‘Apprehension’
Dear Editor:
It is with apprehension that many concerned citizens await the provincial government’s policy announcement concerning the moratorium on new permits to take water for bottling purposes. This is scheduled to end on Oct. 1 of this year.
Prior to the ending of the moratorium, Nestlé Waters Canada could begin the process of seeking a permit to take water at the Middlebrook well near Elora.
For five years, the community of Centre Wellington has worked to deny a permit to Nestlé to take 1.6 million litres of groundwater daily from Middlebrook.
For the four years the moratorium has been in place, both the previous and the current governments have studied Ontario’s groundwater resources and the rules and policies that govern the water bottling facilities that use this groundwater.
From an economical perspective, there are no benefits to Centre Wellington. In fact, taking this amount of water from the aquifer will actually threaten the township’s ability to attract new businesses. Removing this water will stress an already strained municipal water infrastructure. It will provide perhaps one part-time job within the community.
The government has repeatedly stated that it will “follow the science”. A Tier 3 Water Budget study, funded by the provincial government at a cost of close to $1 million dollars, has identified Centre Wellington at “significant risk”, the highest risk.
The Township of Centre Wellington has passed a resolution that it is “an unwilling host” to any new water bottling operation or the taking of water for that purpose under any circumstances.
There is a groundswell of opposition to the removal of 1.6 million litres of water on a daily basis from Middlebrook and hundreds of residents have written to the government voicing their opposition. In March, a petition of 3,500 signatures was presented to the Environment Minister at Queen’s Park.
Water taken for bottling is water that will leave the watershed. Agreeing to a permit for 1.6 million litres a day is reckless and short sighted in a community struggling with infrastructure issues.
If the government takes none of the economics, the science or the community opposition into account, then what will guide it in making this important decision? It is this question that needs to be answered to ease the apprehension of the community.
Mike Shackleford,
Save Our Water, Belwood
‘Doublespeak’
Dear Editor:
I live a block and a half away from Nestlé Waters’ Cedar Valley (Hillsburgh) well. For almost a generation I’ve lived with bafflegab and doublespeak – what-ifs, perhaps might’s and could be’s all spoken by virtuous government lobbyists, none of which have come true.
The same fears said of the Cedar Valley well in the past are now the very words I read about the Middlebrook well in the present. If Middlebrook isn’t viable why would Centre Wellington try to purchase it from beneath Nestlé’s feet?
Now, after decades, the only impacts Nestlé has had are:
– provided over $100,000 dollars to my community to spend as we see fit;
– provide good paying jobs for many so perhaps our kids can stay home and not have to move far away;
– purchased adjacent properties allowing them to revert to their natural ecosystems to protect, not exploit, our water source; and
– given $50,000 for recycling in Puslinch Township.
According to 2014 numbers, our county uses 500 million liters of water per day. Bottled water uses 0.6% of the available groundwater. If government lobbyists want a hill to die on they should protest golf courses, which use 1.3% of our available water, primarily in summer.
Imagine being a politician, one who wants to work with business and industry to grow our communities. Imagine the government lobbyists baying for their head. I imagine that’s why Dr. Andreanne Simard, Nestle’s natural resource manager, said “we have sought the opportunity to meet with Centre Wellington to discuss this issue (careful, prudent management of water resources). Unfortunately all of our requests for dialogue have been declined” (Wellington Advertiser, Feb. 20).
Twenty years of bafflegab indeed, I’m sure I’ll hear 20 more. Nestlé Waters have been good corporate neighbours of mine, despite what anti-water government lobbyists would have you believe.
Jeff Cormack,
Hillsburgh
Dog grooming essential
Dear Editor:
Dog grooming is indeed an essential service and if some allowances are not made immediately, dogs will have a pandemic of their own to endure caused by human neglect.
Grooming is not just about making a dog “look pretty”; it is about health and welfare. Many breeds continuously grow hair. They have been bred by people and created to require routine and regular maintenance. This maintenance includes: removal of hair between the pads of the feet, around the groin, bum, armpits and in between the eyes to name a few.
Their nails need to be trimmed at least every six weeks. If they are not they can grow to become so long that they curl into the dog’s foot pad or grow long enough that they start to push the dog’s toes upward and make walking painful.
