The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 29

Letters THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1998 C5 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Public has right to be told about hospital decisions Air shows celebrate airplanes, not wars A ETC AiikuSn 1 rr '-f ptof.ttik'littffll vw itu m.m ivwi CHRIS MIKULA. THE OTTAWA CITIZEN tions, if any? (2.) If the Carling (Civic) site is to be a "community hospital," exactly what does this mean? Is it to be staffed entirely by general or family practitioners, with commensurate facilities, or will some specialists continue there? Will any surgery be done? Will laboratory, radiology and other such services be available? Will it continue to have a major emergency department to serve the huge central and west end area it now does? What specialties will be available to back up the emergency staff? (3.) Extensive building plans for the Alta Vista site are being mentioned, with, it must be assumed, great costs for equipping the new construction. It is generally understood that restructuring is to save money. Ample space and equipment are already in place at Carling, which needs no major replacement. The annual savings from amalgamation cannot be more than a small fraction of the planned capital costs.

How do the board and the commission reconcile these two facts? Has the board taken into account the major disruption of staff programmes and staff careers, and the probable loss of invaluable people from the community? These are not all the possible questions, but clear answers to them would open up the whole topic and allow rational discussion of the merits of the total restructuring plan. Decisions remain the right and duty of the board, but it is a public body, and the public has a right to know what is being decided on its behalf. Dr. Henry A. Sims, member, medical advisory committee, Patients First A few weeks ago, a group called Patients First, headed by three former mayors of Ottawa, Jim Durrell, Lorry Greenberg and Jackie Holzman, began asking questions about plans for hospital restructuring and amalgamation in Ottawa-Carleton.

They pointed to the announcement earlier this year that, at the command of the restructuring commission, the Riverside, the Grace, and part of the Montfort would be absorbed, all tertiary care facilities would be transferred to the Ottawa General, and the Civic would be reduced to a "community hospital." An approach by the mayors to the chairman of the commission and to the minister of health brought the statement that any such decision was in the hands of the board of the new Ottawa Hospital. When asked about this, several members of the board declared that any such decision had been made before the board was appointed and that they had no first-hand knowledge of it. An effort to inform the public about the shortcomings of the plan was just under way, when it was pre-empted by the public uproar about the appointment of David Levine as president and chief executive officer of the Ottawa Hospital. The problem still remains, and no further information is reaching the public. It is high time for the restructuring plans to be open again to public discussion, and for several key questions to be posed and answered.

(1.) What is the board's specific definition of a tertiary facility, a secondary facility, primary care? Are all tertiary facilities, without exception, to be concentrated in the Alta Vista (General) site? What are they? What are the excep Visitors to the National Capital Airshow examined military planes such as the U.S. Airforce's C-5 Galaxy, above, but the show is mainly a celebration of all forms of aircraft, writes D.B. Munro. I read with some amazement Richard Sander's opinion article celebrates weapons of war," June 4) on the Citizen's city editorial page. As co-ordinator of the Coalition To Oppose Arms Trade, he appears to have an axe to grind against anything military.

Despite the fact that Ottawa airshows have always shown civilian aircraft on the ground and performing in the air, he rejoices that future shows will not likely happen due to the financial problems of the last two. As thousands of Ottawans in the past have seen, the show is not just a celebration of military airpower, but a celebration of the airplane itself. This amazing and useful invention has always intrigued and captivated the interest and admiration of most people since that first successful flight by the Wright brothers in 1903. Yes, they are noisy, fuel-consuming, polluting, loud and menacing, but this is what makes them so attractive to young and old. In the beauty of their flight as well as their functional shape at rest, they are the purest of artistic sculpture, if only Mr.

Sanders would look. As to their use in conflict, war is a part of the human condition and will continue to be so until the twin problems of world overpopulation and dic-tatorially governed states are resolved. As warfare will be with us for the foreseeable future, we have to be prepared to defend ourselves against tyranny, or fall prey to it. The high cost of modern weapons requires that older, obsolete defence systems must be sold to help finance the latest technology. The taxpayers expect it.

As for influencing children to be militaristic by showing them weapons of war, most young children see more violence on TV and engage in more shoot-'em-dead computer games than many parents today care to admit. Eighteen-year-old youths don't want to fight in wars; usually it is their par- Region open During the the week of May 30 to June 6, articles dealing with the Ne-pean and Trail Road landfill sites raised several issues. The following information is provided to set the record straight. The Nepean landfill site was acquired from a private operator by the Township of Nepean in 1964, and the Region of Ottawa-Carleton took it over in 1977. It should be noted that the environmental standards of the mid-6os were significantly different than the current ones.

