Communities for people
Dear Editor:
I have read with dismay the series of letters bemoaning the construction of a five-storey apartment building in the centre of downtown Fergus.
I understand that these comments come from the heart – people want to preserve our idyllic little town, the one that I grew up in. But that town was a place where young adults could expect to own a home one day. That place no longer exists.
Flip toward the real estate ads in the back of this newspaper. Look for the ones described as “starter homes” or “bungalows.” Does the typical young adult in our community have anywhere near the income they would need to qualify for a mortgage on one of these homes? Do you, if you were buying for the first time?
We live in a society oriented around home ownership as a major milestone in life, and yet we have chosen to underbuild housing for decades. The result is a massive shortage in the supply of homes that has put the milestone of home ownership out of reach, perhaps permanently, for many young Canadians.
Communities are for people. They aren’t museums, frozen in time. If a community isn’t growing to meet the needs of the next generation, if it isn’t making room for young people to start families and businesses, then it’s dying. Decline is a choice, but we can choose otherwise.
If you believe young people should have the opportunity to live in the communities that they grew up in, then support building more homes and a variety of homes, including detached houses, apartments, condos, and row houses. We can build upward and we can build outward. We should do both. If not, young people will leave, and you will know why.
Jean-Paul Soucy,
Fergus
Write ‘with grace’
Dear Editor:
RE: Community ignored, March 14.
Unless we have evidence, passing aspersions on our council and suggesting they are in the pockets of developers is very detrimental to our democratic process.
I dream that we, as a community, can have conversations without defamation. This is the key to a healthy democracy and I would also add we need investigative journalism.
It would be naive of me to think that people in power don’t do wrong, so we need a mechanism to catch them. But it would also be naive of us to think that because you are in a position of power, such as the council, you are naturally corrupt and or corruptible.
Council and township staff have to be open to challenging questions and have to be honest and clear about their reasoning. Governments and citizens have to be humble, admit mistakes and realize that we come at various issues from different perspectives. We have to work hard on our thinking skills: observing closely, gathering evidence, developing empathy, etc.
In regards to this case, a five-storey building on St. Andrew Street East, there is plenty of evidence and reason as to why the height of this development is reasonable in a downtown. There is also evidence that a majority of the council made it clear when they got elected that they are in favour of density over sprawl. So, I am not surprised they have accepted this proposal.
Because we continue to focus on just height or just parking in these discussions we don’t ask our government the tough questions that will make a difference in the future. If we have fewer parking spaces, what is our plan to allow for other mobility options? Why are we not seeing more three to four-storey apartment buildings in our new subdivisions? It is a model used in Europe to deal with population density issues.
Why is our government not pressuring developers to a higher level of design, especially at the street level, where it makes a huge difference in how a place feels? The one proposed for the five-story development should be the focus of our discontent. The design is weak and appears from the drawing to be distant and cold. I would call it a bare minimum design.
I commend anyone who writes Letters to the Editor and attends council meetings, but I encourage us all to do so with grace.
John Scott,
Elora
People deserve better
Dear Editor:
RE: County parents struggling to find licensed, subsidized childcare amid space shortage, March 14.
On March 4, I attended Wellington County’s public meeting on licensed child care in the County. The meeting provided an overview of the current state of licensed child care across the county and sought participants for an advocacy group to drive improvements.
While I appreciated the information and signed up to join the advocacy group, I couldn’t help but feel shocked and disappointed with the situation. Despite the promise of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program, the reality is disheartening. Only a small fraction of families in Centre Wellington, around 15%, currently have access to it and similar statistics prevail across the county. Worse yet, the Province of Ontario’s target for access is a modest and woefully inadequate 37%.
Furthermore, Wellington County’s growth plan for licensed child care falls drastically short of what residents should expect, as it fails to include any new facilities to serve its population for the foreseeable future.
