Sudbury letters: Ignoring debt; fixing roads; Sudbury leads

Participants take part in the province-wide Day of Action in Sudbury, Ont. on Friday June 7, 2019. The rally was held to protest the Ford government's cuts and privatization of public services. John Lappa/Sudbury Star

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Protesters ignoring Ontario’s staggering debt

I see where some people are upset with Premier Doug Ford and his cuts, which begs the question: Where were they when McGuinty and Wynne were taking us to the cleaners?

Oh, and I find it rather sickening watching the leader of the NDP marching back and forth during Question Period with her constant ‘tax the rich’ spiel during the last election and still these days.

Why don’t they realize that the rich really provide most of the jobs in Ontario and Canada, as well? The rich, if driven hard, enough might decide there are greener pastures in other lands awaiting them.

Now, we are paying dearly every month for the interest on Ontario’s debt that was almost tripled by guess who?

So, do these protesters think things would be better in the poorhouse down the road?

Our young, God bless them, will be paying the piper for most of their working years if there is work to be had then.

John Oattes


Fixing roads cash for life in Sudbury

All the people traveling Municipal Road 35 (Highway 144) on Friday in Chelmsford by Belanger Ford must have thought, OMG is this deja vu, or, ‘am l in the movie Ground Hog Day?”

The road rocket scientists tore up the three sections around the manholes again. Did someone who just graduated from Paving School 101 get hired and say, ‘Hey, they did those manhole patches wrong and they are going to lift and peel off. Let me do them again on Friday, the busiest day for traffic headed North on Highway 144.’

Are we, the City of Greater Sudbury paying for this? Is this just swept under the rug and added to the cost?

No wonder our road budget fails so badly.

With all the incidents Sudbury has had with paving contractors, maybe council and the people responsible for giving out these multi-million dollar contracts should look at investing in their own paving equipment.

It’s seasonal work for them and the owners become snowbirds and the workers go on EI. Let’s get the city hiring department to throw nepotism out the window, read the resumes, don’t hire the friend of a friend and build our own paving company owned by the city.

Fixing roads in Sudbury is cash for life (regardless of what happens during the process). So, why don’t we make it Sudbury’s cash for life?

Tim Foucault


North Bay should have followed Sudbury’s lead

Last week, North Bay Coun. Scott Robertson put forward a motion to declare a climate emergency.

The original motion did not pass and, instead, deputy mayor Tanya Vrebosch put forward an amendment to the motion to essentially say they would ‘identify and pursue opportunities’ in technology, as well as ways to reduce energy consumption. Which basically means they will continue with business as usual.

Business as usual, as never-before-seen flood levels continue on our own shores.  Business as usual, as tornadoes touch down in Ottawa.

Business as usual, as wildfires rage out of control across the country.

Our council seems to lack the courage to simply declare what is obvious. There is a climate emergency, and if we don’t act we will all suffer.

The idea of a declaration of emergency is not a new one. In fact, the list of cities and municipalities doing this very thing is growing every day, including Ottawa, Sudbury, West Nipissing, London, Hamilton and more. In fact, more than 590 local governments representing more than 74 million people have made the declaration.

So why doesn’t our own council have the courage to declare the obvious?

The science is conclusive. We have a very small window to make serious changes and reduce our carbon emissions to provide the slim chance of a habitable planet for our children.

Some citizens walked out in disgust at the lack of moral courage shown.

And like them, I’m appalled at the utter lack of initiative from council and our mayor (excluding Scott Robertson, Chris Mayne and Mac Bain) who, in the face of disaster, want us to pretend that nothing is happening.

They want to continue with business as usual, and that is both ignorant and offensive. They should be ashamed.

Shawn Moreton
North Bay