continued from frontHe then asked if anyone else

wanted to attend the conference. Mr. Chidley immediately raised his hand.

Mr. Conn ignored him for moment, then said "does anyone have a problem with Alex representing us?"

In response to Mr. Conn's quest ion counci l lor Doug Sainsbury said he would approve if Mr. Chidley behaves himself. To this Mr. Chidley said, "(you) never know".

Mr. Conn said council had the right to know and that Mr. Chidley, who has repeatedly said he represents the ratepayer and not council, should bring ratepayers' views to council.

Already booked

"I 've a lready booked i t anyway," said Mr. Chidley. "I don't need this council's approval. So, I'm going anyway."

Although Mr. Chidley said in an interview the following week that he is going as a Seguin councillor, councillors said they don't want others to think he speaks on behalf of the township.

"Make sure, when you're there, you don't represent the Township of Seguin," Mr. Conn said at the council meeting.

Brainstorming

M r. C h i d l e y s a i d h e wa s t h e p e r s o n t o b r i n g F O N O M c o n f e r e n c e s t o council's attention so Seguin representatives attend as a northern municipality and that this summit is about b r a i n st o r m i n g i s s u e s t o make northern Ontario more prosperous. He plans to attend sessions on natural resources (aggregate), plus business and entrepreneurship sessions.

Fo l l ow i n g t h e F O N O M discussion, when it came time for councillors to report to council

what they had been up to over the previous two weeks, Mr. Conn appeared to slight Mr. Chidley by going out of order.

For the last four years, Mr. Conn has started the recaps off at either end of the horseshoe-shaped table, where three councillor sit on each side, or with the councillor immediately to his left or right.

This time, Mr. Conn asked a councillor in the middle, who sits next to Mr. Chidley, to start. When invited to make his report following everyone else on

council, Mr. Chidley refused.

Wednesday September 26, 2007 ◆ PARRY SOUND NORTH STAR - 3

Candidates plan to fight crime before it happensBY SARAH BISSONETTENorth Star Staff

PARRY SOUND - In a phone interview from Huntsville, where Parry Sound-Muskoka i n c u m b e n t P r o g r e s s i v e Conservative Norm Miller was campaigning Friday, he said crime hasn't been a local election issue.

It may not be on the top of voters' minds, but it is an issue provincial parties have a stance on, announcing how they, if elected, would implement programs to decrease crime and ensure people don't break the law more than once.

According to Stat ist ics Canada, the crime rate in Ontario fell by two per cent last year over 2005, continuing 14 years of steady decline. The crime rate in West Parry though, increased by five per cent.

Mr. Miller summed up the PC's stance on crime as being strict on the enforcement of laws once a crime's been committed

and proactive in the prevention of crime.

To ensure people don't turn to crime in the first place, the PC party intends to, if elected, enact an open schools program for community groups and recreation purposes and to invest in community centres - all in a bid to give people places to go. The party would also launch mentorship programs to help at-risk youth prepare for employment, and set up a drug education program.

White-collar crime

Then, to deal with white-collar crime, the party would establish a special court that specializes in crime such as investment fraud. It would also lobby the federal government to strengthen the Youth Criminal Justice Act to strongly penalize gang crime.

"We've seen, in Ontario, the statistics for gang-related crimes here is up dramatically," said Mr. Miller. "In fact, gang-related homicide has more than doubled

between 2004 and 2005." The party would also put in

place a truth and transparency in the justice system act.

Mr. Miller said the act would require a yearly annual public report on the activities of the courts, including kinds of, and number of crimes they're dealing with and types of plea bargains made.

"If we have the information, we can improve the system," he said.

For those repeat criminals who commit gun, sexual, or assault crimes while on bail or probation, a PC government wouldn't allow them to take a lesser charge.

For the Liberal party, local candidate Brenda Rhodes said the party would decrease crime by focusing on youth, putting more staff in schools to work with at-risk students and keeping youth occupied.

"When it comes to youth offenders, we're opening schools for recreational activities, keeping kids busy with activities

other than leaving them to their own devices," she said.

As for repeat offenders, she pointed out the $16 million anti-violence strategy the party announced in June that allows police to keep a closer eye on repeat offenders, and a further $21.5 million announced last month to put in place special teams for the persecution and monitoring of offenders, including hiring more police officers in this riding for the OPP's repeat offenders monitoring team.

They also plan to petition the federal government to strengthen legislation on high risk offenders.

As for repeat offenders, NDP candidate Sara Hall said a criminal must not take that route in the first place.

"This is a complex issue," she said. "It's just not ineffective sentencing. We have to look at why they're doing it in the first place."

Ms Hall said the province needs to take another look at the

Safe Schools Act that suspends students, leaving them with nowhere to go; support families so they're not living in poverty; and help the homeless.

"Sending people to jail is basically just a school for crime as far as I'm concerned," said Ms Hall.

Upload the download

She said her government would "upload the download" freeing up more municipal money.

" W e n e e d t o g i v e municipalities the tools they need to hire more police officers. W h e n t h e Co n s e r vat ive s downloaded all the things they did, it meant they couldn't' afford (other services)," said Ms Hall.

As for nipping crime in the bud, she said that police departments know best how to do that, "they just don't have the people to do it."

The Green Party's platform focuses on family violence and funding crisis and holistic

healing centres for women and their children to ensure the children don't perpetuate cycles of crime and violence.

