The Pickering Carman set to How does your BLAISDALE B I L • SUNROOMS A R MONTESSORI I O S S • WINDOWS D S A L T E • ROOFING E M O N SCHOOL • DOORS play for Saints mayor compare? Life is GOOD in a Lifestyle Home! OPEN Wed. April 30, 2008 Visit our showroom City ball player off Devil’s in the details where @ 7:00 p.m. HOUSE 56 Old Kingston Road , Ajax 239 Station St., Ajax to New York college salary list is concerned 905-686-2445 905-509-5005 www.lifestyleproducts.ca SPORTS/17 NEWS/3 Blaisdale.com 12 months - grade 8 ✦ 24 PAGES ✦ Pressrun 50,400 ✦ Optional delivery $6/Newsstand $1 ✦ SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 2008 Get local 24/7 newsdurhamregion.com A three-year ‘road map’ for cancer care in Ontario Watch your backside Recently , Cancer Care Ontario released its 2008- By Jillian Follert 2011 Ontario Cancer Plan, a [email protected] three-year road map for the province’s cancer system. DURHAM — Neil Crone wants to get people talking about It sets out actions to con- their butts. trol cancer and improve pa- The Durham resident -- a colorectal cancer survivor and tient care, including these four national spokesman on the subject, who also writes a col- key plans: umn for this newspaper -- says many of us are embarrassed to talk about colonoscopies, colon health and anything else (1) Boosting cancer screen- that strays too close to the rear-end region. ing rates through aggressive “A lot of people don’t talk about it or don’t get checked education and tools for health because they think it’s this humiliating thing, but really the care providers and patients, procedure is extremely simple and painless,” he said. “Peo- including invitations, reminders ple need to know that colon cancer is very preventable.” and prompts about screening; As part of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, the Sun- derland resident’s voice can be heard in a Ministry of (2) Improving the time to diag- Health-sponsored TV commercial, aimed at raising aware- nosis by measuring and setting ness of colon cancer and the importance of proper screen- targets for the wait time be- ing. tween a referral from a family Mr. Crone, a well known local actor, writer, comedian and physician to when the patient motivational speaker, was diagnosed with colon cancer at sees a specialist for tests; the relatively young age of 44, and today, at 48, is a survi- vor. (3) Raising the quality of The commercial he appears in is part of a larger initiative regional cancer services by called ColonCancerCheck, announced by the Province on providing better access to March 14. chemotherapy in community The campaign also includes a new website (www.colon- hospitals, making highly com- cancercheck.ca) and the launch of take-home colorectal plex chemotherapy and lung cancer screening kits, which will be available to health-care surgery safer and making providers in April to distribute to Ontario residents age 50 intensity modulated radiation and over. therapy (IMRT) the gold stan- The kits, called fecal occult blood tests, work by detecting dard radiation therapy; and, trace amounts of blood in the stool. Those who test positive will be sent for a follow-up colonoscopy. (4) Ensuring the high qual- People without a family doctor can pick up a test kit at a ity and safe introduction of local pharmacy and send it off to a central lab for results. tests that can predict people’s If it comes back positive, they will be notified by a provin- response to treatment and cial registry to arrange for a colonoscopy. cancer risks and enable indi- Colon cancer kills about 3,250 people in Ontario each vidualized therapy -- referred year and is the second-leading cause of cancer death for to as molecular medicine ✦ See Catch, Page 2 newsdurhamregion.com For more information, check News Advertiser file photo out www.cancercare.on.ca. Neil Crone plays Fred Tupper in the hit comedy series ‘Little Actor and News Advertiser columnist Neil Crone is a colorectal cancer survivor and Mosque on the Prairie’. Read his blog at newsdurhamregion.com he wants to talk about butts. A/P PAGE 2 THE NEWS ADVERTISER, April 6, 2008 durhamregion.com Catch Crone live at Crack YMCA Youth Foyer offers workshops a Smile comedy night on PICKERING — Local residents start for youth looking for jobs. tures a resume clinic and involves can get ahead of the game with The April 10 workshop features learning how to write, formatting YMCA’s Youth Foyer Workshops. information on how to remain and tailoring your resume. April 12 in Toronto Located at 1550 Kingston Rd., employed once you have found a The April 11 workshop includes Suite 7, in Pickering, the YMCA job, your rights, health and safety a mock interview. ✦ Catch from page 1 Crone said. “You can easily save Durham Employment and Com- and more. For more information, call 905- yourself from all that.” munity - Youth Foyer, offers a jump On April 7, the workshop fea- 686-7060. men and women combined, after In addition to his work on the TV lung cancer. ads, Mr. Crone will be taking to the What is more startling is that this stage for the fourth annual Crack a type of cancer can be cured 95 per Smile comedy night in support of cent of the time, if it’s caught early. the Colorectal Cancer Association “No one wants to go through of Canada on April 12 at the George chemotherapy or radiation and ob- Weston Recital Hall in Toronto. For viously no one wants to die,” Mr. tickets, call 1-877-50COLON. WEST DURHAM TO LOSE IMPORTANT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES: « Rouge Valley Health System has announced plans to close the entire 20 bed inpatient Mental Health Services in Ajax. « All beds are scheduled to move to Centenary Health Centre even though the population of Ajax/Pickering is growing at the fastest rate in Canada and the population of Scarborough is static. « West Durham will lose the services of 4 Psychiatrists. There is already a shortage of Psychiatric services. Closing the inpatient unit in Ajax, may pose an even greater shortage as doctors move their services to Scarborough. « Ambulances and Police will be spending their time transferring Durham patients to Scarborough. This will place extra demands on emergency services. « The Ministry of Health has already approved expansion of the Ajax Inpatient Mental Health Unit from 20 to 29 beds. « There has been NO CONSULTATION with mental health professionals or community stakeholders regarding this closure. « The Central East LHIN has requested Rouge Valley Health System to conduct a 30 day consultation period with community stakeholders and the general public after a board meeting was held, Friday, March 28, 2008. NOW IS THE TIME TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST THIS PLAN!!! Please show your support by attending the following meetings: Friends of Ajax Hospital: Central East LHIN Public Stakeholder Meeting Monday, April 7, 2008 at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. Rouge Valley Ajax and Pickering, Ajax Community Centre 580 Harwood Ave. South, Ajax Ontario HMS Room Conference Room B and C « If you are a patient, family member, community partner or concerned citizen, please call Central East LHIN 1-866-804-5446 Ext. 218 or 1-800-267-8097 Good thing YD prepared them for In 1.3 seconds, situations like this. the oncoming driver Young Drivers’ Collisionfree! Approach to Driving™ teaches more than just basic driving habits; it teaches threshold and ABS emergency braking and will veer into your swerving techniques to avoid head-on collisions — both in the classroom teen’s lane and the car. So split-second decision-making becomes second nature. Prepare for the road ahead For more information or to enroll Visit www.yd.com or call Pickering 905.426.9362 Course start April 13 & May 13 MTO APPROVED BEGINNER DRIVER EDUCATION COURSE PROVIDER Ajax 905.426.9362 Course start April 12 & May 26 Gift certificates available. durhamregion.com THE NEWS ADVERTISER, April 6, 2008 PAGE 3 A/P Whitby mayor makes list, other mayors don’t Salary disclosure councillors of both municipalities town deserve all the information Mr. Gaudet said the six-figure list encourages transparency, he would are combined on one paycheque, they can get.” is not perfect but added he is glad like to see more categories listed on document sports more said the mayor. The mayor also said for 2007 there is a list. He said that, as a rep- the inventory that explained better than 45,000 public Other members of regional coun- there were a lot of Whitby firefight- resentative for an organization that what made up salaries. sector employees cil receive money in lieu of pension ers on the list, but that was due yearly. to retroactive pay from a contract Other Durham Region mayors The mayor said this is just the settlement. The salaries for these way the system was set up years workers will not be listed next year, By Melissa Mancini ago. she said. Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan: $68,188 for council, $43,201.71 for region. [email protected] The only way OMERS would “As with any list that has over Total: $111,389.71 allow the councillors to be part of 45,000 entries there will be omis- Ajax Mayor Steve Parish: $55,663 for council, $43,201.71 for region. DURHAM — This year Mayor Pat the pension plan was if their sala- sions and mistakes,” said Kevin Total: $98,864.71 Perkins made the six-figure list, but ries were on one payroll.