Advertisement 1

Letters to the editor

Article content

Wrong move to weaken conservation authorities

It’s not surprising that the Ford government’s sweeping proposals to weaken the mandate and responsibilities of Ontario’s conservation authorities are prompting an outcry across the province.

I share the concerns of the Grand River Conservation Authority and many others about the government’s fast-tracking of measures that would favour developers to the detriment of healthy watersheds, sustainable planning and protection of wildlife.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content
Article content

It would be short-sighted to change the role of conservation authorities to put the interests of individual municipalities ahead of the watershed, encouraging piecemeal development. Measures to allow the province to overturn conservation authority decisions they don’t like and to remove citizen appointments raise more red flags.

A government with a more balanced approach would, at the very least, slow down in its haste to deregulate. We need responsible public consultation with a view to strengthening conservation authorities.

Gord McNulty,
Hamilton

Laughing matters

As a kid growing up in Toronto, we laughed daily at Gary Lautens humorous columns in the Toronto Star.

On Thursday, The Expositor precipitated those same belly laughs from the past. On this dreary November day, as we stagger through 2020, both the editorial cartoon, ” American Thanksgiving Turkey,” and the first letter, “No reason for sadness,” brightened my day.

Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

Thank you. Keep up the good work.

Edie Lewis
Brantford

Giving thanks

As Canada inches closer to being able to receive a vaccine against the virus that causes COVID-19 , it is more important than ever to remember whom to thank.

Thank you, Donald Trump and Operation Warp Speed.

Nevada Adams
Brantford

Who gets vaccine first?

There is some positive news in regard to vaccines. Fantastic. The difficulty will be with distribution. So, before the cart is put before the horse again, let’s try to help with this task.

All I’ve heard so far is seniors and health-care workers first. This would be the biggest mistake we could make. Time is most important for the economy to restart. I would propose to vaccinate health-care and essential-service workers and all the working class first. They are essential to our economy. The working class takes transit, does lunch and tends to do most of the shopping.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

Senior retirees at home and in nursing homes should come next. Just be careful and stay home. Hopefully we will have made the retirement homes more secure by then. Children and students, apparently, are not the big concerns; give them the vaccine last.

It’s going to take probably more than a year to vaccinate everyone, so let’s do it right the first time.

Mike DeFalco,
Arnprior, Ont.

Pathetic responses

As tiresome as COVID-19 restrictions are, more tiresome are the increasingly ineffective, almost pathetic responses of Doug Ford.

He said last week about LTC homes, “We need to do something.” Well, what? There has been no appreciable increase in staffing levels, for instance, to administer rapid tests that will be supplied to “hot spots.” What was learned from the first wave’s unfortunate deaths?

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content

He had time, however, to ram through legislation virtually guaranteeing negligent LTC homes legal immunity.

Rather than take decisive measures with strong enforcement against restriction scofflaws, he continues to beg and plead: “Please, please, stop this … do/don’t do that” and so on. Ford complains he’s tired of anti-maskers and deniers. Well, we are tired of hearing the whine. Do something about it.

He repeats the excuse of insufficient police to enforce new rules. You don’t need one cop per violator, Doug. Random enforcement checks will catch and penalize violators. We don’t assign one traffic cop to every street or idiot driver. They are caught by random enforcement through spot checks.

At the pandemic’s outset, we cut politicians some slack. Being a new phenomenon, they had no experiential knowledge of what to do. It appears, after eight months, they have learned little.

The alternative explanation is they’re trying too hard to please everyone. Pick one: people’s health or open businesses.

Mike Alain,
Ottawa

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    News Near Tillsonburg
      This Week in Flyers