College should have done more to help house students
Sir: I read with a great deal of personal interest the June 16th story, “International students eyed as key to Sarnia’s future”
We moved to our condo (which sits along a major bus route to the college) five years ago this August, and by September we were amazed at the number of Indian students walking, for weeks, with all their worldly possessions in tow.
By November, we had two young women staying with us and began to understand the reason for their temporary nomadic lifestyle: no affordable housing!
I hope the President's Immigration Taskforce includes members from Lambton County’s Housing Department, real estate developers, The Inn of the Good Shepherd, international student advocates from Lambton College (not just the CEO), SLBDC, and ANY restauranteur who can provide entertainment for young adults (does this town even know what clubbing is!?) so that a comprehensive implementation plan can be realized.
I think the College has done a great disservice to international students who have to brokerage their way here, then are met with having to couch surf, room-share with five or six others for astronomical monthly fees, or are left virtually homeless. Why didn't the College consider a more balanced student-to-housing availability equation in a community that is already rental-property starved before opening its doors to international students?
Hmm. Affordable housing. Might that be a huge factor in why we can't keep young people here? That, and a techno dance floor.
Signed, proud "Brown Family Mama" to 11 Lambton College grads
Lorrie Werden
Sarnia
Hiring consultants shows county tone deaf on spending
Sir: I understand that Lambton County wants to hire a corporate asset management team, to the tune of $300,000 a year, to put together a plan for the existing roads, bridges and buildings they currently maintain.
This begs the question: why can't the current staff that looks after these roads, bridges and buildings look after their own asset management plan. If necessary, they could hire experts as needed to provide guidance.
For highly technical operations (e.g., sewage treatment plants, water treatment plants) I would fully support a significant investment in engineering consultants on a regular basis to assist in developing work plans for municipal staff.
In this case, municipal government seems to be tone deaf to taxpayers and the inflation they face on a day-to-day basis.
It's time to get real and reduce costs, not increase them.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan MacFarlane
Bright's Grove
A couple of ideas to help boost tourism in Sarnia
Sir: Here are a couple of ideas that could help promote Sarnia.
Has the city ever considered installing scenic web-cameras? They could be used to improve the city’s image with people doing destination research.
Kelowna B.C. has a variety of scenic cams and is a tourist mecca. Port Huron also has a great river cam.
They could be placed showing Canatara beach, Centennial Park, under the Blue Water Bridge, or Front Street looking north.
Also, could we not provide a few overnight RV parking spots for tourists crossing the border? Maybe at Centennial Park or at the boat ramps.
We used such a service in Charlottetown PEI and it worked wonderfully. A tourism booth administered it and passes were $10.
We wouldn’t gone downtown without it, and wouldn’t have left a bunch money in downtown Charlottetown or seen how nice it was.
Imagine the inexpensive exposure we could get from RV travellers and associates, who currently never use the off ramps to Sarnia because there’s no place for them to go.
Michael Lester
Sarnia
Does a murderer’s hopes outweigh victim’s?
Sir: The Supreme Court of Canada recently struck down a provision that allowed judges to impose life sentences with no eligibility for parole for 25 years, and served consecutively for each murder committed.
The Court said it is cruel punishment to deny an offender the possibility of parole before they die.
Now let me get this straight.
A person can slay multiple victims, thereby snubbing out their hopes and dreams and those of the loved ones left behind, and yet the offender must have some hope of parole?
Does the cruel punishment of denying an offender parole outweigh the cruel punishment inflicted upon the slain?
I believe in rehabilitation for an offender, but there must be a common sense approach.
Multiple slayings are occurring more often, so how do you weigh the lost hopes of the victims and their families against the hope of release for the offender?
Phil Nelson
Sarnia
Why do people keep voting for Trudeau?
Sir: What a mess we are in thanks to the naive, gullible people who voted in the Trudeau Liberal government - for a second time!
Now it has stooped so low as to join up with the bleeding heart NDP to guarantee staying in power for a full term.
This is wrong! This is not what anybody voted for, from any party. This is a minority government that should, in a non-confidence situation, should be forced to call another election.
This government has finally lifted the vaccine passport for Canadian travellers. We are probably the last country to do so.
Why wasn’t it done sooner? Because Trudeau has used vaccine passports to purposely divide the country, knowing the Conservatives were against taking away the rights away of non-vaccinated people.
The Trudeau government claimed the science showed we are better protected from spreading COVID if vaccinated. The truth is, doctors admit being vaccinated does not stop the spread.
By lifting vaccine passports for travel, the government is finally admitting unvaccinated people are no more apt to spread the virus than vaccinated people. So why did they hide this and lie to Canadians?
They weren’t listening to the science. Trudeau was using his own personal grudge against unvaccinated citizens and the truckers’ protests to maintain the mandates.
People need to wake up. This government is incompetent and corrupt. Why do they keep voting them into power?
Greg Hamilton
Sarnia
New Blue now the voice of true conservatives
Sir: The most important take-away from the June 2 Ontario election is, without a doubt, the massive disengagement of the electorate that, in its majority, decided voting would be a waste of time.
That was the message often heard by our New Blue Party of Ontario canvassing teams when meeting with folks across Sarnia-Lambton.
The provincial voter turnout of only 43% testifies to the growing awareness that the legacy political parties in Ontario, including Doug Ford’s progressives, the NDP and the Liberals are all solidly established on the authoritarian left of the political spectrum, with little to distinguish them.
The New Blue Party of Ontario ran candidates in all but one of the 124 electoral districts, making it a major new political party.
This was New Blue’s first election campaign and the party is now established as the fifth largest in Ontario, having garnered over 127,000 votes.
In Sarnia-Lambton the New Blue Party is pleased to have earned 6.8% of the total votes cast, which was the third-best result for our party province-wide. The success of New Blue in Sarnia-Lambton was due to the commitment of all members of the campaign team, to the financial contributions of our many supporters, and to the political awakening of some 2,700 voters.
As the new major conservative political party, with an established presence across the entire province, the New Blue Party should henceforth represent the first choice for freedom-loving voters in Sarnia-Lambton and all of Ontario.
Keith Benn
Former Sarnia-Lambton candidate, New Blue Party
Port Lambton
Here’s to Queen Elizabeth, a remarkable woman
Sir: Regarding the Queen’s recent Platinum Jubilee.
I truly admired seeing Queen Elisabeth appear on the balcony to start the celebration of this special event. What an inspiration, and a remarkable woman, thrown into the job at the age of 21 by the sudden death of her father.
She appeared overwhelmed by the respect and love shown to her. She looked youthful, with a big smile, with great grandson Prince Louis by her side.
As she pointed and laughed, talking about the horses and the planes in the fly-past, I couldn’t help but think: You’ve done a great job of being Queen while being a good mom and special nan and great nan. Remarkable.
Marie Cebulski
Sarnia