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Letters & Op-Ed, February 2 2022

The Abominable Snowman, with offspring Interesting experience on a recent Saturday morning on the hill at Glynn A. Green Public School, which suggests both disrespect for others and possibly a careless father.

The Abominable Snowman, with offspring

Interesting experience on a recent Saturday morning on the hill at Glynn A. Green Public School, which suggests both disrespect for others and possibly a careless father.

I was with my four-year-old grandson and encountered a fellow there with his daughters, who said to stay off of a large swath of the hill saying it was their space. As a taxpayer paying school taxes his land claim needed correction.

He didn’t take kindly to sharing space although there was plenty between us. He then said his daughters had Covid. Creative manipulation or not, he did not set a good example for any of the children. My grandson came home and told his mother there was an angry man at the hill.

L. Morgan Fonthill

 

Pelham Cares says thank you

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Pelham Cares, staff, and the community we serve, we would like to extend our gratitude.

Our Annual Food Drive was altered again due to the ongoing pandemic, yet our community volunteers, and donors rose to the occasion. We had over 200 volunteers safely receiving donations in a contactless manner. We even had Mayor Junkin take a shift or two along with Councilor Wayne Olson. This food drive would not have happened without the continued support of the Town of Pelham, who gave us the ability to utilize the Meridian Community Centre once again for our receiving and sorting needs.

This year we opened a “Pop Up” food drive date thanks to our amazing community club members the Fonthill Lions, Kinsmen Club of Fonthill & District, and the Fabulous Fenwick Lions. Additional help with the transportation was provided by Salumatics, Seniors on the Move, and Craig and Sue Bernard. Through this initiative we were able to boost our food and monetary donations.

At the completion of our three weekend Food Drives this year, we fell short on food donations from last year with only 1036 boxes, but our monetary donations exceeded last year. We want to thank our local schools, including St. Ann, A.K. Wigg, Glynn A. Green, St. Alexander, Wellington Heights, and E.L. Crossley. They ran a week-long food drive at each of their schools and through their donations they have brought us closer to our food target. Our volunteers have been steadily sorting through the food/hygiene donations and we are seeing our shelves fill up again and we can not be more thankful for our continued community support!

Finishing our Food Drive, we rolled right into the Toy Drive and Christmas Hamper preparations. Again, a huge thanks goes to our Fonthill volunteer firefighters who continually organize this drive and the many businesses in town who have participated in donation drives. We were able to fill our Christmas hampers with gift cards, food for Christmas meals, and gifts for all ages including our teens! This is NEVER possible without the kind and generous donations that come in from our community that enables these Christmas hampers each year.

Pelham Cares has seen an increase in need. Many are struggling financially, unemployed, moving out of the area, while others are moving in. Lack of affordable housing is a major concern and contributes to ongoing financial struggles.

We cannot thank our community enough for the generous donations of food, hygiene, toys, and monetary contributions. We can continue to be a support to your neighbors and those who live in the Town of Pelham because of you.

Very warm New Year’s wishes from the team at Pelham Cares, and very big thank you to our team of volunteers who worked tirelessly to get packages together and keep the operations running smoothly during this remarkably busy time of year!

Tracy Holmwood President, Pelham Cares Inc.

 

COTE'S COMMENTS | Larry Coté

Elder care—a priority in waiting

There is a critical social issue that is slowly creeping up and due to its slow pace is not yet on our government’s legislative screen at most levels. The issue is the lack of planning for the care of an ever- increasing aging population.

The issue of elder care was brought nearer to the surface in some sectors during the recent pandemic. Not only did this sector of our population suffer severely from the virus but other matters came to the surface such as the quality of care, improperly maintained facilities, and the shortage of bed spaces in both the public and private long-term care (LTC) facilities.

