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w w w .insideH A LTO N .com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, M arch 1 7 , 2 0 1 7 | 6 Editorial T rum p' s planassault onourGreat Lakes It has become common for defenders of Donald Trump to argue the Canadian media is obsessed with the U.S. president. We'd be better to tend to our own knitting and deal with problems at home, goes the argument. But what if what' s happening in Trump' s America has a direct and harmful impact on Canadians? That will be the case if Trump' s plan to gut funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) by 9 7 per cent be comes reality. Under the plan that funding would drop from $300 million annually to a mere $10 million. The initiative was put in place to clean up the world' s largest system of freshwater lakes. It has broad bilateral support from eight U.S. states adjacent to the lakes as well as from Ontario, Quebec and Canada overall. The Great Lakes are a crucial natural resource, and one we too often take for granted. We get our drinking water from the lakes. They handle treated waste water. They drive commercial interests like shipping, kshing and tourism. Hydro electric generation relies on them. As Krystyn Tully, co-founder of the charity Lake Ontario Waterkeeper puts it: "The Great Lakes is one of the few regions in the world where the drinking water that we get from our taps comes from lakes where we also get our waste water, so the quality of the water is more important here than almost anywhere else. We need a higher standard of protection. We need more invest ment in water quality." If you've been around long enough, you will recall the days when the water quality in the lakes was far from what it is now. Centuries of industrial and agricultural development spawned environmental damage that was nearly catastrophic. In 2010 the GLRI was launched, ostensibly to recover and protect the lakes on behalf of the tens of millions of Canadians and Americans who rely on them. The mission objectives? To keep the lakes clean, prevent and control invasive species, restore natu ral habitats and reduce nutrient run-off and poisons that kill hsh. In short, this is not some trendy, fringe environmental project. This is life and death. The good news is that the U.S. budget system is differ ent from ours. The White House develops budget plans and priorities and submits them to Congress, which approves, modihes or even ignores presidential wishes. The latter is what needs to happen to this Trump plan. Anything that hurts water quality in The Great Lakes hurts 90 per cent of Ontario' s population and has a nega tive impact on 40 per cent of Canada' s economic activity. That cannot happen. Fortunately, the governors and citizens of eight states who also rely on the lakes will feel the same. They are mostly states that supported Trump and they won't take kindly to his messing with their future health and pros perity through draconian environmental policies. -- The Hamilton Spectator The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 5046 Mainway, Unit 2, Burlington ON L7L 5Z1 or via email to ablackburn@ oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. "Connected to your Community" Thel 5046 Mainway Unit 2, Burlington ON L7L 5Z1 General Inquiries: (905) 845-3824 Classified Advertising: (905) 632-4440 Circulation: 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington (905) 631-6095 Volume 55 | Number 21 The Oakville Beaver is a division of ·* m e tro la n d m e d ia · Connected to your community® Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Vice -President and Group Publisher of Metroland West Regional General Manager Advertising Director NEIL OLIVER KELLY MONTAGUE DANIEL BAIRD Managing Editor ANGELA BLACKBURN RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director Business Manager LORI ANN GZOVDANOVIC Director of Production MARK D ILLS MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager M yV ie w Director of Distribution CHARLENE HALL KIM MOSSM AN Circulation Manager Tim eforsensible land-use planningprocess Thoughtful land-use planning is vital to the growth and development of our towns and cities. The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) plays a central role in our land-use planning process as an independent, public body which hears appeals on land-use planning decisions. Sufhce it to say, the OMB has never truly m et the needs of involved Oakville citizens. Having an independent appeal body, sepa rate from an expensive court system, that can hear appeals and work to protect long-term public interests is crucial. However, I've heard from constituents over the years that the sys tem needs to be improved so that it is more open and fair, less costly, and less adversarial. I couldn't agree more. I have pushed for the need to redehne the mandate of the OMB since my time in local government. As MPP, from day one I advocat ed for our government to revisit and balance many of the Progressive Conservative govern- The Oakville Beaver is a proud official media sponsor for: Canadian Circulations Audit Board Member Recognized for Excellence by A ® Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Kevin Flynn Ontario Minister of Labour Oakville MPP Proud Official Media Sponsor For: m ent' s rules that appeared to work against ordinary citizens in planning their own com munities and at the same time allowed some councils to avoid making those tough deci sions that make for good inclusive com m u nity planning. Our government has already made a num ber of reforms to the land-use planning sys tems that address some of the public's con cerns. But as your MPP, I feel more can be done. Our government recently undertook a V l/E L O OPC Ontario Press Council Defending principles to inspire public trust see Input on p.10 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertise ment will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Pud by Steve Nease b lRTHDAY PARTlES I · LEGO · ART · PA IN T · SPECkLESARTSTUDlO.COM