Letters, Nov. 8

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This article was published 08/11/2023 (1039 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Welcome, Squires

Re: Here’s to a new beginning (Think Tank, Nov. 6)

It was great to read that Rochelle Squires will now be writing a column in the Free Press. I really enjoyed Rochelle’s article on Monday. She says that writing is her first love. It shows. This column was excellent.

Rochelle said this: “Some readers may argue that as a newly unelected politician, I’m too partisan for the job.”

If readers argue this, they are wrong. As a columnist for the Free Press, this is the most valuable experience that you can bring to your new role as a journalist.

Rochelle Squires also said this: “I cut a path as a progressive, remaining unapologetically pro-choice, delivering unprecedented increases to many of the sectors and departments under my purview as families minister, and I remain, to my knowledge, the only conservative politician in the country to ever introduce legislation that would include a carbon tax.”

There is a proud history of progressives in the Progressive Conservative Party in Canada. Some names that come to mind are Duff Roblin, Sidney and Mira Spivak, Robert Stanfield, Flora MacDonald, Pat Carney, Kim Campbell and Jean Charest. In days of yore, there were lots of them. Rochelle Squires would fit in well with this brand of Tory.

Things change in politics. Rochelle Squires may well find the Progressive Conservative Party knocking on her door again to run at the provincial or federal level. Jim Carr had two careers — one as a journalist for the Free Press, and one as a Liberal politician. These two careers are complementary. I’m sure that, like Jim Carr, Rochelle will do an excellent job regardless of what she decides to do.

Rich North

Winnipeg

Jets not for everybody

Re: “Time for homegrown support” (Letters, Nov. 6)

The cost associated with attending the Winnipeg Jets, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, etc. is only accessible to individuals, families, sponsors, and others who have the privilege of significant disposable income. Many people in Winnipeg pay taxes that support these teams, but they cannot afford to “put those dollars into seats.” They need any money they have for housing, food, clothing, medication, and other items necessary for them to survive.

Think of the impact of “homegrown support” if one was to place that same support and give it to the food banks, the shelters, and other agencies that support those in need.

Caroline McCaig

Winnipeg

My response to Sheri Stein’s plea for support of the Jets can be found in the same day’s Free Press front page article: “The changing face of food banks” and the local news article on the same date: “‘This really helps’: funding for shelters a lifeline for homeless.” My discretionary income will go to these causes and to those of other organizations supporting social justice and human dignity issues… not to the coffers of professional sports teams.

If Ms. Stein choses to support the Jets, that’s her choice. I did not mourn the loss of the Jets 1.0, and I’m damned if I will care if the 2.0 version of the team goes elsewhere!

Winnipeg is so much more than sports teams, and if folks don’t get that concept, then that’s their loss.

Stewart Fay

Winnipeg

Improve, rather than fix

How often have we heard the term “We need to fix health care”?

The word fix immediately sets us on the wrong path. “Fix” means something is broken and a repair is necessary to put it back to its original functioning form.

The problem is a “fix” is not an improvement. Is health care functioning as a well-designed system in need of an occasional fix or is it functioning as designed? To answer this question one needs to understand what a system is. Simply put, a system is “a group of components working together to achieve an agreed upon purpose or goal.”

What are the components or parts that make up health care? This letter is not the place for such complex analysis but sufficient to say it starts with you and I who are both contributors and beneficiaries within the system and who rely and trust those components responsible for the design and management of the processes that make up what we call health care. Are the components all working together or are they caught up in serving their own self interests?

To be clear this is not about the dedicated people working to provide all the services. It is about management and leadership capabilities to achieve agreed upon goals within a common purpose.

John Dudek

Winnipeg

Zoning issues

Re: “Zoning changes a fatal blow” (Letters, Nov. 6); City steps toward taller Osborne Village buildings (Oct. 6)

Kudos to Irwin Corobow who in his letter critically addressed proposed zoning changes by the city to allow up to four housing units on a single urban lot.

As a resident in densely populated Osborne Village, I can only underscore the issue raised about the lack of concern for residents already living in areas of major housing construction. Osborne Village residents have experienced an explosion of housing development which has now gone on for virtually years. The reality of this means constant noise, blocked roads and sidewalks, heavy construction vehicle traffic, and reduced parking. I have raised concerns about quality of life issues with our city councillor, only to be told that Winnipeg has a housing crisis.

In my opinion, no attention has been paid to the multiple negative effects of over-increasing residential density, such as increased traffic, increased noise pollution, increased air pollution, increased stress on natural resources such as trees, increased stress on resources such as schools and health care, and increased crime rates. Apparently, the outgoing chair of Osborne BIZ has been quoted by the Winnipeg Free Press as stating that the majority of residents in Osborne Village are in favour of increasing density, but as a very long-term resident in this neighbourhood, I have never seen any empirical evidence to that effect. Statements and attitudes such as this go a long way to crafting city policy.

However, residents appear to have limited ability to affect policy which directly determines their quality of life in a residential area.

Mary-Jane Robinson

Winnipeg

I would remind Irwin Corobow that the reason these changes are being contemplated are because Winnipeg could receive $192 million in federal support housing if “exclusionary zoning practices” are revised to allow for more inclusive housing projects.

It is the “NIMBY” views inferred in Mr. Corobow’s letter that could stop this from happening. Affordable housing is a right. Being entitled to keep the status quo just because someone is a “longtime resident” of a neighbourhood is not a right. Laws are fluid and are constantly changing.

Increasing density helps limit urban sprawl that drains the city’s resources. Currently, young adults trying to get into the housing market are being priced out of it and many in apartments may soon be priced out of them due to high rent increases. Increased housing will help lower these costs and make it more affordable for them to purchase a house.

Having fourplex housing also enables families to be close to those they need to provide care to and allows seniors to remain in their neighbourhoods when they need to move out of their single dwelling unit. Many cities throughout the U.S. have passed zoning bylaws similar to this, and cities in Ontario and B.C. either have or are also in the process of doing the same.

To not pass these zoning changes and receive federal money to assist with our housing crisis would be a shame and there would be no one to blame other than the “NIMBYs” who cannot see how beneficial this could be.

Elaine Stobbe

Winnipeg