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Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - The Morning Star A9
Letters
EDITOR: GLENN MITCHELL
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PHONE: 550-7920
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E-MAIL: letters@vernonmorningstar.com
Pesticide bans are necessary
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e: Pesticide bylaw drives debate/A balancing act, by Richard Rolke, both published in The Morning Star on Jan. 12. I am an honourary Canadian observer on the U.S. Pesticide Working Group. Coun. Jack Gilroy ought to be aware than when his neighbour sprays his lawn with toxic chemicals, they don't stay put, but penetrate into his yard, and may end up on public property such as a nearby stream. On the other hand, Mayor Wayne Lippert seems unaware that in Canada there are about 150 municipal bylaws in force, with two provinces – Quebec and Ontario – implementing provincewide bans. There is no need for the City of Vernon to reinvent the wheel. Bans are necessary because education by itself doesn't work. Pesticides are toxic whether
applied correctly or incorrectly. "Incorrect" application affects only the applicator. I happen to have two grandchildren playing soccer regularly on Ottawa's unsprayed sports fields for at least five years. They have yet to trip on a dandelion. As to broadleafed plants, such as dandelions, attracting bees which could sting a
COMMENTS DEMEAN I was absolutely appalled to read MP Colin Mayes’ comments regarding Prime Minister Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament. Although not totally opposed to prorogation of Parliament, I find Mr. Mayes’ comments about local residents particularly offensive. He is quoted as saying “Most of them don’t even know about it. People don’t pay attention to the national media. They pay attention more to what’s written locally.” Gosh darn, golly, gee, we must be a bunch of small-town hillbilly hicks. If Mr. Mayes is prepared to make these kind of demeaning comments about local voters to the public media, why doesn’t he tell us what he really thinks of us? It is obvious that Mr. Mayes is completely out of touch with local constituents if that is his perception of local public interest in national politics. Perhaps, when the next election rolls around, Mr. Mayes may find that the local yokels pay much more attention to national politics than he would like to believe. He certainly hasn’t demonstrated any reason for me to continue to vote for him. Ken Lungle ADDRESSING ISSUES I feel I must address a number of issues that
child that is allergic to them, this is ridiculous. At any rate, better stung by bees than poisoned by pesticides. Pesticides do aggravate asthma and are not a remedy for this or that disease! On the contrary, pesticides (specially herbicides) have been linked to cancer, diabetes, impaired child development, Parkinson's, as
were raised in letters to the editor in The Morning Star in the past weeks. First, I must concur with Cork McMechan's letter regarding tax increases. His letter referred to high business property taxes. I believe the same applies to Coldstream residential property taxes. It would appear that Coldstream has very few businesses to even tax. It also seems that they're not very interested in allowing businesses to locate in Coldstream. If there were more businesses to tax in Coldstream, would this not lesson some of the burden on residential property taxes? It is my understanding that the City of Vernon is actually searching out new businesses to establish themselves in Vernon. Why isn't Coldstream doing the same? Secondly, in The Morning Star Dec. 16, Coun. Pat Cochrane was quoted as saying, "past councils have simply operated without ever increasing taxes." This is absolutely not true. I have resided in Coldstream for more than 10 years and have consistently had tax increases. In fact, in 2008, my Coldstream property taxes increased by 11 per cent and over the past 10 years, my taxes have gone up by a whopping 53 per cent. I do agree with Mayor Lippert's statement, in The Morning Star, that there are too many taxing
well as immunological and reproductive harms. And no one has to have dandelions. I don't have them. Though I live in a condominium townhouse, I have a very large lawn unsprayed for many years. The tiny dandelions that appear on it from time to time can be pulled out literally in a few seconds. There is nothing arbitrary about cosmetic pesticide bans. They make a lot of sense and with insignificant exceptions both homeowners and businesses do comply with them throughout Ontario and Quebec. Why should B.C. be different? It is misleading to suggest that pesticides "have gone through considerable testing by government agencies!" Not true. Government agencies do not test pesticides. Industry does and is very selective as to what data is submitted to Health Canada. K. Jean Cottam, PHD
authorities in the North Okanagan district. Out of the total property tax I pay in Coldstream, only 25 per cent of it goes directly to Coldstream municipality. The other 75 per cent is directed to education, NORD, Greater Vernon Services, library, hospital, etc. I wonder if Coldstream residents realize that of this 75 per cent, all the services are located in Vernon. The library situation is another fiasco, as their attitude seems to be, "who cares. If we can't get what we want, we'll just increase taxes." I have to wonder, with the technology that is available online these days, how much the library is even used anymore. Also, I just don't understand the water and sewer billing process in Coldstream. I just received my bill for this service and the water consumption was $82 versus sewer usage of $161. How can sewer charges cost twice as much as water usage? How is this possible? So far, after a couple of trips to the municipal hall, no one has been able to explain this to me. Yet we all continue to pay our water bills without questioning this? Arthur Klukas
MP WRONG Colin Mayes has his head in the sand regarding climate change. The MP is a denier and wrong on the science. He is also wrong that Vernon residents are ignorant of and not interested in national news, only what happens locally. Hopefully the results of the next federal election will have Mr. Mayes wondering "what happened locally" when he is no longer the MP for this area. Ellen Simpson
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