Some thoughts on your Nov. 22 issue:
Item 1. “Comment” page 4. I started biking again seriously at age 51 after my car was wrecked. That was in 1985. I have not replaced the car — I bike year round and I deplore those cyclists who drive as if they owned not only the road but the sidewalks as well. I support any action the police see fit to take – in fact I would like to see more action on their part.
Some of my pet peeves are: car drivers who will deliberately albeit apparently thoughtlessly open their doors (from the outside as well as the inside) in front of an on-coming cyclist; cylists who ride on a busy sidewalk and citizens who allow it; and pedestrians who stand about a metre (that’s my lane) out from the curb while waiting for the light to change!
Item 2. “Insight” page 5. Yes, the “nuclear” family seems to be in decline and homosexual relationships may well be on the rise – certainly they are being reported more, talked about more, and accepted more by the straight elements of society including myself.
However, I have trouble with the term “marriage” being used for such a relationship; unfortunately I don’t have a suggestion for a replacement word. “Relationship” is just too general a term; after all, I have relationships with my colleagues and friends at work, in my church, in my family, in my volunteer work . . . even with my bike.
The answer is not obvious but it isn’t the re-defining of marriage”. I note your quote from Prof .McKie – I recall taking a super course in Industrial Sociology the he gave at Carleton some years ago. It was the Fall the Berlin Wall came down, and the government of the day had the lowest acceptance rating in history.
Item 3. “Sports & Recreation” page 15. Just keep in-line skaters off the sidewalk!
Your paper is excellent — keep up the good work!
Larry Kempffer
Secretary of the Ottawa Centre Royal Canadian College of Organists
Questions about that hydro rebate
On Nov. 11, Premier Ernie Eves said, “There are a lot of things you can do without, but electricity isn’t one of them.” With this he froze retail electricity generation costs to residential and small business customers.
Will Ontario’s four million tenants benefit from this policy?
It is unclear if there will be any rebates for apartment buildings because the contracts are commercial ones between landlords and hydro companies. If there are, for those tenants whose rents include hydro, it will be the landlord who receives the hydro rebate. When landlords apply for rent increases they could use receipts that reflect this year’s earlier hydro increases while excluding any later rebate.
These tenants must thoroughly analyze the landlord’s receipts and demand to know where the rebates are. Many tenants may not know how to collect and analyze the data, and question the landlord.
Tenants, who pay their electricity costs directly to Hydro, will get their rebates but still pay a second time for additional hydro charges, as the annual rent increase guideline set by the government is based on inflation including electricity costs.
Ontario tenants will be seeing rent increases in 2003 and 2004 amounting to millions of dollars each year due to the government’s policies on electricity, unless special measures are taken now to include apartments in both the rebates and rate freeze, and to ensure the rebates are passed on to tenants.
Robert Levitt,
Ontario and Toronto Tenants Web site
Non-contact in hockey
Despite the competitive minor hockey leagues lowering the body checking age, the Ottawa Centre Minor Hockey Association continues to be a non-contact house league association.
Our goal is to provide a safe environment for our community’s children to improve their hockey skills, be on teams with their friends and enjoy a sport that doesn’t have to be of the Don Cherry style.
OCMHA has more than 300 players ranging from four-to-20 year olds and forming a total of 21 teams that play teams from other house league associations such as Vanier, Sandy Hill, and St. Laurent. We’re based at Brewer and McNabb arenas and draw our players from Ottawa Centre, the Glebe and Old Ottawa South.
Unfortunately, there is also a trend for house leagues to allow body checking but we have avoided this because we want players to join regardless of their relative size and hockey talents. Perhaps one of your reporters would be interested in checking this out some winter weekend.
John Dance,
Secretary, OCMHA
Ottawa Centre
Minor Hockey Association