Regional council has approved funds to monitor leachate, a natural byproduct of all landfill sites. We closed the Nepean landfill in 1991. In 1993, as part of the comprehensive leachate control plan, designed to protect the environment, we covered the closed site with an impermeable cap to control long-term moisture infiltration and leachate production. the ingenuity, quality and skill that go into the the creation and flying of these great machines. In Paris, a statue to the Wright brothers bears the epitaph: "They changed the world." They did indeed with their magnificent flying machines! Let these shows continue to help us appreciate their efforts.

D.B. Munro, Ottawa ents' generation that start conflicts and then send their offspring to fight in them. Mr. Sanders, please lighten up and let us have more airshows so we can enjoy, at close hand, the spectacle of that most wonderful machine, the airplane in all its glory. Let us show the young one of the wonderful achievements of mankind, Family service agencies are part of the solution about environmental plans JFSOC has been developing is community building with the Somali community.

Although recent history has made interaction between Jews and Moslems strained, here in Ottawa there is a unique model of one community helping another integrate into Canadian society. This involves community building, recognizing the internal cultural strength of the Somali culture. As a family service agency, we see this as part of our mandate and a solution to build strong families and community in the Ottawa-Carleton Region with governments at all levels and with the private sector. We invite the Citizen to join the challenge of building family and community. The three family service agencies of Ottawa Carleton, including the Catholic Family and Children's Service and the Family Service Centre, will be honouring former Ottawa mayor Jacquelin Holzman in October.

The event, to be chaired by former regional chairman Andy Haydon, will provide an opportunity to creatively fund family and community building projects. Mark Zarecki, executive director, Jewish Family Services of Ottawa- Carleton create have-not areas would result in the "have-nots" relying on residential taxpayers for funding all the services in the east-end city. Taxes there would go up by at least 30 per cent and services would go down because they have a very small commercial tax base. Under the Tri-City model, we could potentially have the Queensway repaired in the west and deteriorating in the east. The Tri-City model proposed by the suburban mayors would be a giant step back for any taxpayer east of the Rideau, and we don't need that kind of economic split in the nation's capital.

We need one city of 750,000 with a mayor and 16 councillors, with all citizens treated equally regardless of their residential location. Frank Reid, Nepean tolerance rule for all would like to point out we have held public briefings with both private citizens and commercial operators near the site. We have made several presentations to the City of Nepean Public Works Committee, and have held numerous open-houses at the Trail Road site in an effort to keep our citizens informed. Furthermore, regional committees and council have discussed these issues in open, public meetings several times every year, for at least the past 10 years. The recently approved 1998 capital budget for the region identifies both on-going and new initiatives designed to meet the solid waste needs for our community.

The region remains committed to the proper operation, management and long-term care of our solid waste facilities. Pat McNally, director, solid waste division, Ottawa-Carleton Region teers are overrun with injured and orphaned animals due to the ice storm, just as the Wild Bird Care Centre is. Both organizations are equally worthy and equally in need. It would be tragic to lose the services of either of them. Janus Wilson, Nepean could backfire tomers would then be able to give more to their favourite charities and unburden the chain stores of this latest invasive marketing tools.

The Ottawa population is always very generous but should not be abused in this manner as it could backfire. R.P. Landry. Ottawa Wildlife centre deserves public support As a member and financial supporter of the area's wild bird care centre, I'm delighted that Nepean has granted the centre $15,000. A few days ago I saw a donation box for the centre in a pet store.

That's great too. But the Ottawa-Carleton wildlife centre provides similar care to all oth Family service agencies are part of the solution to better communities, not part of the problem, as suggested in the Citizen's June 5 editorial Jewish Family Services of Ottawa-Carleton (JFSOC), in partnership with three other settlement agencies that include the Catholic Immigration Centre and the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre, has created an employment program for new immigrants. Since its inception last fall, it has placed more than 65 individuals into full-time positions at a cost of $2,000 per position. Government costs for similar placement are more than private for-profit agencies spend about $3,000. We believe in creative partnerships between the non-profit sector and the private sector.

As settlement agencies, we believe that the richness of the new immigrants is being underutilized and we are helping them become family providers with dignity and self-respect through dialogue with local businesses. Other services in the region would not help these people overcome cultural barriers and prejudices in the labour market, which is our objective. Another exciting program that the TVi-City plan would The suburban mayors' Tri-City plan to eliminate the existing regional government would create "have" and "have-not" cities in Ottawa-Carleton. The "haves" would be west of the Rideau River, and the "have-nots" east of it. The reason is that the bulk of commercial taxation is based in Ottawa and the west end of the region.