I understand this is an issue across the township, the county, the province and our country at large. However, this is also not new – it has been a problem for at least the last 50 years. Parents across generations can empathize, sharing their own struggles to find childcare in their day, putting massive financial and emotional strain on families for far too long. Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, how are we allowing this to become a persistent, inherited crisis?
Access to licensed, safe, affordable, local child care should be a right, not a privilege for the few who can squeeze their way to the top of a years-long wait list.
It’s time our government at all levels showed genuine care and concern for children’s early years and parents’ ability to participate in the workforce. Our babies and the future of this community deserve so much better.
Victoria Mountain,
Fergus
‘Please reconsider’
Dear Editor:
RE: County parents struggling to find licensed, subsidized childcare amid space shortage, March 14.
Every time I read about the “lack of subsidized daycare” and parents whining about it, it breaks my heart.
Children would rather be praised than punished, but punished rather than ignored. Children in day care are missing out on so much. The love of a parent who has no time for them, and parents are missing out on all the “first” milestones.
Day care providers mean well, but they’re doing it for a paycheck. Period. If you can’t or don’t want to raise your babies until they are in school, please reconsider having them.
Downsize your house you can’t afford, have one used car instead of two new ones. Wait until you can afford things instead of getting so into debt you need two incomes to support the debt.
“Things” will be forgotten tomorrow; memories will last a lifetime. Please give your children memories other than a stranger raising them while you make money for all the things your kids don’t care about.
Only you, the parent, care about the “things” and not the precious, vulnerable children.
It makes me so sad.
Sue Mckenzie,
Mapleton
‘Sad account’
Dear Editor:
RE: Horse Racing Appeal Panel clears local harness racing trainer of horse cruelty, March 14.
Before I start let it be known that I have had many years as a horse owner and we have raised two foals which were born to mares that we owned. These were not race horses but riding horses.
I was appalled at the article about Mr. Beaton and this yearling he was (supposed) to be training.
A yearling horse is still a baby. That would be equal to about a five-year-old child in terms of horse mentality.
I am thankful for those who stepped forward and spoke up about what they witnessed. And that there was an investigation of Mr. Beaton’s methods of “ I’ll show you who is boss…”
What a sad account this was and sadder still for that poor young animal.
Liz Hughes,
Puslinch
‘Appalling cruelty’
Dear Editor:
RE: Horse Racing Appeal Panel clears local harness racing trainer of horse cruelty, March 14.
Picture this headline: “Man who lashed young child 25 to 30 times with a whip is cleared of charges.”
We’d all be outraged. Yet this is exactly the kind of treatment of race horses that we tolerate – even encourage – in Ontario. The report of the appalling cruelty inflicted on a yearling named Wait in the Truck was shocking in itself. What made the story even worse was the bragging defence by his trainer, Anthony Beaton that it’s “a matter of will – will the horse beat the humans, or will humans teach it to comply?”
Beaton admitted that at least 15 welts of blood appeared on the animal during the whipping. A veterinarian testified that his actions constituted “abuse”. Yet the Rules of Racing bigwigs cleared Beaton of charges, reduced the time of his suspension from two years to four months and then blithely had the gall to declare that it is “committed to the welfare of race horses.”
Who are they kidding? Why in Canada do we still have no laws protecting animals from this kind of brutality? Many other countries around the world have already introduced such legislation and it’s long overdue here.
Every person involved in Ontario’s multi-million dollar Ontario horse racing industry should be ashamed of what happened to that helpless horse. And Beaton should have been banned from training horses for life.
Sonia Day,
Fergus
‘Critical green initiative’
Dear Editor:
Do Wellington Advertiser readers want to take action on climate change? I definitely do.
On May 4, 2018, a violent windstorm that tore across Southern Ontario and Quebec took the lives of my only son, a 28-year-old arborist, and his 19-year-old assistant. They had just rescued a student stranded on a school bus by a fallen tree in Milton, when a second tree suddenly snapped and fell, killing them both.
