Letters_09-48

Jeff Green | Dec 03, 2009

Re: 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

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