Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, gives Premier Doug Ford unprecedented power over our communities, including to dictate who is exempt from the law and who is not. It constitutes a direct attack on healthy communities, good planning, clean air and water, at-risk species and the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Schedule 9 of the bill enables Ford and his cabinet to exempt from provincial or municipal law (including bylaws) any person or company, for any purpose; any portion of Ontario they choose, from commercial properties to cottage lots, for any purpose; and any initiative or project they choose.
These vast and sweeping changes will move Ontario away from a science-based approach to protecting at-risk species and toward one that relies on industry and developer discretion. This is dangerous legislation that threatens everything we must be on alert to protect: our democracy, our sovereignty, our clean water and air, our precious farmland and our natural landscapes.
Nell Thomas, Minden
Fed up with Shoppers
I have moved all my family鈥檚 prescriptions away from Shoppers Drug Mart. Grasping at the opportunities provided through the provincial government’s efforts to save money by increasingly turning pharmacists into doctors, Shoppers has become risky for patients. In my family’s case, Shoppers first missed a dosage change to one prescription, then included an incorrect pill in another. We are high-risk seniors who always get our COVID-19 vaccinations on time, and we made an appointment in advance of a large gathering. The pharmacist at Shoppers refused to give us our shots because we were two weeks short of six months since our last dose. Yet the province’s own website says high-risk patients can get the shot every four to six months. We went to Rexall instead, getting our vaccinations there and moving all 17 of our prescriptions over to them.
Gail Rutherford, Toronto
If patients actually need a medication review, they should be able to ask for one, and the pharmacist should be reimbursed in such cases 鈥 but I go over my medications with my doctor. The current MedsCheck program should be scrapped and completely reworked. I fear that too much money is being inefficiently spent on the current system.
Bonnie Bacvar, Toronto
The Tories’ Scheer lunacy
I’ve voted across the political spectrum, though I lean left. I voted for Justin Trudeau only once, in 2015, and would have considered voting for Erin O’Toole, who is an accomplished individual. But the negativity directed at Trudeau and the Liberals by the Conservative front bench went overboard, and right up until the end, I had no clue what Pierre Poilievre stood for, other than axing the CBC and zinging reporters. As for Trudeau’s being a drama teacher and trust-fund baby: teaching isn’t a walk in the park, trust fund or no trust fund. On the other hand, folks like Andrew Scheer, who run in safe Tory ridings (as Poilievre soon will) have little on their CVs besides being career politicians. Yet people still wonder why so many soft Tory supporters changed their allegiance when a more palatable alternative to Trudeau came along. They shouldn’t. The fact that a non-entity like Scheer is now interim Opposition leader suggests that nothing much has changed in the Conservative Party. Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned lawyers with chutzpah and experience leading the Tories?
Craig Gibson, Thornhill
Peace in the Middle East?
It鈥檚 time for Canada to call on the Israeli government to respect international law, May 10
It鈥檚 a shame that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “broke a ceasefire that it had agreed to with Hamas.鈥 It’s even more concerning that “Israel imposed a complete siege on Gaza鈥 when Hamas did not accept the proposed new terms of the ceasefire. As a longtime supporter of Israel鈥檚 right to exist, I believe strongly that Palestinians have an equal right to live in peace. The world was shocked by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, which killed more than 1,100 civilians on October 7, 2023. It’s unfortunate and unacceptable that more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 100,000 wounded since then by the Israeli military. Still, it’s uplifting to learn that some 70 per cent of Israelis favour a ceasefire and want Netanyahu to resign.
Rudy Fernandes, Mississauga
Blowin’ in the wind
Jack Lakey’s article indicates that Walmart responded once it was made aware of garbage near their store around Highway 401 and Morningside Avenue. I’m sure this isn’t an isolated case: on my daily walk, I pass two different plazas, both with major grocery stores and smaller shops, and each near a creek. The amount of garbage that blows from the parking lots is considerable, often right into the aforementioned creeks, which flow into Lake Ontario. I once contacted the plaza closest to me about this but received no response. The Town of Ajax said it could do little to enforce compliance among these plazas. So who takes responsibility? This article really reinforced that there’s a lack of oversight when it comes to requiring businesses to clean up garbage emanating from their parking lots and properties.
Rick Foren, Ajax
Electoral reform done right
I agree that the best path forward for Alberta and Canada is electoral reform, not referendums. But we need to be careful: while a system of proportional representation would better represent the various parties and regions, it could have its own drawbacks. For example, it might further nationalize and ideologize our politics, diminish the attention paid to local issues and weaken local control over representation. Increased political polarization is another potential challenge.
Proportional representation alone will not overcome the problem of Western alienation. I grew up in British Columbia at a time when freight rates and the timing of election results were hot issues. I lived in Alberta when the National Energy Program caused panic in the oilpatch. As such, I know that there are Western mavericks who see themselves as dissenters in a world largely organized elsewhere. A preferential ballot system would help reduce polarization by encouraging candidates to seek support from their opponents’ supporters. We should consider adopting such a system immediately.
Donald N. Baker, Peterborough
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