Today’s letters: Treat trees as the environmental asset they are

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The future of trees isn’t encouraging

Re: Save the Hunt Club Forest group wants denuded land preserved as green space, Dec. 7.

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The recent Ottawa Airport Authority decision to remove the standing trees along its Hunt Club border once more illustrates that land use in the National Capital Region often ignores the preservation of trees and the microclimate contribution of urban forests.

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The approval of land applications in Ottawa to support new home construction or various businesses seldom appears to give adequate attention to potential for the loss of trees; or a requirement for the planting of new trees to complement the environmental and related value of our natural urban forest. Neither has Canada achieved, in any significant measure, its earlier goals for the planting of two billion trees in 10 years.

Although European Union scientists and others indicate that 2023 will have been the hottest year on record, the international COP28 forum in Dubai hasn’t highlighted the lack of concrete efforts by all countries toward natural systems that recognize that forests serve as carbon “sinks,” absorbing and storing vast amounts of carbon, making them one of our best defences against global warming.

Lew Trecarten, Ottawa

Don’t play hardball on pipeline safety

Re: City won’t retract concerns on Enbridge pipeline replacement, Dec. 7.

Why is the City of Ottawa playing hardball with Enbridge over a dangerous 13-km urban pipeline?  Why question professional advice? Safety First.

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Robb Rowe, Kanata

Speaker Fergus deserves forgiveness

Re: Speaker prepared to step down if he loses confidence of House over video tribute, Dec. 11.

Greg Fergus should stay put.

This tempest in a teapot is so uncalled for; every day we look more and more like our neighbours to the south. And it is not a good look.
Even if Fergus’s misstep were as egregious as the Conservatives claim (which it is not), why is it then that Justin Trudeau is still our prime minister after all of the truly shocking scandals and lapses in ethics he has been part of or indeed, caused?

Fergus has been duly chastised. He is new in the job. Have the decency to chalk this “lapse” in judgment up to a rookie mistake and move on. He is a good man and will surely do honour to the position over time.

Parliament and the country have so much more important business to tend to.

Sharon W. Moren, Kanata

Dental care: Its time has come

Re: Canada’s new dental insurance plan: Who is eligible and how much will they save? Dec. 11.

Back in the the 1980s, I suffered an abscess in my upper right canine tooth and, in the same month, one under the big toenail on my right foot. Both conditions required surgery.

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OHIP covered the chiropody (toe), but the dental abscess, one centimetre from my brain, cost me close to $1,000 and delayed my entry into the professional world. What sense does this make?

As well, I was one of six chidren raised in a home with non-fluoridated well water. My father was a middle-school music teacher without a dental plan. All of us have had serious dental problems over the years.

Dental coverage: late, but great(?). Thanks, Jagmeet Singh.

Thomas Brawn, Orléans

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