Letters, Sept. 18

Opinion

The common good

Re: City takes steps to ban camps from key public spaces (Sept. 17)

Thank you, Mayor Scott Gillingham, for voicing so clearly the frustration that many of us feel about the current abuse of public spaces. The city’s decision to prohibit camps or camping in many public spaces, including our bus shelters, is a good first step.

The people who fill these encampments or our bus shelters are not bums (“On euphemisms” Letters, Sept. 17), but many of them have addiction or mental health challenges. Solving the challenges individuals face, however daunting, should not be done by creating problems for the majority.

To those who are troubled by the city’s decision, it needs to be remembered that the city, not to mention the provincial and federal governments, are also there to defend the common good. A recent letter to the editor (“Trouble in the village,” Sept. 17) proposing the removal of the circular seating outside the liquor commission in Osborne Village is indicative of current thinking. Removing public seating is not the answer. Some people seem to think we cannot ask our fellow citizens to respect our public spaces. Some seem to suggest that accepting any behaviour, regardless of how disruptive it may be to ordinary Manitobans buying a case of beer, taking a bus or enjoying a walk in the park, is acceptable.

That kind of thinking is why some bus riders, particularly seniors, can be seen standing outside bus shelters in the rain or cold to avoid the campers in our bus shelters. That’s why we see Manitobans lined up outside of our Liquor Marts in the middle of winter, because some people think they can simply do whatever they want. Gillingham seems to be speaking about the common good — something we need to hear more about from other levels of government.

Jerry Storie

Winnipeg

Cleaning up health care

Re: Deficit blows up as NDP spends, fails to shrink health bureaucracy (Sept. 17)

Tom Brodbeck’s column quite rightly calls the NDP out for failing to manage spending and streamlining the bloated and convoluted management structure in health care.

What isn’t said and is equally important is that this structure with overlapping responsibilities and mandates is, by all accounts, populated by a fair number of gatekeepers whose personal objective is self-justification rather than an effective organization.

This continues to negatively impact the morale of those on the front line who deliver services, and undoubtedly slows any improvement initiatives that might be achieved if management actually listened to the folks doing the work.

It’s well past time to clean house.

Tom Pearson

Winnipeg

Dangerous passage

Re: Alcohol tied to crash that killed two (Sept. 16)

The recent double fatality on a shoulder of Kenaston Boulevard points out how dangerous that stretch of road can be, especially on the southbound side where impatient drivers frequently drive on the shoulder. There is high-volume traffic and an 80 km/h speed limit, but absolutely no consideration given to pedestrians or cyclists.

Part of Kenaston does have a well-used active living trail, but it ends at McGillivray and doesn’t start again until IKEA, which leaves a very dangerous two-kilometre gap. For the safety of other cyclists and pedestrians, City of Winnipeg, please complete the trail.

Bev Kornelsen

Winnipeg

Anyone who knows Kenaston south of the underpass will know there are no sidewalks along that stretch of road. This forces walkers and cyclists to take immense risk on the shoulder of the road.

So while it might seem that this tragedy was caused by a drunk driver, the city is also to blame for not putting in a proper sidewalk.

In addition to this negligence there is a bus stop on an island in the intersection of Kenaston and Sterling Lyon to which people have go through traffic to get to.

Irwin Corobow

Winnipeg

Many rules in life

Re: City council threatens rights without delivering safety (Think Tank, Sept. 17)

Meredith Done takes issue with city council’s decision to restrict where homeless encampments can be. She contends that they have a right to these encampments anywhere they choose to put them. She infers that they are being singled out and marginalized.

Does she agree that homeowners who face restrictions on everything from the height of their grass to their fence are being unjustly treated? Does she think it’s a breach of one’s human rights to require homeowners to clean up their own properties?

There are rules and regulations for virtually everything we do. Why do they not apply to the homeless? Sadly, there are homeless people in our city, but does that give them the right to set up camp anywhere they want to? Does that give them the right to turn a park into an encampment? Everyone else but the homeless, it seems, has rules, restrictions and regulations that we must abide by. Why not the homeless? City council isn’t ordering the abolition of homeless encampments. It is simply trying to restrict where they can be.

Gilles Nicolas

Winnipeg

Having it both ways

Re: Fifteen Manitobans hospitalized with measles this year (Sept. 12)

I’m not understanding why those who do not get immunized or immunize their children get access to hospitals or even go to the hospital. After all, they don’t believe that immunizations are safe or work and they don’t believe these illnesses can kill you.

It was the same when COVID was so bad and those who would not take COVID vaccines filled the hospital beds. Nothing like having it both ways.

You put others at risk and you don’t believe the government has the right to tell you what to do, but you sure want the benefits from the system when you need them.

Stewart Jacques

Winnipeg

Managed site makes sense

Re: Putting people before politics (Think Tank, Sept. 16)

The managed encampment-to-housing site described by Marion Willis, founder and director of St. Boniface Street Links, does sound like a necessity for Winnipeg.

Willis informs us about homelessness, and we need to listen. “Winnipeg is in the grip of a drug-use epidemic that has become the single largest pipeline into homelessness,” she tells us.

Our City of Winnipeg’s hasty, thoughtless decision to cut funding and sideline Street Links, a long-running organization supporting our homeless, makes no sense at all.

A managed encampment-to-housing site does make sense. A safe, dignity-restoring place for service teams to work with individuals in advance of a housing placement and set them up for success.

Let’s get started.

Marilyn Bird

Winnipeg