Re: "enough talk," by Tasha Kheiriddin (October 2011).

In her review of First Nations Gaming in Canada, Tasha Kheiriddin's assumption of the health of water and sewer installations in non-aboriginal communities must be challenged. She claims precisely that if a non-aboriginal town had to face five years of negotiation for such a necessary system without success, "regional newspapers would be full of protest letters ... and local politicians would be turfed in the next election."

I must beg to differ and question Ms. Kheiriddin's awareness of water treatment needs and battles--in Northern Canada at least--regardless of any ethnic factors. Some of us have been writers of such letters, and despairing protestors of the pollution status quo In our communities, for 30 years or longer. We watch projected treatment plant costs escalate year by year, while civic pollution continues to adulterate our waterways contrary to federal laws, while three supposedly cooperative levels of government continue to bicker endlessly over shared funding. The careless behaviour of past society In Southern Canada is perpetuated and extended with the northern expansion of the population, the exploitation of new resources and the ongoing development of our celebrated "final frontier."

It is Incorrect to claim such neglect is apparently "perfectly acceptable to subject aboriginal communities" alone. It is a common situation across other population centres likewise. I know, because our local 30-year struggle is only now slowly being addressed.

A sewer treatment system (nearly scuppered again only weeks ago) is finally under construction, hopefully to be functional in 2012. Until then, 8,000 people, of all racial origins, continue to pour untreated effluent into a magnificent major river. And we are not alone. This is your True North, Strong and Free, but Clean?

SUSAN FELSBERG

CENTRAL LABRADOR