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Pa ge 6 T hu rs da y, A pr il 2, 2 01 5 - T he IF P - H al to n H ill s - w w w .th ei fp .c a The Independent & Free Press is published Thursday and is one of several Metroland Media Group Ltd. community newspapers. Editorial and advertising content of The Independent & Free Press is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The Independent & Free Press is a member of the Ontario Press Coun- cil, which is an independent ethical organization established to deal with editorial concerns. For additional information or to file a complaint, contact info@ ontpress.com or call 416-340-1981. The Independent & Free Press Have your say on the future Letters to the editor 905-873-0301 Publisher: Dana Robbins General manager: Steve Foreman (sforeman@theifp.ca) Retail advertising manager: Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@theifp.ca) Managing editor: Chris Vernon (cvernon@metroland.com) Distribution manager: Nancy Geissler (ngeissler@theifp.ca) Classifieds/Real Estate Kristie Pells (realestate@theifp.ca) Classified Call Centre 1-855-415-8237 classified@theifp.ca Accounting 1-866-773-6575 Editorial Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@theifp.ca) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@theifp.ca) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@theifp.ca) Get the latest headlines delivered to your inbox by signing up for our twice weekly electronic newsletter. Go to www.theifp.ca and click on 'Newsletter sign-up' at the bottom of the homepage. Chong way off the mark Pick up your dog's poop In 1750, there were one billion souls on our planet. By 1930, that number had doubled. It took only 40 more years to hit three billion (1970), and by the year 2000, we had hit an astounding six billion. It's projected that will edge up to nine billion by the middle of this century. There's even more bad news on the horizon. In 1750, only three per cent of the planet lived in cit- ies. Today, it's nearly half, and will jump to 60 per cent by 2050. By 2020 there will be more than 500 cities on earth with a population over 1 million. Drill down a little fur- ther and you'll find that by 2030, it's predicted that 65 per cent of Canadians will live in four major urban cen- tres: the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton-Calgary. They'll live on only 0.3 per cent of Canada's landmass. If you thought sprawl had virtually brought the GTA to a crawl, wait till 3.7 million more people move into our area (Greater Toronto and Hamilton) over the next 20 years. Sure there are the urban eggheads who tell us to relax and go with the flow-- if there is any left on the streets by then. It seems the Manhattanization of cities is the ultimate goal of today's urbanists, and the forests of condos is a sure sign of how they think our future cities should look. But should they? The people that will have to live in them are our younger generation, and for too long, they have had little input on driving future change. Ontario's Big City Mayors want to change that. Chair Jeff Lehman, mayor of Barrie, announced recently the first annual Cities of Tomorrow student innovation competition and showcase. The mayors, along with IBM and the Canadian Urban Institute, are committed to raising awareness and developing creative solutions to the challenges fac- ing large urban centres, said Lehman. Cities of Tomorrow is a competition of ideas where individuals and teams of post-secondary students from across Ontario are invited to submit inventive proposals for an urban project or policy idea. Students have a broad scope to work with, and can submit projects on topics involving infrastructure, financial solutions, affordable housing and job creation in any large Ontario municipality. We urge all students to embrace the challenge and help create the cities you want to live in in the future. For more information and full competition description, visit citiesoftomorrow.ca/ about. RE: Michael Chong's column 'Gov- ernment proactive on climate change', March 26. From the deceptive title, to the fi- nal paragraph, Michael Chong's ar- ticle 'Government proactive on cli- mate change' is an exaggeration at best, misleading at the least, and out of date. Shame on you for taking credit for phasing out coal-fired electrical gen- eration plants. It was Ontario with no help from Ottawa. The improved fuel efficiency re- quirements for vehicles were only to comply with new U.S. regulations to keep our auto industry alive. According to a 2014 Environment Canada Report, (yes, that is his own government report): • Canada will fall far short of its own targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) by 17 per cent from 2005 until 2020, and there has been virtually no Please note that the comments provided on "Chong Taking Our Freedoms" in the Letters to the Editor March 26 are the personal comments of Susan Robertson and are not reflective of the interests of the Credit Valley Heritage Society, which is a non-partisan and non-political envi- ronmental not-for-profit organization. OPINION Clarification progress in the past year. • Oil and gas sector emissions grew by 45 megatonnes from 2005 and are projected to continue to increase un- til 2020. • Canada is the world's third worst per capita GHG emitter. • Ms. Aglukkaq, his government's Minister of the Environment, inter- viewed prior to the 2014 Lima Cli- mate Change Conference, stated, "... there will be no actions to address the emissions in the oil sands..." (the fast- est growing source of GHG's). • Most experts explain the meager 5 per cent GHG reduction from 2005 to 2012 that Mr. Chong refers to, as the result of the recession, not the result of any federal government leadership. • Everyone from the Secretary Gen- eral of the UN, to economists to scien- tists to everyday Canadians are calling on the federal government to respond to the peril facing the planet. Enough pretending by our Member of Parliament and his leader. We need real action on climate change. Jim Sheldon, Speyside Now that the snow has melted and we can finally use the lovely walks and trails around the Gellert Cen- tre, I'm saddened and disappointed to see all of the evidence of people who have allowed their dogs to run wild and foul the walkways and grass without picking up after them. You know who you are and you should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves. Allan Martin, Norval