Mail bag: 09/17/27
‘Unpleasant, gross’
Dear Editor:
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, or so the saying goes. But in my garage, the only treasure hunters these days are mice, maggots and the occasional fawn that wanders by to see what new surprises my family of six has been forced to store for two weeks at a time.
With the recent changes to our waste collection schedule, specifically the move to a single large recycling bin and biweekly pickup, I feel the need to speak up. A household of one or two might manage this system without issue, a household of three or four, there is an outside chance; but a household of six or more, forget about it. The recycling piles up quickly, spills over and becomes a cardboard mountain that no one asked for.
The garbage situation is no better. Pun intended, it’s absolute trash! Biweekly pickup may look efficient on paper, but in practice it is unsanitary. It is unpleasant. It is, frankly, gross.
The smell of two weeks’ worth of trash piled up in my garage is sometimes powerful enough to make a skunk blush! I am not certain about the motives behind these changes, but the current schedule certainly feels like a cost cutting measure dressed up as modernization.
I am asking the township to reconsider these changes. Recycling should return to weekly pickup. Garbage should have always been a weekly pickup. Families should not have to choose between being responsible stewards of the environment and maintaining a home that doesn’t attract wildlife or require industrial strength air fresheners.
I appreciate our community and its commitment to sustainability. I simply ask that we balance that commitment with practicality. Weekly recycling and weekly garbage collection would make a meaningful difference for many households, mine included.
Nick Casselli,
Fergus
*Editor’s note: The County of Wellington handles garbage and green bin collection across the county, not lower-tier municipalities. Circular Materials, a non-profit funded by producers of recyclables, is now responsible for recycling collection in Ontario.
Meeting location
Dear Editor:
RE: Fergus data centre debate grows as Spur powers up public outreach, Sept. 10.
Spur Innovation claims they want to inform the public about its proposed Fergus data centre.
However last week’s Advertiser article listed the town hall meeting for Sept 19. from 1 to 3:30pm at the former Blackberry/RIM campus when Spur’s website says the meeting will take place at the Gartshore location in Fergus. Which is it? Where is this meeting being held?
I feel Spur is already starting off not being transparent. I also feel that this is a very important subject for Centre Wellington and that it is the duty of the Advertiser to get as much information out to the public as possible surrounding this issue.
Nancy Richardson,
Belwood
*Editor’s note: According to information provided by Spur Innovation, the Sept. 19 meeting is at the former Blackberry/RIM campus in Waterloo. The reference to Gartshore Street on its website denotes the topic of the meeting, not the location.
For good or for evil
Dear Editor:
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a tool to be used for good or for evil.
Too many humans are being sucked into the vacuum of popular milieus – a vast assortment of milieus and they can read only in bursts. Snapshots. Meaning they fail to strategize reading through a longer work with developmental discovery.
We have stopped thinking, preferring to adapt to trendy motifs that lack substance. Consumerism. Sports and entertainment.
Discontinuity and dissociation are rampant and synaptic structures build on this confusion. This is an area of the brain where the poison spreads and the brain can no longer attempt the quantum neurological leap required by reading and critical thinking.
We step around the essence of being and succumb to incremental patterning. Orwell warned about group think and doublethink. This information horizon requires navigational neuro-mapping around the quagmire.
So to AI or not to AI?
Data centres – how do we decide? We’ve sacrificed so much since the industrial revolution to get our big TV screens, not aware of the deep-seated costs … climate change, dead oceans and crippled atmosphere.
AI is trained to compute everything from potato salad to modern weaponry. Without guard rails to define ways of monitoring capacitation, it will run away with the whole show. That’s what it is designed to do – know everything. Maybe we’re back at that tree; the knowledge of good and evil.
David Courtney,
Belwood
Enforcement needed
Dear Editor:
I see more 40 kilomtre-per-hour speed limit signs going up, but why? Who’s going to abide by them?
While having coffee with a 91-year-old friend who grew up in Eramosa, he reminisced about his youth, when he and a friend would race their cars from Brucedale to Rockwood on the then-gravel road. He always lost because his car would only go 102 miles per hour (164km/h).
My brother, born in 1950, and his buddy would lay strip after strip of rubber on Harris Street just outside Rockwood, trying to make figure eights. An unlicensed teenager who worked for me took one of the company cars out of town to practice “drifting.” Last week, while driving 2nd Line in Erin, north of Wellington Road 124, I was amazed at the lace work of rubber on the road.
We used to drive around the towns at 30mph (48km/h). That increased to 50km/h (31mph) with the coming of the metric system. That is obviously too fast. So it’s being posted at 40km/h.
Back to my question: who’s going to drive 40km/h if they didn’t drive 50km/h when it was posted? As long as there are scallywags and young men with an over abundance of testosterone, and no enforcement, people will keep speeding and doing rolling stops and stunting.
Very little enforcement means very little compliance.
Ian Pasmore,
Rockwood
‘Your voice in action’
Dear Editor:
In 2022, Ontario’s municipal voter turnout fell to 32.9%, with Erin slightly higher at 36.1%.
After decades of declining engagement, it’s time to turn this trend around. Let’s challenge every municipality in Wellington County to raise voter turnout above 50%. We can do this.
In recent conversations with people of all ages, residents and business owners, I’ve heard two common reasons people don’t vote: “I don’t feel heard,” and “I don’t think it will make a difference.” Let’s show people their voices matter – by listening first.
Leadership is about stepping forward from where we are, right now. It takes all of us to pay attention, speak up, care for our children, build safe and welcoming neighbourhoods, protect our heritage and identity, value our green spaces, our water and our farmland. In this election, let’s honour those who have served to keep Canada strong and free. In 2026, the Royal Canadian Legion turns 100. Let’s do them proud.
Voting is its own kind of bravery: caring enough to participate, daring to hope and taking a step toward positive change. This election, we each have a say in who speaks for us locally. This is our home, let’s protect it.
Your vote is your voice in action. Please vote in the municipal election on Oct. 26. Contact your local town office with questions about registration or how to vote.
In Erin, voting is by mail, as it has been since 2006. Voter packages will be sent out starting Sept. 24. Ballots can be returned by Canada Post and should be mailed by Oct. 15 to reach town hall on time. Ballots may also be dropped off at Erin town hall until 8pm on election night.
Let’s go for +50% voter turnout!
Bridget Ryan,
Erin
‘Captain & commander’
Dear Editor:
Many older Canadians grew up in a time of “swash-buckler” films. Today we have a prime minister needing to deal with internationally ruthless men and to fend off “pirates.”
Captain Mark Carney may have to trim sails, reduce rations, change course, and contain a mutiny, to keep our national ship of state sailing. Step by step, new strengths.
The stunningly beautiful Gordie Howe Bridge has opened, with traffic flowing in both directions .
Canada’s prime minister seeks new frontiers in a “new world order,” with the extended hand of negotiation, not conquest.
As “captain and commander,” he helms this country at a time of rough seas, having both wit and firmness, plus honour, on our behalf. Ambitions abound.
Bronwen Stanley-Jones,
Mount Forest
‘Don’t vote Liberal’
Dear Editor:
I want to remind Canadians that the U.S. has been a reliable democratic nation to trade with for many, many years and instead of Prime Minister Mark Carney doing everything he can to get back to the table on a trade agreement, he is making deals with China.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is not helping by telling the President of the United States to “kiss his a--” which is totally unbecoming of anyone in his position. His job is to run the province. He is not the prime minister.
All of this U.S. and Canada spat is wrong for our nation. I would like our prime minister and our premier to be adults. Mr. Carney, get to the table and negotiate a fair trade agreement with the U.S.
I am positive Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, with his years of experience in politics, would have been able to negotiate a fair and just agreement – and one which would have prospered Canada after 15 years of Trudeau and almost two years of Carney doing nothing to prosper our nation.
A democratic country where we have freedom is not making progress at all by negotiating agreements with China, a communist nation.
Carney did not fulfill his promise to get a trade agreement with the U.S. but Mexico did. One meeting, Canada did not even show up as reported by the Mexicans.
Carney is prospering his own interests and not those of Canadians. Please, fellow Canadians, don’t vote Liberal. Our country has not prospered under the Liberals.
I want to live in a free country, under a democratic government and under a God of love and justice. I want a just prime minister who cares about Canadians and our nation. Let’s peacefully discuss this because when people talk, they learn to evaluate their ideas and grow in knowledge and understanding of what is really happening in Canada.
Carolann Krusky,
Fergus
‘KISS approach’
Dear Editor:
Tariffs? No, we should take the KISS approach: keep it simple stupid. If we produce the product in Canada do not import it from the U.S. Thereby we pay no tariffs because the product is not on the shelf.
