By Nicole Morin and others, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, June 15, 2019
Let’s not be a cheapskate city
Re: Dump the swans and spoil the Château. Well done, Ottawa, June 13.
Is this city so cheap that it cannot afford to maintain a few swans on the Rideau River? Surely we can afford to build a decent winter facility for them. Stratford, Ont. is a much smaller city than Ottawa and it maintains a substantial population of swans. If our swan population is currently too low, I am sure Stratford could spare us a few. (...)We can live without plastic – in fact, we already have Re: PM setting the stage for plastics ban, June 10. I lived half my life without plastic and never missed it: milk in reusable glass bottles; meat and cheese wrapped in brown paper, tied with a cotton string; a loaf of bread wrapped in waxed paper and recycled at home for many uses; vegetables and fruit hand-picked in separate bins at the store; assortment of delicious cookies sold by the pound; condiments (pickles, ketchup, etc.) in glass jars; groceries carried in cotton or paper bags; heavier loads carried in sturdy paper shopping bags with handles, used over and over again; manufactured containers made of paper, cardboard, glass or metal, often recycled as shelf containers at home; paper straws and absolutely no food wrappers in restaurants; thermoses, small glass containers, waxed paper and paper bags used for school/office lunches; dry staples neatly kept in sealed glass jars/containers; meal leftovers stored in the refrigerator in glass dishes or containers. (...)How about some more research first? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that banning single-use plastics will create jobs. He was silent on where, what type, and how many. Does the Trudeau government know how many industries in Canada either produce or use recycled plastic and the number of employees involved? By banning single-use products, how many Canadians will lose their employment? Does the government have a plan for retraining or compensating these employees for the loss of their jobs? How much would the Canadian government have to pay American and Mexican companies under the terms of NAFTA/USMCA for the loss of their market from an arbitrary government decision?https://ottawacitizen.com/category/news/national/defence-watch