With winds gusting to 126km/h, this was one of the first weather-related catastrophes the Canadian insurance industry linked conclusively to climate change. Claims reached $680 million, to that point one of the highest extreme storm payouts in Canada.
Since 2018, climate catastrophes in Canada have accelerated from coast to coast and up to the Arctic Circle, including devastating wildfires, floods, atmospheric rivers, hurricanes, tornadoes, heat domes, and droughts. The human toll and personal losses have been enormous. And given our continued addiction to fossil fuels – coal, oil, and gas/methane, the prime drivers of global warming – there’s much more to come. Last year was the hottest year ever recorded globally, and the first months of 2024 have followed suit.
After my son’s death, I joined a local Erin climate action group that researches and advocates for solutions to address the climate crisis with all levels of government.
On the municipal level, the Town of Erin is slated to add huge residential developments in the near future – it has already begun – which will double our population over the next 30 years. In late November, our climate action group recommended to the town planner that fossil-based heating and cooling units be replaced with super-efficient heat pumps – which also air condition in summer – in all new buildings. Another green option is to heat and cool new neighborhoods with district geothermal energy systems rather than climate-destructive natural gas units.
Now, Wellington County is inviting every resident concerned about climate change to contribute our input to the creation of new Green Development Standards. This is a policy tool that embeds sustainability and greenhouse gas emission reductions at the core of planning, design, construction and management of all new buildings in our county.
This meeting takes place on March 25 from 5 to 7:30pm at the Wellington County Museum and Archives (register on the county website). Please join me there. I know that my son Adam would endorse this critical green initiative.
Debbie Wickham,
Erin
Time to ‘axe’ Ford?
Dear Editor:
The Ford government’s first project in 2018 was to cancel 758 solar and wind projects at a cost of $231 million to Ontario taxpayers. The Ontario government debt for 2018/19 was over $337 billion and the deficit was $7.4 billion compared to $3.7 billion the year before under the Wynne government.
In 2023, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) said 1,500 MW of new electricity generation was needed and they proposed getting it by building new fossil gas plants or increasing the generation from old ones. Too bad that five years earlier the Ford government didn’t have the foresight to realize that the cancelled wind and solar projects would be needed soon.
But the Ford government loves fossil fuels. It not only wants to cook us with the 300% increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the gas plants and give us health problems with the attendant pollution, it also wants us to continue paying for the plants, even if they have to shut down to comply with the federal proposal to phase out fossil fuel generated electricity.
Another Ford project in 2018 was to cancel the Cap-and-Trade program at a cost to you and me of $5.6 million in compensation and $7.2 billion in lost revenue.
Ford spent even more of our money by fighting the carbon tax. He lost. It cost us another $30 million – that’s what he set aside for legal costs, but the real cost is unknown.
Ford decided to “help us” by not charging licence plate fees, thereby losing $1.1 billion per year in government revenue. How did the government compensate for the lost revenue? It cut health and education services and capped the pay for nurses and educators (rescinding Bill 124 that capped wages will cost $13.5 billion). And oh yes, the Ontario government debt for 2023/24 is projected to be $414 bllion.
For 80% of us, the carbon tax rebate puts as much or more money back into our pockets than it takes out in carbon tax. The Ford government only takes money out of our pockets.
It’s not the tax that needs to be axed!
Ron Moore,
Hillsburgh
Time to ‘speak up’
Dear Editor:
I think it is very important that all Canadians have an awareness of what is written into Bill C-63, The Online Harms Act.
Despite being portrayed as solely to protect children, there is mixed with this policy a reduction of freedom of speech and overreach, etc. It is crucial that Canadians learn as much as possible about what loss of rights Canadians would suffer should this policy be put in place the way it is written.
Facebook and Twitter and other forms of media could be charged huge amounts of fines for not policing who is using their services and then be fined huge global rates which would make providing these services to Canadians not worth it.
