Letters to the Editor published in the Jan. 12 edition of the Minden Times.
We’ve been here before
To the Editor,
I’ve been doing what many others have likely been doing during the pandemic – projects that I’ve been meaning to turn my attention to. One of them is working through a box of old pictures and other memorabilia that were left at our cottage when my Mom died.
In this assortment, there was a brochure put out by the Stanhope Heritage Discovery Museum (year unknown) entitled, Stanhope Heritage Driving Tour. The mid-section of this brochure contains a section, “Did You Know?”.
And no, I did not know (and think many others would not know) that, “In 1896, Stanhope suffered a diphtheria epidemic during which schools were closed and all public gatherings including church services, were forbidden. Stanhope council passed a motion to have Minden pay $60 as compensation for the stamping out of the diphtheria epidemic caused by the negligence of the Minden Board of Health in handling their own epidemic … And in 1904, smallpox swept through the township and the same curfews were imposed.”
And we think with this pandemic we are hard done by. Imagine the hardships experienced by many families 120 years ago!
Heather Konefat
Maple Lake
Folk Society thanks Canoe FM
To the Editor,
Just recently Canoe FM donated $5,000 from the proceeds of their very successful Tuesday night Radio Bingo program to the Haliburton County Folk Society.
This donation helps support all of the concerts, open stages and other initiatives that we have provided this past year and will continue to provide in the future once we get beyond the pandemic. We have been able to provide several concerts and keep our monthly Open Stage event going up until now while at the same time meeting all requirements for COVID protocols. In some months we have only been able to provide live-streaming of our Open Stage.
In addition, one of our new committee members, Tom Oliver, has been able to establish a very successful instrument exchange program to provide free used instruments, mostly guitars, to budding musicians who are not able to afford to buy them. Oliver has also been able to establish a program to provide free guitar lessons to beginning musicians, which has also been very successful and will continue once we are able to.
As you might expect, with our usual audience capacity at the Open Stages restricted to 50 per cent we have not been able to generate the typical revenue that we might receive at our concerts. Thus the donation from Canoe FM has been a wonderful gift to help us to try to keep some live music going in the Highlands during this pandemic and will allow us to keep doing so when we are able.
This is the second donation that Canoe FM has made to support the Folk Society. Thank you to Canoe FM and all of its volunteers for their generous support.
Walter Tose,
chairman of the
Haliburton County Folk Society
Canadian climate action – Have Your Say!
To the Editor,
Hello neighbours, this Friday is the last day we will have an opportunity to comment on the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act (formerly Bill C – 12). The online survey is detailed and the concepts we were asked to consider are complex. Fortunately help is available to make up for this regrettably short notice.
The non-profit Canadian organization Climate Messengers offers us the benefit of their extensive research on all aspects under consideration. Well-written sample answers are provided for our use. We may edit them, we may copy and paste them in their entirety, or provide our own personal responses. Of course any question which we feel our background may be lacking and thus we are not comfortable with using a pre-prepared response may be left blank.
Simply entering – https://climatemessengers.ca/govt-consultations/ – in the search bar will lead you to the site being recommended. The toolkit being made available for our use includes the option “I’m stressed for time. Take me to the sample answers.”
You will be met with the following introduction:
“Today thanks in part to the tireless advocacy of many climate activists, Canada now has the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act (formerly Bill C-12). As part of the Act, the Environment Minister is legally obligated to establish a plan to achieve Canada’s 2030 GHG emissions reduction target. This is a moment of opportunity, because the Minister must consult us
before he establishes the plan. And the Minister has to publish a report on the consultations, which means he has to actually reply to our submissions.
The Environment Minister’s public consultations on the plan to achieve Canada’s GHG emissions reduction target opened on or about 14 December 2021 and closes 14 January 2022.
It is very important that regular Canadian citizens who are concerned about climate change participate in these consultations. By adding your voice, you help to press the government to act with sufficient speed and sufficient strength. That is vital. As we saw in the recently completed consultations by the Net Zero Advisory Body, the fossil fuel lobby has large and well-organized groups of individuals who oppose climate change action. Some register their denial that man-made climate change is real. Others say we must go slow, while making as much profits from Canada’s fossil fuels as possible. Together, they act as a powerful force on the government to move too slowly on plans that are too watered down to make the big GHG reductions that matter. We need the government to know that we understand what needs to be done, that we support them in doing it, and that we require them to do it NOW.
This is our chance to tell them!”
John Gibb
Minden
