The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 52

the City Editorial Page D4 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2001 OUR TOWN PQ's sudden cash hoard fuels dreams, cynics if Michel Lapalme The Outaouais Technically, Quebec Premier Bernard Landry can wait until Nov. 30, 2003 (five years after Lucien Bouchard's 1998 election victory) before calling the next provincial election. On top of that, it is debatable if the actual vote would have to be held much before Nov. 30, 2004. (If that sounds odd, consider that there are only two parameters to determine that date: The life of a Parliament is five years, and a Parliament must reconvene every year, which could possibly leave most of the sixth year open.) Of course, no government in Canadian history has ever extended its life that long, all elections having been held within the five-year time frame set for its call.

Furthermore, any government passing the four-year mark without calling an election has traditionally been accused of trying to escape defeat, a result that ultimately tended to be confirmed by the electorate. The last time I watched a five-year-old government face a vote, in 1979, Pierre Elliott Trudeau suffered the only defeat of his career, to Joe Clark. ROD MACIVOR, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Ben Franklin Quebec Finance Minister Pauline Marois made her first budget speech, two weeks ago, Quebec Liberal leader Jean Charest talked of a hidden reserve of billions of dollars for electoral purposes. Nothing in his claim was as convincing as those announcements made last week by Sylvain Simard, minister for the Outaouais. First, he announced that $100 million would be spent on Highway 50, a project born out of the Mirabel dreams in the 1960s and which, like Mirabel itself, never took off.

The general public reacted in disbelief to the announcement, and Mr. Simard had a tough time persuading even the Hull employees of the Department of Transportation. That highway, as originally conceived, was supposed to link the capital region to Mirabel airport and generate colossal economic activity. Mirabel's failure halted the construction of the highway except for its first portions between Hull and Masson-Angers, undoubtedly a segment of regional importance that contributed to the residential development in Gatineau. The best chance for expansion of this highway was a $106-million project already in the works to extend it 10 kilometres further, to Thurso.

So Mr. Simard was asked by local media: "Is this what you are announcing again?" "No," he said. "This is fresh new money." So, how is this money going to be spent? Nothing could be revealed, but employees at the Department of Transportation are now very busy trying to figure it out. Expropriations for any segment past Thurso have not begun. Anyway, there is $100 million more.

Altogether, there should be enough real money to get some machinery at work in time for the election. Then the same man announced he had $2 million for a new school in St-Pierre de Wakefield. That one is also a 20-year-old story. Local parents made their frustration known just this winter, but the project could not be approved then. Oops.

Now we have $2 million available. This time, some of the people involved started celebrating. With 18 months to go, they think that they might actually get the school. They should be careful, though. There is one more option in Mr.

Landry's hands. If the beneficiaries of these largesses start dancing too soon, he could decide to shorten his playoff time and enter a sudden-death final. In that case, the promises would likely translate into short-term smoke screens. After the vote, everything would return to normal. I am not cynical.

The cynicism comes from the top. It is easy to recognize. Michel LaPalme is a Hull writer. lor Al Loney, all paid tribute to the former Nepean mayor for his years in public life. Mr.

Franklin's administration was know for its avoidance of debt and steady addition of municipal assets, including everything from fire stations and the Walter Baker Sports Centre to Nepean's sailing marina and its equestrian park. One of the most important projects of his day was Nepean City Hall, in Cen-trepointe, which includes a theatre, library and outdoor skating rink and is named in his honour. Ben Franklin, one of the best-liked municipal politicians in our area, was honoured by Ottawa council yesterday by being the first person to receive the key to the new City of Ottawa. Mr. Franklin began his career as a geography teacher, was first elected to Ne-pean Township Council in 1972, and was thereafter a key player in both Nepean and regional politics until his retirement in 1997.

Yesterday Mayor Bob Chiarelli and councillors Jan Harder, Alex Cullen, Rick Chiarelli and Gord Hunter, as well as former council EDITORIAL Alta Vista needs a transit cure We know that the electoral process is under way when old road and school projects get sudden money injections. This has just started in the Outaouais. 1 jj Proposed Vi Bridge I Sm Proposed Alta Vista Parkway Walkley I IP The usual four-year deadline has no other grounding than the tradition itself, except maybe for the example set in the American system, where the presidential election is every four years. But the more time that passes after that expected deadline, the more difficult it becomes to turn the vote around. That would move Mr.

Landry's deadline up to around November 2002, giving him about 18 months now before calling the next provincial election. As a new premier, these 18 short months are something like playoff time. We know that the electoral process is under way when old road and school projects get sudden money injections. This has just started in the Outaouais. Immediately after There are legitimate road projects Ottawa needs to see happen a widened Queensway in the west end is perhaps the most pressing, while the east end and south Nepean have valid demands of their own.

But plans for a new downtown expressway should be scrutinized very carefully indeed. The Alta Vista Parkway scheme is a bellwether for how Ottawa's council will handle the city's massive, looming demands for new ways of getting around our increasingly crowded town. The parkway corridor is plainly obvious on a map, snaking southeast from the Queensway-Nicholas Street interchange downtown, past the health-care campus on Smyth Road, to the intersection of Conroy Road and Walkley Road. The city is embarking on an environmental assessment of several ways to use the corridor to move large numbers of people from a standard four-lane road to a mixed road-and-transit line to a pure public-transit version. The assessment is a necessary step before anything can be built at all: The city has in mind constructing one phase to begin with, between Smyth Road and Riverside Drive by 2003.