It is estimated that there are 6.8 million older adults in Canada, and if recent trends continue that 65 and older age segment is likely to reach 20 percent of the population within a few years. Older women comprise the majority of the aging population and frequently have more severe gender-specific issues, such as osteoporosis, thyroid issues, and heart conditions. As well, many older women tend not to have supplemental health insurance and as a consequence, cannot afford proper medical care.

The recent pandemic revealed the critical shortage of bed spaces and the sometimes deplorably poor quality of care delivered by some LTC facilities. Such revelations should intimate that the issue requires critical and immediate action.

According to Dr. Paula Rochonis, a geriatrician at Women’ College Hospital, there are about 300 geriatricians in Canada. That is far too few to properly serve the aging population. In recent times, the shortage of medical doctors has been an issue of some concern but as yet unresolved in many communities.

The World Health Organization and the United Nations declare that healthy aging is a priority topic on their agendas. However, other critical world events appear to garner the attention of these global organizations at the expense of that declaration.

There is some debate regarding the efficacy of having both public and private LTC facilities, and whether these should become integrated with the existing healthcare system. Some suggest that the profit motive of some private facilities may override the mission to provide proper health care to residents. The reality is that the costs to integrate the public sector LTCs with the healthcare system is likely prohibitive.

There are some recent initiatives to introduce programs that allow older persons to remain in their homes as an alternative to moving to an LTC facility. Tax incentives and grants to make these privately held homes more age-friendly are being investigated. It is thought that such public funding would be more cost-efficient than building and operating more long-term care facilities.

Hopefully, the provision of appropriate health and humane elder care will move up on the agenda of every level of government in the immediate future.

Frankly, such a resolution only seems fair. Our elders provided for us in spades and now when they have a need for our care we should be there for them with full hearts.

 

PELHAM AND COVID-19 | Mayor Marvin Junkin

Moving from pandemic to endemic Covid

We have let our lives be controlled for the last two years by a significant amount of fear and now we are going to have to change some of that thinking.” These were the words of Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, stated at a news conference on January 27. “I think we have to understand we have to live with this virus.” These same conclusions are obviously being reached by countries around the globe. As restrictions are being lowered or in some cases totally rescinded, it should be noted that the UK and Denmark have dropped all mandatory protocols.

Many countries are under pressure from their own medical staff to do away with restrictions that been proven to be of little or no help in controlling Covid. A professor, Hagai Levine, chairman of the Israel Association of Public Health, stated last Wednesday, “There are still many courses of action being taken, some of which have been in effect since the beginning of the pandemic which have become irrelevant and sometimes even incorrect and harmful towards the Israeli public’s health. The public health response should be focused on health not testing.”

Being two years into this pandemic, all countries should be reevaluating their policies and protocols, and Canada has taken some steps in this regard, by reducing self-isolation times for example.

Our province beginning with Monday’s actions will be using a measured approach going forward and restrictions will only be lifted if certain numbers are met. I get the sense when talking to residents that the majority are also saying, “Let’s get back to normal, the sooner the better.” It is great to see that as of yesterday indoor dining is again being allowed in all Ontario restaurants and of course our own MCC also opened yesterday with certain Covid restrictions in place.

Last week I along with CAO Cribbs and Councillors Hildebrandt and Wink attended the Rural Ontario Municipalities Associations Conference via Zoom. During the conference we met with the Ministry of Heritage, Sport Tourism, and Culture Industries, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Energy, and the Ministry of Long Term Care. Each delegation was allowed 15 minutes to speak with the minister involved. During these sessions our delegation from Pelham discussed Town-related Issues. In all cases our issues were received but no promises were made. This yearly conference is a great opportunity for locally elected officials to meet one- on-one with our Provincial counterparts.

I will end today’s column with a good news story from last week. One of the results of the NFL games played Jan 23 was the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the Buffalo Bills with just 13 seconds left on the clock. A Chiefs fan posted on social media asking all Chief supporters to donate $13 dollars each to a charity set up by Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen. In less than a week, $300,000 had been donated to a children’s hospital in Buffalo.

Gotta love it!