Letters to the Editor: May 31, 2024

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Beer sales a ruse

Doug Ford has done it again; picked a simple non-issue and made it sound like it is saving the province.

This time its beer and liquor in every corner store by the end of summer.

He avoids the real issues: staffing health care, high cost of groceries, malaise among teachers, using valuable farmland for roads, homelessness, housing costs, overloaded mental health treatment services, and opioid addiction, to name a few.

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Does he really believe he can get re-elected on this simplistic platform?

Ken Drudge, Komoka

Density for the win

Ward 6 Coun. Sam Trosow is looking for a traffic study to understand the impact of proposed development at Wonderland Road and Oxford Street.

I’m hopeful I can save everybody some time and money.

Building more density is going to generate a lot more car traffic unless alternative modes of transportation, such as transit and cycling, are developed.

People need places to live. Our convenience to drive our car in free-flowing traffic cannot be the reason we deny them this human right.

If we are going to be a car-first city, we can’t also complain about the traffic.

Andrew McClenaghan, London

Fill-up chaos

A large convenience store chain recently reduced their gas price approximately 15 cents a litre as a promotion for one day. On passing by, one could see chaos at their pumps. Cars were coming from every direction, jockeying for a spot in front of a gas pump to save no more than a few dollars.

As Canadians who are taxed to death, for a moment in time, they feel they’ve won one over the establishment. How sad and utterly degrading.

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Peter J. Middlemore Sr., Windsor

Seems like greed

Why does one grocery chain sell a certain cereal profitably for $5.50 and another chain sells the same cereal for $7.50, thereby making a larger profit?

This seems like an act of blatant greed.

Genevieve Grech, London

Fight urban sprawl

A coalition of 65 organizations is pressing Premier Doug Ford’s Conservative government to reconsider and withdraw Bill 185, the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024 and proposed changes to the provincial planning statement. They argue these legislative changes will cause rampant urban sprawl.

“Bill 185 continues the Ford government’s systematic dismantling of our democratic rights by taking away the right of the public to appeal sprawl development decisions,” said Victor Doyle, a professional planner and former manager of planning with the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, in a statement. “This means only developers will have the right of appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal, making it essentially a developers-only tribunal. How is that fair?”

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It’s far cheaper and more efficient to service residential development within villages, towns or cities, due to existing municipal services and water supplies. It’s also more beneficial for the environment, being closer to public transit, reducing car dependency, pollution and carbon emissions.

Michael Luce, London

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