Dear Mr. Williams:

The concerns you expressed in your recent meeting with Prince Edward County Council concerning lack of County affordable housing, mental health challenges, jobs and infrastructure are shared by many.

Loud voices proclaiming that our country is broken, however, not only contradict the facts but seem predetermined attack points deaf to the voices of reasonable dialogue and fomented in an imported political strategy of division by alienation.

A case in point was your suggestion that Picton Terminals will through its container shipping operations somehow combat inflation, justify the repair of County Rd 49 and contribute to the environment. This ignores the fractious and well documented relationship between Picton Terminals and the citizens and elected municipal Council of Prince Edward County. Do these facts count for naught? Is Picton’s source of drinking water to be held hostage to the inexperienced operators of a non-regulated port?

A Port Authority in Canada operates at arms length from the federal government, is governed by a board of directors chosen by the port users and all three levels of government, must act responsibly and by definition must be financially self sufficient. To me this would seem to reflect an ideal Conservative Party set of principles.

I agree with your assessment of the environmental advantages of container shipping in less fuel consumption and fewer emissions; but why would an experienced international shipping company want to navigate the 27 nautical miles ( approximately 50 kilometres) out of its way up Adolphus Reach (and then back) to deposit its container cargo at an unregulated port that has access to none of the three basic requirements of a Port Authority–inter modal access to rail, highway and port services–when, for example, the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority offers all three?

Many of the Prince Edward County residents amongst your Bay of Quinte riding constituents have already experienced an oil spill from a Picton Terminals supplier that shut down the water purification plant. Sections of Picton Bay are only 28’ deep and the maximum draw for Seaway vessels is 26’6″: many of your constituents worry that the pollutant riddled bottom might be exposed to propellor wash right in front of the Picton drinking water intake pipe. Many would like the comfort of knowing what exactly is in those arriving containers (garbage transportation by container ship was an initially publicly disclosed Picton Terminals’ objective). Do you not think that many of your constituents might prefer the comfort that comes with the “responsible” governance part of a Canadian Port Authority, inclusive of environmental remediation?

Picton and Prince Edward County have changed in the last 75 years and the 750,000 visitors who spend over $190,000,000 annually do not come to admire and tour its industrial capacity.

Yes, Mr. Williams, like every other country in the world, Canada has its share of problems which require addressing; but can we not base our views less upon a strategy that pokes the eye of anyone with an opposing vision and more upon the hope, tolerance, industry, inclusion, respect , generosity and oh yes, facts….that built this splendid country?

Sincerely,

Brian Etherington CM
Picton, Ontario