Letters: December 3Re: Help & Support for Diabetics, Anne MacDonald and Maureen
Pickering Re: Minister Pours Cold Water on NF Sucession, Paul Isaacs CF Septic Maintenace Program, Steve Giles
Re: Help & Support for Diabetics
I am writing in
response to the article, Help and support for diabetics at
Sharbot Lake Family Health Team, by Jeff Green (Frontenac News,
Nov. 12, 2009). I was pleased to see the information provided about
diabetes management just prior to World Diabetes Day. I wish to
comment on two inaccurate statements made regarding diabetes
education services available in Frontenac County: "For patients
in the southern parts of Frontenac County, such service is offered
only at Hotel Dieu Hospital in Kingston" and "They [i.e.,
Sharbot Lake] are the only diabetes education team working in central
Frontenac County." In fact, since 2002 the Frontenac Diabetes
Education Program (FDEP), supported by the Diabetes Education &
Management Centre at Hotel Dieu, has been providing diabetes
education programs-both group and individual sessions-to individuals
with diabetes in the Sydenham, Verona and Sharbot Lake communities.
While the FDEP no longer provides education for the Sharbot Lake
Family Health Team (it hired a full-time dietitian in July 2009), it
continues to educate in other parts of the county. Together, a
Registered Dietitian (also a Certified Diabetes Educator) and a Nurse
Practitioner present helpful group classes for individuals managing
Type 2 diabetes. FDEP provides a range of services in the areas
of preventing and managing diabetes such as individual counselling,
group education, community presentations and grocery store tours.
Workshops to address such topics as weight control, meal planning,
budgeting and low salt eating to manage hypertension are being
planned for next year. For additional information about the
Frontenac Diabetes Education Program or to register for classes,
please call at (613)544-3400 ext 3589. Anne MacDonald, B.A.Sc.,
RD, CDE,
Coordinator, Frontenac Diabetes Education Program Maureen
Pickering, Program Manager
Diabetes Education & Management
Centre, Hotel Dieu Hospital
Apathetic? Small wonder. A
democracy, by definition, comes to its judgments based on everyone's
voice. Why would any supposedly democratic jurisdiction prohibit
elected representatives from discerning their electorate's voice - by
referendum or otherwise? A vibrant democracy cannot exist with its
voices muzzled. The restriction cited by the Ontario Minister of
Municipal Affairs and Housing is a Regulation. Regulations are
generated because the controlling Legislation, the Municipal
Elections Act in this case, so permits. However, Regulations are
intended to allow adjustments to be made without the need to return
to the House and revise the controlling Legislation. Regulations can
be created and changed at the minister's whim. Regulations
are a sensible means to make minor changes to the way Legislation
functions. However, they are also profoundly undemocratic and an
enormous loophole and are, as evidenced by this case, badly abused.
Regulation 425/00 is an egregious fundamental affront to democracy
itself. The minister should be thoroughly ashamed of it. He should
use his ministerial prerogative and abolish it. The minister would
also do well to remember that in the not too distant past the
province itself undertook the "extremely complex and important
undertaking" of "restructuring" municipalities - all
of them - at once. The job was rushed, ill-considered and totally
without regard for history, tradition and civic pride. That the
minister should now, in the wake of the mess the province created,
chastise North Frontenac for attempting to clean things up is simply
insulting. Of course the minister might also worry that the
instability of the County of Frontenac is a potential municipal
governance nightmare and that slapping down some municipal
councillors is a regrettable necessity in order to keep the lid
on. It would be my hope that, if the councillors of North
Frontenac believe that municipal governance is an issue that they
should pursue on behalf of their constituents, they will request that
the minister simply abolish Regulation 425/00 in order to allow
democracy to take its proper course. Paul Isaacs
In last week’s edition, Jeff Green
reported on Central Frontenac's proposal for a new bylaw requiring
property owners to pump out their septic tanks every five years and
submit a certificate of inspection of the system to the township.
While I am not a property owner in Central Frontenac, council should
be aware that many systems have been installed lawfully in locations
where pump-outs are impossible either due to no road access or uneven
road surface. Barge pump-out services are not yet available. Most
pump-out services are now using large capacity trucks and trailers
which cannot travel on the small cottage roads. In time, more
services will be available if the demand is driven by mandatory
pump-outs, but in the meantime, property owners in remote areas will
have to be exempted from the bylaw.
Personally, I have to question
the necessity to pump out a septic tank every five years. New septic
tanks are equipped with an effluent filter, which prevents waste from
plugging the septic bed which can lead to leakage from the bed.
Another objection I have to forced maintenance is the fact that there
are sections in the building code dealing with outhouses which are
not being inspected, leading to discriminatory enforcement. What
about all the toilets in cottages hooked up by a pipe to outhouses? I
believe that any enforcement program that doesn't inspect all
properties is unfair and could be challenged in court.
Steve Giles
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