Living by water
Re Some Hard-headed Thinking About Living By The Water (June 27): As a Calgarian, I'm more than happy to help my flood-ravaged neighbours via taxpayer dollars. It's what I'd want were I in their place. But after the waters have subsided, let's spend the next few billion dollars on significant flood-mitigation infrastructure. And who should pay for that? I'm not sure I see that decision as clearly as Tom Flanagan does.
If those most at risk must bear the greatest burden, then speeders ought to pay a greater share of guardrail costs, and families with congenital illness more for our health-care system, and people who live higher-stress lives, more for our mental-health infrastructures.
John Van Sloten, Calgary
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Tom Flanagan describes the kind of moral hazard that is prevalent in many areas threatened by natural disaster. What are democratic governments to do? Given that people have been living in some of these areas for generations and that governments have actively encouraged settlement for decades, expropriation and forced resettlement is neither ethically nor politically feasible in all but the most extreme cases. German governments use voluntary buyouts where other forms of mitigation are not economical. The uptake on these offers is limited and varied, but when conducted fairly, it shifts some of the responsibility to private property owners who choose to stay.
What we need is a civil service that has the capacity to understand existing and emerging threats and to develop comprehensive mitigation packages. Politicians, on the other hand, have to find the courage to communicate the situation to their voters and engage in focused deliberation on how to prevent floods from turning into disasters. Let's see if Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, rightfully celebrated these days, will take that step.
Joerg Wittenbrinck, assistant professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University
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Senators' role
Re Tory Senators Help To Block Union Bill As Party Dissent Grows (June 27): Finally, the Senate adopts its true role. How did it do it? By speaking for all Canadians rather than for party affiliations. A Senate whose members owe their allegiance to their party, right or wrong, cannot speak for all Canadians.
Duncan Bath, Peterborough, Ont.
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Paying Peter Munk
Barrick Plans Board Changes After 'Huge Wake-up Call' From Investors (June 25): There is no individual who is more committed to and passionate about Barrick's long-term success than its founder and chairman, Peter Munk. Mr. Munk devotes nearly all his energy to advancing the company's strategy and objectives, with the goal of delivering value to shareholders.
The chairman's compensation last year was fair and appropriate. For five years leading up to 2011, a period during which Barrick recorded successively higher earnings each year, Mr. Munk's salary remained unchanged. His salary was increased in 2011, a year in which Barrick reported its highest-ever adjusted net earnings: $4.6-billion. While acknowledging 2012 was a very challenging year for the company, Barrick also reported record operating cash flow of $5.4-billion, and the compensation committee determined that Mr. Munk's significant contributions merited the compensation increase we approved.
More broadly speaking, Barrick's directors take shareholder feedback seriously; the board is carefully considering shareholders' perspectives regarding executive compensation and governance to ensure we have the right framework in place to support the company's long-term success.
J. Brett Harvey, chairman, compensation committee, Canonsburg, Pa.
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Disappearing migrants
Re Border Agents Plan To Buy GPS Bracelets (June 27): Tracking bracelets can be fairly easily removed by anyone who does not wish to be tracked. Criminals on release programs have an incentive not to remove them; they go back to prison if they do. Migrants who wish to stay in Canada but whose history may not guarantee success in that effort have no incentive to do so and, given our shocking lack of success with the other 44,000 untraceable migrants, might simply find it easier to cut the bracelet off and disappear. They obviously have nothing to lose by doing so.
At a shocking cost of $88,000 for six tracking bracelets, why not buy cheap GPS units at Canadian Tire and strap them on illegals? Cruel perhaps, but more in keeping with present austerity and immigration policies.
Jim Young, Burlington, Ont.
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New power's price
Re: McGuinty's Green Energy 'Vision' Starts To Fade (June 27): If all new renewable energy generation were to be replaced by new investments in conventional sources of generation, electricity prices would still continue to increase significantly.
Ontario will need more new-electricity generation as existing nuclear plants are scheduled to be refurbished. Wind energy in Ontario is cost competitive with new nuclear and new hydroelectric power. While new natural-gas generation is cheaper today, a report by the Pembina Institute predicts that investing in renewable energy today is likely to save Ontario ratepayers money within the next 15 years, as natural gas prices are forecast to start to rise.
Robert Hornung, president, Canadian Wind Energy Association
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Reading this column is very poignant when you live on a beautiful little island in Lake Ontario that has just been named one of 2013's Top Ten Endangered Places in Canada by the Heritage Canada Foundation. Amherst Island made the list because of its rich cultural and natural heritage landscape and the threat of industrial wind turbines.
Kirsten Bennick, Amherst Island, Ont.
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Royal disconnects
Re Tots And Frocks Aside, The Royals Have Overstayed Their Welcome (online, June 26): Denise Balkissoon says "the Royals have baggage" and blames the present family members for the slave trade, the plundering of India, and the ill-treatment of Canadian aboriginals. Even if Ms. Balkissoon had stuck to the constitutional issue, she'd have had trouble proving that reigning monarchs were the authors of such abominations. Undeterred, however, she further defies logic by interpreting Prince Harry's stupid appearance in Nazi kit as a continuation of these historic wrongs.
Despite assuming the style of cool, Ms. Balkissoon seems stuck in a time warp, back when kings and queens really owned castles and raided the public purse at will. There's a lot to question about the monarchy's worth to Canada, but personal dissing cheapens us. Better to debate the matter in terms of today's realities, balancing the benefits of a proxy constitutional monarchy against the increasing disjuncture between British and Canadian cultures.
James Jackson, Victoria