Letters, April 7

Alternate income options

Re: On schedule: provincial minimum wage to rise to $16.40/hr in October (April 1)

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives suggests Winnipeg’s living wage was $19.77/hr in 2025, based on a calculation considering factors including rising food, transportation and rental costs.

Instead of putting the onus on business owners to cover difference in the living wage for employee’s earning minimum wage, let’s have the federal and provincial governments decrease the income tax rates of 13.41 per cent and 10.11 per cent by 75 per cent on minimum-wage earners’ income. This would provide an additional $91 per week to live on, with no additional operating costs to business owners, and equivalent to the living wage.

Alfred Sansregret

Winnipeg

Irresponsible policy

I am writing to voice my disapproval of the proposed changes to our provincial sales tax.

Allowing a tax exemption on soft drinks and chips at the supermarket level is grossly irresponsible. Our current health-care system is in crisis and the NDP’s proposed seven per cent tax exemption will only encourage poor eating habits that will ultimately lead to higher health care expenses in the future.

An infinitely better option would be to offer no sales tax on toilet paper, tissue paper, tooth brushes, tooth paste and soap at both supermarket and corner mom and pop stores. This would give a small but helping hand to people with a marginal income afford the basic necessities for living a healthier life.

Eating fast food, potato chips, and drinking sugary pop is not a necessity, nor does it promote a healthy lifestyle.

Hans F. Wiebe

Winnipeg

Nuclear critical for climate strategy

Re: Uranium fails the test (Think Tank, April 2)

Dave Taylor’s article raises legitimate concerns about the safety and reliability of the global supply chain for enriched uranium, but it overlooks some key context.

Canada’s nuclear fleet is composed entirely of CANDU reactors powered with unenriched uranium. While small modular reactors are getting all the attention lately, the CANDU design is still relevant not only in Canada but across the world.

A project undergoing an impact assessment near Peace River, Alta. is considering the newest CANDU MONARK design, Romania has two new CANDU reactors under contract, and these reactors are being actively marketed across Europe and Asia.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s technical reports have consistently identified nuclear energy as a key mitigation technology. As a major source of firm, dispatchable, and zero-emission power, it is a critical part of any pathway to net zero.

Alex Buchner

Winnipeg

A threat to trees

Re: Invasive species on the march, threaten city’s ash, elm trees (April 1)

You know what else is a threat to our ash trees and tree canopy in general? Manitoba Hydro.

I had two white ash trees. They were healthy. I know they were healthy because in the summer of 2023, I had an arborist come out to clean them up because I wanted them clear of any wires or structures. A few hours later in a cherry picker and this was accomplished.

Jump forward to January 2024 and I come home to find most of the white ash closest to the back lane gone. I say most of it because the top was gone and there was only a six foot trunk left standing.

Whoever cut it down cut it just above the fence line — and then left it. No note in the mail box or followup. Just a “here is your six-foot eyesore where your healthy tree used to be” as evidence they were there.

I called Hydro and was told there was no such work in the area. I checked with 311 just in case but Hydro had left a notice in the neighborhood mailboxes, not just ours, saying they would be tree-pruning in the area in the coming weeks.

So I called Hydro back and after some investigation they did figure out they had crews in the area. I also asked if they had done similar work in the area and the last time was about 10 years ago. And the tree wasn’t a problem then and it grew about as much as a white ash grows in 10 years. Not a significant change.

I then had to submit a claim. Jump through hoops. And eventually someone came back and took the six-foot stump down to a six-inch stump.

All of this is to say, if the city is fighting to save the tree canopy and the province paying for “don’t transport firewood” ads, maybe they should talk to one another about competing strategies and practices around when trees should be removed. Healthy trees that do not pose a risk to other infrastructure should not just be removed. We already have invasive species to do that without help from anyone else.

Brian Spencler

Winnipeg

American offence

I do wish Americans would look at a globe. The mainland U.S. by its location on the planet is protected by the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. To the north are Canadians who have zero interest in entering the U.S. except for shopping trips and holidays and doing business. Similarly pretty much with the Mexicans on their smaller southern border. It doesn’t get much better than that. Yet they spend a trillion dollars a year on “defence.”

The rest of the world knows it is for “offence.” Since the Second World War, they have waged continuous war, killed tens of millions of foreigners, destroyed countless democracies, but not won anything.

Interestingly they have killed and wounded millions more Americans at home with guns, cars, and now vaccine denial than they lost in these wars abroad; so they are the biggest threat to themselves.

The rest of the world says, “Go home Yanks, and stay there, we all have no interest in invading or interfering with you.” Please extend the same courtesy to all of us. If you would leave little Cuba alone they could set a standard for you to emulate with universal education, health care, domestic peace and security. You have a lot to learn.

Time to cool your jets, and leave the world’s oil supplies, other resources and people alone.

Andy Maxwell

Winnipeg

Question about qualifications

Re: “Social workers are professionals” (Letters, April 4)

Obby Kahn has been criticized for generalizing about social workers suggesting that they are “not mental health professionals.” Daphne Penrose in her letter to the editor similarly generalizes about social workers stating that “to suggest that social workers are not mental health professionals risks misrepresenting both their legislated role and actual practice.”

So are social workers mental health professionals? Not to diminish or demean the important role that social workers play in our lives, the answer to this question may depend on what specific training they have. With any professional it is always a good rule of thumb to ask them what expertise they possess given your area of concern.

Ten years ago after spending 10 days in a coma and three delirious weeks in the ICU I asked to speak to a hospital social worker because I thought I was suffering from PTSD.

When I met with the social worker she told me she could’t help me because she had no expertise in that area. She then walked away leaving me to figure out things on my own.

I had made an inaccurate assumption and misplaced my confidence in the fact that someone carried the title of social worker.

Regardless of how the practice of social work is defined in the Social Work Profession Act, social workers and other professionals are limited by what assistance they can provide in keeping with their level of competence.

Mac Horsburgh

Winnipeg