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To the Editor,
Upon reading about Bobbie Drew’s removal as Deputy Mayor, I was shocked and embarrassed by the behaviour of councillors Back and Kett. This is not public school, this is a high profile, important position in our township. If they cannot behave and act accordingly, then sadly this job may be too big for them. Certainly, this is not the behaviour we want in a Deputy Mayor - someone who would be in charge should Mayor Rowett be unable to fulfill his duties. It appears that these ‘newbies’ are scrambling to position themselves for bigger things before they have even learned the ropes and job at hand, not even one year into the term. It sounds to me like they are driven by something other than what is in the best interest of our communities. May Maxwell Scugog
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The Band-Aids have come out, and thanks to back-to-work legislation, this week, striking high school teachers in Durham Region and their students will head back to the classroom to close out the school year.
Unfortunately, the measure in no way addresses the causes of the labour dispute that has seen classes in the area disrupted over the past six weeks. The main issue is that it appears that the Liberal government hasn’t got any money to pay teachers, who ironically enough, not that long ago were leading the charge to help push them back into power at Queen’s Park. Teacher’s unions have been without a contract since last August, and while this school year has apparently been salvaged. It’s alarming to think what may happen in September if there is still no resolution to the labour disputes in education. There appears to be nothing but doom and gloom on the horizon for Ontario taxpayers, either through potential binding arbitration which could lock Ontario into unsustainable spending for education paid for by higher taxes. Or, through the government bowing to the demands of the unions and handing over more millions collected from taxpayers. Students also stand to lose, not only from the current labour action, but in the months to come, as teachers grow more and more dissatisfied, leading to the same drastic decline in education quality seen during the darkest days of the Mike Harris administration 15 years ago. This labour catastrophe has been brewing for years, and unfortunately all of us living in Ontario could continue paying for these fiscal missteps for generations to come. To the Editor,
I am writing on behalf of the Care & Share Permaculture Garden, to thank Katy Krieger and Steve Banner, two dedicated local seniors. Noticing the garbage that had piled up against the garden fence over our windy winter, Katy and Steve took it upon themselves to help out. Not only did they retrieve several bags from the garden fence, but they continued their efforts by cleaning up the whole fence along the west boundary of the Fairgrounds. I admire them both for their hard work in keeping the garden and our town clean! Please feel free to visit the garden, and check out caresharegarden.blogspot.com for more information about how to become involved! Lynne Chase and the Care & Share Garden Crew To the surprise of virtually no one, test results recently confirmed that contaminated soil has been dumped at the Greenbank Airways fill site.
The wait is now on to see what will be done about it. The township has already ordered more tests to see just how far the problem has gone, and if the dirty dirt has add any ill effects on groundwater at, or near the site, which happens to sit in close proximity to the headwaters of the Nonquon River, making it the vital source of drinking water for thousands of local residents. The owner of the site was unavailable for comment when The Standard repeatedly reached out to him. This was also not surprising, since there has been nothing of note at the site since Scugog Township put a stop to deliveries of fill to the airport on April 1 after their permit expired. The real shame for local residents is that this abomination was ever allowed to pop up in their neck of the woods. And there is plenty of local blame to go around for some lack of follow-up from some current and former officials since the original agreement was drawn up. But, the municipality was well beyond its capabilities before the first contaminated load ever passed through the unmonitored entrance. How the federal and provincial governments can say with a straight face that underfunded municipalities are supposed to monitor sites like these is laughable. Hopefully, it’s not too late for the site to be cleaned up, with minimal damage to the environment In the meantime, all levels of government should act to close some of the loopholes that have existed, big enough in size to allow a dump truck filled with contaminated soil to drive through before another unmonitored commercial fill site wreaks havoc somewhere else. |
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