Ontario Premier Doug Ford, left, and Vic Fedell Minister of Economic Development, react as Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy delivers the 2022 budget at the Queen's Park Legislature in Toronto on April 28.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
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Northern neighbour
Re Russia’s War On Ukraine Amounts To Genocide: Parliament (April 28): The Ukrainian “special operation” has turned into a grinding war of attrition that is costing Russia tens of thousands of casualties, destroying decades of military investment and deeply wounding its economy.
Our polar neighbour will be injured, humiliated – and animated by a desire for revenge, like many losers of past wars. While Canada hasn’t shipped much military aid to Ukraine, it has shipped enough to irritate Russian leadership. We have played the role of a military mosquito.
Our best defence is NATO. The problem is we have not pulled our weight. We have not invested adequately in our collective defence. Canada has been like a lazy boy on a group project, depending on the other children to earn him a grade.
Ottawa should take our national defence and its treaty obligations more seriously. Will NATO be there to defend Canada when the Russian bear pays us a visit?
John Shepherd Richmond, B.C.
Word count
Re Ontario Budget 2022 Highlights: What You Need To Know About Health Care, Highways And Education (Online, April 28): Number of times the word “highway” appears: 151.
Number of times “climate change” appears: one.
What more is there to say?
Gideon Forman Climate change and transportation policy analyst, David Suzuki Foundation; Toronto
Long-term promises
Re Ontario Liberals Look To End For-profit Long-term Care By 2028 (April 27): I believe the benefits of long-term care can never be matched in home care.
I lived with my late wife for a little more than three years at Chartwell Waterford Retirement Residence in Oakville, Ont. A majority of residents suffered from mental-health problems that needed 24-hour attention. I was a resident not because of any illness; I was compelled to be near my wife, regardless of the small inconveniences that came my way occasionally.
Qualified nurses provided residents with their medication at regular times, and prescriptions were automatically renewed when due. A doctor was on the premises most days of the week. Residents never had to leave for tests, which were contracted out to a medical group that performed them on-site.
The treatment meted out to Waterford residents seemed way beyond anything that government bureaucracy could ever provide. Any change in the system would have catastrophic consequences.
J.E. Sequeira Pointe Claire, Que.
As an older adult, the prospect of being forced to enter a long-term care institution, because of a lack of home care and community-based options, is terrifying. Yet that is pretty much all that is available if older people need care, with the current Ontario government having invested billions of dollars in institutions where many do not want to work or end up.
With Steven Del Duca’s campaign promise of a $2-billion infusion into home care and an emphasis on ending institutionalization as part of the Liberal platform, there was finally a breath of fresh air. It is almost as if he heard and respects the opinions of older adults who have been saying for decades that they want to age in place, only to have had it fall on deaf ears.
At least one politician has heard us. It’s about time.
Patricia Spindel Ajax, Ont.
Wheels on the bus
Re Transit’s Future Is The Lowly Bus (Editorial, April 26): Buses are an integral part of any transit system, ideally providing frequent short journeys to nearby higher-order transit such as commuter rail, subways or light rail. The problem in Toronto is that higher-order transit does not serve vast swaths of the city, primarily the northeast and northwest where incomes tend to be lower.
The subway and GO Transit are still based on the model of commuting to the downtown core, which was already losing dominance before COVID-19. From my home just north of Toronto, it takes less than an hour to get downtown, but more than 90 minutes (and three buses) to get to my office, which is 11 minutes by car.
I’m all for increased bus services and bus rapid transit, but for decades the bus has been doing the heavy lifting meant for higher-order transit through much of Toronto. I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Jason Shron Thornhill, Ont.
Perhaps instead of spending billions of dollars on subways and light-rail transit that take years to build (and are often overbudget), cities such as Toronto should build bus routes in hydro right-of-ways.
They would be quick and relatively cheap to build, with ample space for commuter parking. A single breakdown of a subway train often results in lengthy delays for all riders on the line. If a bus breaks down, it can be passed by others. These routes could also be used by police, fire trucks and ambulances to avoid traffic and cut response times.
The hydro right-of-way north of Finch Avenue is an obvious place to start, given the existing section between Dufferin Street and York University. The land is generally not being used for anything else.
Richard Austin Toronto
Re Province’s Extended Mask Mandate Draws Mixed Response (April 25): Ontario extended the mask mandate on public transit to June 11. Too bad the Toronto Transit Commission did not seem to get the memo, or any others previously issued.
A mask mandate would assume that the TTC actually police the system. Instead, the number of maskless riders I see has grown significantly, especially in the last few weeks. Recently on a crowded bus, I had the unfortunate experience of a maskless young man standing over me for about 15 minutes.
If I contract COVID-19, I will not blame the young man – I will blame the TTC.
Jim Tomlinson Toronto
Root of it
Re Roots, Shoots And Leaves (Opinion, April 23): My older sister Mary was killed in a car accident in Brandon, Man., on June 7, 1981. There was no consolation from her tragic death.
I was living on Salter Street in Toronto with friends. The only thing we could think to do to overcome the grief was grow a garden, on Salter, amidst the permeating industrial smell from the Lever Brothers soap factory.
The backyard was small, all rough and brambly and never tended. I remember our first naive attempts at digging into that earth, full of garbage and tangled roots, full of grief and pain. I began to see a teeny glimmer of light cracking through my pain as the soil yielded, an early sense of comfort that life would go on.
To Eric Démoré: I hope he has found consolation for the loss of his neighbour, through this passionate account of shared experiences with her garden.
Helen Henshaw Hudson, Que.
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