Allowing unleashed dogs to run on the beach is a bad idea
Sir: I love dogs, but Sarnia’s plan to allow them to run leash-free on the beach is foolish, at best.
When a person chooses to live in a city with both people and dogs they must realize it’s not all about what they want, but the cause and effect on others.
Repeatedly, I have witnessed owners yelling at an unleashed dog to come back, to no avail, while it runs toward a leashed dog. I have yet to see a dog listen once it's focused on chasing.
Just as some people don’t get along, even when both are upstanding citizens, so it is with dogs. One dog might like 99 others, but when that exception comes along it results in an attack, biting, and trauma.
My little dog Babygirl has been attacked five times over the last few years by large dogs, even as their owners tried in vain to call them back. She is still traumatized by it.
I have managed to prevent her being bitten, but had to pick her up and twist my body to block the jumping dog, and I shouldn’t have to do that.
KEEP YOUR DOG ON A LEASH or find someplace outside the city to give it a run.
Ronny D'Haene
Sarnia
Leash-free dog beach proposal raises questions
Sir: Why do we need a dog beach when most days dogs and their owners are already on the beach at Canatara Park? When a site is selected, it should be only for pets and their owners.
The Cove on Lake Huron is one proposed location. If this beach were chosen, would the city or pet owners pay for a fence between The Cove and the apartment buildings there?
Geoff Weager
Sarnia
Impossible for jobless welfare recipients to make ends meet
Sir: I would like to touch on a subject that seems to get swept under the rug. That subject is welfare (ssshh) or as we call it here, Ontario Works.
In addition to the stigma that goes with being in this system nobody wants to discuss the ridiculous amount of money a person is given per month to live on.
Three years ago I suffered two heart attacks and two minor strokes. Since then I have had to be on Ontario Works because my doctors say I can’t work.
So while I fight the good fight with my government for approval to the Ontario Disability Support Program, I have been receiving about $700 per month to live on.
The price of a one-bedroom apartment in Sarnia is about $1,000 per month. It doesn’t take Sheldon Cooper to see this math doesn’t work.
I probably sound ungrateful, and I also know that seniors and many other groups are suffering too. But at least THEY are being discussed and seen on the news. Nobody is talking about us, let alone fighting to help us.
So here I am, asking for help from anyone - news outlets, a lawyer with a good heart to take on the fight, or one of our many local elected officials.
Thousands of people are flooding into Canada every day to get a new life handed to them. Does this seem wrong to anybody else?
I’m not saying stop helping the world, I’m saying charity and responsibility start at home. We have to fix Canada before we try to fix the rest of the world.
Chris English
Sarnia
Doug Ford’s green-washing coming too late to help Ontario
Sir: Doug Ford may like to present his government as being in favour of battery electric vehicles now that he understands how many jobs may depend on it, but he’ll need a whole lot more green-wash before voters and manufacturers will fall for it.
When Doug Ford was first elected premier in 2018 he: cancelled Ontario’s greenhouse gas (GHG) Cap & Trade program, cancelled subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles (EVs), squandered hundreds of millions of dollars to cancel a number of renewable electricity generating contracts (including some that were partially built), wasted even more of our money ripping out some already built EV charging stations, fought against putting a price on carbon, amended the building code to remove a requirement to “rough in” capacity for an EV charger in new homes, and started a program to increase Ontario’s GHG emissions from electricity by increasing generation from natural gas.
EV car manufacturers are looking for progressive jurisdictions that are not only supportive of manufacturing but that encourage the transition to EV’s and can also offer low carbon electricity. Just like the new green industries that have abandoned Sarnia and Ontario in search of low emission green power elsewhere, vehicle manufacturers want to boast about having the lowest emissions from the energy they use in making their vehicles.
If we’re serious about attracting new jobs to Sarnia-Lambton and keeping auto industry jobs in Ontario we need to do a lot better than this. Sincerely.
Peter R. Smith
Bright’s Grove
Even green initiatives can have unintended consequences
Sir: In his (Nov. 25th) letter about reducing our carbon footprint and the mayor’s call for an energy summit, Michael Murray states: “to make one thing clean, you must make another thing dirty.”
I believe it’s important for the energy sector to be discussing the impact of green energy initiatives upon the Chemical Valley partners. In addition to fuel, The Valley produces a host of chemicals for the production of many of our products we use.
As for EV batteries, people need to be informed of the environmental and ethical downside of their production.
Mining the elements required for EV batteries creates other environmental issues, such as the use of water reserves to pump lithium up from the ground as seen in South America, and the human rights concerns raised by child labour mining cobalt in the Congo.
Many countries producing EV batteries still rely upon coal-fired hydro plants for their production. And what will be the environmental impact of increased hydro production to charge the ever-increasing number of electric vehicles?
In looking at what we think we’re doing to reduce the impact on climate change we can’t be blind to the harm we cause through other means.
Phil Nelson
Sarnia