All levels of government must do better with housing
To the Editor,
The province of Ontario is facing a housing shortage crisis and has left the municipalities holding the bag to accommodate. This is a broken system. I have been residing in Haldimand in a trailer. In August, two Municipal law enforcement officers came to inform me under Bylaw HC-2020 I could not use my trailer as a principal place of residence. I was given to November 2025 to vacate.
I understand the bylaw, and I want to comply. I have reached out to social services and explored every avenue and have found the only options that are available are a warming kitchen in Norfolk County, and a shelter. The housing programs are a four-to-10-year waitlist.
While politicians give themselves wage increases to offset the cost of living, the social service sector is in decline. The hype around immigration and the government providing affordable housing is a smoke show.
Enforcing this bylaw is contributing toward homelessness. The Federal and Provincial governments continue to ignore this issue and put minimal resources into the Canadians who were born and raised in this great country. This is about the people who have spent their whole lives working and paying their taxes for this country, only to be cast away when help is needed.
Under the Municipal Act 2001, on conflict between bylaw and statutes, etc.:
14 (1) A bylaw is without effect to the extent of any conflict with,
(a) a provincial or federal Act or a regulation made under such an Act; or
(b) an instrument of a legislative nature, including an order, licence or approval, made or issued under a provincial orfederal Act or regulation. 2001, c. 25, s. 14.
This means that if a bylaw contradicts any of these legal documents, it becomes ineffective in that area.
Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:
Section 7 is foundational – it protects individuals from unjust laws or government actions that threaten their basic personal rights.
Section 12 is designed to protect human dignity by ensuring that punishments or treatment by the state are not degrading, inhumane, or grossly disproportionate.
I have worked since I was a kid in the tobacco fields. The best offer I was given is an extension to December 15, so after that I will have no shelter for myself and my pets. The government needs to do better.
Denise Rattie,
Jarvis
Buy Canadian should fund Canadian jobs and news, not US Big Tech
To the Government of Canada,
Canada’s sovereignty and economy is under threat from abroad. More than ever, Canadians must be free to decide our own country’s future.
A strong, plural, and free news media is an essential ingredient to our democracy: a healthy industry that serves and is beholden to Canadians, not foreign tech giants.
Our Canadian publications have always stood for a strong and independent Canada.
We applaud the Government of Canada’s ambition to build Canada strong, and commitment in the forthcoming budget to buy Canadian.
Last year, the federal government – including agencies and Crown corporations – spent over $100 million on advertising. Most of it went to US Big Tech.
Why are we funding American tech monopolies that extract tens of billions a year out of Canada – largely untaxed – at the expense of local journalism and culture, and whose platforms have become vectors for division and disinformation?
Unlike them, we are accountable to Canadians and legally liable for what we publish. Our professional journalists chase the truth, not algorithms. We produce reliable, trustworthy information.
Let’s reinvest our ad dollars in Canada. In Budget 2025, the Government of Canada should follow Ontario’s lead and set aside a minimum of 25% of its advertising budgets for Canadian news media.
At no additional cost to taxpayers, the government can support local jobs while getting its message out in a brand safe environment. Far fewer Canadians trust ads on Facebook and Instagram than those published by Canadian news media.
Buying Canadian advertising in Canadian news media is both the right and smart thing to do.
Respectfully,
Canada’s news publishers
Strong schools start with strong local voices
To the Editor,
The Ford government’s Bill 33, misleadingly titled the Supporting Children and Students Act, is a direct threat to Ontario’s public education system. Instead of helping students, it centralizes power in the Minister of Education’s hands and undermines local democratic voices, putting at risk our high quality public education.
Ontario has had publicly elected school board trustees since 1816, and this democratic representation is at risk of being lost. Doug Ford has strategically shifted the conversation to trustees rather than the $1,500 per student of funding that has been cut. We implore parents to speak up to the Ford government. If we don’t awaken Ontarians quickly, we are going to have a much different Ontario.
Last Wednesday we proudly carried on the tradition of meeting with local trustees to discuss critical issues in education and our community. We disagree at times with our trustees, but we would never discard the important role they have in our community. We know trustees aren’t perfect, but they are accessible and accountable to those who vote them in. If they fail to serve their communities, they can be voted out.
The Ford Conservatives are critically reducing funding of all public services, and we believe the goal is to break our world class education system to allow private education to flourish. They can’t be trusted. What have we learned from watching the Greenbelt scandal, the Ontario Place debacle, and now this power grab at school boards?
This government is not qualified to have control of our students’ futures and our school boards. We fear that they will sell our public-school properties to his friends.
Since 2018, the Ford government has cut $6.3 billion from public education. Bill 33 is a distraction from the real crises in public education: chronic underfunding, large class sizes, growing violence, and a lack of supports for students and educators.
As the impact of these cuts continue to be felt by students, without elected trustees, families are left with nobody to turn to. Parents in school boards that have been taken over by a supervisor have reported that no one is returning their phone calls, no one is receiving information, and parents have lost their elected representatives.
We encourage everyone to:
- Call or send an email to your MPP and demand they protect local democracy. Haldimand Norfolk MPP Bobbi-Ann Brady can be reached at 519-428-0446.
- Spread the word about this latest attack on public education and encourage others to take action.
Strong schools start with strong local voices. Let’s make sure they’re heard.
—A joint statement representing over 3,500 education workers from CUPE 5100, Grand Erie Designated Early Childcare Educators, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation District 23 Teacher, Occasional Teacher and PSSP bargaining units, Grand Erie District School Board Occasional Teachers’ Federation, and Grand Erie Elementary Teachers’ Federation
