Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he is exploring the feasibility of digging a tunnel for traffic and transit under Highway 401 across the Toronto area. Ford speaks to media at a premiers' meeting in Halifax on July 15.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Quiet down, children!
Re “Liberals survive confidence vote, but Bloc sets deadline for its support” (Sept. 26): It’s clear that Speaker Fergus has lost control of the House of Commons. Where else could adults be allowed to insult others, call each other names and use homophobic slurs with no consequence? Canadians would be better served with an experienced kindergarten teacher as the new speaker.
Thomas Gevrey, Montreal
Justice delayed …
Re “Canada’s civil courts are a mess” (Sept. 21): The author failed to mention one solution to reducing delay, especially in B.C.: the Unified Family Court. This recommendation has been outstanding since the 1970s and has continued to be recommended by the Canadian Bar Association (BC Branch) as a way to reduce delay and increase access to justice. An ideal UFC would have specialized family law judges, social workers and counsellors available to litigants and their children. It would also provide more options for alternative dispute resolution and eliminate the necessity of having two forums – the provincial and supreme courts – to address family matters. Given the vacancies on the bench, and the underutilized courtrooms, B.C. must seriously consider implementing this solution sooner rather than later if it wishes to ensure justice is done faster.
Katherine Lawrence, family law lawyer, Vancouver
Driving ambition
Re “Ford pledges world’s longest tunnel under Hwy. 401″ (Sept. 26): I would commend a book by Robert Caro to your readers called The Power Broker. It is a story about Robert Moses, who shared our Premier’s passion to do everything for cars, in his case in New York. Moses did meet his Waterloo, and it was all due to a feisty, combative individual who brought public pressure to stop the insanity. This person later adopted Toronto as her home. We need another Jane Jacobs to bring reason to city planning in Toronto.
William Pascal Ottawa
When will this buffoonery end? Does anybody remember the “subway to Pickering”? And the waterfront monorail? The massive Ferris wheel? And “buck a beer”? Now a tunnel from Scarborough to Brampton? Good Lord. Well, it’s working, folks. We are not talking about the Greenbelt, the Science Centre, health care, homelessness, public education, safe injection sites or climate change. This ridiculous distraction has everybody weighing in and conveniently forgetting the incompetence of our Premier and vast array of real problems we face. And yes, the answer to all the traffic congestion is pretty simple: road tolls.
Nigel Smith, Toronto
If adding lanes made highways better, the 401 would already be the best highway in the world. Toronto’s periphery is already a nightmare of super-wide roads, and they haven’t helped. What it needs is good public transport, running through the places where people actually live and work.
David Arthur, Cambridge, Ont.
The Premier of the GTA has spoken again on behalf of his neighbours at the expense of taxpayers living in the ROO (Rest of Ontario). It is time to constitute “Toronto” as a province of Canada, disconnected from ONCE (Ontario North, Central and East). How can we do that? And what shall we call ourselves? Perhaps simply ONT (Ontario Not Toronto).
Tom Sherwood, Ottawa
Re “Doug Ford is driving in the wrong lane” (Editorial, Sept. 26): Your editorial points out the many reasons spending billions over many years to build a tunnel under the 401 is a bad idea. As you suggest, the Premier is just floating a long-term dream to garner votes in an upcoming election.
If Premier Ford wanted to make an immediate impact at a much lower cost, he could provide subsidies for drivers using the existing 407 toll highway to totally bypass the 401 over the entire proposed tunnel route. This would utilize existing infrastructure without the environmental impact of creating millions of tons of concrete and other road-building materials.
Transponders would track the journey to confirm compliance, and the government could reimburse the driver or 407 directly. Subsidies could be adjusted as needed to ensure congestion on the 407 would not discourage usage.
John Rankin, Burlington, Ont.
Get out the vote
Re “Voting should be mandatory” (Opinion, Sept. 26): Scott Stirrett suggests that mandatory voting will boost “democratic legitimacy.” I don’t think this will be the case as long as a party that gets 40 per cent of the vote can get a commanding majority in the house. With this majority the party can, and will, ignore the wishes and concerns of the 60 per cent who did not vote for it!
Mr. Stirrett thinks mandatory voting will help “underrepresented groups.” In our current first-past-the-post system, a party that receives less than 10 per cent of the vote is likely to win zero seats in the House and provide the underrepresented groups who voted for it no representation at all. Mandatory voting will not fix this.
There are voting systems that do a much better job of producing a governing body that fairly represents the aspirations and opinions of the population. Changing our voting system to include some measure of proportional representation is a much better fix for the concerns Mr. Stirrett has.
If we are going to require that everyone votes, then we must also ensure that every vote counts.
Andrew Hodgson, Ottawa
After death
Re “Her husband collected CPP for only seven years – where did the rest of his contributions go?” (Report on Business, Sept. 23): Kudos for exposing the Canada Pension Plan’s reduced or lack of death benefits passing to a surviving spouse or partner. Further, for individuals who are neither married nor in a common-law relationship, no benefits pass to a survivor save for a onetime death benefit payment of $2,500.
Harold Freeman, CA, CPA (retired); Toronto
Give back
Re “Loneliness can get in the way of a happy retirement” (Report on Business, Sept. 24): Whiling away our golden years playing cards or golf may be enough for some to maintain familiar relationships and activities. However, for opportunities to give back to society, make new social connections and deepen our understanding of others’ realities, volunteer work can benefit both giver and receiver.
Engaging with volunteer organizations can bring great value and satisfaction by offering our services in areas where we perhaps always had an interest or skill set but never the time nor opportunity to use it.
Whether it’s helping a child to read, working at a food bank or teaching newcomers English, there are many elements of society where a retired individual can contribute valuable lifetime knowledge and learn things that enrich our own lives and keep us connected to our communities.
Christine Reissmann, Ottawa
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