Letters, Sept. 6

Opinion

Thoughts on transit

I have strong interest in transit, having been a bus user all my life. Now a senior, I still occasionally use the bus.

If riders living within city bus boundaries have to pay twice for regular trips, the transfer time length could certainly be increased to 90 minutes.

Criticisms of late buses have always puzzled me. When printed bus schedules were available, I relied on them. I estimate that 90 per cent of the time, my bus arrived within a few minutes of the scheduled time. Infrequent delays could usually be due to expected causes like weather, construction, etc.

And bus-stop distances in the U.K., where I grew up, were farther apart.

Perhaps we here have been spoiled?

Hilda Wagstaffe

Winnipeg

Yesterday I rode a Winnipeg Transit bus for the first time since the transition to the new format. I can’t say it wasn’t without its challenges with different routes, stops, schedules, extended times and transfers. At one point, two passengers got off the bus looking bewildered. Unsolicited, the bus driver called out to them asking where they needed to go. He gave them clear direction where to catch their next bus in a friendly and encouraging manner. My travel companion commented on how helpful the driver was.

It suddenly struck me how different this is to the Canada Post experience. Winnipeg Transit, the union and the employees seem to be working in a unified way to make this huge change work, for the company, the employees and the public. This certainly can’t be easy for the bus drivers and yet they appear to be well-informed, pleasant and helpful. One could assume that their union and Winnipeg Transit have worked collaboratively to support the employees. Could this be a model for other companies and corporations faced with today’s challenges?

Ellen Karr

Winnipeg

Route 90 plans

As a resident of the city who lives in south Winnipeg, and drives Route 90 daily, I would like to weigh in on the proposed project for it.

Instead of widening Route 90 to three grade-level lanes in each direction, has consideration been given to digging down (freeway style) the section of the route from the south base of St. James bridge to Taylor Avenue?

As the section of Academy west of Route 90 is planned to be closed, run Tuxedo/Corydon/Grant over the freeway (trench) and provide compressed on-ramps for east-west access. The land for this type of build is available now. Let’s not squander the opportunity to do this project right.

Smaller centres like Saskatoon and Fargo have infrastructure like this.

The freeway will allow the free flow of traffic, reducing emissions. The proposed widening to three lanes in each direction will simply provide car storage and more stop-and-go to many grade-level, light-controlled intersections.

Winnipeg. Build for the future.

Peter T. Sims

Winnipeg

Frustrated with justice system

Re: Five-year sentence for violent robberies (Sept. 5)

Canada’s justice system is a travesty. We hear every day of unprovoked violent attacks on innocent Winnipeggers. Some may involve beatings, but many involve knives and machetes, leaving the victims with lifelong scars and trauma.

How does our justice system respond? Release the offender on “an undertaking.” Put them back on the streets to reoffend, and they do reoffend. The story which was published Sept. 5 involves a female store employee, just doing her job, being stabbed twice by a thief trying to steal groceries (not to eat, but to sell). According to Judge Lisa LaBossiere, the woman suffered a collapsed lung and broken rib and continues to live with “profound psychological effects, including flashbacks, nightmares and panic attacks.” She goes on to say. “her life is forever changed by Smith’s brutal and unprovoked attack.”

So, for a “life forever changed,” Labossiere sentences Smith to five years? Since he has been in custody since the robbery, Smith has only 2.5 years left to serve out his sentence. All of our resources are focused on the criminal and none on the victim. Pretrial reports find excuses for why the individual committed the crime. Our justice system has created an environment where victimization is allowed to grow. The perpetrator was victimized in childhood, thereby justifying their actions in victimizing others. A “revolving-door” bail system and light sentences contribute the cycle of victimization.

Only this time, it’s innocent law-abiding citizens who are paying the price. Does having a hard life justify criminal behaviour? I say not! You do the crime, you do the time!

Wally Barton

Winnipeg

Travel by rail

Re: Canada Strong Pass boosts parks, historic sites (Sept. 4)

A tiny story declares that “50,000 bookings were made” on Via Rail using the Canada Strong Pass.

That suggests a strong appetite for rail travel in Canada, despite the loosey-goosey schedules and glacially slow travel passengers must endure with our only passenger rail service, which is forced into sidings to prioritize passing freight trains. Fair enough. Freight is important.

But since the country is in a nation-building mood, how about a dedicated, fast, cross-Canada passenger rail service on a dedicated line? Imagine the potential economic boon for both Canadian and provincial tourism. Not to mention the environmental benefit: trains are proven to spew up to 90 per cent less carbon per passenger mile than airplanes, according to some sources.

The first trans-Canada rail line was built in just four years, using technology of the 1870s. I expect our engineering community is up for a similar challenge today.

Do our elected officials have the vision and will to make it happen?

Dan Dyck

Winnipeg

Hold parents responsible

Re: Teens charged in armed heist at Unicity Walmart (Sept. 4)

Regardless of the reason why these teens were stealing merchandise from the store, the parents should be jailed and held accountable for their actions.

Obviously they were not and have not been looking after them as two of them had outstanding warrants. Then hopefully social services will be able to place the children in a safe and secure setting and for them attend school like normal children do and learn to become a member of society again.

James Hannah

Winnipeg

Proposing a new mosquito strategy

Reading today’s article on mosquito control plans going forward, an idea for enhancing mosquito control came to me.

The city could put out a news release offering residents free, or at a modest cost, a small amount of bacillus thuringiensis israelensis powder (BTI) which is commercially available for purchase at certain retail stores as mosquito dunks, but which can be pricey. It is a bacteria that can be safely consumed, and is harmless to pets and children, but deadly to mosquito larvae.

My thinking is that the city, which currently spreads this agent on public bodies of water, could extend coverage to areas on privately-owned land such as clogged gutters, old tires, bird baths and backyard ponds. A little goes a long way, and this method would help prevent millions of mosquitoes from breeding on private property, which the city cannot now access. Every clogged gutter can breed thousands of mosquitoes.

Michael Dowling

Winnipeg