Letters, Nov. 22

Fare treatment

One morning earlier this week, a young woman who looked somewhat worse for wear got on the bus ahead of me and tried to avoid paying. The bus driver barked at her “No ticket, no ride” as no doubt he was instructed to do.

Fortunately, I had a spare ticket in my pocket so I gave it to her and she was able to ride. It reminded me of an occasion a few weeks ago, before the big crackdown on non-paying passengers, when a young man tried to get on without paying. I offered to pay for him but the bus driver told me it wasn’t my responsibility and just waved the passenger on. In both cases, for as long as I rode with them, the passengers sat quietly on the bus just like everyone else.

The bus driver’s statement about it not being my responsibility made me wonder about who is responsible for the people who don’t have bus fare.

And then I wondered what would have happened to this young woman if she wasn’t allowed on a bus and instead accepted a car ride with someone who had bad intentions? Or what if it was -30 outside and not the balmy -3 it has been this week? I committed $3 worth of caring about my fellow citizen, but then I got off and went for the day into one of the towers at Portage and Main to work. I still thought about that young woman and I hoped she got to a safe place.

I really don’t like living in a city where the divide between those who have and those who have not is being wedged further and further apart. And I especially don’t like feeling trained by politicians not to care.

Mary Horodyski

Winnipeg

Foolish fossils

Re: Canada named ‘fossil of the day’ (Nov. 20)

Is anyone surprised this week our country was named “fossil of the day” at the UN Climate Conference? What do we expect when the federal government literally brushed aside our climate obligations for economic ones in its recently passed (by a hair) budget?

As president of the Green Party of Manitoba, disappointingly I suggest our province is in line for that same distinction. Case in point: Monday’s speech from the throne proposal for a $3 billion — yes, billion — project to build dual-fuel turbines in western Manitoba. Where in the 30 pages of “Manitoba’s Path to Net Zero” was this described? Certainly no mention during the official launch of that plan in October, before a bucolic backdrop and hopeful environmental NGO invitees.

Sadly unless we treat this as the climate emergency it truly is, with all the urgency an emergency requires, and move away from our dependence on fossil fuels, we’ll all soon become “fossils.”

Dennis Bayomi

Winnipeg

Overpass not warranted

Highway 248 is a two-lane highway that runs north-south connecting Highway 2 in the south to Highway 6 in the north. The highway crosses the Trans-Canada at Elie. There is considerable traffic at this intersection, trucks to and from the south, school buses serving three schools in the area and traffic between the two residential communities of Elie and St. Eustache where most residents of the RM of Cartier live.

Highway 248 currently crosses the Assiniboine River on a bridge that is load, width and height restrictive to truck traffic. There is also student pedestrian traffic between the local high school on the south side of the highway to the Tim Horton’s on the north side of the highway. The intersection also has a narrow boulevard that will not accommodate a vehicle of any size trying to cross or enter two lanes of traffic.

There have been several tragic collisions, involving multiple deaths at this intersection. Eventually a traffic light was installed. There have been no tragic accidents involving fatalities since.

Highway 5 is a two-lane highway that crosses the Trans-Canada. There was a tragic accident at this intersection, the cause of which needs to be addressed. Like the intersection in Elie, there is a narrow boulevard, not large enough to accommodate trucks waiting to cross both lanes of traffic.

Unless there is some principle of highway design that deems that drivers are entitled, at all cost, to drive uninterrupted at 100 to 110 k/h on the Trans-Canada, I remain bewildered why a simple stop light wouldn’t render the junction of Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada just as safe as has been the case in Elie at the junction of 248 and the Trans-Canada.

An overpass will take years. A stoplight — months.

Mike Stainton

Elie

Here we have the government once again bowing to public pressure to do something about the physical layout to cover for human error. Perhaps there needs to be a structural change to the intersection to allow for increased safety like widening the space between the eastbound and westbound lanes or reducing the speed on the Trans-Canada (Highway 1) or adding flashing red lights on Highway 5.

But a $100-million overpass is not warranted at this intersection, particularly considering the volume of traffic on Highway 5 compared to many others in the province.

I would suggest several other intersections with much higher volumes be on the “overpass list” ahead of Highway 5. The following intersections would have a much higher traffic volume: The intersection of highways 1 and 16 west of Portage, two intersections in Brandon on Highway 10, Highway 15 (Dugald Road) and the East Perimeter including the main CN rail line, Deacon’s Corner also with CN rail line, St. Anne’s Road and the south Perimeter, Highway 6 and the Perimeter, Highway 3 and the south Perimeter at Oak Bluff (already planned).

So if we’ve got $100 million to spend on this intersection, there are several others way ahead of Highway 5 which need fixing. Hard to imagine our government and the department of highways doesn’t know this. If my assumptions are wrong, then show us a comparison of traffic volumes at each of these intersections and I challenge the Free Press to search out those numbers.

Cameron Laxdal

Dugald

I would like to offer another solution to the Carberry overpass decision this week. I advise traffic lights at this intersection. Also, warning lights to alert drivers of the upcoming traffic lights at the intersection.

I would also place speed bumps on the highway between the warning lights and traffic lights. The cost for this project would be millions cheaper. I will forward my consultation bill to the government.

Andrea Kohuch

Winnipeg

Changing standards

Re: Province changes entrance requirements to remove barriers, boost paramedic training numbers (Nov. 19)

Will the NDP be doing the same for medical doctors, in the near future?

I don’t believe modifying medical programs to fill vacancies is the way to go. Do we not deserve the best person possible to care for us when we are medical distress? Not someone who found the tried and true road too difficult for them.

We know that some university programs are modified, but these programs do not put people’s lives as risk.

Alfred Sansregret

Winnipeg