Groomers are have knowledge beyond just “cutting hair”. There are many accidents and trauma that can occur when an inexperienced person tries to clip or scissor a dog. Bulgy-eyed breeds for one, can experience their eye ball popping out simply by having pressure placed too hard or in the wrong place when trying to hold their heads for trimming.
It’s about knowing the dog’s anatomy, using specialized tools that could potentially harm or kill a dog without the proper training, knowing how to navigate the dog’s body in order to safely remove hair.
At first we were told that any dog could go to the Vet clinic to be groomed or have its nails done. That is not the case at this time and people are being turned away for nail trims until the dog is in emergency condition. That is just cruel and not necessary.
If we continue to prevent groomers from working we will all be overwhelmed with critical cases once the ban is lifted. Even when the ban is lifted there will still be a COVID-19 threat around for a long time and it can lead right back to isolation again.
We need to keep everyone safe at the same time as avoiding a backlog of critical grooms. We need people to let Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health officials know that dog grooming needs to be on the list to open in the first stage of reopenings.
We need to let Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott know that grooming needs to be focused on. If it doesn’t get approval on the first stage of openings, then it’s going to be months without professional groomers operating and that is crossing the line in animal health and welfare.
Cindy Hopkins,
Guelph
Another poem
Dear Editor:
My thoughts on COVID-19.
Living right now is strange.
Just a few short months ago
We celebrated a New Year.
Hopes and dreams of what 2020 would bring
A new DECADE of new experiences.
Never could we imagine our current reality.
Social isolation is the norm,
Social distancing is required,
Only leave your home for necessities,
No coffee visits, no play dates.
This virus is a beast that has wreaked havoc in our lives,
We need to tame the beast.
We need to fight this beast.
Protect the weak so we can all come out strong.
We are in this together.
The world and communities unite,
People are showing extreme kindness,
People are showing fear and panic,
People are showing their best selves,
And people are showing their worst selves.
Parents are worried,
Parents are stressed.
What about the children?
What about education?
What about work?
Schools are closed for two weeks
But we know this will be much longer.
So much unknown,
So little answers.
Government urges travelers to come home now,
Cut your vacation short,
Come home and stay home.
Stay home and isolate for fourteen days .
We are used to getting what we want, when we want it,
An entitled generation,
Now we have rules about our social life, our vacation.
How can this be?
COVID-19 is a dirty word,
It feels like a plague,
Global pandemic.
Can this be true?
Are we living in a dream?
Brenda Suzanne De Vries,
Guelph
‘Gun grab’won’t work
Dear Editor:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau moved quickly to attach his long-planned gun grab to the tragedy devastating the people of Nova Scotia, seemingly targeting law-abiding citizens who legally possess and use firearms.
It is unethical to exploit the Nova Scotia tragedy as justification for an unrelated gun grab. The banned firearms are not the types of firearms used by the gunman in Nova Scotia, who used a variety of weapons, including the service revolver from RCMP Constable Heidi Stevenson.
The gunman did not have a firearms possession licence nor any legal firearm. His impersonation of a police officer, setting fires to homes and misuse of a firearm were all illegal. Could this new ban on certain firearms have saved a single life in Nova Scotia?
Laws impact compliant, law-abiding citizens, but criminals will continue to acquire firearms illegally. New laws do not make law-abiding citizens out of criminals. The old saying still applies: “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns”.
Every person has a right to defend himself or herself, their families, and their homes from violent offenders and to defend our freedoms from tyrannical despots. Tyrants always move to disarm their citizens when they want to exercise autocratic power over them.
The fantasy that firearms play no role in self-defence shows the hypocrisy of the elite. All prime ministers have an armed security detail who carry for them.
Making any weapon illegal will not change the hearts of the wicked who will use various weapons to murder. Respect for human life needs to be restored in our country.
The Christian Heritage Party of Canada supports the rights of professionally trained, law-abiding citizens to possess and use firearms for hunting, sport and self defence. Criminals must be held accountable, both in the name of justice and for deterrence.
Public safety and the protection of innocent human life can only be achieved by establishing a respect for life and property and by consistently enforcing existing laws. The new gun laws will not make Canadians safer.
Irma DeVries,
Christian Heritage Party candidate,
Harriston
His ‘last hope’
Dear Editor:
A letter to Premier Doug Ford.
I think you are handling the pandemic well and I trust you, which puts you in the minority with any other Canadian politicians.