"You saw the domest ic violence (aspect), but if we're talking repeat offenders at various levels, it's such a big question of how to reduce crime," said Matt Richter, Green Party candidate. "Naturally, we've got to keep what's in place now, we're not going to overhaul (the justice system)."

He said the party would support, "initiatives put forward by provincial justices," and that increasing sentences doesn't decrease crimes.

He talked about keeping kids in school through to post-secondary with a tuition cap of $3,000 for university and $700 for college and looking at all the environmental, social and economic reasons that might cause a person to turn to crime.

"We have to prevent it from happening (in the first place)," he said.

Local Coast Guard staff find missing teensBY SARAH BISSONETTENorth Star Staff

PARRY SOUND - Bradford Kearley, a deckhand for the Parry Sound-based Canada Coast Guard ship the Samuel Risley, looked out of a helicopter window last week and there, standing on a small island waiving their arms, were the teenage girls he was looking for.

Jamie Love-Wilkinson, 18, of Wasaga Beach, and Karla Smith, 17, of Collingwood, went missing last Monday afternoon from Wasaga Beach Provincial Park when the raft they were floating on in Georgian Bay drifted away. They were found Wednesday evening on Thumb Rock, part of the Western Islands between Midland and Parry Sound, about 56 kilometres from where they were last seen.

Mr. Kearley, along with Parry Sound co-workers, third officer Travis Borchuk and supervising

pilot Gary Ertel, started their search for the girls just before 4 p.m. September 19 as part of a two-day search of Georgian Bay. The girls were spotted two hours later in the crew's second search area.

"When we initially spotted them we had just done a loop around the lighthouse to make sure it was in good condition, since we were out there, and set out to the island they were actually on," said Mr. Borchuk.

The girls were standing at the highest point of the island and waiving their arms above their heads, one with her shirt in her hand, to get their attention.

Mr. Kearley said he knew right away it was them because the helicopter was only about 150 feet off ground.

"They were glad to see us," he said. "The first thing she said is 'are we ever glad to see you' and second was, 'we saw you twice yesterday'."

Mr. Kearley said it would have been a different helicopter the girls spotted a day earlier.

Mr. Borchuk said the girls were hungry, thirsty, sunburned and very cold.

"They were not prepared to spend a night out at all," he said.

The girls were given fruit and water and flown to the Collingwood hospital.

"This is definitely a very good feeling for me, that's for sure," said Mr. Borchuk of finding the girls.

"It's just part of the job, it's what we do, but it is a good feeling to find someone alive," said Mr. Kearley.

Deckhand Bradford Kearley, left, third mate Travis Borchuk, and helicopter pilot Gary Ertel, stand in front of the Bell 206 L-1 helicopter that they were using for the search.

Ratepayer pleased with delay

continued from frontResident Janet Crich said he

was glad council deferred the amendment, because she and other ratepayers have felt council moved too quickly through the process.

“It’s a small council and they’re new in the area of this type of development,” said Ms Crich following council’s decision. “It’s time that they got going on research and I hope they use (this) time to become more knowledgeable and see what other townships are doing. We’ve been asking for that since the meeting in May (that) we didn’t want them going ahead without all the information. It’s an overly dense development for the nature of the shoreline and the narrowness of the channel. It would be nice if everything slowed down to let people do some research. No one is saying they don’t want development, it should just be reasonable and appropriate for the area.”

Township clerk Shawn Boggs said he’s uncertain when council will receive the rest of the reports and studies from the developer. McKellar Reeve David Moore did not return calls. Two McKellar councillors declined to comment while others could not be reached.

Chidley to pay own way

continued from front It’s just another thing teachers can use in their

bag of tricks," said Mr. McDougall. "We don’t want everybody to just be teaching using SMART Boards, there’s still the chalk and the blackboard for a lot of things and in a lot of instances, it’s quicker. If you become efficient with it, it’s a good tool.”

Although only implemented into classrooms last week, Mr. McDougall said students are enthralled with the new technology.

“The kids love it,” he said. “Even the little kids, the first week, they’re calling it the magic board. They’re really excited to draw on the magic board.

The kids just love coming up to the board and writing with that pen, because it’s a novelty.”

Special education teacher Anastasia Rioux has a SMART Board in her classroom and has been using it daily.

“I’m working with a group of weaker math kids and I find it’s really good,” said Ms Rioux. “It’s more hands-on, it gets kids up and out of their textbooks. I will implement it into my daily (routine) when I’m working with really little kids with their reading and writing. You can use it like a scratch pad using ‘markers’, so the kids are excited, because they get to go up there and write on the board.”

Seguin Township councillor Alex Chidley

continued from front“I don’t think all parties will

have the same points of view all the time,” said Mr. Borneman.

Mr. Barnes said he’s pleased with counci l ’s unanimous support of the BOHF’s goal.

“It shows council has the

desire to look at alternatives to help improve the results of the Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts and Bobby Orr Hall of Fame and entertainment centre,” Mr. Barnes said. “We hope to be a contributing factor to improved success for this great community facility.”

Board to help teachers engage kids

Seguin Township Mayor David Conn

Last Wednesday, Parry Sound Mayor Richard Adams helped the Early Years Centre on Waubeek Street celebrate its fifth anniversary by serving a special cake and reading a story to the children and parents.

Inspiring young readers

Seguin Township councillor Doug Sainsbury

Plan in works for BOHF

Janet Aldersley photo