The editorial in May25th edition of this paper praises the plans for increased industrial development for Dufferin County and, in particular, the new engine facility to be built by Honda in Alliston and the Linamar project in Guelph.

Indeed, the rapidly growing population in the area requires well paid alternative employment to that in the Toronto area where the majority of employment is located.

Getting to that employment requires daily exhausting and dangerous driving into the city.

This is becoming a very expensive exercise as gasoline prices soar into the stratosphere and oil companies wail as their quarterly profits are revealed; one recent revelation showed a record level of $8.4 BILLION. It is never enough for these oil barons.

The underlying difficulties that our politicians appear to be unwilling to address are: the high cost of energy, electrical, oil and gas, waste disposal and its potential utilization, and the degradation of our environment. The rising spectre of unaffordable

housing and shelter prices also presents far reaching social problems. Highway grid-lock too is a growing curse that calls for commuter rail service from bedroom communities into the city.

Any one of these components of our economy, if not managed carefully, could lead to a decline in our living standards.

The most immediate problem to be resolved is electrical generation and supply. The nuclear industry continues advertising it to be the cleanest method and the safest. They fail to mention the tons of nuclear waste now in storage with no known method for its safe disposal.

Additionally, the jokers and CEOs who hold the well paid senior positions in the business (Hydro One's top dog gets $2,000,000 annually) tell us to conserve and to pay the true cost of electrical generation and distribution. Sounds reasonable, but if industrial users are hit with this cost we would soon see businesses leaving the province for places where labour is cheap and environmental protection less of a consideration.

This is an emerging crisis that must be resolved before long. Federal immigration policies do not help. Under the direction of the Liberal Minister of Immigration, Mr. Volpe, 230,000 new immigrants were admitted to Canada in 2004 with a plan to up that number to 300,000 plus in 2006. 29,000 of those admitted to Canada were refugees and only 10% had their background histories checked out. This exposes all Canadians to potential terrorism

The lack of consultation with the provinces to understand how a single program could negatively affect its economy is never undertaken. Most immigrants flock to Ontario and although the purpose of the immigration program is to swell Canada's population and introduce skilled workers to meet the country's shortfall the fact that each new person becomes a consumer of electric power, buys a vehicle and adds to our grid lock, and to greenhouse gas emissions, places more pressure on the housing and health care sectors is never considered when a program is in the planning stage.

This doesn't mean that immigration must be halted; it means that coordination between the federal and provincial jurisdictions is necessary to ensure that a manageable balance is maintained and the flow of new people can be efficiently handled and served without overloading the delicate social and economic network balance.

The complexities of today's economic and social planning demands greater sophistication than earlier times when competition was less, concerns for air, water and the environment were virtually non existent simply because they seemed to be inexhaustible and selfsustaining.

Today we realize that was a dream world and that we have to move into the future with extreme care if we are to see that future unfold with the essentials to life intact.

Ken Hayward

Mono