It's about time this assessment was done. The Alta Vista corridor was first proposed as a long-term project in the 50-year-old Greber plan, before there was even an Alta Vista to speak of. The Alta Vista Parkway has been a "real" project, one considered imminently possible, for almost 30 years. With the recent and dramatic population growth in south Gloucester, it's become clear that there has to be a new way of getting between that area and downtown. The best existing and around Alta Vista.

How many years after the parkway opens will pass before there are demands to further widen Conroy and Walkley to accommodate the increased number of drivers trying to get onto the new express route? How long after that before Bank and Main and Bronson and the new parkway are bumper-to-bumper? And by then, the city will have sunk $100 to 200 million into asphalt. That's what big new roads do. Driving is certainly the most popular means of transportation for those who can afford it: Cars are private, comfortable, and often a quick and direct ways of getting from one place to another. And there's nothing to entice people into their automobiles like a spanking new road with hardly anyone on it. It's too bad that condition never lasts.

In the short term, a parkway for cars through Alta Vista will help alleviate congestion in that area, which is what makes the idea so appealing. In the long term, though, it'll create new problems that will cost even more to fix. Perhaps there's a need for direct road access to the hospitals from the south, and there's no doubt that the existing routes into town from the south are overburdened. But any scheme for solving these problems that isn't built around mass transit will be an expensive failure. This is a conclusion that Mr.

Hume, the councillor for Alta Vista, agrees with. He insists this new transportation corridor will not be some mega-expressway choked with cars. If the planners do design just another big road, council should kill the project. How to contact us routes Bank Street, Main Street, the Airport Parkway-Bronson Avenue corridor are clogged at rush hour, and there's really no good way at all to get to the Smyth Road hospitals from the south. Both Alta Vista Councillor Peter Hume and his main opponent in last fall's election, Allan Higdon, made promises to push some version of the parkway project, under pressure from Alta Vista residents maddened by the number of drivers using their neighbourhood streets as commuter routes.

A new regional road would solve all these problems, some say. Right. Just as Hunt Club Road cleared up all the traffic-related woes of people driving east and west along the south part of town. Building a four-lane road for cars is quite likely to make traffic worse in We welcome suggestions for the photographs on this page, which highlight people who have made special contributions to community life. We also welcome opinion articles on local matters or personal experiences of interest to other readers.

Inquiries, submissions or comments may be directed to Patrick Dare, City Editorial Pages Editor, at 596-3718. Our fax number is 596-8458 and our e-mail address is citveditthecitizen.southam.ca Submissions by regular mail may be sent to: City editorial page, 1101 Baxter Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2C 3M4. POINT OF VIEW One of the most maligned birds truly has things to crow about If men had wings and bore black feathers few of them would be clever enough to be crows. Henry Ward Beecher By Ruth levy Don't be skeptical when I tell you we made friends with a pair of crows. I think those glossy black birds with glints of deep blue and purple are beautiful.

They make themselves at home in big cities as well as in the country. Being omnivorous, they eat all kinds of things: insects, worms, fruit, corn, dead animals and, unfortunately, birds' eggs and baby birds. According to author Laurence Pringle, the crow family has about a hundred members. Many scientists believe they are the most intelligent of all groups of birds. They talk to each other in loud, rough, throaty voices.

They have their own language and ways of identifying themselves to each other. If a crow spots a predator when it is flying, it will dive and whirl and call in a hoarse voice to let the others know there is danger. The other crows within hearing range fly to its aid. They will mob the predator and drive it away. They have a special call to let their family know when there is an abundance of food to be had.

Some of their calls are just chatting with each other. They are extremely family oriented and include aunts, uncles and jpousins in their togetherness. sight learning. Crows spend lots of time observing human activities. A pair of crows adopted us some time ago.

They would perch in the trees in our front yard and call. We started feeding them, putting out chunks of bread and meat in the back yard. They sat there and watched with interest as we put out their food. Once we left the yard, down they came. Our back yard and surrounding yards have lots of trees and the crows built their nests high up in them.

Over the months a pair of crows came every day for lunch. They would cram as many pieces of food as they could manage into their beaks at once, then flew off to feed their young. Some days we had Some scientists believe crows can count. They suggest if you listen to a crow you will notice it calls "caw caw." The other might answer with several caws. Some caws are short, some drawn out, some with pauses in between.

All this is thought to be their own language. Ornithologist Lester I. Short tells of an incident in Scandinavia when some men were ice fishing through holes in the ice. A crow picked up the line in its beak and walked backwards slowly as far as it could. It then walked forward on the line back to the hole.

It continued to do this until it reached the end of the line and pulled up either a fish or the bait. This is thought to be an example of in caw, caw, pause then call again. This developed into a ritual, with them calling and knocking every morning around 6 a.m. As soon as we fed them they would fly off. People in general have mixed feelings about crows.

Some dislike them because of their eating habits. Crows are immensely valuable, especially for farmers. They eat pesky insects, bugs, and grasshoppers, the bane of farmers. If you listen to the crows you will realize they are actually talking with each other. Scientists say they have a lot to learn about the language of crows.

They tell us that crows, like all of nature, are valuable. Ruth Levy lives in Nepean. a whole family going about gathering food. We usually knew when a hawk was near, for the cry of the crows was deafening. As the months passed we were able to stay outside, some distance from the crows, which we had now named Pat and Mike, as they foraged for food.

They kept a wary eye on us but strutted about leisurely. They were growing bolder. Winter was approaching. It did not seem to bother our friends. They tolerated us in the yard while they were eating.

One winter morning we awoke to the sound of knocking on our bedroom window. Pat and Mike were on the ledge and smacking the window with their beaks. They would call.