I can forgive you breaking the rules to get to the cottage to check on winter damage, etc., but I have problems with you having your family members round to your house when the rest of us do not! My daughter comes over several times a week for a chat and she stands at the end of our drive. If we can do it then I would wish you to do it also.
The reason I do not trust politicians, of any party, is because they are elitist and believe the rules do not apply to them. Testimony to that is the narcissist we have reclining in power in Ottawa at present.
I had hoped you were different. Please do not prove me wrong, as you are pretty much my last hope for an honest politician.
Michael Lee,
Salem
Modelling musings
Dear Editor:
RE: Health unit unveils local pandemic modelling, May. 7.
I am always concerned when I read the numbers that come out of models for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The recent number of projected deaths for the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph region – “close to 3,000” – is very unsettling. As I have been following the accuracy of modelling for the number of infected and possible deaths, it appears that there are constant inaccuracies.
When trying to find answers to this, there seems to be one common factor coming from a variety of experts. The enormous variables involved in putting together a model makes it extremely difficult to allow for accurate projections. Next is the lack of precise information, use of inaccurate information, and the relative short time period so far to generate huge volumes of information to be used in creating models.
Modelling can be very useful but caution must be exercised when making policies from these models. The fact is that no one knows the numbers and the greater the projection (in months or years), the less accurate it will be. As new information is added to the models, the results will obviously change.
I am not saying that modelling doesn’t work; it should be recognized that there are limitations to it. The model of up to 3,000 deaths is 100% accurate in fuelling greater fear and anxiety in the general public.
Some good news I found in looking for answers to dealing with this virus is that hand washing and sanitation is the most effective way to stay healthy. This is above wearing masks and gloves as the surface of these products can still transmit the virus if not properly handled. Masks and gloves are still useful, they are a good supplement to personal hygiene.
I trust my reason for this letter is understood. The decisions are not easy for those that have to make policies to address the situation but I am concerned for the effect of constant grim news the public hears. Kudos for the people doing their best to handle the situation in making those difficult decisions.
I want them to know that it is okay not to have all the answers, because nobody does. Stay calm, relax little and God bless.
Michael Thorp,
Mount Forest
Welcome Wagon gone
Dear Editor:
I have just heard that Welcome Wagon Canada has closed its doors forever. I didn’t even wear down enough to retire until I’d put in almost 20 years and was 77 years old. How many aggravations! How much fun! I recall working in an unheated garage in January assembling packages so newcomers would receive their proper welcome to our community or the new mothers their baby’s gifts at Groves.
Three times I nearly wept at the honour of being national #1 Welcome Wagon representative, but that wasn’t why I did it at all.
I remember when my colleague Irene Bultena and I decorated the window at Doyle’s (paint and paper) in downtown Fergus to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary. I still have my 50th anniversary lapel pin.
I remember attending annual conferences (always at our own expense because the company operated on a frugal shoestring to keep the costs down for our sponsors) in K-W, Ottawa and Orillia.
What a wonderful job it was! The people I met! Newcomers to Centre Wellington whose questions I was able to answer; our wonderful businesses who I was able to tell new people about; the folks who – at my insistence – would shop or eat out locally first; civic and county people who always helped; newly-welcomed people who’d tip me off when they saw an out-of-town moving van down their street; the festivals I could promote that someone moving from outside Ontario might not have heard of …the list goes on and on.
And a lot of the things that were on my “promoting Centre Wellington list” aren’t available right now. But Welcome Wagon would, despite COVID-19 and its accompanying shutdowns, still be telling people about them for the day when they’ll come back.
The fact that Welcome Wagon is gone breaks my heart. Do computer keyboards go into meltdown from salt water?
What a wonderful story this company has had – did you ever have a WW Welcome? Tell your grandkids; I plan to insist my great nieces hear all about it. Thank you to everyone – there were hundreds of you, too numerous to mention – who helped over the years.
Special thanks to those businesses who weren’t day-to-day sponsors (usually a budgetary thing) but who stepped up to the plate every December with something memorable for the first baby of the new year. That was one of the most rewarding parts of our job – and it was 100% voluntary. And I remember the new parents and the adorable babies and the great coverage we always got from the local press. Thanks to them, too.
Goodbye to the nicest, most rewarding underpaid and overworked job of my career – the most fun I ever had in my entire life. I shall treasure my awards and award pins forever!
Helen Marucci,
Fergus
