Have your say

Flood was man-made

In his Aug. 27 story Auditor to examine 2011 flood payouts, Bruce Owen quotes a spokesman from somewhere within the provincial government as saying, once again, that what happened to Lake Manitoba in the spring of 2011 was a natural disaster.

What happened to Lake Manitoba was anything but natural. How can you call the result of digging a huge ditch to empty the Assiniboine River into a lake without also constructing a channel to allow the water out a natural disaster when the lake then floods?

When the Portage Diversion was constructed in 1972 to protect Winnipeg as well as farmlands and communities along the Assiniboine River from flooding, the government's own documents show that the construction of the channel into Lake Manitoba was to have been accompanied by the construction of a channel to allow the water out of Lake Manitoba back into Lake Winnipeg where it eventually goes anyway, and has since the end of the Ice Age.

How can you now call what happened to Lake Manitoba "natural?" The flooding of the lake and the destruction of property was entirely man-made and the result of a project that was only partially completed in 1972.

Now the province wants to delay the construction of the missing outlet because of environmental issues, issues that were never a concern when they rushed to build a ditch out of Lake St. Martin last summer. At the same time, they are requiring all settlements offered for damages to property around Lake Manitoba to be signed conditional to forgoing any claims for flood damage in the future.

Would you sign this kind of settlement when you have no idea when the province will get around to finishing their job, and before another "natural" disaster?

BRUCE SLOANE

Winnipeg

Beaming us up

Re: Apple verdict highlights tech issues (Aug. 27). That California jury deciding against Samsung should know that the tablet and the iPhone were all on TV's Star Trek in the 1960s.

All the ideas came from that show. William Shatner, the proud Canadian who played Captain Kirk, has rightly said that Star Trek changed the world.

DON IWANN

Winnipeg

A vibrant community

While Carolin Vesely's Aug. 28 feature, A gathering (or two) of goddesses, on this weekend's Manitoba Goddess Festival is delightful, intriguing and thematically informative, the portrayal of Jolie Lesperance as the festival's co-organizer is only part of the story.

Although Lesperance is clearly a passionate and knowledgeable key player, it is also important to acknowledge the hard work of all of the festival's vibrant community: the steadfast festival co-founder and director Kirsten Brooks, more than 20 organizers, and a whole host of volunteers who are working together to make this year's festival especially exceptional.

In addition, the fact that this year's festival takes place under a blue moon should add to the mystery and enchantment in celebration of the feminine.

BRIAN MACKINNON

Winnipeg

Full attention required

We learn on the first day of driver-education school that driving is a complex task that requires our full attention. As such, I found the headline of Gordon Sinclair's Aug. 28 column, Cellphone ban doesn't impact collision rate, quite misleading.

The Canadian Automobile Association annually conducts surveys about driver tendencies behind the wheel, just like the research highlighted in this column. We always find similar results; being distracted is a hard habit to break.

Regardless of whether or not a cellphone ban prevents collisions, our surveys indicate people feel less safe on the roads today because of driver distractions. Whether those distractions come from a ringing cellphone or text-message alert, or something else like eating, talking to the kids in the back seat or personal grooming, we don't need statistics to tell us each of these activities takes our focus away from the road.

If you're not focused on the road while driving, common sense says you're creating a hazard for yourself and other road users. When you're behind the wheel, driving is your only job. That is what will save lives.

MIKE MAGER

CAA Manitoba

Winnipeg

Salt causes decay

Re: Civic Centre campus crumbling (Aug. 28). I would hope that the recent closure of a Winnipeg parkade due to structural concerns would raise questions about the root causes of the decay -- the excessive use of salt on our roads in winter.

Salt is, without a doubt, an easy way of removing snow. But, given the damage it does to the roads, cars, metal light standards and the environment, let alone our parkades, is it not time to think about a friendlier way of facilitating winter driving?

I can remember a day when Westerners boasted about our relatively salt-free environment and frowned on Eastern cars that were pitted with rust. I can also remember when snowplows routinely cleaned the roads and snow blowers made the rounds transferring the resultant piles of snow into a steady stream of trucks.

Snow was removed, not melted, and all cars had snow tires. Perhaps those good old days really were good and maybe our city and provincial masters could learn something by simply reflecting on the past.

JOHN LUMLEY

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 30, 2012 A10