Letters, March 6

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/03/2024 (573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Concourse has its uses

People seem to have forgotten one of the primary reasons the Portage and Main underground concourse was built is to shield pedestrians from the extreme wind and cold that seriously deterred people from walking between the four corners.

I worked in buildings at this intersection for some 10 years in the ’80s and ’90s, and now live in close proximity. I have always been thankful to our city for their vision in building this concourse, as there are few days in the year where I would consider walking this intersection outside to be beneficial. I am fine with opening Portage and Main to pedestrian traffic, but closure of the concourse should only occur in conjunction with building sky walkways in replacement.

These costs must be factored in.

Bill Speers

Winnipeg

The underground concourse at Portage and Main was a spectacular innovation for Winnipeg and a genuine blessing for those who needed to cross the “coldest and windiest corner in Canada.” This inclement weather suddenly became avoidable, also relief was found during certain hot and dusty summer days. That the concourse was not built in the way that Romans built things — i.e. to last — is very unfortunate.

Whether to rejuvenate or mothball the structure, the cost will be enormous in either case.

In order to appease special interest groups, perhaps allowing limited pedestrian crossing, say, on weekends (but not during winter) and/or during July/August — tourist season and vacation time for many. But, the concourse, if lost, will be profoundly missed.

Vic Mikolayenko

Winnipeg

A look at taxes

Re: Time to look for provincial revenue (Think Tank, March 4)

Molly McCracken and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives continue to argue against the raise in the basic personal amount for exemption from income tax to $15,000, as though it was a break for the wealthy rather than a boon to low-income Manitobans. Her example of comparing a lower level for Ontario is a sleight of hand. She omits to mention that the provincial tax rate for 2023 after the basic exemption in Manitoba is 10.5 per cent for the first $38,842, while Ontario is way more generous with 5.05 per cent on the first $49,231.

The raise in the basic exemption is a small percentage benefit to higher-income Manitobans and more significant to the lower income groups. Manitobans pay way more in income taxes per person than most other provinces.

I do not disagree that giving a temporary tax break on fuel taxes was perhaps not the best use of funds which would have been better used to fix the challenges of our health system. Lower fuel taxes are not the real issue for sick people frantically driving to an overflowing emergency room at their local hospital (in some communities it may not be open).

Andrew Dickson

Winnipeg

Excellent summary by Molly McCracken. Thank you for publishing this.

Stop the Tory taxcuts that tried to buy an election — they lied when they campaigned on a budget deficit that was actually more than four times bigger at $1.6 billion. Kinew’s gas tax holiday to get elected should be just that — then back to business, and work with the city to introduce free-ride public transit as bus and/or electric light rail, no more new and bigger roads, just maintain what we’ve got. And stop buggering around putting lipstick on a pig at Portage and Main by reducing the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) traffic as Tony Seba advocated more than a decade ago. Autonomous electric vehicles are coming faster than they seem in your rear view mirror, which could reduce private vehicles in the city up to 80 per cent.

The cheapest time to fix sewers is now.

Eliminate poverty and homelessness now. Mincome anybody? Stop ignoring the obvious. Enough tens of millions of dollars over the decades have been spent on nice warm safe offices for fat-cats to study why the homeless are out in the cold.

Universal education and health care cost less than the alternatives and generate huge savings and quality of life. Pay your taxes and be thankful — you only pay taxes if you made money or can afford to buy stuff.

Stop privatization of Crown corporations in whole or in part, unless agreed to by a referendum with a healthy majority of the owners (all Manitobans) agreeing.

Pay your taxes and be thankful, not short-term greedy. Invest in our future; we can’t afford not to.

Andy Maxwell

Swan River

Invest in recreation

Re: Pools targeted for closure cheaper to operate (March 4)

Investing in our pools needs to be looked at from a much broader perspective, not just which pools are cheaper per person to run.

It looks the plan is to invest more in the suburbs and cut services to the inner cities, the poorest. This is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. We should be heavily investing in recreational activities as a province, following the Icelandic model, one of the world’s best examples of investing in youth recreational activities to shift the culture away from crime.

Iceland now has one of the lowest rates of crime of all the western countries.

Pools are much cheaper than prisons.

Diane Frolick

Winnipeg

Architectural wizardry

Re: Architect was a key contributor to our modern Winnipeg skyline (March 5)

The structure of the CMHR is the wizardry of Antoine Predock’s architectural genius. Having been blessed with the opportunity to walk with Predock countless times through the building phases of the CMHR, he always talked about how he had studied the landscape of Canada to imagine the structure.

His mountains were Tyndall stone, his vast prairie horizons and blue sky were the massive glass atrium and the ice from the north is the shards of glass that announce the top the structure. When asked why he always had an almost impish grin when he walked through the site, he often remarked that after he designed and created the structure in his mind and put those images on paper, he never thought that somebody, in this case the talent that is PCL Construction, could actually build it!

Stuart Murray

Winnipeg

Let’s talk taxes

Re: Tory MLA: NDP school tax decision ‘wrongheaded’; School division’s proposed tax hike draws questions (March 2).

I know many of us don’t want to pay more taxes of any kind for anything, including for education. I also know that some of us cannot afford to pay more.

But let’s have this discussion with more context. First, and foremost, some of us can clearly pay more, so let’s make sure that any tax increases are as “progressive” as possible, meaning those who can afford to pay more do so.

Second, let’s not ignore the fact (as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation seems to consistently do) that for a long time we have been lowering tax rates in various and many ways at great cost to important and valued public goods and services, such as education and health.

Let’s have a more balanced and fulsome discussion of what kind of public goods and services we need and want, and who can and should pay for them.

We have done this in the past. Let’s do it again.

Gerald Farthing

Winnipeg