MEMBERS' STATEMENTS
LIQUOR BOARD AGENCY STORES
In 1985, for example, the agency store in White River sold over $500,000 in liquor, and this is a store that coexists with an LCBO outlet. Existing policies state that agency stores must be a minimum of 25 miles or, in some cases, 35 miles from the nearest outlet. This criterion, however, has been constantly ignored and in several towns there are coexisting government stores and agency stores.
Several questions arise: (1) What guarantee is there that the LCBO will not issue agency licences without discretion in the future? (2) Will the spread of agency stores force the closure of government-operated, low-volume D stores? (3) Will for-profit owners demonstrate the same degree of vigilance in turning away customers who are unfit to purchase alcohol? (4) Will agency stores be established in areas which have supported or could support a government store?
The employees at LCBO outlets have some very justifiable concerns and the minister must ensure that agency stores remain what they were intended to be. Their growth should not be at the expense of current LCBO outlets.
CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP
This was a particularly sweet victory for the Howard team, because three out of the four members had to play through a variety of ailments ranging from lost voices to bouts with the flu bug. However, they overcame their ailments to score an eight-to-five victory over the Ed Werenich team and win the 1989 Blue Light Tankard at Community Gardens in Trenton, Ontario.
While I am extremely pleased with the success of the Howard team, I should note that I am not so pleased with Canada's two national television networks, the CBC and the CTV, which failed to devote any live coverage to this tankard. You could watch golf or skiing from the United States or figure-skating from Chicoutimi, Quebec, but nowhere could you find any coverage of the 1989 Blue Light Tankard. To me, this is a slap in the face to all curlers in Ontario and their fans.
At any rate, I would like to extend sincere congratulations on behalf of all of us to the Russ Howard team and wish it continued success when it represents Ontario in the Brier from March 5 to 12 in Saskatoon.
ANNIVERSARY OF STRATHROY MIDDLESEX GENERAL HOSPITAL
The history of this hospital represents an interesting metamorphosis. The original hospital was a renovated residence donated to the town. It opened with 20 beds and a staff of five. The present hospital was constructed in two stages, in 1962 and 1975, and today it operates as a 121-bed facility offering a wide range of services. The metamorphosis is not yet complete. A $3-million project, for which this government has committed $2 million, to improve ambulatory and outpatient areas is in the planning stage.
Having just had an opportunity to be a patient in Strathroy Middlesex General for a week, I can personally attest to the splendid care its staff provides to the people of Middlesex.
As they get ready to eat the birthday cake in the auditorium this afternoon, I want to add my congratulations and best wishes to the chairperson, Joan Gentleman, and the other members of the board of governors, to executive director Tom Enright, and to the more than 300 members of the administration and staff.
GRAY COACH LINES LTD.
For many years, Gray Coach Lines has provided quality service for the travel requirements of residents in many towns and villages in Ontario. Gray Coach currently services many Ontario communities. There is a very real fear that the abandonment of these two routes is only the beginning of an end to many of the less-profitable routes. The quality of service and the scheduling and connections that will be provided by smaller local bus lines will not necessarily benefit the residents.
A large number of well-trained and decently paid drivers and other employees will be replaced by much-lower-paid employees. The ability of profitable routes to subsidize less-profitable routes to provide good service will be lost. There is a serious question here as to whether such rationalization, such contracting out in the sole name of increased profits is in the public interest.
The mandate of Gray Coach Lines, conferred upon it many years ago, was to create order out of the chaos which was once the interurban transit scene in Ontario. They got exclusive rights over profitable routes with an obligation to provide quality service to less-profitable or even money-losing routes. Why should they now be allowed to walk away from this obligation? Is this really in the public interest in Ontario?
INTERVAL AND TRANSITION HOUSES
Security at centres for young offenders is being reviewed only because of the Sepp murder, this tragic, needless death. It is unfortunate that the government has not responded in the same manner to senseless attacks on women at shelters for abused women.
The Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses wants the government to ensure that there are always two staff members at shelters for victims of spouse abuse. Already two transition home workers have been savagely attacked by violent men who came looking for their spouses. In one incident in eastern Ontario a shelter worker was sexually assaulted.
This is over and above the number of clients who are assaulted, sometimes killed, after seeking refuge in a transition home, simply because the staff there cannot provide the necessary protection. We all remember the tragic case of the Kenora woman murdered when her husband, armed with a gun, entered the shelter where she was staying.
Double-staffing is essential, but some regions cry out for special assistance. In parts of northern Ontario, there is no Ontario Provincial Police officer on duty from midnight until morning. It is frightening enough for a shelter staff person to work the night shift while her police protectors are home in bed; the least this government can allow her is the support and assistance of a second staff member.
I say to the minister that he should, by all means, inquire into security of facilities for young offenders, but he should not forget the real and serious problems faced by interval and transition homes across this province.
GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION
Today, when people and lands are closer together than ever before, when events at one location impact rapidly on the rest of the world, when it is vitally important that the peoples of the world should know each other and should know about their planet, this ignorance of basic geography is inexcusable and dangerous.
We must emphasize geography at all levels in our education system. In 1987, Louis Branscombe said "that it will be recognized that modern geography is an integrated view of humans on this planet, the bringing together of ecology, the study of human habitats, geomorphology, social anthropology and economics; in short, all the tools necessary to understand how human beings should view their fragile planetary home."
Let's prepare our young people properly by giving them a fairer measure of real geography in their education.
AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE
Jack Lyndon, of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said companies will raise rates 17 per cent. The chief executive officer of Wellington Insurance said, "I think most companies will have to go to the top," a 17 per cent increase. When we read the fine print, we see that young female drivers, male drivers in the age-30 category and older drivers will all face increases in excess of 20 per cent.
So this is what the Liberal government meant when it said it had a plan to reduce auto insurance rates. Let us see another plan.
WORKERS' COMPENSATION