Review-Mirror

Editor, Just before Christmas, a group of us were dis- cussing The Review-Mir- ror article about the Town- ship of Rideau Lakes being reluctant to accept the Ministry's offer of Naloxone and were puz- zled. We understand and appreciate the municipali- ty's frustration with provincial downloading but this doesn't seem like a logical front to be battling on. Whether or not the township accepts the free offers of Naloxone kits from the Ministry and free training from the Health Unit, its firefighters will still be called out to emer- gencies when ambulances are unavailable. It may be a rare occur- rence but, if it involves an overdose where Naloxone could become important, do we really want our fire fighters to stand there helpless? Perhaps this decision should be revisited. Peter Hannah Portland, Ontario Editor, Nearly three weeks after the story ran in the Review Mirror about the decision of Rideau Lakes Township turning down naloxone my head still shakes. How can saving lives "not be the responsi- bility" of first responders in our communities? When we call 9-1-1 fire and rescue services are frequently the first on the scene. Every public health researcher is warning that fentanyl laced street drugs are here now and that recreational use will lead to overdoses in higher and higher numbers. Rural communities that do carry naloxone are administer- ing it regularly. There is an absolute need for it in Rideau Lakes Township. We need to ensure that naloxone is carried by every first responder. There will be an over- dose at a bush party in Rideau Lakes Township and without it, lives will be lost. It may be, as indi- cated in the article, that more paramedic services are needed but so long as our volunteer fire service is first on the scene and charged with saving lives, they must carry naloxone. Marty Crapper Executive Director Country Roads Community Health Centre OPINION PAGE Publisher/Editor– Howie Crichton hcrichton@review-mirror.com Advertising Sales – Bill Ritchie advertising@review-mirror.com Office – Louise Haughton lhaughton@review-mirror.com Reporter-Photographer - Margaret Brand mbrand@review-mirror.com 4 – January 11, 2018 The Review-Mirror 43 Bedford St. P.O. Box 130,Westport, Ont. K0G 1X0 Ph. 613-273-8000 • 1-800-387-0796 • Fax 273-8001 editor @ review-mirror.com • www.review-mirror.com • PAP Registration No. 01601 • Printed in Smiths Falls, Ontario • The Review-Mirror is published Thursdays. Subscriptions: $33.84 online; $44.50 locally; $55.00 elsewhere in Canada; $150 in the U.S. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada. Publishers ONTARIO COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION 1893-1897 — H. E. Bywater 1897-1916 — W. B. Adams 1916- — Arthur Niblock -1967 — Jim Niblock 1967-1987 — F. Lea and Phyllis Hutchinson 1987-1988 — Bob & Sandy Runciman 1988-1993 — Phil Rutherford 1993- — Howie Crichton CANADIAN MEDIA CIRCULATION AUDIT Mirror The Review Letters to the Editor Finally some "good news". At the Westport council meeting held Monday night, Mayor Robin Jones announced that the new sewage treat- ment system would be started up the following day. Having said that there are certainly some caveats. Only two beds of the system will be activated. There will need to be at least three beds activated in order to stay ahead of the 324 cubic meters that is currently flowing to the lagoon on a daily basis. Hauling, that is to be paid for by the contractor, Selectra, is to start on Wed., Jan. 10. Unlike before, the purpose of the hauling, in this instance, is to keep ahead of the flow, on a daily basis, that is going to the lagoon. It is necessary to have effluent in the lagoon to pump to the beds in order to test the system and ensure that there are no leaks. With the proposed hauling, there is no minimum amount that has to be hauled and there is no agreed to cost other than the per cubic meter cost of trucking and pro- cessing. Simply put the village will be billed for what is hauled and no more. It is entirely possible that hauling will only last for several days. There will be careful monitoring of the activity in the beds and the lagoon level and if the beds are handling the daily flows there will be no hauling. There is a bit of a bal- ancing act that needs to take place but the village engineer expressed confi- dence that all the parameters have been considered and the required equilibrium can be achieved. Although the system is going to be started there is much work to be done in order to achieve "substantial comple- tion". The contract with Selectra, the company building the system, contained a clause that allowed for a 10 per cent hold back on payment. The village is not making any further payments, as per the contract until "substantial comple- tion" which won't likely be achieved until the spring. What else needs to be done? As the system sits, there is no cover, other than snow, on the filter beds. There will be straw placed over the beds in order to try to prevent the system from freezing. If the system should freeze and hauling is required to stay ahead of the increas- ing level in the lagoon it will be on Selectra's nickel. In the spring, top soil and grass will be put on top of the sand in order to complete the construction. There is also the necessity to clean up the site where the new system is locat- ed. At this point in