‘Shame on you’
Dear Editor:
I would just like to say, “Shame on you, Centre Wellington council.”
Along with 50 or 60 people, I attended the low-key memorial service at Elora cenotaph on Remembrance Day.
How saddened and disgusted were many of the attendees that no arrangements had been made to halt traffic during the half hour ceremony. Gravel trucks, vans and other vehicles showed no respect, even during the three-minute silence.
It is accepted that the whole village can be shut down to vehicles for a whole weekend, encouraging visitors from COVID-19 hot spots to group and mingle around town, yet we could not close the village for a half hour to remember our local fallen heroes, many of who’s family members attended to pay their respects?
You could blame it on the virus, but “Lest we forget” those who paid with their lives so we could group and mingle deserve better.
Please don’t let this happen again.
Bernie Wilkinson,
Elora
‘A horrible year’
Dear Editor:
This has been a horrible year for my son, Charlie.
He has been so upset and not really knowing why he is not able to go to his Community Living Guelph Wellington day program.
He is depressed, lost and confused. He looks at me like, “What have I done wrong, mom? Why am I at home all the time?”
Seven months have gone by and we have been totally forgotten by the Community Living service. They feel this is a good way to treat their clients? We have always paid our way to go to the centre. I always thought they were there because we were paying.
Now I hear they are closing the centre.
The staff at the centre have changed Charlie’s life for the better. He doesn’t say what he wants, they know him and he communicates in his own way to them. This has taken years of practice and experience to do so. We need the centre to remain open.
Please stop this from happening. His life depends on it. His welling being has gone downhill since March.
Jill Simmons,
Harriston
‘Unreliable’
Dear Editor:
RE: Wants photo radar, Nov. 19.
The problem with that system is that it requires a lot of maintenance. It’s true they have a lot of them in Europe, but many of them don’t work. Also, the activation threshold of many units still allows drivers to go 10 over.
These machines also are not capable of detecting illegal tampering of exhaust systems. What we need is “boots on the ground” and this will require increased police funding.
I feel that our council in general is not appreciating the seriousness of the problem, which has been slowly escalating over the years, and they are attempting to placate us with questionable and unreliable data collection.
Malcolm McCulloch,
Fergus
Conservation key
Dear Editor:
Those of us who live in the Grand River watershed know about the threat of flooding and count on the Grand River Conservation Authority to manage the watershed. All conservation authorities play a vital role in sustaining biodiversity, species at risk, and protecting wetlands, marshes, streams, rivers, forests and ecosystems.
The Ontario government is avoiding public comment on the ERO by proposing Section 6 in Bill 229 that would reduce the authority and participation of these important conservation authorities. This is short-sighted and dangerous!
The conservation authorities have a watershed perspective, and have valuable expertise and experience. They need to have input into possible paving over of wetlands and altering watercourses as well as flood protection.
Please contact your MPP and ask that Section 6 of the omnibus Bill 229 be removed before it goes to third reading. Copy ministers Rod Phillips, Jeff Yurek and Steve Clark as well as the premier.
We all need solid oversight and experience in managing our watersheds. We cannot afford to lose the very key role conservation authorities play!
Donna McCaw,
Save Our Water, Elora
‘Insulted and appalled’
Dear Editor:
RE: Maple Leaf Acres: snowbirds can’t stay here, Nov. 12.
Please get your facts straight.
“What’s the harm to the 12-month members? Most of these people are elderly, they aren’t savvy, they don’t know the legal system.”
We are now insulted and appalled at the disrespect toward our long-standing community, who by the way pay taxes. We are not all elderly; “these people” are knowledgeable business people offering their time to manage the community.
As quoted, “our operation is subject to compliance with the Ministry of the Environment and [Centre Wellington].”
The article printed was outrageous in tone and without respect. Fergus is a family community, as is Maple Leaf Acres. We have families year round and school buses come for our children.
Words are useless to describe the disrespect presented in the “news” of the paper. Get it right.
Bernadette Geauvreau,
Centre Wellington
*Editor’s note: The initial quote mentioned in this letter was taken directly from an interview and represents the opinion of one relative of a Maple Leaf Acres resident. It was clearly presented as such in the article.
Wants different tests
Dear Editor:
I have 40 years of experience in the international pharmaceutical industry and feel it is my public responsibility to comment on COVID-19 testing in Canada and Ontario.
This is a call for action by the federal government, specifically the federal health minister Patty Hajdu, to direct the health protection branch to prioritize their review of COVID-19 tests that are PCR based.
I would ask that Adam van Koeverden, MP, Milton, and Michael Chong, MP, Wellington-Halton Hills, take action on this.
Generally there are two major categories of tests: antigen-based tests and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.
Currently the approved tests are antigen based and apart from rapid results (ie. – 15 minutes), they do not even compare to the PCR tests for reliability or convenience. The main criteria in assessing tests is specificity and sensitivity.
