Cottagers held hostage
Re: Boo hoo for cottager, May 16.
I was waiting for someone to reply that it's just about the money. No, Derek Hunter, $28 is not a large amount of money. This is another example of our government sneaking behind our backs and implementing another user fee. Nothing was ever said at our association meetings that this was a possibility. The provice waits until five days before the beginning of the season to inform us. What was it afraid of? Some people are permanent residents, so moving is not an option.
We have had our family cottage for 40 years. Each year, we pay our fees and have always understood that those fees included admittance to the park. For the government to state in its letter that we cottagers are now visitors to the park is ridiculous. I have personally spent well over $1,000 to upgrade my shoreline and to maintain my yard, for which I will get no compensation from the government -- only very strict guidelines on how to do this.
Our association financially supports the aeration of our lake and the maintenance of the roads. We privately maintain our ski trails. The province states it will maintain areas such as hiking trails, beaches and day use areas. As a cottager I don't even use these areas. So what does our lease fees pay for? Most of us never travel to other parks and don't require Manitoba park passes. If there was more money needed, why not raise our leases, or is that the plan for the fall?
This is nothing short of being held hostage. What next, passes to use our streets to get to our houses? National park owners not only get their passes with their leases, but also get passes for all their vehicles. Sometimes it's the principle, not the value. Come next election, I will be thinking hard about the accomplishments of this government.
Maureen Fontaine
West St. Paul
CBC responds to Neville
Re: The CBC ignorant of its own snobbery, May 9.
William Neville's recent column is inaccurate in its conclusions, attributes to one of our executives views he does not hold and, hilariously, accuses us of "snobbery" with a perfect example of his own. We're happy to respond.
CBC Radio is unique in the depth and breadth of its programming, in terms of both content and quality; to suggest this is "indistinguishable from that of the private stations" is demonstrably incorrect. Equally incorrect is the suggestion that we are moving to be "more competitive" with private radio; in the first place, being commercial-free, we don't compete in the same space at all. But more to the point, the mandate of Radio 2 is quite specific: to represent the musical diversity of the country and its artists. No one else even attempts this.
Neville's suggestion that our programming director is unable to recognize a difference between Beethoven and Paris Hilton is, frankly, puerile and unworthy of further comment. But his overall point appears to be that unless it is defined as "classical," there is no music created by this country's wealth of musicians, composers and songwriters that is worthy of airplay on a national public music service. It is insulting to those Canadian artists. It is a view that we unambiguously reject.
Much of the current debate surrounding Radio 2 has been based on inaccurate or incomplete information. It is also occurring before any of our new programs have even debuted. We invite everyone to join us in September and listen for themselves.
JEFF KEAY
Media Relations, CBC
Toronto
Gas prices good news
Everyone keeps talking about the rising price of gas as if it's a bad thing; yet, I see the situation quite differently. What I see is an easy decision made easier.
The May 14 issue of the New York Times states that transit ridership in North America has grown tremendously. The rapid transit system in Minneapolis-St. Paul, for example, has experienced a usage increase of 16 per cent over the past year. This is exciting news! Commuters are saving money, reducing damage to our environment, and they're probably saving precious personal time otherwise wasted as a result of daily traffic jams.
It's very progressive of Minneapolis-St. Paul to have a rapid transit system. When will the city and the province realize that Winnipeg needs a rapid transit system of its own? Winnipeg commuters deserve a better alternative to the rising price of gas.
Milena Placentile
Winnipeg
A subway here is possible
Last February, my wife and I spent one month's holiday in Portugal, which included one week in Oporto. Oporto is a city of 350,000 -- half the size of Winnipeg, and yet it has had a metro since 2,001. There are three lines, each approximately 6.5-kilometres long. The tunnels in central Oporto were cut through granite so hard that a machine for this purpose had to be borrowed from outside Portugal.
In 2005 the system carried 18.5 million passengers, and I was told that there has been a marked improvement in surface traffic, especially at rush hour. There has also been an improvement in the air quality since the metro runs on electricity and not on fossil fuels.
The people of Oporto are so pleased with their metro that last January tenders went out to build a further 40 kilometres of line. Winnipeg has double the population of Oporto, and is situated on Manitoba gumbo, similar to London clay on which the world's first underground system was built, and its is far easier to tunnel through than Oporto granite. The winter storms that bring Winnipeg to a complete standstill would not affect an underground system.
When the possibility of an underground system for Winnipeg is raised, it is suggested that this is dreaming in Technicolor. But is this due to such a project's lack of feasibility, or to the lack of imagination and courage on the part of our politicians ?
James Rodney Ledwich
Winnipeg
Hirst right about bikes
Re: Winnipeg is made for bikes and bike lanes, May 15.
I totally agree with Nicholas Hirst -- Winnipeg is made for bikes and bike lanes. I have just arrived home from travelling in Germany where small towns with narrow streets made half their sidewalks for walking and the other for cyclists. Racing cyclists could still use the roads, but children and grannies could ride the sidewalks in safety.
I, as an avid walker here in Winnipeg, have often been annoyed at bikers riding on the sidewalks and scaring the wits out of me as they zoom past. But seeing how both cyclists and walkers were able to get along so well in Europe has made be realize that if everyone were educated to the fact that we should stay on our own side of the walk, we could all enjoy our own ways of travel. Most of our sidewalks are wider than those found in small-town Europe, so let's paint a line down the middle, or paint half the sidewalk a different colour for the bikers. And above all, educate the public to the concept. We can make it work.
MAIR LIVINGSTONE
Winnipeg
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