May 19, 2016 · 0 Comments
Growth
Doug Skerates’ column decrying growth struck a chord with me.
Another local publication editorialized that we must save the salamanders, etc. What it did not say was that the species listed as “endangered” by the regulators of Queen’s Park are endangered by those regulators. It is residential and industrial development that threatens the salamanders, not rural activity. The “Places to Grow” Plan contributes as well. A former Deputy Mayor of Orangeville was once quoted in the press as saying “Orangeville must grow or die.” Nonsense. It is growth that has increased the cost of living and property taxes in Dufferin County. Caledon is obliged to about treble its population, by Queen’s Park fiat, and now has some 15 “planners” to help sort out the inevitable mess.
I propose that all new housing be assigned to the northern communities that are losing population: Atikokan, North Bay, etc. Those places are built on rock, and cannot contribute to either agriculture or preservation of natural amphibious life. The pleasant small towns of Ontario should remain so, and not attempt to emulate the expensive monster that is Toronto. Remember too that only towns and cities built on waterways like the Great Lakes can expand their water demands to satisfy large populations.
Charles Hooker
East Garafraxa, Ontario
R.I.P. Democracy
It was with great sadness that I read about the death of common sense a while ago as he was a much needed friend at all times; however, I must have missed the note on the death of democracy. It would seem that we are told what to do in every aspect of our lives and we have no say in it whatsoever. We our told how to bring up our children, what they will learn and when they will learn it, how to sort our garbage, when we can use electricity ( or be penalized), which lanes we can use on a highway, what will be legal and what will not and even how we must speak to each other. It seems to me that as Canadians, we have become pathetically apathetic about what happens in our country; as long as someone tells us what to do and we don’t have to think for ourselves or make any decisions, we our content. The only democratic thing we have left is which dictator to vote for, and they seem to be “rigging” that too. I wonder how many Canadian soldiers are turning over in their graves to see the freedoms they fought and died for slip through our fingers without us even caring.
L.Parkinson
Amaranth ON
Fort McMurray
Dear Editor:
Why are we letting oil corporations rush back to business-as-usual in Fort McMurray following the wildfires that swept through that city in early May?
Talk about stupid when most people have finally connected the dots between burning fossil fuels and more frequent climate disasters like the Fort Mac holocaust.
Scientists have repeatedly warned that 80 percent of all fossil fuels including – and especially – Alberta’s heavy, gooey bitumen must stay in the ground if our one-and-only livable planet is to avoid climate chaos. What sense does it make – except for short-term profit – to rebuild the old Fort Mac ‘as is’ when the petroleum industry’s days are numbered?
Instead of building massive pipelines to export this destructive stuff around the world, let’s use it as a bridge to build our 100% green, renewable energy economy here, which – like it or not – is the only way out of our deadly fossil fuel addiction. Imagine what could be created with the equivalent of $9 billion in insurance payouts to the wildfire evacuees, bolstered by a let’s-get-serious revenue neutral price on carbon right across Canada.
A few of the benefits: a just transition to sustainable jobs for our 90,000 fellow Canadians forced to flee Fort Mac (and all other fossil fuel workers), a robust economy built on clean technologies, and – most important – a less dire climate future, already in peril, for our kids and grandkids.
Sincerely,
Liz Armstrong
Erin ON