SHAME ON YOU CARTER

By Joe Ingino Editor/Publisher ACCOMPLISHED WRITER/AUTHOR OF OVER 800,000 Published Columns in Canada and The United States “I live a dream in a nightmare world” Always Remember That The cosmic blueprint of your life was written in code across the sky at the moment you were born. Decode Your Life By Living It Without Regret or Sorrow. - ONE DAY AT A TIME - Have you heard the latest? This was sent out on the news wire from Oshawa: Owners to pay $50 per cart left on city property by shoppers. Apparantly, shopping cart retrievals are a major issue faced by the City of Oshawa. it announced that in accordance with By-law 181-2022, shopping carts found on city property and removed by the city are subject to a retrieval and storage fee of $50 per cart. "Cart owners must complete the 'Shopping Cart Retrieval Request Form' online or by contacting Service Oshawa to start the retrieval process," said the notice. It said unless otherwise advised, fee payment is required at least two weeks before cart disposition dates. The city warned that carts not claimed will be disposed of the week following April 1, July 1, October 1, January 1. Wow, best sums up this latest attack on the homeless that depend so dearly on shopping carts to lug around all their personal belonging. Under this By-law it will give the City hired Gestapo security the weapon to take shopping carts away from folks found finding refuge on City property or any property that the city 2 million dollar contracted security company patrols on behalf of the city and region. Does this sound humane? Last year, the city placed a loud sonic machine under a bypass to deter the homeless from taking refuge under by-passes. Now this. I can’t understand how any Oshawa elected official can go to bed at night knowing that fellow citizens are sleeping our street in weather below zero. Is it not bad enough that in Oshawa you can’t have a picnic with more than 4 people without facing a fine. You can’t be humane and give a fellow citizen a bottle of water if you see them in need. You can’t sit at Memorial Park for longer than 2 hours. You can’t eat lunch at the park without being questioned and harassed. Now back to the new scheme by the city. So, by their By-law now they give themselves the right to pick up shopping carts. How will the city notify the owners? Could this be another petty attempt by the city to extort money from grocery stores... Demand $50 per cart is not excessive? Could the City be turning around and selling them for scrap metal and making a dollar? Where does the money collected go? Does it go to help the homeless or to another city inspired tax payers waste of money scheme? Do you actually think that cart owners will go to a city web page to fill out anything? As it is the City online system is riddled with tech problems. Not to mention how hard it is to navigate. Oshawa needs a serious overhaul of all it’s By-laws. As it stands by-laws are damaging the enjoyment of the City. The City keeps avoiding the white elephant in the room but keep attempting to milk it. Maybe we the people should charge the city for every homeless person living on the street. What a $1,000 off our property taxes. What do you think?