With the elimination of the regional government and the creation of one tier at the municipal level, these three cities would be on their own financially and would not share in Ottawa's grants in lieu, or share in the commercial activity in the west-end high-tech center. The current system of regional equalization and pooling of commercial assessment would be eliminated. Under the Tri-City model, this other campers by some has unfortunately led to an almost zero-tolerance situation in our provincial parks. Noisy campers are evicted because experience has shown that most of them don't respond to being given another chance. Last summer, just before a camping trip through Newfoundland and Labrador, we spent a weekend at a local campsite on the Ottawa River.

Friday night was fine but Saturday was sleepless due to a group of young people who gave the surrounding campsites the benefit of their music, singing, and conversation (including an endless variety of uses for the until 5 a.m. How we all wished for the park rangers that night. It appears they were busy with a very unruly situation at the furthest end of the park. Why did none of us go and speak In addition to the capping process, regional council approved the purchase and remediation of bufferlands around the site. In 1989, the region of Ottawa-Carleton was among the first to employ state-of-the-art technology when we installed a base liner and leachate collection system in the Trail Road landfill site.

The Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton operates in an open and transparent fashion, and has taken its environmental responsibilities and obligations at the landfill site very seriously. The Ministry of the Environment is fully aware of, and supports, the elements of our comprehensive plan, which includes landfill caps and liners, purchase of bufferland, leachate management studies, remediation plans as well as extensive and ongoing monitoring programs. With respect to the allegation that this has been a well-kept secret, I er small wildlife in our area and has at least as great a need for financial help as the wild bird care centre. They operate similarly and also provide a telephone help-line for people coping with wildlife concerns. I have used this service and found it comforting and invaluable.

The staff and volun benefit of multiple sclerosis research. This is a sure way to embarrass the more timid customers. It is a fact that prices are constantly on the rise. Would it not be the role of Loeb and the like to focus their efforts on bringing down these prices? That would positively affect a downward trend of the consumer index. Cus NCC nightmare? Regarding the front-page story "A 'Grand Widened Metcalfe 'boulevard' is centrepiece of NCC's 50-year plan for Ottawa," June 9.

Is it a bad dream or a nightmare? We need bridges now. Let's look at reality today; who is going to be here in 50 years? Gerard Cleary, Ottawa Some chutzpah One cannot help but admire the chutzpah of the National Capital Commission's "vision" to reshape Ottawa. Is this the same NCC that permitted the destruction of the Daly Building and remains incapable of making a decision on what to do with the resulting eyesore on the corner of Sussex and Rideau? Brian Caines, Ottawa New 'sales gimmick' for charity Lack of respect by some campers led to zero What is this new "sales gimmick" for the sake of charity? Loeb's advertisement in the Citizen on page A12 on June 7 is the case in point. The cashier is to ask customers for a $2-donation with each grocery bill to go to the Food Bank. Zellers used the same tactic a short while ago for the Letters to the Editor We welcome letters, which must include full name, an address and phone number for verification.

We condense and edit for style. Cite page and date for articles mentioned. Mail: Letters to the Editor, Ottawa Citizen 1101 Baxter Road, Ottawa, K2C 3M4 Fax: 596-8458 E-mail: lettersthecitizen.southam.ca The Citizen Online: www.ottawacitizen.com Letters Editor: Brian Sarjeant, 596-3785 Copyright in letters and other materials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the Publisher and its licensees may freely reproduce them. In her June 9 letter, "Park rangers cut short a peaceful trip to the country," Angie Yagminas's idea of a peaceful night in the country seems to be somewhat one-sided. How would she describe the night that her campsite neighbours spent? They may have arrived much earlier, perhaps even in time for a swim and supper before 8 p.m.

If they had young children they would be sure to try to get a site near the washrooms and have the children in bed by 11 p.m. At that time campground life quiets down, for the sake of all those there who seek some rest and relaxation. There are many camping lifestyles. Some campers enjoy themselves without the benefit of recorded music. But one cardinal rule is that good campers do not interfere with the sleep of others.

Lack of respect for the rights of to these young people as reasonable people might? Because they were drunk and had not responded well to contact earlier in the evening. In the light of day, while one sleep-deprived parent fed the kids breakfast, the park warden who came to investigate several complaints found himself surrounded by the rest of us. I'm sure that these young people found us unreasonable. They did not seem to remember the night in quite the same way we did. By contrast, a group of at least 100 members of a cycling club were camping nearby, on the last leg of their annual outing to Ottawa from Toronto.

They managed to have a barbeque, speeches, a singsong and lots of laughter before hitting the sack by 11 pm. No problem there. Maureen Cassidy, Ottawa I.