Editorials - Sept. 6, 2024

As summer fades, and attention moves from pools to rinks, concerns are being raised about the condition of many of Ontario’s indoor ice rinks. 

 

The Ontario Recreational Facilities Association (ORFA) says that arenas in many smaller communities are at risk of being decommissioned due to high costs of maintenance of these aging rinks. While the organization says that it has just started to collect and analyze the data, early estimates suggest that 25 per cent of the current ice sheet inventory will be lost over the next quarter century.

 

Many of our rinks were built more than 50 years ago, during the boom of the 1960s and 1970s when government funding was available to construct facilities as the Baby Boomers were growing up. 

 

Communities are going to have to face some hard decisions in the near future, as the association fears that communities of under 25,000 residents will be unable to afford the investment that the construction of a new arena brings with it. 

 

Hopefully, with ORFA sounding the alarm bell now, our local councils will begin discussions on how to keep our recreational facilities open and functional. Future generations of kids deserve to have the same opportunities to play that their parents and grandparents had. We’re losing pools; can we afford to lose the rinks too? – DS

An exchange between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a Sault Ste. Marie steel worker has been mislabeled a million times by a million media outlets. It’s been called heated, the man has been called irate and it’s been said that he told Trudeau off. And yet, anyone who has watched the clip might come away with a different opinion. Maybe it’s because the whole thing was so unorthodox and, well, civil.

 

The man is no fan of Trudeau - that can’t be argued - but he spoke to Trudeau calmly and with respect, while expressing his displeasure with a few particulars in regards to the state of the country, such as the lack of a family doctor, affordability and more. He also refused to shake Trudeau’s hand, but, again, did so with about as much respect as you can have when you’re refusing someone’s outstretched hand. And, for his end, Trudeau was also civil with the man, agreeing to disagree and saying that such differences of opinions are meant to be battled out at the ballot box in a democratic society.

 

This exchange was the antithesis of what we’ve seen in Canada in recent years. No need to occupy a city, blare truck horns at all hours of the night, wave vulgar flags and throw gravel at one another - just some good, old-fashioned political disagreement; a tale as old as time.

 

As Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre leans further into the combative style of politics introduced by former President Donald Trump, hoping to force an early election by raising the political temperature one degree at a time, all of the country’s politicians could learn something from that “tense” exchange in Sault Ste. Marie and present differing views in a way that’s both mature and respectful. – SL 

Ontario finds itself at a critical juncture in the preservation of its rich archaeological heritage. As urban development continues to surge across the province, a pressing issue has come to the forefront: the safe and sustainable storage of unearthed artifacts. These relics offer invaluable insights into the history and culture of Indigenous communities and early settlers, but they are increasingly being left to deteriorate in unsuitable conditions. Overcrowded offices, personal storage spaces, and even landfills are becoming the final resting places for these treasures, which should be protected and preserved with the utmost care.

 

The current system, which places the burden of storing these artifacts on individual archaeologists, is deeply flawed and unsustainable. With the province failing to provide sufficient dedicated facilities, we are left in a situation in which irreplaceable pieces of the past are at risk of being permanently lost. This is not just a logistical problem; it is a moral one. The province has a responsibility to safeguard the remnants of our shared history to be available for study and reflection by future generations.

 

Other provinces have already recognized the importance of centralized storage solutions and have implemented successful models in which artifacts are carefully housed and made accessible to the public. These systems not only preserve the physical integrity of the artifacts, but also respect the cultural significance they hold, particularly for Indigenous communities. Ontario must take immediate and decisive action to establish a similar framework, ensuring that these historical treasures are properly cataloged, stored and respected. The stakes are too high for complacency. Without a robust, forward-thinking solution, we stand to lose more than just physical objects; we risk severing a crucial connection to our collective past. The time for Ontario to act is right now, before these invaluable links to our history disappear forever. – SBS