Friday, July 13, 2007

Toronto, Government, and My Thoughts

Three facts:
I'm not a politician.
I don't know everything.
I have lots of ideas.

Keep that in mind as I ramble about what the government is doing wrong and what they could do right.

The government tells us to conserve water. Then they tell us the solution to lead in the water pipes is to run the tap water for 5 minutes to get clean water. They don't tell us that they can't be bothered addressing how they're going to replace/update pipes. Then they tell us we should buy low volume toilets to conserve water. WTF?

My solution: Replace the pipes over a 10 year period, starting with areas that service children first and ending with government offices. Tell the politicians there is $10,000 that they must choose to spend on one of 2 projects; replacing lead pipes in a public school or redecorating/refurnishing their own office. They must announce their decision publicly with their rationale.

The government is dragging their feet with the Caledonia land claim issue. Their illusion: They don't want either side to be angry with them, so they won't make a decision. The reality: The lack of decision making is making both sides angry with them.

My solution: The government keeps the land but the use of the land and buildings is a partnership between First Nations and the government in programs or initiatives that serve the First Nations community (such as supportive living and programs for persons with substance use issues, schools and daycare that include First Nations languages and culture in the curriculum, etc)

The government is going to spend millions of dollars with a new program for waste reduction. They plan to reduce the amount of garbage we produce by spending our money on trash cans and then selling them back to us. WTF?

My solution: Direct those millions towards replacing the lead water pipes. Restrict households to one trash bag/can per week with the option to buy tags from the city for additional bags/cans. The money from these tags goes directly into costs of waste disposal. Vancouver does this. Why not adopt a system that works rather than spending millions to create a new system, pilot it, review it and implement it. This is garbage...it's not rocket science.

Any questions?