Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks at a press conference in Ottawa on Oct. 28.PATRICK DOYLE/The Canadian Press
If you build it …
Re “Poilievre vows to remove GST on new homes under $1-million” and “Conservative housing proposal puts Liberals on the back foot” (Oct. 29): Good politics or good policy? That is the question.
The announcement by Pierre Poilievre of his proposal for building new homes gives us a lot of food for thought. As usual, his so-called plan offers an easy-to-understand solution but few details of how it would play out.
His suggestion that cutting existing programs would cover the estimated cost of $4.5-billion a year is a particularly interesting consideration. As pointed out, in the long term this is a “fuzzy detail in a vague picture.”
One has to wonder why anyone would buy a house without services such as roads, sewers, water or public transit, which is a distinct possibility if the infrastructure support currently available to municipalities is withdrawn. In addition, the Conservative plan does little to address affordability issues.
Sounds like trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear to me.
S.F.M. Cullum Ottawa
So unaffordable housing is mostly due to taxes?
Does it have nothing to do with greed? Canadians owning multiple homes as investments? Or outbidding those who want to own their first home, and driving costs ever higher?
Due to taxes? The people living in tents in our parks and green spaces scream otherwise. They know their affordable housing has disappeared.
Tom Suhadolc Grimsby, Ont.
“The tax break would reduce housing prices because developers would pass on the savings to buyers.”
Yeah, right.
L.J. Manson Toronto
Long tail
Re “South Bruce narrowly votes to host underground nuclear waste disposal site” (Online, Oct. 28): So South Bruce narrowly voted in favour of accepting $418-million to be the “willing host” for the processing and burial of nuclear waste. Essentially, 75 residents of a small township were the margin in deciding that nuclear waste can be transported there, processed, clad in clay and placed underground for eternity.
Some of the waste could still be dangerous for 10 million years. If any of the bad stuff leaks out during processing, it could contaminate livestock for hundreds of years. And if any bad stuff leaks out into the groundwater, it could contaminate Lake Huron and the drinking water of 40 million people.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization promises to be very careful – so did folks at Three Mile Island, Chalk River, Chernobyl and Fukushima. That’s just in the last 70 years.
Now we wait and hope that local First Nations have more sense.
Mike Sullivan Former MP Stratford, Ont.
Conspicuous consumption
Re “We’re a world awash in textiles, and that’s not a good thing” (Oct. 28): The staggering revelation that global textile production causes up to 8 per cent of global emissions is a grave statistic, particularly for the wellbeing of future generations and for biodiversity.
In addition, I am deeply concerned by the recent United Nations Emissions Gap Report that warns record global emissions put warming on track for a “catastrophic” increase of 2.6 C to 3.1 C. This data makes the most powerful demand to date that all sources of emissions, including those from the textile industry, be urgently and rapidly decreased.
The majority of global emissions are from those of us who live predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere. Accordingly we should be leaders in reducing our personal carbon footprints, at the same time as advocating for a mass reduction of our consumption of goods and services.
Jim Hollingworth Goderich, Ont.
Closer look
Re “Patients demand action into investigation of New Brunswickers’ unexplained neurological symptoms” (Oct. 28): Is glyphosate, the herbicide widely sprayed in New Brunswick, responsible for the mysterious brain symptoms in more than 300 patients? The neurologist Alier Marrero believes it warrants investigation, but is anyone listening?
Bayer, owner of the Round Up brand of herbicide, paid billions of dollars in settlements to people who were harmed by their product (”Bayer shares fall nearly 6% on court order to pay US$2.25-billion in damages” – Jan. 29), but still says it’s safe to use. Health Canada says that glyphosate is safe for humans in very small amounts. Is helicopter spraying considered very small amounts?
I don’t know if glyphosate is to blame for the mysterious deaths and illnesses in New Brunswick, but I believe a thorough investigation is called for.
Cheryl Hanniman Former employee, Public Health Ontario Ottawa
Beforehand
Re “For Quebec woman with Alzheimer’s, choice to request assisted dying in advance offers a sense of relief” (Oct. 29): Quebec is halfway home on granting advanced requests for medical assistance in dying. Whether one actually has an illness leading to incapacity should make no difference in the validity of an advanced requests.
I am healthy. But I can specify four different deaths I have witnessed that I wish to avoid for myself. These could be avoided with an advanced request for MAID.
This is important, because an event such as a stroke could instantly remove my ability to consent. Trying to write an advanced consent after a stroke might be impossible. It may be too late at that stage.
Most of us want to die in our sleep. This brings both dignity and lack of suffering. Sadly, this is rare.
But at the other end of dignity are horrible deaths that can be avoided. Advanced requests, prepared at any stage, could allow people like me to avoid these.
Ed Dunnett Qualicum Beach, B.C.
I find that advance consent is a misnomer when it comes to medical assistance in dying.
If Quebec approves advance MAID requests, it would in fact be approving an arrangement for MAID to ultimately be requested by a substitute decision-maker. Someone else would decide when the time has come.
I have spent years advising about substitute decision-making in my legal practice. Good substitute decision-making is dependent on many factors, including advance discussions about values and preferences; clear, relevant information from health care professionals; the integrity of the substitute. I’ve seen it go well and not so well.
The advent of a policy allowing for advance requests for MAID may bring a sense of relief to some persons with dementia diagnoses. But it is important to be aware of and think about it as an opportunity to delegate, and not as one’s own decision made in advance.
Jan Goddard Toronto
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