that go into this," says Jennifer Walker, one of the competition's organizers and the aquatics supervisor at Gloucester's Sawmill Creek P00L She believes the teaching and leadership skills she's learned by lifeguarding have helped land a spot in teachers' college. "It takes a lot of leadership.

You're teaching a lot." "There's more of a fitness component. They'll liave a swimming race to determine who gets the hew jobs," said Turlough O'Hare, a competitive swimmer working on a master's degree in respiratory physiology. He took up lifeguarding because it combined his interests in emergency treatment and swimming. J1 However, for most Canadian lifeguards, it's a part-time job that helps university students to pay the bills. in a restaurant just didn't make ends meet," explains Graham Esplen, now a Vancouver high school teacher who continues to lifeguard as a fun way to spend the summer.

xKimberly Wickert, who just graduated from the University of British Columbia, says she wants to continue teaching lifeguarding and being in competitions, even though she's interested in a career in emergency medicine. 0 "You can feel the adrenaline pumping through your body," she says, recalling an incident last fall when she and four other lifeguards rescued a man who wasn't breathing from the bottom of theUBC pool. See these participating merchants for lull details: Allen's Flowers, Wallack's, Coffee Company Nick Jerry's Simply Seafood, Stop-In Restaurant, Wolfe Shoes, Grenada, The Focus Centre, Cathay Restaurant, James Street Feed Co. Mom jit Two injured in plane crash at Carp Airport The Ottawa Citizen craft and one passenger were in stable condition at an area hospital with non life-threatening injuries. The private plane, which was based at the airport, crashed at about 6:50 p.m.

as it was landing after a local flight. The OPP is continuing its A single-engine aircraft crashed into a wooded area at the Carp airport last night, injuring two residents, said Const. Phil Shrive of the West CarletonOPP. The "experienced" pilot and owner of the air.