A test that has a poor specificity will often result in false positives, meaning a person may be told they have COVID-19 and should immediately isolate themselves unnecessarily. A test that has poor sensitivity will not pick up miniscule levels (ie. – asymptomatic persons) and this will result in false negatives, when they will be told they do not have COVID-19 and may return to normal activity and a high risk of infecting others.
The Abbot tests and others approved in Canada, while somewhat helpful, are not even close to the specificity and sensitivity of the PCR tests, yet the Canadian government has purchased hundreds of thousands of these tests.
Furthermore, the PCR tests require a simple sputum sample, and do not even require a health professional to administer.
I am shocked that our experts are not looking closely at this reality. Time is critical and we are on the brink of massive infections, particularly with Christmas and New Year celebrations approaching.
While vaccines are coming, this will take time and, for a number of other technical reasons, testing will continue to be important in the foreseeable future.
Please, for the sake of Canadians, let’s get the PCR tests approved quickly. This is not intended to be a political commentary and let me also state that I believe the COVID-19 issue has been handled quite well by our politicians and the Canadian public.
Glen Duff,
Rockwood
‘Puzzling decision’
Dear Editor:
As Toronto, Peel and York enter this new phase of shut down due to COVID-19 spikes, I question Premier Doug Ford, health minster Christine Elliott and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams on the very puzzling decision they have dictated to the businesses in this province.
I completely understand and appreciate the process of closures. But why on God’s Earth state to the mom-and-pop businesses that are barely hanging on they must close even though the token handout is to have curbside pickup?
Why are big box stores such as Walmart, Costco, etc. allowed to remain open to offer the consumer not only food, but clothing, perfume and entertainment purchases, etc.?
If the dictum is to have a transparent system in place, then cordon off sections in Walmart, Costco and other venues and only offer food and prescriptions.
The executives at Walmart and Costco must be salivating with joy at having this Progressive Conservative government allow this type of activity for the consumers to shop at will.
Perhaps these corporations are supplying this PC party with green toilet paper, thus rewarding their cronies.
Robert Plamondon,
Mount Forest
‘Failed us’
Dear Editor:
Well, if isn’t obvious by now, let me spell it out: both federal and provincial governments have blown it.
When aggressive testing and tracking were necessary to find and isolate COVID-19 cases quickly so that we wouldn’t be on the brink of collapsing our health care systems, both levels of government didn’t leave behind their politics and get the job done.
There has been seven months to get the job done and they failed. Instead of embracing conspiracies and trying to blow up the system like our friends south of the border, why not do something positive in reaction to their failure?
Search out a different political party instead of supporting either the Liberal or Conservative parties. Choose one that supports public services such as EMS, public health, and other dedicated public servants. Stop listening to these two parties that promise, promise, promise and now have failed us in the most critical time.
Remember when it’s time to vote how they both have failed us.
Thomas Althouse,
Fergus
‘No time for rule of law’
Dear Editor:
Yet more Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZO’s) from Premier Doug Ford’s government.
In the past two weeks alone it has rammed through approval for the construction of a foreign-owned glass factory in Stratford that will require the taking of around one million litres of groundwater each day and the destruction of the Lower Duffins Creek, a 20-hectare provincially significant wetland complex in Pickering, for the building of both a casino and a warehouse complex.
Now, in times past the Stratford project would have required an automatic Environmental Assessment. However, we live in different times. We have a government that believes it knows better than the experts and in the name of “cutting red tape,” has made it a policy of moving forward like the proverbial “bull in the china shop.”
Its arrogance and shortsightedness are reminiscent of a previous Conservative government that also believed it knew best and chose to cut red tape. The result was sickness and death in Walkerton.
In the case of the Lower Duffins Creek, the Ministry of Natural Resources designated this wetland provincially significant in 2005. Ontario’s Provincial Policy Statement prohibits all development and site alteration within provincially significant wetlands. It also prohibits development on adjacent land. The requirement to ensure their protection is also included under the Conservation Authorities Act.
The government’s response has been to declare it will remove the provincially significant wetland designation to allow the casino and warehouse complex to proceed.
Obviously, this government has no time for the rule of law. Its total contempt for standing legislation that provides environmental protection can be seen in the excessive use of MZOs. In fact, it would appear that this government is democratic in name only.
Evidence of this abuse can be seen in section 6 of Bill 229, an omnibus bill being presented this week in the legislature. If passed, it will gut the conservation authorities’ power to protect our environment.
The government would have you believe that these initiatives are necessary to combat the ravages of COVID-19.
The truth is that the only beneficiaries of this disregard of the rules are the rich and powerful developers and speculators that contribute generously to the Conservative Party of Ontario.
Mike Shackleford,
Belwood