Letter to the Editor
Editor,
Recent TMI editorial about fewer windows on Sykes Street to decorate became a promo to shop locally then descended into a screed about how wonderful things would be if gas prices were $3 per litre. Do progressives ever consider the unintended consequences of policies that they embrace like religion? They seldom connect the dots or they would be able to answer many of the questions posed.
We are told endlessly that Meaford Hall would transform the economy of main street Meaford.
Perhaps a lot of businesses fail because of high taxes and red tape.
Perhaps shopping locally should be taught to (municipal) staff – they recently purchased a 200 horsepower tractor, by specifying such unnecessary horsepower they eliminated our local tractor dealer from bidding since they do not offer this horsepower.
You lament the lack of economic development, but we have an economic development manager so we must have economic development!
$3 dollar a litre gas wouldn’t affect the price of anything marketed or manufactured in Meaford!
$3 dollar a litre gas would not put any restrictions on rural residents’ abilities to travel, conduct agribusiness, heat their homes, get to work or schools?
Be careful what you wish for because the Wynne Liberals need cash badly and a carbon tax is on the way. Kiss tourism growth goodbye.
“And while towns like Meaford have a seemingly never-ending supply of creative and ambitious entrepreneurs, the fact is that the shrinking local workforce combined with the rock bottom pricing on offer from the corporate stores means that all the creativity and ambition anyone can muster is of little help.” So, why is the workforce shrinking?
“If the product or service is too niche, on the other hand, it doesn’t really matter if the big stores don’t offer it, there aren’t enough people looking for it to help the business survive,” Don’t quite know what you are driving at here? Are people too stupid to recognize a great product or did the market analysis fail?
“When small towns began losing their small-scale manufacturing bases, the shops were one of the first victims, aside from the former employees of course.” So, why did we lose our manufacturing base?
The TMI talking points are great discussion starters but there are no solutions offered other than raising the price of gas.
Ray McHugh, Meaford
Editor’s note: $3 per litre fuel isn’t necessarily doom and gloom. Much of Europe has flirted with $3 per litre fuel for years. As of this week, Italy is currently paying approximately $2.40 CAD per litre for fuel, and Norway is paying more than $2.50 CAD – this after prices have come down in recent weeks, as they have here – yet rural people in Europe still travel to urban areas – they’ve just got much smaller cars, and you rarely see cars with only one occupant – high fuel prices have helped them to appreciate sharing rides and the value of small, fuel efficient cars – and their small town local economies are far more robust than those of small North American towns like Meaford.
