. . . at Queen's Park, across Ontario and elsewhere.

* The Ontario Convenience Store Association will be at Queen's Park on Wednesday to present a petition signed by 135,000 Ontarians calling for the sale of wine and beer at convenience stores.

But don't expect the LCBO to bite. During an agency review earlier this summer in finance committee, the crown corp and its primary union OPSEU railed against the money lost from privately-owned LCBO agency stores.

* The ORNGE board of directors said Tuesday they have hired international executive search firm Spencer Stuart to assist in hiring a new president and CEO for the embattled not-for-profit air ambulance service. The new CEO will replace Dr. Chris Mazza who was released with vice-presidents Maria Renzella and Rhoda Beecher in February.

* More than a month after they were first shut down, Government Services Minister Harinder Takhar said this week that all ServiceOntario kiosks will remain closed until the government is certain they have adequately addressed security breaches.

“We are working with the vendor, which is IBM, to find a solution that we think will be able to address this issue,” Takhar told the Brampton Guardian. “Our long-term plan is actually to get rid of the kiosks. The reason for that is we want people to start using the Internet (for these services). So we are moving ahead aggressively on that front as well.”

* Tory MPP Rob Milligan is at the centre of a heated war of words in Eastern Ontario over an open letter he sent to the mayor and council of Trent Hills, a small town of 12,000 north-west of Belleville.

On June 19, council approved a resolution put forward by the Northumberland-Quinte West Provincial Liberal Association calling for Trent Hills to support Bill 11 which would continue funding for the Eastern Ontario Development Fund while creating the Southwestern Ontario Development Fund.

In response, Milligan's open letter to Mayor Hector Macmillan said their support for Bill 11 and the Liberal Association's resolution was "utterly offensive."

"Let me say how deeply disappointed and utterly dismayed at this unprecedented and overtly partisan pronouncement,” Milligan said in the letter. “Acting as a shill for one political party is totally at odds with the spirit of co-operation I have adopted in my dealings with all municipal councils.”

But Macmillan was quick to respond to the criticism. "I can't believe our MPP . . . could write this very indignant, rhetorical and appalling rant,” Macmillan said. “I find the statements . . . shockingly incorrect and unjust," he told the Belleville Intelligencer.

“Why our MPP would want to take away the opportunity for job expansion is beyond me.”

* It's time for Ontario to look at hybridizing the health care system to keep up with the new demands of Ontarians, according to Dr. Douglas Mark, President of the Coalition of Family Physicians and Specialists of Ontario.

He is calling on the Ontario government to examine the model at work in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec where those who wish to purchase expanded private health care services are able to do so while a public service is still offered.

Mark said the "outdated" and "rigid universal health care system" currently operating in Ontario is unsustainable. The number of baby boomers over 65 will double in the next 25 years, and by 2030, there will be 40 retirees for very 100 working people, up from 21 retirees in 2003.

"Taxpayers can not keep up with the increasing expense of the health care system," said Mark. "If the McGuinty government continues along its current way of thinking, we will see more cuts to funding that will directly affect patient care. It's time to make a change — it's time to allow other options in Ontario."

* Environment Minister Jim Bradley announced Tuesday that the Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund has begun accepting applications for the first round of funding which closes in October. Successful projects will receive $25,000 from a $1.5 million annual fund to clean, protect or restore some portion of the provinces 11,000 kilometres of shoreline.

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