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When one follows the news, including CollingwoodToday, one reads: we need more housing, more farmland, more hospitals, more long-term care beds, more home care. Of course we do because our population is increasing, but not our resources.
We need to be reasonable and get used to live within our means. Our government, which is you and me, cannot fulfil all the wishes without increasing taxes and without redistribution of resources. We have to get used to paying more for all consumer goods, including food and housing, without destroying our environment.
Or, we have restrict population growth to available resources. Like first building 250,000 new homes per year and then inviting the new immigrants.
If we want to preserve farmland, don’t build highways on them but provide public transportation instead.
Make it fashionable to reuse perfectly good clothing instead of putting it into landfills. Bermuda used to require a certificate that your old car was taken off the island before you could buy another one. Of course, all these measures reduce consumerism, loved by businesses. Do you realize that many items are produced with an inbuilt short life, like light bulbs, refrigerators, etc.?
We need to rethink our habits. Perhaps we have to accept higher buildings accommodating more homeowners or industry. Even vertical farming wants to be accepted.
We cannot have it all. If we don’t want to adapt, the planet will do it for us.
Dorit Murray
Collingwood, ON
