Letters, Dec. 2

Make use of stored beverages

Re: American booze serving a purpose (Nov. 29)

Premier Wab Kinew announced that Liquor Mart would pull American products from store shelves after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose crippling tariffs on Canadian imports. The amount of U.S. booze is “duty paid landed cost” of $3.4 million. The estimated retail value based on the average profit margins would be approximately $5 million.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is quoted as saying, “We will not be ordering any more alcohol from the United States once this inventory is gone. But Nova Scotians have already paid for this product and we don’t want it to go to waste. That’s why we’re selling it and using the proceeds to go to people in need.” In their case, it will help people in need of food.

Meanwhile, Kinew says that swallowing the cost of American alcohol and putting it into storage has been worth it. Perhaps, as painful as it might be for the premier to change gears, maybe he should bite the bullet and follow Houston’s plan. I’m positive $5 million would help people of Manitoba in need.

Keeping this booze in storage serves no purpose. Not ordering any more until the tariff war is over is the way to fight back against Trump.

Rick Sparling

Winnipeg

Bad investment

Re: Carney, Smith sign pipeline deal, open door to changing B.C. tanker ban (Nov. 27)

The construction of new oil pipelines in Canada is total folly. It seems Prime Minister Mark Carney has already forgotten the Trans Mountain pipeline debacle and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doesn’t care as long as she’s not paying for it.

Kinder Morgan started building it with the wrong cost estimates and was not pre-approved by the B.C. government and First Nations on the way. They had to abandon the project shortly after the start of construction due to setbacks and lack of money. The government of Canada bought it and again, underestimated the cost. When it was finished, the price was $35 billion.

In 2025, the pipeline is projected to earn $1.25 billion for Canada. If Canada wanted to amortize the principle over 25 years at three per cent, it would need to pay $2 billion per year. There is not enough money in the earnings to even do minimum payments. And even when oil goes out of style as the world uses oil free technologies, the pipeline will remain unpaid.

And do you think Smith cares about decommissioning the pipeline at the end of life? No. She would leave it to B.C. and the First Nations to look after it. She can’t even look after unused orphan wells that need to be decommissioned in Alberta.

Besides the cost, China is ramping down their use of fossil fuels big time as well as most of the world. First Nations and B.C. don’t want it either. The money gain is not for Canada or Canadians. It’s a benefit for the oil companies only. Smith is a lobbyist placating the big oil firms and trying to look good for her base.

Lastly, if we estimate the cost of new pipeline at $35 billion, think again. It would be a lot more. If an oil company is foolish enough to invest in it, then so be it, but the government of Canada must emphasize there will be no bail outs!

Gerald Trudeau

Winnipeg

Well, I can no longer support the Mark Carney Liberals.

This latest memorandum of understanding with Danielle Smith has been a step too far.

Climate/environment, Indigenous consultation/consent, immigrant/refugee policy and dropping the (un)Safe Third Country Agreement, election reform, digital services tax (or something better), feminism, labour unions … These are the issues that will guide my decisions going forward and I’m willing to take my chances with Pierre Poilievre getting in because Carney’s repeated betrayals don’t look much better. This is not the Liberal Party for which I thought I was voting when I sought wisdom and compassion from government.

During the spring election campaign, during an episode of Power and Politics with David Cochrane, Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May said something to the effect of “elbows up, yes, but elbows up and arms outstretched…”

This remark has stayed with me and is helping guide my next steps.

The next vote that I cast will be for someone who moves beyond tired sports metaphors toward something that resembles the co-operation, artistry, and elegance of a dance.

This is my commitment to vote with my heart from now on.

Ellen Kristjanson

Winnipeg

With the oil and gas memorandum of understanding between Canada and Alberta, Prime Minister Mark Carney has let Alberta Premier Danielle Smith off the hook. Despite the leverage that Ottawa has on a landlocked province seeking ocean access to export its oil, Carney did not use it.

The PM failed to get Smith to pull back her plans to break the back of the Canada Health Act — federal legislation — and deny equal access to publicly funded health care. He also failed to obtain a commitment from Smith to revoke the notwithstanding clause which Alberta has used override the Charter and the courts with respect to medical support for those seeking gender transition. He could have persuaded Smith to let the courts decide; he did not. He also did not obtain a promise that Canadians would hear no more about Alberta’s threat to withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan, Canada’s equalization program and its threat to separate from Canada.

The PM failed to seek Smith’s commitment to the nation’s shared values in universal health care, a Charter of Rights and equalization. He caved into a shrill Trumpian oil and gas zealot, and an authoritarian populist willing to play the separation card to please the most radical elements of her base whenever Alberta does not get its own way.

The PM also paved the way for Trump to strong-arm Canada in tariff and CUSMA related negotiations to ensure that any new pipeline pump bitumen south to the Texas Gulf Coast.

There is no reason to have sympathy for Alberta. The median family income there exceeds that Manitoba and Ontario. Albertans pay no sales tax. Alberta has squandered its oil and gas royalties. If it had, like Norway, saved and invested its royalties, it would have been able to achieve the financial independence it is now seeking and to build the pipelines it wants without federal support.

Finally, in addition to carbon emissions walkbacks, the memorandum relies on unproven carbon capture and storage. The federal government could have compelled Alberta to offset carbon emissions from the tar sands through increased investments in solar and wind, a source of renewable energy in which Alberta has led the nation.

Peter Kirby

Kenora, Ont.

Disheartening moments

Re: Carney, Smith sign pipeline deal, open door to changing B.C. tanker ban (Nov. 27);

I’ve always been glad I live in Canada, especially these past few years of terrible global conflict and mind boggling upheaval of norms south of our border. But last week, two incidents in our country reminded me that we too stand on shifting, maybe sinking sand.

The first was another example of the seemingly hopeless situations in our ERs. Another death. Another person waiting hours and hours for help that never comes. If we can’t count on hospitals to help us in a medical emergency, where can we go? The deer in the headlights look in the eyes of the health minister apologizing yet again said it all.

The second was the gleeful eyes of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the smirk on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s face as they signed off on our environment.

The promises of politicians, like sand in a hourglass, inevitably slip away.

Barb Thom

Winnipeg