The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6 stouffville suntribune saturday july 14 2007 suntnbune 6290 main st stouffville on l4a 1g7 vmwyortaegioncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology john futhey director advertising york region printing distribution general manager barry black bob dean director circulation systems lynn pashko letters to the editor beach should have lifeguard re drowning accidental autopsy reveals july5 we were greatly saddened by the response of janet davies owner of cedar beach park to the drowning at her private resort july 2 the person who drowned was a 27- yearold man so this was not a question of parental supervision at all while we understand municipal bylaws do not require her to have a lifeguard at a private beach the presence of a lifeguard might have saved this mans life by wit nessing the man going under before his girlfriend noticed or initiating resuscitation as soon as the mans body was brought to the surface this was the first time and probably the last our families will use this facility we are strongly appealing to ms davies to reinstitute a lifeguard on the beach this is done by many other facilities that serve large groups of adults and children and it is the responsible thing to do ensure there is lifesaving equipment available at the beach such as a boat andor other rescue equipment for bringing a per son to shore in this way you dont have to rely on neighbours or waste time hauling a person on to the trampoline ms davies might also want to investigate the installation and maintenance of the trampoline equipment follow up with the local emergen cy response team to ensure a more rapid response to emergencies such as these while whitchurchstouffville fire emergency services says it took four min utes and 36 seconds from the time the call was placed until their arrival we were on the beach and it seemed like a good 15 min utes before any emergency crew arrived ilene hyman ruth biderman mitch moldofsky premika ratnam toronto train dogs not to bark stouffville is still a nice town even though it is growing and getting very busy but why do people become mute then own a dog that barks constantly do they not hear it barking or yelping on and on at any time of the day or night i think it is just ignorance the owners do not care about anyone else why cant they train the dog to only bark when necessary maybe they should watch a dogtraining show on tv how do the neighbours listen to it con stantly without saying something i await replies from dog owners with their excuses c percival stouffville putting price on pollution could lower levels m entipn the concept of a new tax to politicians and most will run screaming out of the room to go vacuum their cars or mow their lawns anything to avoid talking about an issue they think could lose votes no matter how sensible or reasonable the concept may be but thats going to have to change soon because we need to have a serious and open discussion about initiating a mechanism for pricing pollution specifically carbon by now everyone is aware of the mounting challenges we face from global warming the science while still ongo ing is clear the heattrapping gases such as carbon dioxide were pumping into our atmosphere from our homes cars and industries are warming the planet and disrupting the climate if left unchecked the conse quences will be severe to our envi ronment and our economy so its in everyones best interest to start curbing our carbon output there are many ways to do this but most experts agree market- based solutions can play a critical role two such solutions are a cap- andtrade system and a carbon tax under a capandtrade sys tem governments put a limit on the amount of carbon that can be released into the atmosphere industries have to stay within their limits innovators who go below their limits can sell their leftover emis sions as credits to those who go over the set amount under a carbon tax the more you pollute the more you pay such a tax could be applied to all products or activities that have a substantial carbon footprint pro ducing and burning gasoline coal and other fossil fuels for example this would encourage indus tries to become more efficient and david suzuki reduce costs while encouraging consumers to save money by being more environmentally friendly recently a report by the gov ernmentcommissioned national round table on the environment and the economy found regardless of which mechanism we choose the longer we wait to put a price on carbon the more costly it will be the report stated that because businesses and investors make longtenn decisions about capital costs such as buildings technolo gies and equipment they need a clear idea where the government is heading in essence inadequate and delayed communication by the government of a greenhouse gas price could lead to substantial long- term economic costs politicians have a kneejerk reaction to taxation as do many canadians however i dont think canadi ans feel taxes are necessarily bad so much as they think wasting tax dollars is bad and unfair taxation is bad by its very nature a carbon tax should be reasonably fair because it directly taxes the product that causes the harm and expense to society as a whole the more you pollute the more you pay that seems pretty fair but canadians would also revolt if they felt their tax money was being wasted that is why it would be essen tial to dedicate the money gained from a carbon tax to developing and promoting more sustainable alternatives proceeds from a carbon tax could be put toward providing bet ter public transit for example thus improving the service or reduc ing the cost of a more sustainable transportation option for electric ity production proceeds from a carbon tax on say coal could go toward cleaner renewable energy sources such as wind global warming has really changed the environmental discus sion in canada and much of the world suddenly people are much more aware of our environmental challenges and eager to get moving on sustainable alternatives govern ment plays a key role in this move ment and if our federal government isnt already seriously looking into a carbonpricing mechanism it should be org take the suzuki challenge at davidsuzuki letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribunercserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clar ity and space letters to the editor the suntribune 6290 main st stouffville on l4a ig7 jmasonyrmgcom editorial editor jim mason jmtuonyrmgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandreivs0yrmgeom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallenytmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauyrmgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom fdsa cvudun owudonj aixkbcwj vmba ccab editorial 9056402612 fax9056408778 advertising 9056402612 classified 18007433353 fax 9056408778 distribution 9056402612 suntnbune a york region media group community newspaper the suntribune published every thursday and saturday is a division of the metroland media group ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 100 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill and thomhill vaughan citizenthe erabanner newmarketaurora markham economist sun georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing