Re: Stop trashing compost, Jan. 27
In response to Anne McEwen, I find myself wondering if Ottawa can “join the club” in a non-aggressive creative fashion.
I have been long a proponent of recycling and composting and am thought by some to go to extreme lengths to keep food wastes out of landfills.
I am most certainly in favour of city-wide composting and was disappointed to see the Compost Plus program efforts so limited.
However, I am not in favour of the Big Brother scenarios referenced in this article. I sincerely hope that Anne McEwen’s assertion that “negative enforcement cannot be ruled out” is erroneous.
I imagine a plan that integrates the existing Community Garden network, the high school students in need of community service hours, university students engaged in public affairs or environmental studies and, of course, the city’s waste removal services.
Could we not develop a program to educate residents as to the methods and benefits of composting? Could we not direct funds and resources to establish compost collection depots within wards (no need to ship it Trailhead Road)?
Could we not make use of the expertise of Ottawa’s community gardeners? Could we not also make the compost produced available to gardeners in the communities?
In the same issue of Centretown News, I note that Coun. Diane Holmes expresses a desire for a greener Ottawa.
I ask that she considers putting forward a creative solution to a composting program in Ottawa.

Judith Haney,
Flora Street

Re: Dewar to bring community issues to the Hill, Jan. 27
We take offence to your journalist’s use of the terms “stolen” to describe votes cast for the Greens or Conservatives in the last federal election.
Last we checked, we live in a democracy where people could vote for the party of their choice.
Although not disappointed that Dewar won in our riding, we are proud Green supporters and resent being portrayed as thieves who stole votes from established parties such as the NDP and Liberals.
Parties work for their votes and they have to be earned.
In our view, Green candidate David Chernushenko earned our vote and we cast it, not whimsically, but after much reflection.
To invoke the term steal is to assume a position of power that not only discredits the legitimate votes of Greens and Conservatives alike, but democracy as a form of governance.
A legitimate use of the term “steal” would be to describe a situation where ballots were fabricated or forged, or where election results were falsified by tampering with voting machines or vote totalling systems, altering the outcome of elections.
These are very serious charges.

Carole Sauve,
Richard Guy Briggs,
Cambridge Street N.