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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, Ja nu ar y 16 ,2 02 0 | 6 ABOUT US This newspaper, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised of more than 80 community publications across Ontario. This newspaper is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the news- paper and, if not satisfied, write The National NewsMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. Phone: 416-340-1981 Web: www.mediacouncil.ca editorial@waterloochronicle.ca facebook.com/waterloochronicle @wlchronicle WHO WE ARE VP, Regional Publisher Kelly Montague Regional General Manager Nelson Parreira nparreira@metroland.com Regional Director of Media Heather Dunbar hdunbar@starmetrolandmedia.com Advertising Representatives Cassandra Dellow, Jan Bodanka, Rebecca Butler, Matt Miller, Lisa Humphreys, Sheri-Lyn Blair, Chris Rego Managing Editor Doug Coxson Online Editor Adam Jackson Reporters Bill Jackson Namish Modi CONTACT US Waterloo Chronicle 475 Thompson Dr. Cambridge, ON N1T 2K8 Phone: 519-886-2830 Fax: 519-623-9155 Web: www.waterloochronicle.ca Letters to the editor All letters must be fewer than 320 words and include your name and telephone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. Published letters will appear in print and/or online at waterloochronicle.ca Delivery For all delivery inquiries, e-mail customerservice@metroland.com or call 519-894-3000 OPINION TO LEARN HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN CONTENT VISIT WATERLOOCHRONICLE.CA The caller to a local newspaper was irate and in- sistent: Media need to stop blaming climate change for causing the kind of wildfires that are currently scorching Australia. Everyone knows, the angry reader insisted, climate change didn't start these fires, so why it is always cited in media coverage of the disaster? The caller wasn't wrong. Climate change did not start the wildfires, and battling climate change won't stop them from happening. They start for a variety of reasons - sparks from cooking, campfires, smoking and industry to name a few. And in many cases, in- cluding in Australia, they are started deliberately, by people. But what the climate crisis is doing is creating ideal conditions for the growth and ferocity of such fires. Because of a warming planet, fire seasons are longer than before, and the fires themselves are worse. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology reports that since the middle of the 20th century, there has been "a long-term increase in extreme fire weather and in the length of the fire season ... Climate change, in- cluding increasing temperatures, is contributing to these changes." Australia's wildfires are terrible, even compared to the devastating fires that ravaged Alberta and British Columbia in recent Canadian fire seasons. For Australia, it started with the driest spring on record along with an extended drought in fire re- gions. The country has been setting heat records regularly, with temperatures sometimes pushing 42 C. You would think that given the scale of these di- sasters, public policy-makers would be alert and responsive. That hasn't been the case to date in Aus- tralia, where the government has been warned re- peatedly about the growing threat, but has done little to prepare and adjust for worsening fire seasons. But we don't have to look halfway around the world for tone-deaf politicians. In Alberta, the same province so deeply wounded by successive worsening fire seasons, the government recently announced it was cutting more than 60 specialized firefighting jobs in the interest of saving money. Fortunately, many of firefighters let go are simply taking their skills to British Columbia, which is wisely hiring more firefighters to cope with the increasing threat. Worsening wildfires aren't the worst climate change fallout we will face going forward. Rising sea levels and melting ice caps and sea ice are predicted to be worse. But you could look at wildfires as an early harbinger of what the future will hold. If you need more evidence of why we have to do what we can to fight climate change, look no further than Australia. LEARNING FROM AUSTRALIA'S DEVASTATING FIRES It's about trust. Our rela- tionship with our readers is built on transparency, hon- esty and integrity. As such, we have launched a trust initiative to tell you who we are and how and why we do what we do. This article is part of that project. In 2018, it was an- nounced that the federal government would come to the aid of Canada's ailing newspaper industry with around $600 million in funding. And while that was great news, it took the gov- ernment until January 2020 to get all its ducks in a row, which means none of that money has reached newsrooms yet. While the pledge con- sisted of several measures, including a tax rebate on digital subscriptions and the ability for not-for-profit news entities to issue tax receipts to their donors, the cornerstone of the pro- gram was labour tax credit that rebated 25 per cent of the salary or wages for eli- gible newsroom employees - a.k.a. journalists. And that's a good thing. Canadians need news they can trust. Once upon a time, revenues from adver- tising and subscription sales were more than enough to pay for a robust brand of journalism that served us well for decades. Then, while the financial underpinnings of the busi- ness began to change, the country's need for news did not. Yet, every time a jour- nalist lost his or her job it meant hundreds of stories would go untold. And that's a terrible thing. For many years the in- dustry resisted calling for direct federal assistance, instead focusing on trying to win back the ad revenue that governments at all lev- els and of all stripes have been diverting away from local newspapers toward multinational online con- glomerates. When that didn't hap- pen, there came a point where in order to keep pub- lishing local news, the in- dustry needed to ask for help. And now that help has come at last. This funding will make it easier for newspapers to hold on to our journalists. It will allow us to continue to shine a light on all as- pects of our communities, from shady deals to sunny celebrations. And that's the best thing of all. Gordon Cameron is group managing editor for Hamilton Community News. We welcome your questions and value your comments. Email our trust committee at trust@met- roland.com. AID FOR NEWS FINALLY HERE COLUMNIST GORDON CAMERON EXPLAINS HOW IT WILL HELP LOCAL JOURNALISM GORDON CAMERON Column EDITORIAL