Time to incinerate waste and evict residents from Islands

Re A flaccid response to an urgent issue, Wells, June 12

Two things are quite clear.

One, the answer to disposing waste, including plastic bottles and packaging, lies with co-generated incineration projects. Plastic is made from oil and gas and produces a great deal of heat when burned, and the emissions are lower than if buried in landfill. Toronto council should be looking at this to reduce landfill and the costs associated with landfill.

Second, climate change is real and the flooding of the Toronto Islands is expected to be an annual event, which costs taxpayers millions. It is time to look at evicting residents from the Island homes or making them responsible for the costs of living there.

Norman Gardner, Toronto

Amid promises to ban single-use plastics, the establishment of a revenue-neutral carbon tax and all the rhetoric, I really believe the Liberal government wants to do what’s right for the climate.

But the politicians are too afraid to disrupt the industrial status quo. They’re too afraid to lose what they think is their voter base.

Well, I vote for integrity. I vote for the ability to imagine and create something better than plugging away at a fossil-fuel industry that is burning our planet. I vote for growth in well-being, not in emissions. No Trans Mountain pipeline, no subsidies for fossil fuels. I vote for our children’s future.

Rebecca Weigand, Toronto

Most taxpayers do not want to help fund opium dens

Re Government must act to resolve overdose crisis, Letters, June 12

Letter writer Rudy Fernandes’ largesse with other people’s money is hardly acceptable to Canadians who do not want their tax dollars spent on opium dens for those who would rather stay stoned than work for a living.

Why would Fernandes not expect those who regularly overdose to not pay for their own drugs and extended medical care, when its obvious they are finding money for illegal drugs in the first place.

R. Michaels, Burlington