Dear Mr. Editor In your editorial Dispatching diplomacy of May 5 with its talk of war and the failure of diplomacy in regards to rural vrs urban issues, you state the issues have been simmering for the past ten years and are now boiling over. Let me reassure you the war is neither recent nor any more heated nor the issues that much more different than at any point in the past fifty years. Urban needs and sprawl overtaking farmland has been an issue since the fifties. Fergus/Elora are no longer rural towns, they are becoming bedroom communities. The infrastructure costs associated with sprawl has never been borne fully by developers or new home purchasers. Meanwhile, in the older areas, sewers and roads deteriorate while the property tax dollars of the established areas are spent on new developments. Land use intensification is not just a big city issue. You point to aggregate mining as necessary to big cities to the detriment of the countryside yet Elora town council turned its back on local concerns re: the Inverhaugh quarry development, deciding to take no stand on the issue, undercharged for costs associated with heavy haul road replacement and did not explore the impact of commercial traffic use through the old towns. The opportunity for arterial road development was lost. Could local government have gained more from the Province and the developer or did they drop the ball in favour of other considerations? In regards to Melanchthon it is Queens Park that is fighting the mega quarry while the Feds gut the environmental and fisheries acts in favour of expediting development. Would it not be best to nurture our allies? Lotteries and gambling were opened as a revenue source for social initiatives such as health and sports. The slots at racetracks has allowed Ontario to become the number one breeding and racing venue in North America and as a result racehorse owners have done very well. Although I have yet to formulate a stand on the issue (due to lack of transparency from both the Province and the racing Associations), could it not be asked: When will the horse racing industry become self-sustaining? Was not our mayor gnashing her teeth about the accounting changes Queens Park recently introduced and vowing court action? Well the contracts are up for renewal: care to try a little diplomacy? Who bears the cost of lake water pollution caused by chemical fertilization? The steel making and manufacturing of farm buildings and equipment has mainly been done in cities; who suffers the pollution and pays for the clean-up? Universities and major hospitals pay no land tax and it is the city dwellers that pay the land use bills while we and our children access those services. It is those uncharitable city people who live next to airports and factories and the superhighways we rural folk want no part of unless of course we are going to work or taking a holiday flight. Of course Queens Park drops the ball occasionally, take drinking water safety and Walkerton, or forced regional government and cost of service downloading. How about the uploading of education costs that saw Toronto residents lose the education portion of their property taxes so that it could be spread among rural schools. It is not so much a war we are in, but a lack of perspectiveon both sides.
Raymond Trafford