time the equipment to fully automate the system is not in place. Until automation is installed, the village will supply an operator for the system and Selectra will be billed for the cost at the rate of $50 per hour. Needless to say there was a decided- ly upbeat atmosphere at the meeting. The whole council was encouraged by the fact that the pumps were going to be started Tues., Jan. 9. This has been a very long and intense process although it isn't over yet. Notwithstanding the enthusiasm around getting the system started there are going to be some hard nuts to crack going forward. To begin with, there is the issue of almost $1,000,000 in additional sand that was needed to complete the project. Somebody is going to have to pay and it may take the courts to sort this out. The contract provided for liquidated dam- ages in the order of $1000 per day that the completion of the project was delayed. It is not a simple case of look- ing at the calendar and saying, "the pro- ject was 45 days over the agreed com- pletion day and therefore you owe us $45,000. The onus is on the village and its consulting engineers to prove that there were damages and obviously the contractor will argue that it was delayed because there was an error in calculat- ing the amount of sand required. This is where the lawyers and the courts may have to step in. As things stand, the village will be billed for the hauling and it will, in turn. bill the contractor. Does anybody really think that the contractor will simply pay for the hauling. The contractor will surely argue that the delays that resulted in the necessity to haul effluent were not if its making and therefore they are not required to pay for the hauling. Where would the world be if there weren't lawyers and courts to sort these kind of things out? Congratulations to both council and village staff for their professionalism, determination and resolve to see this project through to completion. There is certainly work to be done but the road- block to village development has just climbed a huge obstacle and the future has a decidedly brighter outlook. Mike McIntyre joymikechloe@gmail.com Future of the village has a decidedly brighter outlook Letters to the Editor The Review-Mirror accepts Letters to the Editor. Letters may be edited for content, space and libel. Please include a phone number for confirmation. Do we want fire fighters helpless in the face of an overdose death? Need for naloxone in Rideau Lakes by Aaron Wudrick, Federal Director, Canadian Taxpayers' Federation Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once remarked that Canada's relationship with the United States was like sleeping next to an ele- phant. With the biggest tax cut in decades being signed into law south of the border, the elephant is about to start doing somersaults – and if our own politicians don't take action, the Canadian economy could end up get- ting squashed. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowers the tax rate on high income earners and expands the child tax credit for families, among other things. But the centrepiece is the largest business tax reduction in American his- tory, dropping the federal rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent beginning in 2018. From a Canadian stand- point, we should be focused on what it means for our tax competitiveness. Previously, Canada could boast about lower business taxes: the Canadi- an average combined feder- al-provincial rate of 26.7 per cent, compared favourably to an American average combined rate of 39.1 per cent. That advan- tage is now history: the new average American rate is 26 per cent. Worse still, the Trudeau government is heading in the opposite direction on taxes generally: while it recently resurrected a promise to lower taxes for small business, the gen- eral rate is unchanged. It has promised a national car- bon tax in 2018, scheduled a payroll tax hike beginning in 2019 to pay for higher Canada Pension Plan con- tributions, and even intro- duced an automatic tax escalator on alcohol. While the government did cut income taxes last year, one study suggested the average Canadian fami- ly was actually paying an additional $840 in taxes. With spending slated to jump 21 per cent by the end of the Trudeau govern- ment's third year in power, there's little appetite in Ottawa for big tax cuts. It's not as if Canada can count on other advan- tages to mitigate being competitive on taxes; regu- latory uncertainty, for example, helped kill large projects. President Trump regular- ly leans on American com- panies to invest more at home. Add a tax cut to that political pressure, and it could mean potentially big job losses as businesses head across the border and divert new investment . But good luck convinc- ing entrepreneurial Canadi- ans to stay behind with red tape and high taxes, when they could move to start a new business in a much more favourable environ- ment. There's only so much corporate welfare to go around. And Canadian investors will want to get in on the action as well, taking a pass on investments at home in favour of better returns down south. Our politicians need to move quickly, and start thinking of ways to keep Canadian tax levels com- petitive with our American counterparts. US tax cuts could spell trouble for Canada

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