Robert Kay,
Minto
‘Buyer beware’
Dear Editor:
An American company based in New York is advertising products to be delivered free from a Canadian warehouse.
If you are thinking these products are made by Canadians, they are not, despite the half of a red “Canadian” flag in the background of one ad. Super adhesive, steel-lined garden hose, and non-electrified a ceiling lights are only some of the products making millions from Canadian TV watchers.
“Canadian dollars accepted” are funneling into U.S. coffers. If you stay on the ads long enough, you might notice the small logo of a U.S. company in a corner.
Buyer beware.
Arlene Callaghan,
Fergus
‘Lest we forget’
Dear Editor:
Sept. 20 to 26 is recognized across Canada as Legion Week.
On behalf of the Royal Canadian Legion, Elora Branch 229, we wish to thank all our community residents both individual and commercial for their continued and outstanding support this year and last.
We invite all to visit our branch clubroom at 110 Metcalfe St. The 2025 poppy campaign realized donations to our fund of $32,576.
During 2026, the branch’s poppy fund has donated and supported several financial needs locally, provincially and nationally. We have provided assistance funding to local veteran and veteran family as well as donations from the poppy fund that supported activities such as the service dog program; homeless vets; District C hospital fund; provincial charitable foundation; provincial poppy fund; British Commonwealth Ex-Services League; youth education and the local cadet corps to name some. Our contribution during this period has amounted to approximately $25,000.
The 2026 poppy campaign begins on Oct. 24 and continues through Remembrance Day, Nov. 11. Ceremonies to honour our veterans will be held at the Salem cenotaph at 9:30am and at the Elora cenotaph at 11am.
A Remembrance Day dinner will be held at Branch 229 on Nov. 11 beginning at 5pm. Tickets will be available from the bar steward (519-846-9611) and the dinner is open to veterans, Legion members and the general public.
Please support Legion Week activities, our poppy campaign and our veterans and their families.
Lest we forget!
Jim Paterson,
Poppy chair, Elora Legion
‘Very real risk’
Dear Editor:
Re: And then there were five, July 30.
The editorial rightly puts a focus on Centre Wellington mayoral candidate Bronwynne Wilton’s conflict of interest when it says “there is no room in this conversation for candidates that have a conflict of interest inhibiting their ability to speak on every significant development issue.”
Wilton’s spouse is a partner in a planning firm that represents clients in the township and the County of Wellington. Wilton tried to address the conflict early on, in a Facebook post stating past conflicts had properly been declared and future conflicts would be dealt with the same way.
This explanation, in my view, falls short of the complexity of the role of the mayor, both inside and outside of council chambers, as head of council, to connect with the province, to deal with developers, to represent the interests of the municipality.
Certainly any planning initiatives would be scrutinized with the additional consideration of possible preferential treatment. What about the possibility of unhappy developers challenging the municipality on this basis? Even if it could ultimately be defended, the taxpayers would bear the financial burden of such litigation.
In addition, there is the issue of the lost vote on both township and county council if a formal conflict had to be declared. In this time of increasingly litigious challenges, why would the community take the risk? Do we want the possibility of four years of potential challenges based on a conflict that is ongoing and can be used in many ways against the township at the cost, both financial and reputational, of the community?
In my view, with other qualified candidates to choose from, any possible good would be outweighed by the very real risk.
Anthea Fisher,
Centre Wellington
‘Collaborative effort’
Dear Editor:
With the upcoming municipal election, this seems like a fitting time to acknowledge the elected officials and municipal staff who, over the past three terms, worked alongside the community to protect our local drinking water when it was threatened by commercial water-taking.
As mayor, Kelly Linton listened to residents and he worked with them, municipal staff and the ministry to advocate for local water security. That work helped lead to a moratorium and, ultimately, municipal veto power over water bottlers.
Shawn Watters, first as a county councillor and then as mayor, consistently used his platform to speak publicly about the issue, to raise awareness of the township’s water history and encourage residents to become involved. When the opportunity arose, he worked with council and municipal staff to acquire the Middlebrook well property.
Councillors also lent their support. Ward 1 councillors Don Fisher and Ian MacRae met often with residents and helped ensure we had access to the strategic and technical information we needed to make our messages well-informed and effective.
The outcomes were not the work of one person or one council. They came from years of sustained community engagement and collaborative effort. This is an important community story, but equally important are the lessons we learned about the value of residents and government working together.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this effort. And best wishes to all those putting their names forward for the next term.
Jan Beveridge,
Elora