I would advise all Canadians to go online and read Bill C-63 as reviewed by a lawyer for details. There are things in this legislation that takes away Canadian rights wherein on just accusation rather than proof, homes can be invaded and computers seized and people taken away, huge fines and even a tracker/monitor put on the leg of a person and more.
Please search out and understand through legal explanation what is written in Bill C-63 and let your MP know how you feel about this legislative overreach.
If we want to preserve our freedom of speech, which is a great gift in a free country, we need to speak up now.
Carolann Krusky,
Fergus
Pick up the poop
Dear Editor:
RE: ‘You can do better,’ Feb. 29.
In response to letters to the editor about people not picking up after their dogs …
Unfortunately not everyone picks up and here, on and near the pathway from Bellamy Cres. to Gzowski St., we have, I suspect, the same person who picks up after their dog, and then tosses the bags into the area near the marsh/pond.
There are now about 10 blue baggies scattered throughout the shrubs and trees. The logic of picking up and then tossing baffles me. The bags are not biodegradable and the proximity to the pond where birds nest is mere feet.
Hopefully the person who is doing this will realize how detrimental it is to the pond (and illegal to intentionally toss refuse) and dispose of it properly.
Karen Watson,
Fergus
‘Get with the program’
Dear Editor:
RE: Taking care of business, March 14.
Publisher Dave Adsett seems not to know that Canada is a post-national state with no core identity – those are Justin Trudeau’s words.
Trudeau acts on his beliefs. He is starving the military and feeding the globalist WEF, United Nations and World health Organization.
He has directed the military to install menstrual products in men’s washrooms throughout their bases rather than equip soldiers with up-to-date equipment. There are reports of 50 military families stationed at Gagetown, N.B. having to use food banks to stay alive. Military personnel are leaving the service at a greater rate than those joining.
Canada’s “enlightened” government truly has put our country in the position of needing the U.S. for protection; after all no sensible aggressor country would attack a country that has at least 400 million weapons in the hands of their citizens besides having a very large military. Surely they would not tolerate their poor little neighbour to be overrun?
The pathetic state of our military is proof that our leaders care nothing about Canada’s sovereignty. After all, a post-national state has no borders to defend, right?
So get with the program, Dave.
Jane Vandervliet,
Erin
*Editor’s note: Trudeau did not direct the military to install menstrual products in bathrooms. As of Dec. 15, all federally regulated employers are required under the Labour Code to provide them at no cost to any employee who needs them, regardless of the washroom’s marked gender.
Happy day
Dear Editor:
I have a son named Jack. He is like any other teen: he groans when asked to do a job, cheats at Uno and has a bottomless stomach. Jack has down syndrome and beyond these qualities is a boy who demonstrates so much more.
Jack models integrity we all can only strive for. Being one of seven children, Jack’s daily responsibility is tending to our ducks. Never needing reminders, Jack is consistently the first one up in the morning, collecting eggs, watering and feeding our ducks rain or shine. Once done, Jack begins his studies.
Jack also models the importance of hope. Several years ago, our basement flooded. In the midst of the chaos, Jack came up to me with stacks of wet books, worried because daddy was coming home soon and we needed to start thinking about our family dinner. Jack’s appetite has never been lacking, but this was a real reminder about what was important; being together.
Lastly, Jack exudes love. He has always had emotional intelligence beyond his years. Jack would show great care to people who always seemed to need it most. On one occasion, an elderly lady had tears in her eyes as Jack hugged her and told her he loved her. She looked up to say it was the first time she had smiled since her husband had died.
To this day Jack shows love to each and everyone he meets. Whether it’s serving dad his supper, helping mom clean the kitchen or spending all of his money at Dollarama on gifts for others.
Thank you to my son Jack for having such rich talents and showing us true faith, hope and love. Thank you Jack for demonstrating how wonderful creation truly is. Thank you for being my son.
Happy Down Syndrome Day, Jack!
Jessica Koechl,
Elora