Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/4278
The Review-Mirror November 5, 2009 – 7 Best Buddies Club. Approximately one dozen students at Rideau District High School, who meet weekly to forge friendship and opportunities between individuals with intellectual disabilities and students, have formed a group named Best Buddies. This week they held two pumpkin carving sessions. The Elgin group is based on a concept by Best Buddies Canada, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing communities through one-to-one friendships. The U sed Tires P rogram is a new province-wide initiative to collect and recycle used on-road and off-road tires in Ontario. This bold new plan will ensure every new tire that hits the road in Ontario will eventually be recycled into a useful product right here at home. Program Benefits for Ontario t E nvironmental benefits as the program drives the reduction, reuse and recycling of old tires, diverting scrap tires away from landfill and burning. t E conomic growth, with the program injecting over $ 2 3 million into the recycling industry, creating green jobs and ensuring economic development through increased scrap tire recycling. t Ontarians can now drop off their old tires free of charge at registered collection sites with full assurance that the tires will be reused or recycled. F ind the nearest OTS collection location at: www. ontarioTS . ca I f you are a tire retailer, become part of our growing network of collection locations by registering with OTS as a used tire collector at 1 -8 8 8 -OTS -2 2 0 2 or www. ontarioTS . ca. I ndus try rol l s ol d tires into A planet-friendly plan to recycle scrap tires in Ontario. Space provided through a partnership between industry and Ontario municipalities to support waste diversion programs. Local municipalities are lobbying the provincial government to at least hold provincial municipal grants at current levels in the coming year. The government's announcement last month of a projected $24.7 bil- lion deficit for 2009-10 has done nothing to allay municipal leaders' fears of a pending decrease. "Even before the gov- ernment had announced the deficit we have been very concerned, as well as at the warden's caucus of the loss of top up funding. The question becomes even more critical with the announcement," said Rideau Lakes Mayor Ron Holman. The Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund provided some relief to municipali- ties from downloading by the province in the late 1990's. Its conversion into the Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF) came with a funding top up to compen- sate for the onging expens- es of the downloads creat- ed. Research by the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus (EOWC) show the change created a $16 million funding shortfall for East- ern Ontario municipalities. Loss of the top-up fund- ing in Leeds Grenville could result in a loss of $2,439,200 in Leeds Grenville, including a $233,600 drop for Rideau Lakes, $33,900 for West- port, $45,000 for Leeds and the Thousand Islands and $1,241,800 for the City of Brockville. The shortfall could also affect the United Counties County to the tune of $1.4 million in 2010. "We've been told it was temporary and as the province uploaded the cost of some of the social ser- vices it will balance out. Our treasurer doesn't feel it will balance out in 2010," said Leeds Grenville CAO Steve Sil- ver. Provincial deficit doesn't help municipal leaders hopes for stable funding in 2010